In my last blog entry, I promised to post the prolog of my book, "Morning Star". Well, here it is. But remember this part of the book, because somehow it has a very important conection to it.
Prolog
The last thing that he remembered was entering the portal and then there was darkness. He did not know where he was, but at least it was warm. The warmth that he felt did not last long for soon he felt cold and weak. He felt hungry, but he could not see nor hear. His instinct was to crawl and nurse, but he could not find what he needed. He continued to crawl, not knowing if he was going in the right direction. What seemed like an eternity, he finally gave up. He waited for death to over take him, for he knew that it would and then he felt a pair of strong, but gentle hands pick him up and then he felt warmth again. He knew that he was saved, but the hunger he felt was just too overwhelming for him.
He slept. He was woken to an object being pressed to his mouth and he opened it. Warm liquid passed through his mouth and he swallowed. He felt it slide down his throat and into his empty stomach. With each mouthful, his belly filled and soon, it would take no more. Those strong gentle hands, rubbed his back and soon he let out a small belch. He soon drifted off to sleep and dreamt of days gone by.
Each time he awoke, he was given more liquid and then he slept. This went on for such a time, but then one time that he woke up, his eyes were opened. He tried to focus on who was feeding him, but his eyes would not obey him. He also could hear, some what, but he could hear the voice of this gentle creature who cared for him. He took this liquid that this man gave him and gave thanks to his father’s Master who protected him.
With each day, his eyes grew stronger as well as his body. Soon, he was able to stand on all four legs. This puzzled him, for he was not like this before. Why was he sent here in this form. He would ponder on this sometimes, but he trusted his father’s Master with all of his wisdom. The man that saved him called him by some name, “Mana”. He did not know what it meant, but he like the way it sounded and it was the name that this man had given him.
More time went by and the man soon started to give him meat, along with the liquid, he soon discovered was milk. The man would feed him several times during the day, which he would talk to him as if he was just like him.
Mana grew larger, for he realized that his paws grew bigger and soon his head was almost to the man’s knees. That was the day, that the man let him out for his first visit to this new world.
Mana cautiously looked out the opened door to the man’s hut and he saw the children of this man’s village waiting for the first glimpse of him, so he thought so. Mana slowly crept out of the man’s hut and nervously looked around. Not only were the children there, but most of the adults too. The adults had the look of fear on their faces, but the children’s faces showed only excitement.
Mana wanted to say something to them, but all he could muster was a mix between a small growl and a mew. He wanted to tell the adults that they did not have to fear him, because he owed his life to the man and because the man belonged to their village, he owed his life to them too.
He walked slowly, so that he would not frighten anyone, and headed towards the nearest adult. As he got closer, he could see that the adult was terrified of him and he heard the man say something to him. He was soon in front of the adult male and tried to decided what to do. He did what the first thing that came to his mind. Mana mewed and then as gently as he could, he rubbed his head against the man’s hand. He felt his hand scratch him behind his ears and he liked it.
The ice was broken between Mana and the rest of the village. They liked him as he did them. From sun up to sundown, he would play with the village children. Mana made sure that when it came to the rough games, that he was gentle with them. He knew that unlike them, he could very easily hurt them and that would make them hate him. Mana did not want that.
Mana also began to learn their language. During some mornings, the children who were old enough would all go to one certain hut for lessons and he would also go too. At first the teacher would try to shoo him out, but Mana was persistent. After a few times of Mana sneaking in, the teacher gave up and he would attend the morning lessons regularly.
Mana was surprised on how well he knew most of the things taught. One time that teacher thought it would be funny and called on Mana to answer a simple counting problem. She knew well enough that Mana could not speak, but he surprised her when he answered the best way that he could. He showed her. He moved some objects around and when he finished, he looked at her as if to say, ‘Is that right?’ The surprised look on her face told him that he was and soon the whole village knew that he was more then what he was.
The man who saved him from certain death, Mana soon found out that he was also the village’s hunter. He was responsible for supplying the meat for everyone, to include Mana himself. Mana wanted to help out the hunter and soon when the top of his head was at the hunter’s waist, he was allowed to go with him on his hunts.
Mana’s instincts for hunting were strong. He found that he could smell a doe’s scent from a long ways away. He also found that he could creep silently and could overtake the largest of deer with one sweep of his paws. The one thing that he would not do, was not to taste the blood of his kill. He knew that once he tasted blood, that he would like it and would want more. If that would happen, he may end up harming the people that he loved and Mana could not bare the thought of that.
With each kill, the village prospered. They all had enough to eat and so did Mana. At each meal, Mana would bow his head and gave thanks to his father’s Master for allowing him and the hunter for such a successful hunt.
His father. The only father that he remembered was not like him. He was kind of like the hunter, but different. He remembered what he looked like, but that seemed to him to be a long time ago.
One day, the villagers were busy with many tasks. Mana tried to help them, but they only smiled at him and shooed him away. He wanted to play with the children, but they too were busy helping the adults.
Mana went off by himself into the woods. No hunting was to be done today, so he strolled along peacefully. For a little while, he walked and soon he found himself to be thirsty. He found a small brook and when he went to take a drink, he found that he was seeing his reflection for the first time. He realized what he was. For the first time, he realized that his name stood for what he was. He was a tiger. Not just any tiger, but a white tiger at that. He did not become angry, but he was actually pleased. He remembered from times past that the white tiger was a pure of heart animal. Mana laughed at himself for not finding this out before now. Forgetting about his thirst, he ran back to the village as fast as he could.
The activity of the villagers was all for him. Mana found out the next day that it had been one year ago that the hunter had brought him to the village, saving his life. There was a big celebration with a lot of food, singing and dancing. The children played lots of games, which Mana found that he preferred them over the dancing. He tried to sing along with the adults, but found that tigers, just can not sing. Well they can, but not very well. The food was his favorite. The hunter helped him out with that part, because Mana did not want to ruin it for the rest of them by eating it all. The hunter got him samples of all of the food that was prepared and Mana ate them and found that most of them he liked. The celebration went well into the night and the next day, most of the villagers slept late. Except Mana and the hunter. They had hunting to do.
Several months later, the hunter and Mana were on their normal hunting trips when Mana felt that something was dreadfully wrong. He had never felt this way before. He had a strong urge to go back to the village and he stopped stalking a large buck and raced back to the village as fast as he could. The hunter seeing this, knew that this was not normal for this young tiger and followed him as best as he could, for everyone knows that tigers run very fast, specially ones that have something on their minds.
Mana reached the village shortly there after, to find that there were some strange men chasing the villagers around, trying to harm them and he saw that a few of the men were trying to protect the women and children. Mana realized what the feeling that he had and he became enraged. How dare these strangers attack the people he loved. Mana’s blood boiled with anger as he charged into the village and began to attack the strange men. His sudden presents took them by surprise with the first fiend he took down. The next one did not fare well either as he fell dead to the ground from Mana’s mighty paw. He continued his attacks with a blur. Every one of the fiends who fell from his paw, screamed to their deaths.
Mana’s rage was so great, that he did not feel the stinging pain that radiated from his side. The last few that still lived, ran out of the village, hoping to get away from Mana’s paws, but he chased them down and not one of them lived.
While Mana was finishing off the last of the bandits, the hunter finally made it back to the village to find what had happened.
He asked the village chief if he knew where Mana was and only answer he got was that ‘Mana saved us’. ‘Mana kill them.’ But the hunter wanted to know where he went.
For several hours, the hunter went out into the forest to find him, but with all of the tracking knowledge he had, he could not find his friend.
When the hunter returned to the village, he discovered that his friend had made his way back and was dying. The stinging that Mana felt was an arrow that pierced his side and sliced into his heart. The hunter pushed his way through the crowded villagers and dropped down to his friends side. Cradling his head in his lap, the hunter caressed Mana’s head as tears swelled from his eyes.
Mana looked up at his friend who saved his life. He wanted to tell him thanks for saving his life. He wanted to say something to comfort his friend. But the only thing that would come out, which was the first time that he had ever said something that was understandable to the villagers was, ‘Mana’.
None of the villagers were shocked by this, for they knew that this was not your ordinary tiger. They knew that he was sent by the gods or at least by Mana’s God to protect them.
Mana looked at the hunter one last time, repeated the word again and closed his eyes. His breath was the last and he fell back into the darkness.
A cry went out from all of the villagers. Man, Woman, and Child. Wailing went out through the night as the village mourned for their fallen friend. The next day, as it was their custom, they built a special box which would hold Mana and as the sun was setting, they lite it on fire as they said good by to him.
Three days later, the hunter was just about to leave the village to hunt when he found three large bucks on the ground, just inside the village. Puzzled, he took them and performed the tasks of getting them ready for the villagers to eat. A few days after that, the same thing happened again. He found three large does in the same spot. And again, he was just a puzzled.
This went on for forty days, the hunter would go out to hunt, but would find freshly kill deer just inside the village.
On the fortieth day, the hunter got up earlier the normal and as he left his hut, he noticed that something moved just within the villages. He thought that he recognized it as his heart leaped with joy. The hunter raced after it and just as he was about to enter the forest, he found three freshly killed bucks. Not stopping, he chase after his friend. Several feet into the forest, the hunter stopped dead in his tracks. There in front of him was his friend. Mana was larger then before. He was three time bigger then he was before. The hunter was afraid and fell to the ground.
“My friend, why are you afraid of me?” the great white tiger asked.
“You are bigger now and full of might.” the hunter replied humbly
“I am who I was before, my friend. I have asked my father’s Master that I may return to say good bye to the one who saved me when I was a newborn cub. Who took care of me, who fed me and who loved me. But now, I must go, for there is a time for me that I must be. Farewell my friend.” The great white tiger turned to leave.
“But why must you go?” The hunter wailed. “How can I go on with you gone?”
The great white tiger turned his head and answered him. “My time here is over. I am needed else where. But you will go on, for your people need you as I had needed you.”
The hunter leaped to his feet, raced over to the great white tiger and flung his arms around one of his mighty legs.
Taken back by the sudden emotion of the hunter, the great tiger felt love for his friend. When the hunter finally let go, he dried his tears with the sleeve of his shirt.
“I will miss you dearly, Mana.” the hunter said as he watched his friend began to walk away.
The great white tiger chuckled as he turned his head towards the hunter.
“I am no longer, Mana my friend, but I am Teetomana, the White Tiger Lord and I shall return one day my friend.”
With that, the Lord of all White Tigers vanished into the air and the hunter stood there for a moment, no longer feeling sadness for his friend, but with joy, because his friend promised to return.
The End Now Begins…
Labels: Prolog to "Morning Star"
