I sit on a log inside a private lodge with the elders. They talk about me as if i were not even here, others stare at me and my clothes while they decide what to do with me.

Elder: " He cannot stay here, he is not one of us.".......  "i sense great sadness in this one enough that he would infect us all." ........ " Can you speak, do you understand us?"..... "where are you from?"

The Elders lean in to me as they speak waiting for me to speak, i cannot and instead the young woman who had found me approaches the men to speak on my behalf.

"He cannot survive on his own, he is special, i was suppose to find him."

She turns to look at me as she reaches to my waist and shows the elders my stone gray belt buckle.

"Look he carries the symbol of the snake, he is a wise man perhaps even a shaman."

The elders look at the buckle and sneer as they respond.

"That is not a symbol of wisdom, it has two heads. i know this symbol he is from the tribe of the south, do you speak the trader & Merchant language?"

I stare at the elder as he speaks to me in the old tongue of the 1st nation, i respond to him and nod my head.

"yes".

although,  we can now begin to speak to each other. it will be difficult using the 1st nation tongue and the Merchant tongue.
words like water, fire, food.. will be easily understood but the more complicated ideas will take time. One of the younger less  patient of the village  men speaks up as he stares at me with contempt.

"Why should we help him? if the earth wants him  then let her have him.  I say we kill him less he brings more of his kind on us.  Look at him he is a savage closer to an animal than a man, look at his face!"

He points at my deep cut scars and facial hair something they have never seen before.  he stares at me challenging me to counter his words.. The young woman defends me as she pushes him away..

"he is no animal look at the color of his eyes how they change and blend colors, his hair is brown and turns like sun rays when the sun strikes it. He is a man a very special man! it's you that is the savage animal!"

another of the elders interjects...

"Perhaps he is not a savage animal, but he is no man like us perhaps it would be better  if we let him  wander off like a spirit that he is."

The woman response.

"He is no spirit grandfather, he is a man who bleeds when cut, he is made of flesh as you and i."

The men begin to talk while i am escorted out of their lodge where i am made to stand and wait. The village children run past me with their dogs smiling and laughing at me as they run off.. I look at their village and see that they had made homes from the sheer of the cliffs, while also making homes of mud and brick  near a large  river. They even have wells at the center of their village for cleaning, drinking or bathing although i am not fully sure it could very well simply be for decoration.

The young woman comes out from the lodge after several minutes to tell me what the elders judgment will be.

"they said they will help you but, you cannot live among us for fear that others might come looking for you."
We will supply you with food and even help you build a home but it will be  several miles  from here. I'm sorry"

I look down at her and smile  for her kindness.. One of the young men walks out of the lodge glaring at me with hate... She turns to look at him before turning back at me and speaking.

"Come, i will take you to my home where you can sleep the night till tomorrow morning."

she grabs my hand as she takes me to her dwelling place a fire pit in the center of her home for cooking on the side of the wall a  wooden table with clay pots, dishes and jars. She asks me to sit  so she can look at my leg, i remove my gold shin guard and raise my deer skin pants removing my leather boot.. As i struggle to remove it pain sears through my leg like electricity,  it than dulls down to pulsate radiating waves of pain throbbing as it becomes inflamed.

My bare skin has dried and cracked like the skin of a snake, parts have gone black, i can only hope that i retain my leg ..  She applies salve to my leg as it heats  up  i feel it leeching out the toxins..she wraps my leg and tells me it will take more than salves to save it and that i should pray.  

but who does a god pray to when his father, brothers and sisters no longer care or listen?

i fall asleep in her home as night falls................