Raw

It was Raw son of Rawl's ninth annual and he had ran away from the wild boar hunt. His father pulled him impatiently by the hand.

"I don't understand it. How can anyone with the totem and spirit of the lion be so afraid all the time," Rawl huffed.

There were all sorts of assumptions made by humans about the People that Feel. One was that because they spoke English like a slow five year old that they themselves were slow. That was patently untrue. In their own language they were elegant and precise in their words.

"I'm sorry father," Raw said sadly. "The boar was very big and I'm very small."

Rawl shook his head, "My son, if it were only the boars I'd understand. But it seems everything causes you to run. You run from storms, humans, bunnyburies, ducks and females."

Raw shrugged, "She was going to kiss me!"

At that his laughed aloud, "Someday you will not mind so much."

Raw's eyes opened wide with dismay when he saw whose wigwam they were headed towards and he frantically tried to pull away. "I don't want to see Shmi the shamaness!"

Rawl ignored this outburst. "You will see her. I can't seem to help you. Oh, my son you cannot go through life afraid. A life lived in fear is a life half lived." Without another word he pushed his son into the wigwam to face the shamaness alone.

Shmi was old. Her fur was white and her eyes nearly blind and yet she seemed to see right through the young male. "Come closer Raw."

Trembling he went forward. Running would only make it worse. Stiffly he sat in front of her cross-legged.

Shmi regarded the boy silently before pulling out a small pouch whose contents she emptied into one hand. Between shamaness and child there was a loose circle of rocks into this circle she threw the pouches contents, polished bones and glittering rocks that made strange patterns in the firelight.

She let out a sharp hiss, "Look up. Of all the things you fear, truth has never been one of them.

Hesitantly, Raw looked up.

"Child, I have peered into the future many times and I am rarely surprised. You have a touch of destiny about you."

Raw blinked in astonishment.

Shimi smiled grimly, "The land of the two suns will know darkness and the missing one who died once at beloved hands will return before you know yourself and find your own courage."

"But what does that mean," The Child wondered.

"Only time will tell."

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived." is from the Strictly Ballroom.

Shmi is also the name of Anakin Skywalker's mother.

"You have a touch of destiny about you." Is from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Glitch

Ambrose Regent smiled weakly at his great aunt. Aunt Morella had a reputation. Besides being a scandal as a young woman she was also given to premonitions. And she wanted to tell him his future.

It wasn't that Ambrose didn't believe in things like premonitions, in the O.Z. a world saturated with magic; it would be foolish to dismiss such things out of hand. It was just that Ambrose was very aware of his own dignity and Aunt Morella delighted in spraining people's poise.

It did not help that this was his graduation party. He had just graduated with top honors in Science from Shiz University. Ambrose wasn't looking forward to being humiliated in front of all his friends and family. Again.

So he did his best to avoid his most flamboyant relative.

Ambrose was a pale boy of about twenty who stood as straight as a poker and dressed like...a really rich science geek. He thought entirely too much of the opinions of others.

Morella nearly caught him at the refreshment table but he reluctantly started a conversation with Alchemist Grey, a man who Morella absolutely despised. This would keep her off his scent for a little while.

But alas it was only a stop gap effort. She cornered him behind a potted plant.

"Hello, Aunt Morella."

"Hello, Ambrose. Have you avoided me enough? I only enjoy humiliating people I don't like and you don't fall into that category." Morella was beautiful as girl and now a woman of a certain age she had faded to simply handsome but that did nothing to soften the intimidation factor.

"Sorry, Aunt Morella."

Morella sat on a low settee and patted the spot next to her. Obediently, Ambrose joined her.

"You're apprehensive." This wasn't a question.

Ambrose shrugged, "I'm not sure that I want to know my future. The present seems daunting enough."

Morella shrugged, "That may very well be; however, this is important."

Ambrose squirmed under her sharp gaze.

"I'm afraid that this won't make such sense until after the fact." Morella bit her lip. The boy needed both a warning and encouragement... "You will give up what you value most for loyalties sake. Only after that will you find wisdom and your soul's rhythm. You will wander alone for a long time until you meet the first slipper's inheritor. You'll help bring back the light."

"Why are all prophesies so cryptic?" Ambrose wondered.

Morella laughed, "I suppose the universe supplies with only as much knowledge as we can take in without our heads exploding." She smiled at her dear boy, "I don't suppose you'd want to cut a rug with an embarrassing old relation?"

Ambrose stood and bowed with a flourish, "Shall we dance?"

Morella was a Centauri psychic on Babylon 5.

Shiz is a city and university from Wicked.

Wyatt Cain

"He's nuts," was the judgment of first year cadet Lonnie Zero.

Wyatt Cain smiled lazily into his coffee mug, "Who's nuts? The Mystic Man?"

The two cadets were assigned to shadow the wizard's protection detail. Cain didn't know the other cadet that well only that Zero had a reputation for bad decisions.

"Yeah, the geezers restoring some old machine that's supposed to tell the future." Zero rubbed a sweaty palm over his pants. "If he tells you to put your hand on it—don't. It bit me."

Cain pushed his hat back a fraction, "Well, what did it say?"

Zero shrugged uncomfortably, "According to the machine, 'my ambition will always exceed my grasp.'"

"That sounds a mite worrying," Cain said looking at the other cadet with concern. The Mystic Man was rarely wrong about anything and so ignoring his admonitions wasn't smart.

Zero kicked at a rock, "I think we're here so he can test us for something."

"Testing us… For what?"

Zero was about to answer when the magician's lovely assistant Xia popped a head out the door. "Cadet Cain."

Cain stood and removed his hat, "Yes."

"He'll see you now," Xia said with smile.

The Mystic Man's apartment looked like what would happen if a magic shop and a laboratory exploded. Musty books with titles written in ancient hieroglyphics shared space with odd looking contraptions.

Wyatt found the old man in the kitchen fussing over what appeared to be a gigantic paperweight made out of a half-melted jumble of large crystals. The wizard would wave different wands over portions of the…thing which would light up in an eye watering array of colors.

"What we need here is maybe something a little more sonic. Cadet hand me the silver wand with the blue crystal on the tip," the wizard commanded.

Cain obligingly poked about in a messy tool box filled with wands of all descriptions. "Is this the one you want?"

The Mystic Man nodded absently, "Just the one." He tapped a small cloudy crystal and grinned as it lit up green. "Yes!" He smiled winningly at Cain. "Alas, I can't take all the credit…I got the idea for a sonic wand from a most remarkable physician."

"Now, would you put your hand over the flat part if you please?"

Cain slapped a palm over the crystal and flinched when he felt a sharp pinch. The crystal flared to life glowing with a confusing tangle of colors. "Umm. Sir, is it supposed to do that?"

The Mystic Man gaped at the pulsating lights. "You will live two lives, Tin Man," the wizard interpreted haltingly. "And have two loves. Your first life will be of your own choosing as will the love of that life. The love of your second life will not be of your choosing for you will love like you breathe. A friend will betray you and you'll sleep in hell until your prison is opened by the last hope. Straw and fur will help you. Protect the girl, Tin Man. She's the key. You must promise…" He trailed off and his face turned pale.

Cain felt light headed as the colors danced hypnotically.

The Mystic Man gently pulled Cain's hand away from the crystal. "Why don't you sit down and I'll pour you a glass of something fortifying."

Cain sat heavily into a chair and gingerly sipped at the whiskey the wizard provided, "What the hell was that?!"

The Mystic Man sighed, "Nothing you need to worry about—right now. The future will take care of itself."

The most remarkable physician with a love of things sonic is of course, The Doctor.

Straw is a reference to the scarecrow, fur to the cowardly lion.

DG

Three thirteen year olds with unlikely names stood in front of the fortuneteller tent on a muggy late summer day in Kansas.

The boy was named Zeb Hugson and he had a mop of straw blond hair that flopped into gray eyes. "A fortuneteller, do you really believe that hokum?"

A girl with perpetually surprised blue eyes laughed at him, "Did you just say hokum?" Her name was DG Gale. Yes, just those two letters and nothing more. She didn't even know if they stood for something. For all she knew her mom could've just liked the sound of it.

"I didn't say that!" Zeb said quickly knowing that his friends would never let such an opportunity to tease pass them by.

"It's your mom," DG said absently pulling at her hair.

The third of the trio was Mulan Goldblum, a girl whose mixed heritage perpetually drove her crazy. She was tiny with brown slanted eyes and a distinctive nose. "What? The phones not ringing…" The tinny notes of 'Momma said' sprang from her cell phone.

"How do you do that?" Zeb asked in bewilderment as Mulan negotiated for a few more hours.

"Do what?" DG asked blinking at the late summer sun.

Zeb sighed. He suspected DG didn't know how she did things. And she always disregarded them when they happened.

Mulan popped the phone back into her jacket pocket. "I have two hours of fun left. So can we get this show on the road?" With that she went into the tent.

DG slipped in after Zeb.

The tent was bare save for a few chairs in front of the round table that was covered by red linen cloth. A crystal ball sat next to a deck of cards. The fortuneteller was a young black woman with an impressive array of braids and dark liquid eyes. "Come in children. Noting to be afraid of," her accent was Jamaican. "You can call me Tia Nyssa."

Mulan sat down in front of the woman and dropped a five dollar bill down.

"Confidant are we? Tia Nyssa murmured. She looked at Mulan's palm, "Ahh. So you have da right to such confidence. Listen, little daughter of China and Israel, you will not know boundaries and your touch will 'elp who ever you meet."

This satisfied Mulan who made way for Zeb who as always looked skeptical.

"You will ever be loved," Tia Nyssa smiled sadly at the boy.

"That's all I get?" Zeb said wonderingly. He didn't think it was worth five dollars.

"You get a lifetime. That's all anyone ever gets." The fortuneteller said cryptically.

Next was DG who held out an expectant hand.

Tia Nyssa peered at DG's palm with disbelief that was followed with resignation. "So much sorrow for someone so young. Pain rooted deep." Nyssa bowed her head in respect, "I know you princess. You traveled far and still have so far left to go…Not all that wonder are lost eh?"

DG pulled her hand from the Jamaicans. Her heart was beating like a drum. "That's enough." She stood and made for the tent flap.

"Two little princesses dancing in a row . . . spinning fast and freely on their little toes. . . . Where the light will take them, no one ever knows. . . . Two little princesses dancing in a row. . ." Sang the fortuneteller sadly.

DG came to a halt as her mind was assaulted by images of a cave and a spinning doll. "Stop," she whispered as fear and shame and sorrow filled her chest.

Tia Nyssa shrugged, "When you take da old road, trust to straw, trust to fur, and especially trust to tin. And remember don't let go."

DG nodded and stumbled out into the light of day.

'Not all who wonder are lost,' is from the LOTR in reference to Aragorn.

Zeb Hugson would die a year later from leukemia.

'You get a lifetime. That's all anyone ever gets,' is a quotation from Death of the Endless.

Dr. Mulan Goldblum would eventually join Doctors without Boarders.

And as for DG…