War of the Races Ch. 27

Chapter 27- The Despoiling, pt 2

Two weeks passed after her meeting Gaia in that place that was supposed to be within her soul. During that time she learned everything she could from Catori and Tayen quickly. For some reason she felt rushed, like events and time were speeding up and she was being left behind. And the dream, the nightmare plagued her every night now.

She learned that the place she went within herself, within her soul, was a meditation void within her own mind where she could commune with her Wells of Magic. At least, in her case that was what Catori and Tayen called them. For them, for Animals in general, they were called Chi Wells though by their descriptions of what each was and did, it seemed like it was two different names for the same thing. They assured her it was not, something about resonance and magic and Chi being like oil and water, they can reside in the same containers but they will never mix.

The sphere of red sun-like fire was her Spirit Well, or Mind, and when she returned the next time she found she could sense her own aptitudes of Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. They were all mediocre before Gaia's boosts which oddly enough she could also feel.

The sphere of blue rippling power surrounded by seven spinning rings of water was her Well of Power, and she could sense that it was nearly as deep as an ocean, and there seemed to be two layers to it. A deeper vaster ocean that's depths she couldn't quite quantify, and then a shallower layer that evaporated away on a monthly cycle. The vapor would rise up, be caught up in the spinning rings of water, and condensed before raining back down onto the surface of that blue sphere to start the cycle anew.

Catori and Tayen had explained this to her in great detail. The vast ocean was her life-essence, or life-span. Any magic she used that cut into this power would irrevocably shorten her life. The shallower water was her life-force. Life-force was her own reproductive ability. Magic requires power and sacrifice, and she must be willing to pay the price for its use. She could, of course, also use life-force contributed to her from her husband or any male she was willing to breed with to obtain it. However, using her own reproductive power would render her sterile for a month while using a males life-force could result in pregnancy if not used, or miscarriage if not used quickly enough. Hlina still shook her head at that. Why would anyone use such a power if the cost was so high?

The sphere of yellow-orange power surrounded and shielded by mismatched clods of earth was her Soul Well. What she sensed here was her Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. All of them seemed rather average until her boosts from Gaia that made her constitution seem ridiculously high.

Tayen and Catori were very interested in how detailed her meditation void was, and her sensations in the differences in her Wells of Spirit, Power, and Soul. Apparently they could only distinguish that the Spirit Well was the power of the mind while the Soul Well was the power of the body, nothing more.

Her second time visiting her inner world she found two lecterns down on the floor to the side of the massive boulder that took up most of the space in the center of the cavern. On top of each lectern was a large tome. The first one she opened seemed to be about her. Weird statistical data; her name, the names of her parents, her birth date and age, her height, weight, and even her measurements!

Thank goodness! She was eighteen, but why the hell did she need to know she was six foot two inches tall, or a hundred and fifty pounds? She could have lived the whole of her life happily never knowing her weight! And why in the world did she need to know that her measurements were thirty-six, twenty-eight, forty-three, and that she had b-cup breasts? She didn't need to know that! No one needed to know that!

Then there were her titles. Daniel's Mother. Mother of Gaia's Champion. World Traveler. Alleged Demon Child. Alvas' Blessing. Wild One. Bounty Hunter Killer. Forest Shadow. Avenger of Blood. Wolf Stalker. Earth Daughter. Espowyes' Bride. Lady of Wolves. Gaia's Oracle. Some of them, nearly all of them gave little boosts toward her Charisma. Either toward a specific person, or people, or just a general boost.

The tome on the second lectern seemed to be a book of spells, skills, and abilities. Flipping through its pages taught her more about what she could do than what Catori or Tayen could explain or teach. In truth, the dokkalfar religious traditions may have included priestesses and shamans she did not know, but all of her abilities had a very shamanistic flavor to them, such as: Zephyra's Lighting. Zephyra's Storm. Zephyra's Mark. Brigid's Strike. Brigid's Lash. Brigid's Mark. Gaia's Landslide. Gaia's Molten Fury. Gaia's Mark. Lauma's Rest. Lauma's Entangling Roots. Lauma's Glade of Rejuvenation. Lauma's Balm.

They all looked interesting and very helpful, but as she examined the spells she noticed that she could only use three of them; Zephyra's Lighting, Brigid's Strike, Lauma's Balm. It made her wonder why. If she was Gaia's Oracle, then why couldn't she use Gaia's spells first?

It was a question that still plagued her.

When the nightmares came again, it was more regular and worse, if such a thing was possible. It came to the point where she was waking up with screaming terrors. She woke Chenoa and Espowyes until she finally gave up on sleeping. Three days without sleep and exhausted, she finally told Tayen and Catori about her dreams.

"It sounds like a spirit vision," Tayen said as she mulled over the details of the dream.

Catori nodded before adding, "I think you must follow this dream. Walk the path your dream is leading you in. Otherwise the nightmares will never end."

"And there could be dire consequences," Tayen added with a nod of finality.

She sighed in resignation and nodded. It wasn't what she wanted to hear. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was follow her nightmare down into that dark dank cave.

----(!)----

Two more weeks to prepare for her trek to investigate the cave, and in that time Chenoa gave birth. Two boy cubs and two girl cubs. They were so beautiful. All four were a spectacular mix of father and mother. Espowyes named his sons Bidaban and Hotaama, the names meaning 'He was born at the breaking of dawn' and 'He is gray-brown'. Chenoa named her daughters Awendea and Hinto, 'She was born early in the morning' and 'She who has deep blue eyes'. Everyone celebrated Chenoa's safe delivery and the children's successful births for the next five days.

Five weeks after Hlina's meeting Gaia, she found herself leading Espowyes, Wanageeska, and two of the chief's counsel, Ahote and Enyeto, to the tree where Alvas was buried. They had already seen and left behind the small cave where she grew up and lived for fourteen years. After months of nightmares, memorizing the quickest path from the Howling Forde Lupus Den back to her cave had been simple. It shortened the trek drastically. It irritated her a little how much shorter it had taken to reach her cave than how long it took her to find the Howling Forde Lupus Pack in the first place.

"Your mother was a strong and courageous woman," Wanageeska said as he knelt in front of Alvas' headstone, "I wish I could have known her."

Espowyes and the others nodded agreement.

"Thank you," She mumbled as she knelt down on both knees and put her hands to the earth above her mother's remains.

Everyone remained silent until she stood up again, and then it was Hlina that finally led the party away with noonday sun high overhead. Not that they could tell really, the sun was completely obscured by the dense foliage of the forest. It was well into the evening when they came upon the old campsite where she killed her mother's murderers. Nothing remained there now but bones partially covered over by dirt, leaves, and pine nettles.

Espowyes walked the old campsite with Hlina as she told him the story of what happened. He nodded along, but then shook his head in astonishment that she had only been ten years old. That night they slept beneath the same large tree she slept under so many years ago. Early the next morning, with the sun just cresting over the mountain peaks they set out again, this time north and east.

Five days later they stood just within the edge of the forest letting its deeper shadows hide them as they looked out across fields of pasture, corn, hay, and wheat. Though she was only two, Hlina had very clear memories of the forest coming right up to the village when her mother took her and ran. Now, the forest had been cut back a mile or more from the edge of the village and the roots removed to make the farmland before them. Hlina didn't know much of her dokkalfar heritage, but she knew enough to know that this was not her people's way. They lived in harmony with the forest, or so her mother had taught her.

"We can not go any closer to the village," Wanageeska whispered as he peered across the vast open fields being worked by tired looking dokkalfar women wearing baskets on their backs that offset large pregnant bellies, or a pack in the front to offset wraps that held babies on their backs, "If we go any closer we will be seen, and once that happens there will be killing. Bad business killing Primes, even when they deserve it!"

Hlina nodded before replying, "If my dreams are correct, then we don't want to go anywhere near that village anyway. Follow me. I have traveled this path many times in my dreams."

It was another hour to skirt around the village and remain unseen, then they were running further north. To Hlina it felt like she was walking through her dreams again, deja vu was an ever present shadow looming in the back of her head. She walked through forested mountain valleys until they reached a place she had seen a hundred times or more. A valley floor littered with the remains of men. A few bones showed here and there, sticking out of the ground. In her dreams the bones were always on top of the ground in full view. She wondered at the differences. As she saw them now she could tell they must have sat on the valley floor, exposed to the elements and grown over for the last twenty years or more. What was the significance in the differences between dreams and reality?

"The significances is that those bones were the bodies of your forefathers," A raspy voice suddenly spoke directly inside her head, "The men that came to your mother's village later and offered their help in return for taking your mother, her mother, her mother's mother, sisters, cousins, aunts, and friends as their wives and women. They killed the men of your village all so that they could manipulate your foremothers into accepting them, does that not make you angry? Does that not make you hate?"

Hlina froze in place as soon as the voice spoke inside her head. Espowyes, Wanageeska, and the others came to a halt and stared at her. Espowyes was the first to ask, "Are you well my love?"

Hlina's mouth opened but nothing came out, the voice was speaking to her again, "If those men had not killed the men of your village then your mother would have married a different man. You would have been born a full human, or maybe, not at all. Your father would not have tried to kill you. Your mother would still be alive. Does that not make you angry? Does that not make you hate?"

Espowyes took Hlina's hand in his and her grip tightened immediately. Overcoming her surprise, she was finally able to formulate a coherent thought out of all of the images flitting through her mind. Some were hers, others were transmitting into her mind just like the voice.

"Of course it makes me angry," She answered so everyone could hear. Espowyes looked at her askance but Wanageeska held up a hand to forestall his question, "Of course I hate those men. How could I not? But I can not do anything about the past. I have new people now, and that is all that I need."

"Then," The voice hissed in a half scandalized tone, "Daniel means nothing to you now? He dies, that fat cow deceives you into dying too, supposedly so you can reunite with your son, she deceived you into letting her mark you as hers, and now, what? You don't care that she is using you? Or, that you might never reunite with your... Daniel?"

She could feel whatever entity was talking to her in her head, flitting around in her memories, trying to use them to manipulate her. Grimacing, she looked at Espowyes and Wanageeska and said, "We are close. Whatever is in the cave is evil. It's talking to me in my head. Trying to manipulate me. I think we must kill it."

Espowyes and Wanageeska nodded solemnly, and they all spread out as they marched on toward the lair of the voice she could distinctly feel was absolute evil. The feeling it left in her head felt like black oil. It kept taunting her, and she ignored it.

Wanageeska gave hand signals as they prowled the last miles to the cave. Hlina may have led them here, this may be her expedition, but now that it turns out there might be fighting to do Wanageeska, the chieftain, the alpha, was in charge. When they were a hundred feet from the cave it didn't stink like it had in her dream. It didn't look as ominous either. It made her blink in confusion.

Wanageeska made the hand signal for everyone to move in. Men first. She was to wait until they cleared the cave or returned and signaled it was all clear. Wanageeska led the way and disappeared inside the dark maw of the cave first. Espowyes followed and then Ahote and Enyeto. Time seemed to drag by. Seconds. Minutes. Hours. When the sun had finally settled on the tops of the trees on the western mountain peaks Hlina hissed. She was supposed to leave. Run away as fast as she could. Go find help, if they didn't return.

But where could she run? Where could she find help? Besides this was the calling of her dream. Her nightmare.

Growling as she tried to stomp out the fear that nearly made her legs turn to jelly, she started towards the cave. Darkness enveloped her. She walked deeper. Air swirled around her. It almost felt like creatures were moving to surround her but they neither touched her nor made a sound.

"Welcome, child of Gaia," The deep rumbling voice grated in her head so powerfully that she staggered and fell to her knees, "Everyone thinks that Gaia is the mother of all things living, and, to an extent, that is true. But life is an expression of the power of the Creator. Gaia is merely the conduit through which he works..."

There was a long pause that left her shaking and her head throbbing before it continued, "Gaia is a conduit. If the Creator is the personification of life, then I am destruction. I am the personification of death!"

Another long pause before it bowled triumphantly, "And you, you will be my conduit through whom I work!"

Hlina screamed.

Eight sets of clawed hands grabbed her arms and legs and stretched her out spread-eagle over the blackness.

"Espowyes! Wanageeska! Ahote! Enyeto!" She screamed as she wriggled and fought, "Run! Run away!"

Something slimy touched her lower back just above her buttocks, then again on her back behind her heart, and lastly the back of her head. There was the faint sensation of a net of utter darkness being cast over her Wells of Spirit, Power, and Soul.

Darkness consumed her...

----(!)----

Darkness receded. It was a dream. No, a nightmare, but it was over now. Tears burst from the corners of her eyes and filled her eyelashes before running down the sides of her temples and into her long curly black hair. The nightmare was so real, it had been real!

Memories plagued her groggy mind. Memories of hundreds of human men, dokkalfar women, and mixed children dead. Torn to shreds. Ripped apart with arms or legs torn off and laying upon the ground several feet from torn and disemboweled bodies. Those that didn't die were diseased and moved with the rigid slowness of near death, but not quite. Animal dens, burrows, and villages flickered through her mind like a movie run in fast forward. Most of what she saw, she had no idea of what animal species the hybrids came from, and then came the memories of the attack on her own Howling Forde Lupus Pack. Men fighting and dying. Women and children running and being caught and dying or becoming part of the diseased.

She felt her stomach heave and she had to turn her head and puke. There was a faint glimmer of hope though. A small memory. A sight of Chenoa and her mother with babes in arms running, disappearing into the forest. Hlina hoped, oh goddess she hoped, that more than just the few she saw had gotten away. She opened her eyes, they cleared, and she saw... the most brilliant emerald eyes she had ever seen in her life.

"Hello," A concerned looking chestnut face said warmly. He smiled shyly as he brushed long golden hair out of his face and behind an ear before he continued, "I'm sorry if you find this situation reprehensible, but you were near death and my only way of healing requires... intimacy."

It was only after he said it that she realized that he was... naked. Looking down her body she saw that she was too, and he was on top of her. Her small breasts were still just large enough to press against his chest, she could feel the rhythm of his breathing in the way his belly moved against hers, and she could feel... a fullness... inside her and between her thighs.

Her eyes opened wide and she started to scream and push him away before her body went rigid and darkness swept in again.

----(!)----

It was done!

Grimacing, I pushed myself up and withdrew from the Oracle of Gaia. She was a very beautiful woman, and the horror and outrage in her face when she realized what happened! Shaking my head, I vowed to never do such a thing again. Well, after Tampa, I thought as the young diseased bos'taurine girl came to mind. Hopefully Glenna was able to cleanse and heal her, and I wouldn't have to do this again.

Standing up, I reached into myself and found the Book of Transformation and focused on the shape I wanted to take. Quebracho grew and shifted new woodland fiber clothes into an alfari-style as my body took on the shape of a hybrid-fox.

"Shahad! Coella!" I called, looking at both.

They hadn't gone far after I defeated the four shadow wolves and the strange other world shadow that seemed to be half in my world and half in some other dimension. After banishing the shadow creature back to wherever it came from. The Oracle of Gaia collapsed. I collapsed as well, exhausted by the sheer amount of magic surging through my body from Seline. A few minutes later when I awoke, it was with my head in Coella's lap while Shahad knelt over me giving me kisses laced with honey nectar.

They nodded at my call and I continued, "Run back to the den ahead of me. Make sure that the bears don't need help at the southern wall. I will take this woman to the infirmary, and check on Huxian."

They nodded again and raced away. One flying two feet above the ground as insect wings beat the air behind her so fast that they were nothing but a blur, the other running so fast that her long furry white legs were a blur as well.

Tired, I moved much slower. I still felt drained despite the honey Shahad shared with me. Picking the dark skinned woman up I was surprised at how solidly built she was. The walk back was... exceptionally tiring. Upon reaching the makeshift hospital I laid the woman in my arms down on a pallet and searched for Huxian. When I found her she already had a baby suckling on each breast. I gasped!

"Move aside and let us work," A surly old bear mother growled as she pushed me aside and placed her hands on Huxian's belly. A warm glow enveloped her hands. I could tell it was healing.

"What's going on? What's happening?" I demanded as my confusion steadily turned into concern, and then dread.