But always a small group remained here in Ti-Ra’-Wa, living the ancient ways, in accordance with the high laws, fulfilling the promise to Ah-badt-dadt-deah. All the many and diverse manifestations of nature lived in harmony here, the beasts and the humans, the rocks and the trees, the earth and the water.
The First People built this forest city, and their thoughts became audible through the crystals taken from the cavern. They channeled the power of Grandmother Earth to create, to heal, to communicate. It was truly a paradise, a land of happiness.
The greatest warrior of the First People was the founder of the holy Cavern Keepers society. His name was Nanabozho, and when wounded in battle, he retreated deep into the Cavern of Creation to watch over the heart of the Grandmother in a kind of waking death. It was believed his spirit still dwelt there.
Over the course of the centuries, tales of the valley seeped into the outer world. It was known as Quivira, Cibola, El Dorado. The greedy conquistadors and the white prospectors envisioned Ti-Ra’-Wa as having silver spires, gold-paved streets, jade chairs, diamond drinking vessels.
Many were the attempts to locate and invade the valley, and none was successful. Of all who had lived there, all were descendants of the First People, those were spawned there. They kept the ancient vow to protect the valley and the Cavern of Creation with their lives.
Ti-Ra’-Wa was timeless. It existed unchanged and unchanging to that very day, perhaps to the very end of time.
“AND THAT,” said Joe, “is Ti-Ra’-Wa’s virtue and its curse.”
“Were you born here?” Krysty asked.
“No. But the legend of its existence figured prominently in the lore of my people. When I came of age, I wandered the length and breadth of my ancestral lands in search of clues to its whereabouts. I spent many years and suffered much. A few years ago I found this valley. I also found that the reality fell somewhat short of the legend, but in some instances exceeded it.”
“Give us an instance,” Mildred said.
Gesturing to the room, to the huge hollow tree around them, Joe replied, “Our forefathers apparently lived here with a great and vast knowledge of how to manipulate natural earth energies. This city is the most obvious example. Most of that knowledge was lost over the centuries, except for a few relics like this.”
He hefted the crystal-encrusted wafer of gold. “The ability to communicate with the higher animals in this valley still exists, but now it is limited to the wolves. Somehow the animals here developed a human-level intelligence.”
“Maybe due to a long-forgotten technique of bioengineering,” Mildred muttered. “As fantastic as it seems, it’s the only possible explanation. It may also serve as the basis for the belief in animism shared by most Native American tribes.”
Seeing Jak and J.B. glance at her in puzzlement, she added, by way of an explanation, “Animism is the belief that every living thing is connected on a spiritual level, that even animals and trees have souls. It’s generally regarded as a primitive religious belief mainly because it maintains that people, objects and even the heavens are imbued with a consciousness, self-aware and interactive with the larger material reality. If what Joe says has any foundation in truth, it’s probable that his forefathers took the tenets of animism to their highest possible expression and developed a way, possibly due to deliberately inducing mutations, to raise the intelligence level of animals.”
Joe nodded thoughtfully. “Interesting theory. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that in this valley, wolves are in many ways the equals of humans. At one time bears, cougars and even horses shared those traits. For some reason only the intelligent wolves remain. At any rate the prevailing belief in Ti-Ra’-Wa is that all life-forms were created at the dawn of time, spawned as equals from the Cavern of Creation. Animals were put on earth to teach men valuable lessons, and since all living things have a common creator, all animals are our relatives, our brothers.”
“And this cavern,” Ryan said, “is the storehouse for the gold.”
“Side tunnels contain metal relics, but the primary cave has never been entered, at least not in recent historical times. There are supposedly great dangers, not just to the body but to the soul. Only the hereditary Guardian of the Cavern Keepers knows how to enter it safely. For many centuries it was a rite of passage for new Guardians to enter the cave and give Kanabozho gifts, articles taken from those who tried d invade the valley and defile the Grandmother. That practice ended a very long time ago.”