Dappled rays of sunlight drifted down from the canopy of thick maple trees. Here and there, pillars of light broke through the fog and leaves where dust particles sparkled in the sunlight. In one such column of sunlight, a young Värian girl named Kaiyennah Yolngu sat in the cool grass near a circle of lilac sprigs. She leaned back against a tree with her ankles crossed. The sunlight warmed her long curly brown hair and her tan skin.

By her side, her black panther Vespeera dined on a haunch of deer leg. The giant cat's fangs tore into the meat. Kaiyennah didn't bat an eyelash at the gruesome sight. She focused on eating her own meager rations of cured deer meat and ignored the sounds of her panther gnawing on the bone. While she ate, she kept a watchful eye on her surroundings.

Something caught her attention: the snap of a twig, the rustling of leaves. She strained her eyes as she looked off into the forest, and soon enough she glimpsed what she feared she might see: a beastman. No, several beastmen. They made sharp sounds as they talked and lumbered through the undergrowth. Kaiyennah called her panther to her side with a mere thought. Vespeera! Beastmen!

I see them, Vespeera replied in a deep rumbly voice that echoed in Kaiyennah's head. Thanks to the Värian life bond Makutu, they could see, hear, feel and think as one.

Vespeera stood up and yanked the deer leg along with him. Kaiyennah shook her head with a smirk on her face. The panther refused to leave his meal behind.

Kaiyennah stuffed her meat back into her pack and slipped the straps through her arms, situating the pack on her back. She grabbed a nearby bow and slung it over her head and down one shoulder. Then she reattached her quiver of arrows to her belt.

Finally, she stepped toward the sprigs of lilac that she had woven together to make a circle before she had even started to eat. Vespeera walked into the circle beside her.

With a flourish of her arms, Kaiyennah began to activate her spirit. She brought her hands together as if holding an invisible ball and brought her spirit up through her body. It rose up her spine until it reached her head; each time it passed through a Sacred Circle on her spine, a rush of bliss came over her. She finally brought her spirit out of her body, and it flowed into her hand. She took out her canteen and poured a small drop of water into her hand.

"Tahur aha keetay kouhu. Mist," she said as she visualized what she wanted her spirit to do. As she continued to focus, her spirit began to flow around her body. Finally, Kaiyennah and Vespeera turned into wisps of mist that blended in with the fog hugging the ground all along the forest where the sun did not reach.

In this form, walking felt more like drifting along the forest floor. Vespeera followed close behind Kaiyennah as she made her way toward the beastmen, leaving a shriveled circle of lilac behind. Most of the beastmen simply appeared to be men with the ears and tails of wolves, but a few leaders had more characteristics of the wolf: Fur instead of hair, paws instead of feet, and elongated noses which no doubt could pick up her scent if she wasn't careful.

She counted—-almost ten. Their numbers would make it impossible for her to fight them by herself. She would need to retreat. As she turned to leave, she noticed three children not of the wolf clan. The sight made her stop in shock. They didn't belong to any beast clan. And the beastmen obviously held them prisoner.

She found herself feeling drawn to them, and she followed them as the beastmen continued to march them through the forest, down the gently sloping hill, in the direction of the beastmen's tainted forest, which her people called Ngaherahe.

Two little girls around Kaiyennah's age walked, with an older teenage boy between them. One girl had long, curly brown hair similar to Kaiyennah's. The other girl had long blonde hair. The girls held their large gray pants up as they walked, and their baggy gray shirts hung on their bodies. They clomped along in their boots, several sizes too large. Both girls and the boy wore a vest covered in pockets.

The girls' clothes don't fit, Kaiyennah told Vespeera.

How bizarre, he replied inside her head.

Where do you think they're taking them? she asked.

To Ngaherahe, no doubt.

Kaiyennah gazed after them, her heart longing to save them.

Vespeera's wariness engulfed her. Kaiyennah, don't you think it would be unwise to attempt a rescue mission? he asked.

She sent him calming thoughts to ease his fear. We can't leave them with these horrid Beastmen, Vespeera. We must help them.

You would risk our lives for these children we do not know? he asked.

Her father had performed the life bond on Kaiyennah and Vespeera, so they could communicate inside their heads. The bond linked them for life, and if one of them died, the other would die too. Whenever she came upon beastmen, she always felt so terrified at the thought.

But she swallowed her fear. If you and I were captured by beastmen, we'd be eternally grateful to the person who rescued us. We can't leave them to die, Vespeera, if we had the chance to save them, she argued.

Just promise me you'll be careful then, the panther said, his voice a low rumble in her head.

I will, I promise.

Kaiyennah and Vespeera silently followed the small band of beastmen as they led the two children and the older boy through the woods. They wound around tall trees and leafy bushes, creating a path through the undergrowth. They walked down the gentle hill along the world's spine, toward the beastmen's rainforest.

Kaiyennah and Vespeera followed in their mist form, always hugging the tall leafy bushes to stay out of the sunlight. After a long time, she began to worry that she wouldn't be able to return home before nightfall if she kept following the beastmen. How much longer before she'd have to either turn around and leave, or do something foolish to try and rescue these children?

She almost made a plan to rescue the children while on the move, but then the head beastman gave a signal to stop when they entered a large clearing mostly covered in grass with some sparse bushes. The wolf beastmen all started performing their various jobs, setting up a makeshift camp, probably for their midday meal.

While the beastmen distracted themselves with their various tasks, Kaiyennah moved a good distance away to gather up sprigs of lilac. In order to touch the flowers, she needed to let her mist form fade away. With another glance around her, she let the Makutu fade by waving her hand dismissively.

She took great care to remain out of sight as she gathered the sprigs of lilac, which thankfully grew in abundance in this area of the woods. It would be a disaster if they saw her. Beastmen always attacked the Värian, usually without question or hesitation. She knew they feared Kaiyennah and her people, but just thinking about how the despicable beastly men would attack her without even a warning made Kaiyennah's heart ache for all the lost lives she once knew.

Not knowing how long the beastmen would stop for their meal, Kaiyennah hurried to gather up all the lilac she found, taking the time to carry back a pile of the flowers and set them down behind a tree and some bushes just out of sight of the beastmen's camp. She would need a lot, more than what she had already gathered. She went to search past the other side of the clearing. As she gathered the sprigs, she kept her eyes on the clearing and around the area where several beastmen gathered wood for a fire.

Suddenly, Kaiyennah noticed a beastman coming almost directly at her. She quickly knelt down and set her sprigs of lilac in the cool grass. With a flourish, she spread the flowers in a circle around her, and hurried to summon her spirit. But one cannot rush the spirit.

She breathed calmly until her spirit awakened and began rising through her sacred circles on her spine, and then she poured some water from her canteen and said, "Tahur aha keetay kouhu." With the words, she activated the mist Makutu.

Kaiyennah sensed Vespeera nearby, still in his mist form, as the beastman continued on his way, walking up to where Kaiyennah now hid. Holding her breath, she moved away from the circle of now shriveled flowers and looked down at her misty body. Her heart thudded as she looked up and watched the beastman walk towards her circle.

He knelt and picked up the dried-out flowers, looking all around with concern on his face. His wolf tail twitched in an agitated sort of way, and Kaiyennah knew that he would alert the others. All the beastmen knew that the Värian used the lilac circles to do their Makutu.

As the beastman carried off the shriveled flowers, Kaiyennah followed, heading towards where she had stashed her first bundle of lilac. She had a few left in her pack as well. Hopefully what she had would be enough.

The beastman hurried back to the camp and shouted about what he'd seen. The beastmen all knew about her now. Kaiyennah bit her lip and tried not to panic. She wondered what she had just gotten herself into.

But there would be no turning back, not for Kaiyennah Yolngu. She wouldn't—no she couldn't—suffer these children to die by the hands of these horrid beastmen. So she steeled herself to perform her rescue mission.