'At the Crossroads: Spotted Twopaws has to deal with being relieved of the mantle of being the heir to the tribe.
Close to midnight, and a solitary figure sits on the rock at the outskirts of the villiage. A fur alone, and feeling like yesterday's news.
Twopaws sighs. 'Disinherited, because my parents cannot marry. I don't understand..."
TwoPaws tosses a rock into the darkness, listening to it skid and ricochet off objects in the dark. Again he mutters, "I didn't do anything wrong."
TwoPaws tosses yet another stone into the dark, confused and angry, and very alone.
TwoPaws bows his head finally and whispers, "Maybe...maybe I should leave."
A voice speaks out of the darkness. "And.. where will you go?"
The young wolf starts at the sound, then, trying to sound more sure of himself than he really is, "Maybe another tribe."
Two glowing eyes appear out of the darkness. "And that will accomplish..?"
TwoPaws says, "I don't have to worry about being ignored because of a mistake my parents made. I'll...just be ignored for myself I guess."
The eyes materialize into the shape of a ghostly wolf. "Mistake? Mistakes are.. measured in the amount of damage they cause."
TwoPaws growls softly, "I've been disowned. My father won't take credit for me. I not just lost my place as the chiefs son, I have no place as anyone's son, not really."
The cub sighs and shakes his head, still confused and hurt about today.
Kane shakes his head. "At least you're alive. That's something. That's a place, space you take up, and progress you can make."
TwoPaws snorts, "I have no standing in the tribe, at all. And not from anything I did. I might as well have gone to another tribe. The only difference is that I did belong here. Or, at least I thought I did."
Kane 'sits' at the cub's feet. "What do you want to do with your life? Do you have dreams and aspirations?"
TwoPaws tosses another rock, dangerously close to Kane's ghostly form, though apparently not on purpose. "My dreams don't count. I don't count."
The little wolf gets an amazingly close look at one translucent eye. "Yes they do. But only IF you make them." Part growl, part hiss.
The young wolf erps and backs up from the stare and shakes his head, "How do I make them count? My father won't claim me."
Kane hoverfloats after, not giving the cub more than an inch. "Why should you have to depend on your father to make yourself anything?"
Kane says, "..in some ways, it's a good thing he's done, because you have to fight for everything you want. So that you will have truly earned it, not have had it given to you.""
TwoPaws leans back till he falls backwards off the stump he was sitting on, he hurriedly rolls to his feet, "Fine. But even those who fight for what they earned have a father who claims him. What do I have?"
Kane muses, "I think your father will claim you. Just not as firstborn, perhaps."
Kane reaches out a ghostly hand and 'touches' the wolf on the noggin. "You have your wits. Your hands. Your fangs. Your feet."
Kane grins. "I have my wits. Already you have more than I."
TwoPaws nods, "Then if I have to start over, why not truly start over? You say I need to get things on my own? How will I do that when people know I am the chief's son, yet he gives me nothing? Won't they think I did something wrong?"
Kane says, "...and let me tell you this- nobody claims me as their son."
TwoPaws quiets at this, "You father abandoned you?"
Kane idly kicks back and floats supine, in midair, about two feet off the ground. "The chief made a proclamation, that .. 'Little Buffalo' is the heir to the tribe. He did not disown you; he did not cast you out. Have your friends been giving you trouble? You do have friends, yes?"
Kane shakes his head slowly. "And in answer to your question, I abandoned the world. But then, my father is a couple thousand years dead."
TwoPaws shrugs, "Sort of, a few I guess. I'm sorry to hear about your father Kane. But "Little Buffalo" is heir. He did nothing more to gain that than I did to lose it."
Kane hmms. "So why is it so unfair?"
Kane says, "..in a lot of ways, you lost only something that was given to you to begin with.""
TwoPaws almost gives in to the reason in that statement, but turns tables on Kane, "You say we have to work for things that are worthwhile? Why can't anyone work to be chief? Why is it given to Little Buffalo?"
Kane grins softly. "Ah... therein lies the blood of the warrior in you. Anyone can challenge your father for leadership of the tribe at any time."
TwoPaws stands still, "Anyone?"
Kane says, "..but then, we'd all be barbarians on the frontier. Why do we follow your father? Because he is strong as well as wise.""
Kane nods. "Anyone. Including that bully Stones."
TwoPaws hmmfs, "My father is strong and wise. Little Buffalo is not. Who is to say he will be the best leader when the time comes?"
Kane chuckles. "Can you be assured that your father won't designate someone else to be chieftain when Little Buffalo is your age?"
TwoPaws says, "He made Little Buffalo heir to the tribe."
Kane nods. "Yeap. Meaning you get to do whatever you want. Almost."
Kane says, "So. What would you have done as chieftain?""
TwoPaws says, "Except for being Chief. So much for my dreams counting. I would have led us like my father. Kept us well fed and safe and happy as he does."
Kane says, "Sure. You could be Chief. Just challenge your father in intellectual and mortal combat.""
TwoPaws growls, "Why? Little Buffalo won't have to attack his own father! Why not wait and challenge Little Buffalo instead?"
Kane crosses his fingers on his chest. "Think about what you're suggesting."
Kane says, "..Little Buffalo won't be Chieftain until your father dies. He may have to wait a long time for that."
TwoPaws is breathing hard, his anger at that barely walking cub still deep in his chest, "Fine. I won't have to wait any longer than I would have had to anyhow. You keep saying that my dreams count, yet you say they don't here. Yet you say I shouldn't leave. You're not making any sense shaman spirit."
Kane closes his eyes. "You're ignoring an entire world for being denied the one thing that you felt should have been yours."
TwoPaws growls, "He's two. He's done nothing, NOTHING to earn this honor. That's ok for Little Buffalo, but it's not for me. I say then I'll work to take the chief's role from Little Buffalo when the time comes, and you say that's not ok for me."
TwoPaws growls one last bit, "If I have to work for things, why shouldn't Little Buffalo?"
Kane says, "Who says he won't? He'll have to live up to a lot of things, and spend most of his life in his father's shadow. There's no choice for him.""
Kane says, "Furthermore, he'll be picked on through his childhood, because all the kids who thought you were going to be chief aren't going to like him."
TwoPaws scowls a bit, not wanting to find sympathy for the enemy. "All he has to do to become chief is wait till father dies. Some work."
TwoPaws looks at Kane, "What did I do Kane? What did I do to make father do this to me?"
Kane shakes his head. "You didn't do anything."
Kane thinks . o O { How do you explain to a 12-year old that he's a political football? }
Kane says, "..and while it may not look like much work, think about what you had to go through. Having to prove yourself better than everyone else, clearly so, so nobody could claim that a judge let you win because you were Chieftain's son.""
Kane grins softly. "Wanderer told me about the pie eating contest."
TwoPaws is nearly bawling, and you get the feeling that this whole tantrum has more to do with his feelings of being discarded than losing the chief position. "I know. I tried as hard as I can, and yet he...he didn't want me."
Kane says quietly, "..ever think that perhaps he felt you could do better?"
Kane thinks . o O { I am lousy with kids. }
TwoPaws shrinks slightly, "So he did think that I wasn't good enough?"
Kane shakes his head. "More like, you could be more than he could offer you."
Kane says, "Have you thought of studying the healing arts more under your mother, for instance?"
TwoPaws blinks as Kane really adds to the confusion, then blinks as he realizes what Kane is driving at, "I don't want to be a healer!"
Kane hmms softly. "And why not?"
TwoPaws sighs, "I'm a warrior. Healing is for women."
Kane whoo hoos. "So sure, are you?"
TwoPaws hmmfs, "My friends, we practice hunting, fighting, warrior skills. Healing is boring, and I'd be even more alone."
TwoPaws says, "None of my friends want to be healers."
Kane says, "Healing is the art of the talented few. Not like spirit medicine... "
TwoPaws is still mulling over thoughts that his father felt he wasn't up to the job, feeling more sorry for himself as he barely pays attention to Kane, "Great. You mean my father chose Little Buffalo because he had no talent? Great way to pick a chief."
Kane shakes his head. "Your father doesn't know if Little Buffalo has talent or not. Only that the stars on his birth were quite auspicious in the house of the Buffalo.
TwoPaws looks really outraged now, "The stars?"
Kane nods. "I don't read them much myself, but... they say that you'll be a great warrior and a great healer, both, I understand."
TwoPaws is in the midst of starting a nasty retort when Kane adds that bit, "A great warrior? But, how? I mean, you keep saying that I have to work for things, but now you say the stars say what I'll be? That they make Little Buffalo a chief no matter what I do?"
Kane shrugs, as much as a ghost can. "Don't look at me. I don't read these things, and neither does Wanderer. But your father believes the sign of the Buffalo is good luck, as does all the tribe. It may well be the elders convinced your father to choose your brother as the heir."
TwoPaws shrinks again, "So all the tribe is against me?"
Kane shakes his head no. "If that were the case, you wouldn't be here talking to me now."
TwoPaws sits down on the stump and looks very small, "I don't understand ANY of this."
Kane says, "Perhaps not now. But. Consider it as a challenge. And a true warrior does not run from a challenge, fair or not.""
TwoPaws sighs, "But if even the elders don't want me?"
Kane says, "No. They didn't want you as Chieftain."
TwoPaws nods, "That's what I mean. Despite all I tried, they didn't want me."
Kane says, "Nothing says you can't be something else.."
TwoPaws sighs, "Not just father, but the elders too. All because of some lights in the sky."
Kane says, "Those lights are important. They've guided our people for centuries.""
TwoPaws scowls at Kane, "And they're always right?"
Kane says, "The tribe is still here."
Kane says, "The tribe has survived plagues, fire, storm, hostile tribes.. they've never steered us wrong.""
TwoPaws shrugs, "So, we could also be guided by buffalo droppings. They've been around just as long, and you could still say the tribe is here. And why couldn't they have prevented the plagues, the fires, the storms, if they're so powerful they can decide who you are?"
Kane hmms. "They picked your father, and your father's father. And you never wonder why your great-uncle was a medicine man instead of chief?"
TwoPaws shakes his head, "No, not really."
Kane chuckles. "The stars picked your great grandfather over your great-uncle. Much like they picked Little Buffalo over you."
TwoPaws hmmfs, "So what did I do to upset the stars?"
Kane thinks . o O { ..and long ago, the stars told your great ancestor to challenge my great-grandson... }
Kane shakes his head. "Nothing. Just you were destined for other things, I think."
TwoPaws frowns, "So the stars decide everything? We can't make any choices of our own?"
Kane says, "You can, but it's like walking down a riverside instead of swimming downriver.""
Kane says, "..most of the time it's easier to follow the path of least resistance."
TwoPaws says, "Then why work for anything if it's already decided?"
Kane muses, "..because, just because things are decided, doesn't mean you don't have to work to get to them."
TwoPaws shrugs, "I don't understand that. But you say these stars, who think I'd make a bad chief, say I can be a great warrior?"
Kane chuckles. "The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive; a chieftain is a decision-maker and a leader. A warrior protects; a warrior hunts. A warrior is the strength of the tribe."
TwoPaws sighs, "Well, I can at least try and be a warrior then, until the stars change their mind again."
Kane nods. "And I know you don't feel good about this, but I might suggest you keep an eye out for your brother, as well- just in case nobody else does."
Kane says, "..after all, he may be the one appointing you Warleader someday."
TwoPaws face is really unreadable at that comment, but after a moment he nods, though it's not clear what he's agreeing with. "Kane, can you tell me what the stars say about me? Just so I know what I'm up against?"
Kane chuckles. "I'll find out, it may take me a few days."
Kane says, "..and I'll let you know. You deserve that much.""
TwoPaws says, "You said a great warrior AND a healer?"
Kane chuckles. "Just what I heard."
TwoPaws gets an odd look, "Well, I guess that's one way of keeping yourself with people to heal."
Kane chuckles. "Now that's morbid, kid."
Kane rights himself and stands. "Now, go back t' the villiage. You'll catch your death of cold out here, and then you won't be either."
TwoPaws grins a bit and nods then pads up to Kane, "Thanks. I'm still going to try and do things my way, and if they agree with the stars, fine, if not, they'll just have to move if they still want to be right. Thank you Kane."
Kane shakes his head. "Just.. following the stars."
TwoPaws walks back to the village, still hurting, but maybe healing. This is all too confusing for someone his age, and he begins to guess it's confusing at any age. He decides then that he'll do his best to be a good warrior for the tribe, and at least try that healing stuff. But warrior first. And he'll do it his way. As for his brother, well, for now, it doesn't really matter he guesses. On those thoughts, he curls up for sleep in his mother's tent.