Issue 1 Downtime

She took a deep breath outside Do'noma's tent. She'd taken to dressing a bit more like her hosts in the weeks since, even learning to paint her face in the style that the seer had shown her.

That didn't make this any easier.

Lifting back the flap, she ducked her head in.

"Sah-mantah!" she smiles, still being a little off in how she pronounces the red-head's name.

"About time for me to do this, aye?" She said, some tension in her voice.

"Is no hurry. Is time when you think it is. Just not want to wait forever, aye?"

"Something to be said for not putting it off."

"Do not worry. Take first steps together to guide you. Want to go over it one more time."

"Alright," she said as she stepped fully into the tent and sat down. "You're the expert."

"Okay. First remember nothing can harm you. Only if you let them. But sometimes heart too scared to remember. If you meet someone or something and you look them in the eye never blink. That how they see you are scared if they are bad spirits."

"It's like a faerie tale. They say you should never take a gift, and never eat anything."

"Yes!" she nods. "Cannot take anything from the spirit world but what you bring."

"Guess it's not so different from the stories I was told, then. Shouldn't tell them my name either, if that's right."

"Yes and no. We are going to find your true name. Spirit name. Never tell them your name before then."

She smirked faintly.

"Fire-Hair isn't good enough?"

"Is good name for this world. Spirit name is more..." she taps her chest. "Not so much name but... oh what you called it... Soul!"

"I'll take it seriously, don't worry."

"I'm just getting new names rather fast."

She chuckles. "Is not name you use. Is just closest word to what is hard to say."

"And if I were anyone but... who I am, it would seem so terribly strange."

"But I suppose I'm already strange."

"You're not strange. Only went without help for so long. Thinking of not understanding the spirits..." she shivers. "But that why spirits lead me to you."

"Sort of thing... I shouldn't ignore," she nodded.

"Is time then. Have any more questions?"

"No, you've... been rather good to me in preparing me."

"Then you are ready." she smiles and takes a pouch from her belt and empties it into a bowl. Placing it between them she adds a couple more herbs from the bunches of dried flora hanging in the tent. Then she carefully starts a small fire in the bowl, the smoke rising from it slowly filling the tent. While it does she takes a couple fresh berries from another pouch and hands Sam three of them.

"Eat one now and when you feel it happening take the other two."

"Alright," she said as she clutched what she had been handed. Taking a deep breath, she slipped the first in her mouth and began to chew. She looked to Do'noma with a faint smile.

Do'noma was chewing on one of the berries herself, smiling back at Sam. "Breathe slow and calm. Take a moment to happen."

"How am I going to be able to tell?" She asked, forcing herself to slow her breathing.

"See things. Feel things. Never quite the same."

"Now that sounds like the story of my life..." She chuckled ruefully.

"Then maybe won't feel so strange." she smiles, her voice seeming to echo strangely in the tent.

"I think... it's starting," she said, raising the other two berries to her lips.

Do'noma closes her eyes for a moment, then she nods. "Go ahead." she says, eating two more of the berries herself.

She nodded back, putting the berries in her mouth and chewing.

At first not much seems to happen except for the small fire continuing to fill the room with the smell of herbs. But then Do'noma's eyes seem to wander up, fixed on the small opening at the top of the tent. Except it's not so small anymore. Or open for that matter. In it's place is the giant eye of a bird looking down at them.

She looked up to see what had caught the shaman's interest, and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Well that's... new."

The moment she speaks the eye snaps towards Sam. It's stare pierces her for a moment and then suddenly pulls back with the sound of massive wings beating. As it pulls back so does the tent, spreading out above them and turning pitch-black, the small dots of stars lighting up on it. If she tried to look away from it Sam would notice that she can't, the night-sky always there no matter which way she turns her head.

She stood abruptly, spinning about. Curling a lip, her teeth went sharp and her eyes golden. She sniffed the air, on-guard.

If there was any smell in the air it was being masked by the burning herbs stinging her nose. Which was strange in and of itself because everything that had been inside the tent was nowhere to be found. It wasn't even obvious what exactly she was standing on.

"Do'noma?" She asked warily, looking about for her friend.

"I am here." comes her voices from somewhere. It sounds quiet and far away though.

"I can't... see you," she said as she looked around for something, anything but sky.

Looking around she'd slowly notice that the stars in the sky are blinking from time to time. In fact, they're starting to look less like stars and more like myriads of eyes staring back at her.

"Am here... Remember what I told you...