| Jonathan Soonammena-Naka'e |
 |
| Portrayed By: | Jay Tavare |
| Status: | Alive |
| Age: | 38 |
| Occupation: | Spanish Teacher |
| Family: | Jesse Soonammena-Naka'e |
| Freak Factor: | Totem Warrior |
Background
It's funny how Fate takes us places we never thought we'd go, but when we stop fighting it, we learn that's exactly where one is supposed to be.
I was sure, when I was younger, that I would always live on the Reservation and take over my dad's Handy-man business. He taught me before I knew how to talk which wrenches were which and some of my favorite toys were the building blocks that he made for me. At least, in regards to inside toys. Outside was also my toybox and my parents often had a hard time bringing me inside, even during the hot or rainy days. As I got older, my sister, Louisa, often teased me about it, saying I was a 'Savage' and a 'Wild Animal'. I suppose, in one way, she was right.
Fox chose me quite young; I had wandered out of our yard as a toddler and apparently half the Reservation went looking for me. I was found a few miles out, curled up asleep undera bit of shade. My parents told me that they followed the barking and yipping of a fox and that they saw one darting away once they came upon me. I have dreamed of Fox, had conversations with him when times were difficult, and learned, through many trials and errors, that if I trust Fox then he won't lead me astray. But when I was younger, that lesson was hard to come by.
Life on the Reservation wasn't very easy or fun most of the time, but I felt close to my family and even enjoyed my wild sister, Louisa…helping her break our parents rules and protecting her as best as I could. It was my job, as her brother, to watch out for her, even though she was two years my Senior. In turn, I got her trust and friendship…or, I thought I did. But as I grew up on the Southern Paiute Reservation, I saw just how poorly we were treated and how our rights were being taken from us. I became very proactive in learning about Native Rights, and dare I say, a bit prejudiced against those who refused to see how we were forced to live for centuries.
School was fairly easy; I breezed through High School and was attending the local University to get my teaching degree. I was rather fond of languages and thought that either I could teach Ute at the school on the Reservation or maybe even something in the Public Schools. When I was 19 years old, however, my sister threw a wrench in my plans.
She had been running around with a boy my family didn't approve of…I think she was doing it because she knew it pissed us all off. Not only was he white, but he was a bad seed. He got her in all sorts of trouble and even got her pregnant before taking off. Louisa, devastated, came back to us and we helped her the best that we could. When my nephew Jesse was born months later, she gave him our surname and when he was about a year old, she vanished. Her note said she wasn't ready to deal with a child and she just wanted to be free. So Jesse was left in our care.
A year later, Louisa returned, but I don't really think it was for the boy. She had…changed. She showed up one evening, looking oddly at peace with herself yet seeming to watch our every move. She asked to see the then 2 year old Jesse, who was apparently taking after his Tibo'o father with his blonde hair and blue eyes, but her intensity warned me to take him back to his room. It was a good thing because only a few minutes later I found out just what my sister had been up to in the last year. She had fallen in with a Vampire and gotten herself turned. She was, it would seem, hungry and decided that I and my parents would be a perfect feast. I heard screams and crashing but by the time I had put Jesse somewhere safe, she had already killed our parents and was feasting on their blood. Something inside me snapped and I don't quite recall all that happened, only that I didn't feel I was completely in change of myself. I could smell the blood, smell the stench of death on my sister…and I fought her off.
I wounded her enough to flee before I passed out myself. I woke up in the Hospital…a neighbor had taken Jesse for the time being. I was all healed, but the Police…State and Reservation…had questions. I answered as best as I could without giving away the true killer and even though I was initially a suspect, there was no evidence and the charges were dismissed. When I was released, I went back to get Jesse and became his legal guardian. Even though I was left without my parents at the ripe old age of twenty-one, my nephew wouldn't be. I told him that his mother was dead…which was essentially true, and put my schooling on pause as I prepared to eventually face my sister again. She needed to be put to rest; she might have been wild, but this monster was no blood relation of mine.
I took a couple of years off of my schooling to learn how to be a father and to train myself up to protect my 'ward'. I also began studying up on Vampires which led me down some very interesting paths. Fox, however, was right beside me…encouraging me, as it were. He is known to have a very particular brand of humor, but this was completely unexpected. By the time Jesse entered school full time, I had learned quite a bit about self-defense and the more supernatural things in the world. I had taken up the study of Latin to help me with some of the older texts I had found to research and had started doing my own hunting of the supernatural. Oddly enough, I found many in my own, figurative, backyard. I also went back to school to finish my degree.
When Jesse was in the third grade, I received a very odd invitation to go to England for some additional study. Upon more investigation, it seemed that I was being courted to attend some sort of school for Watchers — those who assisted Slayers of Vampires. We spent nearly two years in England while I learned what I could before I apparently passed some sort of test and could return home. Jesse knew that I was studying some very odd things and I tried to teach him as much self-defense as I could in case Louisa decided to come back for him. We continued our lives…I finally graduated from college with a dual degree in Education and Spanish and got a job teaching at the local public High School. I was also now a Watcher and awaiting any instruction from that end of things.
I was a Watcher for about two years before I realized how it was affecting my work, my family, and my People. Something wasn't right and it took me a while to see it. I had to stop being a Watcher. If it didn't kill me, I would lose too much by staying in that line. The pay was good, but my duty to Jesse and to the tribe was being neglected and that was not how I wanted to live my life. So I just left. I still wanted to put my sister to rest, but in two years, we hadn't run across her. I had also strayed from my path…and it took time for me to see that. Once I quit, I took some time to find myself once again. It was during a self-imposed cleansing and vision quest when I found my answer.
Once I opened myself up to the earth, I felt a sudden jolt of energy and I was not me anymore. I was running in the desert, chasing my prey, enjoying the freedom and connection to the Earth. I WAS Fox. I think I lived a lifetime as Fox and when it was over, I woke up and opened my eyes and was back to my human self. There was a difference, however…I was more than myself. I was chosen to continue my fight…not necessarily as a Watcher, but as a protector and warrior of my people.
Fox has led me down a path I never would have thought to go. I find myself at 38, a bachelor 'father' to my teenage, musician, half-breed nephew who is far too trusting for his own good, a teacher at a High School, and a Warrior of my people. I train and I wait. I try to be a friend and father figure to the boy I have raised as I would raise my own son and I try to be a contributing member of our Tribal Society. I am trying to continue to follow Fox as I sense we are a part of each other, no matter how tempting it is to step off of that path. I have to trust that I will not be led astray by my Faith and by my Totem. I continue to hunt for my sister to finally put her spirit to rest…I know that one day we will have our battle and I hope to emerge victorious once again.
Logs
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