The Animal Inside-Amaya Jiwe

The Good, The Bad, And The Cuddly...

The ship was quiet. It was something Amaya and I had longed for for so long. Something out of a picture perfect dream. But not in this instance. The instance that this silence came in was less than comforting. Death and chaos was behind it all. Nora had officially transformed into Mallus. As expected, our plan had gone off the rails. And worst of all, Rip was dead. Another person down. We were all numbed by death. So, instead of tears shed, it was drinks downed in the parlor.

I extended a large, yet half empty, bottle of scotch out to Mick, the drink quickly being intercepted by Ray, who poured himself a glass. "You don't drink."

"Yeah, well, we lost Rip."

"Okay, somebody's gotta say it, so I'm gonna say it-" Nate didn't say it.

"This is all our fault." Zari did.

"Apparently I'm not gonna say it, but, yeah, we let Mallus out."

"Well, whose stupid idea was it to fight him with some magic necklaces?" Mick grunted angrily, tugging at the totem around his neck.

"It wasn't the totem's that failed." Amaya assured him soberly. "It was us."

"Yeah, we might wanna rethink that whole, 'we screw things up for the better' motto." Zari agreed.

"Okay, so what's next, Captain?" Nate asked, glancing over at Sara who sat slumped back in a chair, looking rather defeated.

"All I know is that Rip gave his life so that we could take the totems somewhere that Mallus can't find them." Suddenly, she sat up, looking much less defeated than seconds prior. "So that's what we're gonna do."

"And where is that?" Zari questioned, walking closer towards the group.

"The Old West." I chimed in, remembering how we had used the pocket that was the Old West to our advantage.

"Salvation, North Dakota." Ray simplified even further. "It's basically a temporal blind spot."

"Wait a sec, we just unleashed an ancient time demon who's about to lay waste to all of history, and our plan is to hide." Amaya tried to simplify, clearly not pleased with the idea.

"Yes, it is." Sara begrudgingly confirmed. "Gideon, plot a course."

XXX

"You'll never believe this." I said to Amaya before even walking into the library, knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that she was there. "Ray just punched Nate. In the face. Ray ran off with Darhk I think. Nate's in the medbay getting some ice." My mind finally caught up, realizing that Amaya was in the middle of something else. "What are you doing?" I bent down, noticing the small tea cup in front of her. "Lyoga root? Do you really think this is the best time to go on a psychedelic vision quest?" I paused for a moment. "Who am I kidding? It's never a bad time to go."

"You can't come with me, Maria." Amaya deadpanned as my hand hovered near the handle of the glass. "I'm going all the way back to the beginning to meet with my ancestors- the original totem bearers."

"Why?"

"Sara thinks we're not cut out to wield the totems. But I believe the reason we didn't defeat Mallus the first time is because we didn't know how."

"So you want to talk to the original bearers so they can teach you the totem user manual." I followed along rather quickly. "I am totally coming with you." I picked up the glass, ready to drink, when Amaya put her hand in front of me calmly.

"No. It was my decision to save my village. I shattered history and allowed the demon to escape. It's up to me to find a way to stop him."

"Amaya...Amaya, look at me." She opened her eyes slowly. "We decided to save the village. Now, if you're gonna go on some crazy drug trip, you better believe I'm coming with you." I pressed the glass to my lips, taking a large sip of the spirit guide drink.