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There were a little island with a big name in the wide warm Sargasso sea that fine folk don't get no account of on account of it being so small and passed on by. Cept by the wind, which for a story tangled up in her fancy, could carried a tale or two to other shores.
For a real long time, there were a nasty old dragon, who be eating any body that went up Voleur Nuage mountain in the middle of that there island. Worst of it was he didn't just eat a body up. No, if that old dragon caught a body, he remembered enough of when he was a man to hobble and chain folks so he could roast the parts he liked nice and slow.
That's the story that the breeze has got to tell. How that nasty old dragon was stopped from eating folks up.
The dragon's mountain on that Orisha be damned mountain took up most the space on little Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes. A big name for a little island. Still there was bits and bops of land that curled out into the waves. That dragon never came down near to where the waves lapped up on the white sand. Just enough land for people to live when the sea weren't in a fit mood to toss the waves like little uns toys and the wind weren't to flatten the trees.
The folks who lived on Nossa Enhora dos Navegantes were all that was left of those that used to be owned by old Arguente on his plantation, fore the old Master turned his self into a dragon on account of him being an Orisha dammned fool, and taking something that weren't meant for him, and after that be eating any body that came up the mountain. Still, long as they stayed on the island, those folk be free. Cept for the dragon taking his due.
Cept all the land to be growing crops was up on the sides of that there mountain. Feral pigs and cattle too if truth be told.
Folks would creep up the sides of the mountain and grow and hunt what they could. Fore they went, they'd go to old Nana Burku, a woman wise in the ways of the Orishas, those spirits who as made the world and kept it spinning. Nana Burku lived by herself in a shack in the Banyon swamp east side of the island and could give charms of cowrie shells that sounded like the waves. Just something to startle the dragon when he was lurking his pale self in the mist of Voleur Nuage Mountain and make him think that the ocean was near. Course, farther up the mountain a body went, the less those charms worked.
Nana Burku would tell folks to look to the sea and forget that there mountain, but the folks on that there island had their eyes full of mountain and not much left for the rough old sea with her moods.
So, they kept going up the mountain. Fellas and gels and little ones too. Though most of them went on a dare to climb all over what was left of the plantation or swim in the streams and pools.
Lele never wanted to climb the mountain. She couldn't climb, or if she tried, it was terrible hard, seeing as she was born missing the lower half of her left leg.
That's why as she got old enough to work in the fields, Mama went to see old Nana Burku to see if she could make a charm or something to help Lele walk, because every body said Nana Burku had powerful magic. Why Lele's Aunte Bertrice said that the old Master Arguente stole something from Nana Burku, thinking that cause he owned her, he owned what she had. That was the thing that turned him into the dragon. Meant she was powerful old, cause old Master Arguente turned back when Granny Elbe's granny was just a little thing, and had to be carried by her own Mama, who jumped out the window of her burning shack without a stitch on and didn't care as long as she had her baby in her arms.
Mama told her Aunte Bertrice to hush and never no mind, old Nana Burku weren't so old as all that. She just was good at talking with the Orishas.
But after Mama came back after that one time, she never wanted to hear no more words about wise old Nana Burku. Mama went expecting some sort of magic something. What she came back with was a walking stick that looked much like the one Papa had already made for Lele. This one was smoothed by sea waves. There was that and a funny sort of wide webbed fin that weren't no good for walking. Mama went on about how that fool old woman wouldn't let her leave without taking them both, and how age had made that old fool soft in the head.
Now Lele swung around fair enough on that stick, but truth be told what caught her heart in a net was the fin. Seemed to her that fin was just like a fish tail. If her heart hankered for anything while she was helping in the misty patches of fields, or watching the little ones, it were the sea. Folks called the sea dangerous. Full of sharks and hidden rocks.
Lele didn't care a bit about that. Seemed to her that like Mama, the sea just wanted respect. Lele put a bit of rope through the holes at the top of that fin and attached it to her left leg and seemed to her that when she wore it, she didn't need to breath at all under the water. She could swim like a fish. Seemed to her that she had all she needed while she was swimming around with that fin.
That weren't even the end of it. If she turned the fin round the other way, it were a little skiff made for a body to bob on the waves. Seemed to her that missing part of her leg didn't matter much at all if she were sitting in that there skiff, and doing all the work with her oar. As long as she passed up her prayers of thanks to Yemaya, the Orisha who filled the upper sea with fish, she could see the currents of the sea just as well as she saw the clouds in the sky. She gave her prayers and went out to where the schools of fish were thick in the water. Got to be so, she brought back more fish than any fella that dared to go out into the water.
Mama said, "Palu, tell your daughter that she can't be swimming round like a fish. What fella's gonna want her if all she does is act like a fish?"
Papa laughed his long boom of a laugh. "Her skiff is full of fish, which is a blessing." He patted his belly. "Plenty to share. Fella that don't see the value in that is a fool."
Lele didn't say that there weren't a fella on the island that was going to look at her anyway. She didn't care so long as she had the sea, which was different every day.
Time was, Mama admitted that the catch Lele brought in was good for the pot. She said, "Yemaya of the sea must have a soft spot for you, child." She shook her head, because Mama was all earth. While Lele had her heart in the sea. Sometimes she slept in her skiff under a white spray of stars, but never failed to come back home to such a scolding from Mama.
After one such night, Lele was filled with a terrible strong desire to go thank old Nana Burku.
So, Lele paddled her skiff down the channel through the dense trees of the Banyon swamp where old Nana Burku lived until she came to a wide open lagoon, which were so dense with fish, she just itched to pull out her net or spear. But she weren't there to fish. She kept paddling until she came to a reed shack floating on the water. There was strings of shells and wood hanging from the roof of that place that the breeze played in.
Lele called out, "Pardon, Nana Burku, are you there?"
To Lele's surprise, a beautiful young woman came out of the shack. She was wearing a layered dress of seven shades of blue and white that seemed to move like water. She weren't half as old as Lele were expecting. This woman weren't but a few years older than Lele. The woman said, "I answer to that name. What can I do for you, sweetling?"
Lele pushed herself up to show what she was missing. "I'm Lele. I wanted to thank you for the stick and fin you sent home with Mama. You gave me the sea and that was bigger than any old mountain."
Nana Burku pulled Lele up onto the floating little island of reeds as easily as a woman brushes back a strand of hair. She laughed as she did it. She said, "Sweet Lele, I saw the easy way you paddled into my lagoon, and the way your eyes saw all the good spots for fishing. I think that fin just helped along something that was already there."
Lele ducked her head. "My heart does belong to the sea. Maybe you could pass on my thanks to Yemaya, who rules the upper sea where all the good things are."
"Oh, the depths aren't so bad." Just then the old dragon up on the mountain roared. Nana Burku frowned. "No, ain't the depths that are a problem."
Lele's curiosity got the better of her then. "Is it true that the dragon, fore he was a dragon, stole something from you?"
Nana Burku laughed and laughed. "They still be saying that old fool stole something from me. No, he messed with something he shouldn't of, that's right enough, but I only deal with the sea and there ain't a bit of water in what happened to old Arguente. Still," she winked at Lele, "it'd be nice if he'd come down here and I could clean up the mess of him. But where are my manners? Let's not waste our time talking about that nasty dragon."
Nana Burku offered her rum punch and they talked about the sea.
Nana Burku wouldn't let her leave without giving her some shrimp stew from her black iron pot, scooped up with her own wooden spoon.
It was dark when Lele paddled back home, except even without a moon, that lagoon was alive with light. Every time she dipped her oar into the water, it left a wake of glowing lights. She dipped her hand in and pulled it up with a trail of light sliding down her arm along with the water. She watched fish swim patterns in the water and could hardly bring herself to paddle on home. But she did.
Her Mama gave her such a scolding like she always did, while Papa tried to make a joke of it because she hadn't brought back any fish.
With all of that, Lele never did get the story on why folks thought such a young, beautiful woman was so old. Why the way Aunte Bertrise went on, Nana Burku had white hair and hands as gnarled as tree roots.
She didn't say much of anything. Fact was, she was thinking about those smooth young hands. Weren't but a few days that Lele found an excuse to paddle on back to see Nana Burku. She brought her a conch shell that she thought Nana Burku might like. Another time she brought her some verbenna water that she boiled down herself on account of Nana Burku saying she liked the scent.
The little ones of her village teased her that she was courting a body like she was a fella, but she told them hush. Didn't work, but she told them that just the same.
Each time she got to the lagoon, Nana Burku always smiled to see Lele. Sometimes, she invited Lele to go fishing as calm as could be. Sometimes, she'd be in a mood of sudden squalls. Either way, Lele loved the days she paddled into the Banyon swamp.
One afternoon as they were cooking their catch, Nana Burku took out a knife and carved curving symbols into the wood of Lele's walking stick. It was pretty, the way the way it looked like it was covered in waves. As she worked, she said, "I should have done this when I gave this to your Mama, but there's a woman who cannot wait for no body."
Lele laughed. "Sometimes, I think if the dragon were to come down when she was working her field, Mama'd smack him on the nose and tell him to take his old self off."
Nana Burku hummed and kept carving. When she had the stick to her liking, she pulled out a string of cowrie shells from a carved wooden chest. She tied that string to Lele's left wrist. The shells made a sweet noise like rain as the shells hit each other. Nana Burku said, "This isn't like the ones I regular give the folks that come see me. You shake this when you have need of it, and call out for my help. Then Oya, the Orisha of the wind, who is the daughter of Yemaya of the sea, will lift you up and carry you to the safety of the waves."
Lele smiled at Nana, and with a sudden heat in her face leaned forward to kiss her cheek, or would have, but for that Nana Burku moved her face and they pressed lips instead.
It was Lele who pulled away, hot faced and nervous, and Nana Burku, who smiled and said, "There's so much love in your heart, sweetling. Listen." She cupped her hand round Lele's ear. "Your heart is beating the sound of the sea." Weren't much for Lele to do, but kiss Nana Burku again.
If Lele left after the sun had set, it was not on account of staying late to eat.
It was hard to leave those kisses. To dip the oar in the glowing waters, and as beautiful as the lights were, Lele just wanted to turn around and go back to spend the rest of the night with Nana Burku.
Still, she had to go home.
Mama looked at the stick and the string of corwrie shells around her wrist and said, "Why in the name of every Orisha that ever was did you do that. That's jangly enough to summon the dragon if you ever step up on the mountain." She shook her head. "Sometimes the fool notions you get puzzle me something fierce."
Papa said, "I like the sound Lele. Fact is, today is a day sacred to Oya, Orisha of the wind. We should be celebrating her anyways." So he set to playing his drums and Lele shook her cowrie shells. Aunte Betrise pulled out her bone flutes and soon the rest of the folks in the village joined in. Got to be so it was a party. Even Mama laughed and opened up some rum.
Still it weren't the rum that put heat in Lele's cheeks. She wondered how she was going to tell Mama and Papa. She was still thinking up what kind of story she should tell, when she came home the next day from fishing and folks in the village were spinning around like ants whose home has been poked by a stick.
There was Papa and there was Aunte Bertrice and there was the little ones, but there was no Mama. Papa went from house to house asking, "Dragon came down sudden when we was in the fields. I lost sight a her in the clouds. She ain't come back. Have you seen Elisha?"
Mama weren't the only one, who hadn't come back that day. Three fellas from the village down the shore hadn't come back neither. Papa was set on going back up the mountain on first light with what fellas would go with him. First they'd go to the old plantation house and gather up what steel weapons as hadn't rusted up and go up and try to kill that old dragon. Weren't a family on the island that hadn't lost someone to the beast over the years.
Lele knew, she just knew that her Papa weren't coming back if he made that trip. Now she were scared, but it seemed to her that maybe one person could slip up behind the dragon where a big group of fellas couldn't. If she could just free her folks from the dragon, then there'd be no reason for folks to head up with first light.
She couldn't wait for morning. She didn't have time. She told a curl of a wave, "Nana Burku, I love you, and if I don't come back, please little wave, carry that love on to her." There was a big stone in her throat. But she set off up the mountain with her walking stick and her cowrie bracelet wrapped up in a piece of cotton and her fin tied to her back. Wind was whipping around something fierce and for once the clouds were pushed away from the top of the mountain. She could see the nasty old craggy tip. The moon shone down and laid a sort of silver path on the forest like it was some sort a current. High on the top of the mountain, Lele could see the cave of the old dragon. She climbed.
It weren't easy. It took a good long while. Still, moon was still high in the sky by the time she reached the cave of the dragon. Now that old pasty pale beast was sleeping with a bulge in his belly. Huddled chained to the wall were folks as she'd known her whole life. Mama whispering comforting words to the others. There were one dead fella, Tomas, from east side of the island, with his eyes wide. He was missing his legs.
Lele crept up and Mama looked fit to start yelling at her. It was a blessing that she couldn't on account of the dragon. Lele used her knife, which was good for gutting fish, to turn the lock. Gentle like each person slipped themselves free and crept out the mouth of the cave.
It was just their misfortune that with all the tugging, that Tomas with his wide dead eyes fell on over with such a clatter. Dragon snorted once and lifted his head with his wide blinking blue eyes. Lele looked that dragon straight in those pale eyes and saw her death staring her right on down.
Mama yelled, "Run!" and every body scattered on down the mountain. Course, Mama didn't run. She wasn't bout to leave Lele.
That old dragon let out a windy roar like rotten meat. There weren't no way to outrun that beast. Lele didn't even think. She threw her walking stick at it, which was a damn fool of a thing to do. Cept that there walking stick changed as she threw it. The curves carved into it shifted and shivered into a bubbling fountain a water. A great big rush of a river gushing its way out of the mouth of that cave, smacking that old dragon something fierce and carrying them away.
She pulled the fin from her back and it became a little skiff. Just big enough for Mama and her to ride on down the wild rapids of the new born river. They raced along in the wild black water. Somewhere in the distance, Lele could hear the sweet roar of the sea.
But that old dragon, he was fixed on them. He had them in his big blinking eyes. He flew over head like a cloud. A cloud with great big curved claws that snatched and grabbed. He grabbed onto Mama by her leg and went straight up.
Lele grabbed onto Mama's arms. Mama yelled, "Lele, let go!"
But Lele didn't let go. She gripped on tight. The cloth around the cowrie shells on her wrist slipped free as she twisted in the air. The shells clattered against each other. Lele yelled, "Nana Burku, help!"
There was a moment like perfect still, as that old dragon labored to hold them all up in the deep dark of the moonlit sky. Lele blinked, cause she hardly believe what she was seeing. There was this woman running through the moon bright clouds with a face like thunder and her hair all wrapped up in a hundred braids full of jangling copper. In her right hand, she held some sort of whip with long hairs at the end. In her left hand, she held a machete sharp as lightening. It was Oya, the Orisha of the wind. Oya roared as she ran and that old dragon's roar was like a breeze next to a black cloud hurricane.
Oya, she whipped the wind before her something fierce. That old dragon, he tried to fly away. But he wasn't as fast as Oya.
Smash came Oya. Slash went Oya's machete right on through that old dragon's leg. Lele and Mama should have been falling, but instead gentle as a Mama with her baby, the wind put them right on down in the powder soft sand of the shore. Problem was, that's where that old dragon fell too. Already, his stump was growing a new leg, which was all kinds of unfair. He snapped his long teeth at them.
Between one blink and the next Nana Burku was there between them. She was so little and he was so very big. Lele looked around for Oya with her machete, but she were just standing in the clouds watching. Not doing a damn thing.
The dragon lunged at Nana Burku with a snap of those big curved teeth of his. But she wasn't little anymore. She was vast and tall. With one mighty hand, she grabbed that dragon by the neck. She snapped him like Mama might snap a snake. Broke his back much the same. His body crashed into the waves and the dark water swallowed that nasty old body up. Yemya brushed her hands together like Mama brushed off flour and said, "To the depths with you."
Mama said, "Beg pardon, Yemaya. But if you'd revealed yourself before, I wouldn't have cussed you out when you gave me some fool stick and fin for my daughter."
Nana Burku, or Yemaya it would seem, with the endless sea in her eyes, didn't pay Mama no mind. She only had eyes for Lele. She said, "The sea can be cruel as kind, but it's full of life and wonder."
Lele didn't care bout cruel or kind, or even giving her Mama an eyeful. She was lifted up in Yemaya's arms. Last she heard was Mama saying, "Take care of my girl, or so help me, I don't care if you are the Orisha of the sea." The heat in Lele's cheeks were splashed with cool water, fore she gave way to the wide warm of the sea.
Now as to what happened next, that would be a hard tale to tell. Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes were a little island in a wide warm sea and folks don't get much account of what happens there. Cept for what the breeze happens to carry on by.
Since Oya, the Orisha of the wind, is and will always be the daughter of Yemaya, the Orisha of the sea, that was all the story that there will be carried here. Unless someone happens up on that blessed little island and finds out some details more.