Believe – Chapter 24: A child is born

Imya was woken up by Liam raising from his rest. She had slept on one of his legs and now tumbled into the snow. “Sorry wean!” he apologized and moved out of the tight hole in the conifer to stretch his legs. Imya did not see him but only heard him sigh in relive when he was able to stretch to his heart’s content. Imya yawned and rubbed her eyes before she opened them completely and started to stretch herself. Red and Odin already seemed to be up because at this moment Imya was alone in the conifer. She crawled through the branches and felt the needles pinch her a few times until she stood outside in the snow and started to groom her ruffled fur.
“Where is Red?” she asked but before Liam could answer she saw him and Odin closing in.
“We are nearly there, kiddo, sure we are, yo!” he greeted her and she could see that he was excited. She felt the same excitement when she looked up to the sky and saw the star still hovering over the top of the hill. There was a flickering bright light under the star.
Imya was excited because she still believed that the star led her home but why was there such a big light and in addition to that the area did not seem very familiar to her. When the others started to climb up the hill she followed them. After a few steps, she noticed a lot of tracks that went into the same direction. The snow was at some parts completely rubbed off the ground by many paws.
“Are there others up there?” she asked and Red nodded in thoughts. After a while of silence Liam answered for him. “Aye, you heard them last night, right?” Imya smiled and replied with a more silent voice, nearly a whisper: “Yes, who are they?” Liam shook his head. “A dae no ken!” he replied and then directed his gaze upwards to the light that drew closer with each step the took forward.

The forest started to open and the trees shied away from the top, leaving it blank. There were even more tracks here, all heading towards the top of the hill, where the light was flickering.
Liam was the first to see what was waiting for them and he showed a surprised look. He slowed down for a moment but then took strong steps towards the top.
When Imya finally peeked over the edge of the hill she saw a big flat plateau with a building in the middle. The light came from branches that were stuck in the ground and had fire at the top just like the fire Imya had seen in the house of the humans but smaller. There were so many of them that the light was even brighter than the fire Imya had seen before and for a moment she squinnied her eyes because it blinded her. After she opened the eyes a bit more again she saw a lot of figures standing around near the house, around it and inside. The house was not closed like the one she had seen before but at the side that was facing them she saw that there was no wall and she could see the inside of the house. What was going on in the house she could not see. There were so many shadows standing around it that all she saw was shadows and fire. Her companions pushed on and took step after step of the last thirty meters to the house. The closer they got, the more Imya could see of the shadows. They turned into animals of all size. Animals Imya had never seen before. Big like Liam, small like Odin and in between. Some with thick and curly fur, others with horns or even feathers.

Behind all the animals Imya saw something that made her stop for a moment. There were humans. Quite a lot at that as well. They stood around something that was inside. Red, Odin and Liam did not stop but just went right into the crowd and Imya followed them. The animals stepped to the side letting them through and when Liam approached the first humans they looked over their shoulder and then gave way to them and Imya closed in to her three friends before they could close the wall of bodies behind her again.
What she saw in the middle of all this was something that she did not expect. There were two humans sitting on a bed out of straw and cloth. In the middle, between them, there lay another human but it was much smaller. It was even smaller than Imya and the eyes of the small human child hit hers. They were of a deep brown and when it looked at her, the small mouth turned into a smile and Imya smiled back.
From the corner of her eyes she saw that Odin, Liam and Red lowered their head as if they were showing their respect to this small human. Then they sat back and just watched the child, just like everyone around. A deep sound rose and turned into a song of many voiced. The humans and every animal chanted a song together. With voiced so different as they could be but in the song, they melted together and created a song that Imya never heard. It was beautiful and touched her heart. Even she started to hum with them but her eyes never left the eyes of the child in front of her. She took one step forward, then another one. Somehow this child interested her.
No one stopped her. She suddenly was directly in front of the child that lay a bit over her and she rose to her hind legs and placed her paws next to the child to look at it. Her head was directly in front of the human and it extended its hands and softly caressed her ears and face. Then it laughed and the heart of Imya made a jump when she touched the small hands with her nose once and then backed off again. She did not know why she had been so interested but she had seen it and now she felt all the eyes around on her and a cold shiver ran down her spine. She backed off, crawled through the many legs and hid in a corner of the open house, close to the missing wall. From here she could still see the child in the middle of all those spectators and Liam, Red and Odin still were there watching it. Every now and then someone stepped forward and places something next to the child, spoke a few words or just bowed his or her head. The song slowly got more silent and Imya felt the freezing cold air around her ruffling her fur. Now that she was here alone in the corner, watching the back of all these animals and humans, she felt lonely again. Liam, Odin and Red did not look to her or even notice her. No one noticed her. It felt nearly as uncomfortable as before when all the eyes had been on her.
They all watched the child now. This human child seemed to not feel afraid from all the many people around it. It laughed and looked from one to another.

“A lot have come.” Imya winced and jumped to her feet. Next to her suddenly there was a she-wolf. She was big, even bigger than her father, and had a white coat just like herself. Her eyes were of a silver that sparkled and it seemed to Imya as if her fur and eyes were shining just like the snow had done at full moon. She calmed down a bit. She did not know who this wolf was but her presence called a mysterious calm upon her. She felt safe in her presence.
“Who are you?” finally Imya found her words but her voice was nothing more than a whisper. The answer of the wolf sounded like a part of the still silently chanted song. It had its own warm melody.
“You can call me Luna.” The she-wolf said. She looked at Imya with a smile and then lay down in the straw on the ground. “Come and join me. It is warmer together.” She offered and Imya was happy to snuggle up with the she-wolf. She seemed nice and it felt a bit like when she snuggled up with her mother. The pelt of the she-wolf was warm and now that she was half in her fur she noticed that the color of their fur was the same and she could not tell where the Luna’s fur stopped and her began.
Both watched the child through the small gap between the animals and humans and none of them spoke for a while. Imya felt how the warms of the she-wolf spread to her and warmed her up like the fire in the house of the human had done.

“Who is he?” she asked after a while without taking her eyes away from the human child.
“You mean the human child?” the she-wolf asked and then continued. “He is called Jesus. The humans believe that he is the child of their god?”
Imya looked up to the face of Luna but she still looked at the child. “He is the child of a god?” she asked. It seemed so unreal. Did this not make this child a god himself? She had heard of gods and dreamed of them but she never thought that something this small and seemingly fragile could be a god.
“Is he really a god?” she asked and Luna showed a smile. “What do you think?” she asked and Imya pondered.
“I don’t know. I was told so many stories. My father always said that the moon is the only god, and Red said that she-who-breathes-the-wind is the goddess. Liam was telling me about Cernunnos and Odin told the story of Nott. I believed that this star …” she looked up to the star that still stood high above them. “… was a god who would lead me home but it led me here. And here I am and there is a child that is the son of a god of the humans. Who is the real god? Do you know Luna?”

It took a while until the she-wolf answered. “This is a question that at the same time is hard and easy at the same time. Because all the stories, all the believes, they are all right.” She answered. Imya was confused. “What do you mean?” she asked and finally the she-wolf looked down to her and even lowered her head a bit.
“God is in everything. He is in the trees, in the ground, in the air and in every one living, animals or humans. He is also in you.” Imya looked at her with big eyes. “In me?” she asked.
“Yes!” Luna replied. “It does not matter what you call god. You can give him a name or just call him god. What is important is, that you believe. It does not matter what you believe in because believing in something means believing in yourself.”
Imya still looked with big eyes into the silver eyes of the she-wolf. “What do you mean with that?”

The big she-wolf chuckled. “Believe … “she looked up to the sky. “… makes you stronger. It lets you do things you never knew you were capable off. Take yourself for example. You believed in this star and followed it. You ran a long way, much further that you have run before. You figured out that snow turns into water in your muzzle, you hunted, you fought and you found friends. You believed not only in the star but you believed in yourself and that made you stronger.”
“How do you know me?” Imya asked. She felt like this she-wolf knew everything about her.
“I have been watching you for a long time. It took you long until you started to believe in yourself. You started to believe in the star because you were desperate. You wanted this star to safe you but in the end, you saved yourself.
God is just like that. He is in everything. Every animal tells different stories about god. Even the humans have different believes, different stories and some even fight with each other about who is right and who is wrong.” A smile danced around the muzzle of the she wolf. “There is no right or wrong. They are all right, but they are all wrong as well. God is in everything. It is just the interpretation of god that is different from each animal, each human, each living. But if you look behind it. No matter if they give god one name or many names. No matter if they see god as one entity or as many. God is in all and believing in something means to believe in god. Believing in god means to believe in yourself.”

Imya felt her head running in circles. The words of the she-wolf sounded very confusing. Her vision blurred and she felt tired from all these confusing thoughts. “Sleep now little Imya. You need to rest well. I will stay by your side and hold you warm. And when you wake up we will go on a journey, just you and me. I will lead you where you belong.”

Imya was not able to stay awake any second longer. She still heard the soft voice of the she-wolf and the silent but persistent song of the many voices that was praising the child. A child was born at this day.