Chapter(2)- Kakohma tribe
Nanny Dakota watched the sleeping face of the child inside the cradle.
She picked up a long goat horn pipe and filled it up with some wild herbs. She sat down near the tent entrance and lit up a fire with her two fingers.
After inhaling deeply into the lungs and she puffed out a big smoke from her mouth.
While vaping, her eyes dotted around the periphery of the fence.
She saw a bunch of livestock coming back from grazing along with her daughter-in-law.
A little behind from her daughter-in-law, she saw tribe hunters with spears and four other warriors carrying a giant boar with a stretcher.
The old nanny and her daughter-in-law talked a few words. A tall tribesman wearing an odd bone necklace and wielding a spear in his hand coming toward their direction.
When Dakota's daughter-in-law (Makena) saw who was coming, she quietly left.
"Did something happen in my grandson's birth?" The man asked.
"She gave birth to a Demon child," Dakota said while exhaling some smoke to the side.
The man's expression didn't change much. A moment later,
He calmly said, "I have to trouble you for the tribe."
He bow down slightly toward the tribe guardian ornament and left with a big strike.
Since he become chieftain this was the second time. The first time was the nanny's granddaughter who had been abandoned two lunar months ago.
He looked up at the blazing dwarf sun in the sky, scenery with a blazing red sun and red sky with sunset color-hued clouds.
The dwarf sun was gradually moving from east to west in the lunar direction. However, he wasn't looking at this strikingly beautiful scenery.
He was looking for something inside the sky.
From the top of his head, he could vaguely see a full small moon surrounded by a half-ring arch from east to west.
"So it is the third lunar month's first day? Hum"
This moon originally didn't exist in this World, only two different suns alternating each day. One goes east to southwest and another goes from north to south.
According to ancestral painting, the moon appeared after six flaming asteroids hit the plane and resulted in the severe impact of destruction later called "The God Shock" or "The fiery day of destruction".
This strange moon which has fourteen rings offset from the core moon was shining brightly on that disastrous day.
After several generations of observing that strange ancestor found a pattern and made a moon calendar. After each dwarf sunset lit up half ring (east to the southwest) and the astral sun (another sun) sets make that ring full.
That ring continued to shine starting from the interior rings to the exterior. This makes the lunar calendar with a day for every half ring with a month when all fourteen rings and the core moon appeared (28 days).
After 28 days, all rings around the moon will drop back one-half ring with a different avatar of the moon. The 13th month is the end of the year and the moon and rings shine with blood red color (So 364 days in a year). Today is the first day of the third month of this year with an avatar of a snake.
The chieftain didn't imagine that his firstborn grandson would have this cruel fate but he still has to accept it.
The great wilderness is cruel but fair to every living.
To survive in the wilderness, the Kakohma tribe has been moving from one place to another. In this way, they wouldn't attract ferocious and dangerous beast packs and become prey in their territory.
The environment changed greatly after The God Shock. Just like the moon, supernatural powers are integrated as a part of the world.
In the Kakohma tribe, there was a shaman like nanny and one or two warriors like him who has herculean strength.
This land was once a part of the famous human empire but become wilderness by the after-effect of Shock.
Both landscape and climate drastically changed, some beasts evolved into more ferocious and intelligent.
The remaining surviving humans became wandering tribes, scattering around the wilderness and living generation after generation.
The Kakohma tribe is one such tribe. As a chieftain of the Kakohma tribe, his duty is to keep the tribe surviving until he dies.
He still vividly remembered the last moment of the previous chieftain, Dak-OSA, one of the most powerful warriors of Kakohma.
Dak-OSA and many brethren protected the tribes with their lives from shadow wolf packs' assault on the tribe.
Only one-third of the original tribesmen survived with difficulty, some got a serious injuries and only lived for a week. He swore an oath to protect the previous chief family but his wish wasn't fulfilled.
Dak-OSA's wife Dakota was chosen as a shaman at the year-end all-tribe gathering. His granddaughter got abandoned as a demon child and his son has gone missing. His daughter-in-law is still in the tribe but she had chosen dangerous work waiting for her husband's return.
"This must be retribution to me," he said while looking at the sky.
"Brother Dak-OSA, I admit that I failed you. But I've tried my best" he said in his mind.
He went inside the main tent and summoned his family members excluding the newborn. When everyone arrived, he announced in a loud voice
"My third son's child has given birth to a demon child. As grand seer prophecy, we need to abandon the white in demon cloth. This time, I! will be the one who abandons it."
His eyes linger on his third son and daughter-in-law and said
"If you dare to do foolish act like Dak-OSA's son, I will personally hunt you down"
The couple shivered down to their spine and lower their heads.
"You all have to stay away from the child and don't even dare to think about killing him. The seer didn't say any word about killing but abandoned them."
"This is all I have to say. If you don't have something to say you can leave"
Except for his third son, everyone left the tent.
Third son "Father, Do we really need to abandon him? Although demon children are frail we can't tell if their luck can doom our tribe."
"A Seer can see things we can't imagine, there is nothing wrong to listen to the voice of our ancestor spirit"
Chieftain patted his son's shoulder and said
"There will be another child, don't make a foolish mistake like Dak-OSA's son who had gone missing while abandoning the child. Understand?"
"Yes, father," the Third son said and dejectedly left the tent. The chieftain sat on a three-legged stool while unconsciously rubbing his bone necklace.