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Nervously she looked around at the circle of Kimeti. She was not used to a huge gathering such as this, although she did enjoy listening to the old stories. But now was the time to start her own, and she felt her courage waver as they looked at her expectantly with their firefly eyes.
Ephemeral Melody closed her eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and felt the story finally begin to wake, to stir and stretch its claws.
"Tonight," she began, "I bring you the tale of The Labours of Black Dog."
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In the light of the dawn there was a midnight-doe, painted darker than Black Dog, with stars strewn across her coat. Sitting atop Ghost-Thistle's Mound, she sang:
The Watcher of the Dawn can see everything;
From the tiniest of stars, to the future that it brings
And the Watcher of the Dawn, she knows everything;
Run, Black Dog, run! Strong, bold and daring
Be off, win your victories, while the sun is glaring.
Black Dog, passing the midnight-doe, heard her song and was pleased.
"I will go," he calls back.
I will go where the wind goes, I will see all the world.
I will fight for honour and glory and I will return to tell the tale.
I will go, midnight-doe, and I will bring back battle scars.
And the Kimeti will know of the name of Black Dog.
Smiling at him serenely, she jumps off the rock and disappears in the blink of an eye. But Black Dog does not forget her beauty so easily, and he thinks often of her as he goes on his adventures.
As fate would have it the wind brought him to the sandy shores South of Matope. He ran along the sand-flats, looking hither and thither. The wind must have called him for a purpose, and it was not long after that he found it, snap-snapping behind him. But Black Dog did not run from the crocodile, even if it was bigger than three bucks standing in a line, and he was but a colt.
No, the first thing Black Dog thought was: There must be plenty of food around here.
He did not think a second thought. He pounced. Leapt over the huge jaws of the crocodile and landed on its back. He beat at it with his hooves, and the crocodile roared; he tore at it with his teeth, but could not scratch its coat. The crocodile struggled, lashing its terrible tail and trying to drive Black Dog off its back. But Black Dog hung on. With a well-placed hit he blinded the crocodile- first the left eye, then the right. It screamed, and he delighted in the blood on his hooves. As the crocodile flailed he leapt off its back and struck it with his horns. Another hit! But now the crocodile was stuck- speared, really, on his horns, and Black Dog did not like that. With a mighty shake of his head he flung it into a slab of stone, and watched it lie motionless. A victory for Black Dog! Boldly he strode over and with a swift [help need word here] knocked out one of the teeth of the crocodile. It was bigger than his own horn!
With the tooth clamped in his mouth Black Dog abandoned the carcass of the huge crocodile and set off for Ghost-Thistle's Mound. But when he reached the midnight-doe was not there, and so he placed the tooth on the mound as some sort of offering. Black Dog might have been clever with crocodiles, but he was young yet and knew not how to impress a girl.
He waited through the day for her to appear, but she did not. When night came, a group of Kimeti, attracted by his presence on the Mound, approached and he told them the tale of the huge crocodile, the length of five bucks, with the razor-sharp spikes on its back. But as they came, they left; and Black Dog, still desiring to see the midnight-doe, slept that night on Ghost-Thistle's Mound.
In the morning, the crocodile-tooth was gone. Black Dog stood up, shook his coat, and left, following the wind-song...
-----
The end of her story made clearer the silence. This moonlit meeting would soon come to an end; these Kimeti, like the ones who had gathered to listen to Black Dog's tale, would soon disappear into the night.
She was glad, however, to see that the other Kimeti were smiling approvingly, their firefly-eyes shining with hope and a sudden desire for adventure. To see the world, like Black Dog did, to become a hero.. To have your name known to all Kimeti that were, are, and would be.
"That was the first of the Labours of Black Dog," she said. "And as for the rest, perhaps another night..."
Bowing her head, she stepped away, breaking the circle, and the other Kimeti followed suit.
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