A Journey Within

"Getting rid of the soul fragment even at the cost of your life is a brave and noble thing." A third Harry had appeared. "Doing what is honorable is never wrong. Courage is doing what is right even if you are afraid. It was courageous to destroy the fragment."

"And look at what has happened since, it was illogical not to think beyond getting rid of the fragment."The second Harry spoke again.

"Give me or rather him a break, there was a problem he acted." a fourth Harry appeared.

Harry listened somewhat dismayed by the many arguments and attitudes the four other Harrys put forth about the decisions he had made as they argued. After what seemed like hours he drew a few conclusions then he spoke up."Shut up all of you. All of you have raised valid points about me my emotions, my thought processes, and my actions. BUT, I have heard enough from all of you and if you don't shut up I'll shove you off a building." The four Harrys all disappeared.

Left alone once more Harry decided to explore a bit. If took him a while but he figured out that he could get into the buildings and inside the building were rooms. Some of the rooms contained memories and the memories were not just what happened but colors and textures and scents every nuance.

He found a room with the memory of his mother breast feeding him as an infant, it almost overwhelmed him because of the sensations. As much as he wanted to linger in that room he knew he couldn't, so he left. As he exited that building, he noticed one in the distance seemed to be smoking.

He ventured closer. The smoking building felt different, alien, hostile. He ventured in. In one room he felt the memory of a teenage boy angry that his school, his home, was going to be closed and a sense of if I do this I'll trick them all then the school won't close. That room felt like the soul fragment so Harry fled the smoking building.

Seemingly minutes later his attention was drawn away from his explorations by a far away sound. He paused and closed his eyes to listen more closely. It was the sound of a wolf's howl. He opened his eyes, only to see a star strewn sky and a gibbous moon. He sat up. Was the wolf's howl his dream or something real?

A few minutes later he had his answer as the wolf howled again only this time his voice was joined by others. Harry listened as the entire group howled again; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, the next five voices brought a grin to Harry's face because they were the voices of pups not those of adult wolves.

It astonished him to hear the pack he didn't think that were wild wolf packs in the lower forty-eight. He found himself joining their howls to the moon. He smiled and closed his eyes ad drifted back into a deep peaceful dreamless sleep.

Dawn came with a peaceful exuberance that Harry decided he wanted to feel everyday if he could. He decided he needed more activity this morning than Tai Chi or katas would give him so he decided to climb. Thankful for the spell that Yiska had placed on him he looked for his first hand hold. Fifty five minutes later he found himself on the ledge where the golden eagles had placed the nest.

The notice me not charm that Yiska had placed must either work on the eagles as well as people or the eagle was part of his quest, Harry wasn't sure which. The nest had two eaglets that were just starting to get their feathers, they were cute in a homely sort of way, and one parent that appeared to be molting. Harry felt drawn to the adult but at the same time he didn't want to get too close, he'd read about what kind of damage an eagle could do.

He was surprised that the adult approached him. It eyed him closely. He hesitantly extended a hand toward the eagle it looked closely at his hand before stepping closer and brushing his hand with its body. He was shocked, he had just touched a wild eagle. It bumped his extended hand again. Harry gulped then moved forward a couple inches to increase the contact.

As he ran his hand over the bird he noticed several of the feathers came loose. He held his breath as the eagle gave him one last look and turned and hopped back towards the eaglets. He gathered the molted feathers and watched as the eagle preened itself.

A moment later he heard the screech of the eagle's mate as it came in to land bringing a small javelina in as food for it's family. It was apparent with the two birds side by side the male was the one that was molting. Harry decided that rather than push his luck he would go back to his ledge.

He had tucked the feathers into his shirt and was pleased when he got back to his ledge to discover than none of them had been damaged in his climb down. He sat down to think not to meditate but to think. He thought about the wolves last night and how they had seemingly reacted to his howls and smiled then he remembered what Yiska said about wolves.

If you see a wolf it may be to teach you that all things have order amid chaos and to accept your duties in life with humility and strength. That you must have balance between yourself, your family and your community. That commitment and loyalty are traits to develop for balance, cooperation in achieving a common goal is necessary.

Communication is key for any group. And that buckling down and defending yourself is sometimes the strongest move to make. A wolf spirit is to teach you to develop strength and confidence, to respect your own emotions and face your inner darkness. That you are to honor the forces of spirituality and connect with the life forces of the earth.

He put together his dream of last night, what Yiska said of the eagle and the wolves, and they questions he had asked himself and meditated trying to come up with a few answers. It occurred to him what an odd child he was, he was the only one of his acquaintance that seemed to be asking these sorts of questions at this age. He came to the conclusion that Sirius had started him thinking more like an adult than a kid back before he even was in school. He had made it fun but starting economics at age five was definitely not the norm.

He supposed it was probably just as well Sirius had challenged him on so many levels because he never had liked to be bored. Of course how much of that stemmed from Liana's tendency to put him to work if he or Hadi had said "I'm bored" or if when she asked if he was doing something and he answered nothing. Being able to say I'm practicing whatever had gotten him out of extra chores plenty of times.

And he was smart like his mum. Sirius said his dad was smart but lazy and that he liked pranks. Harry asked himself if he played pranks because he liked them or if he played them so Sirius would say he was like his father. And there were benefits to using his intelligence in school. Sirius told him he would have more education under his belt than any other kids at Hogwarts when he went.

Hogwarts was a whole other ball game. He was going to it because it was his heritage it had a good reputation but Harry wondered if it was so. Some of Sirius' stories didn't exactly paint it in a favorable light. Harry's experiences with the wizarding world were so limited he didn't know if being a wizard really was so much better.

Sometimes it sounded so backwards. Technomancy like Sirius worked on sounded interesting, as did auror or WIS type work but those were also dangerous. Of course being prophesied to oust dark lords also sounded dangerous and Harry was aware of two such prophecies even if he only knew the wording of one of them. Morgana's prophecy made it clear he was supposed to lead. Well better to be a smart leader than a stupid one.

He was just a kid but even kids could develop their knowledge base and their leadership skills. Maybe that what the eagles meant he would walk a singular path never quite fitting in with his peers because someone had to lead, but the wolves were to remind him he wasn't alone, that he had to build community with others.

He had managed to get centered and he no longer felt wildly out of control. He had more than most kids his age he had a semblance of a life direction but he didn't have all the answers. He didn't have to, he was still a kid. He packed his stuff up, careful to leave no trace. He started to climb down he estimated he had three hours until sun set that should be enough time.

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