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 Kiäna 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. She could sit in the sun all day, for her tan skin would never burn.

By her side, her black panther Vespera dined on a haunch of deer leg; the giant cat's fangs tore into the meat. Kiäna 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. She heard the sharp sounds of them talking as they lumbered through the undergrowth. Kiäna called her panther to her side with a mere thought. Vespera! Beastmen!

I see them, Vespera replied. Thanks to the Värian life bond makutu, their bond allowed them to see, hear, feel and think as one. Makutu was the Värian word for magic. It was something everyone could do, as long as they could activate their spirit and had the requirements for their spells.

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

Kiäna 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. Vespera walked into the circle beside her.

With a flourish of her arms, Kiäna 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 though a Sacred Circle on her spine, a rush of bliss came over her, but the last powerful circle on her body was not active yet and she felt nothing as her spirit passed through her head. She finally brought her spirit out of her body and it flowed into her hands, which she still held in front of her; she cradled her spirit against her stomach with one hand, while she took out her canteen with the other. She poured a small drop of water into her hand that held her spirit.

"Tahur aha kite 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, Kiäna and Vespera 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 could be confused with drifting along the forest floor. Vespera followed close behind Kiäna 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, 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 beastclan that she could tell. And the beastmen obviously held them prisoner.

They didn't look like Värian either. They all wore the oddest outfit: white pants and shirts, black boots, and colorful vests. If they weren't beastmen and they weren't from Kiäna's race, then who were they?