Long ago, the world was a different place. The trees did not whisper secrets into the air, and the wind did not deliver them to the heavens. The trees weren’t here at all. The people had only a vast land of snow as if the ground were the hindquarters of a great white wolf. Our ancestors would call to them, the wolves, at night by the Lake of W?y?, the child bearing. We could hear the wolves return in the night, like thieves, so stealthy it was like they had never come, until one day, when they stopped coming all together.

The chief of our native tribe’s, The Figawai, name was Minjo and his wife was Agehya. They had seven strong sons, warriors like their father. Lost children would wander into their tribe and Agehya, seeing the scars on their faces from the harshness the world had shown them, would raise them as her own sons and daughters. Agehya was happy and content, a mother and wife to her tribe. When other mothers in the tribe asked her how she could open her heart to so many, she simply said, “All motherhood is good.” As for Minjo, his triumph from glories and sons did not compare to the love he had for his dear Agehya. They were like the white wolves, mates for the span of all their days.

Agehya had people who came to her in the night. In her dreams they arrived with messages. The people were smudges of colors dancing around in a vivid fire, coming and going, still and lively. It was common for her to speak with The Others, and she greeted them warmly into her heart. One day after sunset, deep in her slumber, they started to appear. The colors smeared around her dream, forming their images until a white figure appeared instead. In the midst of the hues stood one lone wolf, white as the snow, with a gentle face that Agehya felt drawn to. Pups started to play at her feet and then disappeared. The she-wolf gave off a sensation of familiarity, female to female, mother to mother. The white ghost had eyes that burned like the embers of a fire and could see through any person to their very core. The wolf stood there, and the colors started to flash from behind her again, the people forming next to her. The whispers started to speak, telling Agehya a prophecy. In seven days a child would be born from her, and then the earth would change and grow, for Agehya was the almighty mother come to earth, she was also the link between our world and another.

The next night there was a tribe meeting. They asked Agehya if The Others had come to her, and she said no easily, as if lying was nothing but a dance with a devil. Later, Agehya was left wondering why she felt so inclined to keep this to herself. What would she tell her dear Minjo when she could no longer keep that she was going to have a child a secret? When the sun rose, Agehya told her husband that she was going for a walk to the hut of healing women and would be back in a few days time. She set out and began to walk. When the evening came Agehya sat down to rest. Looking around, she felt completely alone, not a friend or animal in sight. Agehya and the mountains were all that was near. A lonely feeling swept over her until her hand rested against her stomach and a smile leapt across her face. She was not alone.

Agehya walked far for many days, not yet wishing to return to the tribe. She enjoyed the tranquility of the land and the company of the sky. Losing track of time, Agehya became weaker as her food ran out. She sat down to rest and lay her hands upon her bare stomach. The clouds began to dance in the sky and the snow to whirl in the wind. She saw the white wolves like shooting arrows, speeding across the plain. Agehya lifted her hands from her stomach. The wind stopped. The sky was calm and the snow untouched. Though she did not know it, Agehya was farther away from her home than she thought. As she continued her journey, she became more aware of The Others coming to her. The creases on her hands would look as if they shaped people, but then a glance would it would return them to normal. Days went on, and she forgot about her children at home, thinking only of The Others. She saw the people who had gone to the west come back and stare at her from across the plain. Her mother, eyes tired and face wrinkled, stared at her from across a snowy mound. Agehya ran to her, but the image disappeared. The weakness that had overtime grown, in her body, forced her to make the incredible journey back home.

By the time she was near the tribe, Agehya looked like a lost child herself. There was no longer any youth in her face. It wore a bewildered expression. It was dark when she saw the teepees and the fire burning out. Agehya crumpled to the ground and lay there for a moment. All was dark apart from the light of our ancestors shining down from the sky. A cracking noise was heard, and Agehya fell into cold, cold water. The rush was too strong, and she started to sink farther down into The Lake of W?y?. Her hands clutched her stomach, for even if Death could catch her, she would never let her child be taken. It was the prophecy from The Others that this creature should be born, whatever it was. Agehya heard the voices and saw them surround her. The spirits wrapped around her and lifted her up as she faded.


People say the morning light comes fast, but it is the light of death that catches you by surprise in the end. Agehya breathed in gasps, lying in a heap on the ice. Tribe members came running out and saw her. All of Agehya’s children gathered around her. Minjo came rushing in and saw her lying weak and dying. One look at her stomach and he saw. As the dying woman clutched her stomach and moaned, Minjo thought that the creature inside her must be killing her, so with his knife he cut open her stomach and threw the seed of the creature into the snow far away. A little glowing seed, unborn. Agehya wailed her last noise. The once-strong Chief looked shattered, as if his face had aged to a stone in only a moment. His love was gone. His mate. What would become of him if she was not there? The night was cold, and all that was heard was the wailing of the white wolves.

The seed went unseen, all alone in the wasteland. A child without its mother is lost. But by the time the warm season came, the wolves had left, traveling onward, and no one saw the small tree rising from the ground. With only the soil to care for it and the earth as its mother it became a young and healthy sapling. Agehya was the Almighty Mother, she was the earth and the soil that raise the seed into a sapling, which will grow into a tree.