The Rings of Fire
By: Ashtyn Terrell
A creative adaptation of the "Coyote Steals Fire" Native American Creation Story for ENG 370 Survey of American Literature I.
[[The Beginning]]
[[Artist Statement]]You are a Fire Being. You live atop a large mountain coated in soot and ash as it exhales plume after plume of smoke from the [[Sacred Fire]]. You and your sisters have always guarded the Sacred Fire and will always continue to, as it is your duty. You wake with the sun to patrol the dancing flames, carving circles into the mountain peak with your scalding footsteps. Your two sisters protect the fire as the sun makes its descent and sleeps, shrouding your mountain in darkness. This is your duty. Your sisters are your family. The sun is your companion. The mountain is your world. [[This is your duty]].This Twine experience is an adaptation of the Native American creation story from the Klamath tribe, [["Coyote Steals Fire."]] As a writer, I wanted to give more depth to the Fire Beings as the original tale provides little detail about them. Exploring why they might worry about losing their Sacred Flame is significant because many Indigenous creation stories emphasize the people's symbiotic relationship with the earth and other non-human entities, with this story being an exception. This Twine experience aims to have players reconsider what they might think of the Fire Beings after reading the original creation story. The Sacred Fire is the treasure belonging to you and your sisters. Its blinding red, orange, and yellow body resemble what you know as your body. The heat it emits brings you a sense of familiarity as it reminds you of yourself and the warmth you feel when you slumber with your sisters inside your teepee. Was the Sacred Fire once a being like you and your sisters? Is it, or is she still a being like you and your sisters? Why must you protect it as the sun soars through the sky on a journey you do not know the destination of? Why does the Sacred Fire keep you on this mountain? Why can you not be like the sun and dance through the sky, uninhibited, unchained, and free? All you know is The Sacred Fire's streaks of burning rage entice you. They bring you feelings of safety, home, and family. All you know is that the Sacred Fire is one of you and must be protected at all costs.
Find out why [[This is your duty]].
Or return to [[The Beginning]].You wake with the sun and begin your trek around the Sacred Fire. You keep your gaze low, staring at your feet as they fall into the previously made footsteps of your sister. You keep the heat of the Sacred Fire to your left side, and therefore the flames on that side of your body burn brighter. Your left side has always felt colder than the right as if something is missing. So you keep the Sacred Fire to your left, hoping that its flames might dance between those of your own and bring warmth to the cold vastness of your insides. You lift your head for but a moment and see the sun looking upon you as it makes its way high above the mountain. The brightness that it gifts to the mountain even outshines that of the Sacred Fire, putting you in a state of awe. The sun's yellow face makes you wonder if perhaps it is covered in flames like you. There are so many things you do not know. Even though it keeps you company during your patrols, you do not know who the sun is. You do not know why you and your sisters guard the Sacred Fire or why it feels like you should. You do not even know the names of your [[sisters]] you have been with for as long as you can remember. All you know is that the Sacred Fire must be protected at all costs, so [[you continue your duty]].Your two sisters have been with you ever since you can remember. You do not know their names, but you do know their feelings about the Sacred Fire. In the moments before you succumb to slumber in the teepee, you see how they watch the fire jealously, rushing to feed it wood provided by the mountain. You also see the way that they desperately wish to keep the fire on the mountain when they stomp at any streak of it that may be trying to escape down the peak.
Their desperation to keep the Sacred Fire has sunk into their voices, causing them to hiss and crackle just like the fire does when devouring the wood. You often find yourself wondering if you sound just as controlled by the Sacred Fire. If your footsteps become rushed when the wild dance of the fire becomes overwhelming. You fear that your eyes have become envious like theirs when looking at the flame. However, there is one thing you are sure of when it comes to your sisters. They hate the cold as much as you do. Your sister, who observes the fire when the sun has vanished, often runs to you when the chill of the sun's awakening settles over the mountain. She tells you it is your turn to watch the Sacred Fire, and at that moment, you wonder if they feel the same coldness inside themselves that you feel.
Do [[you continue your duty]]?
Or do abandon your sisters and return to [[The Beginning]]?In a rare moment when you and your sisters are out of the teepee at the same time, something strange happens. One of your sisters cries out, "What's that? What's that I hear?" Your other sister responds in kind, "A thief, skulking in the bushes!" Someone has come to steal the Sacred Fire? That cannot be; that cannot happen. Your eyes scour the mountain in search of this so-called thief. You are not sure of what you expect to see but what you do see is all the more surprising. In between the trees atop the mountain stands a coyote on all fours. You find yourself frozen for a moment and gaze upon the coyote in curiosity. This cannot be a creature who would dare try to steal the Sacred Fire. Your sisters' paranoia must have made them confused. You speak for the first time in a while and say, "It is no one, it is nothing!" You point to the coyote, which seems to ease the worries of your sisters, and you all return to the fire. However, your mind still lingers on the [[coyote]] and why it might be [[atop the mountain]].You think back to the coyote. The way that its grey fur rustled in the wind, not like the wisps of fire from your body or the Sacred Fire, but more like the movement of tree leaves. However, the feature you ponder the most is the coyote's eyes. Those calm yellow eyes held something in them that you had never seen before. Was it benevolence within them? The coyote's eyes looked vastly different from those of your sisters. The coyote looked upon the Sacred Fire and you and your sisters in a way of harmless curiosity. The expression on its face is the one you imagine is on yours when you look up at the sun. However, the Sacred Fire must be protected regardless of the coyote, and its mysterious nature consumes your mind once more.
Do you wish to find out why the coyote was [[atop the mountain]]?
Or live in blissful ignorance and return to [[The Beginning]]?As the sun began to make its venture over the mountain and the chill it produced made itself known, your sister called out to you loudly to begin watching over the Sacred Fire. The remaining effects of sleep still lingered over you like a cloud over the mountain as you began to make your way out of the teepee. But as your hands peeled back the fabric, you saw the coyote that once thought harmless pull a flame from the Sacred Fire. This cannot be. Without thinking, you let out a screech alerting your sisters of what had happened.
You were the first down the mountain after the coyote, which ran swiftly down the mountain on all fours. You were able to catch up to it and outstretched your hand to try and capture him. You were able to grab the tip of its tail, but even that brief touch sizzled the hair and turned it white, causing the coyote to yelp and throw the fire to another creature. You retracted your hand in shock as your sisters continued after the stolen portion of the fire. Is this all you were capable of? So driven to protect the fire that you would cause harm to another?
You stood there frozen in silent contemplation until you saw the missing flames get swallowed by a piece of wood. Your sisters, who had kept up the chase, were inconsolable, and their desperate nature increased tenfold when they saw the fire disappear into the wood. You watched your sisters scream and cry at the wood and tried to provide aid, if only to stop their painful howling. However, all of your attempts to extract the fire from the wood were in vain as the portion of the fire remained there, lost to you and your sisters forever. You felt that all of this was your fault. If only you had not so easily dismissed the coyote or had been quicker to exit the teepee, then maybe this never would have happened.
As you and your sisters defeatedly made your way back up the mountain, you felt the coldness within you seep out of you and blanket your entire body in the chill of hopelessness.
[[The Rings of Fire]] await you once more.Coyote Steals Fire (Klamath)
Long ago, when man was newly come into the world, there were days when he was the happiest creature of all. Those were the days when spring brushed across the willow tails, or when his children ripened with the blueberries in the sun of summer, or when the goldenrod bloomed in the autumn haze.
But always the mists of autumn evenings grew more chill, and the sun's strokes grew shorter. Then man saw winter moving near, and he became fearful and unhappy. He was afraid for his children, and for the grandfathers and grandmothers who carried in their heads the sacred tales of the tribe. Many of these, young and old, would die in the long, ice-bitter months of winter.
Coyote, like the rest of the People, had no need for fire. So he seldom concerned himself with it, until one spring day when he was passing a human village. There the women were singing a song of mourning for the babies and the old ones who had died in the winter. Their voices moaned like the west wind through a buffalo skull, prickling the hairs on Coyote's neck.
"Feel how the sun is now warm on our backs," one of the men was saying. "Feel how it warms the earth and makes these stones hot to the touch. If only we could have had a small piece of the sun in our teepees during the winter."
Coyote, overhearing this, felt sorry for the men and women. He also felt that there was something he could do to help them. He knew of a faraway mountain-top where the three Fire Beings lived. These Beings kept fire to themselves, guarding it carefully for fear that man might somehow acquire it and become as strong as they. Coyote saw that he could do a good turn for man at the expense of these selfish Fire Beings.
So Coyote went to the mountain of the Fire Beings and crept to its top, to watch the way that the Beings guarded their fire. As he came near, the Beings leaped to their feet and gazed searchingly round their camp. Their eyes glinted like bloodstones, and their hands were clawed like the talons of the great black vulture.
"What's that? What's that I hear?" hissed one of the Beings. "A thief, skulking in the bushes!" screeched another.
The third looked more closely, and saw Coyote. But he had gone to the mountain-top on all fours, so the Being thought she saw only an ordinary coyote slinking among the trees.
"It is no one, it is nothing!" she cried, and the other two looked where she pointed and also saw only a grey coyote. They sat down again by their fire and paid Coyote no more attention. So he watched all day and night as the Fire Beings guarded their fire. He saw how they fed it pine cones and dry branches from the sycamore trees. He saw how they stamped furiously on runaway rivulets of flame that sometimes nibbled outwards on edges of dry grass. He saw also how, at night, the Beings took turns to sit by the fire. Two would sleep while one was on guard; and at certain times the Being by the fire would get up and go into their teepee, and another would come out to sit by the fire.
Coyote saw that the Beings were always jealously watchful of their fire except during one part of the day. That was in the earliest morning, when the first winds of dawn arose on the mountains. Then the Being by the fire would hurry, shivering, into the teepee calling, "Sister, sister, go out and watch the fire." But the next Being would always be slow to go out for her turn, her head spinning with sleep and the thin dreams of dawn.
Coyote, seeing all this, went down the mountain and spoke to some of his friends among the People. He told them of hairless man, fearing the cold and death of winter. And he told them of the Fire Beings, and the warmth and brightness of the flame. They all agreed that man should have fire, and they all promised to help Coyote's undertaking.
Then Coyote sped again to the mountain-top. Again the Fire Beings leaped up when he came close, and one cried out, "What's that? A thief, a thief!"
But again the others looked closely, and saw only a grey coyote hunting among the bushes. So they sat down again and paid him no more attention.
Coyote waited through the day, and watched as night fell and two of the Beings went off to the teepee to sleep. He watched as they changed over at certain times all the night long, until at last the dawn winds rose.
Then the Being on guard called, "Sister, sister, get up and watch the fire."
And the Being whose turn it was climbed slow and sleepy from her bed, saying, "Yes, yes, I am coming. Do not shout so."
But before she could come out of the teepee, Coyote lunged from the bushes, snatched up a glowing portion of fire, and sprang away down the mountainside.
Screaming, the Fire Beings flew after him. Swift as Coyote ran, they caught up with him, and one of them reached out a clutching hand. Her fingers touched only the tip of the tail, but the touch was enough to turn the hairs white, and coyote tail-tips are white still.
Coyote shouted, and flung the fire away from him. But the others of the People had gathered at the mountain's foot, in case they were needed. Squirrel saw the fire falling, and caught it, putting it on her back and fleeing away through the tree-tops. The fire scorched her back so painfully that her tail curled up and back, as squirrels' tails still do today.
The Fire Beings then pursued Squirrel, who threw the fire to Chipmunk. Chattering with fear, Chipmunk stood still as if rooted until the Beings were almost upon her. Then, as she turned to run, one Being clawed at her, tearing down the length of her back and leaving three stripes that are to be seen on chipmunks' backs even today. Chipmunk threw the fire to Frog, and the Beings turned towards him. One of the Beings grasped his tail, but Frog gave a mighty leap and tore himself free, leaving his tail behind in the Being's hand---which is why frogs have had no tails ever since.
As the Beings came after him again, Frog flung the fire on to Wood. And Wood swallowed it.
The Fire Beings gathered round, but they did not know how to get the fire out of Wood. They promised it gifts, sang to it and shouted at it. They twisted it and struck it and tore it with their knives. But Wood did not give up the fire. In the end, defeated, the Beings went back to their mountain-top and left the People alone.
But Coyote knew how to get fire out of Wood. And he went to the village of men and showed them how. He showed them the trick of rubbing two dry sticks together, and the trick of spinning a sharpened stick in a hole made in another piece of wood. So man was from then on warm and safe through the killing cold of winter.