An Oral Tradition: The Kodo

[Muato]

(( For your reading enjoyment, this is a copy of the story Muato told at a RP campfire event on 8/9/06. It was edited and rewritten to fit in-line with the Taurens and WoW lore. It is based off an old

Cherokee tribal tale of the Bear, so props to the ancient Native American Tribes. ))

The Story of the Kodo

In the long ago time, there was a Tauren Tribe call the Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee (Beartotems), and in one family of this tribe was a bull who used to leave home and be gone all day on the plains. After a while he went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the tipi at all, but started off at daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded, but that did no good, and the young tauren still went every day until they noticed that his tauren hair was beginning to fall out all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to be so much on the plains that he would not even eat at home. Said the tauren, "I find plenty to eat there, and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the villages, and pretty soon I am going to the plains to stay all the time." His parents were worried and begged him not leave them, but he said, "It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so that I can not live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you will never have to work for it; but if you want to come, you must first fast seven days." The father and mother talked it over and then told the shamen of the tribe. They held a council about the matter and after everything had been said they decided: "Here we must work hard and have not always enough." There he says is always plenty without work. We will go with him." So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning al the Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee left the settlement and started for the plains as the young bull led the way. When the tauren of the other villages heard of it they were very sorry and sent their shamen to persuade the Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee to stay at home and not go to the plains to live. The messengers found them already on the way, and were surprised to notice that their bodies were beginning to loose their hair like that of some plains animals. This was because for seven days they had not taken normal food and their nature was changing. The Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee would not come back, but said, "We are going where there is always plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called Kodo, and when you yourselves are hungry come onto the plains and call us and we shall come to give you our own flesh. You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always." Then they taught the shamen the songs with which to call them and Tauren hunters have these songs still. When they had finished the songs, the Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee started on again and the shamen turned back to the villages... ...but after going a little way they looked back and saw a pack of Kodo running on the plains.