Samuel Crane

Chapter 1

"The Ceremony"

"Let's get you into a room, Kia, so you can put on something more comfortable," Dr. Redbone says as he leads them back to a room. "Put on the medicine robe and come out when you're done."

Kia closes the door and slips off her clothes except for her bra and underwear. She wraps the medicine robe around her. Walking out, she sees Victor and the two doctors laughing and carrying on.

"Follow me, Kia, so we can check you and your babies." Dr. Redbone says.

They walk down a corridor to another room. This room is set up like the inside of a teepee with animal skins on the floor, a fire pit in the middle and several other people sitting around it. Herbs and stones hang all over the walls and from the ceiling. One of the guys smokes a pipe.

They walk in and move around the fire pit. Dr. Redbone places Kia between him and Dr. Whiteriver with Victor on the other side of them across the fire pit. He instructs her that the other people are shifters. "My staff is here to help you. Please pull off the robe and lay back."

He takes a smudge and places a black symbol on her belly where the babies are. He places an arrow symbol on Kia's forehead and a hand symbol on her chest, standing for success in battle. On her stomach area, several symbols are placed as the clan chants softly.

The first symbol on her stomach is the wolf for strength, endurance, instinct, intelligence, family values; this is placed under her breastbone. The next symbol is the moon, protector, and guardian of the earth. Following that is the eagle for courage, wisdom, and strength. The butterfly, for transformation, the symbol of mother and twins is placed between her hips. Hand and eye symbol is placed the furthest down.

Dr. Whiteriver motions for Victor to come and sit at Kia's head. "Place her head in your lap; the spirit animals are joining us to choose the babies."

Victor gently places Kia's head in his lap, gently stroking her hair on the sides of her face. The others continue to chant a little louder now.

Dr. Redbone places a small stone on Kia's head while Dr. Whiteriver moves a smudge of sage back and forth above Kia's body; the others in the circle chant in the background.

Victor looks up and sees the guard from the gate when they pulled in, now standing next to the doorway, straight as an arrow with his big muscular arms crossed. He is tall and has a tattoo on his arm, high up by his shoulder. It is the wolf clan and a half moon symbol. He must be an alpha male in the clan.

White streaks blast through the doorway; several circle just above the fire and then settle above each individual. They are the spirit animals of each member. They all stare at Victor and Kia. One spirit animal, not part of the ones that came in, moves around the circle. This one moves slowly and looks at each person as it passes by.

It stops above Kia and looks at her. It smiles and moves down until it's hovering above her a few inches. It looks at Victor; he notices it is a fox spirit animal with two different colored eyes — a green and a blue. She must be Kia's spirit animal guide. They look alike.

Kia still has her eyes closed. The spirit animal places her hand just above Kia's belly. A white light comes from her belly to the spirit animal's hand.

The fox spirit animal motions her hand and another spirit animal flies through the circle, spins around, and hovers to the left of Kia's spirit animal. The fox spirit animal looks at Victor and holds her hand out for him to touch hers. He holds his hand up and a burst of blue light shoots out across the room horizontally. Then a green light bursts out vertically straight up to the ceiling and vanishes into it. As soon as the light vanishes into the ceiling, a spirit animal drops down and hovers to the right of Kia's spirit animal.