Chapter 27- The Despoiling, pt 2
Two weeks passed after her meeting Gaia in that place that was supposed to be within her soul. During that time she learned everything she could from Catori and Tayen quickly. For some reason she felt rushed, like events and time were speeding up and she was being left behind. And the dream, the nightmare plagued her every night now.
She learned that the place she went within herself, within her soul, was a meditation void within her own mind where she could commune with her Wells of Magic. At least, in her case that was what Catori and Tayen called them. For them, for Animals in general, they were called Chi Wells though by their descriptions of what each was and did, it seemed like it was two different names for the same thing. They assured her it was not, something about resonance and magic and Chi being like oil and water, they can reside in the same containers but they will never mix.
The sphere of red sun-like fire was her Spirit Well, or Mind, and when she returned the next time she found she could sense her own aptitudes of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. They were all mediocre before Gaia's boosts which oddly enough she could also feel.
The sphere of blue rippling power surrounded by seven spinning rings of water was her Well of Power, and she could sense that it was nearly as deep as an ocean, and there seemed to be two layers to it. A deeper vaster ocean that's depths she couldn't quite quantify, and then a shallower layer that evaporated away on a monthly cycle. The vapor would rise up, be caught up in the spinning rings of water, and condensed before raining back down onto the surface of that blue sphere to start the cycle anew.
Catori and Tayen had explained this to her in great detail. The vast ocean was her life-essence, or life-span. Any magic she used that cut into this power would irrevocably shorten her life. The shallower water was her life-force. Life-force was her own reproductive ability. Magic requires power and sacrifice, and she must be willing to pay the price for its use. She could, of course, also use life-force contributed to her from her husband or any male she was willing to breed with to obtain it. However, using her own reproductive power would render her sterile for a month while using a males life-force could result in pregnancy if not used, or miscarriage if not used quickly enough. Hlina still shook her head at that. Why would anyone use such a power if the cost was so high?
The sphere of yellow-orange power surrounded and shielded by mismatched clods of earth was her Soul Well. What she sensed here was her Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. All of them seemed rather average until her boosts from Gaia that made her constitution seem ridiculously high.
Tayen and Catori were very interested in how detailed her meditation void was, and her sensations in the differences in her Wells of Spirit, Power, and Soul. Apparently they could only distinguish that the Spirit Well was the power of the mind while the Soul Well was the power of the body, nothing more.
Her second time visiting her inner world she found two lecterns down on the floor to the side of the massive boulder that took up most of the space in the center of the cavern. On top of each lectern was a large tome. The first one she opened seemed to be about her. Weird statistical data; her name, the names of her parents, her birth date and age, her height, weight, and even her measurements!
Thank goodness! She was eighteen, but why the hell did she need to know she was six foot two inches tall, or a hundred and fifty pounds? She could have lived the whole of her life happily never knowing her weight! And why in the world did she need to know that her measurements were thirty-six, twenty-eight, forty-three, and that she had b-cup breasts? She didn't need to know that! No one needed to know that!
Then there were her titles. Daniel's Mother. Mother of Gaia's Champion. World Traveler. Alleged Demon Child. Alvas' Blessing. Wild One. Bounty Hunter Killer. Forest Shadow. Avenger of Blood. Wolf Stalker. Earth Daughter. Espowyes' Bride. Lady of Wolves. Gaia's Oracle. Some of them, nearly all of them gave little boosts toward her Charisma. Either toward a specific person, or people, or just a general boost.
The tome on the second lectern seemed to be a book of spells, skills, and abilities. Flipping through its pages taught her more about what she could do than what Catori or Tayen could explain or teach. In truth, the dokkalfar religious traditions may have included priestesses and shamans she did not know, but all of her abilities had a very shamanistic flavor to them, such as: Zephyra's Lighting. Zephyra's Storm. Zephyra's Mark. Brigid's Strike. Brigid's Lash. Brigid's Mark. Gaia's Landslide. Gaia's Molten Fury. Gaia's Mark. Lauma's Rest. Lauma's Entangling Roots. Lauma's Glade of Rejuvenation. Lauma's Balm.
They all looked interesting and very helpful, but as she examined the spells she noticed that she could only use three of them; Zephyra's Lighting, Brigid's Strike, Lauma's Balm. It made her wonder why. If she was Gaia's Oracle, then why couldn't she use Gaia's spells first?
It was a question that still plagued her.
When the nightmares came again, it was more regular and worse, if such a thing was possible. It came to the point where she was waking up with screaming terrors. She woke Chenoa and Espowyes until she finally gave up on sleeping. Three days without sleep and exhausted, she finally told Tayen and Catori about her dreams.
"It sounds like a spirit vision," Tayen said as she mulled over the details of the dream.
Catori nodded before adding, "I think you must follow this dream. Walk the path your dream is leading you in. Otherwise the nightmares will never end."
"And there could be dire consequences," Tayen added with a nod of finality.
She sighed in resignation and nodded. It wasn't what she wanted to hear. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was follow her nightmare down into that dark dank cave.
----(!)----
Two more weeks to prepare for her trek to investigate the cave, and in that time Chenoa gave birth. Two boy cubs and two girl cubs. They were so beautiful. All four were a spectacular mix of father and mother. Espowyes named his sons Bidaban and Hotaama, the names meaning 'He was born at the breaking of dawn' and 'He is gray-brown'. Chenoa named her daughters Awendea and Hinto, 'She was born early in the morning' and 'She who has deep blue eyes'. Everyone celebrated Chenoa's safe delivery and the children's successful births for the next five days.
Five weeks after Hlina's meeting Gaia, she found herself leading Espowyes, Wanageeska, and two of the chief's counsel, Ahote and Enyeto, to the tree where Alvas was buried. They had already seen and left behind the small cave where she grew up and lived for fourteen years. After months of nightmares, memorizing the quickest path from the Howling Forde Lupus Den back to her cave had been simple. It shortened the trek drastically. It irritated her a little how much shorter it had taken to reach her cave than how long it took her to find the Howling Forde Lupus Pack in the first place.
"Your mother was a strong and courageous woman," Wanageeska said as he knelt in front of Alvas' headstone, "I wish I could have known her."
Espowyes and the others nodded agreement.
"Thank you," She mumbled as she knelt down on both knees and put her hands to the earth above her mother's remains.
Everyone remained silent until she stood up again, and then it was Hlina that finally led the party away with noonday sun high overhead. Not that they could tell really, the sun was completely obscured by the dense foliage of the forest. It was well into the evening when they came upon the old campsite where she killed her mother's murderers. Nothing remained there now but bones partially covered over by dirt, leaves, and pine nettles.
Espowyes walked the old campsite with Hlina as she told him the story of what happened. He nodded along, but then shook his head in astonishment that she had only been ten years old. That night they slept beneath the same large tree she slept under so many years ago. Early the next morning, with the sun just cresting over the mountain peaks they set out again, this time north and east.
Five days later they stood just within the edge of the forest letting its deeper shadows hide them as they looked out across fields of pasture, corn, hay, and wheat. Though she was only two, Hlina had very clear memories of the forest coming right up to the village when her mother took her and ran. Now, the forest had been cut back a mile or more from the edge of the village and the roots removed to make the farmland before them. Hlina didn't know much of her dokkalfar heritage, but she knew enough to know that this was not her people's way. They lived in harmony with the forest, or so her mother had taught her.
"We can not go any closer to the village," Wanageeska whispered as he peered across the vast open fields being worked by tired looking dokkalfar women wearing baskets on their backs that offset large pregnant bellies, or a pack in the front to offset wraps that held babies on their backs, "If we go any closer we will be seen, and once that happens there will be killing. Bad business killing Primes, even when they deserve it!"
Hlina nodded before replying, "If my dreams are correct, then we don't want to go anywhere near that village anyway. Follow me. I have traveled this path many times in my dreams."
It was another hour to skirt around the village and remain unseen, then they were running further north. To Hlina it felt like she was walking through her dreams again, deja vu was an ever present shadow looming in the back of her head. She walked through forested mountain valleys until they reached a place she had seen a hundred times or more. A valley floor littered with the remains of men. A few bones showed here and there, sticking out of the ground. In her dreams the bones were always on top of the ground in full view. She wondered at the differences. As she saw them now she could tell they must have sat on the valley floor, exposed to the elements and grown over for the last twenty years or more. What was the significance in the differences between dreams and reality?
"The significances is that those bones were the bodies of your forefathers," A raspy voice suddenly spoke directly inside her head, "The men that came to your mother's village later and offered their help in return for taking your mother, her mother, her mother's mother, sisters, cousins, aunts, and friends as their wives and women. They killed the men of your village all so that they could manipulate your foremothers into accepting them, does that not make you angry? Does that not make you hate?"
Hlina froze in place as soon as the voice spoke inside her head. Espowyes, Wanageeska, and the others came to a halt and stared at her. Espowyes was the first to ask, "Are you well my love?"
Hlina's mouth opened but nothing came out, the voice was speaking to her again, "If those men had not killed the men of your village then your mother would have married a different man. You would have been born a full human, or maybe, not at all. Your father would not have tried to kill you. Your mother would still be alive. Does that not make you angry? Does that not make you hate?"
