The Origin of Thunder | A Thunderbird Legend

Throughout time, people across the world told each other tales of how they came to be. Of heroes and monsters, romance and tragedy, death and rebirth. Mythology helped shape the ancient world, explaining the unexplainable. This is Mythology Unleashed. Long, long ago, in a time when the world was not so old, two youths, filled with the curiosity and ambition of the young and brave, set out on a quest that no other amongst their people had ever undertaken. They set out to discover the origin of thunder. No one knew where it came from, yet it surely had to come from somewhere. The elders could only advise them so far. They urged them to venture north, towards the mountains where the spirits dwell. There, they may find some answers. And so off the two young men went, the miles passing beneath their feet, until at last they came to the northern mountains, beyond which the spirits dwelled. But these mountains were unlike any others on Earth. The mountains here moved, back and forth, drawing apart, before slamming together quickly and with devastating force. The two men were unsure they would both make it through, yet they were determined to complete their quest. They made a pact, should either of them not make it through the smashing rocks, that the other would see the quest through to the end. The first youth took the leap, and he made it across before the cleft closed, but his companion was sadly lost to the moving mountains. Alone now, the youth made his way further into the northern frontier, beyond the mountains, until he came to an open plain with a number of wigwams. He could see people, who looked as he and his people did, a number of the youths among them playing a ball game. When the game came to an end, the players went into the wigwams, and came out completely changed in form, with massive wings and the appearance of great eagles. They then took to the air, flying towards the south. The beating of their wings sounded as thunder, and the flashes of their eyes was that of lightning. As they flew overhead and out of sight, the young man who had ventured so far into the great unknown had realized he had found the home of the Thunderbirds, the origin of thunder. It was not long before the young man's presence was discovered by the elders of the tribe, and he was put to question. Who are you? they asked him. Where do you come from, and why are you here? So he regaled them with his story, of the goal to discover thunder's origin, of the journey north through the moving mountains, of his dearly departed travel companion, and his eventual discovery of the Hidden Plain. But now he faced a new dilemma, getting home, as he feared that there would be no safe passage through the mountains a second time, not to mention the long journey to his home village, made even more difficult without his friend. So the Hidden Plain elders conferred among themselves as to how they could help this friendly stranger. They decided to put the lone traveler into a large mortar bowl, and they proceeded to pound him until all of his bones were broken. They then reshaped the man, molding him into a new body with great wings like a Thunderbird, and they sent him away in flight. However, they warned him not to fly close to the trees, as he would fly so fast he could not stop in time to avoid them. And he would be killed. But what they failed to tell the newly made Thunderbird was that the southern lands were the home of Wachausen, the Great Bird of the Winds, who had long rivaled the great Thunderbirds. Wachausen was a threat to the people, and tried hard to defeat the Thunderbirds. It could not be killed, nor critically injured, lest the circle of life be thrown out of balance. And so it became the task of this new Thunderbird to keep Wachausen at bay, and watch over the peoples of the earth. And so it came to be. A youth determined to discover the origin of thunder, journeyed north and survived the cleft of the moving mountains, and became the Great Thunderbird, the Tamer of the Winds, and protector of the people. And the people knew it was him flying overhead, watching over them, the flapping of his mighty wings, echoing his thunder across the skies, and the lightning flashes of his eyes, lighting up the dark.