The Screeching Dust Cloud

When I was growing up as a teenager I used to hunt feral pigs to help feed our family. The area I hunted them in was very remote and you had to hike the last 10 miles or so because a vehicle could not even get close. In fact it was such bad terrain in some areas you would have to crawl through underbrush and game trails.

I always had my bow with me back then. It was a constant companion in the wilderness areas I walked through. I knew with a bow I would have to be close up to the wild pig in order to get a good clean shot. After you reached a certain point and if you knew where you were going you would end up in a very beautiful area that you could easily walk through.

You would walk through open areas dotted with huge cottonwood trees, several varieties of willow trees and a type of ceder tree. The leaves of the cottonwood trees sound much the same as the leaves of an aspen tree in a breeze. The willows and the arrow root plants had a very heady aroma, a wild and inviting perfume I can still smell to this day when I close my eyes. The ground was soft without being so soft it was hard to walk through. There were so many birds, rabbits , foxes, badgers, coyotes and just about every other type of animal you could think of with the exception of bear and deer. It was easy to get lost in your thoughts and just meander for miles and miles in this area.

Even the open areas closed in from time to time. You would push through the brush and pop out in another open area or just follow along and find a trail through the brush and you would always come out into these open areas. Each one almost seemed as if they were a little world unto themselves. Once I started walking through these open areas I liked to take my time and just wander around and take in the sights. I felt sheltered and cocooned in my own world.

Very rarely did I ever feel threatened here....but....from time to time I would start thinking about the stories that the old ones would tell us about this place, they would say that it was haunted and inhabited by bad spirits. Some of these spirits had names, some of them didn't. Some of the old ones claimed to have seen these spirits. They would describe strange things happening like large dust clouds moving about by themselves as the thunder roared in the middle of the dust clouds. A strange noise would come from these mysterious dust clouds like tormented spirits trying to escape the strangle hold of these clouds.

So, when you are a 16 or 17 year old boy and you are impertinent and full of yourself you pretty much discard anything like this as old superstitions or some old person making up something just to keep you from wandering off. At any rate, I was young and knew everything so what did it matter.

On this particular day my mind was entertaining thoughts of the old stories as I walked toward my hunting area. It was late May and the day was quite warm already. As the day heated up the cedar, the willows and the arrow root would give off more powerful aromas. This was good for covering your scent as you approached the area you were going to hunt in. The sky was a brilliant thick blue. It seemed that the sky was so blue it was solid, I am sure you could have taken a knife and sliced a big wedge out of the sky.

I couldn't help get those stories out of my mind though and perhaps I became a bit spooked. But now my ears were listening more intent and I had gotten a bit jumpy. Now if this was a cartoon I would have started whistling to keep myself calmed down. But it wasn't a cartoon, I was out in the middle of nowhere, no one around to call out to and this was way before the term cell phone was thought of. Not that I was scared, like I said, I was 16 or 17 years old, I knew everything and was full of myself....of course I never got scared.

Then in an instant of ice cold blood and heart stopping clarity I heard it. A clear blue spring sky but I know I heard thunder. I also know I heard something else, something much more sinister then thunder. I could not help but think there is no way this is happening to me. But it was happening and I could not deny what I heard. The thunder was moving closer and getting louder. But that other sound, how it frightened me, it was like nothing I had ever experienced.

I was in the middle of a clearing and the sound was approaching from the clearing behind me. I tried to look through the trees but the brush was too thick and I could not see through it though I felt my life depended on it. I had no idea what horrible fate was about to befall me but I did know one thing, I needed to escape somehow and I needed to escape as fast as I could.

I was a fast runner in my day so I knew I had one chance. Bolt and run and never look back. So you can imagine my surprise when I decided to climb the nearest tree instead. By the time I had decided to run however it was even worse then I thought. The ground itself seemed to be shaking and whatever was about to devour me was right on the other side of the clearing and coming fast. I wasn't sure what sound I was hearing but I swear it was screaming and screeching.

By this time the thunder was deafening and disorienting, but that other noise, what a horrific noise, what was it that the venerable, respected and wise older ones would tell me? Oh yeah, the sound of tormented spirits trying to escape this mysterious cloud. The sound that so frightened me seemed to be coming from more then one tormented spirit, from several over a large area and they were all headed my way.

From my vantage point in the tree I climbed I could tell I had made a mistake by not running away as fast as I could. There it was, unbelievable as it sounds and as ghastly and unbelievable as it was to me........there it was I could clearly see a large dust cloud moving in my direction. I could see that it had gone straight through the open area I had just come through and was in the process of breaking through the thick brush surrounding the open area I was in at the time.

I could feel the ground shaking so hard that the tree I was in was even shaking. The noise, that noise of tormented spirits was maddening. I could hear them, so many of them! A high pitched whine, a piercing staccato screech. I could even hear what sounded like low pitched muffled snorts. Anyone who has ever heard pigs squeal and make the other various sounds they produce, knows that pigs can make some fairly disconcerting noises. This was not the sound of pigs.

This was something far worse then I could even imagine and the brush and bushes were breaking and this hideous thing was no only a heartbeat from coming into view. I did not even bother to draw my bow. I instinctively knew it would be of no use. I didn't even have any silver bullets or whatever it was that you were supposed to use on other worldly beings. I steadied myself in an odd surreal moment of calm in the midst of this impending horror.

Then out of the thick tall brush they came crashing through, bounding forward, freed from some unforeseen bondage. Hurtling forward as if shot from some haunted cannon filled with torment, dust and spirits. My heart stopped as I saw them all, so many of them and now they were nearly upon me. They had breeched a hole in the thick brush and here they came,spilling out of the darkest recesses of imagination but now loosed upon my world.

Every detail, even the enveloping, moving dust cloud was there. This was an absolute impossibility. They came running and screeching and snorting straight for the tree I was in and within seconds the tree was standing in a torrent of shapes. Dark and light patches, gnashing teeth as they bit at each other, stringy hair blowing back as they ran passed. Angry feet pounding at the earth and lashed out at each other.

By this time fear had been replaced.....with what at first I am not sure but soon I was in awe as I watched the largest herd of wild horses I had ever seen run right underneath and around me. Their scraggly wild manes and tails swirling like frenzied flames. They were so wild they could not contain themselves. Jumping, bucking and running in graceful arcing curves and chaotic zig zags. Whinnying and snorting and carrying on, making noises I have never heard horses make. Running and kicking and biting. A beautiful wild eyed symphony of muscle, whipping manes and thundering hooves. I was privileged to have a front row seat like no other. Little did I know at the time, that was one of the most beautiful, powerful sights I would see in my lifetime.

So there I was, still sitting in the tree, it was over much too soon. The dust and the aroma of the horses still hung in the air as the thunder was receding into the distance. I decided that I could probably breathe now and maybe it would be a good thing if my heart started beating again. I remember I couldn't climb down from the tree or more accurately I really didn't want to. Not for fear that they would return, I just didn't want to disturb this moment. Something magical had just happened and I, as a mortal, had no right to be here and had no right to disturb this realm until it returned to normal.

I replayed the scene over and over in my mind, the sounds, the thunder, the hooves, the wild eyes. I had been given a rare treasure and I wanted to greedily consume every last piece of it so that I took it in and would never forget it. So it would become a part of me forever.

I never did get the wild pig I came to hunt that day. It didn't matter to me at all though. I went back many times to hunt, but I found myself usually tracking the herd of wild horses and trying to get a glimpse of them. They were very elusive and never again was I to experience the full force, fury and beauty of that first encounter. I watched them many times from a distance and would hear them running if I spooked the herd. Even these encounters were a marvel to me and I loved every minute I spent tracking and watching those horses.

I went back and told my Grandfather about the horses. He smiled and with a sparkle in his eye he asked me if they were running in a dust cloud. I valued my Grandfather and other elders. I knew they had wisdom and knowledge that I didn't. Too frequently I discounted their "silly superstitions" as something that, though important to the elders, just didn't belong in this modern age I lived in.

When they would relate their legends to me I would love to hear the stories, but I was growing up in a different time then they did. I was even 16 or 17 at this time, I knew everything didn't I?

I listened to their stories with a different ear from that time on. After all, they had all told me about the mysterious thundering dust cloud. I had seen the dust cloud, I had indeed seen wild spirits with my own eyes. They happened to be a nomadic herd of wild horses. It was about this time in my life I learned it was not only good to trust my own eyes, but the eyes of those that had gone before me, that had learned before me and eyes that had so much to share.

Otter