Circles of Ciridia: The Windtalker's Amulet

Chapter Six ~ The Disagreement

Kiäna led her new friends up to the main room of her family's high hogan. The fire in the pit offered enough light to see by. Her father stood with her mother, crossing his arms and speaking quietly.

Kiäna's father had a mohawk. He wore very fine deerskin leggings and deerskin moccasins. He kept his chest bare, so that his panther Faira's painted red paw prints showed on his chest. A panther tail hung from his belt. He wore a necklace decorated in panther teeth. These were sacred items to her people that were only for special occasions. But because he was the chief, he could wear them all the time.

Kiäna's father was very intimidating, so it came as no surprise when Chadwick and Tajana and Thea stayed back near Kiäna's room while she strode forward confidently. Her father embraced her with a giant hug and said, "My lovely daughter. How was your day out in the forest?"

"Well..." Kiäna looked back at her friends. The three of them stood near the blanket that led to her room and gave Kiäna's father wary looks.

Kiäna's father loved her dearly and would do whatever she asked of him. She knew this because she had never needed to beg for anything in her life. Her father always agreed immediately to give her whatever she wanted. That's why Kiäna already had Vespera.

Normally princes and princesses had to wait until they were fourteen to Summon their companion soulmate. But Kiäna had asked, and her father had allowed her to Summon her panther as soon as she unlocked her Fifth Sacred Circle of the Voice, last year.

So she decided to tell her father the truth. "A band of beastmen interrupted my midday meal, and they had these children with them." She pointed to them over by her doorway, and she sensed them tensing up at her father's stern face. "I rescued them and brought them here."

Kiäna's father gazed back at her three new friends. "I see you've given the girls your own clothes."

"Yes. The clothes they had didn't fit them."

"How curious..." Her father put his hand on his chin while he crossed his arms. "So, why did you summon me?"

"Zanasha wants Kiäna to journey into Fulgaria with these children to obtain a Windtalker's Amulet, so she can speak to these strange children," Kiäna's mother said. By her tone, Kiäna could tell her mother thought the idea of this quest was absurd. By her tone, Kiäna guessed her mother hoped Kiäna's father would agree with her.

"Hmm." Her father made a thoughtful face. "Zanasha has given her a quest, then?" His black eyes looked back at Kiäna. "Did you accept it?"

"I did. Right away. These are my friends, and I want to help them. I think they're from the water realm beyond the fire lands. Zanasha said the realm is called Naia, and I want to help them get home."

Her father raised his hands. "Hold on. One quest at a time. You are only going to Fulgaria. Not all the way to the other end of Ciridia."

Her mother scoffed. "So you want her to go?!" Her forehead creased and her lips pressed down in a hard frown. Panic flashed in her mother's eyes.

"If Zanasha gave her the quest and Kiäna accepted it, then there's nothing to be done about it. She must go and fulfill the holy stone's will." Her father sounded awfully reasonable about it.

In contrast, her mother sounded completely fed up and worried. "This is unacceptable! She cannot go across Ngaherahe without someone to guide her. I demand you go with her!"

"Well, we must ask Zanasha if someone can accompany her."

Her mother threw her hands in the air. "Why does the wise woman get to decide?"