...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 6-9: Icons of Belief

"Do you think it's a real threat?" Xayna asked. "I mean, is Zeke really likely to get people watching for strange behavior among sea lions and wanting to capture and tag them?"

"Not for you, not for any of us, now that we know what he noticed. Ryan's caution is natural, and good. But it's a bit of an over-reaction. Right, Bear?"

"Almost right. There's no need to stay away from people. Just don't lead the way. Don't be the first sea lion to show up, or the last to leave. Don't indulge your human nature while being a sea lion. In other words, don't do anything to set yourself apart from the real sea lions. Then you won't be targeted for special attention. Uncle Ryan taught me that. But I think there's a better answer."

"What are you thinking, then?" asked Sedna.

"We should tell Zeke. Or show him. Maybe tell everyone."

Sedna frowned at that. Then her expression changed and she smiled. Bear knew if she'd been there in person he'd have seen her eyes light up. Without lenses, the ghostly avatar his shaman awareness picked up through the Q wasn't quite that nuanced. She said, "Ahhh!" Then, "It's what Zeke said about the World Dream. It's working!"

"And if it's working on him, it's working on the others. I sensed it from the moment I arrived here in person. You'd sense it too, if your attention wasn't quite so divided between here and home."

Sedna's expression changed again. It softened into that vacant look of being in a daydream. But the look reflected what her body at home was doing. Bear and Xayna knew the dream she was in was now here. They could feel her presence more strongly.

It didn't last. She was too well trained as a shaman to remain that distant from herself for long. Her avatar eyes became alert again, but with a new excitement. "You're right. And there's something else, something you may not have noticed. Bear, you and Xayna are icons of belief. Your Dome Dream has turned you into celebrities. It follows wherever you go. Being so immersed in it you probably don't see it happen, but I do. You come into a room and the atmosphere shifts. In a good way, a shaman way. People want to believe your story."

Xayna knew. Her role was just that much different from Bear's that she couldn't miss it. But even she had not paid it that much attention. Until now.

"Bear, it's only partly our Dome Dream. I feel it here now, just like Sedna. It's the romance. There are stories about us that were never part of the Dome Dream, rumors about how we met, even about how you came ashore in sea lion form. And people here want to believe those rumors."

Sedna added, "It's quite possible that Uncle Ryan may have encouraged that rumor by bluntly saying that Bear, still Niño then, swam to Haida Gwaii."

"So we already have plenty of fans in the Shell."

Xayna nodded. She was exploring. "And some of them know other shaman stories. Some of them already spread rumors that Ryan and Rosita become seals when they go out for a swim and seemingly disappear."

Bear was getting excited. "This means that Uncle Ryan didn't do the wrong thing by following Zeke around. He did exactly the right thing. He knows as well as any of us that the best way to deal with unbelievers is to turn them into believers. But like any shifter who lives among other people he's very careful about who he trusts. Mom says that when she met him she didn't know he was a selkie until he actually shifted. Until then all she knew was that she couldn't read him."

"Whether he meant to or not, he helped me with Zeke. He got Zeke to notice. He may not be ready to trust Zeke completely, but I am. We are."

"And Zeke's not the only one we can trust. Thanks to them being right here while you add their own fondest dreams to the World Dream, we're not among unbelievers. We're among people who very much want to believe."

"I think you're right. Zeke is an old-line conservative scientist, but the dream worked on him. He was ready for the drone dream. His own native awareness is surfacing. He won't deny a truth when it's shown to him. And if he was ready, how many of the younger ones who followed him here are also ready?"

Xayna looked from Sedna to Bear. "I can tell that most of the people here are very open with their dreams. And a lot of them already believe Bear arrived on Haida Gwai in sea lion form and shifted to bear form before he met me. We never told anyone that."

Bear hugged her to him. "We didn't have to. In QAR, dreams are available to anyone sensitive enough to find them. So it's not a deep dark secret. It requires only enough awareness to visit the Q and confirm."

"Unfortunately what the Q confirms is only shared belief," Sedna pointed out, "Not some kind of ultimate truth. The more widely shared the belief, the more it resonates in the Q."

"That's what makes the World Dream so important. It's a shared reality that goes beyond what people dream, and resonates with nature, with Gaia, with the universal dream. It reinforces belief in the true potential of the world itself."

"Enough talk. I think we need to take a walk, mingle with the people here, get a stronger sense of who they are, and let them know us better."

So they did.