‘Good.’ saidAquitain. ‘I haven’t had a party for some time and after beingreborn again I’m certainly in the mood for celebrating and veryhungry.’
Rori gingerlystepped forward and produced a ball of clay. It was Aquitain’s ballof chaos matter.
‘The druidessMiranda was saying before she left that you would be needing thisSpirit Lord.’
‘Why thank youRori.’ replied Aquitain suddenly remembering the wonderful presentgiven to him by his father.
He took theball of chaos clay and immediately transformed it to a snake, whichwound around his arm and slithered up around his neck thenmiraculously reformed into a black rock amulet like Kami’s but withthe face of bear rather than a jungle cat.
Rori spoke forthem all. ‘I am always amazed when you are doing that Spirit Lord.It is said that the Lords before the Great Storm could ...’ butsuddenly Kami butted in.
‘The SpiritLord is not interested in our lore Rori. Do not bore him withit.’
‘Oh but I am!’said Aquitain. ‘I would love to hear any old stories that you wouldlike to tell me.’
‘They arepurely for the ears of our people.’ replied Kami pointedly. ‘Mindyou if you were becoming one of the tribe you might be hearing someof the tales.’
‘And how wouldI become one of the tribe?’ asked Aquitain knowing that they hadprobably already guessed that they had something of value that hedesired.
‘I shall beasking the Chief and the council of elders. Perhaps they might beconsidering to be making you an honorary member of the Jeti.’
Aquitainreturned to the village which was little more than a scattering ofsmall brushwood huts poorly thatched with the local coursegrass.
He was excitedwith the prospect of learning some of their lore and found that hewas the centre of attraction. All the females had a strange excitedlook in their eyes and the males seemed somewhat remote.
He chatted withmany for a while but eventually went to Kami’s hut to get a littlepeace and quiet. Kami told him that the Chief had allocated him ahut specifically for his use and he went there and collapsed withexhaustion. Reincarnation was very tiring.
Several hourslater he awoke when Rori, shook him.
‘You should bewaking up Spirit Lord. The celebrations are beginning. The Chief isrequesting that you be coming to the feast.’
‘Has Mirandaarrived?’
‘No SpiritLord, we are being eagerly awaiting her coming but she has not beenarriving yet.’
He reluctantlyarose and accompanied Rori to the centre of the village. As heappeared the Jeti people cheered and began singing a hero’ssong.
The songembedded powerful magic that worked on his mind and he couldn’thelp feeling the great hero. He gloried in the welcome and sat withRori between Kami and the Chief feeling more important and moreheroic than he had in his whole life. Rori was also considered agreat hero now owing to his courageous part in the templesiege.
The foodconsisted of fruits, baked tubers and roasted small animals andbirds. It wasn’t particularly well cooked but it tasted delicious.It was the first meal in his new body and he couldn’t remember abetter one.
After the foodthe chief gave a long and laborious speech about the great victoryat the temple. He talked of the great bravery and leadership of thespirit bear. He told them about how the spirit bear had taught Roria new kind of shield song. How Rori had courageously led othermembers of the tribe and used the new song to switch off thedevastating magical defences in the temple.
He told themabout the terrifying attacks of the flying Yith wizards and how thespirit bear had destroyed the flying stone gargoyles; of how Rorihad cunningly killed one of the attacking wizards who was castingballs of fire at them; of how the spirit bear replaced his own headafter having it cut off by a huge metal monster which had gone madand of how he had fought and destroyed a giant magical thunderlizard.
Untold glorywas heaped upon Aquitain, Rori and the other brave members of thetribe for their exceptional courage. They sang the hero’s songagain and again. Aquitain had never been lauded so much.
He felt elatedbut also a little sad as he remembered that he had lost quite anumber of his troops during the assault on the temple. The Crin,the giant ant-like creatures had suffered the most casualties. Theyhad lost half their number. He wondered if they werecelebrating.
After thechief’s speech the drums began beating and all the females formed acircle facing outwards toward the males sitting on the ground.Wooden gourds of fermented fruit punch were circulated amongst themales and soon everyone was happily intoxicated.
The drums beata lively tune, the females danced and the males drank. Aquitainjoined in whole-heartedly. The atmosphere became hypnotic. Thedrink, the beat of the drums, the dancing females entranced him.His normally strong mental guard was absent.
Tonight he wasjust an ordinary little people. Soon the females began steppingforward and proclaiming the names of their favourite males. Themales jumped to their feet and joined the females gyrating andleaping and moving together in the centre of the circle offemales.
The femalesdanced and pranced, the drums beat and suddenly Shastritara steppedforward out of the circle and declared Aquitain as her favourite.Alarm bells rang in Aquitain’s befuddled mind and he turned toKami.
‘What does shemean? I’m her favourite?’
‘It means sheis wishing to be dancing with you Spirit Lord.’ said Kami.
‘Oh. That’sokay. Miranda won’t mind that!’ he said and jumped up and staggeredover to hold her hand. She pulled him through to the centre of thecircle and began rhythmically moving her body with the beat,grinning at him all the while with a look like a hungrycrocodile.
He grinned backand imitated her movements. There was something exciting andenticing about the way she moved. Her body language was sensuousand erotic. His new body was aroused by her actions.
They danced foran hour until he was exhausted then they sat together and watchedthe others. She fetched him more food and drinks. They danced againand again until midnight when Kami suddenly called a stop to thedancing and announced the elders had decided in honour of theoccasion, tonight they would dance the fire dance. They
