Jacqueline Davis (Begay) || || Taken || Werewolf || Kawennahere Devery Jacobs
Most of the time Jacky was of the mind that her peoples’ stories were just that, stories. Something to tell the kids to keep them inside after the sun went down. Something to tell each other to give encouragement and build bravery. Maybe even a psychotherapeutic allegory to work through interpersonal issues when it came to disagreements within the tribe. A few times in her life it occurred to her that the stories might be true, that Navajo Wolves and Witches could exist, but never so much as the night she went out to look for a lost sheep and was found three days later with three broken ribs, a broken arm, and a torn-up and bitten leg.
While some people chalked it up to an animal attack, other looked at Jacky with caution in their eyes and darkness in their hearts. The looks were enough to make Jacky nervous on her own land. Her family tried hard to be supportive, after all Jacky was their baby. Jacky tried to put it all behind her, even if it was a Navajo Wolf, they couldn’t be mad at her forever for the attack. If the bad medicine had infected her, there were a few rituals they could try to fix it, ways that would turn the bad medicine back on her attacker.
All that changed after the next full moon. The change was painful and terrifying, and Jacky woke up to 5 missing sheep and panic in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t stay with her family and put them at risk. They performed an Enemy Way ritual to try and relieve Jacky of her bad medicine, but they couldn’t change her mind. She took a truck, her camping gear, and the rumors she heard about hidden lands of monsters and started looking. Soon enough she found Soapberry Springs, maybe the town knew that Jacky needed solace, maybe it just didn’t see a point in turning away another wolf, but the young woman made it in.
Now Jacky wants to find a way to get rid of the wolf that takes control once a month, but might find more than she bargained for in the surprisingly friendly town.
Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things? “After everything that’s happened to me, I don’t think there is a way to do things right anymore. All my life, even if I didn’t believe some of the stories, I lived by them. I kept corn pollen at my neck, I kept a turquoise charm in my pocket, and none of it protected me. I think the only thing anyone can do in this life is try to do the right thing, but knowing what the right thing is, now that’s the difficult part.”
What’s something you know you do differently than most people? “I know the way I talk can be very round-about, that’s a Dinee thing. We think being blunt is incredibly rude, and that talking about the sheep and the weather and your third cousin once removed before getting to our actual question or desired topic of conversation is the correct and polite way to go. I try not to send non-Dinee through the never ending throes of conversation when I’m talking to them, but sometimes I fall back into the way of talking that I think of as polite and respectful.”