Read Online The Theta Prophecy by Chris Dietzel - Free Book Online

arrive on their shores and want this piece of land, and every other, for themselves. They had no idea that not all people were as innocent and welcoming as they were.
    When one of them wanted a slab of meat, they traded their goods or labor for it. When a woman needed more vegetables, she went to one of the farmers and traded cloth or craftwork or whatever else she had that the farmer’s family needed. From the time they were still quite young, kids helped their parents. It was impossible for any of the village elders to find something they treasured more than the love and support of the people. And because of that, the people truly respected them and went along with the elders’ judgments even when they disagreed with the decisions because they trusted the elders to do what was best for everyone.
    The elder nodded toward the caves and Anderson followed.
    “Where I come from,” Anderson said, looking back at the spot of sky that had burst with light and dropped him into the water, “the leaders do not care about what is good for the people. They care only about controlling everyone so they can remain in power. Everyone lives in fear of what the leaders will do next.”
    They entered one of the larger caves. Anderson had to put his hand against the cold, wet wall to keep from stumbling.
    Benio frowned. “Why let that happen?”
    Anderson knew what the man was thinking. He was trying to envision someone from his village hoarding all of the cattle for no other reason than he could have it all and no one else could have any of it.
    “It wasn’t the way things were supposed to be,” Anderson said. “But things changed a little bit at a time. It used to be that my village was just like your village. The leaders represented the people. But then they started listening not to everyone around them, but only to a few. Little by little, things changed. It took a long time for people to catch on to what was happening, and by then, there were laws in place to keep them from doing anything about it. The more people tried to change the system, the more the leaders tightened their control. The longer the leaders stayed in power, the more they did whatever would keep them ruling even longer.”
    “Pick a different ruler,” the elder said, holding his torch up so Anderson could see where he was stepping.
    “We were only given a choice between two rulers. We could have Ruler One or Ruler Two. They were made to look different, but they were the same. It didn’t matter which ruler we chose because we were still choosing someone who didn’t care about the villagers, only about making the powerful men happy.”
    “What did the villagers do?”
    They were fifty feet into the cave now. Without Benio’s flame lighting their way, the cave would be completely dark and Anderson would be lost.
    “There wasn’t much we could do by then. Any time someone spoke out, they were silenced. If they protested outside the ruler’s home, they were beaten and run off. If they made the ruler unhappy, they were killed.”
    “But there were more villagers than leaders, right?”
    Anderson thought of all the Mi’kmaq adults and their children. The people trusted their elders, but if they ever felt differently, it would be very easy for the few hundred natives to march on the homes of the village leaders and demand that they act differently.
    “Yes. But sadly, a lot of people have seen what happens when you go against the ruler. They have seen people beaten and killed. And so they either throw their hands in the air and give up, or else they choose to believe things aren’t so bad and remain silent. A lot of people would rather play games or sit around watching—he almost mentioned people’s propensity to watch hours of mindless television before realizing that would only require much explanation—“birds, than march on the ruler’s house and insist on change. The leaders are smart; they make things worse a little bit at a time so the people