The Chameleon Shop

They followed Gerard for a short way until he stopped in the middle of the woods and looked around. Kaylee wondered if perhaps he’d taken the wrong path.

‘The village is here?’ Kaylee asked, utterly confused as she looked at the empty clearing in front of her. She wondered if maybe it was there and perhaps it was just that the village and its people were invisible. She walked into the clearing, Willy wrapped around her neck like a scarf as usual, with her hands out in front of her like a blind person, to feel for objects that she might walk in to but could not see.

’What are you doing?’ Jett asked.

‘Nothing,’ she said, dropping her hands quickly, feeling a bit stupid and feigning innocence.

‘Up there is where you’ll find them,’ he chuckled. High above them in the treetops, at varying levels, were rows of magnificent tree houses of differing sizes and styles. Willy started to screech and wave his little hands. In approval, she guessed, because he leapt up a tree and disappeared to explore.

‘The Shaman had never trusted Wilfrey or his crone. She convinced the villagers to build up there, because gargoyles found it very difficult to climb, as did hagars.’ Jett told her.

There was a large central hut on the ground, a little further into the bush, with a cone shaped ceiling. Concentric patterns of beams fanned out around the central pole like the spine of an umbrella, with a hole to let the smoke out. This was where the villagers’ shared meals and had meetings and such.

Someone must have informed the Shaman of their arrival, because they saw the white-haired elderly woman climb slowly down her ladder to come help Gerard with the injured wolf. ‘In the meetinghouse, friend,’ she told the giant, not wanting to waste time with introductions just yet.

His massive slow steps thumped through the village and with one hand he bent down and gently placed the wolf on a bed of straw inside. ‘Hope he better soon,’ he said to the healer and turned to go back to wherever it was he lived in the woods.

The Shaman spoke low and calmly to the frightened wolf. A leather bag hung over her shoulder from which she pulled out some sort of plant with a yellow flower. She chewed up the plant for a few minutes, then gently spread the masticated mix on the wolf’s wound.

‘That will help him heal?’ Kaylee asked her.

She nodded and said, ‘Nature gives us much medicine in plant form. But I caution you child, you must be careful, for some are poisonous and will kill. Stay away from those.’ She pointed at some orange and white fungus in a wooden bowl on the table.

Without thinking Kaylee blurted out, ‘If they kill, why have you got a bowl full in here?’

The shaman wrapped the wolf’s leg with soft leather and gave him a sip of water, letting him lap it up from the palm of her hand before answering. ‘We use the poison on our arrow tips to fend off the hagars.’ She stroked the wolf under his chin. ‘I’m thinking you won’t need a blanket tonight, young one. Your coat will keep the chills away. Sleep. I will check on you soon.’

Jett led Kaylee to where the villagers had gathered around a central fire. One of the villagers started banging a drum with a small length of wood, rounded off at each end. The drum was a Bodhran he later told her. Someone else was accompanying the drum player; trilling a quick merry tune on a flute.

The villagers had lovely coffee-coloured skin and dressed in leather pants and tunics. Their hair was mostly dark, except for the shaman’s whose hair was all white. They wore their hair long, some in plaits with shells and brightly coloured feathers for decoration.

As the music gained momentum, they began chanting, stomping their feet and dancing to the beat in circles around the fire. Smiling in a friendly manner one of the women came over to Kaylee with her hands out, coaxing her to join them.

‘Jett, what are they doing?’ Kaylee whispered loudly out the side of her mouth.

Jett was lounging in front of the meetinghouse, conveniently near some meat roasting on a couple of green sapling branches above the fire pit. Willy was nowhere to be seen, but he was an accomplished thief when it came to food, so he would be all right.

‘I believe it is a dance to scare the evil spirits away and help the wolf heal. They are inviting you to join in; they think you carry strong magic,’ Jett told her.

‘They don’t know the half of it...’ she muttered to herself. Still, it looked like fun so she shrugged and got in there among them to give it a go.

She stuffed up the dance moves quite a lot, but Jett got up on his rump and pawed a salute in the air, shouting encouragement and praising her efforts. At the end, the Spirit people laughed while they placed a shell necklace around her neck and an impressive feather hat on her head.

The light had completely faded away now and thousands of stars sparkled like glitter up there in the cloudless sky. The two moons, side by side, shed a glow that was almost as bright as daylight. There were also torches lit and poked into the dirt on long poles around the camp, like a Survivor Island television series.

Kaylee was thoroughly out of breath by the time the music stopped, but the laughter had done her the world of good. A kind village woman handed her a horn of something to drink. It tasted pleasantly of warm honey and spices.

When the festivities died down, villagers slowly drifted off towards their own beds. The Shaman showed Kaylee to a most impressive tree house, where she could sleep for the night. Tarzan himself would feel at home here, she thought.

The homely smells of wood smoke and warmed greenery filled the crisp night air. A short time after she retired for the night, she heard scratching sounds as Willy’s tiny form came clambering up the wall and slinked up under her furs. She giggled, ‘What time do you call this? Hmm?’

She got no reply of course. Merely felt the fury little body snuggle close to her thigh and relax himself completely as one does when falling into a deep slumber.

The conical shaped meetinghouse where the wolf slept was nearby and as she lay on her back beneath warm furs, staring up at the stars and moons out her open window, she heard a mournful howl call from miles away. The injured lone wolf’s sorrowful cry in return, from so nearby, sent shivers up her spine.

She found herself wanting to go and comfort him and after tossing and turning for some time, she decided she was not going to be sleeping much unless she did. She climbed down her ladder and crept through the moonlit night, over to the meetinghouse.

The door stood open and she could see the huge grey shape lying still on the pile of straw on the floor. She was about to chicken-out now that she was so close to him and so reminded how very big he was, when a cloud moved in front of the moons, leaving her momentarily in near darkness. The wolf disappeared, transformed immediately to a dark-haired boy who looked near her age. He lay there naked with his knees curved to his chest, but with a bandage on his arm in the same place the wolf had.

She knew she should look away, but was unable to move. He raised his face to look at her with those pale blue eyes. The cloud passed and he was once again the wolf, with the lonely boy within. Her mouth dropped open and stayed that way.

‘I knew you would come to him.’ From nowhere the Shaman appeared at her elbow and smiled kindly. ‘You must wish to bathe after all that dancing. There is a safe spot down by the river. Come, follow me.’

‘Did you see that? You must to have seen that. What was that?’ Kaylee rattled off to the Shaman who was either deaf or simply ignoring her as she followed the old woman down to the river. She guessed she would find out when the Shaman was good-and-ready to tell her. So as she followed through the trees and shrubs on the soft dirt trail to the river, she willed herself to try to relax.

As soon as they reached the riverbank the Shaman showed her where the best swimming spot was. She peeled off the sweaty clothes she had been wearing for days, eager to climb into the inviting warm waters. There was a little eddy-pool there beneath a small waterfall where the current was a lot slower.

The cool freshness of the slow flowing water gave her a feeling of drifting along like a piece of waterweed, as in a dream. Little frogs ‘ribbited’ away to each other and various other small animals such as squirrels and rabbits popped out from the low shrubbery from time to time for a drink. They didn’t seem afraid of her, just curious. The cruel hand of a hunting man was foreign to these creatures. Sure the Spirit people hunted now and then, but only for food they needed and clothing to keep warm; never in excess, out of greed. Kaylee loved that about them.

While she washed, the Shaman collected cattail reeds and other plants in her large willow basket and began telling Kaylee the sad tale of how the boy was turned into the wolf, for having the courage to stand up to Wilfrey.

‘He was a brave lad.’ The old woman carried on her conversation, ‘Knew what was right and wrong and couldn’t help giving that wicked man a piece of his mind. He must have hit a sore spot, because next thing you know, the old Crone who lives with him was there with one of her vile potions and she threw it on Paedro. Now he spends his days as part of a wolf pack.’ She straightened slowly and stared off towards the distant hilltops. ‘I think he is their leader, judging by how much they miss him tonight.’

Kaylee had washed her face and body and climbed out to dry off with soft leather the old woman had placed nearby on the edge of the bank. She had found a fresh set of clothes waiting on the bank as well, a gift to her from the women of the village.

‘That’s so unbelievably sad,’ she said from behind the bushes, shivering a little as she dressed quickly. Kaylee already felt protective of the injured wolf. This made her feelings all the stronger. ‘Is there no-one who can help change him back?’

She heard branches move on the other side of the clearing and covered herself alarmed, but saw no one there. However, as she looked away, out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw a white horse pass through the forest. She continued pulling her leggings up, jumping up and down as she did when her jeans were too tight or her legs were wet and when she looked back, could now see that the white horse had a single horn on its head. It spiralled like a pretty shell.

The unicorn looked at her unafraid ─ in fact he appeared to be just as curious of her and she was of him. As she stood there dumb-foundered, he moved off before she gathered her wits together enough to tell the Shaman what she had seen. The old woman had been talking the whole time, but Kaylee had completely lost track of what she was saying, after the vision of mystic beauty she had just had the privilege to witness.

‘What? Sorry, what were you saying just then?’ Kaylee felt surreal and frazzled.

The Shaman stared at her for a time, silent … deciding. ‘I was saying that if you follow this river to the edge of the Fire Realm, you will find the Tree of Life. The white snowy owl is her messenger.’

‘Ah!’ Kaylee said; unicorn forgotten as another mystery unravelled. ‘I wondered who that beautiful bird belonged to.’ She emerged from the bushes feeling strangely exotic and wonderful.

The Shaman whistled at her new get-up and they both laughed. Gathering herself together the old woman told her, ‘Legend says, the Tree of Life hasn’t spoken for over a thousand years... I would try though, if I were you.’

‘Jett was telling me about her, on our journey here. He told me the legend says, she holds incredible power and wisdom, but no one has heard from her for over a thousand years and they think that maybe it was just a story told by some bored Bard one evening, to pass the cold winter’s night?’

They heard the sound of soft padding footsteps approaching, crunching through the leaves on the forest floor. They both turned in the direction of Paedro limping along on three legs, holding his sore paw up.

‘Good to see you up my friend. You should join us if you feel up to it.’ Shaman told him.

Wandering along at an easy pace, to allow the wolf to keep up while limping and holding up his injured paw, the three made their way a mile or so up river. There at the river’s edge stood a number of very large and gnarly ancient-looking willow trees. Their vast drooping canopies trailed delicate branches in the water’s edge, like a mother’s loving caress.

The Shaman pointed to the middle one, ‘The Tree of Life is over there Kaylee.’ As Kaylee moved closer, she could see in the moonlight the twists and turns in the trunk had grown to resemble the wrinkled face of a very elderly woman.

Paedro the wolf limped over to the ancient tree and placed his wounded paw on the trunk. A glowing blue dot appeared in the bark, growing until the glow flowed from the trunk and down through his paw, until his whole body glowed blue. When the glow left him, he moved his paw away again. He put it down and walked on it experimentally. There was no more flinching or limping. There was no indication that the paw hurt at all, anymore.

From the upper branches of the ancient tree that looked like a very old woman, a beautiful majestic white snowy owl with piercing blue eyes, screeched at her. Kaylee thought it was trying to tell her something and wished desperately that she could understand.

She looked to the Shaman for instruction and received a shooing gesture towards the giant ancient willow. She moved closer to the tree, feeling that overwhelming dreamlike sensation again that she had felt at finding herself atop a volcano, a few days ago. On impulse, she placed her own hand beneath the face in the trunk, in the same place the wolf had, then closed her eyes … and waited.

She heard the tree speak, in an old woman’s voice inside her head. It said, ‘Yes, Kaylee, I know who you are. Your heart is pure and kind. You are stronger than you think. You will not fail, at what you seek, child.’

The magical powers and very real voice of the willow tree astounded Kaylee and she withdrew her hand as though burned.

Kaylee turned and walked up to the Shaman, flashing awed glances back at the tree as she did, ‘Did you just do that?’ However, even as she asked the question, she knew the Shaman had not and the medicine woman just smiled, pulling Kaylee close in an embrace. She laid her head on top of Kaylee’s, ‘I knew you were someone special,’ she said.