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Raven Wolf - The Oracle - Chapter Fifteen

Teddy stares at his reflection in the water, he already regretting the decision he had made. The image that stared back at him wearing the clothes the other wild's in the Raven Wolf pack would wear. Teddy letting out a heavy sigh as he turns away from his reflection. "I look ridicules..."

Iuana knees down next to him, also staring into the reflection that Teddy had been looking at. "I don't know what you're talking about, you looks as strong and brave as anyone from our tribe. It suits you perfectly."

Yula nods his head as he watches the two of them from the bank he was seated on. "Iuana is right, you look just fine."

Teddy lets out a disapproving groan. "Are you kidding?"

Iuana laughs as she pulls Teddy up to his feet, leading him back to the village where the others were. "Come on, we should start heading back. The sun is starting to set, that means that Kitchi's ceremony will be starting soon!"

Yula excitedly jumps up. "Yeah that's right! They've got food! We can't miss that!"

He runs back to the village ahead of them, Iuana looking back to Teddy the smile not leaving her face, just seeing Teddy dressed like this making her more happy then should could have imagined she would be from something to trivial. "I'm so happy that you have decided to stay! I was so worried that you were not going to return when you went back to the city with my father."

Teddy nods his head. "Yeah... well it was really tempting to, and I was fully intending to stay, up until the last moment when Shiya and the others were getting ready to leave..." He sighs as he pulls at the clothes he is wearing. "Then I out of the blue made the decision to come back here. Honestly what was I thinking?"

Iuana shakes her head as she tries to get Teddy to stop fidgeting with his clothing. "You look fine Teddy. There's no need to be so embarrassed." She walks ahead of him, looking back to Teddy as he followed. "Besides, I think you look much more handsome like that then you did with that uniform on."

Teddy looks back to her. "Really?" he stumbles while walking almost falling. He quickly recovering and catching up to Iuana once again.

Iuana continues to speak as she made her way through the forest. "I think you're going to really like living here. It might take a little to get used to though for someone like you, but I think you'll get used it to. Eventually anyway."

*******

Zack sits in an interrogation room, his hands cuffed and on the table, a bored expression on his face as he listens once again to the questions that were being asked him.

"We know you were just following orders, so who gave you the order to kill him."

Zack sighs as he looks back to the man questioning him. "I've been asked this question a thousand times by now. There is no grand plan thought up by the military with the sole purpose of killing Mr. Milford's son. Like I said, it was an accident. It was my first time confronting wilds and I was nervous. My finger slipped and then everything turned into a battlefield, nothing deeper than that."

Dolly sighs as she watches the conversation from the other side of the glass. Zack's tone was completely emotionless as he presented this information, it was clear that he was trying to avoid going to prison but he wasn't doing a very good job, at the very least he could have tried faking some tears or even throwing a little panic into his voice, but here he just spoke like he was stating a fact, like what he was saying was nothing more important than that.

Dolly had been questioned on the situation as well, she having to tell the people questioning her that she knew absolutely nothing about the situation, that Zack had not told her a thing. Their stories must have matched because she was never questioned about it again, and it never came up within Zack's constant questioning. Officer after officer coming to try and get him to change his story and learn the names of the individuals involved in this incident.

Zack leans back in his chair, the tone in his voice now slightly annoyed. "I don't have any names to give you. How many times do we have to go through this?"

Dolly shakes her head, it was like Zack wasn't even trying to make his story sound convincing.

"You saw the pictures of the wound didn't you? Honestly how could I have been trying to kill him with a shot like that? You've read my files so you should know just how accurate I am when I want to hit a target. Clearly if I wanted to hit him he would be dead. Like I said, an unfortunate misfire when my gun was pointed in the kid's general direction."

A phone belonging to someone that has also been looking into the window goes off, Dolly's eyes moving to the person next to her as the black cat picks up the phone answering it, he not even saying hello, instead just listening to the person on the other end and then answering when prompted. "No, nothing at all has changed. There's no need to worry about Twenty Six."

Dolly frowns as she watches the black cat hang up his cell phone and return to watching the interrogation, the number twenty six being the number that Zack had admitted his name once to have been to her, this person now catching her interest. Though he had been here the entire time through Zack's interrogation Dolly have never really paid the black cat any mind at all. This the first time he had said or done anything besides stare blankly through the double sided glass.

*******

The sky has grown dark, the bright moon and countless stars that lit the heavens lighting up the night sky.

Happy chatter and laughter fills the air as the members of Raven Wolf all impatiently wait the anticipation of Kitchi's ceremony, Kitchi himself surrounded by tribe members who were wishing him well in concerns to the spirits decision on him being a warrior.

Kitchi's mother though does not seem worried at all, though there was a chance that the spirits would not favour Kitchi and not have Shiya make him a warrior it wasn't something she thought she wouldn't have to worry about. After all, she, her husband, her first son and in fact everyone on both her side of the family and her husband's side had all been warriors of Raven Wolf, clearly the spirits would think favourably of him and make him a true warrior.

Kitchi himself looks excited as well, though admittedly he was a little nervous over the whole ordeal, the idea that he might be the first one in his family for a very long time to not be a warrior running through his head and giving him butterflies.

Hasson does not seem the least bit worried, he thinking the spirits would have to be crazy to not allow Kitchi to be a warrior after his recent performances in the trail missions. Tahki too does not seem worried, after all, the spirits had yet to reject any warrior that had been trained by her, Kitchi despite his younger age, unassumingly small figure and easy going personality actually one of her best students.

Iuana too has complete confidence in her friend, there no doubt in her mind that he would make a great warrior.

Eve begins to question the wilds around her. "I've never been to one of these before. This is exciting." She looks over to Kitchi questioning him. "Are you nervous?"

Kitchi nods his head admitting that he was a little bit. "Yeah... I mean there is a chance that the spirits will not light the fire and I will not be a warrior. It's happened before to those that the spirits did not see as worthy."

Kitchi's mother begins reminiscing, she thinking back to her own transition to an official warrior and telling Kitchi all about it. "I remember it like it was yesterday, oh it was a perfect night too, not to cold not to warm. I wasn't nervous at all mind you. I had complete confidence that I would become a warrior of Raven Wolf."

Hasson shakes his head as he looks back to his son. "She's lying. She was a mess and would not stop babbling to herself. She was terrified that she was going to be the first in her family to not be accepted by the spirits as a warrior."

Kitchi's mother stomps on Hasson's foot, Hasson grunting as he closes his eyes and bares his teeth while trying to keep himself from yelling, Kitchi's mother looking back to her son. "Your father is obviously not remembering things correctly." She points back to him with her thumb. "If you want a mess then you should have seen him at his warrior's ceremony. I've honestly never seen a wolf as big as him so jumpy and uncertain."

Teddy looks back to Iuana questioning her with a smile. "Kitchi's mother used to be a warrior? I honestly wouldn't have pegged her to be one."

Iuana laughs as she looks over to Kitchi's mother who was continuing to go on and on about past warrior ceremonies and who was scared at theirs and who was not. "She still is a warrior actually. She just has to take leave of the warriors occasionally."

Teddy looks back to her. "Take leave?"

Iuana motions toward Kitchi's mother. "Look at her she can't fight like that. She's going to have a baby."

Teddy looks shocked. "A baby?" He looks back to her. "Oh... Oh!!! Well then... I'm a little embarrassed, and here I just thought she was a little bit on the heavy side."

Iuana laughs at Teddy's comment. "Don't tell her that. She'll turn you into bird food no doubt."

Teddy looks away from Iuana toward a group of old wolves that sat on a mat near the sticks that would supposedly soon been a bonfire, this area holding the dyes and inks that Shiya would use to mark Kitchi should the spirits indeed see him as a warrior, they obviously very important if they were sitting there. "Are those your elders?"

Iuana looks in the direction that Teddy is looking in, she nodding her head yes. "Yeah... they're all grumpy and easily annoyed, they mostly keep to their hut and hardly come out, it's no surprise you have not seen them until now." She sighs to herself as she keeps her eyes on them. "They're the ones that are giving my father the most trouble in concerns of his position." He looks back to Teddy. "From what I hear they never did approve of Shiya, even though he won the trails to become the suitor of my mother, they argued long and hard with my grandfather, the pervious chieftain, to prevent my parent's marriage. Even with him as our chieftain they do not approve, and jump at any chance they get to try and have his position taken from him."

Teddy seems confused, though sometimes a little odd Shiya seemed to be doing his job as Raven Wolf's leader rather well, after all if the rumour about Yula and Iuana's ages were true then he had managed to keep his tribe alive and strong for over three hundred years. There many tribes, including the tribe his own parents had come from, that had long disappeared, and Raven Wolf was target by the military more than any other tribe he could think of. "Why would they not want him? I mean he's done such a great job so far."

Iuana shrugs his shoulders, she really unsure herself. "I don't know... but I think it has something to do with where he comes from... father was not born around here and actually comes from somewhere very far away... or so I am told."

Teddy looks around him. "Speaking of Shiya, where is he? Isn't he supposed to start this thing?"

Iuana assures Teddy that her father would show up. "He'll be here, just give him a moment to get ready. Even after all these years it takes him a long time to dress in his ceremonial clothing, he gets confused sometimes with it all. With the amount of times he's gone through it though you would think he would have it memorized by now." She laughs as she looks back to Teddy. "You know there are some articles that are passed down from chieftain to chieftain, especially in regards to ceremonial garb, but father did not fit a lot of it and it all had to be remade for him. He's possibly the smallest chieftain to exist, and defiantly the smallest our tribe has ever had, all the chieftain's we've had before have been Hasson's size."

Everyone in the tribe falls silent, Shiya finally entering the center of the village where everyone waited, the headdress and clothes he was dressed in decorative, colourful and intricate. He looks over to Kitchi saying his name and motioning for him to come to him, those that had crowded around Kitchi beginning to part and give him room to move.

Kitchi gulps nervously as he begins to walk forward approaching Shiya, he more timed than ever before over this situation, the fact that it was finally happening giving him butterflies.

Shiya gives Kitchi a reassuring pat on the back before leading him to where the ceremony would start. "Don't worry. You'll be just fine."

The two soon find themselves upon the mat that the elders are sitting upon. Kitchi stepping forward and getting down on his hands and knees bowing respectfully to the elders, Shiya stepping between the two of them and allowing Kitchi to raise back to his feet, Shiya now beginning to speak. "You have trained long and hard to reach this point, you have diligently obeyed your teacher and passed each trail presented to you, proving to Tahki that you are a warrior, you have accompanied me and protected me and your fellow tribe members from harm, proving to me that you are a warrior, and now, you face the spirits here today who have looked upon and judged your actions just as your teacher and chieftain have, and if they see you fit to take the roll." He holds his hand out to the large unlit bonfire that right now sat at the very center of the villager. "Then they will give us the sign that will prove to everyone in your tribe that you are one of its warriors."

Everyone stares at Kitchi with anticipation, Shiya stepping back as Achak moves forward holding out a sharp stone for him to take, Kitchi's lifting the sharp stone to his hand and cutting a small mark in his palm, he then holding his hand over a bowl that Achak is holding and letting a single small drop of blood fall into the mixture that he had prepared. Achak stepping away from him, everyone including Kitchi looking back toward the large pile of wood that had be placed in the village center, Achak throwing the contents of the bowl onto the collection of wood.

Everyone waits staring in anticipation, Kitchi growing more nervous the longer it takes for something to happen, Shiya looking to him and speaking to him in a reassuring tone. "Be patient."

The anticipation grows as everyone continues to stare, Kitchi's mother and father's expressions possibly holding the most excitement out of everyone else in the tribe, Kitchi on the other hand looking more and more ill as the seconds ticked by.

Finally there is a blazing flash, the wood lighting aflame and filling the center of the village with a warm and bright light. Excited voices, calls and howls filling the air. The ill look that had been on Kitchi's face lifting as his eyes light up and his jaw drops, the grin on his face as wide as it could possibly be, his tail wagging back and forth. "I did it!"

Shiya smiles as he watches as Kit excitedly calls out. "I did it!! I did it!!"

Teddy jumps when Iuana lets out a loud and long howl of excitement, the other wolves within the pack joining her, even Yula participating in the ceremony, Teddy just clapping his hands, really not much for howling.

Eleven sits quietly as she watches the other members of her tribe in their excitement, Tahki laughing loudly as she looks back to Eleven speaking in a found tone. "Wolves, they're always so lively! I love the howling!"

Eleven looks back to her. "If you like it so much then why don't you join them?"

Tahki laughs at the thought. "A mouse howl like a wolf? Not only would that just be silly but any howl I do wouldn't sound as nice as theirs."

Kitchi turns back toward Shiya his face still glowing with pride from his accomplishment. Achak handing Shiya one of the bowls of dye that had been waiting at the side, Shiya placing his hand in the bowl and picking up some of the dye in his fingers and then placing them upon Kitchi's face, he now beginning to give him the first of the markings that signified that he was now a warrior of this tribe.

The excited call of his fellow tribe members rise even louder once they see Kitchi get his first marking. His mother and father both beaming proudly of their son, while his friends continue their joyful howling.

Before long Shiya has placed all the markings that signified a warrior of their people upon Kitchi, he handing the bowl of dye back to Achak and placing his hand upon Kitchi's head. "We look forward to the victories you will bring us."

Shiya removes his hand for Kitchi's head, Kitchi excitedly jumping into the air as he lets out another excited call, he then turning away from Shiya and running back to his friend's sides, they all smothering him with congratulations.

The bonfire in the center of the village continues to burn brightly, the members of Raven Wolf that had gathered around it all speaking fondly to one another while helping themselves to the food and drink that had been prepared for the ceremony, Yula quick to start devouring the food.

Shiya sits down on the mat, he looking to his hand and shaking it, it dyed with the colour he had used to mark Kitchi. "I always hate getting this stuff off."

Achak laughs as he looks over to Shiya. "Yes, your white fur is especially difficult to clean. Don't worry, I'll use my special mixture and have it out in a few days as I usually do."

Several of the tribe members begin to play instruments filling the night with song, several other wilds joining in with their voices and clapping their hands while others begin to gather around the bonfire and dance to the music that now filled the village.

Kitchi joins the wilds that had started dancing around the fire, he looking to Iuana and calling out to her. "Come on Iuana!"

Iuana smiles at him as she gets to her feet, running over and joining him and the others in their dance around the warm fire.

Eve walks up next to Teddy, she kneeling down and sitting down next to him. "It's incredible isn't it?" Teddy looks back to her as Eve continues to explain. "Look at them... a target to the military that has been hunted down for hundreds of years... and yet they live as normally as anyone else, the young grow into adults, that fall in love and find husbands and wives, then they have children of their own and continue. They're even able to keep their rituals and traditions of any kind, and have celebration and ceremony. It's all just so incredibly normal, you'd never think just by looking at them that they're in the middle hiding from an enemy that is more advanced and powerful than them."

She looks over to Shiya. "I wouldn't think it by looking at him, but the Raven Wolf tribe have themselves a pretty incredible leader."

Teddy looks back to her. "So you're going to head back to the city then?"

Eve nods her head yes. "What can I say? I miss my mundane and normal domestic life, especially running water. As soon as I get home the first thing I am going to do is take a nice hot shower." She sighs to herself, it unfortunately not going to be exactly the same. "Unfortunately when I get back I'm not going to have a job... Yula is here so that means the project is no longer going to be active. I'll be stuck taking care of daddy's dusty old museum all day until I find something else..."

She looks back to Teddy. "Looks like you're going to be doing the opposite of me, staying here are you?"

Teddy nods his head. "Yeah... I guess I am."

Eve pats him on the back. "How did you ever reach a conclusion like that? I mean, I have nothing against Shiya and his pack, but you just seemed to have regrets about leaving the city since we started the journey."

Teddy nods his head, he for certain having never been sure about his choice. Betraying the military and attacking them, even fighting against his own sister in the process, leaving his comfortable life in the city and ending up in the middle of nowhere in a village of people that acted like his parents who would constantly embarrass him with how traditionally they acted. "You're right... I wasn't really planning too... Then when Mr. Milford told me that the charges would be lifted and that I could return home I fully intended to do just that."

He thinks back, it was something that he had thought a lot about. "But then I thought back to what it was I really leavomg behind in the city... a job that I hated but needed because of the bills I had, a home that I hardly did anything but sleep in because my job was so tiring, the looks that the people around me would give me... because looked like a vicious wild even though I was registered as a domestic, I've even had parents pull their children away from me."

He looks back to Iuana as she dances in front of the fire with the others, her beautiful laugher sounding and joining the laughter of those around her. "Then I thought to the things I would be leaving behind if I left this place and returned to the city. Yula, a friend whom I've had for five years now and was always there to listen to me if I had something to get off of my chest, Iuana, who trusts me with all her heart and wants me to be a part of her life, and Shiya, Tahki, Achak, Kitchi and everyone else in Raven wolf who never give me a second glace because of how I looked. Heck even when I had my uniform on they would treat me kindly, even Achak and Tahki who I admit did not get off at a very good start with me, welcomed me into their home and gave me shelter because I had none. No one even had to ask them to do it, they just did."

He shakes his head, if you compared what he would be leaving behind in the city to what he would be leaving behind here there really was no doubt which one would be worse to turn his back to. "As much as I didn't think it was a place that would suit me, when I really thought about it, I would have been stupid for me to go back to the city and leave all of this behind."

Eve lets out a sigh. "Well, I just hope you don't start regretting your decision... Raven Wolf is still a target of the military, and I for one am tired of being targeted by them."

Teddy smiles as he watches Iuana continue to dance, it hadn't just been a decision based on facts, as ridicules as the thought would have been before Teddy had to admit that he truly wanted to be here."I might regret it at first, but I think in the long run I'll be just fine."

The celebration continues long into the night, the members of the tribe soon tiring themselves from their celebration, the food being eaten and the fire dying down. One by one the members of Raven Wolf bid their comrades good night as they all head off to bed, it having been a long and wonderfully fun day.

Tahki moves her head from side to side, stretching out and making cracking sounds with her neck, leaving her spot from beside Eleven and getting to her feet. "Well then, I suppose that I should call it a day too." She looks over to Achak who is still speaking with Shiya. "Looks like my husband is gonna be up for a while longer still. Him and Shiya always lose track of time when they're talking."

Eleven also gets to her feet, Tahki looking over to her. "You heading to bed then too?"

Eleven shakes her head no as she gathers her weapon and the bird skull the warriors used to mask their features when outside of the village. "No."

Tahki stares at Eleven with an annoyed expression. "You're going out there again?"

Eleven nods her head yes as she takes her leave, placing the warriors mask upon her head and taking off running out of the village, Tahki calling out to her as she left. "That's a forest of ice, you're going to catch your death out there if you keep going out there like that!"

Shiya stops his conversation with Achak when he sees Eleven leave, he looking over to Tahki and calling out to her, questioning her about this. "Where is Eleven going?"

Tahki looks back to Shiya as she beings to explain. "Out to the ice forest, I don't know why but for days now she's been going there every night, she stays out there and only returns home once the sun rises. I asked her about it and all she would say was that she was waiting for someone, wouldn't tell me why she was waiting for this person or even who it was."

Shiya stares at Eleven's figure as it continues to get smaller. "I wonder what it could be..."