Dreams
It was warm and snug in the teepee dispite the chill of the night outside. Inside Foalen, the shaman's apprentice from a village far away from the Kiwani knelt by the brown and golden basket that the princess of the vilage given into his care only a short while ago. As he gazed down at the beautifuly woven basked he wondered at all the changes that had befallen him since he had reached the age of proving.
He had shown the apptitude for his chosen proffession at a very young age and had been taken in by the shaman of his village to raise as an apprentice. He barely remembered his parents save that they were warm and caring. He did well with the spirit worker and was an exellent student. Even so a few years after he had been accepted as the apprentice the shaman had chosen another.
This wasn't normal and it had given Foalen some cause for consern. The shaman had praised his learning and abilities so why had he taken on another apprentice? Was he not fit to be a shaman dispite everything his teacher had told him? Confused, hurt, and doubting he had kept silent trying not to show how discomforted he felt by the presence of the other apprentice.
Dispite his feelings he opened his heart to the other boy. After all it wasn't the other apprentices fault that there were two apprentices where there should have been one. They became good friends dispite the rivalry that was bound to develop with two of them trying to prove they were most worthy for the place at the shaman's side.
When the age of testing arrived and his master told him and the other apprentice to go seeking a vision he left doubt and uncertanty still dwelling deep within his heart. He wandered far and wide. Learning much as he travled through the forest and prairies though never once having a vision that told him to return to his home.
However his sleep wasn't dreamless. Intead of the villiage of his birth he saw horses, those beautiful children of the wind. Free and strong dancing their way across hills of green grass that bent in the wind calling out to eachother in joyful voices.
Looking down at the basket before him Foalen brushed the rim with his fingers and wondered if perhaps he hadn't had a vision after all. Though he wasn't at all certian he was ready for the responsiblity. Surely the Kiwani shaman was mistaken in his choice of caretakers. At least it was so in his case Foalen thought as his eyes lingered on the brown pattern made up by the weaves of the basket.
He had only just arrived in the village and didn't even have a teepee of his own. And now he had so much more. Desire to stay and care for the amazing creature he knew to be in the basket was powerful though it was mixed with the fear that in taking this path the one he had thought he would follow for most of his life would be closed to him forever. It gave him pause and made his out reaching hand tremble in response.
Then a thought came unbidden did his old master know the fate that was in store for his student? Was that why he had taken on a second apprentice and set the dream seeking task? If so it would explain a great deal.
Foalen let his hand rest on top of the basket then a strange feeling creeping over him. He was still confused and unsure as to what the spirits had in store for him. But it was comforting to think that perhaps it wasn't his abilities or loyalty that the old shaman had doubted. From somewhere deep inside he could feel the healing of an open wound he known he had.
Unbidden a smile came to the young man's lips as a single tear rolled down his face onto the basket. For now he would stay, he could still follow the path of the shaman in the future. But for now it was enough to know he was accepted and even respected.
