The Great Bear

Misewa held a feast that night to honor Morgan’s accomplishment of killing the prairie chicken. The entire village gathered in front of the Council Hut, sitting on the grass around a blanket upon which the food was. spread out. There were berries, bannock (better than any bannock Morgan had tasted on earth), fish, venison, hare, and, of course, the prairie chicken, of which each villager received a small portion.

On Morgan and Eli’s first visit to Misewa, the prairie chicken would have been an important catch, a meal that would have satisfied everyone in the small village, even in very modest portions. There was so little food in that time of famine.

The animal beings had enough to eat now, and eat they did, but just enough and never more. They would never fall into the sort of greed they had observed in Mason, the man who had stolen the summer birds. They ate only their fill, and kept stores of food for the White Time.

But there were simply too many mouths in Misewa now for one prairie chicken to feed. It was no longer just Chief and Council-Muskwa, the bear; Oho, the owl; and Miskinahk, the turtle-and the small population of villagers: a caribou, two foxes, a beaver, a bison, a muskrat, and two moose. Over the last six and a half years in the North Country, or two full weeks on earth (counting all the hours on earth Morgan and Eli were not on Askí, because time didn’t stop for the animal beings when the children weren’t there), the village had grown. Other beings had settled there, and where there used to be seven longhouses, there were now fourteen.

It was a jovial feast. The animal beings were genuinely happy for Morgan, who, along with Eli, had become a fixture in Misewa. Just as Muskwa had promised on their departure, after they had helped to save the village, the siblings were always welcome. When they returned to earth following their first visit, Morgan and Eli had come back the very next night, and they’d stayed for eight weeks on Askí. They’d returned every night, even on weekends, and stayed eight weeks each time. Tonight was the last night of their eighth week, and a fitting night for a feast. After eating, Morgan and Eli would return to earth through the Great Tree, and the beings in Misewa would see them again in about four months.

Morgan felt proud. It had taken her all this time to draw up the courage to hunt. She’d never been sure that she could take another living thing’s life, but, over time, she had come to understand how important it was to the animal beings in Misewa, and to Indigenous people on earth, to hunt, trap, and fish for their subsistence. And if she were going to learn everything about traditional living, she needed to live a fully traditional life. That included hunting.

The circular field of bright, lush grass in front of the Council Hut was as full as the bellies of the villagers, and yet the celebration felt somehow empty. To the villagers, to Eli, and to Morgan. Because while six years had passed since the return of the Green Time, while there was Chief and Council, while the villagers gathered, both new and old…one was missing, and always would be.

Ochek.