Soulmates Across Borders

Chapter 8

(Note: Graphics have been removed from chapters, decreasing the number of words for this story. The new word count when starting chapter 8 is 7851 words.)

It took two trips for Solí to bring enough lilacs for her people to travel to Panui. The first trip, she had loaded herself up with borrowed bags and carried enough for ten people to huddle into a single circle of lilac sprigs. The second time, everyone but Waiata made a return trip carrying as much as they all could hold, and they had used nearly all of it.

Tokah frowned deeply when he saw how empty their lilac storage nohonga was after they were finished. Many good-natured people offered to go out into the woods and collect more lilacs, and Solí had joined them. They were very lucky they were in the lilac moon, a perfect time to be collecting lilacs.

Now, they walked along the river, gathering lilac sprigs in a rather morose group. Everyone knew someone who had died.

"We need to return to the village for their bodies," insisted Waiata, the village wise woman.

"What if the beastmen are still there? They might kill more of us," said Awai, the mother of the twins.

"If there are still beastmen there, I will kill them," said Hake, the village shadowman.

This gave Solí an idea, and she decided to encourage talk of returning to the village. "I will go with you to recover our fallen."

Hake nodded. "I will call for you before we leave. Kanapa is asking around as we speak to see if there are others who would return with us."

Kanapa was Hake's wolf. He could easily survey all the people in very little time due to the wolves' ability to telepathically communicate. While he did so, Solí turned to the twins, who seemed loath to leave their mother's side. So she decided to broach the topic with them despite having their mother listening in.

"What's it like having a soulmate?" she asked the twins.

"We don't know what it's like not having a soulmate," Anahera said. Solí could tell it was Anahera, because she wore two braids in her hair and Arohana wore her hair in a single braid. They had always worn their hair this way to make it easy for everyone to tell them apart. Ever since their hair was long enough to braid. Awai told Solí once that she didn't decide which twin was Anahera and which was Arohana until she could start braiding their hair differently. Until then, when she said one name, they would both look at her. To be honest, it was still that way.

"But to answer your question, it's like having two sets of everything," Arohana said. "Two sets of eyes watching. Two sets of hands touching. Two sets of ears listening. It can get overwhelming so then we close each other off. But it's nice when we are apart to know what the other is up to."

"We can hear each other's thoughts too, when we want," Anahera said.

That sounds just like us, Pango told Solí.

Exactly like us.

This seems to worry you.

When I first felt the beastman calling to me, that was how it felt. Like I had suddenly found a wolf I'd been bonded to my entire life though I'd never met him until now.

So this beastman is certainly your soulmate.

It seems that way. "Fuck!" Solí said under her breath.

"Why do you ask?" Awai said.

"I've always been curious. It sounds exactly like having a bonded wolf," Solí said.

"Why aren't there more soulmates?" Anahera asked Waiata.

"Many people are born with a spirit guide instead," Waita told them. "The second soul stays with the first soul instead of finding its own unborn baby to join with."

"How do you know if you have a spirit guide?" Hake asked.

"The soul starts talking to you, of course," Waita said with a chuckle.

"How have I never heard of this?" Solí asked, and the others voiced their agreement.

"Maybe because most people are embarrassed that they have a voice inside their heads they cannot explain," Waiata offered with a shrug.

"Maybe we should explain the spirit guide to people," Awai suggested. "There might be villagers who think they are crazy!"

"I will start telling stories of it, and we will see if we have any people in our tribe who have spirit guides."

Everyone nodded. With that, they returned to gathering sprigs of lilac.

~*~

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