Kimi made the unfortunate decision of taking a flying leap out of The Passage without thinking ahead. She paid the price for her short-sightedness. Overshooting her projected arrival spot, Kimi found herself hurtling toward a massive boulder. She extended her arms to soften the blow, which ended up not softening anything. Instead, her left wrist crunched as the momentum of her body mashed it into the boulder. Pain shot through her arm. She also rolled an ankle. More pain, this time up her right leg. Clutching her wrist to her chest and turning to lean against the boulder, Kimi slid to the snow-covered ground. The deerskin-covering she wore prevented her back from scraping against the cold, rough surface of the massive rock. She closed her eye and willed her body to breath slower. After a few moments, it obeyed her. She then listened. Except for the leafless, snow-covered branches creaking in the breeze, Kimi heard nothing.
Crouching against the boulder, Kimi straightened her arm and tried moving her wrist. Another unfortunate decision on her part. Pain flared in her wrist. The Elders—the ones who had sided with her—had warned her to be careful, to step through The Passage. She should have heeded their words. Her father’s voice echoed in her spirit. Experience—the fathomless reservoir of life’s wisdom. Next time, she would remember.
Kimi leaned against the boulder, put all her weight onto her good ankle, and pushed herself up. She surveyed her surroundings and thanked The Great Spirit that she recognized where she was. To her right, a depression in the snow indicated the cart road that led from the summit of the mountain to its base. To her left, the forestry tower. She breathed a sigh when she saw these things. They told her she was where she needed to be, which was in the clearing at the two-thousand foot summit of Wachusett Mountain. Others in the past had found themselves in much different places other than their intended destinations of arrival. A few had ended up not only in different places, but in different dimensions. Those had been the most unfortunate few.
Looking to the gray sky, Kimi offered up her gratitude. Thank you, Great Spirit, for your guidance. Thank you for your protection.
She tried moving her wrist again. She felt bone grate against bone. The pain brought a tear to her eye. At least one broken bone, maybe more. She fought back the tears, willing herself to not break down. She needed to be strong. She inhaled, lifted her leg, and rotated her foot. It fared better than her wrist. It hurt, but the pain was manageable. More importantly, she could move it. She needed mobility right now, and she had it. She would have been in desperate trouble if she was unable to walk. Not that she wasn’t desperate as it was already. Having arrived late, and now having to favor her wrist, she was at a distinct disadvantage.
She would have to trust The Great Spirit that when she found Achak she would be physically capable of doing what would be necessary. She needed to be prepared mentally as well, for when that time came, Kimi was not at all certain she would be capable of carrying out the task charged to her by the Elders.
Satisfied with the condition of her foot, tucking her wrist in close to her stomach, Kimi stepped away from the boulder. Everything started spinning and swirling and tilting. The white snow and the black trees and the gray clouds whirled about her, spinning faster, swirling wilder, tilting farther. Her insides protested. She pin-wheeled her arms trying to stay balanced and, in the process, smacked her broken wrist against the boulder. Kimi screamed as fire flared up her arm. Like one of the older men in her tribe that had had too much time on the so-called peace pipe, Kimi staggered away from the boulder and tripped over a rock buried under the snow. Reflexively, she drew her wrist in close to her body and shifted her weight to her left foot, trying to avoid more pain.
It didn’t work.
She fell onto a foot of hard-packed snow. The rough edges of the crusty snow scraped her deerskin-covered shoulder and her face, drawing blood from her right cheek. As painful as that was, it could have been worse. At least she had been able to protect her wrist. She rolled onto her back, wincing at the pain in her wrist and ankle and shoulder. Pushing herself to a sitting position, shrugging as much of the snow off as she could with minimal movement to protect her wrist, Kimi checked her shoulder. The deerskin covering the Elders had given her had not torn, which was a good thing. The covering would keep her warm and dry for now, as long as it was intact, but a few more falls to the ground like that and eventually it would rip. Given how cold it was, she couldn’t let that happen.
Taking a deep breath, Kimi pushed off from the snow with her right hand and, shifting her weight to her left foot, she stood. She steadied herself against the boulder with her good hand. Cradling her wrist, she raised her head to the sky and prayed to The Great Spirit, again seeking strength, guidance, and courage.
After waiting to make sure the vertigo did not return, Kimi stepped away from the boulder and surveyed the area once again, looking for footprints that would tell her which way to go to find Achak. But there were no footprints. There were animal tracks—deer and coyote and rabbit and bear—but nothing else to indicate that Achak had been this way.
But, that was impossible.
Kimi turned and tilted her head. She squinted, searching for the tell-tale shimmering of the air. There it was. The Passage was still open. There were no tracks in the snow near it except for hers, which picked up a few feet from the opening. But Achak had come through right before Kimi had. She had seen him enter The Passage, and yet, there was no evidence here that he had come out of it. But that, too, was impossible. Once inside, there was no other way to go except out the other end. That meant Achak was here. Kimi could not understand the lack of footprints, but she knew he was here. He had to be.
Confused, Kimi tried to think of an explanation. Coming up with nothing, she raised her hand to her cheek and rubbed the raw, bloody skin. She ran her fingers up to her temple, across her forehead, and let them caress the scar that encircled her empty eye socket. She fingered the emptiness. Where there was once a beautiful, deep-brown eye, there was dead tissue. She would not cry. No. She had not cried then nor since, and neither would she now. There was no time for that.
She raised her head toward the sky, hoping for a sign from The Great Spirit that would tell her it would be all right, that everything would turn out for the good, that she would one day be made whole again and be accepted back into her people. She had lost so much in her eighteen years. Had it been eighteen years, or had it been longer. An eternity? There were times when the guilt, and the shame, and the loneliness drove her to wish that it all would...
…end.
Kimi lowered her head. She knew that even if The Great Spirit granted everything back to her, including her full eyesight and complete acceptance by her people, none of it would matter because it wouldn’t bring back her father. He was the one who had paid the ultimate penalty and given the supreme sacrifice for Kimi’s singular act of disobedience.
As for her mother….
Enough feeling sorry for herself. That would accomplish nothing. She had to find the Totem and stop Achak. Preferably, in that order. Given that there were no footprints to follow, finding Achak was going to be more challenging than Kimi had anticipated. Finding the Totem…. How was she supposed to find something she had never seen and never been told what it looked like? Before being banished from her people, she had heard the stories about the Totem—most of which were, no doubt, more legend than fact—but no one had ever learned for certain its true identity. Some said it was in the form of a wooden image of an animal, some a grave marker of a noble warrior, still others the skin of a bear or wolf. Any of these forms, and countless others, were suitable for holding the power of the tribal spirits. Any of them could serve as the Totem.
Kimi stood straight. She lowered her head and closed her eye. She prayed to The Great Spirit. She waited. Minutes passed. No voice. No vision. Nothing. She raised her head and opened her eye. She was on her own. No. That was not true. She felt as though she was on her own, but she knew that feelings most often were deceiving. This was simply the way it was between her and The Great Spirit. It was as elemental to her life as air was to breathing. Stories had been passed down through the generations of ancestors who had heard directly from The Great Spirit, or had been visited by a Vision, or had been given a Revelation by other means, all of which served to guide them in their lives. She’d even heard rumors of Achak being given a sign after spending an entire night offering up petitions.
No matter how long they were, or what form they took, Kimi’s petitions had never once been answered with any sign or vision or voice. Still, she continued seeking The Great Spirit’s guidance, always knowing that her petitions did not go unheard, always believing that The Great Spirit was there, guiding and sustaining her. She had no other choice but to be sure of that much.
Kimi looked to the east. She would go in that direction for no other reason than it would bring her closer to the rising sun, which, for now, was hidden by the gray clouds speeding across the sky. Perhaps heading east, The Great Spirit willing, would draw her closer to Achak.
Closer to her twin brother.