Whisper's Story

by Catten Carter

Looks around and smiles to everyone, “This is a very personal story that I wanted to share with you all. It’s about how I met Whisper, my wife, and the Shaman of the Tapi. I hope you will find it interesting”

Clears throat, “So, this story begins 11 years ago, almost to this date, and I was a young hunter... well younger than I am today… and it had become time for me to find a wife. Several of my friends in the tribe had already found wives and were well on their way to start families.”

One day I was on my way back from a very good hunt, when I heard an angry scream and saw a brother of my tribe laying on the ground with a bloody nose. Over him stood a young girl with her legs apart and a wild look in her eyes. After a few more loud words from the girl, the brother ran away.

Now I am normally not the curious type… but I followed him back to camp and asked what had happened, and he replied, “I wanted to marry the girl, but she refused and embarrassed me, so I grabbed her arm… just to get her to talk to me, and before I knew it, she hit me right on the nose and started yelling at me… Don’t go near her brother, she’s completely wild!”

I returned to my hut and went to bed, but my mind couldn’t let go of the image of the girl, so wild and temperamental, so the next day I went to hunt near her camp so I could get a closer look at her.

She was a beautiful young girl who lived alone, a bit away from our camp. She was slim and healthy looking, wore a small skirt of fur and a knife tied around her right thigh together with a little bottle.

Her skin was smooth, a bit lighter than some women of our tribe, and she had long black hair that rested comfortably on her beautiful breasts, but what intrigued me most was her eyes… They observed the world with a look of curiosity and amazement, at everything they saw… including me.

She spent a lot of her time studying, and when she was not studying, she followed her two brothers, who was from my tribe, on their travels and hunts. I learned that she had been separated from them, but traveled far to reunite with them, which impressed me... alone and at her age.

Because of her beauty, I saw many brothers approach her camp, but the conversations were always brief, every time resulting in bruised egos, and sometimes also broken noses.

The more I watched her, the more I couldn’t stop thinking of her… but I was also concerned for my nose, so I went to the Shaman of our tribe and asked her advice. The Shaman was very old, if not the oldest, and her face had so many wrinkles that you could barely see her eyes. “This girl is not for everyone”, the Shaman said. “You cannot just go to her and expect her to marry you, just because you ask.”

She paused for long and I could see her looking up and down me, as if she was measuring my worth, and then she said with a serious voice, “Catten… inside us all there is an animal. That animal defines who we are and how we behave. If you can identify the animal inside her, you will find a way to approach her… without getting your nose broken”

Rubs nose looking at everyone, “I really liked the shape of my nose, so I sat down in a discrete place in the camp and started to observe the tribe. After a while I could see all kind of animals in my brothers and sisters based on their behavior.

I saw proud bears and eagles return form the hunt… I saw busy beavers working for the tribe… and I saw many rabbits jumping from hut to hut… staying a short while before moving to a new hut… I even saw snakes, whispering quietly in the ears of those that would listen… and I was fascinated with all I saw.

I always made a lot of tools and weapons for the tribe, so I used that, and my hunting, as an excuse to stay near her camp. I learned that her name was Whispering Wind and I saw how she curiously observed the nature around her.

I saw how she reacted quick and temperamental to threats or injustice, how she got along well with most animals in the forest and how she passionately focused on her training. I saw that when she worked it was as if a fury built up inside her, letting her alone complete seemingly impossible tasks.

One day I asked her two brothers if I could join them on a hunt. They agreed, and to my delight, the girl joined us. During the hunt, I could see her feet move impatiently while she watched me and her brothers chase after the pray, and when her brothers shot their arrows at the pray, she followed the arrows with her eyes and let out a small sound in excitement as it felt to the ground.

When we had shot enough animals to feed us all, she prepared the animals for transport. It was a great hunt, so her brothers and I were proudly discussing our success and complimenting each other, and meanwhile she was focused cleaning out the animals with her sharp blade. For each animal she would chant a small prayer of thanks and gratitude to the gods.

As we packed up the camp, she went to the river to clean up. She took off the knife around her thigh, cleaned it, and put it on the ground. She then let her skirt slide from her hips onto the ground, tied up her hair and stepped carefully into the water to wash away the blood from the animals.

I remember intensely following her hands as they moved up and down her naked body. It must have been cold, because I could see small goosebumps appear wherever the water touched her skin… Suddenly someone shook my arm and I jumped… It was one of her brothers, and he said loud while laughing, “Brother, you are not listening to us… our sister has you bewitched I think!”. I remember feeling my face turn bright red, but she continued washing, pretending not to hear them.

I was quiet on our way home and I couldn’t get the image of her bathing out of my head, so I went back to the old Shaman. She was smoking a long pipe that she pointed at me and said, “Have you identified the animal within, huh?”.

I looked her straight in her eyes and said, “She’s dedicated and focused on her studies… She seems connected to the jungle, the plants and animals, and gets excited watching they pray when we hunt… and she’s beautiful... so beautiful”. I paused for a bit and said, “… She must be a jaguar, cause no other animal in the jungle would fit a girl like her…”

The shaman smiled so big that you could see the few teeth she had left in her mouth and said to me, “And how do you tame a jaguar and make it do what you want?”. I thought for a while and replied to her, “You cannot tame a jaguar or make it do what you want. It will always follow its own way”. The old Shaman smiled wide hearing my words and said, “If you want to be with this girl, don’t try and tame her... help her and let her be wild… then perhaps she will marry you.”

That night I didn’t sleep much, so I got up early and started to work on a new bow. I made it light and agile… a hunter’s bow, and in the evening when it was done, I went to her camp. I was nervous… and a bit afraid for my nose… but I called her name and before she could speak, I handed her the bow and said “I made this for you Whispering Wind... It’s a hunters bow, light and agile. If you will, I would like to take you hunting with me tomorrow morning.”

She took the bow and quietly examined it. She then took a step forward, and I must admit at that point I was very unsure how the conversation would end, but I stood my ground and then she spoke, “This is a beautiful bow, and I thank you for this gift, but I’m afraid I never learned well how to use a bow. I will join you though, as a thank you for you gift, and I will help you prepare the animals”. I smiled to her and said reassuring, “I’m a hunter and I will teach you to use the bow… and then we will hunt together, and after we will prepare the animals together as well”

She didn’t say anything, just smiled, but I could see from her body language that she was very excited and early the next morning we met up and traveled south together. Around halfway there, we stopped to practice.

She took an arrow and shot it at a target I had pointed out, but the arrow went very high, so I went behind her to guide her aim. I placed my hand on her chest and told her to breathe in slowly. Her skin was smooth, and I could feel it react to my touch as she inhaled and when I felt her exhale, I told her to shoot… she hit right on the target, and I could feel her body tremble against me with excitement. We kept shooting like this for a while, practicing, before continuing south.

When we arrived at the site of the hunt, I let her shoot the first pray and she gasped in excitement as she saw the animal fall to the ground. After the hunt, we prepared the animals for the travel together and went to the river to wash. I tried not to stare too directly at her beautiful naked body, remembering the embarrassing situation with her brothers… but meanwhile I felt her eyes on me as I washed away the blood from the animals.

The next months we went on many hunts together, and we talked about anything and everything. She told me all about her studies, her interests and I told her about the things I created for the tribe. Sometimes, when we were alone, she would sing to me and when she did, big flocks of birds would lift to the skies. I felt lucky, thinking no one have heard singing like this before in their lives.

One day we came to a clearing with a cave nearby. There were many monkeys, so we stopped to hunt. The place was secluded, with flowers growing wild everywhere. We spent the night in the cave, and it was a cold night, so we cuddled up to keep each other warm.

looks around to everyone and then winks to Whisper, “Well this story is already getting a bit long, so I will skip the details of that night…”, but the next week I went back to the place many times. I cleaned the cave, built a small table, and put blankets and torches all around. I set up a big tent outside the cave, and carved logs for us to sit on.

I scared away most of the monkeys… except an old stubborn one, and then I took Whisper there to show her... I said, “Whisper my love… I made you a place here to live amongst the flowers. You can be in peace here, and in the cave, you can do your Shaman work.

She could barely contain her excitement when I showed her the cave, so I asked her to marry me right there, where we spent our night together. As you can see by the shape of my nose, she did not hit me but jumped up to me, put her arms around my neck and said yes! I squeaked her boobs in excitement, and I knew then, that we would spend the rest of our lives together.

We sometimes fight… a jaguar can be very temperamental, and a tapi hunter can be very stubborn, but we always make up and learn from the experience... And that is the end of my story...