The First Of the Furs
Part two of a short story that was written for an NFT collection that I really liked. This is a continuation of the first story — The Epic Of Shantaran.
Coral Tribe is a really interesting project, with an Impact fund component that is used to invest in tech and art to revive the wild. Check them out.
Disclaimer: As for the part of the songs sung by the main character in this story, they were not mine, but taken from the manifesto of another popular NFT project OkBears, which some of their members are part of the CoralDao. All credits for the rhymes go to the team at OkBears and kudos for the creative lines!
“Bear with me, friend, and I’ll bear with you…..”
A rugged figure, with blackish fur lined with a reddish hue that gleamed in the afternoon sun, emerged from the woods. The markings on him were unique and beautiful, markings that represented all he ever was as a member of a long-forgotten tribe of the mountains. He looked worn and tired, trying his best to march himself along with a line from a tune he tried chanting breathlessly. In his hands held a piece of whitened rock which was seemingly chipped off from a bigger piece.
Andean came from an ancient lineage of UrsidOks that reigns from the legendary mountains of mountains, The AltiplanOks. A jolly bear he was, and it was always the adventure of life he sought. He had been walking the mountain ridges for a long time to reach the fabled forest grounds at the AmarzOn, where legend says that life was abundant and free but dangerous. He didn’t think twice when he was leaving his beloved tribe years ago. He was hungry, and all he wanted was to satisfy his adventurous soul.
He became an outlier, the first bear to walk out of his realm. It was that fateful day that he came near the waters in the forests that seemed to be calling out to him. What he then found was a special piece of rock near the AmarzOnian forest swamps. Rocks of this texture were normally not found in swamps of this area. Strange things started happening to him after picking up that damned rock. He started hearing a sound in his head which goes “ohmmmmmm….” endlessly.
He was almost at the edge of insanity by the torment of this sound that only he could hear. It drowned out all the joyful sounds of the forest, of crickets chirping and birds singing. To counter the invisible enemy, he sang his own songs, a song as old as time in the UrsidOk tribe. There was no longer a tune, and it was almost as if he was shouting a chant.
“Carefree living, our style is be true
Bearing no grudge, no judgement, no spew
Live for tonight, the twilight anew
Bear with me, friend, and I’ll bear with you.”
Little did he know, Andean had received a calling. The picking up of that pretty piece of white stone was no coincidence. Fate and destiny were pulling him towards the Coral Tribe, which was separated from the AltiplanOks by a great forest (The AmarzOns).
After many weeks, the sound in his head finally went silent. He had lost weight, malnourished after weeks of walking. He found himself at the entrance of the Coral Tribe.
His eyes were bright, but his soul was worn out by the torturous blessings from the calling. He felt a sense of weightlessness as if his burden was relieved.
Before he passed out, he saw some shorter figures of different colors running towards him. They were shouting in a language not spoken by the UrsidOks. But he somehow understood them clearly. What was happening?
This was the first encounter between the UrsidOks bear (later known as OkBears in more recent times) tribes and the Coral tribe
In this period of their encounter, Shantaran’s legends had already sparked many other uses for Sea-MT. Other than for Ascension, it was found that Sea-MT can heal and rejuvenate, but only through smoking it with a pipe.
As the pipe was fed to Andean, his first puff started renewing his vigor. As if there was a bad reaction to Sea-MT, Andean’s marking of his proud lineage began reforming itself magically. Strange markings begin forming up on his arms and body. They resembled the markings on the rock that he still clenched tightly in his right hand. The Coral Shamans knew this is the mark of acceptance. The white piece of rock was the Coral, similar to the one the Coral Tribe had been worshipping.
Andean recovered quickly and became a welcomed addition to the tribe. He learned their language, their way of life, and the way to ascend. He had a great time at the Coral Tribe, but The Coral Tribe leaders were sure that Andean was a godsend anomaly to tell them something. They prepared Andean for the ascension ritual, just like how Shantaran, the first Returned had done his.
Andean was anxious, as UrsidOks are not known to be great swimmers. They enjoy floating around more. He also heard a lot of stories about Shantaran, the voices that tormented him, and the epic of the Return of the Ascended.
Andean put on his ceremonial robes and looked down on his body once more, one that was now with the markings of the Coral. He took one more puff of the Sea-MT with the ceremonial pipe. A deep breath was taken, and he dove down to the ocean. On the dive down, it was everything as foretold in the legends. The once torturous sound of the calling came again, but this time, it was benevolent and calming.
Following the calling, he encountered the All-Seeing Eye on the ocean floor. The Eye, as usual, was untrusting to all beings that were not of the sea. It had been hurt all too many times. This time, he looked amused and interested, and his acceptance of Andean was all too obvious.
Some of the fishes, squids, and turtles started gathering pieces of what looked like colorful sticks with polyps and started wrapping them around Andean’s neck. Andean didn’t realise that he was almost out of air. It was one of the dangers of being a Land tribe that had no natural affinity with the water. The colorful sticks on his neck started giving him air magically, and he was able to go on exploring the same big temple halls that Shantaran once meditated in.
Andean had already read the stories on the stone and understood what he needed to do. The Mudra was formed and he prayed with his inner voice. “Ohmmmmmmmm….” He started glowing. A sense of great clarity overwhelmed his mind and he seemed to have understood the meaning of Ascension, and why he was called. A familiar song echoed in his head. Enveloped in a ball of light, he started to Ascend…
Upon reaching back to the surface, the tribe members helped him up to the shores, eager to know the message he received. What he said next was written in the stones.
“Carefree living, our style is be true
Bearing no grudge, no judgement, no spew
Live for tonight, the twilight anew
Bear with me, friend, and I’ll bear with you.”
Andean became the first of the UrsidOk tribes attuned to Coral. His adventure was written and drawn in the stones, alongside the stories of Shantaran. The only piece of evidence about his existence was a stone drawing of his portrait, which portrayed him bearing the Coral marks on his skin, the corals that were infused on his neck, which legends say that it gave him the powers to breathe underwater freely. In the drawings, he wore the shaman robes of the Coral Tribe, with a benevolent smile.
Legend tells us that Andean brought the message back to the mountains where his tribe dwelled in. Many from the OkBears (the more ‘modern’ way of calling the UrsidOks) followed Andean’s journey and treated it as a pilgrimage that all OkBears must perform. Along the way, the good news was also passed on to the dwellers of the jungles. Who knows which tribe will visit the Coral Tribe in time to come? The tribe is always ready to receive.
The Song that Andean received was a message of tolerance, empathy, compassion, and compromise. It tells us that the Inhabitants of the Earth, who formed tribes among themselves, should not ever fight with each other. The Earth was made plentiful with resources to feed everyone. Any fighting for resources due to greed will surely hurt this gigantic ball of dirt that we all live in. We should be thankful and live in the present, and always look forward to tomorrow.
Compromise is the key to everlasting peace on Earth.
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