Myth Day 3

DAY 3:

INT. MOTOR HOME, MORNING.

Extreme close-up of what appears to be a black hole. The camera slowly zooms out to reveal that the hole is in fact the Woman’s closed right eye with a heavy dose of black mascara. She opens this eye and begins to apply mascara to her other eye. She is holding a compact mirror while she sits on the bed. Man enters.

WOMAN
Where are they?

MAN
Looking for the dog.

WOMAN
Good.

MAN
Good?

WOMAN
It’ll be a cathartic exercise for them.

MAN
Meaning?

WOMAN
If we lose the dog it won’t be without trying.

MAN
It’s their pet.

WOMAN
You found him. You’ll find another.

MAN
I don’t think so. Did you talk to the boy this morning?

WOMAN
Yep.

MAN
And?

WOMAN
He's upset. What do you expect?

MAN
I'm beginning to regret this now.

WOMAN
Isn’t a bit late in the day for a reality check

MAN
It was stupid coming out here again misplacing my hope on some invisible...

WOMAN
Again, what do you mean again? You mean this isn’t the first time?

MAN
(aware of his blunder)
No – not the first.

WOMAN
How many?

MAN
Forget it it’s not important.

WOMAN
How many?!!

MAN
Six, maybe seven times.

WOMAN
I can’t believe…

WOMAN
Did you think I would have come here if I knew you’d failed half a dozen times before?

MAN
Oh come on now, that's not fair. I can’t let failure stop me, even you can see that.

WOMAN
Oh it is fair sugar, it's as fair as I'm ever likely to get. You could’ve come here yourself. You didn’t need us.

MAN
And what about...?

A shout suddenly pierces the air outside.

MAN
What the hell?

The Girl bursts into the Motor Home.

GIRL
He’s gone! He’s gone!

The Man and Woman run to the window to look out.

WOMAN
Where’s the boy?

MAN
I don’t know.

They leave room and head toward the Motor home door.

GIRL
He’s gone.

The Man and the Woman are now both standing next to her by the door way of the Motor home.

WOMAN
What do you means he’s gone?
The Boy? Where has he gone?

GIRL
He found some remains. We were looking for the dog and…well he just went crazy.

MAN
Where did he find them?

Girl points.

MAN
I told you two that I searched there last night and to look somewhere else.

GIRL
I did, or at least he told me to. He wanted to check you hadn’t missed anything.

WOMAN
So you found something last night? Why didn’t you hide it?

MAN
I did, at least I thought I had, but I was stupid enough to believe that some people would do as they’re told.

WOMAN
Okay, that doesn’t matter. Let’s just go get him. Where’s he gone?

GIRL
That’s the problem.

MAN
Where…oh Christ no…not the cave?

GIRL
Uh huh. He went back for the headdress.

WOMAN
But why, what has that got to do with a missing dog?

GIRL
Pay back.

MAN
Pay back?

GIRL
He loses something so he takes something to replace it.

MAN
Now do you see what all this talk has done? He’s convinced there’s some archaic conspiracy going on here. We should have left this morning.

WOMAN
Well why did you have to put the thing back in the first place, it harmed no one?
MAN
Here we go again. Will someone stop blaming me for everything?

Looks at the Woman who gives him a look in return as if to say it is his fault in fact.

MAN
Okay, okay so it is my fault, but let's not argue, let's just go and get him.

WOMAN
Leave him. Let him bring it back as a souvenir. He’ll be happy and we can go today.

MAN
No. He has to leave it alone. We can get him before he gets there.

WOMAN
Christ, not again? I just hope we don’t walk under any ladders on the way up.

INT. CAVE, NOON.

A close-up of the Indian skeleton with the headdress on; a pair of hands enters the screen and lifts the headdress away. The boy turns to exit the cave when he notices something on the wall. He is staring at something painted on the walls.

BOY
Well, well, you told us you’d been here before but you never said when. That does explain a few things, perhaps even your stupid concern over a pile of feathers. But I’m sorry Old Man
(Then turning toward the skeleton)
And you too Cochise, these are mine now.
(Goes through gorse bush)

EXT. CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON

The boy exits the gorse and walks to the edge of the cliff.

He looks across the panorama of the Badlands. He triumphantly places the headdress on his head.

BOY
Whoop! Whoop! I am Little Running Bear. These are my lands now.

EXT. BELOW CLIFFS, AFTERNOON

The group are ascending the cliff-top. They stop and look up towards the cliff tops as the sound of the Boy’s voice carries across to them. The father is prominent in the middle with the women in single file behind him.

WOMAN
That’s him.

GIRL
What the hell’s he shouting for. With a mouth like that he could start a landslide.

MAN
Let’s move before he buries us down here!

They recommence their climb.

EXT. CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON

The Boy continues to hoot and mimic the stereotypical image of the Native American Indian. We see a piece of flora on the ridge close by. The plant begins to twitch as if a small breeze had just blown through it. Some of the feathers on the headdress appear to flutter in the breeze.
Then on the ridge floor sand begins to lift into the air. The breeze is getting stronger. The Boy stops dancing and looks up and around at the sky and surroundings.

BOY
(Grinning inanely)
Oh dear, have I upset somebody?

The wind whips up even more dust around the Boy who begins to dance again.

EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON

The group arrive at a flat area about sixty feet below the Boy. They cannot see the Boy now for the dust storm but they can hear him.

WOMAN
What the hell is that?

MAN
Sandstorm.

GIRL
What, just up there?

EXT. CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON

The Boy continues to dance in the middle of the storm. Behind him in the murkiness four figures become visible. He dances for a few moments and then as the camera zooms in toward his face he suddenly notices their presence.
The Boy strains to make out who they are. Suddenly a violent gust of wind blows off the headdress.

CUT TO:

EXT. RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON

The headdress falls out of the dust cloud hitting the ground some ten feet from the group.

MAN
Oh shit! I don’t like this

CUT TO:

EXT. CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON.

The Boy is struggling to stand. The four figures appear to come toward him. The storm begins to intensify and the noise of horse’s hooves is heard, growing louder and louder, as they seem to thunder past it bringing a fierce blast in its wake ripping the boy from the cliff.

CUT TO:

EXT RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON.

The group have moved toward where the headdress fell, the Man is holding it in his hands.

GIRL
He must be in trouble.

MAN
It appears so…

WOMAN
Look out!

A figure is falls toward them from out of the dust cloud. They jump out of the way as the Boy’s body slams into the ground.

EXT CLIFF TOP, AFTERNOON.

Back at the cliff top the sandstorm abates and the sound of the hooves is peters off into the distance. As the scene clears the four figures become visible. They are four Native American Indians. One is an elderly man, the GRANDFATHER, one middle-aged, the FATHER and two are teenagers, an ELDER INDIAN BOY aged about 17 and a YOUNG INDIAN BOY about age 14. They are from the Pine Ridge reservation located to the south of the Badlands. They approach the place where the boy fell.
They gaze down at the group below. The Woman has the boy’s head cradled in her arms while the Girl is holding his hand. The Man is still holding the headdress but begins to squeeze it with his hands in close-up. He looks up at the cliff top and as he does so the four Indians come into view.
The group as one seem to respond together in looking up toward the Indians. The Woman begins to rise, laying the Boy’s head gently down and assuming a position behind the Man’s right shoulder; the Girl also moves from the Boy’s body toward the Man’s left shoulder. Together they form a triangular shape pointing toward the Indians.

They assume stern, vengeful faces.

The Native American Father is to the extreme left with the Elder Indian Boy next to him and the Grandfather next to him. They are in a line, with a gap of a few feet separating them from the Young Indian Boy, who is on the right of them. The four Native Americans withdraw slowly from the cliff edge.

INDIAN FATHER
The crazy idiot; I think he must be dead.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Father – what happened?

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Yeah, that freak storm…I’ve never seen one like that.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Freak? I don’t think so.

INDIAN FATHER
(Angry)
Don’t go there father, not now, not today. We shouldn’t even be here.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I left my reasons with your cousin. I didn’t ask you to follow me.

INDIAN FATHER
What else could I do? A dream, a stupid dream warns you you’re needed here because of some old legend. And now we’re mixed up in this!

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You would not understand and yet you should.

INDIAN FATHER
I understand one thing. We could all be in big trouble here.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But we’re innocent we didn’t touch him.

INDIAN FATHER
Try telling his family.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
If they saw it with their own eyes they would still blame us.

INDIAN FATHER
(Thinking of the boys)
No they won’t. I’ll tell them the truth that he slipped.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
It didn’t look like he slipped.

INDIAN FATHER
(Irate)
So did we push him then?

ELDER INDIAN BOY
That freak wind took him over the edge. We all saw it.

INDIAN FATHER
(To Indian Grandfather)
This is down to you isn’t? I thought I said the stories were to stop?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And deny them their heritage?

INDIAN FATHER
Because of this: children blaming the cause of a tragic accident on a supernatural wind.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Turning to the boys)
Your father is right, it was not the wind.

INDIAN FATHER
At last, a sensible voice in the wilderness.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It was something inside the wind.

INDIAN FATHER
(Groaning)
Father, don’t you realise how serious this situation is? Don’t you think the police would love to have four crazy Indians using an old Indian legend as an alibi in a murder case?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
So you…

INDIAN FATHER
Yes I remember…but that was in another life.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Son, your faith may be dead but it is not your place to kill theirs.

INDIAN FATHER
This isn’t the time to argue about your misplaced loyalties. Those ideals have longed ceased to have any significance to us.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Continuing to ignore him)
Do you believe the Gods have let us down?

INDIAN FATHER
Why do you persist with this lunacy, when a boy is probably lying dead down there?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Boy? You know what I think.

FATHER
Not this again. That was the craziest excuse I ever heard you give for running off. It’s just a myth, told to you by your father and told to him by his father and so on. It never happened.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Then why did the Boy desecrate the burial site, why does he have no respect for our faith?

INDIAN FATHER
Faith! What is faith? What are legends but falsehoods ingraining in us another myth, one that sustains the belief that we are a superior race and forgets what we see everyday, slaves where we once were masters.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your eyes do not look any more. One day – soon – our land will be returned to us. The rivers will burst with fish and the hills and plains will roar with the hooves of buffalo. We will hunt again and we will sing songs to our Gods. I will not see it and neither will these two boys but their ancestors will as long as we are alive in their hearts and souls.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
I believe you Grandfather.

INDIAN FATHER
You do not know what you are saying. The old Indians are dead and there are no new ones. We are in limbo between the old world and death - that is all. The only thing you are going to do is go home with your Grandfather and brother!

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
There will be a new world and a new tribe. It is the masters’ nature to destroy the goodness the land offers. He takes and never gives and when he has nothing left to destroy he will destroy himself. Then we will take back what was ours.

INDIAN FATHER
(Kindly)
Father please take them now, no more talk…
(Looks at the boys)
I should go now and talk to the white family.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
(Frightened)
Don’t go Father.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
(Apprehensive)
Yes Father. Let’s go home. There’s something not right here.

INDIAN FATHER
We can’t just leave. That’s madness. They would assume we’d killed him. I would rather talk to the police than be hunted by them. They will not take our side before them. The boy stole the headdress don’t forget, they may think we are extracting some ridiculous form of revenge for the desecration, like in some old movie or your Grandfather’s stories.

The father looks pleadingly with his eyes toward the Grandfather begging him to do as he says. A look passes between them acknowledging that a silent agreement has been reached.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather, stop him. I don’t trust them.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your Father is right, someone must speak to them. Go then son and I will take the boys and start for home.
(Looks at his son)
God be with you.

INDIAN FATHER
I’ll be okay – you worry like the young ones.

He smiles reassuringly and goes.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather – you are afraid too?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Is it the family or something else?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes.

FADE TO BLACK.

EXT BADLANDS, AFTERNOON.

The grandfather is hurrying away with the two boys toward Pine Ridge reservation.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Grandfather.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Hurrying on not wanting to stop, knowing the child is about to quiz him)
Please, no questions eh, we need to move quickly if we wish to find a suitable camp for tonight.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
No Grandfather, this is far enough, we must wait for my father.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
My brother is right. We should wait and make sure he’s okay.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your father okay; what is going to happen to him? Someone had to go to them. We don’t want a visit from the police.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
The police will come anyway, we are witnesses.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes, but not murderers.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
What could we tell them?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
What your father told you. It was an accident.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Why were you arguing with father then?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Stops and pauses before he speaks)
My skin is wrinkled and perhaps my mind is a little that way too. It is a Grandfather’s duty to entertain his young ones with stories, but now you need to leave the child behind.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
What about the stone?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The stone?

ELDER INDIAN BOY
What are you talking about?

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
Sometimes my Father would see us talking and he would guess that Grandfather was telling me about the old legends.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And he would send you on an errand to get you away from me.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
And if you hadn’t finished the story you would write the end down for me and hide it under a special stone, so I could find it and read it later. We had a sign to let me know when it was there.

(He demonstrates by locking the two biggest fingers of his right hand together and curling the rest into his palm, holding it to his chest)

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But Grandfather we never had to do that.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Your father didn’t always hate hearing my stories. It was only later, fighting for the rights of our people, that he changed.

Pause.

But these were stories; that’s why your father was so angry with me for taking them too seriously.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
You are lying to us Grandfather…I know it; you have great faith. You would not say such things if you yourself did not believe in them.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son if you respect the Gods you must respect me also. You cannot be commended for one and be guilty of the other. I was angry when I saw the boy mocking my people and I wanted to believe that the gods punished him for the outrage.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
I’m sorry, but I cannot forget what I saw and heard, or what you told me before about the wind horse.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
That’s right Grandfather. I remember that story, and we all heard the horse’s hooves.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
So when the police come to the reservation for your statement, you will tell them that we are innocent because the wind horse galloped in sending the boy tumbling down the cliff face, and they will believe you and go away?

Grandfather looks secretly toward the eldest son urging him to back him up and calm his brother down.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
(After a pause)
You are right Grandfather, but that is why we should have gone with my father, to convince the family that we are blameless.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Hostility toward us is inherent with our masters. If my son cannot persuade them on his own, your presence will not help him.

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
But if they see we are boys just like the one that fell, surely they would know we would not have harmed him?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son, it matters little how many summers your face has seen, you will never be trusted by them. We need to get on.

The Grandfather turns and begins to walk on again; the two boys reluctantly follow behind, the youngest bringing up the rear.

EXT. BADLANDS, TRAIL TOWARD PINE RIDGE.

The family are walking in file approaching a rocky section of the Badlands. The Grandfather leads with the eldest boy and then youngest in succession. After the Grandfather and the eldest boy have negotiated some narrow turns around the rocks, the Grandfather looks back.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Where is your brother?

The eldest boy looks behind him.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Dawdling, I expect.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Get him, tell him to hurry up.

Eldest boy walks back along the trail. The Grandfather carries on but is stopped by a shout from the eldest boy, who is running back down the trail.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Grandfather! Grandfather!

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(In trepidation)
Don’t tell me, oh no!

ELDER INDIAN BOY
I can’t find him; he must have run back.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You must get him; he cannot have gotten too far.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
He is a good runner. Let him come back with my father if that’s what he wants.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No! You must get him now. Go quickly. I’ll wait here.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But…

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Go!

Eldest boy turns to go and as he does the grandfather grabs his arm.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Keep a watch; look out for anything unusual.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
What do you mean unusual?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Go, quickly!

The eldest Boy runs off.

FADE TO BLACK.

EXT RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP, LATE AFTERNOON.

The youngest Boy approaches the spot where the Boy fell. Creeping ever closer he climbs into some long grasses. He can see his Father talking to family, but the Man, Woman and Girl do not reply.

Their manner is silent but increasingly belligerent as if there has been a well of anger lying dormant in each of them about to burst upwards. As he creeps closer, he can see both the Woman and the Girl appear to be leaving the side of the Man and circling around his Father.

The Young Indian Boy suppresses his desire to help his Father as he is suddenly paralysed with fear, as if he feels a malevolent force in the atmosphere. As the women continue to circle his Father he can see the body of the dead Boy a few feet further away.
Kneeling in the tall grass, the air around him seems to be diffusing into an orange glow, illuminating the specks of sand and grass that are floating in the air.
Across the ridge the Man’s eyes are glowing orange and suddenly he and his family transform into bears and attack the Native American father. We see the attack from the reflection of the tears in the Native American Boy’s tears.

He is frozen with fear, watching his father being butchered. All of a sudden a streak of blood lands across his nose and left eye. Automatically he exhales a slight wince.

The family all swing round immediately on hearing the boy, their faces human again. The Father is lying, bloodied, on the floor behind them. The boy struggles to stop shaking with fear. The Man motions to the women to walk either side of the grass where the boy is. He himself begins to approach from the front.

The Man approaches the grass. He stops right in front of where the boy is hiding. Then in a swift movement he parts the grass, but the boy has gone. The women search in the side of the clump without joy. The Man bends down and retrieves a moccasin from the spot where the boy was hiding.

As they rejoin each other they look back down the trail leading up to the cliff. There is a puff of sand on a little rise some thirty feet away.

MAN
Run away Goldilocks, run as fast as you can; no porridge for you today. The three bears are coming to play.

FADE TO BLACK.

EXT TRAIL TO PINE RIDGE, AFTERNOON.

The Indian Grandfather is on his knees and appears to be praying.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son, what have I done to us all? They have killed you; I feel it in my heart. I let you go to save the young ones and now look what I have allowed to happen. Why did you follow me here with the boys? It was my duty to face him - alone. I knew he had returned just as he has come before. But he is not alone this time. Now I fear that none of us will make it home.

FADE TO BLACK.

EXT. CLIFFS, LATE AFTERNOON

The eldest boy is running toward the ascent to the cliff top. Behind him a low a low rumble reverberates from the valley beyond. He looks but cannot see anything. After a moment he carries on climbing until he reaches the top.

EXT DESERT, RIDGE BELOW CLIFF TOP, LATE AFTERNOON.

The eldest Native American boy arrives back to both the Boy’s and his Father’s bodies. He begins to sob and walks toward his father’s body, kneeling down beside it. It is covered in blood where the skin has been ripped by the claws of the family.

In his anguish he notices the deep claw marks on his father and becomes overwrought with anguish, horror and incomprehension of what has gone on here. He caresses his father’s head and gently lays it down.

The sun is beginning its march downhill toward sunset but it is still fairly light. He wants to call out for his brother but is gripped by need not to draw attention to himself.

Somewhere in the distance he hears the same low roar again. All of a sudden he feels an urgency to get away from there. He removes his jacket and covers the face of his father, promising to come back for his body, and swiftly runs back down the trail.

EXT. BADLANDS, ANOTHER TRAIL, LATE AFTERNOON.

The young Native American boy is running frantically toward the sunset, occasionally peering back over his shoulder to see what’s behind him. That low growl is heard once more. He audibly lets a little cry out and turns to run.
As he looks again there is a disturbance and what looks like a cloud of dust behind him.
The boy’s escape is reflected in the reflection in a dark eye.

CUT TO:

EXT BADLANDS, GORGE, LATE AFTERNOON

The boy is standing on the edge of a narrow gorge about 50 feet down and seven/eight feet wide at its narrowest point and slightly lower. The boy begins to panic hearing another roar and realising his pursuers are getting closer and that he cannot turn back. He looks across and sees a narrower section and moves toward it. The distance is around five feet and he begins to rock back on his arches as if gauging the distance to jump.

The boy slowly walks backward about ten steps to give himself a run up. There is disbelief in his face that he can make the jump and he looks back for another way.

Suddenly there is a huge growl very near and instantaneously he runs and jumps from the edge.

He lands awkwardly on the opposite ridge on his right knee, bouncing backward in the process. In desperation he tries to grip the edge with a hand but is unable to and falls into a clump of trees growing under the gorge.

INT. TREE, LATE AFTERNOON.

The boy’s body is wedged within the branches. He groans in pain and begins to try to move but cannot. The whole tree is reverberating with the impact giving his location away.

Above him the roar is almost upon him

The boy tries in vain to try to stop the branches shaking by grabbing them.

Above him the sky is darkening and we hear again the muted sound of horse hooves. A wind whips up and we see it blowing through the gorge like a river running through it.
It disturbs everything within the gorge, whilst uncannily the air is still above on the ridge.
The boy can see the shapes of his pursuers through the leaves. After a moment they turn and go. His pants are torn and bloody at the knee. The boy is relieved but then a thought comes to him…

YOUNG INDIAN BOY
(Whispers)
Grandfather.

EXT. BADLANDS, DESERT, NIGHT.

The Grandfather and the Eldest Boy have made a camp but are covered with blankets as they have not built a fire. The Eldest Boy is still in shock from finding his Father’s body.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You saw what no son should ever see and my heart weeps with yours. Your father, my son, was a great man, and a fine warrior. He had no weapon except that given to him by the white man, the justice system, to fight them with; a weapon sharp at only one end. A man must have a great deal of strength for it takes many blows to draw blood with a blunt tool.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But his arms are lifeless now.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
They will continue to hold you up.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
And my brother.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Lowering his eyes)
Perhaps, but I fear he may be taken too.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But I told you Grandfather, he wasn’t there.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But they will hunt him down.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
The family! No Grandfather, there was no sign of them. Whatever attacked my father must have scared them away.

Pause

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It is a long time since we sat around a fire and you listened to my stories.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
I am not a child anymore.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes, you are a man now, and we will have to make do without the fire, but let the child in you listen anyway.

Pause

Once there was a white man who came to this land. Every day he would go out to the woods to hunt bear – all kinds of bear, and kill them. One day he went out to the woods and found one by a fish creek and crept up on it with his rifle. But this was a medicine bear and he could read the hunter’s thoughts.

As the hunter cocked the gun the bear turned around and spoke to him. “Do not shoot me. Why be my enemy? Come to my house and let us live together”

The hunter went with the bear to his cave and lived with him. The bear provided him with food and shelter and showed him the ways of the mountains; how to fish and how to hunt rabbit and wild dogs.

When the bear had taught the hunter everything he knew, the man had no need of the bear’s friendship. But he knew he could not kill the bear while he was awake because the bear could read his thoughts, so one night when the bear was sleeping in the cave the white man crept over to the bear and slit his throat.

The bear woke with a start, scaring the hunter who crawled into the corner of the cave afraid that the bear was only wounded and would come and kill him. But the bear looked at the hunter and spoke softly even as his life blood seeped through the slash in his throat.

DISSOLVE

INT. CAVE, PAST

The time is of a mythical past. A MAN is seen crouching in the corner of the cave. He is dressed in the clothes of a frontier man. He has a beard and is unkempt. It is the face of the white Man from the Motor home. The camera zooms slowly in toward him. The Grandfather continues the story in voice over.

“You have killed me, hunter, though I gave you my friendship and taught you everything I knew. But listen to me now. If I had wished I could have killed you at any time. You are a great hunter but you are no match for me.

“A year ago I had a dream that a great hunter would come and kill me. I had that dream again tonight but I did not wake and stop you because it is my destiny to die tonight. But you are cursed white hunter. I will live on in you but only in rage and deceit. The best will die with me but you are bequeathed the worst.

“When you wake tomorrow the worst in me will rise with the worst in you. You will yearn to go back to the world of men and for a while they will welcome you, but little by little they will begin to feel uncomfortable around you until they shun you completely. Then you will have no choice but to return to this cave and these woods.

“You will not starve because you have my hunting knowledge, but because you do not possess the best qualities of the bear you will assume the appearance of one when you rage, only becoming a white hunter again when the anger leaves you. And thus you will live forever as a Bear man”. With this the bear lay down to die.

DISSOLVE

EXT. BADLANDS, NIGHT.

Back to a close-up of the Grandfather who continues his story.

GRANDFATHER
When the hunter woke the next morning he forgot all that the bear had said and went out to hunt and he stayed in the cave throughout the winter.

DISSOLVE

EXT. WOODS. DAY.

We see the Bear man leaving a cave in a wood. The Grandfather continues in voice over.

But when spring came he yearned for the company of men again and left the cave in the woods.

EXT. A FRONTIER TOWN.

The Bear man arrives in a township. He gets a job at a general store, and we see him serving people and laughing and joking with them, but soon the customers drop off and people rush by the store. Finally we see him walking out of the store having lost his job. He is seen leaving the town. These scenes are accompanied by the continuous voice over of the Grandfather.

But he could not settle back in the world of the white men because he could not control the rage within his body and the people who knew him felt this rage and began to desert him.

EXT. WOODS.

The Bear man is seen heading back to the cave.

Then he remembered what the bear had told him and returned to the cave in the woods to live as a man bear but as the bear had cursed him he cursed the land and its people. He vowed to destroy all around him because he could find no joy himself he would obliterate joy for all, forever.

CUT TO:

EXT. A PLAIN.

The Man is dressed in a Cavalry uniform and riding a horse as part of a large troop of cavalry in full charge.
They are attacking a group of Native American Indians and as they catch them they begin to slaughter them indiscriminately. The white horse looms into sight and we see the Man now transformed as a bear, roaring.

The man bear moved unseen like a ghost in the world of white men, spreading hate, greed and fear of the Indian; because the man bear recognized that in order to survive he must side with the winner. He was with the cavalry at Sand Creek and Wounded Knee and helped win the war for the white man.

I knew the bearman was here because I could sense his presence in this land as I felt it before, but I did not expect more than one and that is the thing that frightens me most. I do not know how the man bear found a way to breed.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But why did you let my father go to them?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I believe that your father knew it too.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
My father didn’t believe in the old legends and gods.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
He went to them to give us time to get away. That is why I fear for your brother.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Then we must go back and save him, if they are as you say.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The boy was foolish to run away and I was careless. I will not risk your life even if I lose my own.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
How can you leave him at the mercy of these creatures?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son, the history of your people has been one of slaughter and sacrifice. We make do because we have survived against enemies bent on our eradication. What little we have been given will suffice until our lands are returned to us; even if only one Indian is left it will be enough to reclaim our birthright.

Pause

Your brother’s smart. If they do catch him I hope they’ll be exhausted and too tired to come after us tonight. But they will come tomorrow.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Then we will die anyway.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You will survive. When they come I will fight them and gain the glory that runs in my blood. You will escape to Pine Ridge.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
I won’t leave you to them.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You must. Someone has to warn the people that the Bear man has returned.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
No-one will believe me. You’re the only one I know that really had faith in the old myths and legends. Who’ll take my word that there actually is a race of bearmen out there? Beings they think belong in stories handed down from generation to generation; stories that they believe were made up to teach us things or to frighten children into behaving?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I do not know. The world is a hard place for faith. When people have everything they have no need of it but when they have nothing they blame the gods they deserted when they were rich. The masters deny them too because to acknowledge them would be to interfere in the collection of worldly things.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
Then there is no hope.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No, not if the spirit lives.

ELDER INDIAN BOY
But how can we kill what couldn’t be killed before? Why didn’t the spirits kill him when he came before?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I have seen him twice. The last time he stayed only two days. I saw him at Wounded Knee and I thought he had been praying. But he never desecrated our land like he has done this time, and he must be killed before he desecrates it again.

Pause.

The boy trembles and is unconvinced.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Get some sleep. I will pray for our safety tonight. Put your faith in the gods my son. They will protect us

The boy smiles weakly and lies down to sleep. The Grandfather waits until the Eldest boy falls asleep and then takes out a pencil and a piece of paper. He scribbles a message on it.

The camera pans away from the Grandfather into the darkness. As it pans back there is a campfire lit in the foreground.

EXT. WOUNDED KNEE, THE INDIAN CAMP, NIGHT, THE YEAR IS 1890, WINTER.

The campfire is inside the Indian camp at Wounded Knee. The flakes of the fire intermingle with falling snow crystals. The camera zooms out slowly to reveal the Indian camp site. The people are suffering; they are tired, hungry and cold. Some however are dancing around. They are conducting the Wovoka, the ghost dance, which was supposed to bring about the fall of the white man and the return of the land to the Indians.

On the far hillside above, the fire of the soldier’s camp is visible. On the snowy ground between the two camps a snake slithers across; its eyes having an orange glow on them. As it disappears into the woods to the right of the Indian camp the roar of a bear is heard.

CUT TO:

INT. TEEPEE, NIGHT.

An Indian family, FATHER, MOTHER and BABY are asleep inside. The shadow of a bear is cast on the fabric. The bear appears to be walking around outside.

(No sound in this section except the bear roar)

The sleeping mother begins to stir awake. She turns to look at the baby. A shaft of sunlight has illuminated the baby’s body. She begins to stir the child by gently rubbing its chest. Suddenly she feels something wet. She opens the baby’s shirt and finds a bleeding bullet wound.

She recoils and tries to wake her husband but he is gone. As she stands up she becomes aware that the shaft of sunlight is very narrow and is coming directly through the side of the tepee. She walks toward it to investigate. She puts her finger into the hole, recognizing immediately that this is a bullet hole from which the bullet that killed the baby travelled.

Then suddenly another shaft of sunlight bursts through the tepee at the level of her stomach and outward from her back to the back of the teepee. She puts out her hand caressing the ray of light and following its path toward her stomach.

She pulls away bloody fingers and exits the tepee.

CUT TO:

EXT. WOUNDED KNEE, MORNING.

The bloody wound is visible through her shirt. As she walks outside she looks up at the flakes of snow cascading down from the wintry sky. She puts out his fingers to catch a snowflake which turns into a bullet as it rests on the palm of her hand. She looks down at her feet and the ground is covered with bullets.

She looks back up and sees a small CHILD coming toward her. The child’s head is down as he paces toward her so that she can only see the top of his head. He stops in front of her. She gently lifts his head from below the chin. As the child’s face comes into view deep claw marks are visible running from his cheeks, across his eyes and disappearing into the hair line.

A bear growl booms from the woods and the Indian mother turns to look at the source. She sees her Husband coming from the forest after hunting. He is carrying a rifle. As she turns back the child is gone.

The father as he steps out onto the field of the massacre of Wounded Knee. The soldiers are all gone but the frozen bodies of the slaughtered Indians are still there.

He finds his wife’s body outside the tepee which has been almost completely obliterated by gunfire. He leans his rifle against what is left of the tepee and walks into it. After a moment he re-emerges with the baby’s body.

As he walks around the camp with the baby in his arms, he comes across the body of an the Indian Chief who had led what was of his tribe to Wounded Knee, frozen and twisted on the ground.

INDIAN:
Oh no, Big Foot

There is a roar from the forest and as the father looks toward it the child has vanished from his arms. He goes back to the teepee for his rifle intent on hunting the animal that made the growl. He goes off toward the forest.

EXT. WOODS, MORNING.

The wind begins to lift through the branches of the bare trees in the woods and horse’s hooves are heard. The Indian looks around for the Wind Horse and sees a white charger coming through the forest and starts toward it. As he enters the forest he loses sight of it, and begins to search frantically.

Suddenly he espies part of a horse’s body lying behind a thick tree. As he clears the tree he sees a figure leaning over the horse. It appears to be eating the horse. It hears him approach and turns around to face him. The figure is the bear-man, his face bloody with the meat of the horse.

EXT. BADLANDS, A CAMPFIRE, NIGHT.

The Grandfather awakens from his dream. He can feel warmth and as he opens his eyes he is staring into a campfire. He is, for a second, completely disorientated after the dream and staring at a fire he did not build, and then his eyes open wide in horror as he sees the Bear-man sitting in front of him on the other side of the fire. They eye each other for a minute.

MAN
You know who I am?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Pause)
Yes. Where is the boy?

MAN
Gone.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Lets out a deep and anguished sigh)
Haven’t you killed enough of my people?

MAN
You killed my boy.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Anger rising)
He killed himself. He desecrated the grave and stole what he should have left alone. But the rights of the Indian people have never bothered you before.

MAN
(Matching his anger, then controlling it)
I made him replace it. And I would have made him replace it again. He was angry that’s all.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Taken aback by the Man’s vehemence)
Your kind is always angry.

MAN
I would have insisted. You never gave me a chance; you pushed him over the cliff.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
He wasn’t pushed by any of us.

MAN
You took revenge because of the headdress.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It wasn’t our vengeance.

MAN
Then who’s? Your gods; they’re a bit late aren’t they? Then again, they always were, that’s if they showed at all.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Only for those who have lost their faith.

MAN
Alright I’ll humour you. How did the boy die?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
They sent the wind horse.

MAN
(Stifles a laugh)
The wind horse? Even I haven’t heard that one.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The wind horse took him over the edge.

The Man roars with laughter mocking the seriousness of the Grandfather.

INIAN GRANDFATHER
You are old bear-man, older than I; surely you do not doubt me?

MAN
Like your son you mean?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son had faith. As a little boy he would beg me to tell him about the heroes of the past.

MAN
That doesn’t sound like the man I killed.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It is the world of the white man that robs us of work and respect that renders him useless; that’s why he questioned his faith, but he never really lost it.

MAN
I’d like to reassure you but I’m afraid to me he’s just another dead Indian.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
No, another brave Indian like so many in the past, sacrificing themselves for others.

MAN
So he sacrificed himself, for what?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Are you so old and so unwise? My son sacrificed his life for ours.

MAN
He knew what we were?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
He was suspicious of you and so he entrusted the safety of his sons to me
(Pause)
…and I have failed him.

MAN
Your nation has failed old man don’t feel too bad about it.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I believed that as long as there was one Indian who kept his faith, one day our nation would rise again to reclaim this country as free men. Perhaps my son was right and now the bear man has returned to wipe out those who are left.

MAN
You’re wrong old man. I don’t need to wipe out your people. You’re finished. You’ve been finished for a long time now. I am only thinking of our survival.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Then you haven’t come for conquest?

MAN
Just survival, I cannot interbreed. You know the curse. I can live with the white man for only so long and then it begins.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
They find you out.

MAN
No, nothing so banal; friends that you make become uneasy with you. They begin to make excuses – stay away –isolate you.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Then you return to the cave.

MAN
(Laughs)
Cave! How archaic you are. I haven’t bee in that cave for a long time. No we simply move state. Uproot and start again.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
It’s the same thing. But if you cannot interbreed, where did you find your mate?

Long pause.

MAN
My wife, old man, is my daughter.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(In revulsion)
Your daughter! And the children?

MAN
My son and daughter too.
(Pause)
Why are you surprised? Men and animals it’s all the same; we still have the same primeval urge. In a rage I mated with a bear but the cub was human or should I say a bear child like me, a daughter. I never aged, so when she was old enough I took her for a wife. I must breed daughters to keep my own family. That way I never have to be alone.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But the children?

MAN
They understand; they are like me after all, all except the fact that they will age and I will not.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And the males?

MAN
They are catered for, in house, so to speak; and the numbers are always kept to a minimum, for discretion. We’re a very close family.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And you watch them grow old, and die.

MAN
It's difficult to watch a son become a brother and then finally an aging parent. It's equally difficult to watch a daughter become a wife and finally a wrinkled old mother. Can you imagine the kind of emotional turmoil I go through?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You cursed yourself bear man. You were greedy.

MAN
Listen to me. I have had to learn to adapt and to survive – just like you. When I was a young man I came to this land, fascinated by it. But I was corrupted and wanted more – and was…am, still cursed for it.

And when the Indian wars began I took the side of the white man because I knew he would win.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But why did you urge the white man to continue to slaughter us when you knew we were beaten?

MAN
Believe me they didn’t need any encouragement.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Nevertheless you…

MAN
Acceptance.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And that is justification for the murder of innocent women and children?

MAN
You have a wife old man?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
She has been gone for twenty years.

MAN
You never took another?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I did not want to.

MAN
What do you miss about her the most?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
The warmth and presence of her body lying next to me at night.

MAN
The comfort in just knowing that there is somebody there?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Yes.

MAN
Imagine not twenty, old man, but fifty… fifty years without that simplest of pleasures. You may understand loneliness but you cannot comprehend how painful it is to be completely alienated; unable to be trusted or loved; to make friends only to see them desert you because there is something in you that begins to repulse them; something they can never quite put their finger on. Then the anger rises.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And you become the bear again.

MAN
I learnt to control it so that the white man never saw my other self.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
But some have?

MAN
Not many, but yes, some.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And you have killed them?

MAN
I don’t want to kill. I want to be free.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Is that why you have come here before?

MAN
You know?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I have seen you before at Wounded Knee, one night many years ago.

MAN
I came to pray. And I came back this time for the same reason. Not to kill, or desecrate but to seek the means by which I can die, like everybody else - and you old man.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
And were your prayers answered?

MAN
It appears not and so I have to go on searching for…

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
…mercy…atonement for your crimes?

MAN
Why not, why should I be denied that promise?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You are not human. You gave up those rights for greed.

MAN
Maybe so but I’m hardly rich am I?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Richer than I

MAN
But not spiritually I guess, which is why there’s nobody listening; not so different from your son them am I?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
My son did not harm anyone faith or no faith. You kill and continue to kill.

MAN
Only to survive; that is why it is important we keep a small family unit. One day the curse will be lifted but until that day no-one can know about us, that is why we cannot let you go. Now where is the boy?

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
You took him.

MAN
No…the youngest boy.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
(Joyfully)
Then the boy lives…I thought you had killed him with his father.

MAN
He escaped but we’ll find him.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
I was wrong. I doubted the gods but they have protected the boy. I have my faith back again bear man. I was scared because I knew I was going to die here and I feared the darkness. But the Gods have spoken to me by protecting the boy and I will see them today.

MAN
(Looking up over the Grandfather’s head)
No sign?

WOMAN
(Her voice comes from the darkness beyond the rear of the Grandfather)
No.

MAN
(Beginning to rise)
Your convictions are admirable, old man, but believe me we will find him.

INDIAN GRANDFATHER
Bear man, I believe the curse will one day leave you because you have an innate thirst to destroy and, in turn, your savagery will destroy you. But my Grandson and his sons will live on.

The Grandfather smiles and closes his eyes aware of the closing presence of the mother behind him.

The Man, now standing, nods an assent to the woman and turns around. There is a flash of something gleaming behind him in the dark. It is a bear claw. The Grandfather smiles and then suddenly lets out a deep groan as the Woman’s claws stab into his back.

FADE TO BLACK.