Heq (standard:Inspirational stories, 1189 words)
Author: KShaw	Added: Aug 16 2005	Views/Reads: 3722/2194	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Some lessons cannot be taught. Heq is the answer of a Spirit. Now he must learn many things.

The splintered flash scorched a circle in the ice and within its perfect
roundness, a naked child stood holding out its arms. The people of the 
village came, gathering around its circumference, half fearful and half 
curious. They had asked the Shaman to pray for better times, something 
to eat, something to wear, not for another mouth to feed. 

The Shaman stepped forward, staring up at the sky, his eyes, mouth, and
nostrils agape, scratching his head and mumbling. The people waited 
patiently for him to speak.  A child is not an animal be put into a pot 
and boiled, using its skin for warmth. It is simply another mouth to 
feed when they are already half starved. 

Alipak, a teenager, son of Shamuk, and gaining a reputation in the
village as the man who would one day become Shaman, started to laugh. 
“This is the answer to your prayers, Shaman, O' great hunter and 
protector of the people. Your prayers have turned out to be no more 
successful than your poetry!” The villagers all chuckled. 

The Shaman turned to the villagers, scorning their laughter. 

“My prayer was not that we will have food tomorrow, but that our peoples
will survive the darkness. This child is the answer to my prayer.” He 
turned to the child, lifting him into his arms. “Now will come a break 
in the weather. The whale will come. After many moons a darkness will 
descend, and when it does this child shall be Shaman and his name shall 
be Heq.” 

Ojuat, too, was scornful of the Shaman and his prayer. 

“You pray for blubber and you are answered with a blubbering child!” 

The Shaman, holding the child to his breast, spoke in softer tones. “You
are son of Pitak, guardian of the Great Moon-Dog, but neither he, nor 
you, can prevent what darkness comes. For our people shall be no more.” 
The Shaman holds the child aloft. “This child is sent by the guardian 
Spirit! It falls to me to take his hand, to teach him the ways of the 
hunter, to instill in him the ways of the protector, to educate him in 
the ways of wisdom, and to nurture in him a new courage. He will need 
all these skills and more to face the darkness.” The Shaman tucked the 
child into the warmth of the caribou skin cloak around his shoulders, 
kissed his head, and turned again to the villagers. “Alipak, you shall 
hunt in my name. I am your Shaman, I will remain your Shaman until my 
heart is won and cut out by my predecessor.  Is there any man here who 
wishes to challenge me? There were brave men in the village, strong, 
and not without wisdom, but each remained silent. The Shaman turned 
away and walked into the tundra's wilderness. 

Many hunting seasons came and went as the Shaman taught and educated the
child. Heq had to become more than a great warrior, a bringer of food, 
a wise head, or a medicine man to his people. He had to be the 
difference between the darkness of encroaching doom and the advancement 
into his world of people who cooked meat without fire, prayed to a 
Christ, and lived wretched lives. 

At the Shaman's knee Heq learned about the legends and the Spirits that
would help him, how to engage and harness those Spirits, just as he had 
to learn of the powers that would not help him, but instead stand 
before him. By seven years of age he could build a home of ice that 
would withstand the charge of a walrus. At ten years of age he was 
making ropes and clothes from the skins of animals he had slain, and by 
fifteen he was hunting Minke with harpoons made by his own hand. 

The Shaman had all along known that the coming of Heq was the answer of
the Spirits; that the child was his destiny, his end. For Heq to become 
Shaman he would one day have to fight for the privilege to lead his 
people in front of the darkness of oncoming civilizations and advancing 
technologies. It was an enemy that no Shaman before him had faced.  Heq 
would need more than the skills of a warrior, more than cunning, more 
than fearless strength to keep the evil spirits away from the village. 

The Shaman called Heq toward the fire. 

“Sit,” he said. Heq immediately squatted at the Shaman's side. “It is
twenty cycles since you were chosen, today we must begin the final 
test.” 


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