In the beginning the world was cold and wet. The Creator Spirit had given all the animals of the world everything they would need to survive as the Creator Spirit loved his children and wanted them to be happy. So all throughout the World the animals and their families were warmed through their fur, they ate because of their claws and teeth and bone and lived in homes that rose out of the earth to keep them safe. All across the world the children of the Creator lived full and happy lives, except for one of the children, a hairless creature who has no claws and short teeth with no snout. A soft and slow creature that many brother and sister animals will sometimes catch and eat called man.
Man often cried out to his Creator in great laments and prayers.
“Great Creator! Hear our cries, we are cold when the rains come. We are hunted by the bear and wolf and cat. We are sick from our food and blind once your blessed eye closes to the endless midnight sea.”
The family of man lamented.
“Great Creator! We cannot tend to our children in the dark and often the evils of the night snatch our children from us as we sleep. Send us a token of your love, Great Creator. Protect your children.”
Hearing their cries and feeling badly because when man was created the Creator found that because he had used so much material on his favorite child, the beaver, there was no fur left for man. The beaver needed more tooth and claw and tail than most and there was nearly nothing left to cover and cloth man.
The Great Creator thought long and hard about a solution until one morning inspiration illuminated before him. The Creator would give to man one of the gods most precious gifts. As atonement for making man so weak he would give of his own mind so that man man be warm and safe against the night.
The Great Creator gathered his breath from the cosmic winds and gently blew into his palm. There the small ember of an everlasting fire burned painlessly. The Creator called upon his oldest and most loyal friend to deliver this cosmic gift to man.
“Mother Wolf.” called the Creator across the expanse of Time. Mother Wolf appeared before the Creator in a cloud of mist and ice. Mother Wolf’s yellow eyes sought in vain into the endless expanse of her creator.
“Father, I have come I would only to heed your call. What will you ask of me my Lord as, I only want to serve you.” The Mother of Wolves lowered her head in respect for her father.
The Great Creator had a lot of love for Mother Wolf since she was his first animal creation. The Creator took a branch of the holly tree and touched it to the eternal fire in his palm. The fire leapt to the branch and burned brightly. Mother Wolf turned her head to shield her eyes. Mother Wolf held her lips tight against her teeth because although this flame made her feel an uncommon fear deep within herself, she dare not offend her Lord.
“Take this branch of light to my child, man. You know of him and his; they have no fur and are cold and vulnerable in the night.”
Mother Wolf knew of man and hated him. She took the branch with her teeth and with humility left the presence of her Father.
Across the expanse of Time Mother Wolf arrived back beside her lake home. It was night and the light from the flaming branch burned bright and warmed her face. Mother Wolf knew she could run to man’s pack in before midnight, but Mother Wolf hated man and despite her Father’s wishes she knew that man would use this gift as a weapon against her and her family.
Mother Wolf threw the branch into the lake. Its’ light extinguished with a pop and a hiss.
Mother Wolf felt shame for disobeying her Father, but knew that her family would be safe against man.
The Great Creator wasn’t surprised by Mother Wolf’s disobedience. Disobedience was a wolf’s best quality. Smiling slightly the Great Creator pulled another branch from a holly tree and called upon his second most loyal child.
“Coyote.” called the Lord.
Coyote appeared before his Lord in a swirl of forest leaves and plaines tall grass. Coyote had always practiced the good manners as his Lord had taught to him after learning how disrespectful and rude wolf could be. Coyote used these good manners to avoid man and other animals that would harm him and eat him.
“Coyote I ask you to complete the journey Mother Wolf could not and bring man this light so that his children may be warm and dry.”
Coyote took the branch in his teeth and squinted his eyes against the bright light.
“It is always my honor to serve.” Coyote murmured through gritted teeth. A moment later Coyote was standing across the lake from the Wolf den. Coyote quickly sprinted away from his elders as they would see the light and be drawn to him. He ran as quickly as he could through the night and came to the clearing before man’s cave. Coyote raised the branch above to transverse some bramble when he spied man rising from his cave and rubbing his eyes. Man was looking to the light Coyote hled and mistaking it for the newly risen Sun.
Coyote made up for the power his elder wolf was gifted, by having the clever mind of his Father. Coyote saw that other men were joining the first at the mouth of the cave to wonder at the new sun. Coyote gently lifted the light into the sky where it suspended there for three days and shone brightly. As man began to work through another day, Coyote, suddenly tired fell asleep.
When Coyote woke the false star still shone and man was still labouring although fatigued. Coyote waited and was patient as man laboured without sleep for unnatural days until man and woman and child all fell into a long sleep. In this time Coyote crept into the man cave and amongst the exhausted people, stole their food.
The Great Creator saw Coyote’s trick and resisted against revealing a smirk less his children indulge in their bad behavior with his unwitting approval. The Creator inhaled the flame and the holly branch extinguished from the sky and fell to the earth.
The Great Creator pondered who of all his children would complete the task he asked of them. Only one of his dog children was left to ask and the Creator knew better than to expect obedience from any of the cats, so he called on his small child Grey Fox.
Grey Fox appeared before her Lord in a whorl of pine leaves and frost.
Grey Fox wasn’t as powerful as Mother Wolf or as tricky as Coyote, but she was small and could slip by her elders lest they attempt to stop her from delivering her prize.
“Grey Fox, whom I love. I ask that you might deliver this to one of my children who although they may not look as you and your elders, they are still of me and to deliver them from suffering is to deliver your Father from suffering.”
Grey Fox knew of man and that man could be deadly, but there was a time when Grey Fox had not eaten as the cold rains had been long in season and not much had grown or could be caught. She had wandered close to a man cave having smelled deer meat. There hidden by brush she watched the man pack eating bloody meats. Amongst the man was a girl kit with copper hair. The girl kit has spied Grey Fox and taking some berries in her one had and meat in the other, snuck off and left food for Grey Fox.
Grey Fox slowly crept out and took the food from the girl kit before running off into the woods. Because of this kindness Grey Fox would fulfill her Lord’s labour.
Grey Fox loved her Father, who was always kind and provided for Grey Fox. She smiled at her Father and joy shone in her eyes. Although he trusted Grey Fox unlike her elders, the Creator couldn’t take the chance that she might drop the stick or have it taken away by Mother Wolf or Coyote, so the Creator tried something new. The Great Creator took the last of the light in his palm and after rubbing his hands together petted the painless fire through Grey Fox’s fur.
Grey Fox shone like a star and quickly turned and fled across Time. Fox appeared in a whorl of pine leaves and frost, beside Mother Wolf’s lake.
Fox sprinted away from her elders although she was sure that she could hear their howls and panting behind her. Fox sprinted as a streak of light past her elder Coyote who watched the race turn into a chase, but thought better of getting involved and lay his head down for a nap.
Fox flew to the ends of the bramble and crouched behind the thicket. She could hear her elders, but they were too far away to catch her. As she slowly crept ahead on her belly towards the cave she saw the copper haired girl.
“Bark!” Cried Fox to the Copper Haired girl. “Bark!” reported Fox. The girl sprinted to the luminous fox and Crouched before her. The girl shielded her eyes against the gentle light before reaching out a hand to pet her new friend. Fox rubbed her jaw against the girl who would now and forever be blessed with fox luck.
The girls’ father had been watching from the man cave. He saw that they two were friends and knew that this fox delivered the salvation from the Creator their prayers had asked for. Gently taking a branch from a holly tree the father handed the stick to his daughter who smiled at Fox before igniting the stick with her fur.
The branch seared with light and heat. The copper haired girl handed the branch to her father who’s eyes filled with tears and understanding as he took it. Not only had the Great Creator given them the salvation to their prayers, but the fire also departed the knowledge of fire to the man and his daughter.
The Father kneeled and thanked the Fox and the Creator. Tonight there would be a huge feast to thank the Creator for his gift.
“Modraniht.” said the man-father.
“Modraniht.” repeated the copper haired girl. Fox licked her hand before she stood and took her father’s hand.
Having completed her labour Fox began to sprint away from the daughter and father. The last of the light from the Creator streaked away from her as she ran. When she had reached the bramble the light was gone from her fur.
Suddenly there was a commotion of breaking branches and teeth as Mother Wolf and the elder wolves crashed upon Fox. The group tumbled and scrambled before a voice cried out to stop the violence. It was Coyote who was standing on a rise above the frackas.
“Elders. Mother Wolf. You are blinded by rage and grief for the evils that you feel man will do with the Father’s gift. I share your fears, but this is not the small fox that brought man the gift of flame. That fox was grey and black while this fox is unlike any we’ve ever seen.
Mother Wolf and her pack of elders relented and backed away from their victim.
Scared and roughed although not cut or bleeding Fox rose from where she had been forced to the ground.
Fox stood and righted herself. Mother Wolf stared into her soul with her unforgiving yellow eyes. Seeing that Coyote was correct Mother Wolf snorted and spat on the ground. She and her pack of elders silently walked into the evening before being enshrouded by mist and cold. Coyote lingered for a moment before nodding to Fox and slinking away.
Confused and bruised Fox walked for a bit before coming to a pond to drink from and refresh herself. There she looked onto the still surface of the water and saw her reflection and her bright, beautiful new orange fur.
