WE ARE THE WARRIORS

OLD STORIES

Long nights.

I'd walked out onto the plains to be alone others thought observing my silence, but I'd gone into the tall grasses to answer, or listen to the voices calling me away from the People. I could smell the meat and plants on the fires and hear the way children and adults and barking dogs yapping at each other sound mingled with the many sounds of the day closing itself into night.

It isn't cool yet. It is warm with the fire of desires to follow the lead of spirits who see men as they are, and who they will become. Those spirits were in the night, and it is my turn to listen after asking so many, so many questions.

We'd just come off a good hunt. The women were either keening or singing praise songs as they prepared for the feast, and the hunters were cleaning themselves in the nearby river. It was peaceful with no cares or worries. The first Geese called out startling me and in answer hundreds called out answers to whatever the first of the Geese People had said to the others.

I walked and walked naked under my blanket save for my loin cloth, unarmed save for my prayer staff with its Eagle and Swan feathers catching every breeze... © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

2^nd story

It isn't the sound of voices that attracts you to her. It is the culture of tolerance and defiance marking the path before her to be a stronger woman than the women before her. It was war that made the women warriors. It was their children-to-come, and their children alive and their children grown that made war necessary to keep the culture vibrant, and the country stable.

There is more behind a veil a man does not know. There is what he will never grasp in two lifetimes, what he will never see without permission, what he will never become without Knowing, and what could kill him Allah willing! © Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.7.13

3^rd story

"Warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity." - Sitting Bull