Bonds that Heal the Wound

Chapter 2

When Halona and Mai reach the top of the hill, Halona takes note of all the people setting up the main stage for the ceremony. Two men are working together to paint a mountain on the stone wall. This mountain that they are painting is of great importance to the tribe. They refer to it as "The Mountain where the Lights Touch the Earth." It's a long name, yes, but it also describes it perfectly. This mountain is where the spirits of people's ancestors come down from the heavens. The sight of the lights represents hope and guidance, the people knowing that their ancestors are watching over them.

This painting is placed center of a great skew of red handprints that cover most of the wall. The handprints belong to those that have reached manhood or womanhood. Once a member has proven that they have followed their totem, their handprint is place upon the wall.

Halona glances down at her hands. One day, her handprint will be on there. She's excited to see what the world will have in store for her, but at the same time, she knows that Kenai and Sitka will not be part of the world that she will become a woman in.

"Halona! There you are, sis!" Halona snaps out of her train of thought to see a man wearing blue deerskin clothing walk towards her, arms spread out to give her a hug. He grabs her and ruffles her hair. What was once kept and neat now has fly-aways.

"Think you can wait until I put these sticks down, Denahi? My back is killing me!" Denahi backs up by a foot, allowing Halona to slip the bundle of sticks tied to her shoulders off. She places her hands in the center of her back, cracks it and sighs.

"Better now?" Denahi smiles.

"Good," he then forcefully grabs her with a smile and continues ruffling her hair, "Ready to finally become a woman, sis?"

Halona laughs and tries pushing the older man off her. Although Denahi refers to her as sister, or sis, the two are in fact not related by blood. When Halona was just a toddler, she had been found in the woods by Tanana. She was on her way to retrieve a totem for a soon-to-be woman at the time and came across her. Halona was alone, wrapped in nothing more but a few pieces of cloth. She babbled and squealed at Tanana, almost begging the woman to take her into her arms. Tanana saw this is a sign from the spirits and indeed took the girl in her arms. With the girl in arm, Tanana made her way to the mountain top where the spirits took a small stone and transformed it into an elk. Tanana wrapped it in a small cloth and placed it in the pocket of her shaman cloak. Before she could leave, the lights of the spirits wrapped around her. As a shaman, Tanana can communicate with the spirits in a way that the other village members cannot. They told her that the child should be placed in care of the three brothers Sitka, Denahi, and Kenai. They gave no reason to Tanana as to why those three brothers specifically, but she has never been in any place to doubt the Great Spirits.

When Tanana arrived back at the village that afternoon, her first stop was to see the three brothers. Sitka was more than happy to take the young girl, a smile on his face the moment she was placed into his young arms. Sitka was only about 16 at the time, but he had proven he was more than capable of raising her as he had already raised the other two brothers for most of their lives. Denahi was around 8 and he was a little unhappy at first feeling even more as a middle child than he already was, but soon grew to love as if she were his sister by blood. Kenai was probably the most thrilled considering that he would no longer be considered the true youngest child. Kenai was about 4 at this point, approximately a year old her than Halona. Kenai took her under his wing and the two were inseparable. The brothers were Halona's whole world and up until a few months ago, she had no idea what she would do without them.

"As ready as I'll ever be dog breath," Halona punches Denahi's arm, causing him to step back a little bit, laughing as he rubs his sore arm.

Denahi lets out his last breathy laugh before becoming a bit more serious, his smile becoming a bit more tight lipped and eyes softening as he looks Halona in the eyes, "I know you wanted Sitka and Kenai here for this, but I know that they're both ecstatic for you, even if they're not here to say it in person."

Halona frowns a bit, cursing Denahi mentally for bringing up her two brothers. They've been brought up once already, she'd much prefer the thought of them not being here to stay away from her thoughts.

"I know. It just hurts, you know? Everyone was here for Sitka's totem, yours, and even Kenai. But for me? Everyone's either dead or not even human," Halona rubs her eyes, trying her best to not let the tears she had tried to force from coming fall.

Denahi wraps his arms around her, nuzzles his nose into her hair, "I know it sucks, kid. But things will get better. Things will be okay, I promise."

Halona sniffs and smiles a bit, her words cracking as she speaks, "Funny, that's what Mai told me earlier."

Suddenly a yell is heard from the bottom of the hill, "Tanana's back! C'mon!"

Denahi parts from Halona and bends down to grab the bushel of sticks. He smiles once more and says, "Let's get these sticks set up for the fire. You'll see. Once you get that totem, everything will be fine."

Denahi and Halona work together to place all the large sticks and branches inside of the stone of circles placed in the center of the stone floor. They're paced teepee style. As per tradition, a large set of antlers, probably from a giant elk, is placed at the very top of the teepee for decoration. Once everything is set into place, Denahi and Halona find their placed among the first row of villagers who have already sat down, waiting for the arrival of Tanana.

"Ooh good! I didn't miss anything!" Halona jumps as Mai plops herself down next her.

"Do you really have to scare me like that?"

"Not my fault you're jumpy," Mai shrugs. She receives an eyeroll from Halona in response.

A series of hushes are spread across the platform as all eyes are sent to the entrance. An older woman with a fur cloak and long white hair placed into two braids, one on each side of her face, walks towards the stack of yet to be lit wood. This is the shaman woman Tanana.

Tanana pauses for a moment for one of the village men to hand her a lit torch. Every face in the room is lit up with a large smile as they watch her walk past them. With the torch in hand, she pulls her arm back and tosses it fervently, yet gently into the teepee stacked sticks. The teepee lights up in a roar of flames, causing the room to erupt into their own roars of cheering.

"Welcome, my friends. As we all know, when one of us comes of age, the spirits bring us a totem that represent what we must do in order to become a man," Tanana teasingly pats Denahi on his head as she walks about the room, giving her speech, "or a woman." Mai's hair is then ruffled by Tanana. Both Mai and Denahi give the shaman woman a friendly smile as they chuckle softly.

"Halona," Tanana calls out her name and sits in front of the fire, being cautious enough to keep a good distance as not bring harm to herself. Halona stands up timidly and walks over. She carefully sits down and let's out a worrisome sigh.

"Nervous?" Tanana asks. Halona is met with a quick sense of déjà vu from that question. She responds with, "Just a little."

"Don't be. It's a good one!" There's that déjà vu again.

"Halona, I have been to the mountain where the lights touch the Earth, and the spirits have revealed to me your totem," Tanana's words are warm and full of hidden excitement. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the totem, wrapped in a small cloth, the animal carved in it hidden underneath the cloth.

"Your totem is," everything moves in slow motion for Halona as Tanana carefully pulls back the top layer of cloth that's hiding the carving in the totem.

The excitement in the room dies before Tanana can even say what the totem is. The second Tanana pulls back the cloth, Halona feels her heart stop. Denahi and Mai have the same feeling in both of their chests.

"Love!"