Circles of Ciridia: The Windtalker's Amulet

Chapter Eight ~ Patapu

The morning light shone into her window, and the chirping of a bird coaxed her to wake. Kiäna opened her eyes and looked up at the familiar ceiling of her room.

Then she remembered everything that had happened, and she sat up to see her new friends still snoozing in their borrowed fur blankets.

"Good morning!" she called out, for it was most certainly time to wake up. Kiäna wanted to get an early start so they could hopefully make it to the river border before the day ended.

Before they could depart, Kiäna needed to visit the Kohatu Stone to officially receive her quest and get the holy stone's blessing.

They got up and rolled their blanket furs up. Kiäna stooped to get her rucksack. Thea and Tajana pulled something from one of their pockets and shrank down their bed rolls. Chadwick handed his over, and Thea shrank his as well. Then Tajana reached for Kiäna's roll, and she handed it over for her to shrink.

Kiäna put all the miniature bed rolls into her rucksack and then they left Kiäna's room to see her parents sitting beside the fire in the main room of their hogan.

"Good morning, Kiäna," her father said.

"Morning," she said back.

Her mother stood and came over to give her a hug. "You're going to leave today. Are you feeling alright about this?"

"I think so. When will we leave to go to the Kohatu Stone?"

"We can leave as soon as you're ready," her father said.

Zing says that Zanasha thinks this would be a perfect chance for you to show everyone that you can read the map, Vespera said.

Alright. Can you explain how to do it?

Let's go to see Zanasha and look at the map.

"I need to learn how to read the maps. Let's go to Zanasha's!"

Everyone gathered in Zanasha's hogan. Kiäna took the map to the table and unrolled it.

There's four cardinal directions, Vespera told her. Towards the sun set, called Raana's set, toward the sun rise, called Raana's rise, toward the waxing moon, called waxing Maramara and toward the waning moon, called waning Maramara. For short, they are called sun's set, sun's rise, waxing moon, and waning moon.

She nodded and studied the map. Väria was a country on the tip of a large continent. The map only showed the leftmost part of the continent, as most Värian people didn't travel out of their nation. Scattered throughout the map were tiny circles of red. Which one of these red circles is Miarrah?

Vespera nudged her mind to look at a small red circle a few inches above a giant red circle. She saw the word Miarrah written in black ink. I take it, that giant red circle is the Kohatu Stone?

You guess correctly.

So we need to go down, is that called the waxing moon?

The waning moon.

Okay. So we head in the direction of the waning moon, pretty much straight down, to get to the Kohatu Stone.

That should be about it, Vespera agreed.

Kiäna stood up and turned to everyone, who had been watching curiously. "If we head toward the waning Maramara, we will reach the Kohatu Stone, where I will receive my blessing and officially start my quest."

Zanasha nodded with a smirk, and her parents looked at each other and nodded. "I shall accompany you, since it was my vision that called you there," the wise woman said.