Spirits

Welcome to our land.

Choose an animal as your guide.

The rest will be explained by others of your spirit.

Deer  Snake   Hawk   Wolf    Hare    Mouse    Cat    Owl

Many more have yet to be founded.

    Cinnte stared at the sign. It was really all she could do. It was all so confusing, choosing a guide? Others of your spirit? Clearly someone had more explaining to do. But the sign already knew that. It was always so annoying when signs knew things they didn’t answer. Wasn’t telling people what they needed to know the whole point of signs? In the end, she decided to ignore the sign. Something that confusing should really be taken down, Cinnte thought as she moved on past the sign, looking for a town or village, even a road to guide her. Beyond the field there was only woods, but she could see a small fire burning heartily between the trees. Laughter could be heard as she grew closer and a band of people became visible through the trees. Most of them were tall and all of them were thin. They passed around some sort of salad, their movements were as sure-footed as anything arm-related could ever be.

“Hello.” Cinnte never was one to wait or sneak through.

The people stared at her like she had turned purple. Some of them exchanged nervous glances with others or the trees around them. Eventually one spoke up,

“ Are you lost?”

“What?”

“Are you lost?” He repeated.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Cinnte

“You sure?” he pressed.

“Um-” Cinnte was quickly cut off.

“She sounds like a wolf to me!” Shouted a small boy from the crowd.

“Nuh-uh! The wolves always stick together! She’s a hawk!” replied a girl, his sister.

The adults shifted uncomfortably.

“So you’re lost then.” concluded the one who had first spoken up, “What spirit are you? We’ll help you get back to them. My name’s Cervo by the way.”

“What do you mean what spirit am I?”

Cervo sighed, “Didn’t you read the sign?”

“Er, yes. I thought it was just nonsense.”

“That explains a lot. You should probably be on your way.” Cervo began to usher her away, “Stay away from the Wolves.”

“And the Snakes! Don’t trust the Snakes!” added a voice from the group.