A Fawn's Glade

Tana

She had decided she would try and bring the tokotas with her as well. It was always tricky with the spirit world, one could never be sure on what was waiting on the other side. She had gain a lot after her defeating Akhlut...but everything, as always was with a price. But now she could bear it, she was stronger, but that didn't make it easier. Remembering Joe’s words and Dan expressing his own worries about the spirits and their world she made sure to show him every step. How she prepared the herbs and the dried mushrooms, adding a few pinches of the burned fire in the form of the coal. Trying her best to explain the sacred words she spoke over the brew.

Aluaq and Tuwa both took a few licks from the bowl of the tea, more diluted with water than what they would drink. Animals was more pure in their spirits and didn't need much help. The tokotas simply seemed to fall asleep and Tana tried to calm Dan’s worries after his own also tasted the brew and then shortly rolled themselves together and fell asleep. Just like Tuwa and Aluaq had done moments before.

“Don't worry, Dan... Have I ever done something to harm you? You had this tea before...with a slight difference...when the Bear spirit marked you... Do you remember? This is just a little stronger. Your spirit is light and heavy at the same time, it is like a mussle that don't want to let go of it's shell...in this case your body. But...bodies are fragile...”

She rose and put up a barrier before the entry of their little protected camp. Before it she put a little pouch and opened it. Inside was the gland of a skunk. Thankfully the cold numbed most of the smell but if someone came up close to it, they would think twice before entering. Not many faced a skunk if they could avoid it, or so she hoped.

When she was ready with the preparations she sat down opposite to the young man and explained more of the drink that now had been left to simmer long enough. “You will feel funny, especially since it's the first time you go deeper into the spirit world. Do not believe everything you see, don't trust your eyes...do not follow anyone that your heart won't recognise. Follow the the path your heart see.” She put out her hand towards the seemingly sleeping tokotas. “They are there waiting for you...” For a moment Tanas eyes seemed to become almost like clear ice before they darkened “...everything is ready...” She handed him the cup after taking a big sip herself, she would need the strength of the potion to control their journey in a safe way. “...it will be colder than here...so don't stay still...always move...” she added as she saw Dan put the cup to his mouth after a breath of hesitation.

Dan

Even though he had found an inner peace within the last vision that made him able to be a bit more relaxed knowing he would enter the spirit world soon, Dan was glad for Tana’s guidance. The young man felt bad for raising his voice at her, even though it had been only the mirror for his inner turmoil and the timewalker knew it wasn’t directed at her. He stood up, scratching Octavia behind her dark ear and giving the barred head of Nirliq a loving pat. His eyebrows raised a bit as Tana told him the Tokotas would enter the spirit world with them as well. He worried for them, but Dan trusted the shaman girl to know best. Most likely his bearwolves would hold themselves way better than he did. And having his two girls along would certainly help him, even if it was only for soothing his mind.

Nirliq and Octavia eyed the other two Tokotas suspiciously as they lapped a bit of the strange smelling liquid the girl gave them. It was Nirliq who made the first step towards the bowl, and since Octavia couldn’t simply let her be first they ended up sticking their tongues simultaneously in the bowl. Shortly after they started to blink every so often, and with a deep sigh they both laid down, cuddling close together.

“Of course not. I trust you Tana. With my life.” Which was probably a good thing since he kinda was risking it right now. He looked at the tea. It smelled… interesting. Not particularly bad.

Dan listened carefully to Tana’s explanations, watched her taking a sip and then took the bowl with slightly shaking hands. There was nothing to worry about. Tana was there. So were Nirliq and Octavia. They’d watch over him. It was all fine.

If he’d ever believe the stupid things he was telling himself? Dan shook his head and drank the tea.

He vaguely remembered Tana telling him it could feel funny, but this was… way more. At first he felt numb. Even though he was looking at his hands holding the bowl, he couldn’t feel them or it. The smell had vanished, and slowly did his sight as well. Then, when he was completely shut off the world, in an instant everything returned and was more clear than ever. Dan’s fingertips could feel the lines in the wooden bowl, he felt his muscles moving when he breathed. And then everything was grey again.

Dan blinked. It was cold. He blinked again. Four shapes moving around him. A flash of black against tawny, a soft nudge accompanied by a chirp. He could feel the presence of Octavia and Nirliq, urging him to walk, to move. He made a step. Another shape, smaller. Upright. Tana.

He didn’t know why he knew it was her, maybe it was the face that was still hers, maybe it was the fact that the snow owl parts of her body seemed to belong to her as well as her actual human body did. Dan looked at himself, what he could see. His shoulders broadened, and thick dark fur covered them. His arms were massive and furry as well. So were his legs. He could feel that his face wasn’t quite normal as well. His teeth too sharp, his nose to sensitive.

Dan remembered he had to move. So he did. Before him was a path, bright and welcoming. But somehow he knew that wasn’t where he had to go. No. This way.

Tana

The shape of a dark eagle swooped around them before landing and Tana knew it was Aluaq, not by what she saw but what she felt. A caw made her look up to spot a piebald raven still on it's wing, soaring high on the unforgiving winds of Adlivun. It was Tuwa, and Tana knew it in the same way she knew the black coated males form in this world. She called on the raven with a sound that almost sound like a mewing cat. After awhile it came downwards, and finally landed next to the eagle who snapped at it. The raven responded with a grumpy sounding caw.

Dan had taken his bear form, or partly just like she had taken the form of the snowy owl. His body had become much larger, more mass and obviously more fur. The heavy ruff of a mane at his neck was black like his human hair but the rest was a mixture of both white and brown hairs, like he got the strength of all bears. Tana folded her wings, waited. This was Dan’s journey, only he knew where to seek answers. Only she could do was to follow, wait and watch. She directed her own tokotas to take to the air, to fend off bad spirits from above. It was cold now, the warmth of her breath created a mist. She remembered this, but she wasn't freezing yet, the feathers on her body kept her warm. Still they had to hurry. The potion she had given the tokotas and Dan was in a way something to protect them, to make their living scent less so it wouldn't attract the spirits here.

It was different with her scent, a part of her had already died once, the spirits knew her here. Every now and then she beat with her wings to thin out the scent of life but she felt them close in. She heard the calls of Aluaq and Tuwa that they had spotted something from above and she called them to come closer. Getting to Dan's side she touched his furry shoulder. There was no words coming from her but she pointed. The time was running out.

Dan

Dan rushed through the spirit world. His steps growing wider and wider, soon crossing shady rivers or giant ridges at once. He didn’t pay the surroundings any attention, as Tana said. His heart knew the way. His mind might have gotten confused by the sometimes familiar looking places around him, the speed of his travel that might as well just be an illusion. He didn’t see, he didn’t care. Go where your heart leads to. And so he did.

Dan felt the urge behind Tana’s gesture. But it wasn’t far now, they were close, he could feel it. Around them shapes of a snowy forest had emerged. Another few steps, and suddenly they stood on a glade, seemingly in spring. Nirliq and Octavia stood next to him, sheltering their handler from the side. They felt the incoming danger while Dan was clueless.

He had only eyes for the petite figure in the middle of the glade. Big, green eyes looked up to him. Out of a wild mess of red hair emerged a slender rack and a pair of deer ears. It was a girl, so small and petite. Her skin as white as milk, golden freckles sprinkling her face. She almost seemed to glow. Her legs ended in white fur and pink hooves. Golden tattoos covered her body, dancing underneath her skin. Small golden chains like a spider net full of taw in the morning sun covered her hair and antlers, crisscrossing in between.

Behind him Nirliq started to growl.

Tana

She let out a shriek and a hiss, keeping the spirits away long enough for her to grab hold of the man and at the same time say the words that would bring the tokotas back as well. But the man was heavy and she had to pull hard like when you got your foot stuck in quagmire. Tana called to him, to make him snap out of what he saw and come with her. Even here it was just a vision, even if it was a very strong one.

As quickly as she could she had tried to memorize details of what she saw. The broken tree that looked like the outline of a mountain top, the burn after the lightning that had broken it. The fresh sprouts at the base of it that showed it wasn't truly dead. Tuwa cawed in panic and Aluaq dodged Nirliq snarled as the eagle tried to help the owl woman getting the bear man's attention.

It was like a huge black cloud coming towards them, not quite steadily, more in the way of a person who had been drinking too much of the fermented juices of berries but with the determination of rising like a newborn caribou calf. It was Greed. All of those of her people, of others like her people that had been taken by the shadow of Greed. It felt the traces of the new world in him. Of the world where the thought of oneself came before anything else.

With a groan Tana shifted and came back. Glancing to the side she saw the tokotas began to stir. Aluaq looked at her before he checked on the other three. Tuwa shook her head and gave a soft wag with her tail as Aluaq sniffed her head.

Oh, spirits she warned him! To not get too sucked into what he saw, to not be numbed being too still. In her mind's eye she stretched her hands forward, only they were not hands but talons now. She called his name again, a owls screech and she grabbed him. He was a normal man again and she lifted him high up, higher and higher with each beat of her wings. The owls normal form now much larger.