The Sleeping Giant

The Sleeping Giant>, the fifth book of the Misewa Saga, begins where the fourth book, The Portal Keeper ended. Eli, Morgan, Emily, and their companions, Mahihkan (the wolf) and Arik (the squirrel), had returned to Ministik to rescue the animals (pisiskowak) taken by “the bad humans”. Some of those captured animals were put on display in the Assiniboine Zoo, while those left behind were killed and their village set afire. Other animals were captured. All five are consumed with concern: “the five of them sat helplessly facing the ruins of Ministik. Who knew what was happening to the villagers who had been captured?” (p. 9) Although unable to rescue the villagers of Ministik, they take on a new mission: to journey eastward to the Land of the Sleeping Giant, the place where the humans had taken the remaining animals captive.

But exactly where in the east are the rest of the captive animals, and how can the five fight adversaries armed with rifles? Eli is desperate to come up with a plan, and his mind is filled with thoughts of his mother, Star Woman, and how she might help. Morgan sets him straight: “I’d spend less time trying to, you know, think of what she looks like, or wishing to dream or whatever, and more time figuring out just how powerful you can be. . . . maybe she doesn’t need to be here to kick those guys’ butts. Maybe you can do it all on your own.” (p. 16) It’s just what Eli needs to hear, and, as his body feels a surge of energy, he knows that he can draw on both his earthly and heavenly heritage and find the direction that he and his companions will take.
Since contemplation happens best in solitude, Eli goes off on a walk by himself. Because his power to open portals has worked before, he attempts to summon a portal at will. When he is unexpectedly successful, he plunges through the portal, arriving on earth in the middle of a public swimming pool, one which he had visited in the past with his parents before being apprehended by Child and Family Services. As he looks up, he sees his younger self, standing on a diving board, ready to jump. His parents are sitting poolside, and Eli approaches them. They speak briefly, and his dad understands Eli’s description of the mission to save the animals of Ministik. Eli desperately wants to succeed, but his confusion about his identity and his powers seems to hold him back. His father tells him that “whatever is happening, the answer lies with the people you hold most dear. Community.” (p. 32) Eli will find the answer with the people closest to him. With that, he runs for the five-meter diving board, takes the plunge, and returns to World’s End.

Back at Ministik, Eli recounts his adventure, including his “back to the future” experience of seeing his younger self and receiving his father’s advice to work with those whom he loves. How will they proceed with the rescue mission? Pip, the robin who leads the Bird Warriors, returns from his reconnaissance mission that had involved his spying on the humans who destroyed Ministik. He reports that the humans have fortified themselves well. “Their defenses extended beyond the village and up the stone giant. They face the west, the direction we would attack from and they are extensive. A great many of those weapons are kept trained toward the Flatlands.” (p. 44) Beyond is a line of gun-mounted vehicles. Eli wonders how a portal could be big enough to bring a truck through. The rescue plan seems impossible until Eli realizes that there is a way: “We have to get there through the sky.” (p. 45)

The five decide to enlist the help of the Bird Warriors, and Eli flies on Pip’s back to the Land of the Sleeping Giant. As Eli and Pip approach a high mountain while flying high above land, Eli feels the Pull, “the sensation he’d first felt when he’d entered World’s End, and which had grown stronger in Ministik. Ministik was where his mother had lived when she’d come down from the Sky World.” (63) Pip flies to a ledge of the mountain, and, as they rest there, the robin recounts a legend. The mountain is called The Gate, the way that beings on Askí can reach the portal to the SkyWorld. To reach it, one must make a dangerous journey, The Climb, and. once at the summit of the mountain, break through and climb into the Sky World. Eli asks if it’s worth risking The Climb to see his mother, and Pip replies, “You will have to decide.” (p. 69) As they continue their flight, Pip makes a brief stop at the now abandoned Village of the Robins. It is the site of the slaughter of Pip’s life-mate and children by predators, and, as he concludes his story of the attack, the descendants of those killers show up. They are lizards, unspeakably terrifying, “the size of grown humans, with eyes the color of fire and raven-black pupils, slimy and scaly skin, ripped and dirty clothing made of hide, webbed feet and hands, thousands of sharp and serrated teeth.” (p. 100) As in previous volumes of “The Misewa Saga”, when monsters appear, an epic battle ensues, often beginning with preliminary taunts and exchanges of insults. Eli tries to summon portals to swallow up the lizards, but his success is limited, and soon both Eli and Pip are overwhelmed and find themselves tied to a tree, hands bound. Summoning a portal is impossible. Just as it looks as if the lizards will kill them both, Eli shouts the word “MWACH” (the word “No”, in Swampy Cree), and they just disappear. The rest of the Bird Warriors arrive, and Eli and the gravely wounded Pip are carried back to Ministik.

Once they are back at camp, stories are shared; there’s the epic fight with the lizards, and the Bird Warriors tell their tale of settling their past differences and re-grouping as a team. Most important is Eli’s outlining the plan to rescue the animals kidnapped from Ministik. With the exception of Mahihkan, who was too heavy, they will fly over on the backs of the Bird Warriors. The wolf will wait for a signal and then cross into the Flatlands immediately west of The Sleeping Giant. Once the group is united at the portal, they will sneak through and save the villagers in captivity at the zoo. Those captive animals will lead them to the others who can be rescued and kept hidden in the woods east of the Sleeping Giant.

From the beginning, it was clear that the rescue mission would not be easy. When Eli and company arrive at the humans’ base, they see that the “humans’ occupation . . . [was] complete and it was awful . . . Forced from their village, which they had occupied since the beginning of time, the animal beings were now suffering a way that Eli did not want to think about or imagine.” (p. 146) When he finds the giant portal which allows the humans to transport their vehicles, Eli encounters more suffering. The portal is held open by a mistapew (giant), kept captive by the humans who have cemented his hand to the rock of The Sleeping Giant, thereby keeping the portal open indefinitely. Moved to pity, Eli promised the mistapew that he will save it, but a gun bearing human appears, threatening to take Eli captive. Mahihkan attacks, mauling the human, and, with Eli on his back, sprints off to the north, amid gunfire, and eluding the humans who are chasing them on motorcycles.

There’s been plenty of gunfire, and Eli has been shot. Bleeding and blacking out, he has a vision of the Happy Hunting Ground. He hears his mother’s voice, soft and comforting, offering him a choice, either to stay on earth, or ascend to the Sky World. It’s a hard decision, but 12-year-old Eli realizes that he is not ready to leave. “I want to be with my family. With Morgan and Emily and Arik and Mahihkan. With all of them. They need me.” (p. 171) His mother knows that they need him, and so Eli returns to them, his bullet wound healed by a medicine prepared by Arik.
However, it’s not yet the end of the story, and when it is the end, Eli is alone, tied to a pole in the middle of a tent, his hands tied, literally and figuratively. Mahihkan has been shot, and Arik, Morgan, Emily, and three of the Bird Warriors are being held captive in an open-air prison that is surrounded by steel bars with a solid and thick ceiling. It looks as if it’s all over, for all of them. But, this is “The Misewa Saga”, and readers know that the story will continue. The “Epilogue” finds the two remaining Bird Warriors deciding, against all the odds, to fly north towards Misewa in order to save their friends and their world.

In my review of the previous book in the series, The Portal Keeper, I stated that it really didn’t lend itself to being read as a stand-alone work. The same can be said for The Sleeping Giant> which begins right where the fourth book concluded and sets up the beginning of the next book in the series. While Morgan, Emily, Arik, and Mahihkan are all present, , the focus is on Eli and his personal struggle to understand his mixed heritage as the child of Star Woman and his Cree father. As well, he continues to struggle with his power to open portals, a power which is not fully in his control, as yet. He wants to be able to use his power for good purposes, and his lack of control frustrates him. In all “The Misewa Saga” novels, Eli has been “an old soul”, and, in this novel, he demonstrates a sense of compassion far beyond his years. His sister Morgan and her girlfriend, Emily, really are in the background, and in Book 5, there is little development of their romantic relationship. Arik, who was such a character in the earlier books, is also quieter, although Mahihkan asserts himself as a strong and heroic protector of Eli and his companions. Travel between earth and Askí featured prominently in the first three novels, but, as in Book 4, this story takes place entirely in the North Country. I was grateful for the map at the front of the book, a resource which I checked frequently so that I could understand the direction of their quest. Aspects of Indigenous spirituality are learned through Pip’s telling of the legend of The Mountain, and, in Eli’s near-death visit to The Happy Hunting Ground, and, along with Eli, readers also learn more about the legend of his mother, Star Woman. As in the previous “Misewa” books, a “Glossary” of Swampy Cree offers both pronunciation and meanings of “the good words” used in the context of the story. The Sleeping Giant concludes with a real “cliff-hanger” ending, and, although readers hope that Eli, Morgan, Emily, Arik, the Bird Warriors and Mahihkan will live and fight on, readers won’t know for certain until they read the next book in the series.