Circles of Ciridia: The Windtalker's Amulet

Chapter One ~ The Children

Dappled rays of sunlight drifted down from the canopy of thick maple trees. Here and there, pillars of light broke through the fog and leaves where dust particles sparkled in the sunlight. In one such column of sunlight, a young Värian girl named Kaiyennah Yolngu sat in the cool grass near a circle of lilac sprigs. She leaned back against a tree with her ankles crossed. The sunlight warmed her long curly brown hair and her tan skin.

By her side, her black panther Vespeera dined on a haunch of deer leg. The giant cat's fangs tore into the meat. Kaiyennah didn't bat an eyelash at the gruesome sight. She focused on eating her own meager rations of cured deer meat and ignored the sounds of her panther gnawing on the bone. While she ate, she kept a watchful eye on her surroundings.

Something caught her attention: the snap of a twig, the rustling of leaves. She strained her eyes as she looked off into the forest, and soon enough she glimpsed what she feared she might see: a beastman. No, several beastmen. They made sharp sounds as they talked and lumbered through the undergrowth. Kaiyennah called her panther to her side with a mere thought. Vespeera! Beastmen!

I see them, Vespeera replied in a deep rumbly voice that echoed in Kaiyennah's head. Thanks to the Värian life bond Makutu, they could see, hear, feel and think as one.

Vespeera stood up and yanked the deer leg along with him. Kaiyennah shook her head with a smirk on her face. The panther refused to leave his meal behind.

Kaiyennah stuffed her meat back into her pack and slipped the straps through her arms, situating the pack on her back. She grabbed a nearby bow and slung it over her head and down one shoulder. Then she reattached her quiver of arrows to her belt.

Finally, she stepped toward the sprigs of lilac that she had woven together to make a circle before she had even started to eat. Vespeera walked into the circle beside her.

With a flourish of her arms, Kaiyennah began to activate her spirit. She brought her hands together as if holding an invisible ball and brought her spirit up through her body. It rose up her spine until it reached her head; each time it passed through a Sacred Circle on her spine, a rush of bliss came over her. She finally brought her spirit out of her body, and it flowed into her hand. She took out her canteen and poured a small drop of water into her hand.

"Tahur aha keetay kouhu. Mist," she said as she visualized what she wanted her spirit to do. As she continued to focus, her spirit began to flow around her body. Finally, Kaiyennah and Vespeera turned into wisps of mist that blended in with the fog hugging the ground all along the forest where the sun did not reach.

In this form, walking felt more like drifting along the forest floor. Vespeera followed close behind Kaiyennah as she made her way toward the beastmen, leaving a shriveled circle of lilac behind. Most of the beastmen simply appeared to be men with the ears and tails of wolves, but a few leaders had more characteristics of the wolf: Fur instead of hair, paws instead of feet, and elongated noses which no doubt could pick up her scent if she wasn't careful.

She counted—-almost ten. Their numbers would make it impossible for her to fight them by herself. She would need to retreat. As she turned to leave, she noticed three children not of the wolf clan. The sight made her stop in shock. They didn't belong to any beast clan. And the beastmen obviously held them prisoner.

She found herself feeling drawn to them, and she followed them as the beastmen continued to march them through the forest, down the gently sloping hill, in the direction of the beastmen's tainted forest, which her people called Ngaherahe.

Two little girls around Kaiyennah's age walked, with an older teenage boy between them. One girl had long, curly brown hair similar to Kaiyennah's. The other girl had long blonde hair. The girls held their large gray pants up as they walked, and their baggy gray shirts hung on their bodies. They clomped along in their boots, several sizes too large. Both girls and the boy wore a vest covered in pockets.