Chapter 10: Losing Everything

Artists: if this story inspires a piece of art, please share it and what it means to you. We'll share it here on the blog. Send to joycewycoff@gmail.com.

Sarana's GiftChapter 10: Losing Everything
(Available here until 5/11/2016)

Peacock FeatherFor several days I went to Melek’s cave to show him how to make music. One day he felt ready and took a broken stalactite out of the cave into the world and began to play. Birds landed on branches above our heads and added their song. Monkeys laughed and cavorted about. People emerged from the jungle and danced around campfires that glowed orange-red with wispy blue streaks. Melek played to the crowd around him.
Finally, he said he was ready and that it was time to give him the cloth. I returned to the cave and found Tia holding it, but when I asked for it, she refused. “Mine,” she said, gripping it to her chest.
“Tia, you know Melek will never let us keep it,” I pleaded. “Who knows what he will do to me or you or to the world if I don’t give it to him,” I added.
Tia just held the cloth tighter. “Mine,” she squeaked and turned her back on me. I wanted to throttle her but she was being tiny again. I had to think of something else.
I sat on a rock at the edge of the firelight and stared at Tia. I wondered why she was holding onto that cloth with such determination. Was it just Tia being Tia?
I had promised the cloth to Melek as part of the bargain for the feather. I had to keep that promise or he would never let me leave. I had to take the cloth to him or I’d never be safe again.
“Why do you want that cloth, Tia?” I asked. She clutched it to her breast and bared her teeth at me. Right now they looked harmless but I didn’t want to take the chance of getting close to her.
“You know what Melek will do if we anger him,” I said. She just sat stoneyfaced. “He might even steal blue back,” I explained.
Tia jerked up and moaned, “Noooo! Tia keep cloth. Protect blue.” She rocked back and forth, worrying the edge of the cloth and moaning.
“What makes the cloth so important to you, Tia?” I asked as gently as I could. “What are you afraid of?”
Tia glared at me and then grew until the cloth draped around her shoulders and shimmered against her emerald green robe. She spun around and started down a tunnel. Almost out of sight, she turned back and jerked her hand for me to follow.
We wound through many tunnels until we came to a small cave. “Sit,” she said and lit a fire. I watched her every move, but she ignored me until the fire filled the room with warmth and light.
She sat back on her haunches and then pointed behind me and said, “See!”
I turned around and gaped. Symbols and figures of people and animals covered the wall. All done in the most spectacular range of blues. Awestruck, I couldn’t find words to speak, but Tia pointed to herself and then to the wall and said, “Tia. Mother. Grandmother. Grandmother grandmother.”
Frowning, I tried to figure out what she meant. “These are your paintings?” I asked.
She nodded. “Tia. Ancient Tias. Paint spirit dreams. Save world.” Tia’s voice rose as she struggled to make me understand.
I studied the paintings again: spirals, circles, grids, dots and lines as well as turtles, birds, maybe a jaguar, and what could be a dolphin or whale. There were human figures with feathered head pieces, snakes, and huge, dinosaur-like animals. I felt dizzy, like I had been transported to another time and space.
Tia’s words slowly connected with each other in my mind. I turned toward her and asked. “These paintings save the world?”
Tia nodded. “Spirit room. Lose blue. Lose spirit. Lose world.”
“But, blue is back...” I started.
Tia interrupted. “Melek jealous. Find blue spirit room, kill it. Need protection,” she said, gripping the cloth in her fist. “Melek fear cloth. Cloth stop Melek. Tia keep.”
I groaned. What could I do? Melek would destroy the world if he didn’t get the cloth but, if he found these paintings, he would destroy them and that could also destroy the world. “It’s impossible.”
Tia sat immobile and silent while my mind buzzed with questions: Could I talk Melek into letting me keep the cloth? (Not likely.) Could I get the cloth away from Tia? (Also not likely.) Did Tia absolutely need the cloth to protect the paintings? (Not sure.) What would happen if I just left? (Too horrible to think about.)
I waved all these thoughts away and just sat down. Maverna came to mind and I said, “I don’t care what you say, young jaguar, this one is impossible. There’s no way to let Tia keep the cloth if I have to give it to Melek.”
Tia made me nervous as she watched me, waiting for some magical answer, some answer that I knew would never come, could never come since one thing couldn’t be in two places at the same time.
I fiddled with my amulet for a long time until I started tracing the veins of the turquoise into the center of it. Suddenly, I jerked up and asked, “Tia? You called my amulet the ‘power of Ix Chel.’ What did you mean by that?”
Tia remained so quiet I could hear the stream flowing at the edge of the cavern. Then she began to speak in solemn tones. “Ancient symbol. Great Father create for Ix Chel. Source of power. All power.”
“All power?” I said and cocked my head wondering if I had heard her right. “This amulet, ... MY amulet represents All power?”
Tia frowned and nodded her head. She seemed bewildered.
“Does that mean we could stop Melek with it?”
Tia stared at me for several minutes, squinting her eyes and scowling into the darkness. I heard her mumbling but could not understand her words. She seemed to be weighing something in her mind.
Then her eyes grew wide and she reached her hand out and demanded. “Give!”
“Oh no!” I grabbed the amulet and backed away from her. I didn’t want to give it up or lose its power. If it could show me the way home, I still needed it. I didn’t want to lose both the cloth and the amulet.
Tia’s eyes burned but she didn’t move or show any sign of trying to take it away from me. It was as if she knew the amulet belonged to me, that only I could give it away. But, I didn’t want to give it to her.
I wanted to take the cloth and the amulet. “Melek has his music. He doesn’t need the cloth, too. And, if I wait for Tia to fall asleep, I might be able to slip away with both of them.”
Possibilities ran in circles through my mind. Soon, though, I knew what I had to do: the last thing I wanted to do. Tia clutched the cloth and watched me without moving, waiting to see what I would say.
“Tia,” I asked, “if I give you the amulet, would it protect you and the paintings?”
She paused for a moment and then nodded.
“If I give you the amulet, will you let me have the rainbow cloth to give to Melek?”
She frowned and tightened her grip on the cloth. Light played across her face and I saw her jaw tighten. Her eyes flicked back and forth and her breathing was shallow. Then her whole body sagged and looking at the ground, she held the cloth out to me. As I took off my amulet, pain gripped my chest. For a long moment, I memorized the symbol and the veins of the turquoise before handing it to Tia and taking the cloth.
Reflecting the fire, a few rainbows danced on the ceiling as the cloth moved between us. My heart lurched as I turned the amulet loose. How I would miss its comfort and protection, as well as its beauty. But, most of all, how my heart ached knowing the chances of my ever getting home were slipping away forever.
I sighed. Soon I would have to let go of the shimmering rainbow cloth also. How would I find my way without them?
Tia and I trudged back to the canoe and, in complete silence, Tia paddled me to Melek’s cavern. He stood in the entrance of his cavern and I handed him the rainbow cloth. He took the cloth and, with narrowed eyes, studied me. Then, staring at my chest, asked, “Amulet?”
I glanced up at him, surprised that he had noticed that it was missing. I didn’t want to tell him about my deal with Tia and the paintings, so I turned and started back toward the canoe.
As I walked away, music more lovely than birdsong poured from his cave. “It might actually make him the most beloved god of the world,” I said, shaking my head at the thought.
The music stopped. “Wait!” Melek demanded.
When I turned to him, he said, “Take feather with you.” He stood glowing in the dim light, his stunning, blue fan extended to each wall. I sucked in my breath, struck wordless again by his beauty.
I had forgotten the feather, which Tia still had in the cave. I didn’t know why I needed it or even if Tia would let me have it, but, later, when I told her what Melek said, she just nodded.
When we got back to the cave, she handed me the feather and pointed toward one of the tunnels. She wore the turquoise amulet and they both glowed as she walked away, toward the spirit room. I took in a deep breath of air and exhaled as my shoulders dropped, “She has everything she needs to protect the paintings.”
I looked down at the peacock feather. “What’s this going to do for me?” I wondered. My hand automatically went to the empty space on my chest and I yearned for my lost amulet and the rainbow cloth.
When I reached the meadow, the day gleamed, lush with color. The endless blue sky above me made tears gather in my eyes as I ached for the amulet that no longer rode on my chest.
“Blue is back.” I thought. “The spirit room is safe. Melek can make his music. But, here I am. I still don’t know how to get home.” I waved the feather back toward the cave and yelled, “I’d rather have my amulet!” No one responded.
In the distance a large rock glowed white against a grove of green trees tufted with yellow flowers. Something about it called to me and, by now, I recognized that feeling. I turned toward it and started walking.
As I walked toward the forest, a path began to appear. I remembered Tia and Melek, Turtle Mother and a young jaguar kitten trapped in the body of a monstrous beast. What a strange world, I thought, remembering what Maverna said about nothing being impossible. I turned a corner and the expanse of blue ocean stretched all the way to the edge of the blue sky.
I laughed. “Blue! Glorious blue! Maybe Maverna’s right.” At that moment, nothing seemed impossible.
It didn’t take long for that feeling to fade. I still didn’t know where to go next. I slumped onto the beach, and watched the bubbly fringe of the waves drifting closer and closer to my feet.
Questions flooded my mind as I brushed patterns in the sand with the peacock feather. “Where am I? Which direction should I go? Who is this Ix Chel? Is that who Turtle Mother meant when said “sees right path always’? If so, why doesn’t she tell me what she knows?
“Will I ever get home?”