The Ticuna Dowt

Written by Mimi Tallulah

A long time ago, a pregnant unwed Ticuna maiden was found cold, wet, exhausted by a deeply secluded Ticuna village in the Brazilian Amazon. The pregnancy was difficult and the growth inside the young woman was expected to be born stillborn. However, despite the odds, a baby girl was born, though its mother did not survive the labor. Due to the strenuous carriage, the baby girl was born starved and wanting to die. She was given the name of Ahti'tu'kul by the village's Curaca, or chief, which was derived from “Ah tallu dos'e del Tu'kullah” meaning “One who lives against all odds.”

Weak, Ahti'tu'kul grew up with a small frame and had difficulty with even the smallest tasks. As child, Ahti'tu'kul wandered away from the village and deeper and deeper into the rain forest. Coming across a large jaguar, she became afraid and attacked the large cat based on what little knowledge of hunting she had acquired. While no match for the jaguar, it took pity on her and spoke to her in a way that only she could hear it – a telepathic connection in which Ahti'tu'kul realized the error in her ways from viewing what could have easily been the end of her life through the thoughts of the large cat. Begging for forgiveness, the jaguar spared her life and told her that its name was Nanuola.

Finding her way back to the village with the help of Nanuola, Ahti'tu'kul explained to the villagers that the large jaguar Nanuola helped her along the way. It was then that the Curaca said that Nanuola was the guardian spirit that protected them all from the dangers of the rain forest.

As the days passed, Ahti'tu'kul grew up into young woman, though still weak and fragile. Determined to be a productive member of Ticuna society, she trained and hunted with the women and learned to farm and harvest fruits and vegetables from the men. One day, the dreaded lobishomen entered their area of the Amazon. Small, dark, and covered in fur, the lobishomen was a creature that stood just over three feet tall, but with razor sharp teeth that dripped a venom that attracted women despite its ugly appearance. The lobishomen's bite turned women into unsatisfied ladies, constantly craving physical attention from men, but otherwise harbored no ill will. To keep the sanctity of their society, the Ticunas rose up against the lobishomen and killed many. However, the lobishomen did not stay dead. While alive, they targeted women, but once killed and resurrected by the evil spirit Locasi, their skin hardened to form a protective shield, and they were granted powers of super strength, super speed, and heightened senses. The resurrected lobishomen were unstoppable. The more the villagers killed, the more they came back, and craved the villager's blood in vengeance.

This time, the lobishomen cared not for the young women, but desired the blood of all the villagers. What few villagers escaped death were turned by the lobishomen's venom into magnificent humanoid creatures – cold, hard-skined, and graceful with superhuman strength and speed, heightened senses, and such beauty and smell to attract humans, which became their food source. As the war kept going, more and more villagers were turned into these cold, demon-like creatures with red eyes that never seemed to sleep or to be harmed in any way. Fearing for their existence, the remaining villagers urged the young men and women to flee deep into the rain forest and to seek Nanuola's protection.

Ahti'tu'kul was one of the refugees. “O Great Nanuola, guardian of the forest, protector of my people, hear my cries,” Ahti'tu'kul cried out. “The lobishomen is destroying the village, and Locasi has turned them into unstoppable demons! The village will soon be no more!” The last thing Ahti'tu'kul saw were a pair of great big yellow eyes in the canopy above her.

When she awoke, her surroundings were different, or rather, the environment was the same; Ahti'tu'kul was just looking at it from a new perspective. With four legs instead of two, covered in dark rosettes and fur, eyesight that she could see with in extraordinary depth and detail in the dark, increased aural abilities, and stealth, Ahti'tu'kul had changed. Go, she heard a voice in her heard tell her. Save your people.

The incredible burst of energy washed over her in waves. With newfound strength and speed and sense of ruggedness, Ahti'tu'kul raced back to the village, able to smell the sickly sweet scent of the Cold Ones, Locasi's scent to use as her guide. Her teeth and claws were able to rip through their hardened skin as she tore them apart. Despite her efforts, she was outnumbered and their venom burned like poison as they gnashed at her flesh. Everything was getting hazy and dimming, but she caught a glimpse of more jaguars and other animals, such as the otter and butterfly, coming to the rescue, attacking the Cold Ones before passing out.

Opening her eyes to the scent of burning incense, Ahti'tu'kul realized she was human once again, and very sore. Was it all just a dream? She sat up quickly, and became lightheaded. While her eyesight was not as vivid and detailed as it was previously, it was still much better than it had been. Off in the distance, she could hear the fire crackling with body parts of the deceased villagers, though it was many yards away. Glancing down, she saw the slashes healing against her abdomen. It wasn't a dream, but how long had she been asleep? The slashes were nearly healed, yet the setting told her it had only been a few hours, breaking into the dawn of a new day. The older Ticuna woman asked her lie back down, her fever had not yet broke, but Ahti'tu'kul felt fine, better than she had ever felt before, save for a few scratches and aches.

Spotting her reflection in a washing basin, the image of a grown woman stared back. The woman in the basin appeared to be at least 22, 23 years of age, yet Ahti'tu'kul was only 17 when she entered the forest. How long was she in the forest? How long was she a jaguar? No one else in the village appeared to have aged as rapidly, or healed as rapidly as Ahti'tu'kul. Running out of the hut, she went to the center pyre, a great fire. It wasn't just deceased villagers, but the limbs of the Cold Ones, Locasi's inhabitants. “Nanuola!” the villagers cried out. Nanuola was here? Where? Ahti'tu'kul looked around the large jaguar, but saw nothing except the villagers eying her with wide eyes.

She retained the ability to shapeshift into the great jaguar, but the communication with the great cat had disappeared. It was only then she realize that she had become the Great Jaguar, the protector and guardian of her people. Ahti'tu'kul had become Nanuola.

The story of Ahti'tu'kul had been passed down through generations by oral tradition in not just the village named after the girl, but in the Ticuna tribe itself. The direct descendents of Ahti'tu'kul remained in the village until deforestation finally forced the villagers to disperse. In the village of Ahti'tu'kul, the warrior women were referred to as the Nanuola, which became synonymous with guardian and protector, but the fact that there were still shapeshifters in the tribe remained a secret until they had shifted. Every village had its own group of warriors, both men and women. The main village of Ahti'tu'kul was unique in that only women became Nanuolas, or warriors.

Every village is made of different clans, representing different facets on the totem. Jaguars, Otters, and Butterflies were the three main clans of the Ticuna, a large majority of the Jaguar clan residing in Ahti'tu'kul. However, due to Ticuna tradition, the clans could not marry within their own – a clan of the Jaguar could not marry within Jaguar, Otter to Otter, Butterfly to Butterfly. In every village except Ahti'tu'kul, the family took the clan of the male, the husband. In Ahti'tu'kul, it was the wife's clan that took over.

The last two decades were especially hard on the Ticuna villages. Many were destroyed due to deforestation, displacing many Ticuna into the cities. Others moved to other areas that resembled the wet, green, lush rain forests, specifically Forks, Washington. The village of Ahti'tu'kul was one of the last large villages to remain. Due to the displacement, the villages' dowt – the group of Nanuola warrior jaguar shifters were also dispersed and scattered across the globe. The last curaca of Ahti'tu'kul – Tumi Tallulah, a direct descendant of Ahti'tu'kul – had four daughters that were part of the the Ahti'tu'kul dowt, three of whom moved to Forks, Washington, where a large group of Ticuna shifter descendants took refuge. The Tallulahs were later rejoined with the surviving daughter of the 4th.

The dowt in Forks, Washington is a collective dowt from many villages dispersed and/or relocated. The original dowts are hard to find, and the Forks dowt is still very young and inexperienced. Under the current leadership of Jack Silva and Mimi Tallulah, a direct descendent of Ahti'tu'kul, the dowt is growing despite its inexperience. In less than two years, the collective Forks dowt has seen two different alphas and three betas, and their death toll is rising.