Junee crouched beneath the fronds of a giant fern and cursed fate that her hair should be the color of mango flesh. If her hair were only a nice dark blue or green, she could have left it up rather than trying to crush it flat under a hood slowly filling with beads of sweat on a Durotar summer afternoon. Shielded from the sun by palm trees and ferns and with a sea breeze crawling up her spine from the beach at her back though, it wasn't the heat that was causing her discomfort. It was the seven-foot tall Darkspear woman that stood five yard on the other side of the fern with her back to the adolescent troll concealed in the foliage. Junee had been waiting ten minutes for the other troll to leave, ever since she had nearly blundered into the woman's field of vision.
The woman's name was Ka'bae, and she had been a brewer's apprentice in Sen'jin Village until her disappearance some months ago. It had been a day of great sadness in the village, as were all days when another Darkspear was found missing from his or her home, abducted to the nearby Echo Isles to become another mindless thrall of Zalazane. It had taken Junee eight of her ten minutes in the fern's shadow to recognize the woman's once lively face behind its now lifeless eyes.
Junee had to move again soon. She could feel her legs beginning to cramp, and the day was escaping over the cliffs around the Valley of Trials; she couldn't stay on the Isles during the night, or hexed Darkspears would no longer be the greatest of her worries. Stories of animated dead spotted on the Isles after twilight circulated in Sen'jin every few weeks, and though no one ever had distinct proof, Junee wasn't prepared to chance an encounter with the undead. With agonizing slowness, Junee lowered her upper body onto her hands and inched her legs out flat behind herself, releasing the tension in her thick leg muscles and pulling herself deeper behind cover; a maneuver taught by her distant cousin, Ven'jen. Flexing the last knots out of her lower legs, she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes. Ka'bae was between Junee and her goal – the small hill on the island's southwest corner where Zalazane performed rites – and to get there, Ka'bae must be made to move. This would be good practice. Junee inhaled deeply, recalling the words of Master Gadrin.
In….
Calm yourself. Before you may master the spirits, you must master yourself.
Out….
Still your limbs. Quiet your pulse. Close your senses and turn them inward. Find your center, and fold yourself into it.
In….
Hold it.
...
From your center, expand. Go slowly. Do not open your eyes or ears, keep them trained inwards.
Out….
Continue. Let your center expand until it fills your entire body, and then push it further. Expand it into the outside world, and encompass it into your inside world.
In….
Go slowly. Keeps your senses inward. Do not look outside of your center, look only upon that which your center encompasses. Continue to expand.
Out….
Continue. Push your center as far as it will go, and hold it there.
In….
Search the area of the outside world your center has encompassed. This is your inside world. With your senses turned inward, this is where you make contact with the spirits. Only in this state of expanded centeredness can you call to the spirits and be heard.
There.
A wind spirit lurked in the air on the beach, lazing itself on the warm currents rising off the baking sand. There were others about – an earth spirit roaming the tunnels of a burrowing rodent, a pair of fire spirits dancing in a bonfire just to the north, a multitude of water spirits in the nearby ocean – but Junee ignored them. She had an affinity for wind spirits, and she called to the spirit on the beach. As it approached her its shape resolved itself into a transparent body behind a grinning tiki mask, and it skipped carelessly about her body, lying prone in a state of trance. She smiled to herself. Many lesser wind spirits were pranksters, and this one would suit her needs perfectly. Its sides heaved and its mask clattered in an approximation of giggling as she made her request and then withdrew her consciousness back into her body. She shivered as she sat up, taking a moment to readjust to herself. Eventually she would have to learn to maintain her expanded center while active if she hoped to become a truly powerful shaman, but for now, the trance was necessary for her.
Rolling onto her belly, Junee wriggled back to her former place beneath the fern and waited. Ka'bae hadn't moved an inch. Junee thought she saw a fly crawling down the older woman's back.
Then she thought she saw the older woman's hair stir.
And then she saw Ka'bae's head explode in a flurry of hair, dust, and flailing arms as a miniature tornado spun crazily around the woman's shoulders. The whirlwind lasted for several seconds before the wind spirit leapt from Ka'bae's head and tore off through the foliage parallel to the shore, and after a moment of dazed confusion, Ka'bae followed it off into the jungle. Junee started to laugh, but strangled the sound in her throat and suddenly scolded herself. Her tactic had been juvenile, unbefitting a woman ready to seek a mate, and that thought brought her back into the present and her mission at hand. Junee was still some months from being recognized by the tribe as a woman, but by next month Tazin would take Moa as his mate.
This would not be! Junee's mood darkened further at that thought as she stopped to check a set of claw marks left on a tree by local raptors. The marks were old, long sealed by sap and darkened by exposure, and the familiar information entered her brain without disrupting her train of thought. Tazin would soon grow into one of the tribe's finest warriors! He needed a mate who could stand beside him in battle, not some…some…floozy that learned the value of a tattered shirt too early! Junee paused to check a set of tiger prints. Old. He couldn't be blamed for falling for the floozy's temptations, of course. Boys were stupid. That was why they needed girls around to keep them straight. That was why an especially good boy like Tazin needed an especially smart girl, like Junee. She paced the south side of the hillock, looking for a scalable path.
Sure, it was unusual for the girl to give the first courtship offering to the boy, not the other way around, but it wasn't unheard of. Junee used a clump of grass as a handhold to haul herself another few inches up. Her aunt had gotten Junee's uncle that way, and rumor had it that even Vol'jin's mate had initiated their courtship. Junee knew the Darkspear tribe had stronger women than most of their reviled cousins, and she was counting on that difference for this plan. She reached for the next handhold and realized it was nearly a foot out of reach. Cursing her luck, she was about to descend when she remembered the earth spirit she'd felt earlier. She dug her fingers and toes into their holds and slowed her breathing.
In….
Calm yourself. Before you may master the spirits, you must master yourself.
Out….
Still your limbs. Quiet your pulse. Close your senses and turn them inward. Find your center, and fold yourself into it.
In….
Hold it.
...
There. She was in luck, the spirit was already close by. She'd barely had to expand her center at all. Minor earth spirits tended to be agreeable as long as you were polite, so a little supplication, and….taz dingo! The earth by her knees trembled and split as the spirit thrust new ledges into existence for her. Junee's instinct told her to hurry and continue her climb, but instead she raised her right hand to a tusk and slashed an inch-long gash with the tip. She pressed her bleeding palm into the earth before her, and nearly fell off the hill when she felt the spirit touch her center, accepting her symbolic gift. She shivered but smiled as the touch withdrew, glad to have heeded the advice of another cousin, Shar'kon. According to him, earth spirits had long memories, and it was always worth paying them a little extra gratitude. She resumed her climb.
Where was she? Ah, yes, the offering. What really mattered was that her offering be so incredible that Tazin wouldn't be able to even think of another girl. Especially Moa. Moa's acceptance offering had been a bottle of wine from Silvermoon. Expensive, sure, but Tazin wasn't to be a merchant, he was to be a warrior! No, what would win Tazin's heart would be… yes. As Junee hauled herself over the top of the hillside she laid eyes on her goal. The small hilltop was covered with the paraphernalia of Zalazane's insane rites: a stone altar covered in melting candles, a ritual circle drawn in the dirt, and a cairn of skulls. It was to the last of these that Junee crept, moving with the deliberate steps learned from Ven'jen, one of the tribe's expert hunters and stalkers, listening carefully for any approaching footsteps over the crackle of torches and the rustling of palm fronds in the sea breeze. The sounds of hexed trolls drifted up from the base of the north side, but they grew no closer once Junee reached the cairn, nor could she see their sources, which gave her confidence that she was invisible to them from her position.
The skulls themselves were gruesome, more so than she'd been expecting. Those at the top were only a few days old, and she couldn't bear to touch them. It was risky, but she thought she could get one of the old ones from the base without toppling the whole pile. A large male skull with up-turned tusks and faded runes painted across its forehead looked likely, and after nearly a full minute, she pulled it free. She held her breath as the pile shuddered, and released it long after the cairn failed to collapse. A tingle of exhilaration ran up her spine. She had done it! She had claimed a skull from Zalazane's ritual site! All that was left was to return to Sen'jin Village and claim Tazin's heart! Junee's future spread out before her, bright and wide with a handsome warrior by her side, as she allowed herself to enjoy her moment of triumph.
And then a foot-long centipede, disturbed by the sudden tectonic shifting of its lair, crawled out of the empty eye socket and up Junee's arm.
"Did you hear that?" said Lau'Tiki, looking out over the water toward the Isles.
"Hear what?" said Zansoa.
"Sounded like a banshee shrieking," said Lau'Tiki, cocking his head toward the sea for a better listen. Zansoa grubbed out an ear with his finger and followed suit.
After a while he said, "I think you've spent too much time on the water."
Lau'Tiki shrugged. "Must be an omen."
"Of what?" said Zansoa.
Lau'Tiki considered this. "Bait sale?"
Zansoa shook his head.
Junee didn't stop to catch her breath once the centipede was stomped into oblivion, knowing she was in the gravest danger of her life. She scooped the trophy skull back up and into the leather pack she'd brought as she ran for the steep hillside she'd just come up scant minutes ago, already hearing the hexed trolls from the north side of the hill coming up behind her. She hesitated at the edge, unsure of her ability to slide down the sharp gradient in condition to run away, caught in indecision as the first trolls crested the hill behind her. She turned at the sound of a voice and caught a glimpse of a bloodied robe and skull mask before it was lost to view behind a crowd of mindless slaves stumbling toward her, but that glimpse was all the convincing she needed. She went over the edge.
It wasn't as bad as she had feared. She went over the edge where she had come up, and her descent was checked by enough of her former hand and foot holds that she managed to half-run-half-fall safely, suffering no more injury than that to her dignity when she arrived at the bottom in a heap, and she was on her feet again fast enough to see another pair of trolls coming from the shore, the setting sun behind them silhouetting their hulking forms, and she swerved right and crashed through the undergrowth. Sounds of chaos erupted behind her, and Junee guessed that the hexed trolls hadn't had her luck in descending the hillside. She slowed, chancing a look back to see one troll still chasing her, and quickly turn back to her escape. The beach was in sight, and she knew she could escape if she could only reach the water.
She stumbled as she took her first step into the surf, unready for the soft sand to give way beneath her step, but she recovered and forced herself forward, expecting any moment to feel the hexed troll's hands close around her shoulders, but they didn't come, and then she was past the breakers and her feet no longer touched bottom. She dove, kicking with her powerful legs for deeper water. The land shelf had just dropped away beneath her when she felt a grip on her ankle and spun to see the hexed troll pulling her back. Turning, she fought the troll's grip, swimming with every ounce of strength that she could muster for the bottom, another yard beneath her.
With a final burst of strength she touched bottom and wrapped her hands around a rock, anchoring herself there with the hexed troll still clinging to her leg, now pulling herself down the younger troll's body to try and break her grip on the rock, but it was already nearly too late: both trolls were running out of air, and Junee struggled to calm herself.
She had two goals in her life. One was to marry Tazin, and the other was to become a great shaman. In the next few moments, she would determine both.
There was no time to go through the centering trance, but Junee knew from her earlier exploration that the sea here was full of water spirits, and she called out to them. Within moments she felt their touch on her center, and she made her request, promising them a future full of offerings in exchange for their assistance.
The spirits hesitated. Junee could feel the last of her air being squeezed out of her lungs and be replaced by fear.
And then she inhaled, and her lungs were full of air again as the spirits separated the oxygen from the water around her face, creating a bubble of breathable air just in front of her face. As she gulped air down, Junee felt the pressure on her leg cease as the hexed troll released its grip. She turned to look at the troll, and saw the body floating limply in the water, drowned without the self-preservation drive to return to the surface for air. She shuddered. It had almost been her.
Junee broke the surface and swam to her canoe, anchored off the shore of the island. Hauling herself back in and cutting the anchor line, she placed the bag with her trophy between her legs and began to row her way back to Sen'jin, leaving the unfortunate body of Ka'bae in the surf.
Back on the Isle, one of the silhouetted trolls crouched beside a body while the other watched him work. The standing one scowled.
"I'm sick of hunting these fakes," he said. The other troll raised a hand to his tusk and used the tip to slash open his own palm, pressing the bleeding appendage down onto the corpse's chest where the imprint glowed briefly in the twilight.
"I feel you, brother," he said, straightening. "But the real traitor'll squirm for us soon enough. More of us return from the north every day."
The first troll nodded. He carried a bow strapped across his back and a quiver of arrows at his hip. "Soon we'll have an army in Sen'jin. I can't wait."
The second troll selected a spot on the ground, the center of the ritual circle, and planted an amalgamation of sticks and carved masks imbued with a bit of mojo. The message was simple and clear: we were here, we'll be back. He started to make his way back to the beach. The first troll followed.
"You think Ju-ju's got a shot with that skull of hers?" he said.
The second troll laughed. "I almost hope not. She's showing promise, and it's about time I took an apprentice."