Diving into fiction
Excerpt from Telling Stone (Maine Authors Publishing, 2022) by Scott Dickerson MPhil ’95
Okyo’s hand guided the flintburin around the shape of the first tallantlered, smooth lines flowing from its head, held high, down the curve of its neck and along its back and around its rump.
...now I’m knowing what my hand felt when it traveled along Marita’s body, the smooth flow of her strong back into the breadth of her hip, fullness of her rump...
When he began, his fatlight provided enough light to incise the outlines of one tallantlered after another as they walked across the wall. Later, the light of sola came to the wall. As he carved, none of them were the same. Each had a different posture, some grazing, others with head up and alert, looking in one direction or another, some striding forward. A bull led, stretching its head upward, its mouth high and open, antlers laid along its back, its power told in every way. Though the stone was silent, Okyo could hear the loud whistling challenge coming from its throat. Seven cows followed, separated by irregular spaces. Each was as long as one of his arms. He stopped carving when they stretched across the entire length of the smooth, light-colored wall. By then, sola had been shining into the cave for many horas.
...enough for this solalight, my hand is becoming stiff, sore...even with the light of sola, it is hard to see all of the lines I’ve carved...next solalight I’ll use earthlife...these tallantlered will become easily seen, even in the flicker of a fatlight, if ever one is held in this cave...but, do I have enough earthlife to paint all of these lines...much will be needed, I don’t think I brought enough...where we dig earthlife is far behind me now, I don’t know where to get any near here...at least I have fat from the shortantlered to mix with what I do have, then I’ll know how much I can paint...
When he went to his basket and took out the lump of earthlife, Okyo realized he did not have enough to paint entirely around the tallantlered outlines. His mindeye had seen the incised lines cut by his flintburin completely filled with earthlife. That would not be possible. His mindeye began seeking other ways to paint the tallantlered while he kindled a fire and roasted some of the shortantlered meat.
The answer came to him while he slept and his mindeye wandered through the sky with luna and the sparkeyes. Usually at firstlight, when he awakened, whatever his mindeye saw while he slept blew away as quickly as snow before a gust of wind. But this firstlight, his mindeye held what had come to him during the lunalight.
...to completely fill the outlines to tell power with earthlife isn’t necessary, isn’t even respectful...earthlife would surround them, bind them, color them with our power, not theirs, make their power into mine...offend their power by such control...yes, we kill some for meat, but leave most free to live between ridge and forest, as their power leads them...to tell how the tallantlered and Santanda have found this way to live together, it will be better to place dots of earthlife around the outline...power can flow through the spaces between dots, in and out between the tallantlered and the Santanda, making one immense power...and, they will look like newborn tallantlered, lines of white spots along their bodies...the earthlife spots I will paint will share the borningpower of the tallantlered with that of the Santanda women...
