Mountains
In the “Beginning” story we learnt that “Night” and his partner “Darkness” only had three daughters.
The First Daughter: Mountains
Mountains, or 'Kou, was the eldest daughter who lived contentedly with her husband—the son of !Kaggen—and their young daughter in a land of plenty. She wore a precious necklace of baby tortoise shells and was blessed with an abundance of her favourite food: tortoise meat. The veld around their hut teemed with tortoises, and she could eat as much as her heart desired.
But 'Kou's fondness for tortoise meat grew into an obsession. Eventually, eating tortoise became all she did from dawn to dusk. As she grew larger, she also began moving slower, like the very tortoises she consumed. What once took moments now consumed entire days—she would spend from sunrise to sunset catching a single tortoise just outside her hut.
In time, she stopped doing anything else entirely. Her husband had to collect the tortoises for her, cook them, and feed them to her by hand. She no longer cared for her daughter, and when her husband pleaded with her, he might as well have been speaking to the little dead tortoise shells around her neck. All she wanted was tortoise meat, and nothing else mattered. Her husband shouldered the burden of caring for himself and their daughter, gathering other foods since they refused to eat tortoise meat from morning to night.
One day, while her husband was away hunting, 'Kou and her daughter were alone when a large male baboon approached the child. He demanded to know where her mother was, then insisted on having the strip of skin that held the baby tortoise shells around 'Kou's neck. This baboon was one of the old people, and he wanted that strip returned because it had been cut from his brother's hide.
The frightened child refused to speak to him. The baboon warned he would return the next day—if they didn't surrender the strip cut from his brother's skin, he would tear it from her mother's neck by force.
The girl was terrified, and when her father returned that afternoon, she begged him to stay home the following day. As expected, the baboon returned and repeated his demand. The man seized his bow and arrows, threatening to shoot if the baboon didn't leave them in peace. The baboon retreated reluctantly but promised to return the next day with his entire troop—then they would truly be sorry.
The man worked frantically, gathering food and extra water for the coming siege. He reinforced their hut and prepared his bow and arrows for battle. Flight was impossible—his wife had grown too large and slow to escape.
At dawn, a troop of angry baboons advanced on their hut while !Kaggen watched from afar. He transformed his son into Storm Bird and his granddaughter into Echo. Storm Bird beat his powerful wings, creating fierce winds that roared toward the baboons. With his talons, he clawed up stones and earth that whirled through the air. Some baboons were struck by branches torn from trees, others were pelted with stones. Dust and sand filled their eyes and mouths, blinding them. All the while, Echo filled their ears with terrible sounds until, overcome with fear, they fled in panic.
As they ran, the old baboon shouted his final threat: they would never leave them alone—even in death, they would come seeking their brother's strip of skin.
Each day, 'Kou grew larger and more listless until she could no longer move at all. One day, she fell into an eternal sleep and became the mountains we know today. If you listen carefully to the mountains, you can sometimes hear her stomach rumbling—this is how we know she is not dead, but sleeping forever.
Her husband, Storm Bird, went to dwell high in the mountains to remain near his wife. Their daughter, Echo, made her home in the deep valleys, staying as close to her mother as possible.
Read more about the whole family in this ebook available on Smashwords and other online book stores.