They’re Coming

Ch’Truta gathered the bowl of knowledge. He knew it wasn’t the bowl itself, but what went into the bowl.

He placed a few leaves of the chantu plant inside the bowl, crushing them with a small stone, then grinding them to a fine powder. He added five shunta berries, crushing them and mixing the juices with the powder. From the small container, Ch’Truta filled the bowl with swamp water.

Each one of these could possibly kill the average man, but together, they made a hallucinogenic solution. Ch’Truta had built up an immunity to the poison of these plants and discovered the benefits of the solution.

Ch’Truta gulped down the solution. He began to beat a rhythm on a bearskin drum. Everyone in the brood knew that sound meant stay away. Ch’Truta was seeking the Swamp Spirit’s. Closing his eyes, Ch’Truta felt the rhythm of the drum flowing deep into his soul. Soon, his eyes rolled back into his head and his body began to tremor.

Just as suddenly, his body stilled, as if dead. Multicolored mists began to caress his unconscious mind. They began to take the form of other humans. Paler than the Ch’ulla brood. People with green and blue eyes.

“They are coming,” a voice whispered into his ear. Ch’Truta turned to see the Wise One speaking to him. The spirits were no one’ to look at if you had a weak stomach. Or, a heart of fear. “They will change the Valley as you know it.”

“What can I do to stop this?” Ch’Truta probed.

The Wise One vanished in a smoke, replaced by an advancing horde, heading east through the desert. Ch’Truta knew what must be done. He must join the horde. Certainly, an army this size would eradicate them, especially with Ch’Truta’s help.

“You have learned to use what we have shown you,” came the whisper from a second Wise One. “Your brood , the Ch’Ulla are the people of the swamp. We will watch over them.”

Certainly, the Swamp Spirits did so. It was the Spirits that had shown Ch’Truta the secret of using the swamp mud to cover the Ch’Ulla warriors’ bodies as camouflage. He praised Uctilo'rhu, the Great Devourer in the Mist, to whom they presented living sacrifices, mostly those captured from other broods of the Umnac. It was he who directed the Spirits to reveal this to Ch’Truta.

After several hours, Ch’Truta came conscious. Very quickly, he packed his bowl, chantu leaves, and shunta berries. He added to that three vials of swamp viper venom. Not quite The Fire Serpent, but a serpent with fire.

In a separate pouch, Ch’Truta packed some dried fruit, dried meat, and chorca nuts. The flint knife with the bone handle, he placed in the leather sheathe. One more weapon, his spear. The drum he strapped around his neck and shoulder, along with a couple of skins of water.

Ch’Truta exited his hut to what seemed like the entire brood awaiting his presence to reveal his latest vision. He told them all he saw, than announced, “I leave you in the hands of the Swamp Spirits. Remember what they have taught you through me. I must go and join the horde advancing to confront them.”