A woman cloaked in a pure white animal skin saunters through a wooded area on a brisk autumn morning. With each step, there’s barely a sound that can be heard despite the numerous fallen leaves scattered along the path. She soon arrives at a magnolia tree where another woman is making her descent through the branches. Her gaze eventually drifts straight down, and she suddenly becomes aware of the cloaked woman standing there…patiently, as if waiting on her.
In both physical likeness and manner the 2 women appear to be relatives, sisters or cousins perhaps.
“Oh. Hello, I didn’t see you walk up. Do I know you from somewhere? You look so familiar to me for some reason,” she asks the cloaked woman once she has both feet on the ground. A brown leather satchel rests against the tree’s trunk. Silently, the cloaked woman kneels down as she beckons for her newfound companion to join her. She opens the bag to reveal pencils and a sketch pad. She takes the pad, flips to a blank page, and begins to draw.
~ ~ ~
It’s just past dawn. Ayana, a beautiful woman, demure with mauve colored skin and of indeterminable age, comes across an abandoned albino jaguar cub, while jogging through the jungle. Its coat appearing to glow in the hazy light of morning, its red eyes like two smoldering embers. From that point on, the two are inseparable. Although mute and deaf, the woman is revered by even the most well-respected members of her tribe for her uncanny abilities.
Reputed to communicate with animals telepathically and enter a state known as true sight — which essentially allows her a glimpse of everything in existence all at once — people travel from far and wide to seek her enlightened counsel. In exchange for her visionary guidance she delivers through quick, yet detailed drawings, seekers must bring an offering of fresh meat for her feline companion.
The fresher the kill, the more detailed the drawing.
According to local folklore tradition, in order for humans to prosper man must mimic the workings of nature. Nature was considered a “sacred template” intended to guide each of man’s endeavors towards the highest and best possible outcome. Along with this, dreams were thought of as an alternate realm where human consciousness could take a reprieve from mental and physical constraints and get reacquainted with their collective soul and humankind’s interwoven destiny.
Women were typically better receivers of the deeper messages from nature and beyond due to their role as sacred portals capable of bringing new life into the world. This ability was best demonstrated in times of battle, as it was women’s power to summon help from the animal kingdom that made their role in battle indispensable.
Not all tribes respected women and their profound relationship with animals, however. Some even sought to curtail women’s supernatural abilities by keeping them ignorant starting at birth in order to maximize men’s power and dominance over them. These tribes would select a few women they could control in order to harness the powers obtained through communing with animals, creating a hierarchy based on manipulation that left the rest of the females dependent and unaware of their true abilities.
Late one evening, the full moon having taken her thrown in the sky, the jaguar now a full-grown adult male mauls the brother of a local tribe leader to death. He’d been accompanied by respected members of his tribe to discuss a marriage arrangement that would establish an affinal union between the two tribes. But as soon as the young man saw the oracle, he could not take his eyes off her. He had heard of the woman’s powers. His brother had sought her counsel many times before. And so he also knew, as did all the locals in the area, that she must never marry and remain sexually pure for the sake of preserving the potency of her powers. However, this prohibited nature only enticed him more.
As the festivities of the night waned, the young man, intoxicated and restless, breaches Ayana‘s sleeping quarters and tries to force himself on her. The jaguar, initially preoccupied by a midnight kill, becomes alert to his master’s distress and with a quickness comes to her defense. Slashing through the wall of foliage at the back of her hut, the great feline lunges at the man going straight for his throat. With lightning speed, the large cat clamps down with his powerful jaws and rips the trachea from his neck so ferociously that he is nearly decapitated. A crimson tide rushes onto the floor from where his neck once was. A look of fear frozen on his face as the color is instantly drained from it. He crumples onto the floor in a bloody mass never to rise again.
When the accompanying tribe members learn of the attack the next day, they are unwilling to accept any explanation. They accuse them of trickery and deception, and immediately return to their tribe leader with the mangled body of his dead brother.
Ayana’s tribe prepares for the impending battle as tensions reach a pitch between the two groups.
One morning before dawn, three of the rival tribe’s most skilled female warriors sneak into the village and capture Ayana along with her jaguar. By the riverbank, they use their spears to fatally wound the great cat. Ayana screams at the sight of her beloved companion being stabbed. It is the first time her voice has ever been heard. The sound awakens members of her tribe who immediately rush to her aid.
Afterwards, a decision is made that Ayana must flee the village in order to protect herself and her powers. The remains of her beloved jaguar are fashioned into a cloak that a witch doctor casts a spell over, allowing her to become invisible at will when she wears it.
Fighting ensues for many years between the tribes and the advanced language Ayana’s tribe had cultivated with animals is gradually lost and forgotten.
~ ~ ~
The cloaked woman closes the pad that is now nearly full. She takes the hands of her sea~star who has tears streaming down her cheeks and guides the sketchbook into her hands. She then gathers and gently presses the book cradled in her clasped hands against her chest before wrapping her arms around her and giving her a hug, heart to heart, forehead to forehead.
The young woman simply watches silently as the cloaked woman walks away. After several steps, she takes the hood of her cloak and tosses it over her head before vanishing into thin air. Leaving not a trace but a tiny wisp of white smoke that’s instantaneously carried away by the breeze.
