Hey people! Here's the 6th chappie of Twilight's Song! Sorry it's a bit long. Might have overdone it, Hehehe. Anyhow, thanks so much to Wingweaver22 and Helena-Jeanne-Chibi for reviewing! You guys are the BEST! Yay!

Disclaimer- (cries) I don't own Shaman King!!! Why??? WHYYYYYYY????

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 OF HOT SPRINGS AND RIVALS 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

KIGALI

When returned to our tent Nagini was sitting in her bed, meditating.

"I bet she's pretending," whispered Zoe. I chuckled and sat down in my bed.

"What do you think the second test will be?" I whispered back to Zoe, as to not disturb Nagini.

"Well, she did say that you had to prepare you spirits. I should be the nervous one."

"Are you nervous then?"

"Nope" she answered.

"Why?"

"Well, it's no use being nervous about something you can't help. Remember that the best preparation to a test or trial is tranquility."

"Hey you two! Keep it down why don'cha!" Nagini yelled from across the tent.

"Shut up!" I yelled back.
"You know, Kilany,"

"It's Kigali."

"Whatever, I'm very surprised that you made it this far, and I sorta feel sorry for you..." she let it hang dramatically. My patience was draining fast.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" I snapped at her.

"Well, you see, I happen to know that one of the tests will be, in fact, a Shaman Fight. Of course you won't make it that far, but if by some strange miracle you did, I would have to fight with you, and since you and that blue friend of yours have annoyed me since you've stepped into this tent, I'll have to kill you and that irritating little spirit of yours. After all, in the contest my tribe had to find out who was the better shaman, I won all of my fights..." She looked at me slyly, "Have you even integrated with your spirit yet?"

"Integrated?" I asked before I could stop myself. Nagini rolled her eyes.

"Fused? Combined? United? Become one? No?" I snuck a sideways look at Zoe, who had bristled up like a porcupine. "Oh man, now I REALLY feel sorry for you, but I won't waste my time on you, since we won't be fighting after all, I better prepare my beautiful Leesa for the test." She tossed her hair and closed her eyes, meditating once more. Zoe snorted.

"I don't see how meditating will help any."

"Well..." I ventured, "If Nagini's doing it, it might do something..."

"Might as well try!" Zoe changed into her ivory-haired human form and closed her cerulean eyes. Then she crossed her legs and joined her index finger and thumb into a meditating-like position. She peeked at me from behind her eyelashes.

"Like this?" I copied her pose.

"Yup" I breathed in and out peacefully. Maybe too peacefully, but I'm proud to say that I didn't fall asleep. Until after five minutes after, that is.

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I woke up later on that day to find messy hair and a snoring Zoe half on the floor and half on top of the bed. I shook her shoulder and she fell on the floor with a cry.

"What?"

"Hey weren't we supposed to remember something?" She thought for a second, and then jumped up with a gasp.

"The second test!!!!!" I joined in her panic attack and jumped up, tripping over her and sending both of us down to the floor.

"Ok, ok, just relax, we still have time, look!" she pointed outside, where a crowd had gathered in front of the platform, but Tabitha wasn't on it yet. I grabbed Zoe's arm and dragged her to the assembly place. As I reached the crowd, a flash of red caught my eye. Nagini was talking to a girl with black hair and a freckly brunette. They were looking at her with utmost admiration, as if in the presence of a queen. Zoe made a face. When she saw me, Nagini laughed and pointed. The other girls followed suit, probably to get on Nagini's good side. I turned around and tried to ignore them. Luckily, Tabitha had climbed the stage and was yelling to get rid of the excited chattering of the crowd.

"Saved by the aunt." Snickered Zoe. By that time, Tabitha had gotten rid of the chatter and started to talk in a loud, melodious voice.

"Welcome to the second test. As you might have noticed, the crowd is thinner today,"

"Thank god for that!" somebody muttered.

"Only fourteen of you have made it past the first test, BUT! I WILL remind you yet again that the tests WILL get harder as we go! Ok, now, the second test..." she paused dramatically "... will be a spirit-fight mini-competition," There was a rush of exited whispers at this announcement, but they were soon hushed as Tabitha started talking again. "This, is a competition where the contestants will be paired against each other and may choose ONLY ONE of their spirits to fight for them." she said, looking sternly at a small violet-haired girl who was struggling with a litter of several husky puppy spirits, which were squirming all over the place. "No integration will be allowed in this test. The participator whose spirit is unable to battle first will be the loser. The test will take place in an arena about four miles from here. I'll meet all of you there in half an hour, no less. Those who don't make it there by that time will be disqualified."

She turned around and called upon her raven spirit, who, to my total attention, integrated with a black feather in Tabitha's hair. The feather glowed white and two black wings sprung from Tabitha's back. She spread her new-grown wings and took to the air with astounding speed. Most of the girls, which including me were left open-mouthed, started recovering from Tabitha's surprise takeoff and were calling their own spirits for methods of transportation.

"What was that?" I asked Zoe, referring to my aunt's strange type of integration.

"There are many different types of integration. The most common one is Spirit Unity, in which the shaman and the spirit unite to fight as one. The one Tabitha used, I think was called Spirit Control, in which a shaman channels a spirit in to an object and is able to focus enormous amounts of power through that object. I think it works best if the object is one that represents the spirit... like you would use a feather for a raven, or a sword for a samurai..."

"And what is the form of the object-spirit thing called?"

"Oversoul"

"Aha! Gotcha, one last question though... what do you call a shaman's power? Like, the fuel that runs the Oversoul and the integration."

"It's called Furyoku, and by trying to get to the arena faster, those girls are using up their spirit's Furyoku, it takes time to restore it."

"How much time?"

"Depends on three things: How much Furyoku was used up, how strong the spirit is, and how strong the shaman is. We should find a way of getting there without wasting furyoku... I know!!! We'll just hijack one of the dog-sleds they have here and—"

"Wait, what if you just shape change into a... something and take me there yourself... that wouldn't waste any Furyoku... would it?"

"Oh, umm... no..." she blushed. I laughed.

"Didn't mean to burst your bubble." I cheered as she changed into a fleet-footed deer.

"It's alright."

"Aren't I too heavy to ride a deer?"

"Nope! The deer's the fastest thing around, besides, you're skinny enough to be lifted by a balloon, so don't worry about it, 'cause we're already late." I climbed hesitantly on Zoe's back and she jerked into a speedy run across the permafrost, with me hanging on for dear life.

As we rode on, several spirit-riding girls passed overhead in a colorful variety of Oversouls, so I wasn't surprised to find a small mob of exited girls blocking my view to the gathering place. Zoe went into lynx shape and jumped in my arms.

I stood on my tiptoes to try to look over the gaggle of heads jamming the way, but I didn't happen to be the tallest one around, there was an array of ages from six to twelve-year-olds. I was seven, but as Zoe put it, 'You can always use age and size as a benefit, being it large or small' and that's just what I was going to do.

I got down to my knees and crawled among the legs of the contestants, followed by an amused Zoe. Finally, I made it to the front of the multitude and looked around at the fighting arena.

"Wow! Get a load of THIS!" Whispered Zoe. I nodded speechlessly. She was right. The fighting arena was a huge clearing in the middle of the dense, coniferous forest. It had to be around the size of two football fields, there was no grass, since it was too cold for that, and there was a small cabin on each side of the field. I looked around at my opponents. They seemed as awestruck as I was.

"They have ice powers, all right," Noted Zoe, "Some of them are as underdressed as you are." Surly enough, I observed that some of them were wearing short sleeve shirts, skirts, and shorts, but didn't look cold. I looked down at my own clothes. White T-shirt with a blue star in the front (matching the earrings that weird boy gave me) and a schoolgirl blue skirt (which that fat headmaster in Shallow Brook made me and Anna wear) they were quite a bit dirty and even a bit bloody, from the fight with the bear. The wound had healed quickly with a special medicinal plant that Pilika had kindly treated me with. It had magically vanished. Almost. I turned my attention to the arena as most of the crowd went quiet. Tabitha had walked out of one of the cabins and was walking towards our group. She looked much less intimidating without her dumb old platform to raise her up a few feet. Zoe was probably thinking along those lines, because she started quietly laughing as soon as Tabitha turned around to receive a box from one of her assistants.

"Welcome to the second test, I see you all made it in time. Good job. In this test, drawing numbers from this box will pair you against your rival. Now, divide into two groups of seven." There was a mild commotion as everyone swarmed around, making sure to be in the same teams as their friends.

"There's no point in being in the same teams as your friends," Tabitha criticized, "even if you DON'T fight them now, you'll fight them eventually if you pass the test." I knew she was right, but I couldn't help but sigh in relief when I located Nagini in the midst of my small group.

When everyone settled down, Tabitha and a male assistant split up with identical boxes to opposite groups. The assistant held out the box to Nagini, who drew a piece of paper and winked at the assistant, who was about five years older. Unfortunately for Nagini, the assistant decided to ignore her. I choked down a laugh as I picked a number next. 5. I looked at Tabitha, who had begun to appoint 'corners'.

"Ones to the top left corner..." Zoe hopped down from my arms and turned into her usual sapphire-winged-wolf shape. "Threes go to the lower right corner..." I gave Zoe the usual pep talk she usually gave ME. "Fives go to the center and to the right..." I walked towards my battle area. There were butterflies in my stomach, but I swallowed them down.

My opponent was the brunette that I had seen with Nagini earlier today; she greeted me with a nervous look.

"So you're, like, my opponent?"

"Umm... yeah..."

"Like, my name's Caroline? And you're, like, Kilany?"

"Kigali" I snapped unenthusiastically.

"Ok, like, whatever, but your spirit totally don't have a chance against, like, my spirit?" she said, or rather, questioned. Caroline was an uptalker; even her declarative statements came out as questions.

"Ok, whatever." I replied as Zoe moved to the middle of our arena. Caroline looked at her edgily and clapped her hand three times. A blue light materialized a few yards away from Zoe, and then turned into a beautiful mermaid with blue hair and lilac eyes. She looked at Zoe and tilted her head, studying her. Zoe did the same.

"You may start fighting at my whistle!" yelled Tabitha from across the arena. She then put two fingers between her teeth and blew hard, creating a thrill whistle loud enough for the whole field to hear.

Zoe didn't wait for air-headed Caroline to make the first move; she shot up into the air and dived at the mermaid, teeth bared. The mermaid was startled by Zoe's sudden movement and froze in place, as confused as her shaman partner. Zoe tackled the mermaid full force, which flew backwards, hitting the ground with a dull thud. But she wasn't going to lose easily, she sat up and a trident appeared in her hand. Her eyes glowed violet-blue, and a kind of white lightning blazed out of the trident and missed Zoe by about an inch. It hit the floor with a loud cackle and there was suddenly a mountain of ice where it had hit.

"Zoe!" I screamed at her.

"What?" she replied, her voice an octave higher.

"Use Mist! Decrease her vision!" Zoe smiled and spread her wings. Her body glowed white and a thick fog enveloped our arena as well as some neighboring ones.

"Zoe! Go into your human shape! It'll be easier to beat her!" I felt Zoe's now-familiar aura change slightly into a human one. The fog lit up with flashes of the mermaid's ice-lightning attacks. I heard Zoe move. I heard her breathe. I heard her dodge. I suddenly knew what to do. I closed my eyes and concentrated in Zoe's aura, images started flashing in front of my eyes, even though they were closed. Dodge.... Flash of lightning... Ice mass in front of me, by me, and behind me... Then it came to me. I was seeing what Zoe was seeing. Our bond had kicked up a notch. I smiled as the images became more fluent, and then I figured out a plan.

"Zoe? Listen!"

"I'm all ears," she panted from inside the haze.

"Make a mirror out of Ice! Make it shine to reflect the attacks back to the mermaid!"

"I'm on it!" I saw her hands extend in front my vision-line as if they were mine, and begin to glow blue. A pane of ice spread out in front of Zoe, then her hands glowed silver, and a silver coating was added to the ice pane. She kneeled down just as a blow hit the mirror. It worked to perfection. Because the mermaid's attacks were beam-like, they could be reflected. Everything went quiet and my vision went back to normal. I opened my eyes just as Zoe withdrew the mist. The mermaid laid frozen inside a large pile of solid ice, her mouth open in surprise.

Caroline took the loss as I had expected. She ran up to the mermaid, crying, and extended her hand over the ice. Then she turned to Zoe and me in fierce anger and started asking insults.

"Look, you lost, get over it." I turned my back at the enraged Caroline and put my arm around Zoe's shoulders.

"That was a once-in-a-lifetime performance," I hooted happily. "We passed the second test!" She was about to answer when Tabitha sent a series of blue fireworks flying from her index finger. Everyone went silent.

"Please gather around here!" She yelled, when everyone collected she went on, "There should be seven winners, those of you who lost please go back to the Kovu Village and gather your belongings. You did well to make it this far." She waited until the losers, including a sobbing Caroline, left the arena to go on. "Those of you who won, I grant you my congratulations..." Her eyes flickered on Zoe and I for about a second. "We will meet tomorrow in the center of the Kovu Village at sunrise. No later. Be on time. Now go and get a good night's rest. Believe me, you WILL need it." She turned around to talk to one of her helpers. I turned to Zoe, now her usual winged wolf and sighed.

"C'mon Zoe, you've earned your rest, we'll walk back."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

We got back to the village much later than the other girls who had used Oversoul to get back, so we weren't surprised when we saw that most of the tents in the heart of the village had been dismantled. There were now seven left.

"At least we won't have to share our tent with that Nagini psycho!" said Zoe brightly as we headed back to a new tent (we were sure that Nagini would want to keep the old one). I took one of the towels that the village people had set up for us and headed towards the door for a much-needed bath when a raven swooped in, followed by none other than my aunt.

Zoe yelped and backed away a few feet, remembering quite a few unwanted memories. Tabitha shot her a look and a smile flickered across her face, but was gone as soon as it had come. She turned to me and took out a package from a knapsack she was wearing.

"This is for you." I took the package hesitantly, and Zoe climbed on my shoulder, fear forgotten, giving way to curiosity. I opened it carefully, looked inside, and then gasped in delight. Inside was a blue cloak/cape with a pair of dark blue jeans that had distinctive markings on the hem, which matched a beautiful blue headband. Looking closer, I also found two Egyptian-like silver armlets and a silver ring, which had the same pattern as the headband. The cloak had a hood with white fur around it. I looked up at Tabitha uncertainly.

"What? Just because I can't give you unjust treatment in the tests doesn't mean I can't spoil you a bit, after all, I AM your aunt. Besides, the clothes you're wearing now are dirty."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed. She smiled.

"Don't forget this." She said as she handed me a fancy pocketknife. It had an ivory handle with markings carved on it by hand. "Might be useful for tomorrow. One more thing, the markings on the ring, the jeans, the knife, and the headband are the markings for the Kovu tribe, so wear them proudly."

She turned around and left the tent. I looked at Zoe, who was in her human form, fingering the armlets with in pure fascination. I laughed.

"C'mon Zoe, let's go take a soak." I undressed and wrapped myself in the towel, then walked out the tent, heading for the hot springs. 'Here in the north', Pilika had told me, 'the water's too cold to take normal baths, and since there's no plumbing, we use hot springs. I heard the Volkan tribe has the best ones because of the active volcanoes in the area'. I looked around, searching for the cabin that led to the hot springs.

"There." Pointed Zoe. I followed her finger. There was a cabin that had several towels hanging from a rail. I started walking towards it when someone grabbed my arm. I whirled around to find a sneering Nagini clutching my bicep.

"What do YOU want?" I snapped at her.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be packing?" I jerked my arm out of her hold.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I passed the test. Your little friend was almost too easy to beat, so scram." Nagini paled and backed a few steps.

"What??? YOU beat Caroline???"

"Yes." I answered plainly. Her face went from shocked to angry.

"That's a lie! Caroline was the best shaman in my village after me!" She shrieked.

"Well then, I guess you better watch your step Nagini, who knows? I might beat YOU next." She dismissed my remark with a laugh.

"Dream on! Tomorrow, you go down." She spun around and stomped away, nose in the air. I rolled my eyes at her retreating back and went in the cabin. All thoughts of Nagini were wiped out as I glanced at the hot springs. There were several natural outdoor pools with warm, steaming water. Zoe immediately jumped in the water and shapeshifted into a mermaid that looked very much like her human form. I slipped in the water and sighed.

"Geez! One would think you are an old woman." Zoe said as she grabbed the small bottle of shampoo from a nearby basket.

"Well— its— been— a— long— day!" I said while I tried to grab the shampoo from a hogging Zoe. "Zoe! Give me the..." but I didn't finish because a nearby conversation had caught my attention.

"...Yea, the third test is going to be one of the longest yet!" I looked around to find the speaker and located a green-haired girl and another with navy hair talking nearby. I casually sunk up to my nose in the water.

"Those must be some of the finalists," whispered Zoe. I nodded silently.

"...of course, there will be only two winners in that one. It will narrow it down quite a bit don't you think, Crystal?" the green-haired girl asked her friend.

"We might make it Jade! But it WILL be hard. I heard that it will take place in the Quaff Mountain. It's the highest mountain in the land, but it has so many spirits, that most humans can't even see it!" whispered Crystal so quietly that I had to lean a bit to hear. Jade bit her lip.

"In the Quaff Mountain?" She asked, frowning. "That's sort of dangerous, I wonder what we'll do there..."

"Well, I heard that it will be some sort of quest."

"Oh well, we'll just have to find out tomorrow..." I stopped eavesdropping and turned towards Zoe.

"What do you think?" She asked

"We'll make it." I sighed as I got out of the bath.

We headed back to our tent and I changed into my old clothes, not wanting to ruin the new ones in my sleep. Zoe shape changed into her usual form, except now she was a little winged blue puppy, about the size of a teddy bear. She yawned and dug out the covers of my bed... if you could call it that. It was like a mat on the floor with colorful and patterned covers. I guess that was the tradition here. I shrugged and got in the bed, pushing Zoe in the process, who rolled over and whimpered. I laughed and covered myself with the covers. Zoe curled up against me.

"Hey Zoe?"

"Hm?"

"Tomorrow, wake me up before sunrise so I don't oversleep. Ok?" She snored in response. I closed my eyes and fell into a light sleep.

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Lady Dragonfly- So that's it for now! Hope you guys enjoyed it! I hope you're not getting too impatient on Kigali's... err... chibiness, but she'll grow! PROMISE!

Chibi Kigali- HEY! I'm NOT chibi!

Lady Dragonfly- If you have some spare time, you can always review my story. Remember: it takes less than a minute of your time and it makes my day!

Zoe- Please get a hobby.

Lady Dragonfly- Tune in next time on...

Everyone- TWILIGHT'S SONG!

Next chapter- The Legend of Quaff Mountain