Shaman of the Forest

Days turned into months in a blink and the day Aru and other virgins attacked by the wolves fell far behind in a heartbeat. Luckily, no one had fatal injuries that day, and the rescue operation that Aru had done became a little bit of an epic itself. Every time Aru heard it, it was becoming more vicious and more impossible. First, wolf count increased dramatically. Aru even heard a little boy telling his friend, she beat twenty wolves that day. Then, wolves couldn't meet the needs of adrenaline of young commons and they became beasts, werewolves and iyes. Aru never interfered with the imagination of children, and didn't want to attract any more attention anyway.

Since that day, she also became a small legend in the eyes of nuns, which didn't help her with the other girls at all. But at least, the girls were not trying to bully her anymore. Even Tolobargan stopped hissing and spitting every time she saw her. But it became something more disturbing. Virgins started totally ignoring her. After that, she heard that Tolo was blaming herself for letting girls meditate under the tree instead of climbing on. And, obviously she was hating Aru because she was right to warn them. One of the virgins was badly injured by a wolf biting her leg. But luckily soldiers made it on time and managed to save her from that wolf. And for other wolves, no one knows where they went but everyone knew that Aru drove them away from the group.

Aru told everything to Temene that night. Even when a healer stitched Aru's wound on her arm, she didn't let Aru waste a minute and tell her everything. Aru told her how virgins placed themselves and how she climbed a tree. How she met her soul guide, and how he warned her "A dragon?" she shrieked with a high pitch voice and wide eyes, but then she managed to keep her enthusiasm out of it to hear the whole wolf story. She didn't tell her how she managed to earn Mangalay's trust and of course his name. She shouldn't tell his name to anyone.

She told her how she drove the wolves by catching their attention and making them track her. And how she managed to kill one. Then the silver wolf. How it fought with them. She didn't share the details about the glances they shared with the wolf or how it blinked to her. Actually she was not sure about those parts anymore. Maybe, adrenaline made her think she saw such things. Wolves don't blink or warn humans by looking at them generally. But, even though she didn't tell those parts, Temene looked so suspicious about the silver wolf.

Finally, she concluded that it was a protector soul of the forest, and suddenly Aru gained another nickname than smarty pants and know-it-all. By the declaration of Temene, she was 'Shaman of the forest' now.

Lessons became something different after that day. And, with many more days of lessons following that day, Aru understood that nuns had no intention to keep them away from danger.

Sparring lessons became a matter of life and death. Lieutenant Balbay started to teach them how to strike rather than how to defend now. It looked like that night was not a lesson only for girls. Balbay decided that he was being so gentle with the girls so far and started an extensive working routine. He was teaching them how to use knives now. And even though the arrows were Aru's favorite, she found out that she was also enjoying the knives too. After two months of exercise with knives, Aru was able to fling one and to hit the target board.

All girls managed to meet their soul guides even though they had been interrupted. As no surprise to Aru, Tolo's soul guide was a bull. "Strong" said Karamay, "...but not wise." Her right arm, a small and cunning girl called Jilamash, had a snake as her soul guide to surprise no one. Borpiyak had a sparrow guide, and Jelebek had a butterfly. Also a crow for Jangar, and to everyone's surprise, a monkey. Jinji had a monkey soul guide, but Karamay warned her to think twice before following any advice of her soul guide because she said, "They can be a little bit playful sometimes" but Aru felt, she was cushioning the impact, and actually it meant something more vital because in some occasions their life could depend on those advices they gave. Like the one Mangalay gave her on that day.

And of course, everyone was impressed with Aru's soul guide. "A dragon! " Karamay shrieked with excitement, " I believe it hasn't been heard of a shaman bound with a dragon for five centuries. Well done Aru! ". They were in the "Underground beasts and how to avoid them" class. Aru felt the familiar guilt again, someone was congratulating her for something she didn't do anything for. The impostor feeling grasped her heart once more and squeezed it hard while all gazes turned to her after hearing five centuries. Aru didn't do anything yet get the praises again. No wonder other girls hate her so much, she would have hated someone like her if she wasn't her. - My name is Mangalay, and I don't have the habit of bounding with worthless people. - She remembered the words of Mangalay as a ringing in her ears. She pulled herself together. Mangalay chose her, he came to her and accepted her for bounding. But right after she mentioned him, how lonely she was. Did he pity her? Do soul guides pity on humans? Do dragons?

- No we don't! -

Aru jumped on her class bench. She was leaning on her arm, palm cupping her cheek and lazily thinking about those when she heard, or thought she heard, Mangalay. Jump to her feet. Everyone turned to look at her. She mumbled something about flies, moved her hand in the air as if catching an invisible fly and everyone turned to listen to Karamay once again. She sat back to her bench and tried to check her mind, Mangalay? She thought tentatively. No response. Of course not. Mangalay said he wasn't reading her mind. So what was it? Did she mumble? Maybe it could be what Mangalay would have said, if he had heard her. And she just imagined that answer. So she thought that directly.

After class ended and Karamay left them the rest of the day as free time, there was only one thing Aru could think to do. Finding Kaspak.

She left the class with the rest of the girls. Not to her surprise, other girls went in the direction of commoners yard, most probably to make a staring contest with boys. After everyone left the sight, she started going in the opposite direction. To the hole.

There was a loose stone hiding a hole in the surrounding wall of the estate that only a bunch of children knew. It was behind the commoner housing area. And Aru suspected that any of the nuns were aware of it. If they knew, they would have closed it by now.

Aru carefully walked through the housing area, and quietly went behind it, hiding herself as much as possible behind the crooked walls of the houses or trees shadowing sleepy afternoon streets. Even though it was a quiet hour and most of the residents of the housing were either in the temple or in the barracks, Aru knew that there was no such thing as being too cautious.

She went to find the loose stone whose place she knew as well as the back of her hand until now. There it was, totally looking like the rest of the wall for the untrained eyes. But Aru knew better, the fifth stone from the pine tree on the second row was the stone that she was looking for.

She was fifteen when it first started. She was sick of seeing the same faces, the same walls, and the same classes over and over, so she started exploring the area for new experiences. It was the very same era that girls started falling in love with commoner boys. But she didn't choose that kind of distraction.

The nuns told them on the very first day that they could wander around as they liked among the walls of the temple, so Aru didn't feel guilty going to the very edges of the walls. She explored the whole area, found every berry bush, every fruit tree and it was the first time she saw the settlement area of nuns with their families.

Little cottages with gray stoned walls and crooked roofs. Leaning on each other or standing solely as random beans spread on the ground. And they were hidden from the curious eyes by ancient trees, it was hard to spot them without getting so close. It was a good exploration and occupied her for weeks but she couldn't stop. She searched the area, over and over, until not a nook or not a pit under a rock was left to be explored. One day, she was walking by the wall again, brushing one of her hands on the tick walls' cold white stones, which she likes to do all the time. Because she was feeling like she was pushing her boundaries as much as she could. And then, suddenly, her fingers dug in a hole.