Tika Tika

What is love, really? Tika smiled and touched her finger to her lips. she pondered the question as much as she could. After these few days, Tika would have no room to think of love. Although she was young, Tika's wandering innocence would soon be gone.

Tika sat in the sand writing words of wisdom that she had heard from her mother-Words of blessing and fertility. The moon overhead watched her progression from girl to woman in the course of a couple of days. Tika shifted uncomfortably and remembered why she was here. The other girls were fast asleep in the menstrual hut, curled up together for comfort and union. Tika wasn't sure that she belonged with them. She felt different from the other dancers. when the girls circled the plaze in gyrating trembling bodies, Tika was always sneaking away into the forest to dance alone. Under the eyes of her friends the stars, Tika would move gracefully until she reached a state of euphoria and simplicity. She believed that at that moment in her life, Tika could almost touch the one. Her heart burst as she teetered on teh edge of nothing and fell over for just those few seconds. Even though it was not long, Tika could feel the truth of everything. Then, when the air of her surroundings brought her back into her own eyes, Tika would cry to return to the other place. She could never understand why she had to come back from the vision. After her dance was over, Tika would fall asleep under the pines and dream. There, Raven would come and make her laugh. As the sun rose, Wolf would shake her from her dream and remind her to go be the daughter of her mother once more. Tika would scowl at wolf and trudge back to the village with leaves in her hair. Mother would shake her head and shove a bowl of rabbit stew under Tika's nose. After her meal, Tika's mother would send her off to pick berries and herbs. It wasnt until her curse came that Tika's mother started to act different. Her mother was now stern and withdrawn from Tika. Her only concern was to get Tika out of her hut and into patek's household.

Tika's sadness welled up inside her and she leaned against the pole of the hut. Her breath came curling out and tickled the end of her nose. Her finger drew a long curving line that circled itself around and around-the spiral of life. Tika had watched her mother create this symbol time and again but had no real idea what it meant. Her finger pulled trails through the sand making the spiral come to life. Then with the next symbol, Tika pulled two lines downward-parallels. She had the strangest urge to write an animal's name and so she wrote the name of wolf upon the ground.

She held her breath and looked at what she had created. It was still a mystery. Tika read her writing aloud to herself.

"The great spiral of life, the river, the wolf."

Tika frowned and tilted her head.

"Now what does that mean?" Tika bit her lip and felt the curse causing her stomach to knot up and contract. Tika groaned and chewed another piece of horsetail.

The moon grew brighter as well as the stars. All around the little camp, wolf and raven watched from their hiding places. A game, a gamble...this is what life was to the twins. Light and dark would always war with each other but it was up to the people to keep the unity and balance among them. There was a girl who held the secrets to this unity. She was brought to earth by birds and promised that her wings would be returned to her when she first found her love and mate. Tika held the dreams and they came when the spirit of night fell upon her. Tika knew not of her gifts of prophesy and healing. She was meerly a girl, a girl who had already been given to the young warrior, Patek. Tika wasn't in love with Patek, and so she would never see her wings returned to her.

Tika looked at mother moon and smiled. "I want to return to you mother, for with you only,can I fly free. Raven laughs at me and wolf is too stern. I have no place among the people nor among the spirits...take me home."

The other girls stirred in the hut and groaned. Tika jumped in surprise as Neha snatched back the hide and gave her a mean look. Neha was very familiar with the curse and felt that Tika must be taken care of on her first stay in the hut. The older girl stared at Tika and motioned for her to return to the hut. Other girls rose from their mats and rubbed their eyes. Tika exhaled and rolled her eyes. With a swipe of her little brown hand, she erased all meaning of the wolf, the river and the spiral of life. As she turned to look at Neha once more, Tika felt a spirit waver before  her and shake time itself. A breeze fluttered the back of her head and pulled her long auburn hair out in both directions. Tika turned back to the ground and saw the spirit's message.

"U de li da U tse li dv."

..and drawn upon the earth there, was the contenance of Raven... wings outspread.