Savage (Daughters of the Jaguar) (29 page)

I drank of my coffee while the thoughts piled up in my mind. An ancient Indian secret? "But how? why? I don't understand."

"When the Spaniards came to Florida in 1513 they came looking for The Fountain of Youth, as they called it. As you probably know, The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years. Even today people from all over the world come to the Fountain of Youth National Archaeological Park and drink of the water there thinking it will make them look younger."

I nodded. "Yeah. I have read about that. I know it is just the place where they believe Ponce de Léon landed back then. It is more like a tribute to him and to your people, the natives."

"Well, that's a completely other discussion, but what you need to know is the Spaniards never found the fountain. But they weren't wrong about its whereabouts, they were just looking for the wrong thing. See, the Fountain of Youth isn't a fountain. It isn't water that is flowing making people young, it is blood." Wyanet lifted her arm and showed me her veins. "In here, Howahkan. Right in these veins flows the fountain that they have been looking for for centuries. That's why I don't age, that's why my mother doesn't age and that's why neither of my children will ever look much older than their twenties.  We simply stop aging. That's also why we keep to ourselves. Once we get too old for how we look, we don't want people to start asking questions. Our job here is to protect the secret. We are a sort of protectors of the fountain if you will. But the main part is to keep it a secret to the rest of the world. It can never be revealed. That and then to pass it on to the next generation so the fountain never dies. It has to keep running in the veins of someone."

I swallowed the rest of my coffee trying to comprehend all of this new information that was being thrown at me. "But what does that have to do with the jaguar? Are you all jaguars?"

"No. Only a few get transformed like Aiyana. That is what makes her so special. We all have the Fountain in our blood that gives us special skills, gifts if you will. Everybody in our family is carrier of the gene, but few go through the transformation. And it seems that it gets more and more rare these days. Back in our ancestors time, several in a family would be transformed, but nowadays we can go through several generations without having a transformation. Aiyana has been chosen by the spirits to be this. It is a great honor for her. The rest of us are left with other powers like nightly premonitions and some do telekinesis like Halona. But that is small compared to what Aiyana will be able to."

"I know she hears people's thoughts," I said. "She hears mine sometimes."

"That is only the beginning. She is so strong. During the next years she will develop powers that you can't even imagine someone being able to have. Back in our ancestors’ time they believed that the were-jaguar was the only creature able to cross over to the spiritual realm. They believed that a were-jaguar could walk between the two worlds and bring messages from the spirits. They would call them shamans. In order for the shamans to combat whatever evil forces may be threatening, it was necessary for the shamans to transform before they crossed over to the spirit realm. Being a divine creature, as they believed the jaguar was, they were protected."

"So Aiyana will be able to do that, too?" I asked and thought of my own cross-over when I had died and had met my mother.

"We don't know yet. But we'll see. She still doesn't remember much when she transforms back to herself again and returns, but she can tell you all about that later. I'm sure she'll want to."

"How long has she been like this?"

"She transformed for the first time when she was sixteen. It was only a few months after her father had died. But back then it wasn't every day. It was something that happened once in a while but we had to keep her in the house at dusk every night to make sure that it didn't suddenly happen while she was among people in public."

I exhaled deeply and leaned back in my chair. This was a lot to take in at once.

"I don't think I have slept one single full night since she made that first transformation and started going hunting," Wyanet continued with a sigh. "She has roamed the swamps as the jaguar every night for many years now. The constant worry turned my all my hair gray over night. I knew what she had become, it is just like her father. And I knew what she was destined to do."

"Her father was one, too?"

"Yes. And her great-grandmother."

"How did her father die?" I asked.

Wyanet burst into laughter. "I know you must have heard all those rumors about it."

I scoffed. "I have."

"We let them talk. It's better than if they knew the truth."

"So he wasn't killed in some drug confrontation or something like that?"

Wyanet laughed again. "Is that what they are saying these days?"

I nodded feeling a little embarrassed. I didn't want to admit that I had considered the story to be true. "That's what they told me."

"Don't worry about it. They don't know any better. We don't care what they say. We don't need their approval of who we are. They don't know anything about us and yet they judge us anyway. That says more about them than it does about us, don't you think?"

"I do," I said.

"Besides. We don't want to be like other people, like normal people. Life has taught me that unhappiness comes when you try to be like everyone else rather than embracing the unique person that you are. That has always been my philosophy. That's who I am and that's how I teach my girls to think."

I smiled. I liked that. "But doesn't it bother you that they think you didn't even care enough about your husband to report him missing?"

Wyanet became quiet. "I loved my husband very much. He was a were-jaguar, a black jaguar or black panther as some call them. He was shot six years ago while trying to make his way home."

"So he was the black panther that was shot? I heard about that," I said. 

"That's why I worry about Aiyana. The world is such a cruel place. But she needs it, you know. She needs to go out there. As I said, it is deeply rooted within her nature. We can't keep her in the house. She lives for the hunt. She needs to let the animal inside of her out. It is a part of her and we have to accept that. No matter if we like it or not."

"I guess," I exhaled. I didn't care much for the thought myself.

"Her father was a writer, you know." Wyanet said.

"I didn't know that." I was surprised, but knowing how Aiyana dreamed about becoming a writer herself, it made a lot of sense.

"She wants to be one, too. And she will one day. She has the talent from her father. During daytime his whole life was his books, and his girls of course. He adored those girls. Especially Aiyana. Those two had a bond like no others."

"Was that why he travelled? To write books?"

"Yes. He travelled and wrote about the places he saw and people he met. He wrote many wonderful books under a pseudonym. He became very popular in certain countries in Europe, like Spain and France. But also in the rest of the world. He is still selling a lot of books all over the world especially after his death. We get the royalties."

That explained where the money came from, I thought to myself, and felt anger rise towards Heather for telling me those lies. For filling me with stories that would make me dislike them. But again she didn't know better, like Wyanet said. People always talked about someone who was different from the norm. And why should they care what was said about them?

"So she got it all from her father then? The jaguar thing too?"

"From him and me. It is inherited recessively. That means that both parents need to carry the gene. I am a carrier but have never transformed. My husband was a transformer. The only one of our generation."

"So you're all descendants from the same tribe? How is it possible to have carried the gene on for generations like this?"

"We have kept it among ourselves but I have heard that it is also possible to transfer it through a bite. If the bite is done directly into the person's blood, the gift could be transferred that way. It is very dangerous and it has only been tried a few times throughout history and every time the person bitten has ended up dying from it."

"Could Aiyana have transferred some of it to me? She did bite me," I said and showed her my left arm with the scars from the jaguar's teeth. It had healed so well you could hardly see it anymore. But I knew exactly where it was. "When she tried to drag me to the shore she bit my arm."

"Oh, God, I hope not. That could end up killing you," Wyanet said while studying the arm closely. "It doesn't mix well with normal blood. It will cause it to clot."

"What if it doesn't? Just think about it. Maybe that's how I got this gift? I have had this sort of psychic gift since the accident. I hear all these voices, they are telling me things and want me to do things for them. Like messages. I also sometimes see things that will happen and at one point I heard someone's thoughts. In the beginning I thought I was going crazy, but then I met Aiyana and the rest of your family and I knew there was nothing wrong with me."

Wyanet stared at me in disbelief. "I have to say, I don't even know if that is possible without killing you. Maybe if ... if it was only from a small portion of her saliva that was injected into your blood it wouldn't end up killing you. I don't know. It has never happened before as far as I know. It is a legend only, or so I thought. But I guess it is possible that she has transferred some of the gift into your blood when she bit you. It is possible, but highly unlikely that you would survive it. I really hope ...  I really do..."

"What about Jim?" I asked. "Aiyana bit him too?"

Wyanet looked worried. "I have no idea what will happen to him. I sincerely hope it will have no consequences for him. He has been very unfortunate ... We will have to keep an eye on him."

I nodded while Wyanet stared thoughtfully into space for a few seconds.

"What I don't understand is how could you have survived all this, how can your tribe still be here, when everyone says it is extinct?" I asked. "Either you were all killed in battle or by diseases. That's what the experts say."

Wyanet looked at me with a smile. "I know what they say and we let them think they're right. But the real story is that most of our tribe, around eight thousand of our people, escaped to Cuba shortly after the Spaniards came, before the war started, before the diseases were spread. We hid there for generations and kept the fountain alive in our blood by marrying people that were also carriers of the gene. Our ancestors didn't return to Florida before it became part of the Union in 1845. By then, everybody assumed our tribe was extinct."

"That's unbelievable. So your tribe managed to hide and keep from getting mixed with other populations? That's so impressive. How do you know that someone has the gene, that you're marrying someone from your own tribe? How can you be sure?"

"We are all born with a special birthmark in the shape of a rosette on our neck under the hair," Wyanet said and turned her back to me. She lifted her long gray hair and revealed a beautiful brown mark shaped like a rosette, just as she had said. Just like the rosettes on Aiyana's fur. "All children that are descendants from our tribe are born with it. That’s how we recognize each other."

I did remember seeing one just like it on Aiyana but I had just assumed it was a big birthmark. "How did it all begin? Does anyone know where the were-jaguar comes from?"

"No. Though we have kept many of the tablets where our ancestors drew pictures of our story none of them explains where we originally came from. My grandmother used to say that the spirits sent us here to be sort of the connection between the spirit-world and the natural world. That's why we have abilities no on else has."

"You mean to say that you still have those old tablets?"

"It is mostly drawings on cloths really, but we have preserved them and we actually have them in glass in our attic. It is supposed to be more than ten thousand years old."

"Those must be worth a fortune," I muttered.

"What is it with you and money?" Wyanet laughed. "You can't put a prize on your roots, on your ancestors’ history. They would just end up in that awful place, that National Archaeological Park."

Now it was my turn to laugh. "You're probably right."

We shared a moment of quietness and thoughtfulness. I felt completely baffled by this revelation, by this amazing story. I always knew that family was special, but this was beyond anything I had been able to imagine.

"But you do realize that this is why Aiyana must marry someone else?" Wyanet said.

I nodded heavily. "She needs to carry on the legacy."

"It is so strong in her that we cannot afford to waste it. She is the one of my daughters that is most likely to be able to have a child that will eventually transform. We need her. And she knows it. It is her destiny."

"But what about love? Shouldn't she marry out of love? What if she really has transferred the gift to me? Couldn't she marry me instead?"

Wyanet shook her head slowly. "How can we know for sure? This is important. This is the survival of our tribe we are talking about. She needs to carry on the legacy. There is no room for taking chances. This is how it must be. It is not in our hands. She has been given this task upon her birth and she has to carry it out. She will never be happy if she defies the spirits, if she doesn't follow through with her destiny."