All joking aside, the ways of our people, the Mishtokoka, are simple and our laws are clear, we do not kill and eat people ever. The very idea is abhorrent to all of us. There are some, mostly our enemies that send their old out into the wilds when they have no use for them, but we value our elders and would never do that; they provide a link to our past and tell the stories of what were and teach the small ones. Second to our people are our herds. We tend our flocks of Muskox, take their excess wool in the summer, use their milk and blood as food and occasionally thin them of their excess population. We defend them from wild beasts and raiders. In the Winter we share our time with them to stay warm through the coldest times. Our God Mishtoko permits this as long as we keep the herd strong and healthy and Mishtoko will protect us from the worst of the winter storms.
Winters are the worst. They last for almost half the year. No one knows what Winters are truly like, no one who has never experienced them can judge us. When the milk runs dry and the health of the herd is in danger of compromise, we hunt other tribes, not the Sister Peoples but our enemies. The meat we take is needed for us to get through the winter lean times, they are not people, they look like people but they are not, it is known. People are disgusted by our funeral practices. They are from far away and cant know our lives or our people's wishes. We know that we will provide nourishment for our people in the lean times when we go, when we die we go and become one with the honored ancestors and what we live behind is nothing related to that. We all know that that this is what keeps us Mishtokoka and it honors the dead. We know that sometimes we die defending the flock and this is upmost in honor. We do not ever kill people, it is affront to our ancestors and Mishtoko. Which is why what Mishkapook, Strength of Ox, did to me was such a sin.
Mishkapook was born the spring before I was born, we grew up though as brothers and we competed in everything that we did. He was called to begin his rite of manhood a year before me as was his right as elder to me. The elders said that he must or else he would be cast out as not contributing to the people. It is a big thing for us this rite of passage, up until then we are thought of as potential people and afterwards we are full people ready to take on the duties of adulthood. The elders say when we must compete, but we can choose to compete when ever we want, sometimes Mishtoko tells us when we are adults too, like me. Mishkapook he was away and he was bringing back a real prize that would strengthen the herd for years to come a great roaming Mish bull, who would father many strong Mish for years to come, a great feat. But for what I did.
Mishtoko had chosen an enemy, a tainted wolf of great size and placed me before it and the herd. It would have savaged and killed many breeding cows and calves but for me being there and me with my spear. There was nothing to what I did, I was just destined to be where I was. If I had failed, the people would have lost much, if I had died and failed who knows. But I succeeded, I say with Mishtoko's help. I ate its heart as the elders directed me to and the people ate the rest gaining its strength to protect the herd. The teeth were made into a necklace for me and the pelt was traded for tools to keep us strong. It was just chance. Mishkapook was a real hero, he planned and he strategized and he single handedly brought the bull to strengthen the tribe for generations.
We were still friends for years afterwards, but looking back the seeds of the end were there. But for then it was great that we were both real people in the eyes of the people. We could got wives from the sister people of my grandmother. It turned out by design or guidance of Mishtoko that Mishkapook took a wife from my Grandmother's family, and I from his, we were as linked as we could be in the lives of our people.
It was such a surprise that when the leader of our people passed the mantle early one Spring and the elders all spoke that it should be I that should lead our people because I was a chosen person by Mishtoko. But when they pronounced this, I stepped forth and declaimed against their choice. True, I said Mishtoko chose me to raise my spear to defend the herd, but that is all I was, a chosen defender. Mishkapook, was a better choice. He had the wits to see what needed being done, he showed intelligence and cunning to get it done and he had the strength, the pook, to lead the people to greatness. Me as leader would just be a vote to maintain the status-quo. My speech was moving and the elders. Said that time was of the essence and they needed to chose quickly. They asked us to go out on a hunt and let Mishtoko make the choice.
In my mind we left the people as friends, looking for a sign that Mishtoko would give us, I was sure the god would see my friend as the proper choice. I told Mishkapook so. The streams by our lands were swollen with melt water and the sides were treacherous, but we went together so that we could find the biggest fish or find a way to prove our worthiness to the people. I was spearing a great fish that is saw in the pool and I was bringing it in through the cold waters when I felt something stab through me. Mishkapook's spear, it's tip pierced my flesh from the back and through my chest. I looked to him as I fell in the water, the anger in his eyes. He had killed me, a real person. He pushed me into the rushing river so that the tribe would be deprived of my strength and I could not be honored by our people, and he took the fish that I had speared as his own and he let me drown and die in the rushing waters that no one could survive.
A rage took hold of me in my soul. He would be leader of my people, but he broke our laws and he deprived our people of my strength. He was a criminal of such greatness that there was never a story like what he did, he was no real person. A voice called to me and asked what I would do if I were given the power to avenge the wrong that was done to me. I screamed in my head that I would make all non people pay for they must surely be the source of all evil and I would kill Mishkapook or his crime and remove his taint from the people.
My body was dumped over a waterfall and I fell, but the pool underneath, I never hit. I breathed again in the underworld and strength was given to me to avenge my people. The one came to me who claimed that he was the ancestor of all our people. He said that I should serve him to unmake all the non people in the world so the one true people will flourish and have many children and herds that filled the North. He showed me how to become great at killing the enemies of my people and to become great in their eyes, as I was now the chosen leader of my people, but not by Mishtoko, but of our ancestors. He told me that he had followed all the generations of our people and told me of how generations of our people had been enslaved and forced to breed with outsiders. He said it was necessary to free those people and to separate the true people from the not.
It has been long work to learning to separate those people, the ancestor said that there had been much dilution of the people, but that I needed to persevere. He said that he would give me dreams of the way the real people would live when they were all freed and the way that they lived before the fall. The dreams appear to show great lives that the people will have, but they all feel so real and the people don't feel like the real people, but the ancestor says it is that way to separate the real people of his chosen, it is a test.
When he saw me fighting the non people the ancestor gave me the name that I bear now, champion of the my people, Might of Fallen.
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