Soulmates Across Borders

Chapter 10

Solí's father spent the rest of the day arranging funerals for his fallen people, while Solí sat outside the bear king's high nohonga, feeling disincluded from the proceedings. Yes, her father was the chief, but Solí was the wolf princess, and her people had been killed. Why her father insisted on sitting in the council with only the bear king and the close families of the fallen, and without her, she couldn't say, but it certainly made her feel left out.

So she spent the afternoon dressing the bodies of her beloved fallen people in the nicest attire the bear tribe's people would offer. The bear tribe people wore deerskin clothing, but for more formal occasions, they wore elk-skin shirts and leggings and dresses, since elk could be found in their forest. The fancier clothing looked remarkably similar to deerskin but with a slightly darker rich tan color.

Solí wanted to adorn the bodies with wolf teeth necklaces, wolf cloaks, and wolf tails, which her people always took from the bodies of the bonded wolves when they died. They would always say a prayer to honor the life the wolf had lived with his or her bonded Värian summoner. It was a sacred ritual when the mourning people sang heartfelt songs while they worked together to skin the wolf while the men beat their drums and the women shook their tambourines.

The only wolf body they had was Ekara's deceased wolf Paraoratoa, who had been burned to the point that his teeth were scorched and blackened and his fur was utterly ruined. All the other ritualistic adornments her people possessed had been lost in the fires the damned beastmen had started, which had still been smoldering when Solí had returned with her people to bless the fallen and retrieve their bodies.

Solí wanted to destroy the whole beastman race. But all she could do was dress her beloved deceased people in the bear tribe's elkskin garb and hope that, after such an atrocious act as this, their souls didn't rebel in the next realm and decide not to be reborn.

After some time, the sun set, and Waiata came out of the high nohonga and sat with Solí near the fire.

You should ask her your questions. About soulmates, Pango suggested.

"Waiata, what else do you know about soulmates?" Solí asked as she finished tying Rua's braid. With that, she had completed her preparations for the burials. She dipped her hands in a bowl of cool water, shook her hands out, and dried them by holding them out to the fire.

"What do you wish to know?"

"Have you ever heard of anyone rejecting their soulmate before?"

Waiata blinked and furrowed her brows. "Why would anyone do such a thing?"

"If you are already betrothed or married you might."

Waiata shook her head. "Finding your soulmate absolves you of any previous agreements." She waved her hand. "It is the ultimate dream of all our people to find their soulmate. So I ask again. Why would anyone do such a thing as to reject their soulmate?" She peered into Solí's face.

She looked down at her hands and tried to think of a lie.

I think you just need to tell her, Pango said.

She nodded with a frown. "I think I found my soulmate," she confessed.

"You think?" Waiata gave her a look that could only be interpreted as disbelief. "If you have found your soulmate, you would know for certain. He or she would be here with you. There's nothing that could keep you apart."

Tears stung at Solí's eyes. "He's a beastman, Waiata!" she said under her breath, choking out the words through her closing throat.

"How is this possible?" The old woman didn't doubt that Solí had indeed met her soulmate, and that he was a beastman, not for a second. "I don't understand why a Värian soul would go across the border and join with a beastwoman's baby!"

Solí held her hands up, the tears freely falling from her eyes now. "I don't know, but it happened. What am I supposed to do?"

"I need some time," Waiata said, and she slowly got to her feet. "I will perform the dream mo-ay mo-ayah makutu and speak with the wise women of the other tribes. Then I will let you know what we decide in the morning." Then she shuffled off to the nohonga she would be borrowing for the night's slumber.

Why does it sound like the wise women are going to decide what I'm allowed to do about this?

I got the same impression, Pango told her. Just be glad she didn't go tell your father right away.

Oh, blessed stars, what will my father do about this?

Try not to worry about that. We still have time to decide what we want to do. For now, let's just get some sleep.

Solí nodded and stood up to find someone to help her move the bodies of her people into the high nohonga for the night.

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