‘Yes my Queen.’replied Aquitain standing and saluting almost involuntarily forcedby the immense power in her words.
‘See I can beregal and bossy if I want to be!’ she said proudly.
‘Wow! That isreally impressive. I haven’t heard that speech used for years.’ hereplied. ‘It’s derived from high Draconic and used by royalty andmilitary officers on some of the worlds I’m told.’
‘She was aroyal pain when she learnt it too!’ quipped Allalanllea with a grinand they all chuckled.
Aquitain feltimmensely proud of her and even a little awed. She had broken awayfrom her mother. Now it was time to make her mark on the world. Itwas time to fight for what she wanted and to help him solve theriddles about their fathers and the strange things happening aroundthe world.
He gave her anotherteleport ring and after a lingering hug and power packed kiss,Miranda teleported away.
Chapter 7 The WolfPeople
Miranda reappeared at amarker a league from the Southern Gateway and then flew off in hersea eagle form in the direction of the Loopis the Wolf peoples’village set in the mountains. Just on dawn, she arrived at the edgeof the village and landed in a bent old tree near the shaman’s hut.She looked around and seeing no one watching, flew to the groundand shape shifted to the shape of a wolf. She howled loudly toannounce her presence and proudly padded into the village towardsthe shaman’s hut.
Buluk, thewhite-scaled shaman, who was sitting meditating, heard the howl. Helooked at his apprentice who was half asleep and day dreaming aboutone of the village girls and said,
‘Our guest isarriving. We must be welcoming her.’
He jumped upand with an agility that seemed to defy his age, ran outsidefollowed by a much younger and slower apprentice. Buluk saw thewolf as soon as he came out his door and went down to hisknees.
‘I am Buluk. Weare being honoured that you are answering our call. On behalf of myvillage, I am wishing to welcome you. May Loopis be giving youcunning, Jacintra giving you courage and the light of The Lady ofthe Jungle is being always falling upon you.’
The Wolfvillagers also heard the howl and dropped what they were doing andcame running from everywhere to shaman’s hut to watch. When most ofthe villagers were present, Miranda shape-shifted into her Newmanform. Buluk presented her a loose brown native style robe,emblazoned with a bear motif across the front to wear.
‘I am Miranda,Priestess of the Lady and the first favourite of Aquitain, Hero ofthe little people. May the light of the Lady always fall uponyou!’
‘Aquitain hasheard your message for assistance and asked me to come here. Muchhas happened in the last few days that you may not be aware of. MayI speak with your village council?’
‘We are beingmost honoured that Aquitain the Spirit Bear, has chosen the wiseand gracious Miranda of the druids to be helping us in our time ofneed.’ replied Buluk a little worried about the sense of urgency inher words.
‘This is beingstrange news. If you will be following me I will be introducing youto our village council.’
Mirandafollowed Buluk to the centre of the Loopis village where thevillage headman, Toka and the six members of the village councilwere waiting. Each came before her in turn, bowed and welcomed her,and then a small banquet of food was brought for her to eat.
Miranda felt alittle self-conscious as the whole village watched her eat. Thiswas unusual; druids were not usually treated like this in the Wolfvillage. According to her mother they weren’t all that friendly.She knew that the village protocol demanded that she had to eatheartily, as the Wolf people would then feel that they could askfor her help.
She noticed thechildren were excited and couldn’t stop talking. After samplingbits and pieces from each of the proffered dishes, she indicatedthat she was quite full and suggested that she would like to hearany of the latest news from the village. Toka, the headman told herof various bits of local news then asked apprehensively about hernews.
‘I will nothide the truth. You should know that there is much trouble in theworld. There are many strange happenings. There are Yith lizardpeople here causing problems. There is talk of the beginning of aTime of Chaos. The druids have elected a new leader who is causingdivision among the people. Aquitain the spirit bear is no more. Hewas foully killed by druids who lost their way with the Lady butwas graciously reincarnated by the Lady as a Llanllean brown scaledlittle person.’ He is presently helping our water brothers with aproblem.’
‘I no longerrepresent the Druid Council but continue as a servant of the Ladyand the first favourite of Aquitain. It is no longer my duty tohelp you but in the name of friendship I freely offer it.’
She told themof some of the things that had happened and they asked her lots ofquestions. After considerable worried talk amongst the council andthe villagers Toka eventually called for silence.
‘You are beinghonest with us. For that we are being thankful. We have beenhearing of strange happenings and hoping that they might be untrue.It is being possible that many problems may be coming. We areknowing that you are having no duties to be helping us and we aremost thankful to you for your offering. I will be telling you ofour problem but knowing that you are not being committed in any wayto be helping us.’
‘Two moons ago,three of our young hunters were traveling to one of our favouritehunting areas about three leagues to the east of here. We have notbeen seeing them again. We decided to be sending two searchingparties of experiences hunters.’
‘They werefinding no traces of the missing young hunters and also few largeanimals there. At the time we were thinking it strange but
