Sea Lion continued

“Those round-heads won’t get a bear this time. The one more powerful than any bear is going to get them instead,” said Tseycum almost spitting with rage.

“They blaspheme Raven and deserve to die,” added Mowa'kek in agreement. It was the only way to rid the village of spiritual contamination.

Knowing that he might object, the trio agreed to keep the plot from Chief Soowahlee.

“Whirlwind’s mind is affected by his advanced age. He has become soft hearted and beguiled by the white bearded one – the one who has turned his back to Raven,” said the shaman.

“My magic will find a way to kill the owl men without the chief knowing. I will charm Nestuka of Refuge Rock to swamp their canoe like the others.”

It was a trick of the Selawik shaman that Mowa'kek used often – first befriending the enemy by inviting them to festivities at the Shinning Heavens Inlet camp, forcing them to paddle through dangerous waters exposed to the rough western ocean to be killed by the giant sea lion named Nestuka Ocean Devil who guarded a large point known as Refuge Rock that stood just before the mouth of the inlet.

Mowa'kek taught that the spirit of the Raven Society's founder -- a spiritual man long revered by the previous generation -- now dwelt in the body of the sea lion guardian.

The Selawik knew a secret passage through a sea cave that led safely between the rock and the shore when the tide was low. Canoes of the tricked enemy always missed the cave, which looked like an arch leading to a dead end of black rock, and continued to their destruction when making the last turn around the point. Nestuka Ocean Devil angrily attacked anyone who dared to pass his domain and took many fishermen and whalers who did not know the secret passage down to his shrine at the bottom of the sea never to return.

Some slaves in the back of the lodge where the plotters talked knew from the hushed voices that the Kaw-Seth braves were endangered. They had seen the cruelty of their masters. When two young women slaves brought food to Half Moon the next morning, they signed to Hayoqwis to be wary of his guides, asking that he keep their confidence. He thanked the girls for the warning and the sweet rock cod and gestured that his lips were sown.

As he ate alone, wondering if the rumor was serious, the morning sun lit up the beach, burning away the foggy weather that had shrouded the village. Today the guides would take them to the Shinning Heaven’s Inlet as agreed. Finally, the hunt might commence.

Soon Spe-eth joined Hayoqwis, baring a water box and some rope for the trip. Hayoqwis told his uncle about the warning of the slaves.

“These people are known for trickery. But, the way of our Great Spirit is far more powerful. They can’t do us any harm. You are sure to win your Butterfly,” he replied.

As they spoke, the hunting guide canoe named Swift in Battle pulled up to where Half Moon was beached, carrying old chief Whirlwind, his son Tseycum, Shaman Mowa'kek and four warriors inside. Somkin was not present. All seven were noble flatheads. Whirlwind was wearing a bear robe and bear headdress and kept singing a hunting song, swaying back and forth and hitting the bottom of the canoe with an oar like a drum in somewhat of a childish manner.

“The weather is good,” Tseycum called out to the Kaw-Seth braves on shore.

“You questers will follow us up the coast for four days. At sundown each day we will camp up the beach from you -- far enough away for you to see our campfire smoke. Not any nearer. We go first on this journey because Raven welcomes our flat faces, but is repulsed by the round heads of common men.

“Each night shaman will perform rites to lull Otter-Chief asleep to ensure safe passage and to placate the monster Nestuka commanded by Raven to guard his domain from the unworthy. You must not hear the magic words of his songs. We will not eat or talk with you while we guide you to the far end of the long inlet that reaches all the way to the mountain foothills of the interior where our Protector Raven dwells along with many brown and white bears.

“When we arrive, shaman will offer a dog sacrifice to keep away the ghosts of those drowned in inlet waters. On that day our debt will be paid and we will return to our village. You will canoe until you reach the headwaters that flow from the mouth of the last creek. It marks the valley where white bears prowl. If you are able, you may take one bear according to your rights. It is up to you to find your way back to your islands. May Raven grant you a successful hunt,” he said.

Hayoqwis tipped his conical hat in understanding.

Spe-eth called back, “We receive the bone game prize from the generous hand of Chief Whirlwind and put our trust in your noble guidance to bring us to the place we are longing to go.”

Just then the rest of the quest party arrived to launch Half Moon into the water. Tokwish, led by tribal matron Ska-mo-na and her female attendants came to say goodbye.

“Brother, I will sing the bear song for you everyday while I work for my Selawik masters. Come here,” he said holding out his bear claw necklace for Hayoqwis to take.

“Put this on to remember our success on that day. May you bring back a bear larger than the one who bit me,” he said grinning.

"Thank you, slave,” said the suitor.

“You paid a big price that I could finish the test. I won’t fail you. Now you must work.”

While Tokwish and his women masters watched, the braves lined on each side of Half Moon to push the craft into the waters, immediately jumping in to paddle in an effort to keep up with the fast pace of their guides who were swiftly pulling out of Klauck’s harbor into break waters towards the north western coast.

That day they passed the last of four Selawik villages, keeping the guide canoe in sight until it landed at dusk. When the suitor party saw smoke form the guide’s campfire ahead they beached for the night, pulling Half Moon above the tide level under the shade of an orange barked madrona tree protected by low sandstone cliffs. The Kaw-Seth men found a stream to fill their water boxes and built their own fire in fine white sand.

While the others collected firewood, Wontie and Tis'ka remembered the fur seal that they had spied sleeping on a rock and stealthily headed down the beach with two large hunting clubs, perfectly mimicking the cry of a fur seal as they had since they were boys. All Kaw-Seth knew all of the ways to hunt seal. They returned with four large steaks that the men enjoyed roasted on skewers. The sun set changed the sky blood red as they ate. The warmth of the fire that drove away the coolness of the approaching night. They had meat left over and slow smoked what remained over the fire pit the whole night. There was plenty of wood.

Each man knew that only the most daring traders and whalers ventured this far up the dangerous coast and both Spe-eth and Hayoqwis would prefer to head out to sea instead of staying close to the shoals of the rocky shoreline. But, they were forced to follow the guides who knew how to navigate around many reefs and jagged rock formations that hid the mouth of the Shining Heavens Inlet.

That night they heard singing accompanied by rattles and drum at the guide camp and saw the flash of fire light up the trees on the shore. They discussed the rumor.

“What treachery might they inflict? We fairly won the right to hunt a white bear. They would not risk harm to the old chief by ambushing us,” said Wountie.

“Our arrows, spears and clubs are ready and we should be able to overcome them if they attack," said Tis’ka.

"Our battle may not be against flesh and blood. That wild man Mowa'kek is surely conjuring spirits against us -- the monster that guards the inlet or their spirit chief Raven himself might heed his evil chanting,” said Hayoqwis.

“The power of Wonderful Doer will quench the blood lust of the monsters and give us victory. Let us pray for a dream to fit Hayoqwis with the insight that he needs to finish this quest even in the face of these dangers,” said the uncle. But, that night Hayoqwis did not remember any dream.

The questers continued the same pattern each day for three days following the guides, camping at a distance each night and always praying for a dream, but with none given. The farther they progressed, the rougher the waves seem to crash on large rocks lining the shore and the more Hayoqwis felt a thickness in the wind – a spiritual climate that pulled his heart down like a fishing weight falling into the deep. Here the sun shown unusually bright and burnt the faces of the men wondering what lay ahead. Splash of waves felt especially cold and the salt water sharp and bitter.

Instead of thick rain forests of the south, the questers now passed giant bare rocks supporting only a few wind-deformed fir trees with dead branches sticking out like bones from a decaying corpse. Ocean wind whistled against them from the north. In place of chattering gulls, black cormorants flew before the canoe bellowing low-pitched calls, sometimes touching down to dive nervously near by or to huddle on cliff walls to watch the men from above with long, snake like necks.

Paddling in unison the braves reached a strange passage seemingly obstructed by a series of solitary rock islands accompanied by a line of tall pillars spread out along the shoreline for as far as they could see. Spray and foam crashed at the base of each tooth-like pillar that cut into the ocean's fury as if the earth itself was biting up through the sand into the sky.

Following the narrow path took by the guides, Half Moon navigated between the rock formations and passed below the first pillar that seemed to tilt like old woman burdened by a heavy basket. Hayoqwis wondered if the sea pillars could have once been people transformed into stone as punishment by some supernatural being.

The braves knew that they were drawing near the home of Black Raven himself. Even though the weather was fair and the sun shone through white haze on the surface of the gray-green waters, each of the braves felt the presence of malevolent spirits. They remembered the stories that near these coasts lived monsters made fat by the sacrifices by corrupt chiefs and shamans who journeyed here seeking supernatural power over men -- especially the power to curse or kill rivals.

On the third night there was no place to beach the canoe and all the braves could find for morage was to use four anchors in shallow inside waters between two towering rock pillars that rose into the pale sky and provided protection from the waves. They could not see their guides that night, but knew that they must be around the next bend in the beach or not far ahead.

At midnight Hayoqwis awoke from a dream that chilled him like a wind. He stirred the other awake saying, "Uncle, I had a dream in which I saw a rattle snake up in a pine tree above my head. It dropped to my feet and shot into the grass out of sight -- but where I needed to walk up a hill,' he wiped sweat from his troubled face.

"What does this nightmare mean?"

"Do not fear, my strong nephew. Do not doubt. The rattle snake is the evil powers that stalk us, but like the snake they will drop from their high places and run from your path. You will crush the snake under your steps."

At daybreak the weather had changed and they awoke to rain which grew into a downpour until the gray surface of the water and the sky became indistinguishable. The men put on rain hats and cloaks and continued to paddle the same way as before until they again caught sight of Swift in Battle pursuing the destination that surely must be near.

The rain obscured their vision and made sea fairing past these hidden reefs and shoals especially dangerous, but the guides seemed confident in their way that morning and to go ashore in fear might bring shame. Half Moon continued to follow the shore line north hoping to spot the guides soon, when they came to a steep rock wall like a giant black arm reaching out to sea. The wall rose high above the bobbing canoe and they could not see its top through the fog. The rock marked by many arches and protruding boulders forced them to head out to sea away from the safety of the beach.

They had lost sight of the guides for most of the day when the monster attacked.

Suddenly out of the mist peered the head of a giant sea lion that rose serpent like above the surface and shot toward them baring teeth and barking deafly howls. They knew it must be the monster Nestuka. The largest sea lion that any of them had seen, as long as the canoe, swam in a circle around Half Moon. The men replaced their paddles with the sealing and war spears, hoping to wound the Sea Devil enough to drive him away. Wountie was able to shoot an arrow at the neck of the beast just as it dove out of sight.

“I hit it! I saw blood,” he shouted as the stunned men watched the surface of the water for signs of another attack.

At that instant, the monster rose shaking his head like a strangled dog trying to dislodge the arrow, then submerged out of sight. Their hearts beating like fast drums and bodies soaked by the cold rain, they almost failed to realize that the canoe was drifting dangerously near the rock wall until paddles set their course again out around the island. If only they could pass by quickly, that was their unspoken goal.

A sea lion that size could easily capsize the canoe, if not split it asunder. Hayoqwis had hunted many smaller sea lions before in the same craft, but in more familiar waters and in better weather. Now he was the hunted one pursued by a devil of the sea. The Kaw-Seth questers paddled as if in the final stretch of a race, looking back for the sleek serpentine form that might at any moment emerge for a final blow.

The fog and rain made it hard to know when they had reached the farthest point of Refuge Rock’s perimeter, but when they made the turn they heard through the mist the calls of many sea lions howling and barking from a hidden ledge in the rock wall that must serve as a lounging bed for Nestuka and his wives.

It was then that they saw the arrowhead shaped fin of a great white shark coming from behind the canoe. At first Hayoqwis thought it was the dorsal fin of a killer whale or porpoise, but when he saw the size more clearly, he knew the deadly threat that they faced. The questers stopped paddling to avoid drawing attention.

"Wonderful Doer, be true to your name for us now," Spe-eth shouted out a prayer into the gray heavens.

The Kaw-Seth had experience with common sharks following their canoes during fishing and sealing trips back home, but the usual trick of tossing a sinker rock as a distraction was not worth the risk for such a huge monster. The size of the dorsal fin meant that the shark was as large or larger than the sea lion. They could not survive an attack by such a monster.

Perhaps the magic of the Selawik shaman was more powerful than they realized. If this point marked the end of their earthly quest, each man knew that their drowned bodies would sink to the ocean floor and become food for crabs and sea slugs. Would Eagle Ghost be able to recover their souls trapped so far down in Nestuka's watery lodge?

The tail fin increased speed and approached Half Moon that bobbed like a piece of drift wood while the men held their breaths. Then as in a dream Hayoqwis, Spe-eth, Wountie and Tis'ka watched in awe as the shark sped smoothly past them into the mist out of sight. Sea lions howled in the distance.
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