The layers of ice

The unseen rule

The shaman of Baiskal sat on her bet with a cup of hot tea. She was a widow from a young age as her husband died the Great patriotic war and she never had any children. And her little sister was sacrificed to the Great spirit when she was twenty one...

So she became the apprentice of the former shaman and learn all the laws, all the tenets and prayers the spirit of the lake has to be honored with...

She took the last sip of tea and settled herself on the bed. Singing a litany to the darkness, she soon fell asleep.

She was wondering in the world of dreams... the pieces of her life, past and present mix with legends and mythical creatures in an endless dance guided by a faint song and the noises of a fire... she wondered in this realm for a long time...

Before everything became black.

And as if her eyes has adapted to the sudden darkness she recognized the landscape, the lake at night, shining like a sea of silver under the full moon... she was standing on the calm water...

-Human.

She turned violently in surprise. A black wolf with glowing amber eyes and a blue jewel on his fronthead was walking on the surface of the lake...

-Human, said the wolf, you tried to fool me...

Its voice was as powerful as thunder yet as deep as the lake.

-The law is simple: "sacrifice to me twice a year, for the formation and melting of the ice, anything precious enough so you cannot give it to me without regret". Isn't it clear, woman?

The shaman was trembling in terror.

-We sacrificed a young girl! A beautiful child, a virgin, no even eighteen years old !

But the wolf continued.

-She is from Moscow, she is not one of you... She isn't by any mean precious to you.

"Baiskal is doomed", though the old woman.

-I will close my eyes on your treason as this human child is entertaining... But I won't do it twice. For this day forward I forbid human sacrifices, and for the ice melting ceremony I want you to drown a being big enough for me to call it a meal...

-I will make sure to do so !

And next second the shaman woke up in her room.