Aaliyah walked slowly along the cliff edge, letting the breeze caress her gently. She turned into it, wanting to feel how it played along her fur. She'd always felt the wind was a friend, it could be playful or stern, it brought the story of its travels with the scents it carried, and it brought storms that washed the land clean. Sometimes, it whispered secrets and sometimes it howled them.
She'd often felt a kinship to it, sent this way and that by the whim of the gods, yet still somehow making the journey its own. Perhaps that is why she had been sent to the Sky Clan. Did the wind wish to tell her that it was still here with her, and still her friend, even though everything had changed?
Aaliyah smiled wanly as the wind ruffled her ears, closing her violet eyes as she leaned into it, letting the full brunt of the gusts play around her. What had she always been taught, what had her mentor always whispered to her, and she in turn had whispered to Lahiu? The no matter what occurred, or how it may feel that the gods had not heard your prayers, you still were the link between them and the Pride. You still were what you were.
Wasn't that the same now? She was still Aaliyah, still a dream-walker. Nothing would erase the training she had received since before she was born, or change that the gods walked close beside her, even if the Pride she'd been sworn to had been taken away, but really...who had they been taken away from? Not the ancestors, nor the gods...they were with them now, and just by that fact, had they really been taken from her? Unlike Kenan, or any others who may have survived, she could still touch them, could still care for the friends and family that were no longer 'here'. She was still their shaman, and still a healer.
Kenan had a lot to offer the Sky Clan, but then, so did she. It was different here, with only one dream-walker among the clan, she'd never hold that position again, at least not for the foreseeable future, but she was a skilled healer, and she was good with the sick and injured. Perhaps if she spoke to the shaman of the Sky Clan, they might have a place for her.
The wind skipped around her, ruffling her bangs, as if praising her for suddenly understanding what it had been trying to tell her for the past moons she'd been so lost, and it made her dunk her head ruefully. She'd been so caught up in what she no longer had, she forgot what she could never lose. Herself..and her beloved.
Lifting her chin to the wind, she smiled and began to laugh softly, acknowledging that the lesson had been learned, and she knew now that the winds of change were not about loss, but about acceptance, and having the will to allow them to take her will they would. Turning, with a much lighter heart, and a sense of purpose, Aalyiah made her way down from the cliffs and back to the den where Kenan waited solid and steady, and where she belonged.
Belonging, there was a word that was heavy with meaning. Could she ever really belong here among the Ela'wadiyi? Were they so very different from the Pride she grew up in, that she had dedicated her life too, but there are things that were the same no matter what name you called which god by. They loved, and dedicated themselves to mates, treated their cubs with affection and brought them up with the deep connection of where they came from and why the rituals and traditions were as they were.
Wasn't that the same in her and Kenan's Pride? She herself had tought the young juvenile females that had been chosen to become dream-walkers. Laid the foundation for what they would need to know of their role in the Pride. She saw that here, as young began to learn the foundations of Ela'wadiyi life. Could she learn them as well?
She desired to, more for Kenan then for herself, but that was what love often was, doing for the other and not yourself more often then not. It would take time to approach the Clan Shaman, and to see if they had need for a healer. She was very skilled, and confidant in that skill, but these lions, who so graciously took them in did not know her as anything more than a drifter who sought acceptance and sanctuary among them. So first, she would have to show that she could offer more that another mouth to feed and the strength of her mate.
Aalyiah's education had run to her specialized skill for the most part, but she had been taught the fundamentals of hunting, and at times she had enjoyed going with Kenan on small game hunts. She'd not done to poorly on them. Perhaps that was the way to find a foot hold within the Pride. They always seemed to need hunters and with the addition of the new members like herself and Kenan, there were more mouths to feed.
Nodding to herself as she turned down the last switch backs that lead to the dens, Aaliyah felt in her heart this was exactly where she needed to start. As if to agree with her, the wind that had guided her this far played with the feather in her hair, a mark of her being part of the Ela'wadiyi, a part of the Sky Clan, but being a part of it wasn't the same as belonging to it, and it was time she did. It didn't mean she loved her other Clan any less, it just meant that she could accept that this would be her home now.
Feeling much better than she had in weeks, Aaliyah held her head high as she approached her and her mate's den. He should be there, still napping, with any luck. She knew Kenan would help her approach the head huntress and get her into the next hunting party. “ Beloved! Beloved!” she called, the tension and grief in her voice gone, while around her the wind of change played, welcoming her home.
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