DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter CHAPTER TWO
Wulf’s Lair
Akula, medicine man of the Ojibwe on his far north reservation, stepped back from the small pool of water. Within that pristine spring of clear water had been reflected the exact discussion about Wulf Gott, spoken by Gibbons and his fellow conspirators in Chicago. They had appeared within the water, wavering yet quite clear and distinct. Sun dappled the placid water through the leaves above, but did not obscure the picture of the sound. The medicine man who had wrought this magic looked at Wulf, who stood directly before him.
“You have heard of the plan those evil men have- they will be coming up here, to attack those who have never harmed them, just to punish you for making them look like the fools that they are.”
“I know, grandfather.” said Wulf, his voice a low rumble. We will be waiting, and not unprepared.” Beside him, his friend Nikan nodded, and lowered his dark brows in anger. They had all watched as if through a window the plans of those men, reflected in the water ensorcelled by the ancient medicine man Akula.
“We will be ready,” said Nikan, and clasped hands with his childhood friend Wulf. Wulf and Nikan both smiled widely with strong white teeth, and Akula himself gradually broke into an unaccustomed grin.
“Yes, my sons, we will be ready. And more importantly- we will have the right on our side! These men have no thought of that, but it is strong medicine in our favor.” And he set his lean, coppery colored hands atop those of Nikan, and the dark bronzed fist of Wulf.
There was not that much preparation really necessary for the Ojibwe and the barbarian youth who had been raised amongst them. They pretty much just went about their daily routine, which included training and constant vigilance about the ever present danger of war.
In the mornings, at first light, they trained in their northern fastness of trees and plains. Wulf and Nikan had been born and bred to this training, working on gradual muscular mobility first thing, and then gradually working into strength training, stretching, and finally weapons work. They reveled in this rigorous training, and could not imagine a true life without it.
When Wulf had escaped from Chicago, with help from the Ojibwe medicine man Akula’s magic, he had taken a poor black waif along with him named Jafiro. He could not leave him behind, as he was unfit to survive in his violent, savage environment of Hyde Park in Chicago, plagued with violence and corruption as it was. He had included him in his training regimen from the first, realizing that only by submitting to the rigid discipline that he himself adhered to could the frail youth advance and thrive in the harsh environment not only of the northern wilderness in which he now dwelled, but also in the savage world of the decadent big cities that America and much of the world had devolved into.
The poor frail youth, wearing his thick rimmed glasses, had been training along with Nikan and Wulf for some months now, learning how to use weapons for hunting and defense, after training in the mornings for strength, agility, and flexibility. Along with them, he flexed his muscles throughout their range of motion, providing his own resistance within the muscles themselves. He learned to do pushups, just a few at first, and then progressively more and more, in sets. He found he enjoyed the training, and of course the camaraderie with his fellows, which was not only Wulf and Nikan, but a number of the Ojibwe youths who had accepted him unquestioningly as one of their own tribe on Wulf’s recommendation. He felt ashamed of his own people back in Chicago, who he knew would have never accepted one not of their own dark race as these had so readily accepted him. He now knew that those blacks were the true racists.
After the morning training, and a brief snack of jerky and berries, they would be off hunting, only returning when they had enough meat to last several days. The thin youth gained muscle quickly under this demanding regimen, and even found that, since he spent his days looking out upon the horizon, searching for quickly moving game animals and birds, coupled with his now superb diet of wild game, fruits and vegetables, that he needed his glasses less and less. His eyes strengthened, right along with his muscles, his endurance, and his mind as well.
For Trina Gilberts, the attractive young cafe au lait teacher from Hyde Park high school, had also chosen to go with Wulf off to the Northwoods, away from the decadence and corruption that she knew had taken over not only Chicago, but all of America’s big cities. And she was teaching here, on the reservation, just as she had in Hyde Park- only here, the students wanted to learn!
She was a gifted teacher, and so was well cut out for the job here. A one-roomed school house, with a few white kids from near by who chose to come, and the native children that lived there as well- all ages, all welcome, and all desirous of learning, they came daily. That she was dark, with jet-black, straight hair and dusky skin was meaningless to them all, parents and children- the fact that she was passionate about teaching, and taught real subjects like history, both ancient and modern, specifically western civilization, that civilization that had created the shining light of the world, the United States of America. She taught real English, not multiculturalism, basic mathematics and science. She did not teach “ebonics”, which is the pidgin english spoken by blacks in America today, and she taught in no other languages. The Ojibwe had their own language, which they kept alive at home, but in school they recognized through their studies of history that English was the new Latin: the lingua franca of the modern world, the language that could be understood by all educated men and women. All should know it!
Life here on the reservation was very good, both for the youngsters and the parents. Spiritual matters were taught each Sunday by Akula, the medicine man of the tribe, and what he taught was very similar to that of a small country preacher in a protestant Christian church. ‘Treat one another as you would want to be treated’, ‘Revere the Great Spirit’, even the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Son of the Spirit was taught weekly. But above all, Akula taught of holding Nature, which had been created by the Great Spirit, in reverence.
This latest Sunday, the tribe and several nearby families of whites all gathered in the sacred canyon where they held their services in the summer months. (In the winter, they used a large timbered hall of logs, with a blazing hearth, and skins to sit on upon the floor.) But now, in the beautiful spring, they all gathered on a shelf that stretched before a yawning cavern of naked rock. The sun rose, to shine directly on a large wooden cross hung with a sacred “dreamcatcher” of feathers and intricately woven cords. To the side stood the image of an eagle, wings upraised in flight. The beams of the rising sun illuminated it all brightly, as Akula began his sermon.
“ All of us have inalienable rights- that of living a full life. To multiply and thrive. To freedom and self-determination. Not only us, but our animal brothers and the birds of the air. No being has the right to take from another what they have earned, even to give to another. This is robbery, this is stealing, and is beneath any creature of this earth. Except, sometimes, for man!”
“We all are under attack, my people, an attack completely unprovoked, but yet in motion against us. We have long rejected the payments being offered to the red man from the white man, to keep us in bondage on our own lands. My own father realized that those payments would only enslave our souls, and so we have been self-sufficient for generations. We are independent of the laws of the U.S., since we have our own sovereign nation- that said, we recognize the greatness that is the United States, and we support it whole-heartedly, as an independent, allied country, from all attackers.”
“But now, as I say, an evil faction that has gained ascendancy in much of the U.S., aye, in much of the world itself, sadly, is now trying to subvert the freedoms for which this country stands, and is obsessed with seeking power and stealing from those who produce, and provide for themselves. They are coming here, to take one of our sons, (here he gestured to Wulf, who nodded his leonine head in acknowledgment), and I say to you- we will not permit it! Jesus, son of the Great Spirit, told us to turn the other cheek. And we have, again, and yet again!”
“But now, my people- we need to take an eye for an eye!””
At that very moment, a large white headed eagle flew into the canyon, just above the preacher, and screamed.