Ralph vs The Stick Indian

 

            Ralph has been known to roam around. He’s a curious fellow. He likes to see how things are going in the forests outside of the Great Forest itself. For one thing, it’s a kind of reconnaissance. It’s part of his duty as a king.
            He decided one day to go way out to the west to see the salt water and the Reservation there. He felt a little bit of a calling for some reason. So, Ralph kissed Ramona and his children goodbye, saying that he would most likely be back in a day or so. He told Maeve and the cats to stick around while he was gone.
            He felt that he had been taking it a little too easy, getting lazy, so he decided to run down SR530. Of course he wasn’t going to do it visibly. No need to get people all excited and solve one of the greatest puzzles of all time for them that easily. No, he ran like one who was not there.
            SR530 goes southwest until it meets I-5. At that point, he left the road and continued to the Res through the trees and fields and sometimes people’s backyards.
            It was pretty easy going. This forest was much tamer than his own, he observed with satisfaction. There were more alders and maples and other bushes of various kinds. There were firs, and always the cedars. Tribal types think a great deal of cedars.
            This was all very pleasant. Some dogs barked at him, but he shushed them easily. He kept walking until he got to Marine Drive, crossed it in fine Sasquatch style, taking three steps. Then he continued downhill, coming at last to the water at Warm Beach. It’s called Warm Beach, which is quite out of character for PNW beaches, because the slope is so gradual that the water coming in is so shallow that it actually warms in the sunlight. A lot of people have built houses in a cluster there.
            He waded way out in the water to where it was deeper. Then he swam to Tulalip Bay, which was not a difficult swim for Ralph, just around the corner as it were.
            So far, everything looked pretty good. It was like he was on a vacation tour. The water was lovely, briskly chilly. The sun was bright. He grabbed a salmon and ate it Sashimi style as he paddled along. He greeted a couple of seals who were also fishing. He threw his fish scraps up in the air to a couple of gulls, who then had something to squabble about.
            There were quite a few houses right there at the beach, so he decided to cross Marine Drive again, to go up into the less developed area to the north. There the forest began in earnest. The mood was entirely different there, from that at the sunny beach. Ancient firs stood silently. Cedars, shaggy and remote, stood among the firs. The light was dim, the air almost misty, and it was cooler here. It was almost like another world. A crow called to another. They spoke back and forth watching Ralph where he stood, just listening and watching. His hairs might have stood up a little. He thought of Maeve, but he had instructed her to stay with Ramona and the family.
            “No wonder,” he thought to himself. “Something is here.”
            A ripple of madness chattered between the trees. The crows fled. He heard a discordant whistling. Strange images visited his mind, with pursed lips and staring eyes, like a mask.
            As you know, Ralph doesn’t scare easy. He looked straight up where he could see the same blue sky that he saw above the trees at home, and he was strengthened.
            “Who are you,” said Ralph, in a tone no one at home had ever heard. A voice of command.
            “********!” A sound like an owl’s death cry emerged. It was a name no one speaks, neither Indian, nor Forest Man. To say is to summon, they say. Pity the White man who attempts it.
            “I command you, say what you do here,” said Ralph then.
            “I bring self-destruction! I come to madden, confuse, and lead astray!” the gulping voice continued. “None may withstand me!” Laughter ran through the trees. No bird spoke.

             “Who are you?” it bellowed.
            “The Maker of All withstands you, and I am his servant,” said Ralph, joyously. “Come out before me!”
            And it did. Before Ralph stood the ancient fright of Indian children, and in fact, parents. It was a sorry sight. Sometimes bearlike, shaggy and pouchy. Sometimes thin and tall, like a living being made of sticks and dirt. Sometimes a grey translucent thing, long and shifting.
            Ralph laughed. “Is that all?”
            It searched for a weakness in him. Ralph allowed the thing to see his soul. There was no breath of fear there.
            Ralph understood then why he had come here.
            “You are bound. Mute, you will wait for Reckoning, as long as earth remains,” said Ralph. “Your day is done.”
            A final scream died away, echoing off into the distance.
            Ralph looked around down by his feet and found a small rock about the size of an orange. He held it up before the thing and said, “Get into this rock.” All the disguises fell away and a little grey whisp of a thing did enter the rock because it had no way left to do otherwise.
            Ralph hefted the rock in his hand a couple of times while he was thinking. He decided that even though the thing was powerless, he had better hide it. So he carried it out into the forest. He grabbed a fallen branch and with the branch and his big foot he dug a pretty good hole. He buried the rock and tamped the earth back down firmly. He piled some rocks and sticks over the area too.
            The forest lightened up, even though it was still a forest and they are shady. But it was a normal kind of shady. It seemed warmer too.
            Ralph did some whistling himself. He was pretty happy but thought he would like to go home now. He was sure his work here was done. He figured it was about dinner time at home and that raw salmon was the last thing he had eaten.
            Ralph decided to go home the fast way. You know a portal is just a literary convention. Ralph just thought of home, and sent himself there, and there he was! Back in time for dinner.
            There they all were, gathered around the fire, like any other day. Ramona was serving slices of roast venison. She had made a pot of coffee too. It was just perfect.
            He kissed Ramona, took a deep breath, and sat down on one of those convenient logs.
            Maeve flew up to his shoulder, giving him a very sharp look.
            “Yes, Birdie,” he said. “All in good time.”
            He smiled like he knew a really good secret.