Dark of the Moon (Slayer)

Dark of the Moon was a Native American Slayer in 1250 A.D. in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico.

Biography
Born in 1229 A.D., she came to the Medicine Father, the medicine man of the Anasazi People, on a vision quest; he presented her to his people, claiming her as a gift from the womb of Grandmother Spider, the Earth Spirit, she was prophesized to protect the People from a great evil that would one day rise from the bowels of the Earth to destroy them. If Dark of the Moon, as she was named, was successful in her mission, the People would flourish and thrive for the millenia to come.

Dark of the Moon spent her childhood training in battle alongside the male warriors of her tribe. By the year 1250, Dark of the Moon was 21 years old and considered an "old maid" by tribal standards. Lone Coyote, the protector of the sacred fire fell asleep and allowed the fire to extinguish; with the sacred protecting fires gone, the evil (vampires) rose from the earth and attacked, making Lone Coyote their first victim.

White Flower used divination through gopher bones to tell when Dark of the Moon's time to answer the call had arrived. The day had finally come, Dark of the Moon washed and was presented with new clothes and at sunset, met in the great kiva with the Medicine Father and the other village elders. In the Kiva, the Medicine Father and the Elders told her the origin of the vampires and how she was to kill them, then presented her with weapons and sent her on her way. That first night, she wandered aimlessly through her village searching for the beast and finally she did battle with her first vampire, destroying it. She then came upon the vampire's victim, a small child named Deer Tracker and brought him back to the village.

The next morning held some confusion for Dark of the Moon, she knew she accomplished her task and destroyed the beast, but her intuition had told her something wasn't right. Days came and went, and with each rising of the sun she noticed fewer and fewer people in the pueblo. She first went to the pueblo of Deer Tracker's parents and was attacked by his father, now a vampire. Shocked and weaponless, she dusted the beast by sunlight and then realized that the beast that escaped had multiplied and spread throughout the village. She also slayed Deer Tracker and his mother.

One night while hunting for the beasts, she came upon a small child named Dancing Cloud, whose mother had been killed by vampires; so she took her in to her own pueblo and left her in the care of White Flower and returned to hunting. That night she came upon a group of vampires, one of which was Dancing Cloud's mother, Touch the Night, who taunted the Slayer because she was foolish to have brought the beast into her own home, sacrificing her own family. Realizing that Dancing Cloud was a vampire, she destroyed Touch the Night and rushed back to her adobe and found it in shambles. White Flower stepped forward and claimed Dancing Cloud had a fit of rage and destroyed their belongings before running off. Eventually it was revealed that Dancing Cloud had turned White Flower into a vampire and Dark of the Moon destroyed her. Medicine Father had witnessed the whole fight and Dark of the Moon could sense he too was a vampire. He taunted her, claiming she failed to save the People and her efforts were futile. After a brief fight, Dark of the Moon was killed, her neck snapped at the hands of her vampire father. The next morning, the remaining elders led the surviving villagers away from the pueblo into parts unknown.

Behind the Scenes

 * The Anasazi were a real tribe who mysteriously disappeared in the year 1250 A.D. There are many theories related to why the Anasazi disappeared, but there is no solid evidence that gives one specific reason.  The Hopi & Pueblo tribes name themselves as the direct descendants of this lost tribe.
 * This story gives us a glimpse into a situation where a Slayer was called, served and died without a Watcher or without the Council even knowing she existed; other prose tales of previous Slayers have hinted that there were Slayers throughout history who served without fully knowing about her calling or died before being supplied with a Watcher; Dark of the Moon was one of these Slayers. It is likely to deduce that indigenous Slayers around the world had no concept of Watchers until European travelers arrived in their lands and relied heavily on local myths and prophecies to train and guide Slayers.