How You Glow!

"Father, look how you glow!" Meredith said, as she saw for the first time how her father was radiating a brilliance that lit up the whole cave. 

"This is my task," he said, smiling at his daughter. They rested a moment, enjoying each other's company. Looking about them, they saw ripple marks on the sandstone walls of the cave.  

"Paint stones," said the shaman pointing to rust-colored nodules that studded the sandstone walls. He drew his knife and loosened several lumps, which he placed in his pouch. "I will use these to replenish our paint pots in the cave of the Third World."

City of Desire

As they sat resting in the cave, Meredith pondered on all she had just witnessed. Her mother had been brutally attacked by the gray people of the Fourth World.  

"What has happened to our world?" she asked her father. "We have become like soulless automatons, blind to beauty and love, blind to the needs of our Mother Earth."

"The lost gray people from the city of desire and greed, care only about their thoughts and sensations. They rush from one event to another blindly, seeking stimulation, like flies to sugar. They are so intent on fulfilling their own desires, that they have no heart left," said her father.

Feathers Fluttering

"Here we must part," said the old shaman. "I must return to my own world."

"I will miss you, Shaman," she said, embracing him. "Thank you for guiding me safely through the vision world. I will never forget your help."

"Farewell, White Buffalo Calf Woman," said the shaman. "Until we meet again." He turned to her father. "Farewell, Father Sun. We too shall meet again." He grasped her father's arms in the way of the First Peoples.

The shaman walked soundlessly into the dark interior of the cave, his eagle feathers fluttering, and soon was gone.

Hummingbird

Meredith and her father stepped carefully into the darkness of the inner cave, Father Sun's radiance illuminating their way. After they had trudged for several minutes down a narrow gray stone corridor, they reached a fork in the passageway.

"Which way do we go now? Where is the sipapu which will take us to the Fifth World?"

Just then something flew swiftly past her ear. "Ah, hummingbird! I knew you would come! Show us the way." 

Between Worlds

The tiny green-headed bird hovered momentarily at Meredith's shoulder, then chose the passage to the left and sped away.  

"Look, Father, this is my spirit guide, the hummingbird. He knows the way to the sipapu. Come on." 

"Ah," said Father Sun, "I remember these passages. I have been here before, in times long ago. I'm not sure..." He followed his daughter with some hesitation, but she urged him on. 

"Hurry! The sipapu appears between worlds only briefly. We must go while it is still open." This time it was she who pulled her father along.  

Retracing Her Steps

They hurried after the hummingbird, who came back often to hover before them, then sped ahead to urge them on.  

Meredith felt as if she had been running for hours. Her father stumbled once.  She was exhausted. Where were they? Meredith remembered the large asphalt desert she and the shaman had crossed earlier. Perhaps they were passing beneath that wasteland now, retracing her steps from the wooded hill where she had discovered her parents back to the city. 

Hand from Above

Against all odds, her parents were miraculously alive. Here was her dear father, running along beside her, lighting the passageway with his radiance. And her mother... But best not to think about her now. She must just keep moving.

At this moment the hummingbird came to rest beneath a cylinder jutting from the ceiling of the cave, the sipapu. After pausing to make sure that Meredith and her father were watching, the tiny bird darted upwards. 

"We must climb up. Hurry!" cried Meredith.

Her father helped her and then pulled himself up the narrow opening, aided by Meredith who held out her hand from above.