Crimson Rebirth

Part 32

 "We're here."

 The Wolf landed through the thick canopy of pines, firs and cedars in front of the Totem Pole of all things. His mate dismounted, gathering all three into his arms and about his shoulders. Jace asked Catori, "You're taking her through the Totem Trail?"

 The Wolf nodded, looking back at his remaining passenger on his back. He asked, "Ready?"

 Gene tilted her head curiously. "I am." She said, though her eyes asked the question her lips didn't. Why are we here?

 To help you understand the importance of your role, Catori answered, having heard her question in his mind. Instead of taking the left path, which led to the village, he turned right, taking a path that seemed worn, but was vanishing through the thick brush of green around them. A path only he knew time and again...

 The mist closed around them, telling Gene that dawn was present still on this side of the world. It was thick, but the Wolf was sure-footed, not once ducking low for a smell. Something passed them, a loud caw.

 The Wolf paused and peered up. It was a white raven, with a black beak, black legs and eyes of red. Around its neck were beads of sorts, perhaps small turquoise with knuckle bones of a small animal.

 It peered at Gene. In her mind a memory leered through swirling memories, the Raven totem.

 She remembered the raven from the totem pole, and gently held her hand out, her right hand. The Keatina writing on her wrist glimmered in the fog, golden leaves imprinted on her skin casting a golden glow. She couldn't read the writing on it, nor did she think she would.

 "I recall seeing you with the others." She said quietly, tilting her head.

 The Raven flew down to her and landed on her arm. It watched her with tilted angles, then settled to her shoulder. It looked ahead in silence as the sound of a rushing river filled her ears.

 A gentle voice spoke through her mind, deep and ancient: The Fox is ahead. A cunning Trickster, and a mistress of Water.

 Catori loped on ahead until they were but feet away from a pummeling waterfall pelting on stones below. Through the thick mist seemed to be a fallen log across to another ledge. But something seemed...caught, as if in a snare trap. It geckered noisily as it swung from the fallen log, a shape like a small canid...

 The Raven cawed once and fluttered off Gene's shoulder to a branch offside of the cliff. Cato knelt for the witch, rumbling, I cannot lead you on from here. You must follow this path with the Raven as your guide. Good luck.

 "Thank you, Catori." Gene said, dismounting and looking from the raven to the trapped canid, back to the raven again. "I'm your's to guide......... If I may be permitted, however, to go rescue the poor dear. May be a trickster, but nobody deserves to be trapped or snared. Nobody."

 The Raven stayed silent. Her choices were her own; it was not his place to say. But what he was not telling her was a good lesson that she would come to learn.

 The Fox wriggled in the snare, the tie digging into the soft of her neck and under one of her forelegs. However, the more she squirmed, the worse her predicament was becoming. Wild eyes darted around, as if counting every last second, every last possible moment. She was scared, scared of dying by the noose, or being dropped into the wild rapids below.

 Gene quickly, yet carefully and slowly, made her way to the Fox, holding her hands out gently. "Easy, easy dear." She said, her voice soothing. "Let me....."

 She kept her hands out of biting range, grabbing the upper part of the noose to keep it still. "Ti a jor." She mumbled in Keatina, in an attempt to help the Fox calm down. "Let me help you, dear."