{"sf1_id":692081,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Fear and the Coyote","author":"BlackSmoke","words":1073,"posted_at":"2014-04-12T11:27:00.000Z","tags":["Character Development","Clean","Coyote","God","Native American","No-Yiff","Outdoors","Plot Development","Romance","Wolf","Wolfess","myth","pagan","trickster"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/692081-fear-and-the-coyote","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/692081","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=692081\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"They asked me to write more about Coyote.","content":"They\nwere still laying together in their blankets near a relighted fire\nunder their lean-to, their clothes pulled between them to warm up\nbefore they dressed. They held each other and felt each other's life\nin their bodies, one old and one comparatively young. Then Coyote\nsighed, and Wolf Woman frowned and looked him in the eye.\"You're\ndifferent out here, alone. You drop your mask.\"\"I\ndropped it? Where?\" he yipped as he reached up to his muzzle. She\nrolled her eyes.\"You\nknow what I mean. There's something about you. You're not... Not\nlike all the myths.\"\"Howso?\nI was the one who did all those things. Can a being change so much?\n...Well, s'pose they can. I'm older now. That was all when I was\nyoung. They stopped keeping my story.\"\"Did\nyou stop doing interesting things?\"\"No.\nBut I did mature. And so did my children.\"There\nare other gods and other realms, Coyote reminisced as he walked up\nthe trail with Wolf Woman behind him. They joked and jabbed from\ntime to time but they were mostly quiet that day.In\nhis early days Coyote did so many things. He was young and\nambitious. Life hadn't broken him yet. It was true, life could even\nbreak a god. It so often had. Gods weren't always gods, and beings\nfrom their race didn't always become gods. Coyote had even seen\nother gods die, or fade away. He'd seen them become weak or grow\nstrong, he'd seen them slowly lose interest in all things and sleep\nand never awaken, no matter how many prayed to them. Those prayers\nwent unanswered.Gods\ndreamed and Coyote dreamed. He'd learned from a spider how to weave\nthese dreams, and he'd become very skilled. Out of his own mind he\nweaved his own dream realm, but it was... Not what it used to be.\nNot since his wife had been taken. It'd been a thousand years.\nMore! Tens of thousands of years, and he still remembered that day\nhe met death.Coyote's\nwife had died. He'd never seen death before and he asked Crow what\nit was. Crow said that was when the soul of a person left to the\nspirit world. Not just any spirit world, though, it was a place from\nwhere they could not return. Coyote decided to go there, and bring\nhis wife back.He\nsailed and he sailed and his boat sank, and he swam and swam. He\ndrifted for days on top of the deep sea until he sank. He'd been\nlooking for the West Hole in the Sky, where he took the sun and told\nit to roll under the earth and come up on the other side. But he\ncouldn't find it. He sank into the West Big Water.When\nhe woke on the other side he'd washed up on a faraway land. Coyote\nwandered for ages, cold and wet and hungry in a gray place, until he\nfound a village where the dead dwelled. He looked around and asked\nfor his wife, and eventually found her...\"Coyote,\"\nWolf Woman asked as they stopped for a rest near a waterfall, \"You\nseem thoughtful. What are you thinking about?\"\"Mortals\ncannae comprehend the thoughts of a god!\" he said deeply, before he\nbroke out into a yipping laughter. She threw a pawful of moss at him\nand nailed him right in the muzzle, and he admitted he deserved that\none.The\nwind was soft and cool in their fur and the thawing waterfall\ntrickled and slowly wore away the stalactites that hung over it, a\npuddle resting over the thin ice there and sandwiching it between two\nlayers of water. From their mountainside path they could see the\nvalley into which they were descending.\"I've\nbeen enjoying my time with you.\" she warmly said even though her\nbreath created a cloud of mist like smoke from a pipe.\"Most\ndo, men and women.\" he slyly said, and she just laughed and turned\nher muzzle away. \"But... I've been enjoying my time with you,\ntoo. Your kind is so precious, Wolf Woman, your time so short...\"\"Don't\nremind me, you big downer. I thought you were supposed to be playful\nlike a big puppy, and mischievous and tricksie!\"\"I\ntry my best. A lot has happened since those stories were recorded.\"\"Like\nwhat?\"He\nsighed softly, looking up at the sky. What could he say? His wife?\nHis banishment? The four hundred years of war where he was helpless\nbut to watch his children die? Every corpse of a coyote, or worse,\npiles of them, some skinned and some just left to rot?\"Everything.\"Wolf\nWoman sat silent for a bit, before sighing. \"Do you still manage\nto enjoy things?\"\"I\nenjoy you. I enjoy life. Even the breath inside my lungs is\nheavenly. The beauty, the boldness and the stubbornness of life.\nThe sacred, scared dark nights and the dreams I weave in them.\nThere's nothing else like it.\" He'd hate to see it go.\"You're\nsuch a softy, Coyote!\"\"I\nam. I make sure my fur is the softest and warmest!\" He got a\nsnicker from her for that, and she leaned onto his shoulder and put\nher opposite hand on his thigh. \"I also do take time to enjoy nice\nwhiskey and nice food, and good music.\"\"You\ndidn't strike me as the type!\"As\nthey got further down the slope all snow and ice was gone and the\nwind was just a little warmer. Coyote and Wolf Woman enjoyed some\nplay in the muddy puddles along the old path, and then set up camp\nand huddled near the fire together to keep warm. He smoked his old\npipe and she rolled a cigarette and they smoked together by that\nfire, the traditional and modern.\"What\nif I be wrong, Lupa? What if I can't? What if... What if I'm\njust...\"\"Coyote,\"\nshe cut him off, \"You are,\nand that is why you will succeed.\"\"I'm\nafraid, Lupa. I'm afraid.\" These were the truths he whispered in\nthe night to her as they cuddled by a dying fire. A tired,\nfrightened old god. Frightened of failing himself and his mother,\nthe Mountain, and his followers.\"We\nall are afraid. Remember\nwhat you told me when I first saw you?\"\"Besides\ngoing on about how beautiful you are?\" That managed to get a\nchuckle from her. She squeezed the god tighter in her arms and\nwhispered into his ear softly, her breath teasing the fur inside.\"You\ntold me, 'fear is only logical, but isn't it magic, isn't it\nwonderful?'\""}