The Overflow

The black wolf is standing before me. Its yellow eyes glaring into mine as it slowly transformed into a man. The moonlight hits its skin and I study the man's figure. I can't make out his face, it seemed oily and wet with some black substance. He reaches his hand out to grab mine, but I shove it away. I looked down at my forearm where he had tried to grab. There, I noticed a smudge of dirt…no it looked darker than dirt… it looked like black paint. I extended my arms towards him, wiping at his arm and a layer of wet black colors transfers onto my palm, exposing his skin. He grasped my neck and opened, bringing me back to reality.

Giken is not by my side, so I got ready for the day feeling exceptionally well. I stand and stretch, taking in all the air around me. As I exited the hut, I froze in place contemplating what to do next.

All around, everyone is working nimbly and hard, but all around them are souls of their departed one. Each one I see, gives me a flash of their lives as a vision in my sight. One after another the visions continued to flicker in my head. It becomes overwhelming and I can't seem to stop it. I close my eyes to try to steady my mind. I have never seen so many spirits or souls of the departed, just hanging around during the day before, not ever since London and the plague. I tried to drown out the noise and voices in my thoughts, but it seems to get louder and louder. I have to figure out a way to organize and filter these spirits, along with their never resting chatter. I feared that if they knew I could hear them, let alone see them then they were going to hover around me, suffocating me with demands.

Just then, I felt two hands grab on my shoulders and all the noise immediately vanished. I opened my eyes to look, and to my surprise, I saw Giken's beautiful dark eyes frowning back at me.

"Are you alright? What's going on?" He asked, but I couldn't speak. I couldn't possibly tell him what I was seeing. I couldn't tell him what I know, at least, not yet anyways.

I pull his face towards me and he leans in. I whisper into his ear, "They are everywhere and I don't know what to do about them."

Giken straightened his back and smiled, then he mouthed the words, "Ghost?"

I nod.

"Wawa might be able to help." He suggested, but we ended our conversation there.

After a long morning of breakfast, butchering the hunter's kills, and foraging wild plants and nuts, I finally got to sit down. I rub the aches out of the joints in my foot while thinking about how much I miss shoes. How the soles of our shoes are hard enough to prevent thorns and sharp objects from penetrating our feet.

Though there is so much hard work here, I find it just fascinating how people can survive in the wild without running water, lanterns, carriages and all the perks from a life in London. Living this lifestyle is so much better than the class system where the wealthy become wealthier whilst the poor become bums living in the slums, fighting with each other to survive a day at a time.

"Come. Let's go to Wawa." Giken approached me, instructing me to stand and walk.

I give him a stink eye and remove my foot from my hands. Giken gives me his hand to help me stand and I swap it away. I am annoyed that I barely got to rest before I found myself pacing around on my feet again.

We entered Wawa's teepee and she greeted me with, "Oa! Why are you here?"

"Uh, good to see you too, Wawa." Giken remarked.

"Sereen looks different today. What has changed?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, but she is claiming to see… something all around us."

"Like pollen, dust, or the air itself?"

"Like, departed spirits." I said.

"Ao, she speaks our tongue!!" Wawa yelled.

"Shhh, we don't want others to know. So far the only people who know that she can understand us are me, Mooji and a few of her followers. And now you. Please keep it quiet, there are a few people who may try to harm her."

"Well, she's been here for about a month, you can at least pretend that you are teaching her."

"That is not the point here, Wawa." Giken interjected, "What can we do to help her?"

"Well, I am only a learning shaman. I can not do much but I know techniques that may help." Wawa walks up to me and stares at my face.

"What are you do~"

"SHH!" Wawa shushed Giken and continued to stare at my face.

I started to feel uncomfortable, but then I remembered my mother's words.

"If they make you feel uneasy because they are looking at you then all you have to do is look right back at them!"

I stare right back at her and in her eyes visions of her life flashed quickly by. In a millisecond I was shown everything of her past, even her most vulnerable secrets.

Her eyes were still fixated on me still as I transitioned back into reality.

"I don't see anything in you. Yesterday was different because I felt a presence with you, but today… today there is nothing." Wawa said.

My eyes shifted from hers to the thing that stands behind her. There was an aura about that entity that gave me a sense of purity. It whispered in her ears.

"You were bestowed a gift last night, weren't you?" Wawa asked me.

"I've always had the gift, but it seemed to have been enhanced."

"No, not enhanced, but accepted."

My eyes switch back and forth between the entity and Wawa. It notices me staring at it and stands straight. No words were formed into speech, but we communicated. It was more like, I just knew, what the entity was trying to relay.

"You can see us?"

"Yes, I can." I replied in my head.

"If you can see us then you can see them. Therefore, they can see you."

"I know. I don't know how to filter it."

"You have the power to control what you do not wish them to see."

"But how?"

"Organize your thoughts to allow only those you WANT to allow in. Nothing can ever overpower you. No soul, spirit or demon can physically control a physical being without their permission to do so."

"How do I organize my thoughts?"

"How do you filter water?"

"What are you looking at?" Wawa shrieked and I jumped for her loud squeaky voice.

"I was looking at that thing standing behind you?"

"You can see my spirit guide?" Wawa asked

"Is that what it is?" I asked and Wawa quickly nodded. "It looks quite different. There is no face, but you can definitely tell its form is similar to that of a human body…except its slimer, taller, and pale… as though there are no colors in it." I said to Wawa. Giken stared at me with disbelief.

Another entity manifests from behind her. A male, short and stubby for gray hair. His eyes are an emerald green and I couldn't help but notice his very long nails.

"Wawa, who is Meeyo and what significance does he have to you?"

"Meeyo…" Wawa eyes widen. "I haven't heard that name in such a long time. He accompanied me for many many years until last year, when he finally died of old age." Wawa wiped the tears dripping off the corners of her eyes.

"He was my only friend when people found out I was gifted with the sight. People thought of me as strange and unusual and no one wanted to befriend me. Until Meeyo came along. He was my only true friend. He was just a kitten when I found him half dead from starvation. I named him Meeyo because that was all he could say." Wawa cries into her palms.

"You are very gifted. Your sight is much more powerful than anyone I've ever known, even more than me. You can help the tribe! You can find Niiganii! Do you see her?"

"See who?" I asked.

"Niiganii!" she shouted. "Niiganii is gone and a new alpha has already been chosen. Maybe if you ask Niiganii, she will be able to tell you what happened to her and who the next alpha is?"

"I don't see her anywhere." I said to Wawa.

"You could probably conjure her spirit."

"I don't know how to do that and I don't think I'm ready for that. I don't even know how to filter my thoughts to allow only certain spirits in."

"Oh, that is simple. Think of filtering water. Create shield spirits must walk through to get to you. Each shield should consist of what you want to filter out. Spirits that don't pass all the shield, won't get to meet you. They will see your light, but they won't get near it." Wawa explained.

"That makes so much sense. Let's work on that first and then when I'm ready we can work on finding Niiganii."

*

It has only been a few days, but Czechvi's group and the builders had created a new village.

"I shall name this place Riverway." Czechvi announced to everyone as he hammered down a sign attached to a stake.

"Boss, what to do with this food?" one of his followers hands over a full plate of undisturbed food, "she won't eat it at all."

Czechvi snatches the plate and walks bitterly to a hut nearby. He slams the door open with a loud bang, "Why do you refuse to eat when most people are starving?" He yelled.

Niiganii is sitting on a chair with both her arms crossed. "No plants to eat. All just meat and round thing look like droppings." she said in disgust.

"This is the best steak! That round thing is BREAD, now eat it or starve." He scolded her.

"I will enter the woods to find my own food." she said as she stood.

"You will do no such thing! I am in charge and I say you're going to eat this plate of food!"

"Czechvi!" Pane called from behind him, "She is our honored guest. We should treat her with respect. She is vital to our survival here. If she wants to go into the woods to find her own food, then find someone to accompany her."

"Yes, sir!" Czechvi said as he walked out.

"My apologies, Niiganii. Who would you like to accompany you into the woods?" he asked Niiganii politely.

"Clint." she demanded.

Pane nods and exits her hut. A few minutes later, Clint enters with his weapons and a basket. "Lets go foraging!"