Treating A Pounding Headache

It is said the survival of a society is dependent on the strength of it's culture.  How successful these cultural weapons are against inevitable adversities is gauged against how the society has adapted in ones ever dynamic environment.  As science discovers cures for illnesses, our environment mutates and presents new ones that pushes the boundaries of our logical mind thus presenting us with the juxtaposition of testing our faith.  This is the core of humanity.

Henry Ross is an average looking Cree man.  Slight in physical appearance he wears the experiences of his life heavily in his eyes.  His eyes are what distinguishes him that is no ordinary man.  In the modern world of medicine he has acquired the skill set of a surgeon.  What differentiates him is that he acquired his knowledge through many personal fastings where the Spirits teach him how to harness the power of plants (an herbalist), how to detect the source of the ailment and finally how to re-direct positive energy in order to holistically heal all three levels of the human - mind, body and soul.

A week after the sweat ceremony Henry finally returned back to his home base.  I had been on edge the entire time trying to figure out what the hell I had experienced and Joyce made the wise decision to not jump to conclusions by debating with me on what unfolded.  That night Steph and the Azure girls, Aliea and Merissa decided it would be fun to sleep in a tent in the back yard since it was 35 degrees out and the house felt like an oven.  Knowing full well that the national Saskatchewan bird population (AKA mosquitos) were going to eat me alive, I opted to stay indoors and take my chances sweating to death. 

Sometime around 3AM that night I woke up in the dead of my sleep.  Bob was still up watching the movie so when I sat straight up from what looked like a deep sleep, I startled him.  "You okay?" he asked.  "Where's Steph?" I frantically shrieked.  At first I thought something was wrong with my heart because I can hear it pounding.  As I got orientated to my surroundings I realized that I can hear Joyce's voice in Henry's bedroom which was right beside the room I was sleeping in.  Well that's odd.  Suddenly both Joyce and Henry went outside and herded all three girls back into the house.  I asked Joyce what was wrong and she just blurted out that the girls were being too loud.  Tired, I fell back alseep but only after the pounding headache faded.  I didn't sleep well that night.

I woke up sore and with a really massive headache.  Joyce poured me a coffee at breakfast and started to study me.  "You look like you had a rough night?  Did you stay up all night too?"  Bob told his mom I woke up in the dead of my sleep and scared the shit out of him because I sat up like a bat out of hell.  "When did you wake up?"  she asked.  "I dunno, just before you made the girls come in from their camping out session."

Henry looks up from his crossword puzzle.  I was so crabby and tired I didn't even noticed that he was standing at the kitchen counter.  "The girls were pretty loud, did they wake you up?" he asked.  "No, I woke up because my heart was pounding so hard I could hear it," I blurted out.  When the words left my mouth I realized how insane I sounded.   Joyce shot a look to Henry and then let out a huge sigh.  "Oh..." 
The man that has said no more than 3 sentences to me over the last 2 weeks all of a sudden started talking.

Apparently Henry started to hear owls hooting around 1AM outside which he thought was odd.  He came outside to investigate and noticed not one owl but a bunch of them roosting on the roof of the house.  Owls in the Cree culture are bad omens.  They are messengers that something not very good was going to unfold.  He then heard the sounds of drums and they were getting louder which meant that they were coming closer.  Joyce woke up too around the same time I did and immediately went to see Henry because she knew something was wrong.  That's when they quickly grabbed the girls and brought them back in.  Henry wasn't sure what exactly was happening but he knew something was definitely wrong so he quickly performed a protective prayer encircling the home with light.  The owls quickly left and the drums came close to the house but never encircled it.

Now, when I haven't had my morning coffee I am bitch.  Compound that with a lack of sleep and what you have is an UBER bitch with absolutely no filter.  "Are you fucking kidding me?"  I respectfully asked.  The information overload on an unstable system was a bit too much.  To stop my hysteria, Henry continued talking.

He tells me I carry exceptional energy for someone so young.  Since he seemed to be in the mood for talking I thought it was an opportune moment for me to ask if he happened to see a random Demon thingy hanging out.  Henry says all my energy is light, there is no darkness to it.  I share the story of my dad's "gift" to me when I was born.  Henry laughs.  He tells me that I have such a huge energy source that it would be difficult for darkness to challenge it.   I then ask why he mentioned he saw a Crow hanging out.  Henry says the Crow may just be curious as they are attracted to strange light.  He mentions that in the Sweat, my energy threw off his healing abilities so it made the heat more intense then usual.  He also mentions that I have an army of Spirits taking care of me and my gift is being highly intuitive so that's why I sensed things people normally wouldn't.  My eyes bulge out of my head.  Henry tells me not to worry and I won't see things I am not ready for.  I am not convinced.  Images of an evil drummer boy is burned into my retina. 

Joyce mentions that last night's incident was a result of "Bad Medicine."  For some reason I had a feeling she wasn't talking about taking prescription drugs and chasing it with some hard liquor.