Forsaken An American Sasquatch Tale - By Christine Conder Page 0,42
abdomen and chest. The woman smiled and moved as though she wasn’t, made her way from child to child, bent to whisper in their ears.
The woman came to Liberty’s side of the fire, moving like a dancer. And Liberty could now see how. Her feet, one bare and the other encased in a tattered moccasin, hovered an inch above the ground. She peered closer at the woman. Though her arms and hair moved, she looked as though she’d been hung on a hook and was paralyzed from the waist down. The woman met her eyes and grinned. Chuneras, the name formed in Liberty’s head as the woman continued her ritual around the ring of fire.
The children murmured to one another in excited voices, and though the words were clearly in English, Liberty couldn’t grasp what they meant. She watched Chuneras as she bent down to a small, yellow-haired boy and spoke to him. The words that came out of her mouth didn’t match her lips, as if the invisible puppeteer was a little slow in pulling her strings, but the boy nodded his understanding. So did Liberty.
When the message had been delivered to each child, Chuneras swept an arm across the flames and a vision formed in the center of the fire. Every horror the English men and women had committed against the tribe that night, played out for the children to see.
Liberty felt the sister grasp her arm as they watched their people get slaughtered like wild buffalo, a flash of steel, knives and hatchets, one horrific scene at time. The brutal images played out uncensored. Every scream heard, every murder shown. The vision dissolved after the final act of Chuneras’ death. Though painful to watch, the children didn’t cower or cry.
Chuneras drifted away into the shadows and reappeared a moment later with the four bags of stolen silver. She lifted her arms and the bags levitated above her. Then, with a flick of her wrist, they all tipped over, sprinkled coins like a waterfall into the flames. Instead of dousing the fire, the coins acted as fuel, infused it.
The silver sparked blue and popped flashes of white, as it danced in the heat like magic corn. Several of the children clapped in surprise.
Chuneras motioned with her arms again and the blue and white sparks formed a dotted circle and started to spin. Slowly at first, but as she moved her arms faster, so went the wheel. One last wave and the wheel turned so quickly it looked like one solid circle around the fire.
The children gasped and giggled in delight. When Chuneras clasped her hands together, the circle raced to the top of the lean-to and broke into several individual rings, each spinning above the tips of the towering flames. Small faces followed and looked up, spellbound. Liberty counted the rings though she already knew the sum, twenty-one in all. Turning so fast, at first they looked like tiny orbs. Slowly the revolutions trickled to a stop above every head. And time froze. All movement from the fire and children ceased, and sound left in a vacuum.
Liberty turned to the sister and saw her upturned face captured in a half grin, the light of the motionless flame still visible in her eyes. Liberty glanced back at the scene and looked to the right where Chuneras stood with her hands together. Despite her injuries, Liberty admired her beauty in a quiet awe. So perfect, a statue. Liberty gasped in surprise when Chuneras turned her head to look at her.
So void of movement and sound, Liberty could hear the muscles stretch in Chuneras’ cheeks when she smiled. Her lips moved, then a moment later. “Liberty?”
“Yes?”
“Are you paying attention?”
“I am.”
“Watch.”
Chuneras turned to face the fire and life reentered the lean-to at once, Liberty heard the tail end of her clap again, and the rings suspended above the heads of the children plummeted through the air with such swiftness they left miniature-sized comet tails in their wake.
Every boy and girl lifted their hands in unison and the rings encircled their arms. With a final clap from Chuneras, the bands fastened themselves down tight on tiny wrists and, in a blink, the flames extinguished. Blackness infused the lean-to, hot orange embers the only light. The moment Liberty focused on the glow where the fire had been, she fell again.
* * *
Liberty opened her eyes to find herself on the bed next to Mitch. Tendrils of hair clung to her face in a mess