Shalyn's Story Ch. 02

Shalyn ran across the clearing, trying to get out of the rain. Panting, she knocked on the door and waited for it to open. Shivering, she heard movements from behind the door. A rush of warm air rushed by her as the door opened, and her teacher, Morath, stood there holding a towel in his hand.

Morath was an old elf, around the age of 732. He was tall for an elf in her clan, standing around 5'4"; and his silver hair reached his mid-back, but was kept under control in a long braid. He wore the normal brown tunic all of the males wore, and his vine belt was similar to hers, but had slight differences.

Morath took a step back to let Shalyn in and handed her the towel.

"It looks like Baelonna decided you needed a washing." Morath chuckled.

Shalyn rolled her eyes, "I guess you are right," she didn't feel like dealing with her teachers jokes. Morath loved telling jokes; however his sense of humor was at most times questionable.

She grabbed the towel and started to dry herself off in the middle of his study. The room was warm and cozy, with books filled with healing knowledge lining the walls. In the middle of the room was a set of comfy seats in front of the large fire. She unbuckled her belt and laid it by the fire to dry it. She then removed her tunic, and then her stockings and placed them by the fire. Although her clan wore clothes, her people did not have a qualm with nudity. These bodies were a gift from their Mother, and they were a beautiful thing, not something to be feared. Clothes only protected their bodies from the cold, and to appease human's modesty, if any were crazy enough to wander this far into the woods. She sat down in one of the chairs, draping the towel over her body to keep warm.

"So...what are we going to be learning today Morath?" Normally she would call an elder by sir or their last name, but Morath didn't want any part of that.

"Well, today, since the Autumn Passages are coming up, I thought we should discuss the reasons behind the event, and the different rituals," He replied.

"Okay"

"So what is the Autumn Festival?" asked Morath.

Hmph, such an easy topic, but oh well. She took a deep breath and began,

"Well, the Autumn Passages festival is a three day event that occurs at the end of the 8th moon, and summer is ending. It marks the beginning of our harvesting time, for the few fields we plant, as well as gather stuff from Mother Baelonna's forest......"

"Good Good Good" he interrupted, " and what do we do at the festival?" he inquired

She started again. "At the festival we pray to our Mother to provide us with a bountiful harvest to last us through the cold winter, and ask for her wisdom. On the first night, there are various celebrations. However, the main one is the mating ritual, which those under 50 are not allowed to attend. The autumn festival is also the time when those who reached 50 years old during the summer to go through their rite. It is when they are reborn for the first time in our society and are allowed to choose their paths. It is also when they receive their belts that are tailored to the path they chose.... My friend Koehmus, she is also part of the senior group at the shrine; her brother is going through it this time. "She added. .

"Oh? He must be nervous then" Morath replied

"No not really" she shrugged. Morath chuckled, "well lets continue then..." Ok.............

****

Make sure not to fall

Shalyn thought to herself as her foot slipped on the branch she landed on. The wind blew past her as she took off for the next tree, the leaves rustling from her movements. The last few weeks had flown by, and today was the first day of the Autumn passages festival, and the Juniors group was sent out together to collect the items they needed for the ceremonies. Koehmus was further ahead than her, and Feramil was behind, making sure the juniors were keeping up. Her eyes squinted in the pre-dawn light, scanning for her target.

There are some she spotted , some chaka berry bushes about 200 meters away. She whistled three short notes in succession, signaling those with her group to stop. Once they had caught up, they started in the direction of the berries. Before jumping down from the tree, she scanned the area, looking for anything suspicious. Taking a deep breath she tried to see if there was any strange odors that could not be explained.

All seemed safe.

She nodded towards her group and she jumped down from the tree first. She did her scanning routine one more time. She closed her eyes and listened, searching for any strange sounds.

Yup, all normal.

She whistled one long note. Her group slowly climbed down the tree. All of the members of her group were the youngest of the juniors. She turned and smiled at Clatae and Travain, as they slipped the baskets off their backs. They were the two strongest of the juniors in her group, as they were selected to carry the baskets for this task.

"Now remember everyone we are here to collect the chaka berries for tonights mating ritual. We need the deep red colored ones." Her group nodded and set off on their task.

"Now to help the time pass better lets sing a song." She said to her group as she started a tune.

Aiya vendё vanya Mara tuilё.
Aiya vende vanya, Mara tuilё.
Manenna? Nan mara.
Galahad Asha Ela Asha, Era Asha, Fin Asha, Milana Asha, Gaya en Hal...

They sang this tune till they had picked enough berries to fill both of the baskets half full.

"Now what do we say to our mother for providing this bounty to us?" Shalyn asked?

"Thank you mother for providing us with this blessing, we only take what we need, nothing more, we leave the rest to your other children," all the juniors, as well as Shalyn, replied in unison.

"Good job everyone, now let's head back."

Shayla stated as she helped the juniors back up into the trees. They traveled in the trees to make sure they were not as easily seen, and not to disturb the forest as much by walking on the ground. They made their way back to the shrine, hindered only slightly by the weight of the baskets. As they passed through the gate, all of them became silent.

Hmph, looks like I beat Koeh this time she thought smugly.

She slowly lead the juniors up the hill to the mother shrine. However once they reached the archway to it, the juniors could not go any further. Clatae and Travain handed over the baskets to her, and they bowed their heads to her. They were now free for the rest of the day.

Shalyn walked slowly towards the spring next to the shrine and placed the baskets on the smoothed rock next to it. She then slowly moved towards the grove surrounding the shrine. About 50 paces in, she stopped, and turned, facing the cleansing pool. In order to make any of the salves for the ritual, one had to be cleansed. She undid her belt and hung it upon the tree branch next to her. Her moccasins and leggings came next. Finally she pulled her tunic off of her small narrow body. The cold cool air swirled around her body, causing her to shiver slightly, but she focused and quickly forgot about it. She then moved next to the pool and bowed her head to the ground. Slowly her head rose, but she could not stand now, she was required to crawl into the pool.

Brrrrrrrr, this water is colder than ever, she thought.

Since the cleansing pool was set back in the forest, with tall trees towering over it, the water was icy cold, as the sun's rays could rarely reach the water's surface.

Okay ready, let's do this. She took a deep breath, steeling herself and she went under. She stayed under as long as she could, her black hair creating a black lily pad on the surface. Slowly she rose to the surface, pushing the hair from her face. Her hands went up her body, past her breasts, past her shoulders, over her head and rose to the sky. The air caressed her skin causing the cold water to feel even colder. Slowly coming down, she lowered her hands into the water, cupping it. Bringing it up she started to wash herself. First her face, then down her neck and shoulders. She washed each of her breasts thoroughly, and down her flat stomach. Once she was fully cleaned, she dunked under once more before she came out. Again, she could not walk out, so she crawled out. She again bowed her head towards the pool, and then stood up. Now that she was cleansed, she could not dress until she finished her task.

Gracefully she walked back to the clearing, grabbing the tools needed to do her task. As she sat upon the rock, getting ready to work, she heard footsteps coming up the hill. She looked up and saw Feramil's group walking up. Again, once they reached the gate, they handed Feramil the baskets, and headed back down, for they were not allowed at the mother shrine yet. He looked over towards Shalyn and smiled, which she returned. He carried the baskets to the rock and set them down, and left towards the cleansing pool.

Shalyn picked up the stone bowl and laid it upon the stone. She pulled out some berries, and sorted out any bad ones. Once they were fully sorted, she placed the good ones in the bowl. She took the grinder and started to grind up the berries. As she was grinding, Feramil came back into the clearing, also naked. Shalyn heard him coming and scooted over to make room for him. Shalyn got back to work as Feramil worked, and they fell into a comfortable silence. Finally Koehmus came up with her group. She grabbed her baskets and dismissed her juniors. She smiled towards Shalyn and Feramil, and went to the cleansing pool after setting down her baskets.

Once her berries were fully ground she grabbed the deep wood bowl and moved around to the spring. Dipping the bowl into the water, she collected the water needed for the salves for them all. As she walked back to the stone she noticed that Koeh had joined them, and started her work. Shalyn poured some of the water into her work bowl and slowly mixed it in. once it was the right consistency, she poured it into the glass jar, and placed it upon the shrine. The priests and priestesses would come later to bless all of the salves, but that was not her job.

She smiled towards her friends as she headed back to the cleansing pond. Again she did the cleansing ritual before she put her clothes on and headed back to the clearing, and then down the hill. As she walked down the hill, she noticed some of the priestesses walking a woman up the hill. She must be the one being mated tonight Shalyn thought offhandedly. She stopped and bowed her head towards the woman, and the priestess, as they passed, before continuing on her way to the bottom of the hill to wait for her friends.

***** A little over 2 hours later, Koeh, Fera, and Shalyn were down at the festival grounds. Feramil decided to tag along with the two girls to the festival.

"Hey Sha, doesn't the warm sun feel soo good against your skin? " Koehmus said as she stretched her arms up. "Yeah it feels so much better than the icy cold water of the cleansing pool." Feramil added.

"Yes it does feel good, there are only a few more nice days like this one left." Shalyn sighed. Although she enjoyed all the seasons, she always missed the caress of the sun touching her skin.

They walked around the festival, looking at all the games they had set up for the young ones, which would test the abilities of them. The prizes were small, like a birch comb or the like, but they didn't matter.

Feramil stopped at a game that peaked his interest. It was a game where they had to see who could skip the rock the farthest on the ground. It was meant to help the young ones test their accuracy and power, just in case they decided to do the hunters or warrior path.

"Hey I bet I could beat you two." He taunted

Both girls rolled their eyes at him, and kept walking. They used to play this game all the time when they were young.

"Oh, are you girls too scared that I will beat you, are you two Shara birds?" he taunted more.

At this, the girls turned around and glared at Feramil, causing him to jump and get a little nervous.

"First off Fera." Both said in unison "we are not Shara birds, we just were concerned that we would hurt your feelings when we beat you badly."

"You're on"

All three lined up at the starting line, with three smooth rocks in their hands

"Now I guess that you three know the rules to this game?" inquired the hunter teacher, Saesh.

All three nodded.

"Well then ladies first then." Saesh smiled pointing towards Koehmus.

Both Fera and Shalyn moved off the line to give Koeh room to throw.

Koeh took one of her stones, and weighed it in her palm, looking ahead of her for a target for herself. Once she found it, she wound up her arm and flung the stone. It skated across the ground bouncing six times before landing approximately 100 yards away. Koeh turned and smiled smugly at her two friends. "Beat that you two."

"With pleasure." Shalyn replied. Walking up to the line, she picked up a stone and felt the weight and the smoothness of the stone. Hmm this stone feels kind of warm she thought offhandedly. Her target was easy, she would aim for Koeh's stone. She aimed, curled her arm back and did a sliding release as she flung it. It hovered above the ground as it moved, bouncing only five times, and landing a little behind Koeh's stone.

"Haha, you missed, I went farther than you," Koeh taunted.

"Well yeah, you have an unfair advantage, training with your older sister all the time, and you got lucky." Shayln countered.

"Nope it was all skill, no luck," Koeh smiled, almost evilly.

"Quit bickering girls and make way for the master," stated Fera, breaking the two girls fighting by stepping between them.

"Yeah right," the two girls said in unison.

Rolling his eyes, Feramil stood at the line and threw the stone. It didn't have that many skips, but it covered a great distance, going further than both Koeh's and Shalyn's.

"Haha I won,"

Both girls gave him a glare, causing him to jump slightly...

******