‘A few sunsago, a group of our hunters was looking for game to the northeastand came upon an interesting finding. There was being a campsiteand signs that it was being used in the previous couple of weeks.On further searching around they came upon a knife belonging to oneof the missing young hunters and discovered some mystical symbolscarved on two large rocks near there. I decided to be asking forhelp from K’wala’s spirit brother as he was being in the area so Iasked our Shaman Buluk to be sending a message to him.’
‘We are beinggreatly concerned that bad spirits are loose in the area. Therehave been stories from the past that bad spirits have been seen inthe area after a full moon. We are asking you as being a friend ofthe Wolf people could you please be helping us get rid of these badspirits before we are losing more young people from thevillage.’
Mirandaformally replied,
‘As a servantof the Lady and first favourite of Aquitain I am honoured to helpyou get rid of the bad spirits. I wish to have a talk with shamanBuluk, and rest for a short while, then I will travel to this placewhere you discovered the carved symbols.’
The wholevillage was filled with rejoicing. The children stormed her allwanting to touch the bear motif across her stomach. She was amazedshe had never seen such a response from any village before. Afterthe meeting with the village Miranda and Buluk returned to his hutto further discuss the situation.
‘Buluk, what isgoing on?’ asked Miranda. ‘Why are the people so pleased to see me?Your people are known to be suspicious of druids.’
‘They are allbeing pleased to see you as I have been telling them the story ofthe destruction of the Barra people by a false giant lizard and howthe Spirit Bear Aquitain, a brother of K’wala was helping theirdead to be passing through the gate to the spirit world. I also washearing how he banished Jacintra back to the world of spirits forhe had no right of being in our world without being called.’
‘I’ll bet itwas Kami, shaman of the Jeti tribe who told you that.’
Buluk smiledand said. ‘Kami is well respected and a well-loved storyteller.’
‘We are havingvaluable relations with the Jeti people lately. Some of their sonsand daughters are in our clan and some of ours in theirs. After thedream of Aquitain, I was telling the council and it caused muchdiscussion and some division. However, all agreed it was importantso we called to village together and I was telling them the storyas well.’
‘Unfortunately,some of the old are being set like stone in their ways. They arenot believing that K’wala is having a twin brother. They are sayingthere is being only be one spirit bear and his name is beingK’wala. They are believing the bear is being a false spirit bearlike the false lizard in the story. Most of the elders and many ofthe young, especially the children are being happy as they arebelieving that the appearance of a spirit bear is being abeneficial omen.’
‘Your news thatthe spirit bear has been transformed to a brown scaled littleperson gives us great hope of change. Perhaps it will be leading tothe returning of the lost brown people and the lost spirittotems.’
‘Some of theyoung are wanting the Spirit Bear Aquitain to becoming their newspirit totem as he is appearing and helping the Barra people,whereas Loopis is not showing himself for many ages.’
‘To be makingmatters more murky, I have been hearing that many of the Barrayoung people that were being saved by Aquitain have been decidingto be making him their new totem spirit and have been deciding tobe starting a new bear clan. The young here are wanting to be goingto join them but the old won’t be accepting them unless they areswearing loyalty to K’wala.’
Miranda wasshocked. She would never have believed that Aquitain’s actionswould have had such a profound effect on a tribe normally soaloof.
These peoplewould normally be expected to despise the browns yet here they werehopeful that Aquitain might herald the return of the browns and thelost spirit totem creatures. These were enigmas that the druids hadwrestled with for ages and never found an answer. Perhaps sheshould mention it to Aquitain sometime as he had an uncanny knackof seeing order amongst the chaos. No perhaps not. His head wasswelled enough. If she told him that they wanted to start a newclan to worship him he would get an even bigger head.
‘And what doyou believe Buluk?’ asked Miranda.
‘Both Toka andI are believing that one new spirit bear can only be beneficial andwe are knowing that since you are being his first favourite, youwill be helping us. That’s why the young are being so happy to beseeing you.’
‘And those thatthink Aquitain is a false spirit bear, are they happy to seeme?’
‘They arehaving no dispute with you or your mother. Your mother has beenhelping us in the past. So they are being content to be judging youby your actions. ’
‘Thank you foryour confidence, now let’s get down to the business at hand. Itsounds like someone has opened a temporary gateway. What do youthink?’
‘That is beingmy thought too. Over the years there have been a number of oddhappenings in that area, but nothing that would be leading us tosuspect that there was a gateway being there until recently. Infact, if the three young hunters didn’t go disappearing then wewould not have been looking so thoroughly. Is it wise for you to betraveling there alone? If a gateway is being there then it may bebeing dangerous with guards protecting it.’
‘What?’ thoughtMiranda, ‘How insulting! A typical bloody male comment!’
‘Buluk, thankyou for your concern, but I travel alone every day. There wouldonly be creatures protecting it if it were open for any amount oftime. It is unlikely that anyone would be stupid enough to keepopening a
