Normal candle light burns and flickers at a color spectrum between red an green on the RYOGBV scale. It burns a crisp, white light color that gives enough light for someone to read a book by or write in a secret journal. However, the colors that Kaylee now saw were an overlay to the red, yellow, orange and slightly flickering green that the normal candles burned. This overlay added a purplish red to the flame as well as a deep dark, almost black, blue to it as well. The intensity also was turned up as if someone pushed the flames through an Adobe Photoshop filter and processed it with a few hundred filters and color enhancers. The effect was almost trance inducing and Kaylee found herself fighting against the desire to get lost in the light of the candles. She closed her eyes tightly and blinked her eyes quickly until the feeling passed away.

She then whipped her head around to the soft, tall, bed that her Gran slept in. Her mind conjured up an image of the bed having been cold and unslept in for many days, as her Gran had passed away. It even half expected to see Daniel laying there, as if he were some big, bad wolf waiting to devour her as she returned with here good news. Thankfully, neither of these day dream images were true. For there, laying in the bed was her Gran, the covers moving ever so slightly as she breathed a deep and silent slumber. Kaylee quietly turned her body to face the bed and stared at the old woman with her new eye sight.

This was the first shaman she ever saw and was amazed at the swirls of colors blending and trickling around the emanation that surrounded the old woman. Her aura was stunning. It had a base layer of silver and gold and flecks of black that swam from the parts of the body that was getting prepaired to shut down. But lines of all colors from the spectrum swam near the hands and head and heart of her Gran. It was as if those were the most powerful centers in the body and that is what her Gran’s life had focused the energies around.

“I wonder if I will be seeing in myself when I look at myself in the mirror?” Kaylee thought to herself as she attempted to stifle a small sneeze from the dust that the room had.

She crept silently over the old wooden floor boards and made her way over to the bedside where her Gran slept on her back. She knelt down on the floor, her knees betraying her with a somewhat loud cracking sound. Kaylee held her breath and reached out to touch the antique and soft skins that her Gran preferred to sleep under. They kept the warmth of the fire place within them, thefore keeping the core temperature of her Gran warm as well.

Kaylee touched the wrinkly skin of the left hand of her Gran. It was slightly cold and very thin and Kaylee felt nervous to touch the very delicate digits. She closed her eyes as she sat her head down upon the skins and breathed slowly. A few minutes passed and then Kaylee heard movement under the skins. Her eyes snapped open and Kaylee looked towards the face of her Gran.

“Gran,” she whispered softly, not wanting to wake the sleeping woman but wanting her to wake at the same time, ‘It is me, Kaylee. I have returned. I am here and have done what you asked me to do. Are you awake?”

The head beneath the blankets turned towards her and Kaylee watched as the sleepy eyelids of her Gran fluttered open. The old woman smiled and pointed to the night stand.

Kaylee followed the gaze to the small wooden table where she saw a pitcher filled with water and a small glass sitting next to it. She carefully picked up the pitcher of crisp reservation water and held it firmly in her right hand. With her left hand, she swept the glass off the counter and held it steadily. Then she slowly poured out some of the cool, mountain farmed water down into the glass. She kept her hands very steady and did not drop a single bit.

She then set the half full pitcher of water down gently and turned to her Gran. She cradled the old woman’s head in her free hand and helped prop it up so she could take a small sip of the water. Kaylee lowered the glass to the lips of her Gran and allowed a small trickle of water to reach the tip of the glass and go into her Gran’s mouth. She slowly kept on doing this until her Gran nodded her head in an acknowledgement that told Kaylee that she was done. Kaylee then set the glass back down in the old spot on the night stand and moved the pillows around for her Gran so that she was propped up a bit better. Finally, she sat down on the soft leather deerskin hide and stared at her Gran.

The old shaman looked lovingly at Kaylee and coughed to get the phlegm out of her throat so that she could speak.

“Are you alright, Gran?” Kaylee asked.

Gran cleared her throat, “Yes dear I am quite alright. Just the night stuck in my throat still. I am excited to see you have returned. Really I am. Do not let the dying body of an old woman fool you.”

“Gran, you were right,” Kaylee began trying to figure out exactly what to say about her experience, “You were so very right. And of course, my spirit guide, Mouse, was within me all along. It is funny how that happens. If only I had sat down and listened to myself first I would not have had to go anywhere or do anything. But no matter, in the end I found Mouse.

“I want to tell you all about it. Vellum Hollow is one amazing place and I can not believe it is so very real. I mean, I thought it was some place in stories that you and the others told to keep up the faith for us kids when we were young and had visions of leaving the reservation land for something bigger and better. But now I know better.”

Her Gran touched her dirty cheek, “I know dear. I know. But the ways of the young are stubborn as they learn. And yes, I knew you were coming. Wolf came down from Vellum Hollow and told me of your success. Apparently you impressed the council greatly and they were quite happy with the progress and things you had done in such a short amount of time.”

Kaylee smiled and tried to hide the feelings of pride and overachievement she felt, “I just stayed focused. I was more worried about you and whether or not you would still be here when I returned. I just wanted to see you again before the great darkness took you away from me again forever.”

A stream of tears cleared the dirt from Kaylee’s cheeks as she watched her Gran. She cleared her throat and continued, “It was amazing. At first I thought I was lost and that somehow I let go of you and went in some wrong direction. I about freeked out when I realized the drumming and you sounded so far away. But then, I saw a will o wisp and it led me to safety. I slept in a round cabin that was set in the middle of a large clearing. Somehow it always knew what I needed so I always had food and water and warmth. And during the days I did what you told me to do. I used the divination stones and figured out what that day was going to bring. Then I used them to pick one of each direction to search for a small item to place in my pocket.

And the things I found. They were amazing. Gran, I found…”

Her Gran cut her off short, before Kaylee could describe the four items that were now in her medicine bundle and empowering her majick, “Do not tell me what you found little one. Those are your sacred items and no one else needs to know exactly what they are. I am sure they were well choosen and made perfect gifts for you.”

Kaylee nodded as she absent mindedly fingered the small bundle hanging around her neck, “Yes. Yes, I guess you can say that they do fit me quite well. Oh and then I met four spirit guardians. I met Weasel who was silly and yet very down to earth. He was goregous with his black and brown and tan pelt and small twitchy ears and black eyes. Then I met Barn Owl, who was wise and looked poetic as he flew through the air in some plateaus. His feathers practically glowed in the heat of the sun. I also met Frog who was small and tiny and sat by the lovelist pond. The water was a gorgeous shade of cobalt blue and he spoke with a weird accent that was almost southern. And I also met Bobcat. I think you may already know who this is. Sadly, I am not sure I can trust because of the deception he pulled.”

She turned her head towards the doorway and searched the outside for any signs of Daniel being nearby. She did not want to confront him while she was in with her Gran. She used her new powers of aura detection and did not see any colors standing anywhere on the other side of the curtain. Satisfied, she sighed when her vision did not detect him at the doorway.

“Gran, I need to tell you something. You may not like it but the spirit council can back my story up if you need to know more. Daniel sent Bobcat to me. He was trying to screw up my akalam so that I failed. He did not want me to become your successor because he wanted to become your sucessor. And Bobcat almost succeeded except that in my ritual he said something that made the others all upset and well, yeah. Please do not hate me for saying this. But I knew that Daniel was up to something not very good when I first laid my eyes on him.”

Her Gran turned towards the door and frowned, “I always wondered why the spirits wanted to have you as my successor over him. It seemed odd that I was training someone as an apprentice that would not be one to truly wield the powers as deftly as a natural born could. He hid his deception to me well. I am saddened by this news but now feel how it can be so very true. No matter, I am sure you can take it up with the Tribal Council and they can deal with the matter in accordiance to tribal law.”

Kaylee bowed her head and growled softly, “I am very sorry that I had to tell you this news. Do not worry I will not do anything rash but I feel that I must confront him about it myself.”

The old shaman nodded and coughed again, “I am proud of you. You have a warm and true heart and have shown both me and the spirit council that you can do anything if you set your mind and heart to doing so. You are very worthy of being my apprentice and my successor and I am glad that you have returned back to me today. Kaylee, I love you but I am not sure how much longer I have on this planet.

I am so very thankful that you were my granddaughter and know that your mother and father would be very proud of you to see what a wonderful woman you have grown into. I have one more request of you. Do not worry, this one does not involve you going away to Vellum Hollow again. It can be done right here with just you and me.”

Kaylee leaned forward and rested her head against her Gran’s chest. “You know I would do anything for you. What is it that you want?”

“I need your medicine bundle. Can you hand it to me?”

Kaylee lifted her head off the chest of her Gran and removed the small black leather pouch with much attentiveness from around her neck. She then wrapped the necklace up around the bundle threefold and set it down gently into the open hand of her Gran. She curled her Gran’s fingers around the pouch and watched attentively.

“One day, far off into the future, you will be performing what I am now going to do. This is one of the final acts you will face as a shaman. Once I am done with this act, I will be spent and my energy depleated. Oh little one, I wish we had more time together but the spirits grow weary with my desire to stay longer in this world. There is much I need to do on the other side and can not remain here any longer. However, I have one final gift for you. Just so you know that I am always with you and will always be there when you need me.”

Kaylee fought back the tears that threatened to fall once more. She did not want to lose the last living relative that connected her family together. She already knew what the old shaman was going to do and the only thing she could do was to sit back and watch it be performed.

The old shaman clasped the Medicine Bundle in both of her hands and raised it up into the air. Kaylee watched as the candles in the room all started flickering taller and brighter, much more brighter than they had been doing so only minutes earlier. A wind picked up in the room and started blowing counter clockwise. Small wisps of her hair and her gran’s hair began dancing with the wind. She looked down at her Gran and saw that the old woman had been replaced with the form of a younger, much more powerful individual. Her Gran’s eyes flickered silver and there was a lifeforce stronger than she had ever known or seen swirling in the body.

The shaman opened her mouth and began chanting in the words of the ancients. It was such an old language that Kaylee did not even understand it but attempted to memorize the powerful words that were coming as a final rite of passage for the two women.

“Dine bizaah loganish. De aramaound y’tet smaquish. Dine bizaah loganish. Finop oerah leengula. Y’tet dine, y’tet dine. De aramaound y’tet smaquish. Heram’t requien finop leengula. Dine bizaah loganish capula. Dine bizaah loganish. De aramaound y’tet smaquish. Dine bizaah loganish. Finop oerah leengula. Y’tet dine, y’tet dine. De aramaound y’tet smaquish. Heram’t requien finop leengula. Dine bizaah loganish capula. Dine bizaah loganish. De aramaound y’tet smaquish. Dine bizaah loganish. Finop oerah leengula. Y’tet dine, y’tet dine. De aramaound y’tet smaquish. Heram’t requien finop leengula. Dine bizaah loganish capula.”

And on the third repetion of the chant, a surge of great power fluctuated through the room. It was as if the wind had become a powerful tornado that surged with the chanting, swelling up the entire life power that they both had. It was so great that all the candles blew out. Kaylee leaned back a bit, fearful of what might happen next. She closed her eyes into a slit and caught a flicker of lightening that appeared out from the ceiling of the room. It charged downard and struck the very center of the medicine bundle. She watched as her Gran’s eyes glowed brightly and then went dark as the rest of the room went dark.

All the knowledge that the powerful shaman had went into the medicine bundle. She was performing the Final Ritual of Passing. Not only did this ritual give the apprentice the power of the shaman but it also infused the medicine bundle with the knowledge and energy of the lineage of the Ser’lapham shamans. It was something the old shaman had witnessed when her mentor passed into the next world and it was something she knew she had to pass on into Kaylee before the dark wolves of death came to reclaim her power and carry her into the next world where she would rest for a time before moving onto Vellum Hollow to be reunited with her family and ancestors who went on before them.

The old shaman smiled in the darkness of the room and slurred out, “Yah eet eh. It is good.” Then her hand went limp and the medicine bundle rolled out and onto the deerskin blanket. A single candle reignited and then all the other candles relit, allowing Kaylee to see once more. When she looked down, all she saw was the still form of her Grandmother. The old shaman had passed away with this final rite.

Kaylee grabbed the medicine bundle in her hand and then drew her Gran’s lifeless body to her chest. The old woman felt light in her arms. She pet her Gran’s hair and rocked the old woman in her arms, lightly singing a lullabye, hoping that it would help carry her Gran onto the next world. She cried out and let the tears fall freely. She felt alone in the room and felt the sadness wash over her.

Off in the distance, Kaylee heard the sad and hollow howls of the wolves. She closed her eyes and knew that the spirit guardian of her Gran was also mourning the loss that evening.

**************************

The next day was a blur for Kaylee. She remebered not getting any sleep for she stayed by her Gran’s side for as long as she could. Daniel appeared in on them when the first light of the moring rose. When he caught Kaylee’s eye he knew that he had been caught. Yet he made no attempt to run or challenge the battle. He knew better than to escape from fate. He knew that no matter where he turned, Bobcat and Kaylee and the Tribal Council would hunt him down and bring the charges against him to frutation.

Kaylee went upstairs to remove the robes of her week long ritual. The smell of firewood and sage stunk strongly from the leather. She wrapped a long, cotton towel around her body and made her way into the bathroom. She stared into the mirror and saw a thin, gaunt face staring back at her. It was almost foreign and unfamiliar to her. The streaks of red paint that marked her passage from this world into Vellum Hollow seemed faded and far removed from the tears she shed over the past few days.

Kaylee slowly and deliberately washed the paint off her face. Thoughts of her youth flooded into her head as she spent at least a half hour cleansing herself and getting herself cleaned. She took a long and hot shower, cleaning her hair thoroughly. She brushed all the knots out of her long, black hair and did not wince at the pain of it all. She thought of all the good times that she had with her gran. The times spent preparing maize for a ritual food, helping play midwife to the tribal livestock and the long walks spent in the woods as her gran pointed out all the edible items and medicinal herbs used to help cure and heal various sicknesses.

When she was done, she dressed herself in a button down black shirt and slipped on her blue jeans. She noticed that they were a bit looser than she remembered they were and thought about how much weight she may have lost during the time spent in Vellum Hollow.

Daniel helped Kaylee prepare the old woman’s body for her final burial rites. Together they cleansed the body, stripping it of any dirt or impurities, with a gentle handwoven linen cloth. They used a mixture of lavender, silver sage and lemongrass. The scent rose high into the air and Kaylee reprised her song of the lullabye from the night before.

When they finished, they dressed the old shaman in what Daniel said was her finest ritual robes. The soft deerskin robes were white and carried many handdrawn tribal symbols. There was a symbol for the labyrinth which helped focus meditation and carried knowledge from the spirit lands into this working reality. Kaylee also recognized the small symbols of the howling wolf and the stars. Her Gran was always fascinated with the stars and loved to incorporate the old stories about how they got there in with the seasonal rites that she did for all the tribe.

Kaylee fingered the beads that were woven into the symbols and patterns. She remembered how her Gran always loved the bright colors of the reds and blues and the green beeds. They represented the energies of passion, emotional balance and growth and life. Daniel left Kaylee alone with her gran after they got her dressed. Kaylee spoke to the still body of her gran about her time in Port Riverbend and all that she learned while being outside of the tribal lands. She braided her gran’s long white hair into two perfect indian pleats. Finally, she removed her gran’s medicine bundle off the chest and placed it around her Gran’s neck. The bundle felt just as cold and lifeless as her Gran did.

She pulled the curtain closed once more and mentally locked it from all harm. Daniel sat on the lower steps of the stair case and looked at her. His pipe hung from the lower lip of his mouth and he looked sullen.

Kaylee paused by him as she made her way towards the front door, “I need to go out to the town to tell the Tribal Council about her passing. They have a right to know. I will also be telling them about your tretchery. I know all about your plans on turning our homelands into a new age touristy camp. I do not agree with what you were plotting and I know the Tribal elders will not be pleased to hear this. However, I will let you have your time with your miaosa while I am gone. I do not anticipate being gone for more than twenty minutes to a half hour. I want you packed and gone after that. I am sure you have friends or somewhere else to stay. This house is now mine.”

Daniel nodded, his shoulders slumped in response to all she said, “Kaylee,” he began, “I am sorry. I was only doing what I thought best for the Ser’lapham. Please, I beg you not to do this.”

Kaylee walked off and said rather coldly, “This is the right thing to do. I would be no better than you if I did not turn you in. I am sorry but we all must choose our own paths. I once thought mine laid elsewhere, outside of these lands but I was wrong. This is home and this is the new path I have chosen to do. And you picked yours, you must now face those concequences.”

Kaylee spent the next hour or two in deliberations with the Tribal Council. She told them of the sad news about her Gran’s passing but also related the good news that she would take over for the older shaman. This caused a bit of a stir amongst many council members but she assured them that she was a much more better choice and fit to carry out the spiritual duties of the tribe than Daniel Bitterwood. She also spoke to the council of the deception that Daniel had plotted to do against the tribe after her Gran passed. She told them that he had planned to turn their safely guarded spiritual beliefs into a tourist attraction to bring money into the tribal lands. She told them that while his ideas had some merit and focus regarding securing the health of the tribe, they were misguided and misplaced and were just as bad for the health of the Ser’lapham people as if they were to bring in a casino.

She left them in deliberations as to what to do with Daniel just as she promised her gran. She told them that her first rite of acting shaman would be to honor and burn the body of her gran in accordance ot the tribal shaman code. She wanted to make the ritual public and invited everyone who had ever been touched by her Gran’s help or generousity to attend the ritual that she was going to hold that evening.

Word spread like wildfire and by sundown that evening the entire tribe had arrived to witness and attend the first rite of their new spritual leader. Many dressed in their pow wow costumes, with their antique leatherskin jerkin and pants and fine headdresses made of feathers and leather. The tribal council wore the tall headdresses of each clan as well as the fine and traditional turquoise jewelry that their tribe had been famous for designing. Kaylee herself was dressed in borrowed and hand me down robes of her Gran. She wore a dark leather dress and draped a pelt made of wolfskin and rabit over the plain robe. She wore her gran’s mask made from the bones of a wolf and dangled bells and feathers from a belt she wore to chase off the evil spirits desiring to steal the remains of her Gran’s spirit. Everyone who entered the clearing set up for the burn passed through two large fires filled with sweet sage grass. The smoke was set up to cleanse them and remove any impurities they brought to the ritual.

She stood next to a large wooden pyre that David, Daniel and many of the townspeople had errected hours before. The body of her gran, now wrapped in white linens sat on top, peaceful and restful. Kaylee smiled sadly as she looked up at the still form of her Gran. She was also proud that so many people were here, paying their respects to her gran.

Finally as the last remaining people trickled into the clearing, Kaylee moved from the fire pyre and stood in front of her people. She looked saddened by the loss but also confident that she could successfully send her Gran’s body off into the next world. Kaylee held up a talking stick high into the air and called for everyone’s attention as the ritual was going to start.

She called out to the attendees, as she made her voce boom loud so that everyone could hear, “Ya eet eeh. Thank you all for coming. I know that you all may know me and I know that I might not remember you all but I am here to stay and I hope that we can get to work together again.

We are here today to pay respects and to send forth Serena Riverwalker, my gran and the tribal shaman. She was a bright and observant woman who always gave herself over to help anyone in need. She lived for her people and fought hard to keep the ways of the old in sync with the ways of the new. She was a wonderful shaman and will be well missed.”

She then passed the antique talking stick to Jose, the eldest of the Tribal Council. It was his turn to speak. He spoke slowly and deliberately, speaking of his memories of Serena and calling forth his guardians in helping her reach her final destination in the lands of Vellum Hollow. He then turned to the next elder on his right and passed the stick to her. This continued for about fifteen minutes and then, finally the stick was passed back to Kaylee.

She nodded solomnly to Jose and raised her arms to the sky. She then called forth all the elements and the spirit guardians to bear witness to the passing of Serena Riverwalker and that they would carry her body to the next world where she would find peace and rest. Daniel stepped out from her left side holding a torch. He passed it to Kaylee who then said a few words in their ancient tongue.

“Today, we bury the last remaining shaman elder. As this chapter closes a new one opens. We give thanks to the years of service Serena Riverwalker gave to the consolidated tribes of Ser’lapham and wish her a safe and speady journey into the lands of Vellum Hollow where her body and mind will rest in peace. We ask that her ashes spread far and wide into the corners of this world so that they may help heal. ”

She then raised the torch and lit the funeral pyre that had been errected hours earlier. She and the tribal elders stood back adn watched the wood catch fire. The still body of Serena Riverwalker sat high atop the pyre and was wrapped in bright white linen cloth.

Kaylee started singing a old and sad song as the fire burned higher and higher until it caught the fabrics wrapping her Gran aflame. Her voice wavered out and towards her peoples, “The dawn is here, spirits calling you. The dawn is here, say farewell to you. May your journey keep you well, where your spirit freely roams. May your journey keep you warm. The dawn is here, spirits calling you.”

Kaylee repeated her song as people from the tribe walked forward and dropped papers with small prayers and wishes into the ash, hoping their words would help carry the old shaman into the next world with good intentions. The fire burned brightly and lasted all night long. By morning all that remained were the ashes of Serena Riverwalker mixed in with the dead wood and earth.

****************

It took Kaylee a week to get things settled into her new home. She had to go back to Port Riverbend and deal with her old job and apartment. She had to break contract with her lease and pay them one hundred dollars to leave. Then she had to give her immediate resignation to her boss Mark. She felt really bad for doing so but knew that her role at the company would be filled with no problems. She promised to keep in touch with both Mark and Michael and did not really tell them anything about what she was going to do with her new life at the reservation. They did mention that she looked more confident than ever before and looked wiser beyond her years.

David helped carry a box of her possessions into the house. He smirked at how heavy the meager box of possessions was. She smiled as she looked out at the crisp wintery afternoon. Snow had dusted the mountainside and she inhaled deeply and wrapped her deerskin coat tightly around herself.

“Ya eet eeh,” she said looking down at the small form sitting on the handrail of the porch steps. Mouse twitched hir nose and nodded. Everything was good and Kaylee was ready for whatever the spirit world threw at her.

The End

She smiled and looked aronud to all the guardians and spirits of the council that stood and awaiting the knowledge that she was safe. Her smile spread wide across her face and she stretched her arms out long with her palms up to the sky in a traditional greeting that recognized all life and all living things.

“Thank you my friends. I am sorry about my temper tantrum earlier, but I was scared and so very afraid of picking the wrong one. I now know, thanks to Mouse here, that you were within me always. I regret that I did not realize this earlier and had to make you all go this mess of a ritual so that I could learn and understand what the true power of a shaman lies in. I look forward to serving you and the consolidated tribes of the Ser’lapham in providing comfort and spiritual knowledge in addition to helping to cure those who have illnesses using old, traditional remedies as well as what I do know about modern medicines.”

The words sounded strange and yet so familiar coming out of her own very mouth. They were not english, they were the words of the original Ser’lapham, that her peoples had created so very long ago in order to communicated with one another and the world around them and the spirits.

“Wow,” she thought to herself, “this is really very cool and a bit overwhelming. But at the same time it also feels so very natural as if I have lived here for all the lifetimes I have ever had. I wonder if this is what gran felt when she started out on this path. Actually, I know this is what she feels every day. The power of being connected and hardwired into something so ancient and so primordial makes me feel weird and twitchy. I can feel every part of my being as it is alive. And I can also feel the life force within everything else as well. I hope I can control this so that it does not control or mangle what I am and stand for.”

Mouse blinked at her and spoke in Ser’lapham, “That is what I am here for. I will help you on this path. I can act as your advisor and judge for those times when you are not sure if you are acting in accordance to the rules of both your heart and the tennants of our relationship. There will always be times when you want to do your best and show your peoples what you know. However, sometimes it is best to let them down than expose yourself to the world. I know this does not make much sense at this moment but I promise you that it will once we begin exploring your new path as shaman.”

“Thank you Mouse,” she said, “I had no idea that you could hear my thoughts. I guess there is no hiding things from you is there?”

“Acutally you can hide your thoughts to me but this is something you will learn on your own. I believe it is what Daniel did to hide from Bobcat. He deceived us all in trying to usurp the balance of things as that we have always done. I think, however, that you are now strong enough to find your way back home and deal with his tretchery and plans for you and your tribe. You now have the full power and the blessing of the council here to expose him and bring justice to him once and for all.”

Anger flared in her eyes and she bowed her head at the Council, “I shall do what you say. I knew there was something sneeky about him when I met him. I had no idea that he would stoop so low as to try and sell off the heritage of my people and the beliefs that make us all unique. I also promise to allow the tribal council to deal with him in a fair and just manner, and one that I will not be a part of because right now there is no fair and just in my head.”

The council of spirit guardians opened a small opening in their circle. It cut a path towards the direction of the exit to Vellum Hollow. Kaylee waved to the council members a final time, “Thank you all for the lessons you have taught me here in Vellum Hollow. It has been an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. I hope that we all get to work once again soon and that someday I can return to visit this wonderful place.”

She then started down the path that had been so clear in her mind the moment she put on her charged Medicine Bundle. She looked up at the sky and saw all the tribal constellations appear. Each one had its own color and almost took on comic sketching appearances. She pointed to each one and named not only the name she knew them by but the Ser’lapham term as well. The trees all around her seemed to bend or bow when she walked by as if they knew that she was their caretaker and would honor and heal and nuture them when they and their real world counterparts grew sick and weak.

Kaylee watched as tthe colors swirled and ebbed with the air and flow of life all around her. She steaded her breath and tried to control the small surges of power that she felt within her body. A small flickering globe of white light jostled out of the corner of her left eye and Kaylee smiled.

“Hello there my little flashlight,” she said to the will o wisp as it darted out from the darkness and into her path, giving her some light to guide her home by, “I see you are here to guide and be my buddy once more?”

The will o wisp bounced up and down in acknowledgement. The gesture made Kaylee giggle.

“Awesome. I totally welcome your companionship and wished that I had more time to hang out and dance with you here among the redwoods. I am sorry that we did not get to know each other more while I was here but maybe one day soon I can come back and we can dance in between the trees and maybe play a game of tag as well.”

The will o wisp hovered and danced around her as they walked down the long path that took them deep into the Redwood forest of Vellum Hollow. Kaylee yawned and stretched as the walk went on for more than an hour. Finally, the two figures stood at the veil of the mists that seperated her world from Vellum Hollow.

Kaylee stopped at the veil and paused. A small lump of feelings swelled in her throat, quickly turning into a large lump. For the first time in a long time, she felt that this place had become her home and she did not want to leave.

Mouse appeared next to her on the ground, “I know how you feel. I know that you do not want to leave here now, as you have spent all this time searching and growing in this place. But you need to cross over. You can not spend the rest of your life here with us. It is not healthy. You need to make your own path and life. We will miss you but we will always be here. Do you know that?”

A small stream of tears fell down her cheek and she smirked, “Yes I know that you and the rest will always be here. I know that I can visit when ever I want but it still does not make anything any easier. I feel as if I belong here more than I do there. This has become more of a home than Port Riverbend or the reservation ever was. I am also scared. I wonder if they will be able to accept me as their new shaman. I mean, what if they reject me? They barely know me and those who do, probably will not forget that I abandoned them.”

“Yes that is true but you now have the same knowledge that your grandmother has. You know exactly what she can do and what she has done in any given situation to help your peoples. You can birth animals, and babies, you can proceed over the changing of the seasons and you can also give guidence to those who seek solace in the comfort of your beliefs. And you also know what life is like outside of the tribal lands. That is something no one else who has spent their entire life on those lands know. You know how hard and cold and different and alien those lands are. Let that be your strength and your calling. And remember that we are all here for you and we have faith. We are you and you are a part of us.”

Kaylee nodded and stooped down to pet the small animal. Mouse took one long glance at hir charge and felt a warm sense of pride and happiness wash over hir fur. This two legged was strong, and would do great things for the peoples of Ser’lapham. Mouse could tell that the spirits of her parents and her ancestors were pleased at the progress that she made in such a small time and that the power that now coursed through her body would never be taken for granted nor would it corrupt.

She then stood up as her knees made a soft but annoying creaking sound and walked towards the veil. She did not look back and choose to close her eyes so that Mouse could not see the tears that started falling. Tears of happiness and sadness and of victory.

And then, she found herself standing on the other side of the veil. She was home. Slowly, she re-opened her eyes and looked around her surroundings. “Please oh please oh please let the colors still be here,” she said. And they were.

Kaylee looked at the trees in the forest of the reservation lands. The colors that she saw on the other side where there but also a bit different and muted. They did not look as healthy or bright as their spirit counterparts. Instead of the nice bright and vivid red firey cores, these trees had pale and pastel reds and pinks. The colors showed the sickness that coursed through the bodies and branches of the trees as the pollution of the lands and airs entered into their bodies. It was a sickening sight that made Kaylee gasp and want to heal them. If only her magicks were strong enough to undo all the damange that the world’s pollutants had done. But she did not know anything strong enough other than the help of the entire world to undo all this.

The power she felt also continued to course through her body which helped her relax a bit. A small laugh escaped from her mouth as she felt how silly it was to think that all that she just gained was going to be lost to her when she crossed over. “I have a lot to learn about trust,” she thought to herself. “I hope that the guardians and my friends here can help me with this one.”

She then recalled her sick gran and hurried down the path, back to her gran’s cabin. “Oh my god, I almost forgot gran,” she thought, “I hope she is okay. She will want to know everything that I have done and learned. I hope she is proud of what I have accomplished.”

The night air was cold and Kaylee saw puffs of steam appear a few inches from her mouth as she breathed heavily. She was now jogging down the path as she hurried back to the cabin.

Finally, the trees broke into the familiar clearing and she saw smoke appear from the tips of the chimney of the old cabin owned by her gran and her family. This was her legacy and soon it would be her own home, from where her new practice and life would commence. Soon she broke through the forest and entered the ground that belonged to the cabin.

She paused to catch her breath and took a second to look at the cabin with her new sight. The cabin itself looked sturdy but a small, pale dust color sat all around it. It was as if the home aged along with her gran. Kaylee could also see the protective glyphs and barriers that had been errected over the years to protect the owners and the lands of the reservations from all the various magicks and rituals that went on in the homestead. A few flickering lights were on inside and Kaylee knew that her gran and maybe Daniel were awake and waiting for her arrival. She wondered if one of the spirit council members fore told them of her re-emergence from Vellum Hollow. She also wondered if Bobcat had warned Daniel of what was going to happen to him once she got back.

She ran up the steps and then knocked on the door to the cabin. She called out to Daniel and her gran as she opened the door to enter without having been invited, “Hello? Gran? Daniel? I am back. It is me Kaylee. I have returned. Is anyone here?”

She made her way from the foyer inside the house, closing the door as quietly as she could behind her. Kaylee looked around the darkened hallway. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she slowly made her way down the hallway and into the first level bedroom of her Gran. Firelight glowing in the fireplace flickered from behind the curtain and Kaylee reached out to push the curtain back to see her gran. Her heart beat quickly in her chest as to what she would see.

“All fuck it all to hell,” she continued, “this whole thing is a mess and now I have no idea what to do to set it right. I mean, will I have to start this whole thing over? Am I just stuck here now forever? Or do I go to sleep tonight and find myself back in Kansas, safe with the knowledge that I screwed up, Gran will die and that dickhead of an apprentice will take over and screw things up even more for the culture I once was a part of. Speaking of which, do I even have a job to return to in Port Riverbend. I promised Mark that I would call him and here I have been stuck all these days in a world where telephones do not exist. God I feel screwed.”

She shut the heavy wooden doors of the large cabinet as hard as she could, not caring about anything but the damage done by the spirit guardians. She spun back around and looked at the mess of items on the floor.

“I guess I will have to clean that up tomorrow,” she said to the now empty room. “Do not know why I feel compelled to do so seeing that my new ‘career’ is over and I will probably be really banned from the reservation this time.”

Kaylee felt so absorbed in her own self pity and wallowing ways that she did not see the tiny creature who slipped into the room and sat in the middle of the Medicine Wheel where she had only been sitting in minutes earlier. It crawled in from the door of the cabin and skittered along the floor, jutting out from the corner of the fireplace. It was heading straight for the center of the Medicine Wheel, where it watched Kaylee rant and pout from the safety of the circle. Finally when it seemed as if the two legged had calmed down, the little creature made its prescence known.

“Excuse me,” a tiny voice called out to her. “If you are done wallowing, I would like to speak to you.”

Kaylee scanned the room at waist level and did not see anything. She felt like she was going crazy or was being talked to something that she could not see. She backed up and started opening the door to the cabinent once more to get the mask to see if it could help reveal the location of the voice.

“Down here two legged,” the disembodied voice called, “I am sitting on the Medicine Wheel that you created. I thought it was quite lovely and now that I am in the center I can see how perfect you made it. Very well done indeed.”

Kaylee pushed her eyes down to gaze upon the Medicine Wheel. It took her eyes a bit to adjust and focus through the anger and depression that welled up inside her but soon her eyes found the small creature just as if it had always been sitting there. It was about the size of her palm and had soft grey fur and a long flesh colored tail that quivered and trembled almost absent mindedly on the hard wood floor. Long whiskers were attached to a stout nose and two tiny grey ears sat atop the creatures head. Black eyes blinked beedily at Kaylee. The creature sat up from its croutch and attempted to settle itself down in comfort.

“Oh, hello,” she said feeling a bit dejected and worried, “Let me guess, the council brought you here to evict me, right? I am sorry but I just could not pick those others. They seemed okay but when they started arguing and making all those weird sounds I just could not stand it. I can not deal with arguments and it had to go away.”

The creature twitched its whiskers, “No the council did not send me. I came here on my own accord. And I understand how you feel about arguments. They are loud and loud noises tend to scare me off. So if you would, can I ask you to refrain from all the anger and the upsettedness? I do not think you want to scare me off, at least not just yet, for we have much to discuss. By the way, I am Mouse.”

Kaylee sat down and stared at Mouse. “Hello there,” she said again as if they had just been introduced for the very first time, “So if the council did not send you this time then why are you here?”

“Because you called me,” Mouse answered.

Kaylee looked confused, she did not remember having called any of the spirit guardians back. And if she did she was not in the mood for their games.

“Uh, no I did not,” she responded to Mouse, “I am sure that I would have known if I called another spirit guardian out from where ever you guys collect from. But in any case you are here. So what do you want from me?”

Mouse twitched hir whiskers and scratched an ear with hir back paw. Hir felt hir was in for a challenge in trying to change the two legged’s mind, “Well, you see… I have been here all along. From the moment you walked into Vellum Hollow to just now when your heart and mind were still enough to accept the idea that I was here. You see, I am the one true and only partner for you.

Sure the others were louder and appeared because you needed to hear them and they helped you understand some things that you needed to know. And yes, I am very sorry that my brethern got into that horrid and downright rude argument. You see, when one of us pulls coyote trickery on one such as yourself, we take it as a very serious offense. There is always trust to be built up in the relationship of this magnatude.

But I am rambling on now,” Mouse paused and sniffed the air, “What I am trying to say two legged is that I am your guide. I always have been from since the moment you were born. That is how it actually starts. The bonding ritual that you did not attend when you came of age was just the formal period in which the leaders of your tribe and the shaman go through to make sure that there are no others who vy for your energy and talents.

I have been watching you for a very long time and I can say that I am very happy and excited for us to work together. Oh, do not let my size or shape fool you. I know that you must be thinking that I am too small and can not possibly have or weild the power that a spirit like tretcherous Bobcat can or all knowing Barn Owl, but you are wrong there. We all have the same, powerful powers. Just different aspects of it.

For example, I have the power that allows you to see the truth into situations. And it came in handy just now when you exposed the other four for what they really were. You instinctly knew that they were not the right guides for you. They all seemed a bit eager to jump out and give you presents and talents. But that is not what you wanted. You wanted only to help your peoples and the family you love. This is another gift I give to you, the gift of being able to do what is best for your family and friends.

Even through all the years you were gone and away from your birth home, I was there. I teach people that they must follow their own path and do what they need to do to survive on their own. You saw a bigger picture and decided that you wanted to learn on your own. And that is strength that no one else but you can carry. You see the world as it really is and can bring that knowledge in and back to your tribe. No one else has done that and that is why you are such a right person to take on the mantle for shaman in the Ser’lapham ways. Do you not see it?”

Kaylee listened to Mouse speak with all her intent. The things Mouse said seemed a bit deceiving but also struck a chord within her body that also made sense. She felt comfortable sitting there with Mouse. It was as if she was talking to a long lost relative without having skipped a beat.

“I guess so. I am still confused by all this and am not sure what to say but yes, you do feel familiar.”

Mouse nodded and attempted to encourage the two legged to come to the conclusion all on her own, “Good. That means you are open to the possibility that what I am saying is truth. Think about it more. Feel free to pick me up or ask more questions about this partnership. I am confident that you know that what I say is truth and that I am not trying to deceive you. I am so very sorry and do not worry, Bobcat will be taken care of. He is a trickster that one. But his teachings are also very strong.”

She layed down next to Mouse and tried to experience the world through the eyes of the small creature. She felt very comfortable with the spirit guide there and more at peace than she had in the past day. The world looked big and scary from her new vantage point but it did not scare her off. Instead, she found herself wanting to explore it more from her vantage point. she looked up and for the first time saw the patterns and lines etched in the ceiling of the cabin. They mirrored and matched the lines of the constallations the Ser’lapham believed in. It was puzzling but a welcome surprise that made Kaylee smile again.

“Okay, so let us say that I decide to take you in. What next? Where do we go from here?”

“Why spoil the surprise when you can see first hand,” came the cryptic answer. Mouse winked and brushed hir whiskers on Kaylee’s cheek. “Only good and positive things come from this. Trust me.”

Kaylee rolled over on her back and touched the spot where Mouse’s whiskers touched her. The place tingled a bit and almost tickled. She closed her eyes again and exhaled deeply.

“Okay,” she said dreamily. “I think that you are the most right guide to walk this new path by my side. You have not attempted to deceive me yet and have a large and familiar feeling when you are near. I would love to call you my guardian and have you walk with me.”

Mouse smiled and called out in a rather high and booming voice, “Your will is done. Kaylee Morgan welcome to the house of Mouse.”

Kaylee’s eyes snapped open and she could barely believe what she was seeing. The room no longer seemed there. The whole cabin had been removed and she and Mouse were lying in the grass of the field. Surrounding the two in a circle of ephermal illuminence were the many spirit guides of the council. Kaylee made out the forms of Bobcat, Weasel, Barn Own and Frog in between the numerous other animals that now sat around her. It was an astonishing and overwhelming sight.

Sitting on the ground in between her and Mouse sat the medicine bundle that she wore around her next for the past five days. It appeared fat, as if all the gifts and stones she collected had reappeared in the bag. Mouse closed hir eyes and the bag levitated off the ground. It began to glow and pulste, alternating between a bright purple and white. Kaylee shielded her eyes with her hand as she watched the bag glow.

A line shot out from Mouse first. It connected and mingled purple energy with the bag. Then another line shot out from another animal sitting in the circle. And then another and yet another. Finally, each and every spirit guide cast their own line into the medicine bundle connecting and intermingling all their energies in with the bag.

And as quickly as the light appeared, it disappeared, sending small white sparks down into the soil of Vellum Hollow. The pouch dropped and gently landed on the ground. It continued to glow and pulsate for a more minutes and then Kaylee reached out to pick it up off the ground. It was warm to the touch and sent small electrically charged sparks up her spine.

Mouse looked tired but satisfied, “And now, your magicks are ready. The pouch is charged with all the energy of all the council. You have our blessing to become the next shaman of the unified tribes of Ser’lapham. May the power serve you well and guide you to answer all the spiritual questions of your peoples.”

Kaylee nodded and bowed her head, “Oh wow. I can feel it,” she said as she placed the charged bundle back around her neck, “it feels lighter. As if nothing is inside of it.”

Then she paused. Her vision shifted and Kaylee felt like she could see the whole spectrum of creation in her field of view. “Oh wow,” she said again.

“I take it you feel it?” Mouse asked.

“Feel it?” Kaylee replied, “Oh yeah. I do not only feel it, but I see it. All around me. This is amazing. Is this what you guys see every day? And feel it? Wow, I can not believe how beautiful this looks.”

Kaylee looked all around her and kept feeling startled at the beauty and strangeness that appeared. It seemed like the whole world was alive and with a color spectrum that was slightly different and off colored than what she was used to. The grass waved and floated in a sea of green, while the trees off in the distance slowly pulsed with a deep red heartbeat.

Mouse smiled and nodded, “Welcome to our world. And soon you will feel the knowledge of your ancestors enter your mind. Eons and eons of thought and recipes and information on all the things you will be expected to do will enter your mind. Do no be afraid. We are all here for you.”

Kaylee nodded and then clutched her head. She heard voices and felt years of memories flood into her from out of nowhere. It felt as if she was going to pass out from the noise in her head. She attempted to keep balance by breathing steadily and closing her eyes but the pain grew louder and louder. Each noise, each voice of the past ancestors threatening to overwhelm her and drag her down deep into the unknowm with them. And then it stopped.

She gently hefted the mask up and held it way over her head. She took a deep breath and pushed the air deep down into the center of her entire being. Past her heart and down near her stomach, into her diaphragm where the air filled her entire body and stablized it for the ritual. She carefully lowered the mask so it fit onto her head and was amazed at how solid and form fitting it felt on top of her head. She breathed deeply and heard the sound of air being inhaled bounce off the innards of the skull and into her ears. She turned to look at the circular creation laying on the floor and smiled.

Everything seemed to look a lot more vivid from the inside of the skull. Colors were brighter and Kaylee thought that she saw some shimmering going on out of the periphial corners of her vision. It was almost as if she was wearing glasses that showed her some aspect of the world that she had been missing all of the rest of her life. Shapes were more well defined as well and when she looked down upon her Medicine Wheel, the stones looked as if they had melded together in one big mess of stone and mineral.

Kaylee walked towards the circle and made a quick last minute check to make sure everything she wanted for the ritual was in place. Candles, totem items, stones, check. Everything looked good. She then stepped into the circle, making sure her feet did not disturb either the stones that made the cirle or the energy emitting from them that the mask gave her the ability to see. She made her way to the center of the circle and then sat down in a lotus position on the hardwood floor.

Her body felt charged up and amped as if she had just slammed a six pack of Mountain Dew. Her fingers shook with energy and her mind felt more alive than it ever had been before. She closed her eyes and attempted to still the speeding thoughts barrelling through her mind. She allowed her mind to imagine that the energy all around her and within the wheel looked like a deep cobalt blue color. This color swirled together and mingled in and out of the natural space of the cabin. She then imagined a bolt of lightening coming down from the center of the cabin. Her breath quickened sharply as she thought of this. It was like someone had dumped an ice cold bucket of water onto her body making her gasp for air. The bolt of lightening ran then ran down from the ceiling and into herself making the hairs on her body stand on end. Then it sparked outward from her body, flowing down into the center of her Medicine Wheel and into the stones that sat nearest to where she sat lotus style. She then imagined that this lightening then pushed out into the four directions and spun quickly around the rest of the circle bonding the whole thing together into one single electrofied force, connecting it and the four cardinal directions together.

She opened her eyes and gasped again. The vision that she created in her head was now a reality. The stones, and her hands glowed with a slight ghastly blue glow to them. Small sparks shot off occasionally from the stones as the energy ebbed and flowed through the powerful circle she just invoked. Kaylee smiled and fought back the urge to pat herself on the back, focusing instead on continuting the ritual.

She turned her head and met with the North section. She had placed the small whole acorn that she discovered in the grove of nut bushes on a small patch of fur that sat next to a beeswax candle taken from the cabinent and then had painted brown to represent the deep, dark rich color of the earth. She also sat the small rune stone for Earth next to the acorn as well. She inhaled again and thought about what that direction meant to her and what she had learned from it.

“I welcome the North,” she began, trying to make her voice carry into every available space of the cabin, “I welcome the dirt and the ground and the trees and the acorns and the bugs and the worms that go into making the food that we eat, like the maize and the carrots and the potatoes. I welcome the feelings the all this bring. I welcome stability and connectivity to all things great and small. Be here now.”

Kaylee pointed her finger out at the painted brown candle sitting at the exact spot of the north and imagined a bolt of green lightening rush out from her finger shooting out to hit the tip of the wick of the candle tip. She imagined that blue bolt striking the tip and sparking the wick so that a bright orange burst of light errupted on the candle, adding to the glow that was already there. And again, as she imagined this, a bright orange and red line of fire shot up from the very tip of the candle wick.

Kaylee felt her heart beat faster and smiled at the amazing display of magic brought to her in Vellum Hollow. She then turned to the East and stared at the items in this sector of the Medicine Wheel. Her eyes gazed upon the beeswax candle she painted a bright corn yellow color. Sitting on a white pelt she found in the cabinent was the sphene and the small rune stone for East. She once again thought about this direction and the windy experience and all that it gave and taught her.

“I welcome the East,” she called out, “I welcome the gentle and happy winds that blow in the air. I call out the sound of the pan flutes of my people, the Ser’lapam that float in through the air to inspire the dance. I call out the inspiration that burst forth from the simple sparkling stone of the Sphene that I discovered from sitting in the cold air of the Autumn winds. I invite the creative muse that allows me to visualize the stories I read and recently, bring forth my visions into sparkling displays of magic here in Vellum Hollow. I welcome you tonight.”

Again, Kaylee pointed her finger out at the painted yellow candle sitting at the exact spot of the east and imagined a bolt of blue lightening rush out from her finger shooting out to hit the tip of the wick of the candle tip. She imagined a airy white bolt striking the tip and sparking the wick so that a bright orange burst of light errupted on the candle, adding to the glow that was already there. And again, as she imagined this, a bright orange and red line of fire shot up from the very tip of the candle wick.

She smiled once more and turned to the South. There she had placed a beeswax candle painted red. Next to the candle she placed a light brown pelt of a coyote and gently placed the silver sage she found atop the plateau two days ago. Nestled next to this, she sat the small rune stone for South and then thought about what all this direction meant to her and what it brought.

“I welcome the South,” she said, “I welcome the warm sun and the tall plateaus of the imagination from whence all imagination and passion flow. I call upon the beauty and power that fire and all destructive force has to create and destroy and recreate life in all forms and images. I welcome you here tonight to this cabin.”

Again, Kaylee pointed her finger out at the painted red candle sitting at the exact spot of the east and imagined a bolt of bright orange lightening rush out from her finger shooting out to hit the tip of the wick of the candle tip. She imagined a red bolt striking the tip and sparking the wick so that a bright orange burst of light errupted on the candle, adding to the glow that was already there. And again, as she imagined this, a bright orange and red line of fire shot up from the very tip of the candle wick.

She shifted her body again and faced the West. She had placed a beeswax candle that she had painted a deep, yet bright cobalt blue color on the floor in this direction. It reminded her of the pond waters that she encountered the day earlier and hoped to see it once more. Sitting atop a skin of a snake that she found in the cabinent was the small and prescious dew drop crystal she picked off the five petaled flower. Next to this was the rune stone for West. She closed her eyes and allowed the experience to wash over her as she thought about what that direction meant to her.

“I welcome the West,” she said, “I welcome the ebb and flow of the cool waters of the Ocean and Lakes. I welcome the wet and deep waters that contain mysteries that we have yet to uncover. I welcome the emotions and the peace I feel when I am near these bodies of water. Be here now.”

And for the last time, Kaylee pointed her finger out at the painted blue candle sitting at the exact spot of the east and imagined the same bolt of bright blue lightening rush out from her finger shooting out to hit the tip of the wick of the candle tip. She imagined the bolt striking the tip and sparking the wick so that a bright orange burst of light errupted on the candle, adding to the glow that was already there. And again, as she imagined this, a bright orange and red line of fire shot up from the very tip of the candle wick.

She then rubbed her hands and centered herself back into the middle of the circle.

“I now call out to the four spirits that I have met while staying here at this cabin in what I guess is the center of Vellum Hollow. I call upon Weasel, who I met the first day up in the orchards of the Northern space. I welcome you to this rite.”

Shortly after Kaylee called out for the small Weasel to appear at her ritual, she noticed out at the corner of her eye that the spirit manifested next to the candle. Weasel flicked hir tail at the apprentice shaman and settled hirself down next to the pelt of hir ancestors.

Kaylee smiled and nodded and then continued, ” I call upon Barn Owl, who I met the second day down in the plateaus of the Southern space here in Vellum Hollow. I welcome you to this rite.”

Once again, soon after she spoke the words the flapping sound of wings entered the cabin. Barn Owl hovered over the candle and then lowered hir body down to the floor boards. The bird blinked and hooted softly as it nestled down in hir space.

Again, Kaylee smiled a warm greeting and continued, “I welcome Bobcat, who met me here at the cabin on my third day in Vellum Hollow. I welcome you to this rite.”

Bobcat appeared next to the yellow candle and licked hir paw. Hir turned around and kneeded the fur that Kaylee placed on the floor and then sat down and licked hir lips in a greeting of hello.

Kaylee nodded to the small cat and then continued, “Last but not least (I hope), I call out and welcome Frog who I only met the other day. I welcome you to to this ritual.”

A soft padded sound of hopping and movement appeared from behind Kaylee as Frog hopped to hir spot on the Medicine Wheel. Hir puffed hir chest out towards Kaylee, almost as if hir was giving Kaylee the approval to move forward with whatever she had in mind next.

She spun around slowly and looked closely at each of what she considered were her new friends.

“Okay,” she began, her voice shaking a bit, “I have never done this before so I am a bit nervous. But thank you all for coming. I am humbled and honored to have been able to meet you all in person. I used to think that what my gran did and tried to teach me would have no usefulness in my future but heh, here I am, sitting and talking to all of you.

“So, as I understand it, I have a need to pick a guide. I presume one of you, that will walk with me and teach me things and I hope, let me teach you things. I know that in the Ser’lapham way, the choosen totem spirit animal bonds with the person. In a way they become a member of that house of the spirit and gain whatever benefits and flaws and rights that the totem brings. I also know that it also determines what path the person brings to their life. Like all the medicines and things that the person is capable of gets exposed and solidified at that one momemt. Or in this case, tonight.

What I never told my gran and what I am going to reveal to you tonite is why I left the reservation. I was scared. I did not want something that I did not know or did not understand control my life. I always wanted to believe that I was the only person in control over what I said and did and well, obviously… that is only half true. I ran to escape the bonding. I did not want to get stuck with something that I was not sure I absolutely and positively wanted to have in my life.

Of course, having been back and talking to Daniel, David and my Gran, my eyes are a bit more open than they were at that one time. I now know that I missed out on a truly wonderful part of my life and I am deeply saddened and regretful that I never got to go through that period. I want to make up for it now with this rite. But I also want to ask you all on what you think about me and how you see me and what I can do.

After all, if this is going to be a symbiotic relationship then I want you to have a say on whether or not you want to work with me as well.”

“Well spoken two legged,” Barn Owl said, “I see you have spent a lot of time thinking about all this.”

“Yes I have,” Kaylee replied. “Quite a bit thanks to the questioning of Bobcat.”

Bobcat nodded to the others but did not say anything. Hir mind was a tangle of webs and notions and was hoping that hir advice to the two legged had turned the girl away from wanting to move foward with all this. Apparently, it backlashed and backfired. It only helped to make her want it more and on her own terms.

“Do you not fear what will happen after this rite,” Bobcat retorted.

“Yes I do. Gran only told me that I have to seek out the items that I have found. The acorn, the sage, the sphene and the crystal. And then I was to meet with four possible suitor totems, which are all yours. What comes next, I have no idea. But I do know that somehow I am to be imbued with knowledge that will allow me to take over and perform her duties after she passes from my world into this one.”

Frog croaked, “You are wise to be afraid. But also smart to tell us. Fear is a emotion that can be a blessing an a curse. And when used properly you can gain a lot from it. I see a good future ahead for you. What say the rest of the council members present?”

Barn Owl stretched out hir feathers and looked intensely at Kaylee, “This one has spunk. She cares and she is willing to attempt new things. However, she is also flightly. Would she run at the first challenge or misstep? That would damage the relationship we have spent eons building with the Ser’lapham. I want to trust her and give the benefit of doubt.”

Weasel nodded, “Yes, she is flightly but most two leggeds are and can be. I wonder if she is ready for this. She did tend to take this on all abruptly. I feel there is a bit of anger towards the one called Daniel who took her spot and has been assisting the shaman since she went away.”

Kaylee shifted uncomfortably at this insight. “Yes, I will admit that that part is true. I am not sure what it is but I feel that no good will come to what you all call ‘this relationship’ if he takes the place of my gran. I would like to think that I can do a better job of taking care of the spiritual needs of my people than he could. Something in his eyes tells me that he only cares about the prestige and power that comes from knowing what he knows.”

“And could the same said about you?” Bobcat snarled a bit too heavily. “After all, you are barely trained and are asking for the boon of the powers of Vellum Hollow to be dumped into your mind and body and spirit for the first time ever. This is a serious rite and job and should not be taken lightly. Why else do you think I have tried to discourage you from this…”

Bobcat stopped, hir anger towards this two legged and her convictions and desires had betrayed hir. Bobcat was not supposed to take sides, hir was supposed to be a open and fair observer and now hir allegiance to the two legged known as Daniel Bitterwood might cause discourse amongst the council.

Weasel was the first to catch the slip up, “what did you say? Are you trying to tell us that you and a hidden agenda have tried to turn the tides to a more favorable outcome for you and whomever the bond you have with requested?”

Bobcat started feeling uncomfortable. Hir tail began twitching and the fur on hir back stood on end.

“Er no, this is absolutely not true. All I meant by it was that is this who we really want to take over for the consolidated tribes of the Ser’lapham spiritual advisor? She was a runaway and did not ever complete her training with the shaman. Is this the best they had to offer? If so, then there is something the other members of the council have kept it hidden from the rest of us and I think we should rethink how we want relationships moving forward to go.”

Frog’s chest puffed out, “You be doin the evil of something else have you not? I see it in the way your fur twitches. You are lying and have been this entire time. You were not the one that she was to meet two days ago. She said it herself that you met her at this house, the house of the two leggeds. Therefore it is you who have invalidated and broke trust. And to think the council…”

All of a sudden the four spirits started speaking in a strange and ancient and heated language that Kaylee did not and could not understand. She grew nervous and her head and body twitched from one spirit to the next in horror and terror. She could not understand any of them and worried that they were talking about her. It was like she did no exist in this world all of a sudden. Tears started collecting at the corner of her eyes and her fists clenched. Her ritual, her first ritual that she ever got to create and perform, that she so carefully planned was crumbling down all around her into an argument that almost sounded like all the many arguments that her parents used to do before they died and passed into Vellum Hollow.

She clenched her teeth and suddenly blurted out, “Stop it. Just STOP IT! All of you. I do not know what anyone is saying and I do not want to know. This was supposed to be my akalam ritual. This was supposed to be the night I picked one of you to be my friend and guide. And now…” her voice grew small as she stared directly at Bobcat, “I do not know if I should pick any of you. I do not know who can be trusted and who cannot. I am sorry, but I think this is now over and I want you all to leave. Just leave. Now. I have no idea what is going to happen now to me or to my gran or my peoples but I know that whatever DOES happen I will figure out a way to make amends my own way. I am sorry but like I said, I just do not think I can trust any of you to be the best help.”

The four members of the council looked at the two legged in disbelief. Never in their existence had they known anyone to deny a bond with any of the creatures that made themselves apparent and known to them. And yet, here, for the first time was a two legged that told them all to leave. They all bowed their heads to Kaylee in acknowlegement of her decision decision and left immediately, blowing out the light flickering out from the tops of the four directional candles as they left.

Kaylee found herself alone again. She removed the hot and now heavy mask from her head and the blue ring outlining the Medicine Wheel faded out into the night sky. She wiped a stray strand of hair from her face and looked utterly emotionally and physically tired. She walked out to the East and kicked a few stones out from the wheel, breaking and disconnecting whatever mystical connection she had made only an hour before hand.

“Well, Fuck. This is just great. Now what the hell am I going to do,” she said staring down at the broken circle.

She thrashed and tosseled in the sheets and soon they were all tied up around her in knots. Her body grew warm and hot to the touch and it felt as if she was getting a fever. Her forehead broke out into a light sweat and her eyes darted behind her eyelids.

Inside her head, her mind was just as tormented as the storm was outside. She dreamt that she was sent home after having performed a very short and lousy ritual to figure out which of the four spirit guides was her one and only true guide. The path home was blocked by thorny branches that choked the life of the large and tall redwoods that Kaylee had just seen earlier that day. The were rigid and hard to move and she swore they were alive for every time she pushed one out of the way, another two or three sprung back to whack her in the head and face.

Her leather robe was torn in several places where the thorns cut deep through the material. Smal scratches and bubbles of blood appeared where she had not been as fortunate with the branches. Tears welled up in her eyes as she fought her way out of the horrible briar patch with all the power and strength that she could mustle. Her arms snapped through thin branches while her feet stomped on the low vines that attempted to trip her and drag her deep under the ground.

Up ahead she was able to see the foggy grey veil that separated Vellum Hollow from the reservation home lands. Even though it was less than a few feet away, Kaylee felt as if it were further away than that… like miles and miles further. Her heart beat irratically, frantically, she knew something was wrong and just had to get back. Gran was the only thing on her mind and she fought the evil plants hard to get out of where she felt trapped.

Finally, she thrust her body forward, hard, with all her might and felt the last of the twisted and sharp spiney vines give. She felt as if she were playing a life or death version of Red Rover and knew that her team was counting on her to break through with all her might. She closed her eyes, yelled out a very primal and gutteral scream and felt her body fall down. She hit the ground with a hard smack and a plume of dust thumped up from where she landed.

She had broken through and found herself back in the normal world. Kaylee picked herself up off the ground and dusted her face and arms off. Blood streaked up and down her arms and the wounds began to throb a bit form the pain. She faced the veil and felt a well of anger swell up from deep within her. She felt betrayed and lied to. She was not sure what caused the feeling but knew that something twisted attempted to use her as their pawn and she was not very happy about it.

The veil soon dissapaited from view and Kaylee turned and began running down the hill. She had a vague, old childhood memory recollation of where she was at and wanted to get back to where her gran lived as fast as she could. She gulped down the cold air in short huffy puffs. She was running so fast that she felt as if her lungs and heart were going to tear out of her body.

Finally, she caught sight of her gran’s homestead. A thin line of smoke travelled up and out the chimney and Kaylee held her breath hoping for the best. She was not able to see any lights on in the home however.

“Please oh please oh please please oh please oh please please oh please oh please please oh please oh please,” she repeated over in her head as if it were a sacred mantra where the life of her gran depended on it being repeated.

She clawed her way to the edge of the porch and collapsed on the first steps. She crawled her way into the house and softly croacked through a parched throat, “Gran! Gran where are you? I am back. I have returned.”

She used the wall to help guide her back on her feet. “Gran, are you okay? I am home and I was so worried,” but her words trailed off into the darkness that enveloped her Gran’s room. For when she pushed aside the curtain covering the entrance she saw her Gran, laying motionless on her bed.

Millions of candles were light and Daniel kneeled beside the foot of her gran’s bed. He was not alone. Behind him sat Bobcat, Frog, Weasel and Barn Owl were perched on his shoulder. Coyote and Wolf were even there, hiding in the farthest and darkest corners of the room. Kaylee’s eyes darted to each of them and felt as if she was being disapproved of.

“Gran,” Kaylee whispered before losing herself in a cascade of sobs. “I did my best. I tried. I guess it was too little too late. I have failed.”

She uncovered her face with her hands and saw that the spirit animals were now surrounding them. “It was you. You did this to her. You left the tribe without a successor. What will become of us, you have betrayed the Council and failed.”

Kaylee cried harder and attempted to explain herself but she found that the words were not coming out of her mouth. Only tears.

Wolf raised hir muzzle to the air and opened his mouth in a snarl and she knew that the worst was just waiting to come… And then, she awoke with a scream.

It was still dark in the cottage but it took a few minutes for Kaylee’s eyes to adjust to the familiar surrounds of her place still in Vellum Hollow. The first rays of the sun were peeking out beyond the sun and Kaylee could see that it was almost dawn.

“Man,” she began, running her hands through her hair. She took down the braid from her hair and gently raked her fingers through her hair. She really wished she had a brush but knew that her fingers were doing a fine job of getting the larger of the knots down and out of her hair. “Some dream. I do not recall ever having such a really horrible dream. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.”

She turned her head to face the window and saw the first streaks of pink and red tumble out from the blackness of the sky. She sat in bed and watched the sun rise, wondering exactly what she needed to prepair herself for that evening.

She pushed the images left over from the dream out of her head and climbed down the ladder to the ground floor. She was not hungry yet and was not sure she would be able to eat after seeing the horrid images in her dream. She sat down next to the fireplace where the last remaining embers glowed and pulsed as they ate away the wood turning into charred coals. She lightly traced the spiral rug with one of her fingers, attempting to figure out the secret of making it wander from one side of the fabric to another. The spiral scrolled back and forth on itself and eventually ended in the same spot on the other side of the rug just opposite of where it had started.

Kaylee smiled and thought about what she was doing. She closed her eyes and let the warmth of the fire wash over her, wiping herself clean of any harm. She attempted to steady her breathing and slowed it down. Shortly after, Kaylee uncovered the key to stilling her mind so that no thoughts entered or exited it. She was meditating.

A soft and still feeling of calm and serenity washed over her. She had never felt so at peace and interconnected to the world and everything around her. Every time she found her mind wandering off to think of her gran or the tribe or the stones in her pouch, she refocused and doubled her efforts and brought herself back to the resting and stillness spot.

She had no idea what she was looking for in meditating but it helped to calm the feelings of terror, dread and failure that her dreams and waking mind brought her. She continued her meditative state for quite awhile and when she opened her eyes, the sun had risen into the sky.

Kaylee looked over at the cabinent that made its home just under where she slept. It appeared very old and handmade, joined together with small cuts inbetween the wood slats. It smelled of a mix of old wood and pine and sage and various other scents that she could not identify. The wood was smooth to the touch. She was surprised that wood that old could feel that soft. Strange and unique symbols had been cut into the wood. One lood similar to the squiggly lines that made up her Air stone. Another spiraled inwards and then jutted out, as if it were a double big G. Kaylee mirrored the glyphs with her fingers as she wished to know what strange language they spoke. She was not even sure if her gran could even read this language. It seemed older than Vellum Hollow itself.

There were no handles on the door. Kaylee reached up with her arm and felt the edge of the cabinent. She gave it a short and sharp tug and the door opened with a small creeking sound from an unseen metal hinge. Trapped   odors spilled out in a jumble from the cabinent and hit Kaylee’s nose all at once, overwhelming her senses.

She tucked her head under her arm and sneezed a couple of times from unearthing the things. She then looked inside the closet for the first time. There were four shelves, all equidistant from one another. Various items sat on each shelf, there did not seem any apparant rhyme or reason to why there were there at that time.

Kaylee’s eyes wandered up and took stock of all the items that appeared as she swung the other door free. Bottles of stored preservatives sat clumped in the furthest regions of the cabinent while fresh colors of maize and other dried vegetables and herbs hung from hooks placed on the bottoms of some of the shelves. Handmade beeswax candes sat in various forms and shapes on the lowest shelf along with several short sticks and various glittering stones. Handmade items made from fur and fang and feathers and bones sat scattered on each shelf. There was a mask made from the burnt and hollowed out skull of an animal that Kaylee had no idea what it was. It had sharp teeth and was open into a scrowl. Antlers from a different animal sat atop the mask as if it were a crown of some sort.

And then she saw a book. It was a small leather bound tome that seemed to get shuffled in and lost amongst the pantry of odd and magickal items. Her hand reached out and felt the sinew of the spine that held the pages locked into their place. She pulled the book out gently and sat back down on the hardwood floor. She carefully cradled the book in her lap and cracked the soft cover open ever so gently. Dust shook free from the covers as she continued to slowly open the book up to the first page.

She gasped and saw the familiar handwriting of her gran. The book looked like a journal, something her gran had written a long time ago. Kaylee wondered if this was her gran’s account of her own akalam? The words were faded on the page but Kaylee could still make out most of the markings, even in the dim light of the morning.

It took her awhile to read through her Gran’s notes. But it was indeed a book on her gran’s adventures here with the spirits in Vellum Hollow. Much of the book she did not understand because the words were written in the old tongue and Kaylee did not know but save a few words of the native Ser’lapham language. It was only towards the back of the journal that she could understand for her Gran had then switched over to the foreign english.

The book gave some descriptions and details of various rites and rituals that she had performed during her first days as a shaman while being in Vellum Hollow. Some of them seemed to be dedication rites that used blood and bits of animals that had be ceremoniously hunted down and caught and killed for their traits and knowledge. Others were old remedies that she recalled her gran having taught her that could cure sickness and disease.

There was one image in particular that caught Kaylee’s eye. It was a circle that had been divided into four quarters. Feathers and skulls and other strange symbols had been noted across the image. Kaylee guessed that this was a medicine wheel, a powerful symbol and ritual tool that helped shamen like her gran perform their powerful workings and dealings with spirits from this realm of Vellum Hollow.

A light went on in Kaylee’s head and she instantly had an idea of what she wanted to do that night. She was going to use many of the items from the cabinent to make a medicine wheel in the cottage and then she would interview and investigate the spirits that she met and make sure that she was choosing the right one for herself.

Smiling, she set the book back down where she had carefully removed it and thanked it and her gran for the wisdom it gave her. She then started pawing through all the items on the shelf, taking out the items she wanted to use for the evening and stacked them behind her; sorting them into the various directional components.

She spent the rest of the day working on laying out the shape of her ritual, coloring various candles with hand made dyes she found in various bottles and coming up with a list of questions and comments to talk to the spirits about. She felt more ready and more well prepared to do what she was about to do than she would have ever guessed.

Then she carefully assembled the wheel, marking off the cardinal directions with one of the four colored candles she found and painted. She took each gift she found laying around Vellum Hollow out of her pouch and also laid each one down in the appropriate spots on the wheel from where she had found them in the world. Kaylee also decorated the wheel with bones, stones and the feathers that lined the shelves of the cabinent.

When she was finished, she climbed up to the top of the loft to get a arial, bird’s eye view of what she had done. She smiled once more and was pleased. She wished that her gran could see what she made and hoped that it pleased the spirits as well.

Kaylee sat there until the sun started setting behind the mountains and forests of the west. Dark orange, red and purple hues cast shadows on the walls of the cottage. And when the darkness came, Kaylee pulled out the strange animal mask and knew it was time.

“Let us do this,” she said gazing into the eye sockets of the mask, “I am ready.”

Her mind wandered and every time she brought it back to stillness, something else would cause it to wander off. Feeling a bit frusterated, Kaylee gave in to sleep and decided that she would use the nap and her dreams to figure out what exactly she wanted to get from this experience. She was scared and only wanted to make her Gran happy. But the question was, would she be happy taking on all that her gran did for the community when she was gone? This was something Kaylee needed to answer and soon.

Nighttime soon came and the winds died down once more to a restful calm. It was still dark out when Kaylee woke up from her long slumber. Her body felt rested but her mind did not. She had not dreamt and it was troubling her. She carefully climbed down the steps of the ladder and made her way by touch to the door. She wanted to see what the night looked like in Vellum Hollow before she left.

It was chilly out and she pulled the sleeves of her robe over her hands. The sky was painted a dark and deep black. There were no lights from any town or city to disturb and miscolor it. Kaylee saw a bizillion stars twinkling overhead. Each one seemed to unfold into another dozen or so stars and Kaylee soon started seeing patterns in them.

“That is the bear constellation, and there is the man with the bow,” she said pointing her finger high into the sky to trace them. “It must be getting close to the hunting moon. For those two never come this close unless it was fall, for that is when the hunter goes out to hunt and feed his family.”

Kaylee climbed the outer stairs and sat on top of the roof for a bit, allowing the beauty of the world and the stars and the colors they brought to her cheer her mood up a bit. Soon after, the cold and the stillness made her sleepy again and she went back into the cottage to attempt to sleep some more.

Once again the sun was shinning brightly when it rose to greet her. Kaylee rose slowly out from the bed, her mood still colored by the words that Bobcat had spoken to her only hours earlier. She knew that she was not the best or the optimistic person but the words that the spirit spoke cut deep into her and she could not shake off the feeling that she was not going to be worthy of the right to be a shaman.

“Why did I agree to do this so quickly?” she asked to the silent room, “I am totally not qualified to do this. After all, I am just some runaway to my tribe. I abandoned the lessons and the knowledge years ago.”

She then looked down at the sphene sitting on the spirial matress and at her pouch. “But on the other hand, I have come so far and the gifts I was given from the corners have been helpful and powerful. So in that regards I have also come pretty far. I guess I am just tired and want to go back to the familiar.”

She inhaled deeply, “However, I am here now and I might as well finish this thing while I have the chance. Not that many people can say that they have been asked to do something as I have and lived long enough to tell tales about it. I guess this is my turn to speak and experience the majickal world that my gran participates in on a daily basis.”

She pulled on her pants and moccasins. “Okay Kaylee you can do this. Now get down there, eat your gruel and then go out and see what connects in the West.”

After she finished eating, Kaylee found herself throwing the stones for what she hoped was one final time. She already knew the final direction to move herself in but wanted to attempt to prepare herself for whatever awaited her this day. She shook the smooth, white stones in her hands and then let them drop once again onto the table.

This time her answer came in the form of the Earth, Air, and Fire stones. She closed her eyes and though about the reaction that fire and wind had on the earth. “Fanned by the Wind, the Fire makes its way across a scorched earth. What does this mean?”

The message was somehow lost on Kaylee but she could not help feeling a deep sense of feeling tricked. She felt as if she could not trust her mind that all her answers to the powerful stones were weak and not right. Doubt hit her had and she fought to regain her sense of balance.

“Okay then,” she said standing up, “I guess I just fumble through the rest of this as I head West today. Perhaps the next guardian can tell me what I have done wrong.”

She left the safety and comfort of the cottage and headed in the opposite direction of the rising sun. From what she could tell, she had indeed slept a long time and it was mid to late morning here in Vellum Hollow. She sighed, stretched her back out and then looked out towards the west. Once again, she saw the familiar sights of forest just beyond the grassy grounds.

Large redwood trees stood proud and tall at the edge of the forest. The strong scent of dew mixed with pine flooded the air and Kaylee felt her shoulders relax a bit as she entered the dead quiet forest. It was strangely silent, and Kaylee was not sure whether or not it was the fact that she was entering the forest that caused the silence or if the silence had always been there to begin with.

She made her way slowly through the forest, taking her time to look around at each tree and each bush. She was learning to see the minute details that seperated each tree from one another. One of them had split roots and was growing from two trunks instead of one. It was a large enough tunnel that Kaylee could walk straight under the tree and see all the innards and markings of animals that once attempted to make the tree home. She was amazed and dazzled by the variety of things that Vellum Hollow had for flora and fauna and she partially wished that she had more time to spend in the place understanding where it all came from. For that was still all a mystery to her.

She continued her trek west and finally stumbled upon a small clearing in the middle of a grove of redwoods. The ground got swampy and Kaylee had to make her way over several felled trees. She wondered if they had fallen during yesterday’s storm but had no way of telling a freshly dead tree from a tree that had been laying dead for years. The muck and grime left on the trees slowed her progress to a crawl and she wanted to get up close and personal to the pond that she could now see jutting out just past a few more of the fallen logs.

Finally she reached the edge by creeping along the last log in her path. Glorious blue water peered up at her as her reflection appeared in the water. Her face was dirty and almost unrecognizeable. For the first time since entering Vellum Hollow, she saw the face painting her Gran marked her with. Five fingers painted in a brownish red crossed over her left eye, while the small palm outline crossed over the bridge of her nose and down her right cheek. It appeared more like a faint case of henna rather than a deep mask of gunk.

Her eyes were wild and blazed with weariness and doubt. They appeared more green than the deep brown that got captured on her badge. Even her long black hair looked more red and warn than the Ser’lapham black that she was used to.

She reached out her hand to touch the image. Then the croaking started. For the first time since arriving in the Western forest, Kaylee was hearing the sounds of frogs. Or rather, a singular frog. It was loud and seemed very close to where she now sat, straddling the log and scanning the horizon with her eyes.

Strange five petaled flowers grew from the forest floor at this area and she glanced over at the nearest batch. A small blossom of purple sat a top of five deep green fronds. The flowers were no bigger than the palm of her hand. Kaylee though they were very pretty and wanted a closer look. The sun appered out from a cloud and caught something sparkling on a petal of one of the nearest flowers to her right. It glistened in the light as if it were a small drop of dew refusing to evaporate into the air.

“That is strange,” Kaylee pondered. “Especially seeing that the morning dew has burned off from the rest of the flowers in this area.”

She bent over to her side and leaned as far out as she could on the log without falling off. Soon her face came within centimeters of the strange purple bud that sat almost as if it were floating on the five pointed petals. A strange scent of lavendar, vetivert, clove, and pumpkin rose from the bud and Kaylee smiled. The scent was intoxicating and nothing like she ever smelled before.

She pulled one hand free from the log and tested out the grip her legs and the other hand and arm had at keeping her steady. She waved the free arm around a few times and nothing happened. Feeling that her grasp on the log was still secure she stretched her arm out over her head and felt the petal. It felt leathery and sticky to the touch. But it also felt smooth as if it were covered with hair. She extened her fingers out to their farthest reach and carfully but bobbingly attempted to touch the dew that was on the leaf.

It was not water, at least not the sense of what she figured water sitting on a leaf was going to be like. It was hard, solid, but warm to the touch, so it was not ice. She gently peeled the small item off the deep green petal and allowed the weight of her body to pull herself straight back onto the log. She stared at the small item now sitting in her hand. It was a translucent color and she could see her palm magnified weirdly on the other side.

It felt like a small stone and was shaped more like a small tear drop, as if someone from the sky cried stone tears and left them on the tops of the strange purple flowers. The croaking grew louder but Kaylee did not notice it at all. She was staring intently into the stone sitting in her hand.

Something hopped onto the log that she was sitting on. Kaylee glanced outsover her outstretched palm to see a small, light green bellied frog staring at her.

It blinked at her. “Ribbit,” it said. A long tongue flickered out at the two-legged as Frog tried to get a feeling for what this girl was like. The air around her was sweet and sticky and Frog determined that she was mostly harmless and would not attempt any devious acts. Satisfied with how the girl got to hir pond, Frog sat up and spoke in a hoarse and throaty voice that seemed to come from deep within his chest.

“That be a Dew Drop crystal you got there. Thems very rare here in Vellum Hollow,” hir said to the young girl. “You best be puttin it in hir pouch now before you lose it.”

Kaylee looked down at the small frog with three fingers on each arm and nodded. Frog watched her carefully undo the clasp of the black bag around her neck and then slide the dew drop crysal into it. He watched her tie it up nicely and drape it around her neck again.

“It be seemin like you no happy here. Is this be true,” Frog croaked at her.

“Yes. No. Er, I dunno,” she said looking away from him. “I am confused. I am not sure I am right for this. I am doing the best I can but the past two days have been hard on me. I feel as if I might be doing more disservice to my Gran and to the tribe than I would be had I gone home.”

Frog puffed hir chest out until it grew thin and white instead of the pale greenish yellow it normally was. Hir let it out slowly and a small croak came out of hir mouth.

“I see,” Frog began. “And do you not trust in things that they will work out for the greater good? ”

Kaylee cocked her head and thought about the question, “I guess I sometimes am quick to judge and think that everything will go to Hell if I do not attempt to do something about it first.”

Frog belched more air from hir chest, “You need to let it all go. Trust that things be happenin for a reason. Express what you feel but do not be a clingin onto it. You know? Doing that will bring more downfall and sadness to you and right now me be thinkin that you have it pretty good right now. You have completed the four tasks of the elements. Now you get to go back and contemplate what each one of us be sayin to you.

WIthin the next day or two you must decide which one of us seems to carry the same blood as you to walk with you as you dedicate your path to helpin the world and your tribe heal. You need to think hard on what gifts you have been given and what direction you feel most aligned in and who of us you be feelin comfortable bein around. And when you are ready open the cabinent and use the items to create a ritual of your own choosing. Then we will come and discuss what all this means for you.”

Kaylee nodded, “And then that is it? I am free to return and go home?”

Frog nodded but said no more.

“Huh, I thought there was going to be more to this. I know my gran seems to have a lot more power than I do. All I have done here is just wander out into a direction and collect things. And talk to you all, of course. But I know nothing about ritual making or powers. How is this ritual going to help me become like my Gran is?”

Frog hopped back towards the edge of the log. “That be somethin for you to uncover. Time is for you to be a goin now. Another storm is abrewin and comin. We be seein ya real soon now.”

And with that, Frog hopped off the log and hit the water with a large splash. Water from the pond sprayed up and over the edge of the log. Kalyee looked over the edge of the log but did not see any signs of the water spirit. She looked up towards the sky and the clouds overhead did appear dark and overcast.

Not wanting to be caught in a terrible autumn storm, Kaylee quickly worked her way back to solid ground. Then she darted off and rushed her body as fast as it could to get back to the safety of her cottage in the middle of the grassy landscape.

The rains started to fall just as she came to the porch of the cottage. A flash of lightening darted over head and broke the happy silence of the past few days. Kaylee shuddered and quickly entered the cottage. She was safe but somehow felt as if the storm was just starting.

She slowly crawled out of bed and shivered. Large and foreboding clouds loomed low in the sky, blocking any chance for a decent glimpse of the sun. The fireplace was dark and black and occasionally small plumes of smoke and ash rose and hovered when small pufts of wind gust their way down the chimmney of the domicle. Kaylee frowned and wished that there had been a nice warming fire to help shake away some of the wind that she knew she was going to have to deal with that day.

Just as if the house had a mind of its own and read hers, a nice warm blaze appeared in the fireplace. The strong scent of burning wood and moss wafted through the air to where Kaylee was lounging.

“Huh,” she said out loud, “that was easy enough. I do not suppose that I can take the day off today with the wind and the weather so bad outside?”

Her response came in the form of another gust of wind spattering against the window nearest her loft. It almost was saying that she had to get out and deal or else.

“Okay, okay, I get the point,” she laughed and crawled out of bed and pulled on her pants. They were cold but slipped on easily. She also picked up her medicine pouch from its position on her pillow. After she put the sage into it, she decided that she did not want to crush the delicate sage leaves, so instead of wearing it when she slept, she put it next to her against the pillow. It was the combination of the smells of leather and sage that lulled her to a deep sleep the other night.

“Ugh,” she said again. Her body was sore all over from yesterday’s climb up the plateau. She had never done this much exercise in so many consecutive days. She hoped that it was doing wonderful things for her body, whipping it back into shape. She did not think she was overly fat but just like any other city dweller from Port Riverbend, she felt that she could stand to lose a few extra pounds.

Just like the two days before her, she began her ritual by checking the bowl that had been carefully laid out. And again, it was the same mixture with raisons. She sighed and pulled out the chair and then plopped down in it. Her gaze moved from the bowl, to the cabinent that sat on the opposite side of her table and then to the windows that showed her what to expect outside. On her third pass, she stared deep down at the almost empty bowl and wondered who or what exactly prepared the food that she was eating. She thought that it could be one of the ancients, a long lost relative of hers from the old Ser’lapham tribe. Someone who was stealthy enough to slip into her cottage and set the mixture down on the table and disappear all before she woke up.

She wondered if her unseen attendants ever took the time to sneek up to the top of the loft and gaze down upon her. Kaylee felt her stomach sink, she wondered if they saw her as a loser of her tribe, a shame or stain on them. Part of her wished that she had been more attentive to her Gran and stayed all those years. But the larger part of her won out in those days, the part of her that wanted to explore and be young and free. To experience life away from being indian, a Ser’lapham.

She slid the empty bowl back to the other side of the table and looked down at her pouch. She fingered the leather and smelled the sweat of her body mixing in with the leather. It was such a fundamental piece of her tribal history. Everyone living on the reservation got one at their coming of age and guardian rite. Of course, had she stayed on the reservation for another six months, she would have had fifteen years of experience and items to carefully tuck into it, making her magic all that much more special and powerful.

Kaylee opened the bundle and pulled out the four elemental stones. It was time to do her daily reading. She cupped the stones in both hands and closed her eyes and held her breath. She thought about all that she had done the past two days and all the things she learned. She focused on hoping to find more items quickly today as well as her totem for the next direction.

She tossed the stones onto the table and bent foward for a closer look. Only two runes faced up today. Kaylee saw that the runes for water and earth faced up. The other two, fire and air faced down. “Water flows over the earth,” she thought. “It nourishes and protects it and gives everything balance and life. Hmm, so this means that I am going to proceed and nuture new ideas into fruitation. My goals, this akalam experience, will be successful and I will do well abiding by my Gran’s side as her prodigy.”

She smiled and turned her attention outside again, while she liked what the omen was saying, she was not so sure about the weather and its coorperation. She wondered about the absense of air in her reading and wondered if the wind outside correlated to the reading.

Shrugging, she seperated the runes, removing both the Earth and Fire stones from the grouping and picking up the Air and Water ones. She then mixed them up behind her back and dropped one behind her. The remaining one was the direction she decided to venture out in on this windy day.

She opened her right palm and almost laughed. She had drawn air which also meant east to her people. “How appropriate,” she thought. “As if there is not already enough of that going on already.”

She bent down to retreive the rune that she had dropped on the floor and then stood up from the table. This time, she thanked the unseen servents for their help in keeping her fed and hydrated during her stay there. Then she turned and walked out the door, attemping to keep leaves and debris from entering her home.

It was definitely a autumn windy day out. The wind was cold and bit into her cheeks and lungs when she inhaled.

“Oh gawds. It is really cold out. Okay, here is to getting this all done really quick so I can get back inside before I get sick. That would not be a good thing at this stage. There is no doctor here in Vellum Hollow and I really am not as good as my Gran is with herbs and potions.”

She took a step out into the cold and moved to the East. The wind pressed hard against her and she fought it with every step she took. The wind made it hard to clear her head and walk around without wanting to close her eyes. But she needed to keep them open, to find the item that would become her totem of the air.

She made her way to the edge of the grassy field and blew into her hands. They were chilled to the bone and she was ready to give up and whine her way back home. She bent low to the ground and sat down amongst a tall clump of grass.

“Ouch.”

She put her right hand underneath her butt and felt around, moving her body into a contorted yoga position. When her hand came up from under her body it was holding stone about two inches in diameter. She looked at the stone. It shimmererd and glistened in the light of the windy day. Steaks of gold and green and brown criss-crossed against the length of the stone. It was triangular shaped and had a soft but pointy tip at the narrowest edge. She rocked the stone back and forth and each time she moved it the colors tumbled and blended back into one another.

“Huh,” she thought as her body shivered, “I guess I can call it a day today. Looks like I found what I was looking for.”

She stood up and rushed back to the cottage. When she got there, she saw a small, furry figure sitting on the porch.

“Hello,” it greated her when Kaylee got close enough to be heard over the wind.

“Hi, I am Kaylee,” she replied to the animal. It was cat shaped and had long mangy fur on its belly. Its coat was spotted with black and had blonde and brown and grey fur. Small grey tufts of fur peeked out along its ears and it had no real tail to curl up around its feet.

“I see. You are the one performing the akalam,” Bobcat replied, cleaning hir long wiskers with hir front paw. “I am Bobcat. I see you have been outside braving the wind today.”

“Yes, I have. I really did not want to go outside but I thought of my Gran and how she was counting on me.”

“I see,” Bobcat said. Hir sat still and made no attempt to move away from the door. “And I also see that you found a Sphene. Those are rather rare on this side of the Hollow. You must feel very blessed.”

Kaylee stared down at the small stone wedge in her hand. She flipped it over and watched the colors blend into each other, “I guess so. To be honest I am not really sure I understand what it all means.”

Bobcat licked hir paw and drew it over hir ear. “That is a bit disappointing. A shaman must always know hir elements and what the meaning behind the gifts are. Are you sure you are not ready for this task?”

“Well, I am not certain,” Kaylee responded feeling a bit defensive. “I know my gran thinks I have what it takes to be her successor and I am a quick learner. I know I cut out from her lessons years ago but I am hoping, and trying to make up for it by doing this quest now. Surely that must count for something?”

Bobcat nodded, “Yes, it does. However, it does make things a bit harder for you as you know. The Sphene you found is a powerful gift. It is said to help improve the mind and the ability to process information. You should keep it around your neck in your medicine bundle at all times. It will be the focus of your knowledge and can be used to help guide you through many tough situations in your career.”

Kaylee flipped the stone over again in her hand. She was impressed at the gift she had literally stumbled upon. The knowledge that this spirit was telling her was very potent.

“Of course, you still need to perform the final rite and select one of us that you have met to help guide you throughout the rest of your life. I am a seeker and secret keeper. I can guide your intuition into uncovering what is best. If you pick me I can also give you the gift of clairaudience. I know that you are scared and right now I think the best course of action is for you to give a lot of thought into whether you are ready to become that which hir shaman wants you to become. Doubt only brings misfortune and cause many issues for you to come. You need many more years of study and it will be a long and hard journey for you to take.

“However, it can be most rewarding if you do decide to press forward and meet the final remaining guide and receive the final gift from Vellum Hollow. Are you ready for this? As I said, you still have to perform the final rite and actually decide on which one of us to guide you. At that moment you will physically bond with the knowlege that the council has to offer you and that you will become apart of it. Of course, you must also choose wisely… for if you pick the wrong one you may end up being a tool for that guardian. Not all of us want to work together in harmony with you two-leggeds. Many of my bretheren want to capture and recontrol what was lost to us. They are angry at what death and destruction has befallen your world and they feel that by converting shaman to their whim, they can deceive and covertly swing things back into their favor.

“Are you sure you can handle the choice? Have you even listened to what your mind and heart have been thinking since you got here? I think not. You need to move cautiously and prepare yourself so that you choose wisely.”

Kaylee listened carefully to what Bobcat was telling her. She had been taking things very seriously however, his advice, and warnings were correct. She really did not spent much time in reflection on what she was doing and why. Only that she wanted to get it done as fast as she could and return back to the reservation to attend to her gran and learn what little more she could with her dying relative.

She figured that she would spend more time that day studying each and every one of the gifts she had been given so far and trying to figure out how their medicines could be used to help benefit her and her tribe.

“Thank you Bobcat. You have been very right and very wise. I am ashamed that I have not been paying more attention to what is going on inside me. I though that this was easy and so far it has been. But I guess I need to sit down and think more about what I need to do and what I want, and WHO I want to become when all this is over,” Kaylee stammered.

Bobcat nodded and stood up and moved away from the door. “Take care young one and I hope to see you soon. For if you choose me, I can help and guide you through many a tough spot.”

She nodded and entered the sphere, shutting it tightly behind her.

A smile crossed the lips of Bobcat. And in that instant it knew that hir apprentice would be very pleased to know.

“That went well,” Bobcat thought. “Sewing the seeds of doubt was far easier than I expected. Her wounds go deep into her and it was so very easy to tap into and remind her that she was in a world deep over her head. Of course, whatever she does next is all up to her but I believe that her will is faltering and that she may back out during the final rites. She worries too much for her bretheren.”

Bobcat trotted out into the grass and headed towards hir home located high in the southern plateaus. The wind rippled against hir fur as hir legs sprinted long and far. The winds died down a bit as hir neared the edge of the grass and plateaus. And once Bobcat reached the Southern lands, the figure dissapated into the winds returing back to the deepest part of Vellum Hollow awaiting to be called when the young seeker called back the four remaining guardians.

On the table sat another bowl. Once again it was steaming and full of the same half cream of wheat and half oatmeal porridge that she had first experienced just the other day. This time a hearty and welcome addition of raisons had been added to the mix, making it a bit chewier than yesterday’s fare. She attempted to eat it slow so she could savior it but the mix was just too good and tasting that she found it hard not to slurp it down in one bite. She leaned back in the chair when she was done and listened to the faint sounds of her stomach digesting the food.

Images of what she had done all day yesterday filled her head and the short talk that she had with Weasel. It was a curious sensation, to have talked to the animals and one ethat she found herself even more eager to repeat again. It was not exactly communication in the traditional sense of the idea, where the two spoke with words that came out of their mouth. No, instead it was more one sided where she spoke outloud and the animal spirit replied in her head. Living in Port Riverbend taught her that there were many things, like psychics, that attempted to prey on the innocence of others. But she never really believed in any of it. And here was proof that at least telepathy and speaking to animals could happen. She wondered if it was possible for her to talk to other creatures, not of Vellum Hollow. “Hmm, probably not,” she said wondering if she should just get an early start for the day and see what and where the divination stones would take her.

She carefully removed the bundle from her neck again and undid the bundle. This time she carefully removed each stone from the bag with her slim fingers. She did not want to break the new addition to the bag, of the acorn. The stones felt warm this morning, as if heated by all her body warmth during the night.

Kaylee carefully cupped the stones next to her heart and then shook them. She let them fall on the table and several bounced with clinking sounds against the hard wood. Three faced up and one faced down. Fire, Earth and Water faced up while the sign for Air hid.

“Hmm,” Kaylee said feeling a bit challenged from what this reading could mean. She was not sure she liked what it meant. “Hmm, fire burns the earth and then the water puts this all out. This does not look like a good thing. I wonder what I will meet with today. I think it is trying to tell me to proceed with caution and to watch out and keep my eyes and ears open. Something nasty is coming and I want to be able to be alert and mindful. Maybe I should not be so eager to meet the spirits and accept them into my life. Maybe they might try and trick me? I am so confused and am not sure this is really the right thing.”

She laid her head down on the table and doubted her Gran’s decision to choose her for tihs task. But she had started, what did Weasel call it, the akalam, and now she needed to at least finish it; at the very least, to figure out how she would get home.

She stood up and pushed the chair back so that it made a scraping sound along the floor. She had to finish this, and fast. She worried about what her gran was doing, how she was feeling and whether or not it was such a good idea to leave her gran all along with Daniel. Something about him she did not trust one hundred percent. He was nice and all but seemed to eager for her to leave. she clenched her fists and decided that it was time to head out to the south, the direction the Ser’lapham believed was closely connected to the element of Fire.

She stepped out onto the porch of the cottage and took a deep breath of air into her lungs. The sun, while still visible outside, was partially covered today with many clouds. Kaylee looked high and far into the sky, trying to identify any signs that a harsh change in the weather, like rain or even snow, could suddenly come to put a damper on her travel plans for the day.

Thankfully it just seemed like an ordinary, warm but cloudy autumn day. Shrugging, she set forth in the direction of fire and started her hike. The grass made wooshing sounds as she pressed forward and made her way to the southern edge of the grassy clearing where her new home sat.

A mile into her hike, the terrain decided to start climbing higher. She slowed down as the steep incline caused her to lose her breath. She looked around her and ahead. she had a long climb to go, it seemed like it would take her hours to reach the top of the hill she was wandering up. Her shoes were not ready for a long climb and Kaylee had to take it slow because her moccasins could feel every small rock and stump that seemed to be in her path. Nothing stood out to her that she thought was a gift of the land so she pressed onward.

It was as if the goal of the day sat at the top of this hill. Finally, just after noon, Kaylee hit the top of what she thought was just a hill. However, when she hit the ridge, she gasped. The view was breath taking. It was not just any ordinary hill, it was a plateau. This one was small compared to the many other plateaus that seemed to streach out just beyond this first one. The tops of each tabular peak were barren, as if nothing could grow on top of the flat and wind torn peaks. Occasionally, to her left and to her right, a cluster of juniper trees and bushes grew. They were the only things sturdy enough to live up this high without having the weather tear it away as if it were just a twig.

A ravine ran deep below the opposite edge of the ground that Kaylee just climbed up on. She was very thankful that the climb up this peak did not mean she had to do some freeclimbing. Otherwise there was no way that she could have made it this far. Smiling, she closed her eyes as a gust of wind swept up behind her and rushed air and silt far down into the ravine below. She imagined herself flying against the wind, sweaping her arms that had become wings as she flew over each peak and down the vallies into the river depths below.

Another gust blew next to her and almost swept her off her feet. It caused her heart to beat a bit faster and jolted her eyes open.

“Gaaah,” she cried out, regaining her balance. “Okay, no more of that. I guess it is time for me to do what I came here to do. And that is to find a totem item small enough for her pouch and then figure out who she was supposed to meet next.

She started wandering the peak of the plateau in a spiral format. She trained her eyes on the ground below and hoped that she was going to see a rock or something. The ground truly was barren and after a half hour of working her way in towards the center of the plateau, she did not see anything. Not one stone or fossil caught her eye. Kaylee grew a bit disheartened and was bummed that nothing was going easy for her today.

“Geez, you would think that this place would have had a LOT of rocks or fossils or bones considering that this is supposed to be the home of the ancestors,” she said to herself as she kicked over another pile of dirt with her foot. It ploofed a small plume of red dirt high into the air, making Kaylee cough.

She moved over towards the Juniper tree to take a closer look at it. The trunk was firmly rooted into the ground and it almost looked as if it were a sumo wrestler hunkering down in a crouch. This tree had a few long branches coming out of the top of the stump. They started out fat and thick at the base of it all and then spidered out long and thin to the tips and ends. Loose bundles of needles shot out occasionally from the tips of each branch. Kaylee was entranced at the sight, for long scars and deep welts ran up and down and across the bark of the tree as if it had withstood many years of battles.

Smaller sprigs of younger juniper trees grew in a small clump next to the big tree. She was not sure, but always thought that juniper trees grew like aspen with a tunneling root system that grew far beneath the soil. She figured that that was how all the little trees had grown from just this single tree. She walked over to the bushes and inspected them. The smelt almost musky as if something had been there recently. She closed her eyes and tried to identify the smokey sound that came within it. Her mind wandered back towards her Gran’s house and that is where she identified the smell, it was sage. Something her gran constantly burned in her home.

She knelt down at the base of the small trees and that is when she saw it. A small, tiny bush of silver leaves growing from the covered safety of the juniper bushes. It was silver sage, there was no mistaking that scent. She reached her hand deep into the bush and felt the cool, leathery and slick leaves of the sage bush. Mentally she said a few words to her ancestors, thanking them for allowing her to have the honor of placing the items in her pouch and for the gift of seeing such a beautiful place. She then reached down at the base of the bush and gave the small sprig that she touched a gentle tug. It came free with relatively little resistence and brought her hand back out from the ground.

The small sprig glowed in the sunlight. The sweet scent of earthy sage reached up to her nostrils and Kaylee thanked both the spirits and the bush for allowing her the opportunity to find the item herself and to see such beauty while being in this place. She was carefully tucking her new item into her pouch when she heard a rustling sound behind her.

Kaylee looked around, trying to identify where the sound was coming from. She spun around a few times before her eyes finally settled on a triangular form perched high in one of the more sturdier and barer limbs of the juniper tree. It was a medium sized owl, with redish brown feathers and a white chest. It had a mask of white, framed by a small and thin black outline and it blinked as it looked down upon her. From what little Kaylee could recall of her raptor knowledge, she figured the owl to be a barn owl. Mostly due to the coloring that it had around the face and chest.

“Hello there,” Kaylee said while tilting her head to one side, “you sure are a pretty looking bird now are you not?”

“Thank you,” Barn Owl replied, blinking hir eyes down on the two-legged. “I see that you have found what you were looking for?”

Kaylee finished pressing the sage leaves gently into her pouch, “Yes I have. Thank you. I hope the small blessing I said was alright for me to take the sage?”

Barn Owl flapped hir wings and fluttered down towards the two-legged, “It came from hir heart and therefore it was well said. Although I will say that it was a bit terse. Next time you could try and embellish and say a few more things before you just reach into the sacred clutch and remove something.”

“Thank you, I will do that. I did not know and I hope I did not damage or disturb anything,” Kaylee replied, her head hung a bit down in shame and dishonor. “I meant nothing by it, I hope you know that.”

“The council knows. Which is why they sent me to answer hir call.”

“Oh, okay,” she said.

“Yes. We felt how you wanted to fly deep down into the ravine and see the world that lies beyond the two-legged plateau. Only those with wings can survey and explore the world below. Or so I have been told. For no one such as a two-legged like yourself has dared to climb down. I think it be too steep. However, for those of us with wings, we soar and use the natural elements of the wind to carry us thru the firetorn landscape. That is why you did not find anything on your trek up to this peak, the lands have all but been burned. The realm you come from destroys much in this times. It burns the lands and wipes them clean.

If you choose me as your guide, I can teach you how to listen to the sickness of the world and how to heal her. You will no longer live in fear, instead you will use the gits of sight and sound to divine whether or not things are lying to you, burning the walls of honesty down.”

“Hmm,” Kaylee said looking around and at the blackened dirt, “I guess it all makes sense. It is because of the destruction to the earth from the white man and their ways that causes this realm to dye and heal, right?”

“Yes,” Barn Owl nodded and then pecked a bit at an itch under hir wing. “Learning how to walk the walk and talk the talk is not easy. But it can be a start to heal both the earth and Vellum Hollow together.”

“Thank you, I will keep that in mind.”

Barn Owl took flight, hovering for a few seconds in front of Kaylee’s face, “And now I must take my leave, for it grows dark and the fires will begin to burn one more. Follow the path down and to the North to return to the center of all things. I have the feeling that you will do just fine during the akalam. You have a open heart and will listen with great clarity to what it says. Choose wisely and I shall see you soon.”

Kaylee nodded and waved to Barn Owl as it took flight. She wanted it flap its wings as it moved high into the sky and then as it stretched them out wide to glide down into the harsh and weathered cliffs below. She then looked over at the scarred juniper once more before starting down the side of the plateau. The sun had set a bit overhead and she was anxious to return to the cottage. She started descending the plateau carefully, for the side was slick. Her feet slid out from under her a few times because of the loose gravel and dirt. Her heart beat fast.

When she got to the bottom of the plateau, she heard a whoosing sound behind her, as if someone turned on a gas line to a fireplace. She turned around and saw the top of the plateau was ablaze. A great fire had errupted in the very spot that she once stood. Her heart wiltered and she cried out in pain, as it tore and ate at the bushes and trees that were standing up there. She felt powerless, and stood still and watched the great blaze take over the entire top of the plateau. There was nothing she could really do.

Many minutes went by and Kaylee turned to run back to the cottage. Her hand held the small, black leather pounch firmly as if it were the only thing that could protect the sage and acorn from dying inside. When she got back into the cottage, she quickly climbed the ladder and cried herself to sleep. Knowing that the world was ablaze and that it affected her world and home, upset her. She wanted more than anything to do something right with her life. Therefore she took Barn Owl’s words to heart as the tears lulled her into a deep, dreamless sleep.

She took a deep breath and smiled, obviously proud at what she was able to accomplish in so little time. She walked past her little cottage, and sauntered off into her first direction.

“Okay, and here we go. North it is,” she thought to herself while looking around at her ever changing surroundings. The dirt seemed softer and her feet sunk into the ground just a little bit as it gave. She scanned the horizon in front of her. The grass fields that she and the cottage stood in gave way after about a mile or so to a grove far off in the distance. She could not tell if the grove was more or less more forest or a group of other trees or bushes. “Gran told me to locate a small item, a totem from this direction. Something that speaks to me and lets me know that it is part of the spirit guide that I will be talking to. Ugh, this is not going to be fun. This thing could be anywhere.” Still, she was confident that the she would find something to use for a totem off in that direction. That was her goal and she was determined to find something sooner or later.

She looked down at her feet and the ground. Rich, black dirt covered her mocassins and left small Kaylee-foot prints behind her. She hoped that the prints stuck around as it would help her to backtrack and perhaps relocated the cottage if she got lost. She did not see any stones or sticks lodged in the ground that could appear to be as totems. She sighed and continued her trek towards the horizon. It took her deeper and deeper further North. The sun continued its own path overhead and by the time it shone brightly over her head, she had finally walked up to the grove of bushes that she had seen when she first started out on her journey. They were taller than her, almost tree-like. Thick and knotted wood trunks wove an almost impenetratable maze of brambles and branches. Dark green leaves hung high and low on the brown branches. Some of them still contained a few light brown acorn nuts of some sort.

Kaylee stepped into the bramble, carefully attempting to avoid getting her skin cut or scraped by the branches that hung everywhere. She stepped high over some low brances and crouched deep under overhead ones. She looked down on the ground and was amazed at how barren the ground really was. She had hoped to find one of the strange acorn nuts lodged into the dirt on the ground, as she did not want to pick a fresh one off the bushes. She still did not know who owned the orchard and did not want to upset any god-like caretakers in the process. She was a visitor here and wanted to make sure that everything she was doing, was done for the right reasons and not destructive.

It took her twenty-five minutes to reach the center of the orchard. She had to carefully navigate branches that twisted and tied themselves together. But when she reached the center, she was quickly treated to a wonderful sight. It opened up into a large clearing of trees that allowed Kaylee a grand view of the cloudless sky and all four directions. Try as she might, she was not able to see further past the vast orchard. It seemed to spread out and carry on for all directions. Kaylee thought about climbing one of the bushes. She put her right foot on one low branch of the nearest bush and felt it give a bit under her weight. It did not seem to want to hold her weight.

“Hmm,” she said, “I know I am going in the right diretion. But I do not see anything that can be used as a gift or totem for my pouch. Just not sure. I would keep moving forward but what happens if this is it and I get lost and then when night comes… I would rather try and stay close to the cottage. I need it for warmth and comfort.”

Kaylee rested her weary bones for a bit more and started drawing spirals and images in the almost sand-like dirt. She was about ready to give up and go home when she felt something hard and sharp hit her head.

“Ouch, what the..” she said, rubbing the spot where her head throbbed a bit. She got up and turned around and looked up into the bush that she had been leaning against. On the ground next to her feet was a small and whole acorn nut. Half of it was a muted gree and the other half seemed brown and rip. She picked up the tiny nut and clasped her fingers around it.
Then she lifted it to her nose. A strong scent of dirt and tree musk came from the nut.

She whipped her body, turning it rapidly around. Her eyes darted from the ground where she had just been sitting to the various branches in the tree. There were many branches and she looked long and hard for something small and furry. Something like a squirrel who could have tossed the nut down upon her. Finally, her eyes found what she was looking for. High a top a branch, just a bit to the left of where she stood was something lying in the tree. There, high up in the tree sat a long, black, sleek creature. It wore a mask over its eyes and its nose twitched at Kaylee.

“Er, hello there,” she said, greeting the furry beast. “Um, I do not know why you threw something at me but I hope you do not mind if I keep it. This is the first thing that I have seen and “found” that fits a description of a totem gift that I can use to put in my pouch. I thank you for helping me locate the item and wish I had something I could give you in return for the present but alas, I do not have anything to share.”

The furry thing twitched its nose and whiskers and then shimmied its way down through the branches and trunk of the tall bush. When it came to a rest in front of Kaylee, she could see that it was a Weasel. Two black eyes peered at her and it sat on its haunches, cleaning off dust and debris from its whiskers.

“Hi,” she said again, bending down to let the creature sniff her fingers.

The weasel looked at her and then licked his lips. It took a few steps towards her and sniffed the mocassins Kaylee wore.

“We were told you were to be coming,” Weasel said suddenly, startling Kaylee. “I had to come see for it has been such a long time since one of the two-leggeds under took the akalam.” Weasel started to inspect the girl who had come in search of her true guide. He was not afraid of the girl, more curious than anything for it had been such a very long time since a two-legged arrived in Vellum Hollow to seek out answers and knowledge. The council had sent him out first, to not only be a scout but to make first contact and determine whether or not this two-legged was going to pose any threats. And here they were, staring face to face at each other.

Kaylee stared in disbelief. She was not sure if she was really seeing what she was seeing, a talking weasel? She watched it as it did a loop around her and sniffed every inch of her being. It was strange because she knew it spoke, even though she did not see its mouth move a single muscle. She wondered if she was going crazy from heat stroke or hunger and was not sure what else to think.

“Yes two-legged, I speak. Although not in the way that you would think of. I may not move my mouth to form the same words and syllables that you and your kind do but we spirit guardians can and often speak. We just prefer this higher level of communication as it does not mistranslate the message unlike your choosen form of communication which lies and twists things around.”

Kaylee nodded, “Okay. Fine. Um, thanks. So what are you doing here. Why have you shown yourself to me?”

Weasel stood in front of Kaylee once more and winked, “I am here as the first of many you might meet in Vellum Hollow that you have the opportunity to learn from. I am here because you called me.”

“I do not recall having called anyone or anything to me,” she replied a bit baffled.

“You may not have consciously thought it but you wanted help in obtaining your first totem. And here I am,” Weasel bowed. “I am a fighter and a clever animal, strong not in strength but in cunning. It was I who took the nut from the bush and it was I who cut it and offered it up to you as a present.”

“Thank you, I really do appreciate it,” Kaylee said. “But I still do not have anything in return to give you.”

“Oh,” Weasel said, “but you have already done something for me two-legged. You have given me the opportunity to possibly become your spiritual guide. The advisor who can teach you powerful majicks that will help you unlock the secrets buried deep in your mind. For if you take me, I can teach you to be quick and cunning and to learn the truth behind what others really want. Not everything in this world is black and white, two-legged. As you will learn, there are some people out there that want to hurt and twist you and hir family and destroy your old ways of life. It is only in learning to be cunning, to use all your senses and fight for what you desire, can you gain advancement. And this is the thing that I can teach you if you decide to walk with me, for I am Weasel.”

Kaylee smiled and nodded, “Thank you Weasel. I will keep this in mind. You speak very convincingly and have a convicted heart. I have no doubts that you are cunning as your breathern on my side of the world. I will not forget you or how you helped me today. And I hope that we can talk more soon. I know that by the end of my quest I will have many questions for you and any of the others, if tere are others, that I meet in my time here. I guess my journey for today is over now that you have helped me with getting the nut.”

She took off her medicine bundle and dropped the acorn nut down into the bag, to sit along with the four stones her gran had given her.

She looked up at the sun and realized that she had only a few hours to get back to the cottage in the middle of the field. “I guess I better get going so I can get back to the cottage soon. That and I also need to figure out what I will do for meals while I am here. I do not suppose you know anything about what a girl can do to get some food around here, do you?”

She smiled and chuckled at her cleverness of her joke and stretched.

Weasel blinked his black eyes and licked a paw, “You do not have any need to worry about finding food. The ancients and the council have always provided food and sustance for those who undertake the akalam. All you need to do is return back to the domicile and food and drink will be provided. Oh, and do not look in the cabinent until you have acquired all four totem items. Once you have gotten all of the items then you can use the items inside the tall cabinent located under the loft to help prepair you to make a choice.”

Kaylee nodded, dumbfounded, “Um, okay. Right. Do not do anything with that tall cabinent until I have found all four things. Got you.”

Kaylee turned around and then back to stare at Weasel. But nothing was there, he had vanished deep into the winds. “Thank you again,” she said and made her way back down to the field and the cottage.

The sun was beginng to set by the time Kaylee worked her way out of the orchard and brambles. She found herself subconsciously reaching out and touching the pouch around her neck. It still felt light against her chest but she was strangely aware that she was building and creating something wonderful, something that she could be proud of. She only hoped that her gran would also share in the same pride that she felt when all this was said and done.

The sky painted a colorful orange and red sunset when she walked into the cottage. And true to his word, just as Weasel promised, another bowl and spoon and earthen ware mug had been set atop the table for Kaylee. A steam of hot stew, just like the type that Daniel had made for her and her Gran, steeped out from the bowl. A small loaf of bread also sat next to the bowl and it was just enough to feed her appetite.

Kaylee spent some time that evening up on top of the sphere, looking out at the stars in the sky and wondering what her gran was and where they were. She hoped that everything was alright in the reservation and wished that they gave her some way to contact her gran so she could tell her all the wierd and wonderful things she had already seen in such a short amount of time.

That night, when she laid her head down to sleep against the pillow, she slept so soundly that she did not dream.

She swang her right arm and it hit the door with a loud thunk, and then a light clicking sound appeared. Kaylee turned around and thought, “Doors do not click unless they are unlocked.”

She stood up and looked at the door, expecting the worst. She still did not hear anything coming from the other side of it. “Well it is a now or never sort of thing. I can stay outside and free my ass off all night long or I open this door and see what is inside.”

Kaylee held her breath and gently pushed on the door. It gave easily as if the hinges had been freshly oiled and well taken care of. The whole place had that feel to it, actually which surprised her quite a bit for being seemingly out of nowhere. She silently prayed that she was not going to get busted for tresspassing and entered the inside of the spherical cottage.

The door swung open without a sound and Kaylee felt the hot, heated air from the fireplace, escape from the other side. It sent a warm shiver of goosebumps down her arms as she entered inside and gasped. The inside was sparse but well kept and clean. She closed the door behind her and leaned once more against the door to survey her surroundings.

A nice sized fire was burning in the fireplace, which sat across the room from her, as if it had been going for awhile. There were no cobwebs or dust on the hard, bamboo-like floorboards. A rug made of maize and otherweird fibers had been thrown down near the fireplace. A strange, yet familiar, pattern of spirals was weaved into the fabric and Kaylee struggled to recall where she had seen the image. Near the fireplace was a ladder that lead up into a loft. Under the loft was a cabinent made of wood. It appeared to have a rounded back so that it could sit flush against the wall. Kaylee made a mental note of it and decided to investigate it later. She did not want to get caught snooping through someone else’s belongings. But images of food or books or fresh clothes danced through her head and gave her hope that there was more to this place than met the eye.

Kaylee wandered over to the ladder and took a peek onto the platform, hoping to thank her savior if he or she was on top of it. No one was there, save for a platform bed. It was curved and attached itself to the wall. She was not sure but it appeared to have hand woven blankets made from plants that she could not identify. They were dyed a light green and complimenmted the floorboards of the loft nicely. A similarly woven pillow sat atop the matress. Nothing was underneath it, no shoes, no bags, nothing to give away the owner of this place.

A table and two chairs sat up against a wall to her right. They were made of solid light colored wood, perhaps pine. One edge of the table had also been cut to match the inner curving of the cottage and almost seemed to melt right into it. There were no plates, or adornments sitting atop the table. Which was strange considering that if a fire had been made in the cottage then Kaylee expected to see bowls or other signs of inhabitance. And other than the prescence of the bed and the table and chairs there was none.

She sat up in the loft for awhile. Two small round windows sat high up in the dome of the cottage. Both were place along an East-West alignment so that the sun and the moon patterns could be tracked. Her legs swung a bit as she waited and sat in silence, enjoying the fire.

“Huh,” she thought to herself. “How long do I wait. I am very tired but if the owners of this strange little place appear soon then I might need to leave. And I really do not want to spend the night in a bed that belongs to someone else. So yeah, I guess I will just wait a couple more minutes.”

The light from the moon grew brighter as it rose higher into the air and closer to the East window. Finally, as light streamed into the window, and the warmth of the fire heated her skin, Kaylee crawled into the bed and promptly passed out on top of the sheets.

That night Kaylee dreamt that she was walking in a strange house with David. It had large vaulted ceilings in the living room downstairs and large walls that she thought that would make wonderful bookcases. Strange three dimensional murals etched into the plaster and they were talking about all the cool things they would do to the room if they were able to afford it. There was a stairwell up and off to the left that went into a half floor. A dining room table made of heavy black wood and marble, big enough to have place settings for eight people, sat in the middle of this floor. A long, glass cabinent sat behind the table completing the set. Behind them on this level was another stair case that led to the second floor with two bedrooms and then winded its way up higher into a third floor attic.

At this point Dream Kaylee noticed that the stairs were not carpeted but made of wood and were very slick. She even noted this to Dream David who agreed and cautioned her to be careful as she made her way up to the attic. The attic itself was very odd, for it had many vaulted walls and ceilings. It was cold and the floors were wooden but Kaylee instantly liked it, for it had a unique and wonderful charm about it. “Think about all the things I could do up here,” she said to the Dream David. “I could hold rituals and make things and use this for a really nifty bedroom. What do you think?”

Dream David opened his mouth to answer her but no words came out. Before he could answer her at all, Kaylee’s eyes snapped awake. It was morning. Something hard and lumpy was digging into her chest. She sat up and placed her hand on her chest and felt the medicine bundle that her Gran had given her the night before. She stared up at the rounded dome and recalled the events of the night before. Sun poured in through the lights and cast strange shadows about the room. The room smelled of dying fire and burnt wood bits and gave the whole place a rustic feel to it. Kaylee sat up and stretched her body. Her muscles were sore from having done all that walking. She had no idea how long her journey took her but felt as if she walked further than any hike she had ever taken.

Slowly she moved from the platform bed to the open space below, expecting and hoping to see some movement below. But there was none. Save for herself, the cottage was empty of any life. Her stomach growled at her and she wished that she had some food to feed it. She wishfully looked over at the table and noticed a bowl sitting atop the table. “Someone was here,” she said outloud and moved down from the loft to the table.

The bowl contained a goopy substance that looked like a cross between cream of wheat and oatmeal. A small wooden spoon sat next to the bowl. Kaylee moved over to the door and opened it up. A quick glance around the room revealed no one nearby.

“Thank you,” she mentally scanned the horizon before going back inside to sit down at the table. She was so hungry that she ended up eating the whole thing in just a few bites. She expected it to not be as filling as a true breakfast but was surprised that it had filled her stomach up so it would stop complaining.

She sat for awhile longer at the table and stared around the small cottage again wishing that something would tell her what she was supposed to be doing next. But nothing did. She then remembered the rocks in her bag and decided to take them out and examine them closer. She carefully removed her pouch from around her neck. Then she fumbled about opening the leather wrap that held the small bag shut. Finally, she freed the stones from their container and slid the out from the soft leather.

Four stones made a clinking sound as the skid lightly onto the table. They were almost all the same size but each one was uniquely shaped as well. Etched into them were the four ancient symbols of the elements that her people held in high regards: Dirt, Air, Fire, Water. Kaylee ran her fingers over the stones. The felt cool and smooth to the touch. She picked one up and held it in her hand. It had small cracks and grey miscolorations in it. The next one was longer and reminded her more of an arrow head than a divination stone. The third one was almost clear and had a few dings and scratches in it. And the fourth one was the roundest of them all ad reminded her of the cottage she now sat.

“Okay, so Gran gave me these last night. I know they are supposed to help me but I am really not sure what I am supposed to do with them. Letsee here, The long arrow-like one is supposed to be fire, right? It looks like a flame. And this round one, the one that appears like the cottage, is water. It has three lines as if someone was pouring water out from a bucket into a lake. The third one, the see through one is air. The wavy lines look like how many cartoon artists draw wind blowing in the trees. Which makes this last one, the D shaped stone, dirt.”

She smiled at the feeling of having recalled this knowledge. She took all four stones back up into her hands and held them there. She closed her eyes and tried to feel the stones and their vibrations. It was something she used to see her gran do, when she was trying to communicate with the elemental forces. Kaylee steadied her breath and focused on the stones, concentrating and hoping with all her body that they would give her the answers. She imagined them vibrating in her hands and almost heard a small low pitched vocal intonation from them.

She then gave the stones three solid shakes, stirring them around in her hands. And all at once she released them, allowing them to drop on the table. All four of them landed face up. She sat there, staring at all four stones, her mind desperately trying to recall which of the sixteen possible messages this meant. “Crap,” she said.

“Okay, calm down Kaylee. You can do this. Letsee here, they are all face up. That means they are all present.” She laughed. “Doy of course they all are around you. If this is where you think you are, it is the culmination of ALL the elements and directions. This IS Vellum Hollow, after all, where food appears out of nowhere just like this structure. Now what IS it telling me to do first. The perfect balance of elements. Harmony. Hmmm, is this telling me that all of the directions are open for the work? I guess so. So this is a good thing.”

She sweeped up all the stones and put them back in the pouch, “Okay, so I am doing this right. Now all I need is to pick a direction.”

She held the pouch close to her heart and thought about her mission and all the things her gran had put her faith in her for. Then she held her breath while carefully drawing out a single stone from the bag. The small ovular stone appeared out of the bag. She flipped it over and the symbol for dirt appeared.

“Okay, then. i head out to the North today, which is the association with Dirt or Earth. I wonder how long it will take me to find a gift of the ancestors for my bag and what the next step is.”

Kaylee stood up and returned the little stone back to her pouch. She then made her way out of the cottage and into the world to start her quest.