“I am Hogun, speaker of the Ga-hon-ga. We will communicate with those of you marked as other. The rest will not be harmed by our concealment. You are strangers to this land, explain your presence.” Hogun’s voice is deep, despite his short stature and he is unexpectedly without accent as he speaks English.
“I’m Wendy, leader of this group. Many weeks ago, I was asked to come to the area to heal some children who were attacked in this forest. I did so but wanted to know more about what attacked them. I came to the forest and sensed an insidious being tainted the area. I returned to my original town far away and gathered talented people to return with me to rid this forest of the blight.”
“Explain the talented people. They are the marked, yes?”
“I believe so. I’m a healer, what we call a PsyWitch. Tewow can speak with and heal animals. Likewise, Maddie with plants. Libby can learn about people by inspecting their blood. Tiko, her brother, can settle restless spirits by grounding bones. Vito bespeaks the dead. And I think you know that Diego is a Weather Guide, manipulating the weather and apparently speaking with air and water. The other people are police, both from here and from where I come from. They are here to protect our group.”
“None of you are our younger brethren or sistren of the Haudenosaunee?”
“No. Sepulveda is part Tu´-wa and I am K´eres. We are from tribes far away in the southwestern part of the continent. No one here is of the tribes of this land, though they have the traditions and stories of their cultures as all people do. I am sorry the Haudenosaunee are not here with us, but we can let them know of your interest in seeing them. You may remember that decades ago, many tribes chose to form their own country to preserve their peoples. Unfortunately for the Eastern Woodlands tribes, this meant leaving their ancestral lands and moving west. Some tribes chose to remain in the United States, but I do not believe any of the Haudenosaunee tribes stayed. I can imagine this was a difficult choice to make and my heart aches at all the tribes’ loss, no matter what the choice.” This was the most Diego ever heard Tewow speak. He hopes that the references to Eastern Woodlands and United States has meaning to the Ga-hon-ga, though Hogun seems to understand them well enough.
“Yes, we remember. We are Ga-hon-ga, part of the Jo-gä-oh, and we all lived in different forests in the north, near the lake you call Ontario. But the forests were shrinking, and the tribes were weakened after years of war and disease. They told us they were leaving and asked if we would go with them. We are part of the land, not the people, so we decided not to go with them far away. But some of us chose to come south to these forests of tribes long-gone as there is more room and there were none of us left to watch over the land. Here we have dwelled beside the streams and rivers for many years. Though, it would be good to see the Haudenosaunee once again and speak our shared language.”
“Can you answer a few questions for us?” Wendy resumes leading the conversation.
“We can try. The strange dark entity, as you call it, is not of our world and we have limited information to provide. But you may ask your questions.”
“Great, thank you. What do you know of where the entity came from?”
“Many years ago, we first heard the river speak of a disaster on an island that was not an island farther downstream. Shortly after that, something emerged from the water of the Western Branch. It crawled about on land until it found a barrow at the base of a large tree then sank deep in the roots to the underground. The Oh-do-was, fellow Jo-gä-oh that dwell in the underworld, could not destroy it so kept it asleep for years. However, it was filled with poison that began to seep into the surrounding earth. So, the Oh-do-was woke it up and drove it out of the underground. Every time it creeps back into the underworld, they hunt it and drive it to the topworld. They say it calls itself Élivágar.”
“I think he’s talking of the Three Mile Island disaster. It happened downstream outside of Harrisburg almost a decade before I was born. It was a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor. I think some radiation leaked out, but the government reports stated the levels were undetectable in the environment. We learned about it in class.”
“Thanks for the clarification, Tiko. Hogun, do you know if Élivágar attacked the children?”
“Yes, but it was unusual. Élivágar is dangerous, no doubt, and has some way to lure people to the forest. However, with the children, they came of their own will. The animals that witnessed the encounter alerted us and we arrived as Élivágar raked a few of them with its claws. We managed to drive it off but could do nothing to help the children. Élivágar kills humans in a different manner and I think if it wanted the children dead, it would not just scratch them.”
“How does Élivágar kill and do you know why it killed the man found in the frozen stream?”
“Élivágar exhales a poison mist which causes the person to not breathe properly. But first, it calls the victim to the forest and puts them under some spell. It allows the person brief periods of lucidity and fear, then looks into their eyes and puts them back under the spell. We do not know why it kills, it does not eat the victims. In fact, we have not seen it eat anything, be it plants, fruit, nuts, or animals.”
“So, the man found in the stream yesterday is not the only victim?”
“No, there have been more. After Élivágar kills, it sinks the body in
