Spirit Animal

Chapter 1

I was shaking, crying in the corner. I felt someone's hand gently caressing my back. It was comforting to know someone was there with me. It's always easier than being alone. There was a power struggle going on within my head, and my body was unresponsive.

Tears ran down my face as my head rang with the sound of a thousand bagpipes. I wanted the pain to end. I could feel my grasp on reality slipping as I fell away. I just wanted the pain to end.

A voice of melody cracked through the haze around me. "...that calls me from a worldly care. I'll cast on him my every care..."

Where were the words coming from? I looked around and all I saw was eyes watching me, judging me. They glowed red with anger, and I knew that they all had one thing in common: A mutual hatred for me. They saw deep into my soul and stared into my past, my family.

As the memories resurfaced the noise grew louder. Blood suddenly came from everywhere and I couldn't get it off.

"And oft escaped the tempters snare...... by thy return....." the sweet melody returned. With it came my reasons for fighting. I remembered my best friend. I thought of the villagers. I remembered the icy snow and acrid smell of burning wood.

And with that, the real world came spiralling back into view.

Ida had covered me with what little blankets we had during my episode. My body tended to cool off at an alarming rate during an episode, then suddenly burst into flames. Although I had burned up most of our clothes and provisions by doing this, Ida was still doing the best she could to prevent it happening again.

I suppose i should back up a bit. See, there's so much more to this world than you humans realize. Of course you have your myths and legends about werewolves, dragons, and witches that hide in the dark. Some of your great storytellers got it right. Like Jules Verne for example. There really is another world on the inside of the earth. I know because that's where I was born. It's called Drexelgon, and it's where all of the Were come from.

A Were is loosely defined by the fact that we have a Spirit Animal from birth. The Spirit Animal (aka SA) has a mind of his own, yet both inhabit the same brain. There can be no secrets between a We're and an SA. The companion can be any predatory animal in the world. In fact, were-kind make up the only predators in Drexelgon.

When a Were makes a shift, the body doesn't mutate and sprout hair like they do in the movies. The Spirit Animal's body literally exists in a different dimension, a pocket dimension if you will. Whichever body is here, the opposite is within the pocket dimension. You can't see through that one, or control it. It is nearly impossible to have both bodies in this dimension. It requires a complete mental separation between a were and a S.A. It's incredibly painful for both and is so unnatural that such an event is typically fatal.

The Spirit Animal literally has no gender. They may have a girly or manly name, or act more like one gender than the other, but when it comes down to it their body literally has no genitalia or hormones.

Ida's got a lioness for a partner, named Sarafina. Mine is called Biaviarra (Bee-ah-vee-ar-ra). Biaviarra is very volotile and dangerous. We don't get along well, and I do my best to keep him constrained to protect those around me.

As the real world spiralled back into view I was aware of Ida leaning over me, wiping my brow. "Good to have you back" Ida remarked.

I opened my mouth, running my tongue over my chapped lips. "How long was I out?" My voice was hoarse from disuse.

Ida handed me a canteen of water. "Drink. It'll make you feel better."

I gulped the water down. I drained the bottle. "How long was I unconscious this time?" I set the canteen on the dirt beside me.

Ida refused to meet my gaze as she picked a pot of boiling water out of the fire. She dropped the rag she'd been using on me into it.

"Ida. Please."

She sighed. "Two days."

I'd never had an episode last that long. My condition was growing worse, and I knew what was coming next. "I can't keep this up Ida. My time is running out."

She didn't reply. She knew I was right.

"There's a little town near here. Maybe you should go. There's nothing you can do to change what's happening to me."

"And what would you do? Just keep wandering around the world, searching for something that doesn't exist?"

"I'll go north. Find a way back to Drexelgon. I'll stay in the east, find the old palace."

She knew what that meant. It was the only place left outside of the Council's reach that had weapons strong enough to kill someone like me.

"We left Manitoba to find a cure. We haven't done that yet, so I'm not leaving." She rung out the rags she'd finished sanitizing and hung them to dry.

"We've searched everything. Short of speaking to the council or Maverick himself, there's nothing more we can do."

"Speaking of Maverick, th ats not such a far fetched plan, he's in..."

I interrupted her. "Of course it's far fetched. It's a terrible plan! I can't go anywhere thats not abandoned inside Drexelgon without being recondised. The people would seize me and take me to the council. They'd keep me sedated until I cracked or Biaviarra got out. Then I'd be considered guilty, and they'd have a big public party to celebrate my execution. Even Maverick couldn't prevent that."

"But what if you could get to Maverick without alerting the Council. What if you could talk to him and the Pasifists." She pushed me.

"I can't keep waiting around for a miracle. Thats what it'd be if Maverick ever left Drexelgon. And there's no chance you'd find an active Pasifist on the surface." I argued.

"But we've got one, right now. Maverick is in Denver. Well, will be tomorrow. Well, not Denver, 20 miles west of Denver. But that's not the point. This is the opportunity we've been waiting for." Ida grinned at me, real hope glowing in her eyes for the first time in what felt like forever.

"Let's give it a shot! Why is he in Colorado of all places?"

"Something about wanting to be sure that if war breaks out with the rebels, the packs will side with Maverick and the Council. Which is great news, because that gives us an in!"

I nodded. We had many encounters with the rebels who called themselves Puritins over the past couple years. We'd seen them attacking and threatening many of the places we'd gone. Especially the ones with history on dragons, or packs of the dragon-were.

That night as we packed our things I felt confident that we would finally find some answers.