Time Owl
he year is 2294. Most of the Tlingit culture has been lost, but a way has been found to rediscover it: time travel. Only the Tlingit have conquered leaping through time, but with restrictions.
The time machine is programmed to allow the traveler only to make the journey, nothing from the past can be brought forward and nothing from the future can be left in the past.
This is the tale of a girl on her first journey to the past.
Yesterday, Wednesday, March 9, 2295 was a big day for me, my twelfth birthday, the day I prepared to go back in time to study the culture of my people and to find my true meaning. I picked this time to study my ancestors before our land was taken by the Americans. I will live in a Tlingit village in a secluded area in what was once called Oregon. The village Shaman has been expecting me and she is to teach me the spiritual things I need to know. I will be staying with her for a week and then return to my own time. I unfortunately am forced to leave my log book behind, but the shaman will pass it on to future descendants until 2295.
Today after jumping through the time door, I found out why most beings don't like it; it hurts! You have to prepare for a surprise landing, but when you jump/walk through the door everything goes black, or a better description, it feels like you're almost dead.
Almost instantly I landed in the middle of a clearing in a white oak forest. The Shaman met me with her daughter, Young Owl (who was also twelve). They took me to their lodge and dressed me in an outfit natural to the village. In my time we have lost much of the knowledge of our Tlingit culture is I am very fortunate that I was accepted by the shaman of this village called Kodiac. I was introduced to the rest of the village and told of the people I should be wary of. Then I began my lessons with the Shaman and Young Owl who will be the next Shaman.
Tonight after eating salmon, I was led back to the Shaman's lodge. This has been a busy day and tomorrow the Russians will be coming to trade for furs, but I have been told not to worry about them. I have been given two names by the Shaman, to the village I will be Traveling Wolf, to the shaman and Young Owl, I will be Time Wolf.
Today the Russian fur traders came. They are buying beautiful pelts of mink, beaver and fox. The Shaman says that tomorrow she will sell them her beaver pelts, and that Young Owl and I will be given an assignment to complete.
Since I have started learning the medicinal values of plants and how to use them with Young Owl, I believe we will have an assignment of this sort.
I rarely talk with Young Owl because we are kept apart from each other. We are not friends even though I would like to be.
Before I end this entry I should say I don't like one of the Russians, the one with a hunchback. My father told me the night before I left 2294, that I must not interfere in any event that occurs between a fur trader and a Tlingit man in a meadow on Sunday, March 13, 1801. What did he mean?
Today the Shaman told us that we were to be working on collecting plants, roots and herbs with medicinal value, and create some of the medicines she had taught use to make and use.
I thought it was fun being out in the woods all day, but I don't know if Young Owl did though since we were not permitted to talk.
When we returned to the Shaman later that day she commended us for our work and said tomorrow we will learn how to meditate. I'm really interested in meditating because it allows us to see into the future and the past.
I still don't understand what my father meant before I left, and what this event will be that will occur tomorrow. What could it possibly be?
Today Young Owl and I did start to learn how to meditate, and because the Shaman's lodge is not the quietest place in the village, she sent us to separate places. Young Owl was sent to the lake shore and I was sent to a meadow.
After I came out of the meditation trance I discovered the meaning of my father's warning. I looked up and saw a Tlingit man and the hunchback Russian fighting, I heard a bang, the Tlingit fell to the ground dead. The hunch back would have killed me too if he had known I was in the tall grass.
That night I told the Shaman what had occurred. She told me that she never did trust Gorbachev, but that I must tell no one.
My father did not want me to interfere and cause any harm to the ancestor of the president of Russia who ended the cold war of the twentieth century.
Today I received the final training I need to commence my journey to be a Shaman in my own time. Tonight the village had a ceremony to honor the man Gorbachev killed.
The Russians are staying at the mission nearby, but Gorbachev is not with them, he disappeared this morning.
The ceremony was very beautiful. The whole village and I spent the day in sacred dances and chants around the body of the Tlingit man, which lay on a pile of logs to be burned. His family gave away all his possessions. The ceremony took up most of the day so the Shaman let us have a break in our studies.
Tomorrow I leave. I can't believe my time went by so fast.
Today I prepared to leave, and said good-bye to everyone in the village and told them I was going home to my own village.
Later tonight the Shaman will take me to the same spot in the forest where I arrived. I will return through the time door to 2294. This diary will remain with the shaman and will be passed through generations of my family until my father gives is to me.
This week has seemed more like a year and I can't wait to be back with my family.
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