As the Spirit led The Ancient One and his companion they flew high into the mountains and soon began to circle one where a group of people were gathered, surrounded by several dozen policemen. A woman was arguing with a stout police officer. The Ancient One descended so he could hear what was being said.
"I DO whatever I want to!" the police officer was screaming. "I am The Chief Of Police! I tell these animals they are to sell their land to the gringo, they will sell it. The Americans will build a big facility here. They will bring many dollars. They will not be kept away because these ignorant savages think this ground is holy, and belonged to their ancestors, their ancestors are nothing! My FOREBEARERS trod them under their feet, made them what they were intended to be- servants for those that had the power.
You WILL sell this land, you WILL stop this protest. If you do not, we will come each night and one of your people will accidently fall off the mountain. If we must come until there are none of you left, that is up to you."
The police chief knelt down and picked up a badly beaten old man from the ground. "And as this old goat," he screamed, "is the one who inspires your resistance, he shall be the first to join his ancestors."
Some of the young men began to rush forward. The police officer cut them off and began to beat them with their nightsticks.
"Ax Man!" The Ancient One screamed, "Disarm the policemen. Humiliate them but don't kill them!"
"Yes!" The Ax Man cried.
He descended into the unsuspecting policemen like a whirlwind, his great ax sending one after the other to the ground. The Ancient One descended, landing behind the police chief, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and lifted him into the air. The old man he was dragging fell to the ground. The Ancient One went to the edge of the precipice and held the struggling police chief out over it.
"You know something, el capitan?" he remarked, "I don't like you, I don't like your kind. I don't like what they did. Bye bye!"
The Ancient One let go, and the police chief plummeted down the mountainside shrieking horribly. The Ancient One turned, lifted the old man from the ground, and with a gentle touch of his hands healed the wounds on his face.
The policemen had been driven into a small group off to the side, cowering on the ground, as the man in armor stood over them, slapping his ax with the palm of his hand. The rest of the people crept forward and knelt.
"Minetunka!" some of them began to whisper, "Mnetunka!"
The Ancient One changed his form, and became an Azcotin warrior similarly dressed to the one who had led them there.
"Get up!" he ordered. "I am not The WInged One, I am unworthy to be compared with him.
Ages ago I lived among your people in this form. At that time I was called Tunka Lin and my people were The Azcotin. You bear my peoples' blood, therefore I am your protector. but I am not to be worshipped. Only The Blessed Ones are to be worshipped."
The old man beside The Ancient One nodded.
"Yes," he put in, "My people have heard the legends of The Warriors OF The WInd, and their great battle against the gods of blood. It is true, we are desceneded from those people."
The Ancient One walked over to the cowering policemen. "Get up!" he ordered, "Act like men. If you behave you will not be harmed. All of you listen to me. You never saw me. I was never here. The police chief got carried away, slipped and fell off the mountain. Do you understand me?"
The policemen and the others all nodded. Only an older man dressed in a business suit accompanied by two younger men similarly dressed, did not nod in agreement. The Ancient One approached him.
The man suddenly raised his hand, palm out, and began to speak in Ancient Hebrew.
"Lord Of Light, protector of the innocent, I command you to be gone by the agreement that is between your Fathers and mine. Interfere not with me, or that that I do. For there is alliance between your blood and my blood."
The Ancient One was startled for a monent, then smiled. "Ah!" he cried. "THAT is why the local protectors weren't able to deal with you! You are not a creature of The Darkness, you are one of Nephi's people!"
The Ancient One looked to the police officers and where he had dropped the Chief over the cliff.
"But why," he asked, "are you with THIS filth?"
"This was where one of our cities once was," the man explained, "we have been sent to negotiate with the poeple here for this land, that we may come and dwell where we once lived. But they will not let us have it. We tried to get the local authorities to persuade them. We did not know they were so uncontrollable. they went far beyond what we had intended. Your arrival is as blessed by us as it is by them.
We mean these people no harm, we simply wish to dwell with them to make a place here, where The Ways Of Our Fathers may be renewed."
The Ancient One pondered. The old leader had come to his side.
"Though I have never heard the words he speaks before," he remarked, "I understand them as easily as if they were Spanish! They are the sons of the first bearded ones?"
The Ancient One nodded. The Elder approached his counterpart. "You may come," he offered, "You may have this place if you will share it with us. If we may come and worship The Great Father and The Great Mother here, as we have done for ages; and, if your sons marry our daughters, and THEIR sons marry our daughters until our blood becomes one.
And, let each follow the way that is in his heart, let us not be separate from one another. Let us not be in competition, one with the other, but let us mix together and let us be at peace with one another."
"I think he's offering a good bargain!" The Ancient One commented. "The mistake our people made when they came here before was that they tried to keep themselves seperate from the local people.. If they had lived together then, they would have been so powerful. The worshippers of blood would have never been able to conquer any of them. And when the invaders had come from the east they would have met a people they could not have conquered.
Undo the mistake your people made before."
The Nephi elder nodded. "Let it be so!" he agreed. "Let us SHARE the land."
He held out his hand and the native Elder took it. "Good!" The Ancient One remarked, changing back to his true form. "The need for me here, is gone. Come, Ax Man! We've done a good night's work. Let's get home!"
The native Elder grabbed The Ancient One's arm. "You WILL come back!" he insisted. "not in this form, but in the other. We know the prophecy. Your children, too, will live among us, and many of us will take your Way, and The Power of the false priests, of those who defile and shame, will pass aaway. It is spoken in the tales of old."
The Ancient One only smiled. "How do you not know," he answered, "that my children are not here among you, already?"
The Elder looked startled, but then he, too smiled.
"Of course! Of course! Good hunting, Wind Rider!"
The Ancient One spread his wings and soared skyward. His companion joined him.
"Well," The Ancient One asked, "had enough adventure to satisfy you for awhile?"
"By Odin!" his companino answered, "I can NEVER get enough! I could do this forever, old friend!"
The Ancient One laughed, pointed his companion in the direction of his home, and turned toward his own abode.
"'Til we hunt again!" he cried.
"'Til we hunt again!" his companion answered, and the two lights headed away from each other into the night.