A Whisper of Wings Read Online Free PDF

to the Rain, giving her the gift of his might.
    The Rain lashed out, striking Poison a devastating blow, and the evil Ka reeled back, her blood smoking on the ground. Rain took her and then bound her, trussing the shrieking demon in her own foul hair. Rain banished the evil creature to the cold, dead moon, there to languish in eternal bitterness.
    The Wind looked in dismay at the wreckage of the world. Slowly, painfully over many weary years he laboured to set right the evils he had done. The Wind blew away the touch of Poison in the skies while Rain gently washed the burning venom from the earth. They laboured long and hard to make the world as beautiful as it once had been.
    When their work was done, the Wind came and begged forgiveness of the Rain, and she gave her love to him without regret; for the Rain knew that man can be a foolish thing, and that the measure of true love is to forgive.
    Rain and Wind softly wound together far above the forest heights and made love through a long and gentle evening, filling up the world with joy. To mark their joining, the sun shone out to bathe them both in warmth; and so each sunset marks the blending of the lovers in the sky.
    From the glory of their loving, Mother Rain grew great with child. The egg lay in the fertile soil, cradled by the Wind and washed lovingly by Mother Rain. When the egg hatched, they named their lovechild Zui-Kashra-Zha, the “first mother” of the Kashra. They took their child and nurtured her, teaching her how to care for the wide green growing world.
    And so the Kashra hold their sacred trust. They move within the forests, caring for the world. They dance eternally beneath the smiling Wind and Rain, the children of a perfect, timeless love.
    So it is, so it was, and so it shall always be.
     
    ***
     
    To the great tribes of the alpine forest, the seasons were a never changing round. The stately play of time was marked by many things. When cicadas sang in the willow trees, it would be time to gather lily tubers. Fish swarmed up the rivers when the wattles were in flower. As rosehips appeared amongst the brambles, the time came for storing seeds to make the winters bread.
    As the first bright days of summer bloomed, it grew time for the totenïha ceremony: The yearly “shedding of the wings”. From all across the mountains, the clans of the Katakanii gathered; the Swallow-Tails and Bird-Wings, the Lacewings, Triangles and Sword-Tails. For one full month the scattered clans became a single tribe.
    The Katakanii were an alpine people. Theirs was a world of mighty forests - of cold, clear nights and summers dreams. Far below them lay an untouched world of plains and valleys; an unknown wasteland where the sky glared above the open earth. The ancient laws forbade the alpine people to ever leave the sacred forest eaves. The tribes of plains and forest must never meet; it was the law of peace - the One Great Rule.
    The alpine peoples lived in harmony with their precious world. As food resources waxed and waned, each clan moved between a series of permanent villages. The families swept the cobwebs from their houses, made repairs and preened the gardens. The hunters, gardeners and gatherers reaped the bounty that each new season bore.
    The Swallow-tail’s move into their new season’s village was bothersome. In addition to the normal woes of moving house, the clan were to act as hosts for the totenïha. The village had to be swept spotlessly clean, great pit ovens must be dug and foods gathered in to greet the new arrivals. The Swallow-tails were charged with a great responsibility. When the tribe gathered for the rituals, their reception must be perfect. It was a matter of great “place”; the reputation of the clan depended on it.
     
    ***
     
    Water roared along a frothing riverbed at the base of the summer village. Spray glittered like white points of fire in the morning sun as the river leapt in wild excitement, showering the world with sheets of