|
HARD-BARGAIN HOLD
By Waddie Greywolf CHAPTER TWO: PHOENIX RISING Moving in the glowing embers, there formed a shape, Wavering wings unfolding in the shimmiring heat, It became the prey that he had hunted and consumed, Shadow passed to shadow as it rose in into the night, It's glowing feathers red streaming trails of splendor, Escaped from Death to live, a promise of new life.~ From: Beasties, Goulies, and Things that Go Bump in The Night~ W. D. Dux. (Posthumous) When the continuation of human life hung in the uncaring, nonjudgemental balance of eternity there emerged a new strong race of men who had the best qualities of a warrior race. The were taller than their parents and as the males began to reach full growth they stood about 6' 6". Some as tall as seven feet.. They were not skinny and lankey. They had a bone structure to match their stature and carried quite a bit more weight giving the overall inpression that they were giants compared to their parents. The females were somewhat smaller but averaged in height 6' to 6'4". They were a peaceful, gentle race of people but could be immensly fierce if they were threatened or were forced to defend their family. They formed deep beliefs in a Patriarchial society founded mainly on the males having to become warrior-protector and hunters for the clan as well as the strong influence of Native American's that had survived and were absorbed into the clans. They formed strong male bonds and yet had compassion to protect those who were weaker but contributed to the general comfort and continuation of the group. Male bonding and the term Alpha Male took on new dimensions. The downhill rush toward extinction had seen the demise of one species and the rise of it's children. The group of New Men learned quickly that in this brave new world survival would depend on being able to trust another to watch your back. They found that the strength of ritualistic ceremonies of allegiances combined with unabashed physical intimacy, the laying on of hands, formed a bond between them was stronger than any military may have taught. They would gladly lay down their lives for their bonded brother to protect or save him in battle and would never consider betraying him. Once a Freeman was bonded to the Core they became the new brother of the Clan Core, sworn to secrecy about their initiation or workings of the Core under penalty of death!and . They established codes by which their community was to live and survive and methodically worked toward building and living in an organized community. They didn't call them laws as there had been many bad stories of lawyers from previous centuries. One story, they read from an old book they had found by an R. Heinlin, described the rounding up and slaughtering of the fast buck, parasitic, spin perverters at the end of the first century N.D. Their rules for living in their community were know as Codes. Their Codes were not difficult to `understand and clearly defined what was acceptable and what was not acceptable within their community. The main body of bonded Freemen males within these communities were know by several names. They were called Code Defenders, Core Bonders, Stewards of The Code and Ney'bro's. The entire community was known as The Keep, The Clan, Ney'bro's 'Ooyd, or simply The Hold. Each Hold had a separate name and they met yearly to reestablish bonds between them and discuss new knowledge and Codes. The nearest Keep to Hard-Bargain Hold was the Tayzan-Bayronne Hold about fifteen miles. They had a smaller population than Hard-Bargain but were steadly growing. Knowledge was growing rapidly within a few years of establishing the Holds. Their were altogether eighteen Holds and new one's forming every six months or so. The Holds were all within a hundred mile radius of each other and could be easily traveled in several days. The Ney'bor's established elaborate rituals in which they celebrated the rights of passage for their youth. They established a definition of family in the largest sense of the word. They encouraged everyone to look upon the clan or community as their extended family. They did not frown on the nuclear family but stressed the larger concept as a unifying factor. Their ideas of family formed by many years of influences from other races, other people who had different customs became quite liberal. Then too, they did not suffer the pangs of guilt hoisted on previous societies by sexualy repressed plelates interpertration of some obscure, mistranslated, noncontextual scripture to success their stranglehold on their minds and pockets. Mankind in a general worldwide phenomena categorically rejected any ideas of organized religion. Faiths founded on twenty centuries of promises that never came true had a difficult time surviving in a society that lived on the the edge. Ideas and concepts that brainwashed men to submit to an higher authority, controlled, of course, by earthly representatives through fear and guilt found few followers to support their expensive but worthless dogmas. Where was the comfort of these beliefs when it seemed the Gods and nature herself had crucified the earths occupants and left them hopeless in their time of need? Mankind relearned some very basic truths. A man had to grow wise to survive, develop a deep sense of self worth, and form strong alliances with his fellow sojourners to greater insure their mutual survival. That's not to say the new Mankind lost touch with the spiritual side of his nature. The ideas and spirituality of the North American Indians who survived and joined the Clans were accepted and flowered into a new consciousness of something greater, a larger purpose and there began a great reverence for life, nature and mans place in the order of things. The conservancy of nature and resources became important to them. They hunted and killed only what they needed. There was no such thing as hunting for sport. If they could clear a stream, they did. If children found an abandoned baby animal or baby birds they nursed them to health and then released it back into the wild. They learned to celebrate the uniqueness and wonder of people's differences rather than an insistence on a rigid conformity. Conformity preached and sought by fatihs of the past were not entertained by this staunchly iconoclastic new species. Those concepts that had dogged mens spiritual and psychological progress for twenty-five hundred years was not likely to regain much attention.Men began to look upon the stories of religions of the past as the rumored money city where men took their money to feed smart machines that promised them wealth but rarely gave anything back. Men bonded in spirit to each other in the context of a more natural spirituality. New knowledge developed along these lines rather than the earlier lost knowledge of technology. Mankind began a new rebirth, a new renaissance. With this new renaissance came new freedoms of sexuality with out the guilt and condemnation from suffocating religions that were more interested in control than the comfort of it's faithful. The Freemen, Ney'bro's, Core Bonders,Keepers, Defenders of the Clan had learned to listen to their hearts. Children were their greatest consideration in their dream of a new world. There were many discussions or debates regarding the raising of children and what rights children should have. What does a community do when parenting goes wrong, and what happens to the children? It was decided to take a lesson from one little girl that was terribly unhappy in her home because her parents were constantly fighting. She felt neglected, unappreciated, and abused. She asked no one's permission when she picked up her small bedroll and simply moved in with her Aunt and her children. Since the entire Hold was their family children could simply moved in with someone else. And many did! Sometimes a young boy, an only child, would want brothers and sisters and would move into a home with several of each. He was welcomed! If he decided that he had it better off at home he could move back, no questions asked! They were always welcomed and could return to their own homes when they felt comfortable. Many children would spend time living with grandparents or an older brother or sister. Child abuse was practically unheard of because it a child felt the least bit insecure he knew he had the entire rest of the community to care and protect him. Crimes against children was one of the few Codes that automatically guarenteed a sentence from the Core of Sold into Slavery for Life! The men of the Hold took great pleasure in the children and were never aloof nor distant and stood as strong loving Father figures to all the children. Especially those children that had lost their Father for some reason. They were catered to most of all and were never denied full participation in community activities. There was always one or two men to make sure that a fatherless child joined him and his family for major celebrations. In closed meetings, closed to the women and children, men of the Clan would to talk about right and wrong, honor, ritual bonding, ritual rights of passage into adulthood by both young men and women, belief in the possibility of a basic, innate goodness of their souls and how best that could be utilized for the benefit of all. They began to learn through communal striving that life could get better. The strength of their successes encourage a spark to become a flame of inspiration to other groups that had bonded together.The Clans became the strength behind the fastest growing, most successful community movements, this planet had ever witnessed. Men of the Hold would hold their meetings in large round Dyogons but most of the really creative discussions occure in the ritualistic sweat lodges. All freemen were encouraged to express themselves. Among the freemen there was no room for discrimination.No topic was to radical nor too distasteful to be discussed. Nothing that was discussed within the sacred confines of the sweat lodge was ever mentioned outside it's walls. Women were not privy to the inner workings of the Core. They never considered the separate bonding and secrecy of the Core as threatening nor did they feel discriminated against. They had a much more comfortable way of life than the near animal-like mauraders that wandered the country side. They felt protected and happy that their children were out of harms way. Women were rarely abused by any man of the Hold. If it did occur it was dealt with swiftly by the other men and the abuser had the fear of the damned instilled in him. He was not likely to ever repeat the indiscression. Every one in the Hold had worked hard, shed blood,, celebrated life together, and without hesitation would give their lives for the extended family they had become. If you were a stranger to the Hold, you could make application to live within the community provided you had some referral, and after a probationary period if you were accepted by counsel vote, agreed to and participated willingly in the ritual bonding ceremonies, then you became an intergral part of the Ney'bro's 'Ooyd. There had been men that had come to the Hold for the purpose of joining to become a mole to gain information for an enemy group. However, after the deeply moving bonding ceremonies they could not carry out their original purpose. They were bonded to the Clan for life and only told these secerets years later.You were welcomed and bonded to the Patriarchal Male Core through elaborate and moving rituals that were well conceived to imprint one with the importance of community.and an almost fanatic desire to defend their way of life. Women formed their own rituals which were understandably kept secret from the men.. They extablished a school that taught the ways of the Clan and the ways of living to the children One of the most important genetic developments of the new Man, Homo omnesence was the unique spliting of sexuality into three sexes. There were no longer homosexuals per se. .There became a distinct separate sex known as pansexual. Or as the Ooyd called them with no malice, 'tweeners. There was no physical difference between a pansexual and breeder male but there were strong attraction to each other that opened new doors to sexual expression. Nor did there seem to be many pansexual women. Less than one percent of the total population of women exibited pansexuality. They too were treated no differently. Sex became something to re-create as well as procreate. There was no discrimination concerning sexual preference and all were quite open when asked. Most of the men and women in the clan had at one time or other been with a member of their own sex or shared sex with the third sex. Sometime a pair of breeders would form a more neuclear family but most had three. When the woman wasn't in the mood there was always the second husband to take care of his needs. No one frowned on anyone's preference. Some of the men tended to be more interested in Women but everyone paired off with a member of their on sex or a pansexual during the two yearly celebrations of the equinox . They were, in an unspoken way, treasured by most of the tribe because of their talents and ability to empathatically communicate and act as arbiters in family disputes. The colloquialism 'tweeners for pansexuals meant that they were in between or contained both the sexuality of a man and a woman. A more perfect blending of Ying and Yang. Because to this blending and the genetics of this New Man the pansexuals developes an accute sense of smell and taste as well as a healing empathy. They could cure people of major wound and diseases but the laying of of hands. Some developed telepathic abilities and others the ability to tell if someone was lying by smelling the pheromones they produced Since this new species of Man was forced to live closer to nature he observed that pansexuality was common in the animal kingdom and began to accept that it was a natural phenomena. It reminded him that he was not so far removed from his brothers, the animals, that provided him with food and warm clothing. Pansexual men, inducted into the ceremony of male tribal bonding and rights of passage were afforded all the rights and privileges of any other Defender. They made fierce Warriors and were equally welcomed in any other tribe that subscribed to the same codes and rituals. They were also encouraged to have children through surrogates or with a treasured female household slave. The codes were established that if a Freeman had a child by a slave women, that the child became Freeborn and the woman was given two options. She would be given her freedom immediately if she chose to leave the Hold but the child would remain with the Father. Otherwise, she could remain in the community, care for her child, then upon the childs eighteeth birthday she would be granted her freedom. Many 'tweeners rose to positions of honor within the tribes. Some became medicine men, crafters, Witnesses or Spiritual Guides but could take any role in the community. Sherough Bud Cummings felt he was fortunate to have two on his staff that had worked faithfully for him for years.. His personal confident and mentor, the RingMaster, was as well.
End Chapter II Waddie Greywolf waddie8@earthlink.net
|