Thanks so much to Helena-Jeanne-Chibi who reviewed my story! You're great, ppl! I hope you guys keep reading my story. I had a pretty good time writing it.
Disclaimer- I own nothing of Shaman King. Nope. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
KIGALI
I must admit that I was fairly surprised when the raven landed on my shoulder, but as soon as I remembered my dream I knew what to do. I walked nonstop for many hours, across the snowy tundra. When night arrived, the raven turned her head to look at me and somehow I knew what she wanted. Take my spirit. I put my hands carefully on her black feathers and closed my eyes. The raven became part of me and I became part of it. I opened my eyes as the raven snapped out of its stunned phase. Then, it spread its wings and with a final caw flew away. I was left alone.
The fog grew thick. So thick, that I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me. I was scared. Zoe should have been back for me by now. I fingered my bracelet absently. It brought many memories. I remembered, how Anna and I had stolen one of the bead necklaces from the town Itako and made two matching bracelets out of them. Itako beads had always fascinated Anna, even though the Itako at Shallow Brook had fraud; she thought that the beads were for jewelry. But the bracelets still had much spiritual power; it just kicked in at odd, random times. I touched the cool surface of the black beads and felt more tranquil. This must be one of those times. My head suddenly cleared and I decided to go on. I HAD to run into the village eventually, maybe I could—YIP! My head jolted towards the sound. Out of the thick fog a beautiful artic fox came into view, smiling at me with her tawny eyes.
She passed me, stopped, and looked back. Follow me. It took some time, but I eventually managed to find a pace to keep up with the fox. Skip... skip... backtrack... jump... turn... skip... skip... skip... we eventually stopped in front of a forest. The fox sat down at the foot of a frosted pine tree and looked at me expectantly, then looked a path going into the forest. Go ahead. With one last look at the fox, I stepped into the forest line. As I did, something clicked in my mind, I sensed Zoe nearby, her and another aura... I kept on walking until a clearing came visible.
In the clearing, there was a small log cabin with a chimney and small, square windows. I probably would have gone inside and nosed around, but at that moment, a woman came out of the cabin. She had long, raven-black hair, she wore a white dress of a thin material like silk, but she didn't seem to be cold. But then again, I was only wearing a short sleeve shirt (the parka was long gone) and felt considerably warm. I kept watching the woman. She was holding some beads very much like the ones in my bracelet, which seemed to be leading something out of the house. At the door, she stopped, sighed and turned around to pull hard at the beads, trying to drag whatever she was holding out of the house. I was in mid-giggle when Zoe suddenly popped out of the house, completely wrapped in the beads, and growling savagely. I felt myself immediately jump out of my hiding place and run in at the woman in a football-style undertake, but instead, found myself flying face first into the snow. Again. The woman had dodged the tackle with inhuman speed, and was now standing above me, shaking her head in disapproval.
"Like spirit, like shaman." She sighed. I jumped up and steadied myself, and then I frowned at the woman. She sighed again and let go of the beads, liberating Zoe, who quickly turned into a kitten and hid behind my hair, hissing malevolently at the woman. She opened her hand and the beads flew back to her palm, then she narrowed her eyes and surveyed me critically.
"Is this how one says hi to family?" she asked.
"What are you talking about?" Zoe growled. The woman just kept talking, ignoring Zoe.
"We've been expecting you Kigali,"
"How do you know –"
"Your name? Well, I WAS there when they named you and I was ALSO the one who took care of you after your mom died and before your so called father took you." She paused dramatically. "You see Kigali, I'm Tabitha, the Priestess of the Kovu Village."
ZOE
At first I felt numb, then happy, then embarrassed. "You're the tribe priestess???"
"We've made it to the Kovu village!!!!!!" Kigali squealed, "but that still doesn't explain why we're family..."
"Oh that..." replied Tabitha, "Yea well, I also happen to be your aunt"
"My aunt?????!!!!!!!!!"
"Yeah, but that's not going to help you any against the others"
"The others???" I questioned numbly.
"Of course. There are at least twenty girls here claiming to be the Goddess of Water and Ice." It took us five whole minutes to digest what Tabitha had said, and then we started yelling at the same time.
"B... b... but the goddess of ice and water came to me in a dream and—"
"I am the spirit of ice and water. THE ONLY ONE! How can YOU not see that!!!!"
"—told me that I had to come here and—"
"She looks exactly like the goddess!!!! I mean—"
"—I traveled all the way from Europe and—"
"OK!!!!!!!!!!!!" Tabitha yelled. We shut up almost immediately. "I know that. I've been hearing those same exact words since this winter started! Everyone in this and nearby villages and tribes knows about the Fifth Moon Prophecy. That's why every young girl with shaman powers of ice or water came here, and," she added, looking at me, "Some of them had wolf spirits too."
"She talked to me in a dream." Kigali said evenly.
"Yea, that's what they all said. There are twenty girls here, but only one is the goddess's reincarnation. To find her, I have put on a series of tests that will tell me who she is. Nothing would make me prouder that if you turned out to be the reincarnation, Kigali, but you'll have to prove that to me, and to the council of elders, because I won't make a unfair decision." With that, she turned around and started walking towards the forest. "Follow me, the tribe has set up tents for the newcomers. I'll show you yours." I turned into a snow weasel and curled up around Kigali's neck. This was going to be harder than I thought.
KIGALI
We walked out of the forest and into a village full of small wooden cabins, which looked smaller than the one I saw Tabitha come out of. Smoke rose into the air from the chimneys as the tribes-people cooked their meals.
"Hey Tabitha?"
"Hmm?"
"Why do these houses look different from the one back there?"
"That's the house were we um... store... things. These are the ones people live in." At that moment we came upon the center of the Kovu Village. It took my breath away. It was a large, circular space surrounded by the smaller cabins, inside the circle, there were around ten medium-sized tepees with tribal markings painted on them. At the center there was a gigantic totem pole rising up in the artic sky. I looked at the animals in the totem pole. Raven. Fox. Wolf. Seal. Deer. Bear.
"Look familiar?" asked Tabitha.
"I saw them in my dream!!!"
"Of course." That wasn't Tabitha. Zoe yelped and fell off my shoulder and transformed into a wolf again, but normal sized. There was a raven sitting lazily on Tabitha's shoulder.
"You!"
"I believe you've met Typhoon?" I just nodded.
"She's one of my main spirits."
"One of them??? How many spirits CAN you have???"
"As many as you can handle. Of course, the spirit's power is an important factor also."
"How many do you...?"
"Six. Typhoon the raven spirit, Tundra the wolf spirit, Tsunami the seal spirit, Timber the bear spirit, Tropic the fox spirit, and—"
"Taiga the deer spirit!"
"No... Taiga the CARIBOU spirit."
"Oh... whatever."
"Anyways, that's your tent" she said, pointing, "You will room with two other visitors. Good luck." She waved and hurried off to a big cabin on the edge of the area. Great. I took a deep breath, drew back the door-flap of the tent, and went inside. A blue haired girl a bit younger than me ran up to me as soon as she saw me enter. She greeted me eagerly with one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen.
"Hi! I'm Pilika! I guess we'll be rooming together, that's great!!! So what's your name?"
"I'm Kigali, and that's Zoe, my spirit..." I replied, pointing at her, now a white dove perched in the rafters of the tent.
"You have a dove spirit?"
"Nah..." I said as Zoe flew down and became a snow-hare, "She's a shape-shifter. Stop showing off, Zoe!" She was now jumping around in a ruffle of feathers, hair, claws, and fangs. Pilika laughed, and a small elf-like creature floated out from behind her hair, holding a lily pad over its head like an umbrella.
"This is my spirit, Kororo... well... actually, she's my brothers, but since he's not a girl, he couldn't come. He let me borrow Kororo for this competition"
"What is she?" inquired Zoe.
"She's one of the Koro Pokkuru," She answered; obviously amazed that Zoe could talk, "They are the sacred people of my tribe."
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from the Ainu tribe," she said, pointing proudly at her headband, which had unique markings printed on it, "What are you?"
"Oh... um... I'm from here, but I'm also sort of a newcomer."
"Huh? Why?"
"I was taken away from here when I was a baby. I just came back."
"Oh! That's so cool! I- I mean it's bad how you were taken away from the north and all, but it's really awesome how we're both new here. Later on, let's go explore it together and—" she didn't finish her sentence, because another girl had entered the tent.
She looked about ten with straight, bright red hair and yellowish-brown eyes. Her fox spirit (with matching amber eyes and red fur) walked up from behind the girl. I expected Pilika to make a fuss over the new girl like she did with me, but she just stood there and glared at her. The girl glared right back at us, the fox flipped its tail in flashy displeasure. Zoe scoffed incredulously. Kororo squeaked and hid behind Pilika's hair again.
"So, you're rooming with me," she addressed the remark at me.
"Us." Corrected Pilika.
"My name's Nagini, from the Volkan Tribe. I'm the oldest here, so you'll have to do everything I say."
"I think NOT!" Pilika protested, but was ignored once more.
"There's a few rules I'm going to put down, and you're going to obey," she flipped her hair.
"I don't think so, Nagini," I argued, "We're all equals in this competition, so—"
"No, we're not. I'm the real goddess of water and therefore stronger than both of you midgets put together. You're wasting your time here, because in the first test tomorrow, you are going to be disqualified and I'm going to laugh at you, so you better get used to it right now, got it?" she whirled around and headed for the door. Zoe was snarling violently at the Nagini's fox, who was growling malevolently back at her. "Come on, Leesa. We've got more important things to do." Nagini called back at the fox. Leesa gave a fancy swirl and glided after her shaman partner. I looked at Nagini's retreating back and scowled.
"And that, my friends, is what we call a vixen."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Lady Dragonfly- And that's the fourth chapter of Twilight's Song!
Kigali- Yeah! I hope you'll tune in for more
Lady Dragonfly- Review if you can! Not to be pushy or anything lol
Kigali- It's all good though
Lady Dragonfly- Next Chapter... The First Test!
Kigali- See ya!
