At least, they had found it! The sacred Totem of Elvira! Right where their shaman, Tonai the Fire-Freezer, had told them!
They had had to run upriver for the last week, only stopping for sleeping and eating at midday, using the shadows to cover themselves from the heat of the sun. They had managed to conquer the one village that stood between them and the totem, only at the loss of a few scores of men, men that would sorely be missed for the next battle, but whom would receive the recognition of having died for their tribe and would be buried with all honours in the small cemetery of the warriors.
They had sent their bodies downriver, having taken down a couple of trees to make a raft that would hold all the dead men in it and would not sink on it's travel towards their town. The Tar river was all along a peaceful river, with no waterfalls nor fast zones, so their travel would be calm and peaceful. Their wives and families would mourn them for five days, as it was the custom among the Tartes people, before shedding their mourning robes aside and continued with their lives like they did before. They would remind them for their courage in taking on the enemy, and celebrate what they had done every year in the Warrior's Dawn, one of the most important feasts Tartes celebrated. They would not be allowed to mourn them in public unless it was on the Warrior's Dawn, however.
As they approximated the Totem of Elvira, with care, as if it was about to strike at them (one never knew their way around magic) when a powerful voice thundered.
"STOP!"
All the warriors stopped. All of them knew that voice, as he was the religious leader of the tribe, as well as the only practicant of magic they had. Tonai, called the Fire-Freezer because his powerful magic once managed to, literally, freeze a bonfire, walked to the front of the group of warriors and faced them.
"Do not give one step further, please," Tonai asked with a soft voice, that nonetheless carried to all of the Tartes soldiers that were near. "The divinity that inhabits this totem might get angry if we do something that could irritate it, and should that happen then this totem will lose all of its power."
"Yes, Tonai," the boss of the warriors said, and respectfully gave one step back, a motion that was imitated by all the other soldiers, giving Tonai enough space to act as he had to.
The shaman, after having scolded the soldiers, closed his eyes and kneeled towards the totem, repeating on his mind the words of power the already dead Omarc had told him during his training.
These words, that only passed from Shaman to Shaman of the tribe of Tartes, were a secret that no one that wasn't Shaman or training to be one could know, and so deeply ingrained in the mind of Shaman that could only come out when they concentrated on them, cutting off their senses to the physical world so that, upon falling into their trance, they would reach the spiritual world and utter those words to call out the divinity that lived in the totem.
Slowly, Tonai felt how he lost his hearing, then the light that shone over him stopped to enter through his closed eyelids and to burn his skin, and finally the smell of the jungle stopped to enter through his nose. It was then when his mind liberated the words from its hold, words that could not be translated into any language known to man, as they were words of power that only the Gods could understand.
The darkness in which Tonai stayed was quite overwhelming, but slowly cleared away to give way to a small meadow, surrounded by trees and with a small river at a side. Then, suddenly, a few metres from him materialized a woman, the most beautiful and erotically attractive woman he had ever seen in his life. Long, black hair that reached a point lower than her shoulders; oval face from where her astonishing blue eyes and her red lips stood out; slightly tanned skin; firm, round breasts that were more revealed than hidden by the white robe she was wearing, and long tanned legs that came out from the side cuts in the robe.
Tonai was truly fascinated by the sight, and the strong allure of the woman overrode anything else within his mind. He gave a step towards her. He was very attracted to her, he needed to possess her, claim her as his, take her as his wife!
The word wife made him stop right on his tracks, as the memory of his wife, Elean (a brown-haired, green-eyed woman with whom he had a five-month-old baby boy), jumped into his mind. The unwritten laws of the tribe stated that, for a man to be allowed to act as Cacique or Shaman, they had to be married: the first so that he had a companion that could advise him and help him heal from the pains of war, the second so that he (or she) had an anchor to the physical world.
The memory of Elean, the woman he loved above anyone else, allowed him to control the allure the woman in front of him was exercising on him and cast it away. He concentrated on Elean to make sure that this strange woman didn't affect him as much as she had before. Thus, he closed his eyes, the picture of Elean clear in his mind, and bowed.
"My Lady, I hope that you are well in this day."
Although he couldn't see it, he felt that the woman smiled. "Greetings, Tonai the Fire-Freezer, from the tribe of Tartes. You have surpassed the test I always set for anyone who tries to reach this totem and use it. You are the first that has managed to control his primal feelings and has not tried to force himself upon me. Of course, none of them were able to, as in the moment they touched me they immediately died and their bodies dried up and were turned into dust. If I may ask, what was that helped you?"
"It was the memory of my wife, My Lady," Tonai answered.
"She must be truly a wonderful woman, to be loved so much by you," the woman said.
"She is, My Lady. She recently gave birth to a healthy boy."
"That boy is truly the greatest proof of the love you and your wife hold for each other," the lady answered. "Your fidelity to your wife will have a great reward, indeed. From now on, this totem will be a part of your tribe, and its magical power will add to yours and those that follow on your steps. As a last reward to you, please wait for a few moments."
Then, the woman disappeared, and Tonai opened his eyes, having felt that the strange woman - the goddess that lived in the totem - had already left. He stood in the middle of the meadow, not knowing what was going on, when other woman appeared in there. This woman, he recognised: it was his wife.
"Elean!" he shouted, running towards her, and hugging her.
"Tonai?" she asked, confused. "What is this place? What am I doing here? I remember having gone to our bed after feeding Joel and falling asleep."
Tonai rapidly explained to his wife what had happened, without leaving out what he had been about to do. She had gotten a bit angry when he said that he had wanted to have sex with the goddess, but then she smiled when hearing that it had been his memory of her what had stopped him from doing something stupid.
"Tonai," she said, after he finished his short tale, "you are so wonderful."
"I love you, Elean," Tonai said, resting his forehead against hers.
"I love you too, Tonai," she replied, and kissed him. The sweet kiss soon turned passionate, as the two of them let loose of their inhibitions and their clothes, leaving them totally naked as they made love in their dream world.
****----****----****----****----****----****----****
"It has started," the Goddess of Love said with a shining smile. "The One has just been conceived from the Fire-Freezer and his wife. May he have a long and prosperous life upon him and his line."
OOC: Too mushy, no? I knew it. Hey, I think it's the most original story in here (not that there have been a lot of stories), and it gives me something to write about in the future.
@DarthNader: yeah, why not?
, but when you get near enough, I am probably dead next turn...
