A Line in the Sand: River of Blood

Chronicles of the Scattering, Vol. IBy Richard Brighton

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Richard Brighton
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4567-5221-7

Chapter One

The Scattering

Con G' a Ru

"The Spirits have told us the times before the taking of the land- by those, who were our enemies from the land of the sun, were filled with the life and death of many clans and tribes."

"The People had been given the land from the Spirits, those who came before us. This gift of life was the place of our villages; and after endless passages of the moon, the land was the place of our cities. Hunters, those who would lead the people, would become the Warriors, High Priests and the Nobles of the Cities- from the water of the rivers to the blue and green waters separating the land and the islands."

"The People had walked alone and then in small clans through the land for many passages of the sun and moon. The land was theirs from the open fields of the north to the cold of the mountains of the south, where few lived but much taking from the ground was done. The People would build huts along the trails because the lands had been shown to us by the Spirits, to use for travel and trade."

"After many passages of the moon, the huts would become a village to be their home, as the People moved along the waters and the mountains. The trail through the land was not hard to follow because those, who had gone before us- our Ancestors, had told us how to grow and live on the land."

"Our People started as one person alone and after having joined or fought others, small families, clans and tribes started. The death that was on all sides of us and the need for us to live kept us together as the People. We were all the People, and we shared that which had been given us by the land. The story of how we became the People of the Tribes, who lived along the waters and in the jungles or the fields of the north, is simple enough to follow. All people have gone from being alone to become many people in one place, who called themselves by names now forgotten to the dust of time."

"The Spirits- Ancestors, told us, when we could hear their voices clearly, some of the people who came together did not see the need to make a home or family the most important part of their lives. For some of the People making the villages stronger and using stone to build Temples, to show our riches, was all they wanted."

"When the spirits of the jungle, which the People called gods, took our villages away from us, we returned to the land. Few of the People remained from the villages that had been taken from us through volcano and fire. Our villages, which were near the Temples of the place we called First City, were destroyed and the People ran to the jungles to leave death behind them."

"That which had been taken from the People left us with our lives and nothing more. For these people, the need to take everything from those around them started at the beginning of their life in the jungles, and it became their only reason for living; and for many others, a reason to die."

* * *

"The Spirits- Ancestors, told the story of how the People moved by following animals, and they ate the food that the jungles and the fields allowed them to take. It was the gods- the evil spirits of the jungle, which led us to move through the land; because we believed, if we built huts they would be taken from us by fire and death. Always, there were others banded together as tribes, some stronger than ours, who would take what you had and leave you as food for the animals of the jungle. Even the fire you built was not yours until blood had been shed by the People to keep or lose the fire."

"As we had done at the beginning of the People, we had to move many passages of the sun to see others; but after many People and their families had been born and died, it was not so great a walk between the villages. Still, there was no clan or tribe that had a name or a set way of living. We would move the villages to follow the animals and then move back to where we had come from, as the cold started and the nights became longer. It was the same- always in our past, and nothing was going to stop the way, those who had gone before, showed us how to live."

"There was no need to become different in the way the People lived until tribes, which used strong weapons came to be known; and then our lives changed forever."

"There was safety in our numbers but other people, who looked like us and had many hunters, started to take and kill for the same food we hunted."

"Our weapons helped us catch the animals of the land, the water and even the creatures of the air. All was ours to take until those, who we thought were hunters found our villages and the caves where we hid. They took our women and children and killed all our hunters they could find. We knew of no reason for these people to act in such a manner but their actions were plain for all to see."

"In some places, there were several families, together, and they were taken as slaves or killed by these large groups. When our tribe moved from place to place, we found the bodies of the People, which the animals of the land and air left near the cold fires. There was little left for us to find and none of their weapons to use; but we knew there had been many of these people, at the caves and huts because of the size of these camps."

"As the tribes of those, who would kill us became strong; it did not take many travels of the sun and the moon, for the People to see their only chance to be safe was to become many in numbers, also. With more families- children to become warriors, came the strength to fight on our own and keep those who would kill us from taking all we had."

* * *

"Many passages of the sun and moon went by, and we moved from place to place. We hoped to put the jungle and mountains between ourselves and those, who would kill us; but that was not to be. Some of the People moved to the large jungles of the north, and others went to the open fields and low forests of the far north. Still some had gone very far to the south thinking the cold of the mountains could keep away those who would kill us."

"All who traveled found that it was not the same hunters who followed us. We were being taken as slaves and captives by the people of the stone bodies, those known as the Olmec, who took us to their cities. The People, who escaped the warriors of the Olmec, went into the mountains and deeper into the jungles, where the spirits of the jungle would not allow us to rest or to build villages."

"The travels of the sun and moon found the People alone and fearful of those, who looked like us. We could remain together as the People; but only in the jungle, the mountains and the swamps, to keep from being touched by the others; and we would fight to the death any tribe that came near us."

"When the Olmec had been sealed in the underworld and their Cities left empty by the gods, who had destroyed First City; the People returned to their land."

* * *

"The time of standing alone- apart from the Olmec and those, who looked like us, had made the People strong; but we became a tribe of hunters-warriors, who killed and took land from others. The People moved and lived, alone and away from others for many passages of the sun and moon-the days, years and generations of the People. Only the...