When Nayavu woke up, the bright sky was the first to greet him. The light hurt his eyes, but it wasn't long until something shaded his face. He was thankful for it, but unsure who or what exactly he should thank.
A warm and wet something was spread all over the young man's face. It felt sticky, and its strong stench was not something Nayavu wanted to get used to. Not only that, but the weird liquid was spreading. The thing giving his eyes much-needed shade was spreading it, even clogging the boy's nostrils in the process.
As his mind got clearer, and Nayavu fully woke up from his dream, he felt like he was drowning. The muscle memory made him jump up before analyzing his surroundings, startling his helper while at it.
"Tahu?" the young man asked upon recognizing the one who stood at his side.
"Tahu!" he screamed again, his eyes shining at the sight of an old friend. With no hesitation, he jumped towards the stag and hugged him. At the same time, the animal also shook its head happily, beating the ground with its hooves.
"Man, I thought you'd left me that day! What have you been up to? What's this on my…"
It took him a while, but the boy finally understood that the weird smelly something was actually saliva.
"Ahhh… Gross, man!" Nayavu said, but Tahu only made a puffing sound in return, stomping the ground even faster.
"Really? Is this how you greet a friend? Licking them all over and then mocking them?"
It was obvious that Nayavu wasn't too happy with how he was being treated, but reuniting with an old friend was enough to make him forget all about it.
"I have to say… It's really been a while! Last time I saw you was—"
As Nayavu reminisced, another splitting headache got the boy on his knees. He tried to speak, but even opening his mouth felt painful.
Feeling as if his head was being squeezed, Nayavu grabbed it, trying to stop the pain. Needless to say, it didn't work.
Behind his eyes, blurry images were being played. Those were images of the past, or maybe the future; images of a city; images from far away, but also images of the plains and of a bloody battle in the rain.
In his struggle, the boy tried to at least stand up, not wanting to worry his friend. That's when he felt a third hand touching him on the nape.
Nayavu's muscles tensed up. To the boy who didn't know where he was, any other presence signaled danger. Yet, that was not the only reason for his body to get so tense.
From the back of his head and throughout his body, a sudden jolt shook the young one. Nayavu panicked for a moment, but once it was over, his pain had completely stopped.
His expression clouded over as he looked behind him. There he saw a lady dressed in skin-baring clothes. He had never seen this woman before, yet her tanned hand was quick to grab his jaw.
With incredible strength, the lady moved Nayavu's face around, taking a good look at the boy struggling to free himself.
"I see, so it was a hit that got you acting all cozy," the woman said.
Curious about what she meant, Nayavu ignored her actions just for a moment to ponder. It was only then that memories flooded his mind peacefully. Those were memories of Rema, memories of Giovanni, and memories of him meeting Tahu. Baffled that he had forgotten so much, Nayavu stopped breathing and looked into the purple eyes of the strikingly beautiful woman.
"That must have been a strong one to have you forget yourself. I hope this means you can now give direction that blind rage of yours," the representative added.
"By the way, how far back do you remember? How many 'you' are there?"
*****
Far from Nayavu, at the edge of the high plains, looking into the abyss down below, there stood a girl who didn't smile.
The girl going by the name of Tiva was usually the soul of the village. She came as an outsider, but nobody treated her as such. Everyone from the village loved the girl, and the girl loved everyone. Hence why she had no reason not to smile when she was with them.
Yet, the village she knew was no more, and out of the villagers she loved, half were now gone. With not enough people around to see her, the girl found no reason to smile. More than that, she had plenty of reasons to frown.
"Nayavu…" she spoke into the wind, thinking about the boy who hadn't made it out with them.
As much as she wanted to go after him, she wasn't allowed to. To top it all off, it was Tatanka-Ska—the young man's mentor—who stopped her.
"Young man… I guess he is still a boy…" she said to herself, correcting the mistake of considering Nayavu, who had failed to finish the ceremony, a man of Inyankara.
"No, he was a man—a man who saved us all," another voice spoke.
When Tiva turned her head to look for the source, she saw an old lady.
"High Elder!" she shouted, reacting with a smile at the sight of another person as if she could not be seen in any other way.
The high elder in question—Tatanka's mother—was a strong woman who didn't let her age show even if she was one of the oldest people in the tribe.
With firm steps, she sat herself at the edge of the cliff next to the young lady and spoke.
"The Sacred Waters of the Serpent… don't you want to know about them?" the elder said, not wasting any time with small talk.
"Ah, you don't need to trouble yourself, High Elder! If it's a secret of the village, then someone like me has no right to learn about—"
"Quit acting like a stranger!" the elder cut her off. "And quit faking that smile! There's nobody else around."
Hearing the woman's words, Tiva's lower lip began to tremble. She bit it in an attempt to stop it, and that's when her smile came off.
"If even I frown, then who is left to bring happiness to this village, Elder?"
"Happiness? Happiness comes and goes, dear child. For now, there is no happiness to spread around, and that's only normal. Everyone back at the new settlement is crying with all of their might. Ride the wave until it sinks into the calm waters, then come back and find a better wave."
The High Elder would sometimes talk in cryptic phrases that left people scratching their heads, but Tiva—being the one who'd learned the stories of their past from her—understood her roundabout way of speaking.
"Thank you, High Elder… Thank you for everything you have taught me! Then, could you tell me about those waters?"
"Of course, child. After all, you've already mentioned them plenty of times to the kids."
Hearing those words, Tiva let out a scoff.
"So the wolf actually exists. Is that what you mean? Has the wolf always been this Reman tyrant?"
"In a way, but not really…" the elder answered.
"You see, the wolf is not one person, but the wolf always walks this earth. The wolf can be anyone, and it will always be someone. The wolf is way more ancient than a random Reman. The wolf is immortal, but not because the wolf never dies. The wolf is immortal by curse. The wolf is but one, but the ones who are the wolf can be many, and they will always seek something."
"All of them seek the waters?" Tiva asked.
"Not all of them. The waters are just a means to what the wolf desires, but the wolf is much larger than some holy water. This wolf wants the waters. and that's what got us here, but the wolf can be much worse than this."
The explanation was getting hard to follow, but Tiva gave it her all to try and understand it regardless.
"High elder, what exactly are those waters?"
"The Sacred Waters of the Serpent… They exist indeed, and they are said to grant long life. The more you have, the longer your life becomes, and whoever has had their fill will forget about death, at least until an angrier wolf comes for them, that is."
"And what is it about this serpent? Are the waters really here? Why did the Remans come here, of all places?"
"That is beyond me. I can't fathom what made them think the waters could be around us, for the waters are not ours, and they never stay in one place."
As the elder spoke, her gaze drifted in the distance. She looked at the lands far below the plains, as if something down there had to do with what she was talking about.
"The water belongs to the Stone Serpent, or, as some people may call it, the Horned Serpent. This beast that grew from the very Earth is the one who decides where the waters go. The water is always somewhere at the bottom of a canyon, or maybe it's deep down into a crack in the earth. That's for the serpent to decide."
"So what they're looking for is actually moving around?" Tiva asked, tilting her head.
"Exactly, dear child. You catch on quick. The serpent moves the ground, and the waters move with it. It doesn't want us to get our hands on the water, so whenever somebody gets close, it moves. It is the snake that has always deceived the wolf, and it will continue to do so until the end of time."
Hearing this story, Tiva needed a moment to grasp it all, so she took a deep breath and looked at the edge she was standing on.
"All that has happened… Everything we've lost… Is it all because of a stupid cat and mouse game?"
"That's the way of nature, Tiva. We are allowed to walk this Earth, but the ones who control it care little for what we want ourselves."
Tiva grabbed a rock and smashed it in her palm. What came out was a drop of water. It must have been caught in there for thousands of years, yet it only now got to see the light of day.
Letting go of the lower lip she was biting again, the young lady stood up. Her smile came back that instant, as if it had never left.
"Thank you, High Elder! Thank you for helping me ride one more wave!"
"Back to our dear Tiva, I see?"
The young woman nodded as an answer.
"Of course, and now it's time for everyone to learn how to smile again! If this is all a game for Them, then all of us should have fun playing it!"
"Oh? What do you mean by that?" the elder asked, curiosity making her look ten years younger than she was.
Tiva again answered with a smirk.
"It means my dear friend must also be playing somewhere right now!"
"Nayavu? How can you be so sure?"
"Have you ever seen the wolf, High Elder? The wolf is part of this game, and the wolf is lonely. He needs a friend to play with!"
"The… wolf…" the elder repeated, amazed by the girl and the sun shining from behind her.
"Exactly! The wolf is away playing with somebody else right now! I have to do my part too! Only then can the wolf come back to a new playground!"
As Tiva spoke, she put one hand on her hip and signaled "OK" with the other. Inspiring even the elder, she turned around and ran for the village.
"Wait for me, Nayavu!" she shouted.
"Or better said, I'll be the one to wait for you!"