My skills arrived like the flash of first spark on the bonfire. Not surprising, for I was to be a shapeshifting fire warrior. A group of us bairn were running through the field between our village and the forest. It was the year most of us would come of age, so we were given the freedom to be wild for parts of the day.

“Be back before dusk!” Anana yelled from the group of healers watching us race while they minded the younger bairn.

The cicadas were loud in the hot summer afternoon and an eagle was flying overhead. How amazing it would be if I could fly like that. No one would beat me to the mountain lake if I had wings. I would have the first blissful jump in the waters before anyone else. As I ran through the grasses up the hill, I closed my eyes with my arms outstretched and imagined...

Suddenly, I was flying – without even trying, I was in the air.

I was shocked. Those were not my arms, nor my fingers, but feathers. A current of air ran through them. That screech was not my voice. Startled, I dropped to the ground, a stumbling mess.

The others ran to me as I regained myself, yelling at each other as they came closer.

“Kala’s a shifter!”

“Did you see that? She was an eagle before she fell!”

“Kala, are you ok?” came Pasha’s voice as he stood over me. Pasha, my childhood friend; with his dark hair, dark eyes, constant smirk, and always chiding. He was a cross between a fox and a bear. In that moment he looked more like a concerned father bear than the mischievous friend I had been running beside.

I stared at the sky for a minute, panting, and grinned back at him.

I wanted to do it again. I stood, leapt in the air and sought to soar. So it was done – I flew to the lake in eagle form. They chased me on the ground below, but I was the one to have first plunge in the waters that day.

**

We lived upon a vast forested mountain range. The wild creatures and plants of the land existed in harmony with us through the magic of the universal pools. Magnificent beasts like the mammoths we rode over long distances, elegant horses that ran the grasslands, majestic stags that watched from the hilltops, and the many wondrous birds that filled the skies and trees. There were rivers and streams that wove through the lands, deep mountain lakes with cool waters that we swam in during hot summer days, and waterfalls so stunning one could lose their senses in the churning energies.

Our tribal village arose in a large clearing deep within the forest. A golden field of grasses filled the eastern side, bordered by a mix of grand trees. Our homes and meeting hall filled the western side before the wall of trees rose again. A stream flowed around the northern side, meandering through the western woods, before turning south to join with a great river that ran to a large lake. North beyond the stream, the forest filled the valley up to the mountainside, with its glacial waters, cliffs, outcroppings, and snowcaps.

My mother was the queen of our tribe – an oracle and a shapeshifter. In my lineage the women are granted a gift of our mother’s, in addition to one of our own from the universal pools. This is why our line of women has always led the tribe; we have always been granted two gifts to carry our leadership and support our people. We are meant to lead while also fulfilling our individual purpose.

My father, Talos, was not our king. He was known as my mother’s consort and an important member of our council. He was a crafter by the gifts of the pools; those are the ones with the gift to weave, build, and invent as the tribe needed and the ways of wood were his domain.

I came to be a shapeshifter through my mother; the pools granted me the gift of fire keeper. Meile, my sister, was an oracle, keeper of tribal stories and seer of future paths like our mother, but also a healer by her own gift. She and I were like night and day – she had the golden hair and blue eyes of our father, while I had the dark hair and hazel eyes of our mother. She was the calm and brilliance of the moon in her temperament, and I was the fiery passion of the sun blazing through the sky. Yet these differences only seemed to bring us closer to each other. Difference is something to celebrate, not a source for competition, shame, or envy.

Meile and I would lead the tribe together when we were older and our mother was gone. Of course our paths could always shift, just as our mother and her twin sister took – one could be called to leave and the other to stay and lead.

**

Once everyone knew I inherited the gift of shapeshifting, curiosity about my personal gift grew. It was not long after that my drawing of the fire spirits happened. Pasha and I discovered it together one afternoon. We had been sitting in the grasses near the river, watching the water, and teasing each other as we often did. He fell silent and waved his hand just above the ground.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Nothing.” He replied quickly.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“I feel it,” he whispered, “like it’s heating my hands.” He tentatively returned my stare, almost shy, something I wasn’t used to seeing in him.

I tried what he was doing. “I don’t feel anything,” I replied simply.

“Close your eyes,” he said. “Don’t try, just feel.”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, being serious for a minute. A tingling flowed over me. Everything felt heightened. Then there it was, like a pooling heat, drawing up from the earth. A small, swirling warmth collected in my palms.

I opened my eyes and grinned at him. “I feel it.”

“We shall be fire warriors together, Kala.” He nudged his shoulder against mine.

I laughed because we had a long way to go before becoming fire warriors. One had to master being a fire keeper before even being offered to train as a warrior. As I thought this, though, I realized being a fire warrior would indeed be the purpose that awaited me; it would be expected of me as a future queen able to protect her people.