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"I am done, you three may go..." Yaan said.

The blue scaled woman nodded, then looked down at Morgana, "You are welcome," She withdrew the water from Morgana's hand and returned it to her pouch, closing it as she turned and walked out of the room.

The other two stopped their prayers, and bowed their heads and they too left.

Yaan limped over to Torvil with a cup of tea, handing it to him to drink, he then picked up Morgana's hand, and ran his fingers over the blisters, popping them and then running his fingers over the wound, leaving nothing but unblemished skin behind.

He then moved and sat in the chair at Torvil's desk looking at the two of them.

"You took an outsider to the sacred place, she knows the way now..." Yaan started, his eyes not on Morgana, but on Torvil.

"Yes, I did..." Torvil said, after finishing the tea and placing it beside him, pulling Morgana into his lap to hold her closer to him, his arms around her waist.

"You did the Rite of the Lost Ones, without the proper help or assistance, and showed an outsider one of our most sacred rites, at the risk of losing yourself to the endless dream..."

"Yes, I did..." Torvil seemed to sit taller, his eyes growing sharper, and his jaw setting.

"Why?" Yaan asked, his eyes narrow now, his jaw also set.

"Because I love her, and I wish to marry her?" Torvil said his face calm and stern.

"Do you have her father's permission?" Yaan asked.

"Yes," Torvil lied, looking at Morgana. "I do,"

"Bring him here then, I want his word," Yaan seemed unconvinced.

Torvil lifted his head and glared at Yaan. "Do you not trust my word?"

"You brought an outsider to our most sacred place, showed her our most sacred rite, that is sacrilege and blasphemy..." Yaan's voice had become more clear and defined as he spoke.

"Frankly Shaman Yaan, I disagree, she is to be my wife, regardless of what you say, and I love her, and I wanted to show her my people and I wanted to show her my parents, there was only one way to do that and I made my choice, your problem is with me, not with her, do not punish her for my mistakes. If she is to be my wife, she should know my people, and I showed her what I did so that she could learn our ways, if you cannot respect that Shaman, then I am sorry, but our friendship will have to end."

Yaan jumped out of the chair and pointed his finger in Torvil's face. "Do not preach to me man-child, I was shaman before you were born, before your father was born, and before your father's father was born, you are defying the old ways, as you have before and I will not have it, I had hoped you would come to your senses but I see that is not the case! If you wish to marry her fine! But she must prove that she is one of us!"

Torvil's eyes turned steely. "No, she has nothing to prove to you or anyone else..."

"She must prove herself to me... Or I will refuse to give my blessing for this union to the High Priestess and advise her to decline the wedding..." Yaan looked at Morgana, there was no anger or malice in his eyes, only sadness, like a part of his life was being taken forever from him.

"She will go through the Rite of the Hunt, or there will be no wedding, I will return for her tomorrow, once you are better and can be apart."

With that he moved to the door, turning to look at Morgana one last time, then limped out of the curtain with an angry huff.

Torvil sat there in silence, looking at his lap.

"That soulless son of a b***h..." Torvil growled low in his throat. "That no good, slime sucking b*****d... GODS I WANT TO KILL HIM!" Torvil shouted, jumping to his feet and slamming his fists hard into the wall, causing small cracks to appear in the stone. Taking a step back from the wall he rubbed the bottom of his hands, checking them for scrapes and seeing they were bruised. Shaking his head he sat down behind Morgana, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on her left shoulder and pulling her in close to him.

"This changes nothing," He said gently, kissing her cheek, then her ear. "But I will have to explain the rite to you... If Yaan wants to play hardball, then we're going to play hardball..."

Torvil touched her cheek. "Yaan wouldn't get like this over a stupid wolf love... Even if they are his favorite animal... They're on of his sub totems in fact, a rare thing even among shamans... But no... He's just being... a bigot..."

Torvil looked away, not wanting Morgana to see the hurt in his eyes from saying that statement about his old friend. Once he was able to control his emotions he turned back to her.

"You won't be out there alone, another will go with you, whoever will go with you, I would go, but I fear Yaan will attempt to block that... You will have to kill an animal of some kind, and return with proof of your kill, a head or some other vital organ, or it's skin. Your partner will be your guardian and your watcher to make sure you actually killed the beast, should you become too injured to carry on, they will return you... Weather or not you have killed the beast or not... Some have died on this rite..." Shaking his head he took her hand. "Whatever you do, you must not go North... There is a tribe of dragons there, not like us, the ancient kind, the kind that spawned this tribe... They are feral but they are SMART... I went north..." He closed his eyes, "I lucked out... and found a wounded planes dragon, no wings, it was old, sick, and weak, I was able to take it down easily..." rubbing his shoulder he frowned. "I was scarred badly in that encounter... Something I do not like to talk about..."

Suddenly his filled with fear. "Whatever you do, do NOT let Yaan force you to go north, please, if he says that is the way you must go, whatever you do, argue that it is not his choice..." Closing his eyes he took a deep breath. "He... May be able to force you to go that way, he knows more of the law of rites than I do..."

Shaking his head he looked back at Morgana. "You will be given a dagger, and a bow and a quiver of arrows... Make sure your shots are clean and good, you don't want to have to fight with your dagger..."

"Morgana... My people..." Taking a deep breath he sighed. "To us, all life is the same, Dragons are no different from the beasts we hunt for food, the plants we raise to eat... All life to us has a purpose, a meaning... I know other cultures view animals as stupid or lesser, I'm not sure how forests elves feel about them, probably closer to how my people do than anyone else, but I won't presume... When that wolf attacked you today, it did not do so out of malice, it did not do so out of hate... It did so to survive, to eat... I do not hate the wolf for causing you harm, I am not angry at it, it was doing what it needed to do. You killed it to protect yourself, just as it would have killed to prevent itself from being eaten. The furs we lie on now came from such a beast as that... I killed it for it's meat and it's fur, so that I might eat and have a warm place to sleep..." reaching out he placed his hand under her chin and lifted it so he could look into her eyes.

"When you hunt, that is what you must remember, these are creatures with spirit, with souls that burn as hot as ours, with blood in their veins and energy in their lives. We hunt to live, we hunt to prove that we may walk among them without fear. Death is but part of life... We kill to eat as they do, and we are thankful for their sacrifice." Standing slowly, Torvil walked to his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a long black claw about the size of his forearm. Walking back, he handed it out to Morgana. "This... Is just one of the many things I brought back from my kill, the rest of it are on my ceremonial dress, something you may see later given time..." If you go north, this is what you will have to deal with..."

"Love... You don't have to prove anything to me or my people... I am proud of you as is..." Looking at her he smiles, and bows his head at her descision. At her question he frowns again.

"They can last... Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how long it takes to find the animal you feel you need to kill... The animal you kill... Becomes your personal totem below your God Totem... I am a servant of the Hawk, my my totem is a Dragon..." Standing he moved to a small alcove covered by a door, pulling it open he pulled out a small ivory figure, holding it out to her it was carved in the shape of a dragon. "This is a fang from the dragon I killed, carved into my personal totem... I use this to center myself... for certain rites..."

Smiling at her he placed it in her hand. "I want you to take it with you on the hunt... for luck..." Turning around he went back to the alcove, pulling out a leather cord and returning, looping it through a hole in the totem making a crude necklace out of it, then placed it on Morgana's neck, so it rested against the bloodstone.

Torvil chuckled and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Oh I will... And if he doesn't there will be hell to pay, by doing this, you become one of us... By becoming one of us you have the rights we all do, not that you didn't before but you get what I mean... All the clans will side with you at that point, because you are one of us..."

Thinking a moment he smirked. "We haven't had a servant of the Serpent marry into the Hawk clan for a very, very long time..."

Torvil chuckled. "There are five clans... The Dragon, the Boar, the Hawk, the Serpent, and the Toad... The Boar are those who control earth, The Hawks air, the Serpents fire, and the Toad water. The Dragon clan is the clan that takes all who join the military and are an amalgam of all the other clans, and where most black and white dragons are born..." Torvil smiled and rubbed her back.

"Your ability to produce heat, makes you a Servant of the Serpant..."