Elemental Awakening

Chapter One

The room was full. The meeting hall usually had people milling around in it, but today was different the cavern walls were pressed to contain the mob. It was much like standing on the inside of an egg in the domed and smoothed cavern walls of the meeting hall the tribe was about to receive news that could never be predicted. One of the elementals arrived, twenty years early, but was here none the less. Now the shaman an older grandmotherly figure with a shock of white hair and a perpetually annoyed scowl on her thin face had been consulted as was right for events like these. The room grew heavy as the shaman draped in her ceremonial robes dropped into her monologue.

“The rest will come soon; the time is short, hurry.” The shaman’s voice reverberated around the painted walls of the meeting hall, as the bowl of summoning a permanent fixture in the meeting hall filled with water this time, sitting in the front of her at the dais on the north wall of the hall began to swirl and glow. “Take the stones, take care, and prepare for the unexpected.” The swirling waters bubbled and boiled glowing brighter until it was uncomfortable to look directly into, then stilled and the glow separated into three stones each inscribed with the symbols for earth, air, and fire. Three people reached into the water and withdrew a stone each. The shaman’s trance ended and the three stone holders began to leave to make preparations. The shaman spoke once more, interrupting their move to exit. “You must be quick; you are the elementals’ guides. They will enter the world much as the water elemental did. And they will be young as well. I doubt that any of them are experienced with their powers, so take care not to scare them.”  

The shaman took note of all the people that were to be elemental guides. The first to take a stone was the shaman’s own granddaughter and apprentice, Dankiyet held the fire stone. Talon the grandson of Ghostwalker the blacksmith and betrothed to Dankiyet’s sister Lamasuli held the stone of air. Mazy the daughter of two of the finest warriors in the compound was chosen by the earth stone.  

The three guides took a moment each to speak with the shaman so that they could make note of her advice. Everyone knew the histories; the tribe members are taught at a very early age that there are two worlds. The world they lived in which they believed to be the waking world and a second world that is the dream world, the world that the elementals are from. The elementals have arrived in the waking world every one hundred years for countless cycles, when the red moon eclipsed the sun. This time they are twenty years early. And this is the first cycle in recorded histories that the blue moon would eclipse the sun.

Dankiyet approached her grandmother. “Grandmother, I’m going to take my mother with me for the journey.”

The shaman winced. “She has already helped Lamasuli guide one elemental to the cactus paw, are you sure that you want her to help you? Dankiyet, she has duties here at the village as the Bintain, She is a very important member of the council as the warrior leader. Why both you and your sister were chosen is going to keep our family run into the ground.”

“I know, with Talon to add to the mix. And I know she just got back, but she wasn’t on the warrior trail training the new house captains for more than a week before she was interrupted, and her grandmother was a fire elemental. I grabbed the fire tracking stone.” Dankiyet elaborated knowing that her sister was now going to have her hands full being a guide for the water elemental and becoming one of her mother’s second in command for the warrior house. “It was the only one that I saw in the summoning bowl.”

“Yes then Avensong, would be the only choice for this expedition. Quickly, prepare, it’s going to be a long journey.”

“I’ll be leaving now then, my love be with you, Grandmother.” Dankiyet quickly ducked out of the chamber and headed to her hive house.

The room still milled with people from the revelations, one more approached the shaman. “Ashfoot, I need a word with you before my grandson leaves.” Ghostwalker a quiet but broad man with heavy shoulders from swinging a black smith’s hammer for nearly forty years waited for her response.

“Yes of course old friend, what do you need?” she looked at his hard face and realized that Talon would look much like him when he aged more. Talon’s black heir was only a little lighter than Ghostwalker’s raven hair, but his amber eyes matched exactly.

“Why was Talon chosen? I mean, now he has this quest and won’t be able to finish his training as our black smith. What is the village going to do without a blacksmith?”

“Ghostwalker, Talon was never a true blacksmith, he’s a weapon smith. Did you see him make any farm tools or pots? He only ever made daggers. The council was already talking about possibly training two or three more young people for blacksmith, just in case one or more of them turned out to be drawn to the war trade themselves.”

The expression on Ghostwalker’s face changed to surprise. “Oh, I see, that is strange.” The world was changing fast if the tribal council was thinking the forge would need this many bodies.

“You have your work cut out for you. You are going to be in charge of training quite a few people.” Ashfoot released Ghostwalker, “You need to work with the council and go to the school to find those interested in the forge. Tariel was going to talk to you today about this.”

“The council lead? This is serious, but I will take your advice of course Ashfoot.” Ghostwalker then left to find the council leader and some new apprentices.

The shaman had no time between visitors in the great meeting hall, though all the people in there made sure to be polite and approach her in an orderly fashion. Ashfoot knew that this was all in her duty as the village shaman, and that there would be little rest in the coming months as the waking world prepared itself for battle. She did not know what was coming to the waking world but she knew that the blue moon seemed to be the root of it. But how do you stop a moon? She could feel the malignant energies collecting and noticed that the insects seemed to be missing from the farm in the volcano basin that the Cactus Paw people made home. Whatever was about to happen it was going to be big. And the histories of man had no knowledge of what it could be. This little fact worried Ashfoot the most.

Mazy was a young girl who has yet to choose a profession to train in and the last to be chosen by the stones. She was still too young to make the journey by herself so her parents are leaving with her. Mazy’s birth was one of question, it was the only birth, besides the children that Ashfoot herself had, which she had attended. Generally a midwife attends women whom are with child, but the pregnancy was unusual. All the midwives and in the tribe and Ashfoot herself felt the energies of two souls growing in Mazy’s mother, but only one child passed into the world. “Mazy, you were chosen for the earth stone for a reason. Take care and pray that this will answer many of your family’s questions.” Ashfoot said as she was attempting to leave the council hall.

“Yes shaman, I will be vigilant.” Mazy replied and followed her out, her parents trailing behind both.

All of the elemental guides made their preparations to make their journeys and thought back on the event that spawned all of their careful work and mixed feelings.  None of them were present but the details were related to all by the water elemental and her guide.

…

It had not rained in the last fifty years since the last water elemental had died, but this night the rain came down in torrents. Lamasuli and her mother Avensong were out on a warrior promotion quest. This wasn’t Lamasuli’s first night out of the village complex with a spear since her warrior initiation quest. She and two other women were carrying spears that night on their ways to becoming house captains in the warrior house. Two of the last three just retired when the third Avensong was voted in as the Bintain of the warrior house, both the leader of all the warrior house and the member of the council.

Lamasuli used her long legs and strong arms to her advantage when negotiating obstacles. Her shorter hair, that normally laid in soft honey colored layers stood out in hard dark brown spikes from the mud and dirt she applied to blend in to the naturally craggy rock formations. Her dark green eyes peered out from under heavy lashes and the mud applied to her fair face. She had her father Magrotin to thank for her complexion. She wished that she had her mother’s copper tones, then she wouldn’t have to paint the camouflage so thick. Her nose was tuned up and had been broken more than once in a brawl in the warrior house coming up through the ranks. Her cheeks were high and sharp like her mothers, not the only trait she inherited from her. Her long lean build and eye color she thanked Avensong for as well.   

Avensong watched her daughter with guarded pride from her crouched position on a rock formation above and behind the three prospective captains. She knew that they were young for captains and was more critical of them for this fact. She flexed her shoulders and shrugged under her leather hood that helped her blend into the ground when looking down from a higher perspective. This helped with more than one predator in the Abysmal Plane. Her long legs were tucked under her wider hips as she crouched on the out cropping. She rested her spear across her toned thighs and flexed her back to release tension. She was getting older, and was counting on these three young women to pass so that she could relax in her role as Bintain.

As Lamasuli climbed a ridge to progress to her next warrior test the rain began to pick up. Lamasuli felt as though she was sitting under a waterfall like the ones in the caverns below her village that held all the drinking water for the tribe. Just at the rain’s peak in intensity a person fell into Lamasuli. The body tumbled Lamasuli down the mountainside and into the rest of the training party. The increase in water created a mudslide and all the girls, and the mysterious person were washed down the mountain side. The mystery person obviously a girl by the high pitched screaming clung to Lamasuli and gave her no option but to tumble down the mountain creating a larger landslide that enveloped the entire party. As everyone careened into the base of a cliff the rain slowed to a patter, and then stopped altogether. Avensong ran down from her perch then pulled one of the trainees to her feet. “Are you Okay Parespine?”

“Yes Avensong, I think so.” Parespine, replied. She was Talon’s aunt and Ghostwalker’s youngest daughter and made the entire family proud for her selection as one of the new captains.  

 “Good, check Lamasuli, and Telepinu, I’m going to see who our guest is.”

“Yes Bintain.” Parespine replied to the warrior leader of the council, and began to tend to her friends and sisters in arms.

Avensong noticed that the mystery person was a young woman herself, not much older than a girl. She was wearing a scrap of clothing made of a material that no one has ever seen in their lives. The woman had wavy hair as black as midnight with almond shaped eyes and a short straight nose, her mouth was narrow and her lips were a dark pink like a fresh flower bud in spring. It was hard to tell what her complexion was in the night but Avensong guessed that it was just as dark as her own copper tones. “Oh my! She’s an elemental.”

Lamasuli had gotten up at this time and responded. “What? That’s impossible! It’s not even the end of the cycle yet.”

“Well, have you ever seen clothes like these?” Avensong quipped back.

“If you can even call that clothing.” Telepinu offered her input. She was sarcastic by nature, and loved joking even in the worst of situation, but it did bring comfort that she was always able to find the lighter side of a situation. She would use her long frame for her physical comedy, she never thought that she was pretty with her larger nose and wider eyes and hid her self-consciousness behind her humor.

Parespine furrowed her delicate eyebrows and added. “Suli is right Avensong it’s about twenty turns early in the cycle for an elemental to wake.” She chewed her lip afraid to say more knowing that she was training with her prospective new boss.

“Child, if you think that I’m so old that I have forgotten my first lessons then you will be sorely mistaken! Do not argue, help me get this young one to her feet and clothed in something to keep her warm.” Avensong made preparations to get the water elemental comfortable. She regained consciousness as Avensong was wrapping her in a blanket. “For a promotion quest you three are really being tested.”

“What happened? Who are you?” The elemental was definitely disoriented. She began to thrash and crabwalk back to get away from Avensong.

“Shhh, you woke really early elemental, we weren’t expecting you for quite a while. This is Telepinu, Parespine and my daughter Lamasuli, my House captains. And I am Avensong, their Bintain; the warrior leader. You are safe with the Cactus Paw.” Avensong tried to calm the elemental. At this time one of the other women had struck a fire.

“Oh, my head hurts!” the elemental said as she grabbed her head.

“Yes, I’m sure it would, you slammed into that cliff pretty hard.” Lamasuli gestured at the cliff, and the water elemental looked in the direction. “What is your name?”

“Hmmm, oh it’s Wendy.” She responded slowly taking in her surroundings. It was night, that was clear, and she was not near the ocean that she was dressed for. Her blue speedo bathing suit wasn’t going to protect her from this dessert environment at all. Wendy was already scratched from head to toe from tumbling down the side of a mountain full of thorny bushes and cacti.

“Here drink this; your head will ease its pain shortly.” Parespine handed Wendy a mug with a steamy liquid in it. “We’ll salve your scratches after that, then you can change into something more suited to the waking world.”

“Oh thank you. What is it?” Wendy sniffed at the liquid it smelled sweet, and gingerly lifted the cup to her mouth.

“It’s leach flower tea.” Parespine answered before Wendy had taken her first sip.

“It’s what? I’m drinking leaches?” Wendy shrieked and nearly dropped the mug holding it as far from her face as possible.

“No, no, it’s a flower that can heal you.” Telepinu interjected, reaching for the mug to steady it, they may have just gone through a rainstorm, but the water you save is the water you earn.

“Yes it’s just a flower, it makes you feel better, and can heal you.” Parespine added.

“…Okay, then I’ll try it.” Wendy sipped slowly as if the tea would jump out of the cup to bite her. Her face changed from hidden disgust too pleased as the first drops hit her tongue, Wendy related her surprise at the sweet flavor that she found in the unexpected tea. “It’s good!”

“Yes that’s why we have to hide the flowers from children, it can make your belly hurt if you have too much. Ha ha ha.” Telepinu guffawed, and Wendy smiled in response.

Wendy finished her tea then dried her long black hair, and wrapped in the blanket, then finally laid down on the pallet that Lamasuli had prepared for her. She had changed into a set of clothing that belonged to Parespine, as she was the closest to her size. Wendy fought sleep, unwilling to lose even that little bit of control in this new and feral land. She thought that if she fell asleep that she might not wake again, she felt that if she could wake here who’s to say that she won’t wake somewhere even stranger.

 Wendy sat at the front of her grandparents sail boat smelling the salt air, and feeling the cool breeze on her face as her grandfather steered the boat around a cape on the California coast. Wendy smiled at her grandmother as she brought her a cool drink to enjoy in the bright sunlight. Wendy always loved these trips with her grandparents. The school year always made Wendy feel cramped and so alone that she couldn’t see her ocean. When she lived with her parents in Colorado and so isolated from the ocean, she was always sick, and very tired. But here, here on this boat with her favorite people she felt alive. She felt free, like she could talk to the water, but something kept the conversation just out of earshot.

She missed her parents, but it had been two years since they died in a car accident. Wendy was at a point that the grieving was over, she was ready to move on and start her life as an adult. She had no brothers or sisters, and her friends were little more than just familiar faces at school, she wouldn’t be leaving anyone when she left for college. She was content in her solitude, the water was always her friend. The waves would lull her to sleep and leave her feeling refreshed after a morning of swimming. She always found something new on these boat trips. Last year as a distraction her grandparents bought her scuba lessons, and she loved diving in the secluded cove that her family had found when her mother was little.

As the day wore on the sky grew laden with thick grey clouds. Wendy was never afraid of storms even out on the boat in open water so exposed. But this storm was different. The thunderhead boiling in the sky spoke to Wendy, and she didn’t like what it had to say. She heard whispers, she heard the plans of the ocean, and she heard the storm telling her of a new life. One in which she would bring water to a scorched world, and she calmed.

The storm grew more intense, her grandfather pulled the sail boat closer to the shore, but this part of the coast was unknown to her family. The boat shook. Her grandfather had run the boat onto a reef. The storm began to whip the waves higher; the deck was taking on water. The vessel began to rock from side to side, as the never ceasing waves slapped at the weakening hull. The boat gave a final ominous shudder and began to tip. It leaned dangerously to one side, to the point of capsizing. Finally with the aid of one enormous wave the last bit of resistance was given up, the fight to stay afloat was lost and all went under the murky water.

Wendy lost sight of her grandparents as she fell into the water. She was dragged under the surface by some force, some power stronger than her. Panicked and helpless she sank to the bottom. She caught sight of her grandparents once more as her breath began to run out. They looked serene, like they had just fallen asleep, once more Wendy felt alone. She just wanted to go home; she wished and hoped that she could just go home. The image that was in her head wasn’t that of the house that she grew up in, or that of her grandparents that she now lived in on the beach. It was a breathtaking vista of dry earth. It was an open horizon with sky for miles. The image in her head was so alien, so unlike anything that she ever enjoyed, no water nothing to even hint that there would be water. Wendy felt weak, but she held onto her picture. She could feel something churning in the water. She felt a tug, then a more intense pull, then she felt like she was falling through open air and she could breathe again.

Wendy woke up with the sensation of landing on Lamasuli fresh in her memory and the feel in her body. Wendy knew exactly where she was, she could not tell or understand why she knew, but for some strange reason she knew this place and its people from somewhere in her unconscious. She was home and she needed to get to the tribe. The sun was at its zenith, the highest point in the sky, for Wendy it was past time to get moving. Wendy started to move to wake the rest of the members of her little group but didn’t need to wake Avensong as it was time for her watch over the camp. “Come on we need to go.” Wendy began to pace, and tug the other sleeper’s blankets down.

“No, no, the sun is too high. Leave them be they need to sleep.” Avensong tried to curb Wendy’s eagerness to be on their way.

“No we need to go now! I feel like we need to be moving. We need to go…” Wendy paused then looked to the North West. “We need to go that way!” she pointed over the next mountain ridge.

“Yes, that is where we are going tonight. We still have a long journey to get you back to the village, and you need rest. You should go back to sleep for now.” Avensong still insisted on getting Wendy back to her bedroll and tucked back under the shade of the overhang that the cliff provided.

“We need to leave now. It feels like my skin is crawling here. I just need to get moving, and we need to get there…”Wendy didn’t know exactly where or what there was; but she knew in her innermost self that she needed to get there. One word shimmered in her mind. Home.

“Wendy we can’t leave until the sun has set. It is far too hot and bright for a new comer to be able to make the journey in full day, and at the sun’s throne no less!” Avensong gestured to Parespine to rest and go back to sleep, as she was rousing with their conversation and Wendy’s previous attempts to wake her.

“It’s okay, I can shade us! I promise I won’t slow us down, we just have to keep moving.” Wendy was growing restless. Why did she say that? She wondered to herself.

“Well let’s see it. How are you going to shade us?” Avensong stood and placed her hands firmly on her hips, knowing that she would have power soon, if she didn’t already. Her own grandmother was an elemental, she was able to burn everything to the ground if need be. Avensong herself was able to change her body temperature to protect herself from freezing or overheating. It wasn’t common that the children of an elemental had any kind of power, but she had enough.

Wendy paused. “I uh, I don’t know.” In Wendy’s attempts to rally everyone into action she didn’t think about how she was going to shade everyone in the group, “…but I thought I knew. I just had it in my mind.” She was frustrated. “I know how. I can shade us.” Wendy felt a growing force. This force was inside her. She could feel the moister in what appeared to be dry ground.

“Wendy, you are very tired from your transition. You need to get some sleep, please, take your rest.”

Wendy knew she could do this. It was simple, but something was in the way. Like a conversation in the next room. Why can’t she do it? And what is she trying to do? It’s not like she can call clouds. Can she? “I KNOW IT!” she exclaimed. “I know how to shade us.”

“Fine. Try this one time. If you can then I will wake the others.” Avensong was in no mood to be argued with, even if it was an elemental. She did however want to know what this woman was capable of. She patiently stood and waited for Wendy to gather herself, but was unsure that this untried elemental was ready yet.

Wendy stood, and tried to concentrate on the water that she could feel in the earth. The residue from the mudslide from the night before; that would have enough. She felt the water there without having to touch the dirt. She tried to tell the water with her mind to collect and make a cloud. To make a little cloud to give her some shade. Just as the water droplets began to surface at her bidding, her concentration broke and they stopped where they were.

“I guess I can’t do it.” Wendy felt miserable. She knew with everything in her that she was water, and that she should be able to command those little drops.

“It is going to take some time. You have only just awoken to our world. Give yourself a rest, and go back to sleep.” Avensong was gentle in her tone and guided Wendy back to her bedroll. “We will leave as soon a night falls, that will only be two to three shadows length away.”

“What’s a shadow length?”

“I will show you” Avensong pulled out eleven small metal rods from her travel pack and drove them into the ground in a straight line in measured distance oriented east to west. She then took note of the position of the sun; it was half way passed the zenith. “You see this longer rod in the middle of the formation?”

“Yes.”

“You see how the shadow of the middle rod is touching the second one on this side?”

“Um hum.”

“When you place the rods at this position and distance the middle rod tells you the time of day, by the sunlight.”

“Oh, it’s like a sundial!”

“I suppose. We do have one in the farm back at the village. And it is similar, but it gives shorter increments, hours. Our days are broken up in ten shadow lengths and ten candles for the night. The shadows and candles are broken into tenths as well.” Avensong concluded the lesson with the reassurances that Wendy would not miss the sunset, and that they would be setting off as soon as possible.

“Thank you Avensong.” Wendy felt better for the explanation, but she still needed to get to the village, and didn’t like the feel of the land at this point. She felt like bugs were crawling all over her. She even swatted at one imaginary insect.

As night approached the sensation of bugs started to increase. Wendy’s agitation was evident to all members of the party. As they traveled farther into the consuming night Wendy’s skin began to move with the sensation of the phantom insects. The blue moon rose on the horizon and painted an attractive picture across the landscape. Wendy began to claw at her skin trying to fight the imagined insects away.

“Gosh do you feel bugs? I feel bugs crawling all over me but I can’t see any.” Wendy stated

Parespine looked at Wendy quizzically. “No, no bugs out here at all. May haps that they like you because you are new to them.” She then laughed deeply.

“No it isn’t the season for most bugs, they should be getting ready for a long rest.” Lamasuli added.

As the night and the journey progressed the blue moon traveled across the sky closely followed by the red moon. Wendy paused in her scratching at her crawling skin long enough to notice that there were indeed two moons. “Where am I?”

“This is the Abysmal plain. The people call it the waking world. Your world, the world of the elementals is the dreaming world. For countless cycles we have hosted people from your world, because they are great and good people, with great powers.” Avensong explained.

“Will I have powers?” Wendy asked.

“Most certainly.” Avensong answered truthfully. “Most elementals were much older than you, so it is left to reason that you may gain your powers slowly.”

“Hmm, wow.” Wendy contemplated her growing powers in silence for a full candle, slowly scraping at her crawling flesh. She didn’t even notice that she was starting to draw blood. No one else noticed either as she was walking at the end of the column as they cut through the desert.

The group walked past rock formations and over dead river beds, they passed vegetation, and Wendy was introduced to the star gazer flower. Silvery white flower with six thin pointed petals. It opens only at night and glows with starlight, it may be used to mark a path, once picked the flower will dissolve in daylight. The group walked for one entire candle then stopped for a break, Wendy was new to so much cross country hiking and needed the break to rest her feet. She estimated that it was almost an hour and a half with a steady pace, it was more walking than she had done since she was a child. Wendy was built to swim not hike and her feet were paying for it.

It was at this time that the sensation of crawling insects overpowered Wendy’s system. She just couldn’t handle the feeling of her body being covered by millions of tiny scratchy bugs. She began to writhe on the ground trying to dislodge something that wasn’t there. The others in the party didn't know how to handle this but rose to the occasion. Lamasuli grabbed Wendy and held her arms down to keep her from further damaging her skin. Wendy bucked and landed a solid fist in Lamasuli’s face, a dark purple bruise began to rise on her right cheek but Lamasuli held tight. Avensong came to aid Lamasuli in restraining Wendy, and she began to scream.

“Get them OFF me.” She begged and pleaded with Avensong and Lamasuli. Her skin began to visibly move and twitch as if insects were indeed crawling under her skin. The sensation became the worst as the blue moon reached its pinnacle in the sky. “Why? Why? Just make it stop! Please?”

“Get her the leach tea! Hopefully if we sedate her the sensation will stop.” Avensong barked off orders at Telepinu and Parespine, as Lamasuli held Wendy trying to keep her from ripping every shred of skin that she had off her body. “Heavens above us her arms are a mess.

“Please? Just get them off me! They hurt, they’re biting me! They’re biting me! Oh make it stop!” Wendy wailed in her desperation to be released, but Avensong stoically held her ground and restrained the seemingly mad girl. Telepinu administered the leach flower tea as Wendy fought on. Eventually Telepinu got enough of the tea down Wendy’s throat to ease the sensation and make her very sleepy. Wendy fought and tried to choke every sip back.

“We rest for now, take this time to refresh what you need to.” Avensong got the rest of the party ready to move out again. With Wendy needing to be sedated now the time to get back to the village was sure to increase.

“What are we going to do?” Telepinu was worried about Wendy and the strange reaction to being in her world.

“We are going to keep moving. Keep Wendy sedated enough not to feel the phantom bugs, but not so sedated that she can’t walk. This is going to take a lot longer but we will get there none the less. You are being tested in ways that I would never be able to imagine.” Avensong handed out her instructions to each of the women; Wendy was not to be at the back any more. They would rotate duties on who was to watch her at each time and give her cold leach flower tea at the first sign of scratching. They would travel during the day as well, until the sun got too high in the sky to protect fragile skin. At the darkest point in the night Wendy would go to sleep to let the sedative burn out of her system.

As the group traveled closer to the village Wendy needed less and less of the sedative to calm her skin and itching. Within one day travel from the village Wendy needed no leach flower tea at all, and she knew exactly how far and where the village was located. The path to the secret entrance lay out as plain as the nose on her face in her mind. At the end of the long journey Wendy ended up leading the group to the village.

“Slow down, you do not want to tire yourself needlessly. We will get there when we get there.” Telepinu paused in her plea to look around at the landscape and to get oriented. “Besides, you don’t know where you are.”

Before Wendy could reply Avensong pointed out one startling fact. “Have you not noticed, Telepinu that Wendy has been leading the group home without any instruction for the last two nights?” With this realization it finally hit home to all persons in the group that Wendy indeed was the elemental. With the one statement of fact everyone knew that she would have powers.

 The group made it to the village in good time, Avensong instructed Parespine to run ahead to gather the council and prepare the shaman Ashfoot for the early arrival of one of the elementals. Avensong then told Lamasuli to take Wendy to their family home to let her clean and refresh herself.

As the evening arrived once more the council gathered in the great hall to discuss the early elemental. The shaman who had felt the rift the night that she had come into the waking world and had been waiting patiently for the elemental to arrive explained the event slowly to the council. The reason for the early return of the elementals was just out of reach of the shaman but she was working hard to find the answer. Unfortunately the elemental got to the village before she could piece together the mystery. As the council and Ashfoot quietly talked about the implications the elemental arrived in the great hall.

Ashfoot announced the elemental without even turning to the entrance way. “The water elemental has arrived.” All heads turned to the entrance of the great hall a reverent silence blanketed the council group of seven and all on lookers and guests of the hall felt the implications. “May she learn her powers in safety.” The introduction that Ashfoot orchestrated gave all the information that anyone would need. Wendy was the water elemental, but had not gained or learned her powers yet. She could not yet will the water to do what she needed. But she soon would.

Wendy looked at Ashfoot and had the feeling that she knew everything about her. Ashfoot’s ever present sour face did nothing to put off Wendy, she could honestly say that she liked the woman. She felt comfortable in her presence, and knew that she could find a teacher in her. She knew that everything that she had lost in her old world was not that big of a deal, and she was home here. Wendy looked to the crowd and quietly replied “I am home.”

The crowded Great hall erupted in cheers and adulation for the Water elemental, and Wendy felt welcome. About half of the council hall population was satisfied with the grand entrance of the water elemental and went on with their regular activity, they knew that at a later time there would be another meeting. Wendy went to Ashfoot gave her a great hug and sat in the circle on the raised dais floor that the council members had made. She then began to explain everything that had happened, to the council and the rest of the onlookers of the tribe, and her journey into the waking world. After she had recanted all the details and answered many questions to the council and the tribe audience, she retired to Avensong’s house for a good long nap. Ashfoot left the council hall to retire to her own hive house to contemplate the day’s events. The council would reconvene as soon as the sun was at its highest point in the sky.

Ashfoot needed to prepare for the vision and the summoning ceremony.