Animal Spirits (1)

Raine was on holiday with her four friends. They’d toured and trekked and played, and now they stood in a bustling marketplace, eating food from a street vendor and wondering where to go next. Zane pointed to a storefront down the street. There was a sign board out the front. Find your spirit animal.

“I want to find my spirit animal!” he said.

The five friends strolled towards the tiny shop. It seemed to sell crystals and power stones, incense and other spirit-inclined goods. The sign at the front seemed to be a temporary promotion. They all looked at one another. There was certainly no harm.

Tory shrugged. “Depends on how much it costs, I guess,” she said indifferently.

The others nodded in agreement.

“As long as it doesn’t break the bank, I don’t care how much it is, I’m finding my spirit animal!” Zane was really pumped, and his enthusiasm was infectious. The five of them squeezed into the shop, brushing past wind chimes and bells, creating an accompaniment for their movement.

When all five had somehow manoeuvred themselves into the space in front of the counter, a smiling woman appeared through the beaded curtain to the back of the store.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

Despite his enthusiasm, Zane didn’t take the lead, and Raine stepped forward. “We’re here about finding our spirit animals.”

The woman gave a glance back at the beaded curtain. As though he had been listening and waiting for this, a man made his way out. He didn’t look at them or say anything, but gestured for them to go through to the back room.

Raine hesitated for a moment when Tory gave her a meaningful look. “About the cost …”

The man looked straight into her eyes and gave a wry smile. “For a group? There will only be one cost.”

“Sounds good to me.” Zane was the first one to go through the beaded curtain. Dave and Adam followed behind him, then Tory. Raine was transfixed by the eyes of the man. They seemed to glow. Tory pulled on her hand to drag her along behind them, and Raine managed to tear her gaze away.

The back room contained a table and two chairs, and they all filed in and stood in a semicircle around them. The man came in last. He stood in front of them all.

“I am a shaman, from a long line of shamans. I shall unlock your spirit animals, but you won’t find out what they are here today.”

“Unlock? The sign said we’d find our spirit animals,” Zane said.

“And find them you shall. It’s not an instant process, though.”

“Then what are we paying you for today, then?” Tory asked.

“Today is a spirit ceremony allowing your animal guide to find you,” the shaman said solemnly. “If you would prefer to come back and pay me once the results have appeared, I wouldn’t object ...”

“No, it’s fine,” Raine said. “We’ll pay you to conduct the ceremony, it doesn’t matter about the results for now.”

The shaman met her eyes again and gave another of his small smiles. “Then the subject of payment? I would say four dollars for each of you who I manage to unlock a spirit animal for.”

“Four dollars? You’re not in this for the money, are you?”

“It’s a group discount. I only need to complete one ceremony for all of you, and that brings the total to twenty dollars. Unless some of you do not possess a spirit animal, then I might lose out.”

“How will you know if we do or not?” Adam asked.

“The ceremony will reveal it.” He bowed his head solemnly. “I will get things ready.” He opened the back door and walked out, leaving the five friends in the room.

“Well, he’s creepy, isn’t he?” Dave shrugged. “Looks like we’re paying for the whole experience.”

“I was kind of just expecting to sit down at the table and for him to give us an animal each, but this is better.” Tory said.

“Yeah.” Raine looked over to the beaded curtain. Something about the whole situation was making her nervous, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to go through with it. She opened her mouth to say so, but a cloud of pink smoke billowed in from the open back door.

“Nice!” Zane said.

The shaman walked back into the room through the smoke, waving a stick of incense and chanting something softly.

He approached Raine first. “Breathe in the incense, and it will attract your spirit guide to you,” he whispered, waving the stick in front of her face. He didn’t need to tell her, she had no choice but to breathe it in. It smelled sweet, and left a sweet taste in her mouth, too. The shaman moved onto Tory and whispered something to her as well, waving the stick in her face, too.

He went to each of the five crowded in a semi-circle, and then stepped on one of the chairs to get onto the table, chanting again. The room filled with the incense and the pink smoke, clouding everything. Raine felt a slight twinge in her chest, and suddenly the room was clear. The shaman was sitting at the table now.

“All of you had spirit animals to unlock,” he informed them.

“Surprise, surprise,” Tory muttered.

The shaman’s gaze moved over to Raine again. “Your spirit animal is special, though.”

“What does that mean?”

He tilted his head in a shrug-like manner. “I’m not sure. It is something I haven’t felt before. It should be amazing.”

The five friends paid the shaman and exited the shop, excitement buzzing around them.

“Well, that was an experience,” Adam said.

“Yeah, and that shaman was totally hitting on Raine.” Tory nudged Raine.

Raine felt her face get hot. “No, he wasn’t. It was totally creepy.”

Zane stepped out in front of her. “You’re the chosen one,” he said, wriggling his fingers in front of her face.

Raine smacked his hands away. “I am not.” She looked up into the sky. It had been around midday when they’d entered the store, and now the sun was low in the sky. “How long were we in there for, anyway?”

“Longer than we thought,” David said with a frown. “He shrugged. “Oh well, back to the hotel. It’s time to drink away our last night here!”

There was a cheer of agreement. Raine cheered to, letting the whole shaman experience sink to the back of her mind.

Three months later, Raine sat on the beach beside Tory, reminiscing about their trip.

“Remember that shaman?” she said, and laughed. “He was totally hitting on you.”

“He was not!” Raine laughed and slapped her shoulder.

“Hey.” Tory suddenly stopped laughing and looked into the distance. “What’s that?”

Raine looked over in the direction Tory was looking, confused as to what would change her mood so abruptly. The beach wasn’t busy, there were a few sunbathers and a couple of surfers in the waves, but Tory was looking over at the rocks to the side. Raine couldn’t see anything.

“I can’t see what you’re seeing. What’s what?”

Tory got to her feet and started walking over to the rocks. Raine jumped up to follow her. Tory had set a fast pace, and Raine almost had to run to keep up.

“Hey, hey, what is it?” Raine asked, worried.

Tory just stared straight ahead, driven by something Raine couldn’t see. Once they got to the rocks, Raine was already a few steps behind, and Tory managed to pick up her pace.

“Tory, be careful!” Raine had to slow down, trying to find footing on the uneven rocks, and her friend pulled even further ahead. Tory reached the water’s edge and bent down. Raine sighed, relieved that she was finally still, but Tory jumped into the water. She disappeared from view, and Raine scrambled to get to the edge as quickly as she could. Her friend was no longer visible, and Raine frantically searched the water’s surface for any sign of her.

“Tory! Tory!” Raine didn’t know if she should get in the water after her. If Tory had been taken by something, wouldn’t she be caught, too? Panicked, she could only look around. Minutes passed, and it felt like forever. Then Raine saw someone surface quite a distance away from the shore, on the other side of the breaking waves.

Tory waved at her, completely calm despite the situation. Raine jumped into the sea after her, feeling a strong motivation to slap her friend, or at least yell at her.

“What do you think you’re doing!” Raine demanded as she approached her friend. She would have grabbed Tory’s shoulders, but they were both swimming at the moment, and it wasn’t exactly the smartest decision right now.

Tory tilted her head slightly. “I’m following the seal,” she said, as if it were obvious.

“Following … you’re … what?”

In the face of Wen’s confusion, Tory just got excited. “My spirit animal guide, Raine. It’s a seal!”

Raine didn’t know what to do with the friend who was clearly having an episode while floating in the ocean. She spoke in a calm voice. “Tory, I think we should go back to shore. Then we can talk a little about the –”

“The seal!” Tory giggled like a child as the marine mammal she was just talking about made its appearance. Raine was dumbfounded. Where did a seal come from? The seal brushed its head against Tory’s arm.

“He told me you were scared and looking for me, so I thought we should meet up so you won’t worry when I go.”

“Go?” Raine was on the verge of screaming again. “Where could you possibly go? Don’t follow the seal, come back to shore with me.”

“But he’s my spirit animal guide, Raine. I need to follow him.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because he told me. I’ve never been able to understand a seal before now, so it seems logical.”

“None of this seems logical. What if you’re having a mental break?”

Tory gave this some thought for a moment. “That’s possible …”

This comment threw Raine off again. Did people having breakdowns seriously consider the fact that they might be having one? She shook her head and held out her hand to Tory. “Let’s go back to shore.”

Tory shook her head. “We let that shaman do the ritual for a reason. So I’m going to believe that this seal speaking to me is the real deal, and I’ll follow him.”

The seal seemed to give an imperceptible nod, and stared at Raine. She had to admit, the seal was acting in a very strange manner for a wild animal. This was either an elaborate prank, or it was the real deal. Raine gazed sternly at the seal.

“You’d better bring her back safely,” she told him. Then she looked at Tory. “Be careful?”

“Of course!”

With that, the seal dived down into the water and Tory followed. Raine sighed. Was she crazy for going along with this? She looked back to shore. This wasn’t exactly a safe place to be, it was a good thing she hadn’t been caught in a rip while she’d been floating out here. Exhausted, she swam back to shore, trying not to dwell on strange things.

On the beach, Raine had a new dilemma: was she supposed to wait for Tory, or just go home?