faller chapter 1 okwari the bear

Hey guys. So I'm going after this again, starting with the rewrites and then, hopefully adding on and even finally finishing it. I welcome any and all feedback. Here's the first chapter of faller....

faller

Chapter 1

okwari- the bear

There was this bear.

This okwari.

A long time ago.

Way back.

Before there was too much of everything.

This bear.

Not a good bear or a bad bear.

Just a bear.

For most of her life this okwari had it alright.

She was the only bear around.

I don’t know if she was the only bear in the whole world or anything, but she was the only one around in those parts.

Nothing messed with her.

She just went around doing her thing.

Being a bear.

But then one day people started to show up.

Everybody knows how that goes.

Just a few many at first. Then a few more. And then more and more until there are so many you can’t even keep count.

The way it always goes with people.

At first the people just did their own thing. Hunted and fished. Planted some corn.

Stayed away from the bear.

But then, when there was enough of them to do something they started to talk about the bear.

She was dangerous they said. She was stealing their food.

They said all kinds of things because they were scared of her. She never did anything to them but she was an okwari and they were just people.

Okwari don’t exactly have to put up with a lot of crap.

The people got together and made their plans and then they went after the bear. They went out into the woods and tried to kill her but she fought and she was a bear.

The ones that survived ran away.

Now the people had a good reason to be scared of the bear.

They made more plans. New plans.

They dug a pit and managed to trap her in it.

She put up a hell of a fight. Dragged some of them down into that hole with her. But in the end once the bear fell down in that hole it was over.

People came from miles around to look at her. Stare down at her.

She put up a big fuss at first. Kept trying to get out of that hole and fight.

But after a while she just gave up.

Whatever it was that made her an okwari went away and all she could do was wait down there in that pit to die.

They threw down food but she wouldn’t eat.

They threw rocks at her and she wouldn’t move.

After a while the people stopped coming to look at her.

Everything about her that was okwari everything that used to scare them was gone.

So they just left her in the pit to die.

It took a long time. Even bears that don’t remember how to be bears don’t die too easy.

She rotted there in that pit for a real long time.

When she finally did die the people barely noticed.

She was so skinny by then they couldn’t even get any meat off her so they just piled dirt to fill in the hole to cover over the smell and got on with their lives.

They forgot what it was like to have an okwari around.

To be scared.

To be in awe.

To have something be bigger and stronger than them.

The people didn’t know it but they lost something when they dug that hole and trapped the bear in it.

They never even knew what it was they lost or why they lost it.

They never knew anything got lost.

Just some dead skinny bear stinking up a hole in the ground.

Far as they could see the world was a safer place a lot easier place without that okwari lurking out there in the woods.

They slept better at night.

They didn’t have anymore nightmares. They didn’t jump at every sound.

They felt safe.

That’s all that mattered they thought.

It’s not like their lives fell to pieces or anything.

The sky and the sun and the stars stayed right up there where they always were.

The world kept right on moving.

But they lost something. The people.

Something that was supposed to be a part their lives.

Their dreams.

Their nightmares.

When the people trapped that bear they lost that thing whatever it is that makes stories worth telling.

Maybe stories don’t seem too important.

Maybe dreams don’t seem important either.

Not as important as being safe or maybe living a little bit longer.

Not things you can hold in your hands or trade or sell.

Add up in some book.

Figure out on some computer.

But that okwari belonged.

She was supposed to be there.

When she was gone everything was different.

Cleaner maybe.

Brighter. Safer.

But not nearly as…

Not nearly so…

What.

I don’t know.

I can’t remember that part.

I can’t remember it.

The ending.

How it ends.

I can never remember the whole story.

It happened a long time ago.

Just some story that happened a long time ago.

I still remember bits of it though.

I don’t know why.

But I remember little bits of that story all the time. I can’t tell it all the way to the end not the way that I heard it.

But I remember pieces of it.

I forget a whole lot of things but I’ve still got pieces of that story stuck inside me.

I don’t know why.

I don’t remember why.

Just those pieces stuck inside of me.

It means something.

I used to know it all the way to the end but I can’t remember enough of it to put into words anymore.

I used to know all the stories and now I don’t know any of them all the way to the end anymore.

I remember them being told.

The way that people told it.

But chunks of them keep rotting away.

Decomposing.

That bear though.

Something about that okwari.

I never forget about that bear…

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