Chapters of a Life: Trainee (Complete)

Part 16

Time has a way of slipping through our fingers. I was now in my 16th year, it had been more than a year since my Spirit walk. We had seen few signs of the coven, mostly shadows. No one was allowed to go out alone after dark, we had all gotten a lesson on how to deal with dark magic and were given earth charms to help alleviate the feeling of gloom and to stop the shadows from stealing anything from our souls. Emily has contacted several local covens for assistance but so far no one had pinpointed where the dark coven was hiding. As for me, Emily had asked a friend of her's to come to help me train with my wolf, Amanirenas was a mix of Witch and something else, no one told and I did not ask, of Middle Eastern descent. Her skin was golden, hair blacker than a raven's wing, she was small and lethal, with a personality like a well-honed blade. Upon our first meeting I stuck out my hand. She slapped it to the side and grabbed both my shoulders, dragged me in for a hug and kissed both my cheeks. "You are family", she pronounced then proceeded over the next few weeks to beat me black and blue while telling me I was doing fine.

I once remarked that "If this is family, I would hate to see how you train nonfamily".

She laughed and said, "I don't, I prefer to kill them". No one else laughed.

The training had been going on for about a year now and I could now defeat any warrior in our tribe. My wolf and I worked as a well-oiled team, switching and shifting in seconds. I was getting a little bit too big for my britches when word came that the dark coven had been located.

We gathered at the fire circle to listen to the where and when and how to's being laid out on taking this coven out. "We must draw them out for they are like cobras; if we follow them down their hole we will come out", Amarirenas says.

Others disagree saying that we have been taught by some of the strongest witches and they will rally behind us to kill the evil ones. Most of us stay quiet and listen to this back and forth. Finally, Otetiani spoke up, "We will listen to our wise sister". He raised his hand to silence the dissenters and the growls of disagreement. "She has fought dark magic before, have any of you", he asked in his quiet voice with a brow raised? When no one spoke up he continued, "We attack in five days. Your groups will be assigned tomorrow." He said standing up and moving back to his lodge, dismissing us.

Sune and his brother Njar rushed over to me, "Bo come on we're going to the Lake". He waived over the rest of our training group. Off we went to enjoy the late afternoon heat we were joking, the bigger males were snatching up the females and smaller males. The adults were smiling, laughing, and pointing at us. By the time we reached the Lake all the pups and most of the tribe was with us. The rest of the day was spent enjoying family, playing, and eating what we caught.

The energy was palatable as we gathered to be broken into our groups. Otetiani stepped into the circle and we held our breath and crossed our fingers hoping to be grouped with our friends. After the assignments were given we were told to see our group leaders for our orders. I went looking for my group leader, Oya. She was a cohort of Amanirenas and seemed to be one of the leaders of their traveling band of merry mercenaries. There were six in our group, not counting Oya. Sune, Rose, Willow Cries at Night, Dancing Leaf, Moose Jaw, and myself each chosen for our ability to work together and our individual talents-- or so we were told. Oya wasted no time in telling us to gather our gear and to meet at Fallen Bear cave, as we had all packed and repacked in the days leading up to today all we had to do is pick up our packs and go. Upon reaching the cave we discovered two other groups there, a female stepped out of the cave dressed in a full robe with her head covered by the cowl. "Remove all earthly possessions and enter", with that she turned and disappeared back into the cave. We looked around before shrugging our shoulders and stripping down. The others finished and entered the cave, our group decided to enter together -- I, with my over-inflated ego lead. The first chamber was a large room that branched off into several tunnels that lead to rooms of various sizes the tunnel to the warm springs being marked with water signs and torches. The chamber was empty. I reached back to grab the hand of one of my companions but felt no one. Before I could turn to look, a bright light shown in my eyes and a loud voice shook my body, "By what right do you enter here".