Spirits

Ch.1 Backstory

My name is Aleah and I live in a village of what we call Valle pacem. That is Latin for The Valley of Peace. Our fine little village hasn't seen war in at least 300 years if not more than that. Of course I am a child so I could be wrong but I take history classes and learn just like everyone else.

Our village was settled a very long time ago by a man named John Peregrinorum or John Pilgrim. John had brought an unforeseen curse with him when he settled here. You see before I was born there was a legend that said this:

"In the cave you will find

courage and glory beauty divine

for now all is well

but until the dawn the bird shall perch

the raven's nest is where it's hidden

find the key

and amazing gifts are to be given

the chosen one must find the veil

or until then

split souls shall not rest."

I have no idea exactly what it means but my mother told me that it has to do with there being a crystal raven in a cave hidden somewhere and John found it, but Mr. Pilgrim was not the chosen one so he was cursed to forever see the eyes of his spirit. Nowadays it isn't really a curse but a way to always have a companion. John was forever cursed to see the eyes of his spirit animal which for him was a spider.

Over the centuries our kind have learned to communicate and talk with our animals either through telepathy or in direct vocals. Every child is born normally but when they turn one year and one day old their spirit animal separates from the human body and forms to the spirit of that child. No one gets to pick their animal it isn't always what you would expect, but my mother tells me that everyone knew mine was a cat. It is nice to have a companion with you all the time but if a spirit and the child are separated for too long over a long distance neither will survive, but on the bright side if a person is hurt you don't feel it because of your spirit animal.

I always thought it would be so great to find that crystal raven or any of the other items from our prophecies. Some say that John Pilgrim saw much more that just his spirit animal but also the future. Some say that is how the prophecies were written; that John Pilgrim saw it and wrote it all down. I don't see how that could be because if it were true why would he have such coded messages? I mean did he have any faith in what was to become of his civilization?

All I know is Jynx is my spirit animal. She is a black cat with wintry blue eyes. She is my complete time and energy. I take all of my lessons with her by my side and I take her everywhere; we do everything together. My brother has Chet who is his monkey. I sware to you that Primo has become as agile as a monkey just from being around Chet. Chet is a small capuchin monkey. I would say he got the small end of the gene pool. He is literally no bigger than my forearm, not including his tail. The two of them though, they are trouble with a capital T.

My mother's animal is Brynne. She is a grey wolf,big and scary, I like her but being around her makes me really tense. While most animals can get along there are a few combinations that can never be around each other. For example Chet and a jaguar for whatever reason can not be around each other, a fly and a frog for obvious reasons, and the two worst to get together are a cat and dog. These seem like meaningless things, I mean the fact that a few animals don't like each other but it does influence how we people act towards each other.

For example I get nervous around Brynne. The difference is us humans do have some say in it. Like our spirit animals can't control how much hate or anything we have but we do feel what they feel. At times I wish that would change because I don't like feeling afraid when I don't think I should. My whole life is like one big mathematical problem that can't be solved. The point is my people have been waiting for over 1,000 years for the chosen one to step forward and guide us but that time hasn't yet come.........