Billy Buckhorn and the War of Worlds, page 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Robinson, Gary, 1950- author.
Title: Billy Buckhorn and the War of Worlds / Gary Robinson.
Description: Summertown, Tennessee : 7th Generation, 2024. | Series: The Thunder Child prophecy ; 3 | Includes bibliographical references. | Audience: Ages 12+ | Audience: Grades 7-9. | Summary: When an ancient evil alliance attempts to usher in a new age dominated by the Underworld, Billy and his friends must fight alongside their allies to prevent the apocalypse.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024020740 (print) | LCCN 2024020741 (ebook) | ISBN 9781570674266 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781570678219 (ebook)
Subjects: CYAC: Cherokee Indians—Fiction. | Indians of North America—Oklahoma—Fiction. | Supernatural—Fiction. | LCGFT: Paranormal fiction. | Novels.
Classification: LCC PZ7.R56577 Bj 2024 (print) | LCC PZ7.R56577 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024020740
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024020741
© 2024 by Gary Robinson
Front cover art by Chevron Lowery, chevronlowery.artstation.com Cover and interior design: John Wincek, aerocraftart.com
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, except for brief quotations in reviews, without written permission from the publisher.
7th Generation
Book Publishing Company
PO Box 99, Summertown, TN 38483
888-260-8458
bookpubco.com
nativevoicesbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-57067-426-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-57067-821-9
PROLOGUE
Cosmic Twins
CHAPTER 1
Countdown Begins
CHAPTER 2
Shaking Tent
CHAPTER 3
Older than Cahokia
CHAPTER 4
Owls and Snakes Together Again
CHAPTER 5
Pieces of the Puzzle
CHAPTER 6
Spring Break
CHAPTER 7
Looks Can Be Deceiving
CHAPTER 8
Elderberry and Juniper
CHAPTER 9
A Myth Visits Chigger
CHAPTER 10
Brave or Crazy
CHAPTER 11
Secrets of the Underworld
CHAPTER 12
The Muskrat Makes His Move
CHAPTER 13
Inner Sanctum
CHAPTER 14
Deep Dive
CHAPTER 15
End Times
CHAPTER 16
Latter Days
CHAPTER 17
Whirlwind of Chaos
CHAPTER 18
Beasts Arise
CHAPTER 19
Enemies and Allies
CHAPTER 20
Breath of Death
CHAPTER 21
Showdown at Cahokia
CHAPTER 22
A New Normal
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOURCES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
he skies over Solstice City were bright and clear on that first day of summer in AD 1054. As the sun rose in the east that morning, the people were preparing for the largest annual summer solstice celebration the site had ever seen. Thousands would be attending the event to be held in this, the largest Native American city north of Mexico.
But no one was prepared for the spectacular cosmic events that would unfold that day, not even the Sun Chief’s four sky watchers. These astronomers tracked the movements of the sun, moon, and star constellations and, in their dual roles as astrologers, interpreted the meaning of those movements for the chief and his people.
The watchers were the first to see it: a brilliant explosion in the heavens, visible in broad daylight, a sign from the Upperworld domain to the peoples of the Middleworld. As the four watchers rushed to inform their chief of this significant event, they argued over its meaning. Is it the beginning of a new era? Or does it mark the beginning of the end of the world? No, it must be an indicator that something of great importance is coming.
As the four climbed up the stairs of the Sun Chief’s royal mound, they continued to watch the skies for further signs. And they did not have long to wait, for just as they reached the summit, a fiery Sky Stone zoomed from the heavens toward the earth, no doubt hurled by one of the Upperworld beings. Leaving a trail of smoke and fire, the small object struck the center of the ceremonial plaza with such force that the ground beneath the astrologers’ feet shook.
Screams of fear and uncertainty rose from the residents of the city. Is the Sun, Creator’s representative in the daytime sky, displeased with his children? Are the Upperworld beings trying to warn us of something? What are we to do?
These were the questions on the minds of the dwellers of Solstice City as they gathered at the foot of the Sun Chief’s mound. At that moment, as if choreographed by a cosmic designer, the Sun Chief emerged from his home atop the city’s largest flat-top earthen pyramid. Wearing the feathered cape and carrying the staff that marked his divine status, he addressed his followers with a broad smile.
“Born unto us this day, in the presence of these signs, are twin sons!” he announced with great bravado. “Destined at this preordained time to become the twin Sun Chiefs who will rule with power and wisdom, directly chosen by Morningstar, lord of the Upperworld!”
A great roar arose from the people as they realized the signs from above were good omens, not signs of the end. This solstice day celebration would be like no other in recent memory. The Sun, the Thunders, and the Upperworld beings must indeed be pleased with them. All was right with the world!
In a grand naming ceremony, the Sun Chief gave the boys the names Shakuru, meaning “Sun” or “Of the Sky,” and Monkata, meaning “He of the Earth.” Expectations were high among members of the royal court that these two would embody the abilities and accomplishments of the Hero Twins. In mythic tales of the past, these powerful supernatural twins had rid the Middleworld of frightful flesh-eating monsters, banishing them to the depths of the Underworld.
As they grew, the twin sons of Solstice City’s ruler were trained in the supernatural arts, including healing, spirit travel, communing with ancestors, and dispelling ghosts. The pair was also trained in the skills of the warrior.
By the time the twins reached their sixteenth birthday, however, Monkata had begun exhibiting darker, more negative traits. Not as agile, physically skillful, or smart as his brother, he grew to be jealous and self-absorbed, prone to taking actions that brought attention to himself and perpetuated rivalry between the two. His secret attraction to the darker arts also began having a negative effect on his physical form.
The fingers of his left hand began curling in on themselves, and his left foot turned inward, making it more difficult to walk. A slight curvature of the spine tilted him to one side. His whole demeanor made people think he was an elderly person rather than a young man.
On their twenty-first birthday, as their father lay dying, Shakuru was named sole Sun Chief, and Monkata was expelled from the community—forever. He vowed to return one day to take his rightful place on the chief’s mound.
The exiled twin first traveled east to a village in Ohio he’d heard about. The people there were said to worship a powerful serpent figure who could heal you and grant you the power to overcome all obstacles in life. Although they’d created an earthen effigy of a snake, they had no real power, so Monkata moved on.
Returning to the Mississippi River, the twin followed the river south until he reached a place called Serpent City. It was here that an ancient Indigenous community had established a religious practice that rivaled that of the Sun Chief.
At the core of this community was the worship of both Horned and Winged Serpents, mysterious Underworld dwellers rumored to wield dangerous powers. Any mortal who could commune with those creatures and harness those powers must be powerful indeed! This group, commonly known as the Snake Cult, was led by a warrior sorcerer called the Head of the Snake, wrapped fully from head to foot in artful ink depicting a venomous rattlesnake.
The central figure of the cult’s beliefs was the Great Winged Serpent, known as Quetzalcoatl to the Maya and KuKulKan to the Aztecs. He was the rightful lord of the three worlds: Upper, Middle, and Lower. He, and his court of subordinate Horned Serpents, had wrongfully been cast down to the Underworld by Upperworld beings or the Hero Twins—no one really knew for sure.
But what was the attraction to such a cult for mortal humans? Among other things, the Head of the Snake promised his followers that upon their death, they could reincarnate in a human life of their choosing, like a snake sheds its skin to be born anew.
Now this was a group Monkata could identify with! Upon reaching their compound of mounds located on a high point of land within a snaking curve of the Mississippi River, he immediately set about the task of using his considerable supernatural abilities and warrior skills to work his way up through the cult’s ranks.
After becoming a close confidant to the Snake Cult’s leader and learning the spells the man used to call on the powers of the Underworld, the evil twin beheaded the Head of the Snake and claimed the position for himself, naming himself the Snake Priest. He then convinced cult members that they must begin arming themselves for a revolution that would one day restore the Wi nged Serpent to his rightful place as lord of the three worlds.
Using mass hypnosis techniques learned from Snake Cult medicine makers, Monkata convinced his subjects to believe that his own physical deformities had been caused by the actions of his twin brother, who’d wrongfully seized sole control of Solstice City.
Years passed as the Snake Priest raised and trained his army and perfected his plan of attack. Finally, when he was sure the Sun Chief had relaxed his guard and Solstice City was busy preparing for another summer solstice celebration, the deformed twin launched his military campaign.
But the Sun Chief’s spies had infiltrated the Snake Cult’s inner circle and warned him of the plan. When the attack came, Shakuru’s warriors easily repelled the offensive. During the battle, which was waged on the southern fringe of the city, Monkata was mortally wounded.
As the Snake Priest lay dying, his inner circle of warriors vowed to avenge his death, no matter how long it took. True to their vow, a small contingent of Snake warriors attacked when the Sun Chief was most vulnerable, during a sacred ceremony at the remote Spiral Mounds Ceremonial Complex on the Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma.
After Shakuru and four men from his most dedicated protection unit were assassinated, the Snake Cult’s strongest sorcerer cast the spell that tethered the Sun Chief’s soul to his physical remains and simultaneously concealed his location.
That was until a Cherokee teen named Billy Buckhorn and his troop of supernatural and archaeological investigators stumbled on the spirit of the Sun Chief, along with the physical symbols of his office, the feathered cape and the staff, unseen by human eyes for almost a thousand years.
illy awoke to the sound of thunder.
“Good morning, Fathers,” the sixteen-year-old Cherokee said, acknowledging his role as Thunder Child, a position and responsibility he’d finally, but reluctantly, come to accept.
As he blinked and yawned and sat up in bed, he remembered the dream he’d been having off and on much of the night. His friend Chigger was trapped inside a very large bird’s nest that rested on a dark mountaintop. In a fiery sky, an oversized fowl—maybe it was an owl or a raven, Billy wasn’t sure—circled overhead. Coming up the side of the mountain was a one-eyed snake, its forked tongue flicking the air. But this serpent was more than just a snake. It was some kind of snake leader, it seemed.
Billy shook his head and put the dream out of his mind. Then, moving to the edge of the bed, he checked his cell phone sitting on the nightstand to confirm today’s date: March 20, the end of winter and the beginning of spring.
“The final countdown begins,” he said to his empty bedroom as awareness of his challenges and responsibilities settled once again into his waking mind.
But Billy wasn’t just talking to himself these days. He’d been made conscious of a council of invisible allies who supported his mission here in the physical world. So, whether he spoke aloud or merely projected a thought in his mind, they heard him on some level.
There were the spirits of his deceased grandparents, Wesley and Awinita, who’d guided him many times on his journey along the medicine path. There was Morningstar, the revered Upperworld dweller from whom Billy had learned much since his initiation as Thunder Child. And he couldn’t forget Little Wolf, one of the Cherokee Little People who’d been his companion off and on since childhood.
Of course, his dual cosmic fathers, the Thunders, resided somewhere between the natural and supernatural worlds. They’d chosen him last September, according to Grandpa Wesley, for a special purpose. That was when this incredible journey had begun. Their lightning strike had catapulted him into a new understanding of the closeness of the physical and spiritual worlds.
Finally, there was Creator, the source of it all, who resided throughout the universe and within each human heart. Respecting, acknowledging, and regularly communicating with Creator was one of the first lessons Grandpa Wesley had taught Billy as a young boy.
Billy rose from bed and performed the seven directions ceremony that he’d learned from Wesley long ago. As he finished the morning ritual, thunder rumbled again from above.
Lately Billy Buckhorn had become unexpectedly interested in—no, obsessed with—the weather. Of course, as an avid outdoorsman, he’d always been conscious of the weather, the weather as he directly experienced it while hunting, fishing, or collecting traditional herbs.
But now, he was obsessed with weather reports and forecasts, the kind found on the Weather.gov website or in bulletins from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The obsession had begun a few weeks ago as he became familiar with the work of Native American weather makers from various tribes. First, there’d been a rare tornado that moved in an unusually straight line for several hundred miles. Billy and everyone else had assumed it was one of the results of climate change, but Grandpa Wesley and Cecil Lookout recognized it as the work of a tribal sorcerer, probably a Night Seer of the Owl Clan.
As Thunder Child, Billy had been instructed in supernatural weather making by Ojibwe tribal medicine man Andrew Blackbird. That was the teen’s first direct training session with a member of the Intertribal Medicine Council. More sessions with the rest of the thirteen members soon followed as his bag of medicine spells and techniques grew.
Before Grandpa Wesley died, actually murdered by the witch of Buzzard Bend and her friends, he had warned of the possibility of freakish weather events due to the efforts of the Night Seers. According to the prophecy kept in Cecil’s Osage family for a thousand years, these events would be part of the buildup to, and preparation for, the coming War of Worlds, when inhabitants of the Underworld would begin their campaign to retake control of the Middleworld.
The teen opened the laptop sitting on his desk, and a couple news headlines greeted him, as they often did. “Rare Earthquake Strikes Middle America” and “Oregon’s Three Sisters.”
“Very odd,” the teen said.
Moving on, he navigated quickly to the radar feed visible on the National Weather Service website. The real-time image displayed moment-by-moment weather patterns in Canada, Mexico, and the US. Storms appeared in shades of blue, green, orange, or red, depending on the severity of the weather event. Other than a few scattered blue and green spots, the map was mostly quiet.
Billy knew that the first day of spring was also the vernal equinox, one of two days in the year when daylight and darkness were of equal length. In the northern hemisphere, this first day of spring was celebrated as a happy time when plants began sprouting again and animals came out of hibernation. He’d learned that many religions of ancient cultures—including those of the Middle East, Norway, and Central America—celebrated various forms of resurrected gods at this time.
The members of the Intertribal Medicine Council would be gathering later in the day to carry out their own ceremony to honor the change of seasons and hear a new message from the ancestor spirits.
But to Billy, the vernal equinox meant there were only ninety-two days until the summer solstice. By that day, the ancient Native American prophecy about the War of Worlds would be over and done with. Whatever was to happen would’ve happened by then.
An unexpected message popped into Billy’s mind: “There will be adverse weather in diverse places soon—very soon.”
Billy immediately knew this thought wasn’t his own. Odd words and unusual phrases had dropped into his mind unexpectedly before, usually coming from a nonphysical source like Morningstar or his grandparents. One such message, “Strange changes are afoot,” had come from Grandma Awinita during a stomp dance ceremony last September.
“You guys,” Billy said out loud, looking up and around the room, “what are you up to?”
Then he remembered something related to that thought—a piece of paper he’d tucked away in a desk drawer. Opening the bottom drawer of the desk, he pulled out a very old, well-worn Bible with yellowed pages, one that had originally belonged to his grandmother.
A snippet of yellow paper peeked out of the pages at the back of the book. Billy opened it there—at the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament—and read from the note Grandpa Wesley had placed there before his death.
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.”
