Whitebark Stream Temperance is a Virtue I Lack

He felt as though he could do nothing but run from the horrific scene he had left behind. Whether it was real or not did not matter, he did not want to see it.

His surroundings continued to warp, and his dry throat let out a painful cough when he failed to regulate his own breathing, yet his bounding paws continued to carry him forward as though he had no control over them. He wanted to return to the den he had made in his new home, he wanted to hide inside of it until all that was wrong had faded away.

A single stride missing it's placement on the ground, he fell forward with a 'thump' onto the dirt. He found himself laying on the ground, limbs shaky and head aching. He did not want to move just yet - he would stay like this if he could.

after meeting the rise wolf, sun eater chose a most circuitous route back to saatsine. it was good to roam again, to feel the wind upon the backs of his teeth and to see how the ground grew colder beneath his paws.

it was curious to find kekoa's scent here, but not so much; he expected his wolves to range and to hunt as they prepared. there was no veiling his intention as he followed the trail directly.

he found the young healer there upon the ground; sun eater bristled with a loud growl and came to stand in guardianship over kekoa as his single eye swept for the threat which had put the boy down.

He felt the presence of another and heard a clear growl, and though the intentions of the other were good it did nothing but further unsettle the young man's nerves.

Claws digging into the ground he glanced up, surprised at the sight of Sun Eater. Had he done something wrong? Was the other really there?

With these questions running through his head he could only stare with wide, horrified eyes. His delirium was clear, just as his fear was.

there was no sign of blood and none of invasion. nothing of injury nor malaise. he sniffed at the youth's breath and narrowed his eye, not quite understanding that particular touch of greenery in the air.

sun eater glanced around them with deliberate slowness, then glanced back at the boy. "what you do?" had he eaten a bad thing? was there more at work here than the chieftain could see?

the eyes of kekoa were not right. "you chase dream, boy?"

He felt like a child caught stealing a cookie. Too nervous to lie, but too stubborn to tell the whole truth. What was there to tell him? "I wanted to see,"

The words made little sense coming out of his mouth, but in the mind of Kekoa they told a whole story. He had ate the mushroom because he wished to see what others could not, to see if it was nonsense.

"I didn't want to see him."

there it was, that odd shine which indicated spirits trapped behind kekoa's eyes. "who?" sun eater asked gruffly despite himself. he had once claimed to be a shaman. others had believed him, and for a moment he stood staring at the boy, considering.

"you need amulet. protection. keep from seeing," he explained, not understanding why he was compelled to pass down this sharadoii nonsense.

had it ever been nonsense?

An amulet? To stop him from seeing? He blinked at the other, yet to rise to his feet he appeared as though he was cowering. "Do you think I'm having visions?"

He did not know if the older man would be able to provide a reputable answer, though he was not in the headspace to care either. If Sun Eater said he was seeing spirits, he was. If he said he was not, then he was not.

What was there to do but trust? He had been who this pack had needed to be since he had arrived; if they needed a healer, he was a healer, and if they needed a shaman, he would become one.

He would fool himself just as he had fooled them.

sun eater crouched before the dreaming-man. "not know. not in here," he grunted, reaching to gently tap kekoa's forehead with a gentle claw. "power came for you. learn it."

if his feet had been placed upon this path, then he must understand it was not for anyone else to define. he must decide for himself what a vision might be, and what it was not.

but in the single slate eye he would find acceptance.

He looked up at the other in a momentary silence. Sheep Killer had spoke of violence, yet Kekoa had not witnessed this. Sun Eater was no enemy to him, and in this moment the look in the others remaining eye was a comfort.

The overwhelming barrage of sound dissipated as he was able to focus on the other. Pushing to his feet, the boy warily glanced behind him.

He wondered what Abraham would say, what the God he spoke of would think. But Sun Eater was right; he was the only one who could truly know what was happening inside his head.

"I need to sleep this off." The statement was followed by a sigh, and a shake of his head. He was still feeling poorly.

dyenen; to be a man of medicine among the lanzadoii was to stand apart in isolation. they were called dyenendoii. they kept the secret ways that even sun eater did not know, the sacred plants; they spoke with leadership. they were behind some band squabbles and mediated others; they had their own spies and their own enchanted animals, it was said. the darkest among the dyenendoii, some claimed, could make skin-changers of themselves.

the ailing, exhausted boy before him did not seem as if he could be a vessel for such things. but sun eater did not doubt him. power came in many vessels.

quietly he set an easier pace back to the riverland claimed by their sun clan, gesturing kekoa into a copse of taiga pines for his rest. sun eater would watch over the nearby area until their healer woke.