I won't describe the scene of parting and saying goodbye to the people who had managed to become not friends, but good buddies and acquaintances in such a short time. It was a lucky coincidence that the group included such diverse personalities that it was impossible to get bored with them.
And with Kakannivi we even descended twice into the world of spirits, where a more experienced and knowledgeable shaman showed us how to find our totem spirit and how to awaken our animal nature.
The experience, I must say, was very interesting. The man said that my animal was just beginning to "sleepwalk," so it was in my hands and it was up to me how fast I could "shake" it. Megan was the same as usual, but she gave me a communication artifact, a mirror-polished steel plate coated with some kind of lacquer. The artifact is disposable, but you can contact anyone, anywhere. It's paired. Adapted to a reusable version of the mulatto.
The girl was indeed calm and collected, but inside there were mixed feelings of uncertainty, confusion, and frustration. Lizzie tried to appear cheerful, but her smile was sour and strained. In anticipation of questions: there is no love, but lust is overwhelming.
Lizzie is aroused by money and the possibility of a good income. With me personally, she earned about three hundred thousand, plus I thoroughly updated her wardrobe, from which the girl literally hung on me, pulled me into bed, even a few times imposed the idea of writing her naked. By the way, her portraits turned out surprisingly well, although her type isn't quite the same as .... it's hard to explain because "creators" feel the world a little differently.
With Megan it didn't work out, although I felt her desire and the blonde wasn't against it, but it didn't work out. But I'm glad about it, because even as a friend she's good — not that American girl they usually describe as a pragmatic feminist bitch. In general we said goodbye at the agreed point and I moved on.
***
I had no desire to visit Canada's magical cities, nor did I feel the urge, so I settled for the ordinary side of the country. Not to say there wasn't something unique and interesting here, there was, but I didn't feel the spirit of a certain "specialness". In the most ordinary shops I bought some bear skins, meat, fat, fangs and teeth — for amulets. I also bought badger fat for ointments and potions, a lot of fish oil, some dried herbs and berries in large quantities... that is, I bought everything I was interested in.
Things like that are pretty cheap here, so I decided to take some with me, and it's not a problem to keep them. Baa-san would often disappear from my sight for a day or two, only to reappear with bags of prepared rare and rarest herbs, berries, and mushrooms, including magic ones. The last empty storage ring — the largest one, kept just in case — was used for this purpose.
At the very end of the journey, when I had purchased enough fangs, claws, and bones of predators from small and not-so-small shops to make two to three thousand amulets, bought various meats and fats in large quantities, prepared herbal ingredients, and even arranged for special preservation of seedlings that Baa-san had brought from various "dark" forests, an idea came to me. Sometime in this life, I had seen a program about a rich deposit of kimberlite pipes being developed in Canada.
The idea of breaking in stayed with me for a long time: I thought about how to "charge" Baa-san with magic, how to fortify him with seals, thought about the plan, even managed to estimate the profit, fantasized about a chest full of diamonds. But then logic kicked in, and I realized that such a place must be well protected, and not only by simple means, but also by magic, since it exists.
Foolishly, because of my greed, I was very reluctant to protect myself and the guardian spirit. I hitched a ride on a dry-cargo ship to France. All kinds of liners scared me by some vague premonition, and I made a quick and easy agreement with the captain of the dry cargo ship.