Nibu Noita, shaman of the Vuori clan

"And so it was, it is and shall be, the cycle shall turn once again and another; then and only then shall the chosen one be shown to the eyes of his mentor."

The prophecies speak clear to the one that knows what to look for. Vkar had to skip a generation, and wait for a sign that would direct him to a new shaman. First came Lekla, his first grandson, but after ten years, he concluded that it was not he. Then came Setra, a girl, and since by tradition, women could not be shamans of the village, he hoped for another child. And in fact, when the girl was 5, Nibu was born giving hope again to the seeker. Nibu showed great aptitude to his grandfather's ways, but that was not enough, he needed proof. On one night, in winter, when the clan rests in the underground caves of Bek'halamon, the boy, now three, had disappeared from his cot. A search party started to look for him allover the place, "Nibu, Nibu, were are you?" but they couldn't find the child. The shrine of darkness, was the only place they couldn't check, it was out of bounds for all mortals except from the wielders of the art. It was said that if any other man would enter, he would die in a horrible way. Vkar went forward and kneeled in front of the rocky doorway for a minute or so. A very decorative curtain lay in front of him covering what was inside. He woke up, moved it away, and entered the darkness pulling it back after him.

What he saw could be considered quite a confirmation for what he desired. The child everyone was searching for, was there with a newborn kepsis (small lizard type creature) on his lap, while drawing a picture on a wall besides the holy altar. Nibu had just drawn the tree of life and the basic elements of shamanism, bound together by the gods. He had obviously never seen that before, it was a secret drawing known only to the older man and the followers of nature. "Finally, the gods have smiled upon us…my long search has ended. Nibu, you will become Shaman of our clan, your destiny awaits you." The child smiled at the older man with a look of pure innocence, disregarding what was happening around him, treating the man as his grandfather and nothing more.

"Off you go, brothers and sisters, the child is safe. I will remain alone with him, he'll be back when the sun dawns." Those were his only words to the child's parents and the rest of the search party.

"Father don't you think we still need an explanation of what's happening? As a Kingel (chieftain's right hand, protector of the land) of the clan, I demand to know what are you up to!" argued Nibu's father with an angry voice.

"You dare question ME! Ha…this makes me laugh…You more then anyone else must know not to argue my decisions when these are not effecting the tribe in general or warfare. Go now or in the name of what is most sacred for me, I'll punish you for your ignorance!" The Noita (title given to a clan shaman) had a very bad temper, he hated to be interrupted when doing something important. Not much of an option did Nibu's father have, he had to shut his mouth and with what was left of his dignity, turn round and retreated to his stone room.

And so it was that the henki pukuja (spirit speaker, another name given to the shaman) sat down with the child and painted Nibu's first tatuoida (a ritual tattoo) on his forearm. The painting represented a new beginning.

And steel met steel in a deadly embrace that showed no mercy, while the roar of the titans echoed in the valley of Koros. There they were, man against man, fighting for a reason lost through the ages, while the heavenly gods smiled upon them. For honor and valor, they fought, to defend their lands, some died and others were hailed, but what was oblivious to them, was destiny's irony to unite them all, for the world craved it's ancient heroes.

"Nibu, come quick, bring my herbal pouch…come on, move child!" barked Vkar the healer at a young boy standing in the middle of a enormous hut filled with the stench of death. The young child was staring at the wounded men with blood allover their scared bodies, weapons still by their sides. The younger women were running around with water bags and pieces of cloth to tend the fallen warriors. Nibu snapped out of it and started for a run towards his grandfather's hut. The pouch was still there, among other items the healer used for his strange incantations. Grabbing the pouch, he swiftly exited the room and hurried past the other children who were helping their parents for the night's festivity. Some of the youngsters were chopping off heads from the bodies of the attackers, now laid on top of each other waiting to be burnt to ashes in order to satisfy the gods.

The clan had won a fierce battle against another tribe, who dared enter their territory without giving any warning. If they had just passed by with the proper formalities and gifts, then nothing would have probably happened, but these were from the Kurja clan, and they usually destroy (try at least!) anything in their path.
The child handed the herbs to his grandfather and sat down besides him to watch and study the ancient practice of healing. Vkar was the chieftain's counselor and shaman of the tribe. He had the right to choose his apprentice, even against the wishes of the chieftain. One and only one he could choose, and his choice resided on the youngest child of his own son. Kahel, a great and noble warrior, was reluctant to let his youngest become a wielder of the forbidden arts, but considering that his other son, one of the strongest among the battle cubs, was already promised to the clan's chief daughter, he decided to accept his father's will.
"Ma kar senala duk la var" chanted the man while preparing a mixture of herbs. He had already explained the need of gesture and mystic words to conjure the powers of nature, but the boy was always amazed with the high level of concentration that his mentor managed to possess even in dire straits. Vkar poured down the essence of the mixture on a lethal cut over the chest of one of the warriors and suddenly it shimmered and the wound, as if by magic, closed with no visible scar. One by one, he tended the most seriously injured warriors, the rest were left with some medication and sleep.

"I'm going back to your father, then I will rest. You go and pick some seeds from the Simoli plants near the river, few have remained in our stock" ordered the huge man, with eyes of fire and thunderous voice. Although he wasn't the strongest barbarian of the clan, every man respected him; he was a keeper of the forbidden lore, the only one allowed to practice the arts of the gods for the wellbeing of the clan. Magic was always feared even by the most courageous, and normally it was considered as evil. The shamans were different, (at least according to what they said!) there powers where granted by the spirits of life in the name of the gods themselves. Now this is what commoners think, the truth was kind of different. All the magic users, including the clan's shaman knew that the caster must be the medium of the great powers that he summons, and in order to do this, some of it must come from within. It is also true that spirits are there and can be helpful or aggressive; that's why the shaman must understand their nature and master the ability to communicate with them.

Nibu went back to his tent and as usual picked his bolas and an empty leather pouch for the seeds. This was his eighth spring, and considering the usual lack of green, the area was pulsating with nature's benevolence. While following the path for the stream, a sudden noise from behind some bushes to his left made him jump like a frog. He slowly unfastened the bolas from around his waist, crouched and prepared to face whatever produced the sound. It all happened in a couple of seconds, but for the young hunter, it was like eternity. Like lightning, an enormous tiger jumped from behind the bushes infront of the boy. Its eyes were fixed on the child, but it just remained there stationary as if studying its prey from a distance. Nibu was terrified, he couldn't move an inch of his body; he wanted to cry and shout for help, pointless in this situation. Then something unbelievable happened, the tiger closed its eyes and Nibu heard a rough but just voice inside his head "You are not yet ready Noita. We shall meet again" and with this, it faded away like it never existed. With that the boy collapsed to the ground and couldn't stop shaking. 'Was that a spirit', he asked to himself while trying to stand. Anyway, he decided to go pick the damned seeds and return as fast as he could to his mentor.

 

Years passed from that incident, Nibu was now at his sixteenth autumn. He had learned much from his teacher, and was ready for his matka (a shaman's initiation journey).

"Child, you are now ready to become a man. What I could teach, you have learned now you have to meet your new tutor…nature. Are you ready for your matka?"

The old shaman was wearing his ritual robes made up with wolf fair and lizard scales, a round metallic cap covering his head. All the other men inside the chief's tent were solemnly looking at the man-to-be student, waiting for his answer. Kahel was observing the scene with his usual hard look, but today he seemed to be proud. This made Nibu happy and willing to undergo any challenge.

"Yes I am. And I shall not return until I can bring honor to my clan. I ask permission to leave." While saying this, he removed his leather shirt showing an uncompleted tattoo on his back. The drawing was of a mountain eagle just old enough to leave its nest, representing the journey he had to undergo. One by one, the village council, added their part to the unfinished drawing. The pain was great, but Nibu was prepared for all of this. When the drawing was complete, his father added "Go my son and return as a Noita. May the gods protect you."

The chief nodded to Nibu giving him permission to leave, and without saying another word, he picked up his possessions and left the tent. His mother was waiting for him outside, with a great amount of food…he loved to eat!

"Good morning Sisilisko." Every morning, this was the first thing Nibu would say to his pet lizard and naturally the creature would stare at his owner with no idea whatsoever of what the human would be talking about. After that he would prepare a generous breakfast and continue in his journey.

In his search, he became very close to his brothers and sisters in nature; so close that he mastered the ability to manipulate the energies of nature in order to understand the beastly voices. Ten years he spent walking around visiting different locations and meeting other people and creatures. Most of this time, he was alone studying the abilities granted to him by the spirit.

Due to his nature, many other wanderers mistrusted him; sometimes even getting him into fights because of his truthfulness. Magic was something evil in the eyes of most people he met. They all compared it with the dark energies conjured by the evil witches that dwelled the mountains of Hyperboria. Although he could do many things other men not even imagined, these powers required a lot of physical stamina. One night, after a whole day of practicing the arts, he found an empty cave near the cliff face of a mountain he never been before. He cooked something, ate and went directly to sleep. The next morning, he woke up in a big wooden cage hanging from a huge dead tree. He was pretty much confused, all around him were men wearing studded leather, pointing spears or swords at him. Amongst them was a very beautiful woman, wearing a long black velvet dress adorned with serpents made from white gold.

"So…finally our guest woke up! You're probably asking yourself, how come you're in that cage…hehehe…the answer is simple, you hunted in my territory. And you know what does that mean? I leave it to your imagination…" finished the woman.

"I wasn't aware of your presence in these mountains. The food I ate is the food I hunted. But I shall compensate you for crossing," replied the prisoner.

"Hhhmm…so how do you think you can do that?" asked the lady.

"I am a healer. I can cure your sick." Suggested Nibu.

"A healer you say. Well, that could be interesting. Release the man, and take him to Vasuks."

The cage was lowered and Nibu was allowed, slowly, to come out. Four armored men escorted him to a hut were a severely wounded man was dying. The woman sat there with a huge smile and watched.
"I need fresh boiled water and clean cloth" was all that Nibu requested. This was brought to him immediately. The lady was passing comments all the time, ridiculing him and threatening to kill him if he did not succeed. She almost seemed to enjoy the fact that the man was dying…strange people. To her surprise, Nibu started chanting invoking the power of the gods inside the body of the man on the bed. He threw some herbs inside the beaker of hot water, and continued chanting. This man was really bad; he needed all his efforts to help him. He also noticed that the man had inside his body a lethal poison he recognized due to the yellowish color of his tongue. So, after pouring some of his mixture inside his patient's mouth, Nibu shouted and pressed as hard as he could on Vasuks' wound. Magically the wound started to close and after a couple of minutes it was not even visible. He helped the man up; now he needed to vomit the essence of poison from his being. Everyone was startled by what had happened, the woman had now a terrified look in her eyes.
The first thing Vasuks said was "You bitch...you shall die for this. Men, tie her hands. Without them she's as soft as a baby!"

Without hesitation the guards carried out the order, treating their former leader as the worst of criminals. Vasuks was in his forties, with white streaks on the sides of his long black hair. Green eyes full of rage and determination marked him as a chieftain. He had several rings made of silver on his fingers and a round amulet with runes on top made up of burnt wood. He finally turned his eyes to face his savior and said "Healer you have saved my life. Consider yourself welcome in my domain. I will personally see that you are treated like my brother."

Nibu, now very tired, replied "You must drink allot of water for your body to be cleansed and have good sleep. For me...all I need is some rest and food for my traveling. Do you have any milk?"

Vasuks burst out laughing and added "Very well. I shall have a chat with you later. Guards prepare a tent for my guest and yes give him all the milk he wants!" Nibu was not sure what made the chieftain laugh, but anyway, all this meant he could have a good supply of food until the next stop.

It was almost night when Nibu got out of his tent. He had a glorified meal and loads of milk. Vasuks was there waiting for him. "So my friend what shall I call you?" asked the chief. "Nibu" answered the healer. "Well, Nibu, thanks to you I am fully recovered. Your healing abilities are quite impressive. You must thank your good star that we haven't met in different occasions. I normally kill other magic users!" Only now, our shaman-to-be started to realize that he probably ended in the territory of a warlock, the most feared men on Hyperboria! "Unfortunately I haven't got the gift of healing, I'm more into destruction and devastation" and with this Vasuks and his men started to laugh. "So what other abilities do you possess?" asked the warlock. Nibu, who normally never lied, knew also that under no occasion could a shaman reveal his secrets, especially to people who used their power for their egoistic and evil needs. "I am just a healer." Vasuks looked at him as if looking to a child lost in the woods ready to be eaten by wolves. "I shall teach you something that although not aggressive, it can be very useful. This shall be your reward." Vkar would say, 'the more you know, the more likely you will survive' or 'the knife can be used to kill or to cut leather, you decide'. "I accept your offer. But when we are finished, I must leave" replied Nibu.

And so it was that Nibu learnt the ability to create illusions out of nothing. Some of them were so real, that even he almost believed in them. After a week's training Vasuks gave him leave and a warning to avoid these lands next time he decided to go for a walk!

In the last year he became weary of the fact, that he wasn't quite sure when he was supposed to return to his clan. Grandfather had just said 'You will know when it's the right time' and nothing else. Nibu sometimes missed his people, although all this time on his own made him quite eccentric; his behavior was sometimes very close to that of his animal friends. It was his 27th spring when he reached a rather familiar valley. Further down the hill, was a river…some old traces of campsites…YES, this was the valley of Koros; when he was young, these were his tribe's spring territories. Nibu followed his instinct down the path for the river…no trace of his tribe this spring; they must have chosen another site this year. After travelling a couple of weeks, following the river upstream, he ended up in the traces of a small camp at the base of mount Muinainen. After a further investigation of the site, it revealed some dried blood and broken spears, indicating a fight. There were no corpses, but he was sure that this was quite recent, some tracks were still visible. Another interesting factor was that the camp was on an animal path leading up to the mountain. In fact the tracks were a mixture of human and tiger footprints. Considering his curios character, he decided to follow the path. After an hour or so, Sisilisko became quite nervous, it was obviously scared, there had to be danger ahead. He looked in all directions, there was nothing visible…the only problem was that the path took a sharp turn to the left, making it impossible to assert whether anything was there. After a moment of perplexity, he decided to use his powers to become invisible to the eyes of mortal man, holding his short sword and moving as stealthily as he could master. But as soon as he was able to see on the other side…there it was, the biggest mountain tiger he ever saw. It had it mouth opened wide showing a variety of very sharp teeth, eyes looking directly at him, ignoring his spell. The tiger seemed to be too aggressive to try any soothing spell, the only solution was to fight it…but wait, as soon as he was going to throw his bolas, something caught his eye. The tiger was bleeding! And that was not just it, he also noticed a couple of cubs behind the huge creature.

Nibu decided to put his weapons down, and calmly he slowly started for the tiger, trying to sooth it. The tiger was just trying to defend the cubs, but due to her deep wound, she was very difficult to handle. "Calm down my sister, I'm here to help. I mean no harm to you, or your cubs"; he meant every word that he said. The tiger started to calm down, but as soon as Nibu closed enough to assess the wound, it fell down like a sack of stones in a stream. She had invested her last energies to scare away the possible danger. The cut was too deep; it had lost too much blood. He tried his best to cure the beast but to no avail…the once strong tiger was now dead! Sorrow filled his heart; the cubs were too young to live without their mother. "Come to me young brothers. We shall live together until you're big enough to stay on your own" before this he asked nature's favor to speak in the way of the beasts. To be furtherly accepted from the cubs, he took their mother's skin and head, and made it into a robe covering his back and head. In this way, his odor would seem more tiger like.
So he lived in the mountains with his young friends, defending them from other predators and aiding them for their hunting. Soon enough, they were old enough to take care for themselves.
"I shall leave you now brothers. Sisilisko say bye to our friends."

"Brother-that-walks-on-two-feet, you our kin for ever. You us are one."

Suddenly, Nibu felt his head becoming light, mystical words started appearing inside his head. It felt as if someone or something was casting a spell in his mind. His body started shaking, his vision gone black, nothing for some minutes…then he opened his eyes again, but things were kind of different. He was in a tiger…NO, HE WAS A TIGER…a very big tiger!

"Your own kin awaits you. Hunt well brother" concluded the other two tigers, turning their back at him. Then blackness again…the words reappeared in a different sequence, probably the reverse of the spell. In fact it was, he was now back into his human form. The gods had given him, through his animal friends, a new powerful spell…shape shifting into a huge mountain tiger. His totem had finally chose him; he was ready to return back to his people.

It took him another month to find his clan's settlement; in the meantime he had completed his new tatuoida. To do this he had to shave all his long hair except from the sides that reached his chest. These in turn were tied with golden rings given to him by a merchant in exchange for his mystic help. The drawing was of the same tiger he had just become, covering his left half of his wrinkled face and the upper part of his skull.
Finally he could see the smoke rising from the camp's fires, he was sure that scouts would soon discover his arrival. As soon as he arrived close enough to the first set of huts, a couple of barbarians jumped from behind some boulders and confronted him with spears. He smiled recognizing clan drawings on the guards and said,
"I am Nibu of clan Vuori, son of Kahel Kingel son of Vkar Noita."

"Welcome back to your home Nibu. The Noita was awaiting you" answered the guards, now lowering their weapons.

Nibu followed his fellow men, right to the Vkar's hut. He wasn't allowed to talk to no one else but the village shaman. Only he could say whether his matka had ended in success or not. When Nibu entered the hut, the old shaman was smoking his pipe on some rugs.

"I was expecting you my disciple. Have you learned anything in your short journey?"

"I have walked through plains, hills and mountains, crossing rivers, eating from the land, and hunting for survival. I heard the sweet voice of the earth; I have visited other Noita, fought when I was attacked, communed with spirits and beasts, becoming one with them. Finally I have met my totem, the same spirit that visited me when I was very young, instructing me to return to my people. I am ready to join my clan again, if I have pleased you." Nibu's speech was illustrated by his tattoos.

"I see…so the mountain tiger has spoke to you. Good, my child…oh no, you are not a child anymore, you have become a man. I am getting old, my strength is leaving me and you are ready…Hhmm, I think it is the right time to show our new Noita to the clan. Nibu Noita your clan welcomes you back." With this, the old man presented his adorned pipe to the new Noita, hugging his grandson.

So it was that Nibu became Noita of clan Vuori. His people welcomed the shaman, especially his own family. Eight other years passed from that day with all the good and the bad times. Nibu's grandfather was getting older and sicker by the day, and strangely enough he wouldn't let his grandson to intervene.
"Nibu, my time in the mortal land is at an end. I am ready for my last journey. Help me up, and bring my coat."
It was a cold and snowy day. The wind was blowing on their faces. Soon they arrived near a stone altar dedicated to the gods of nature. After giving their offerings, Vkar climbed the altar with Nibu's help, coughing during the process, lying on the mystical carvings. Nibu started praying for his grandfather's soul when suddenly he noticed a pack of wolves gathered around the altar. They were ignoring the younger shaman. The biggest one, with gray fair, jumped on top of the old man, and slowly began licking his face.
"I am ready. Let my new life begin." With this, light engulfed both wolf and man, and when it was allover, only the wolf remained, but it's eyes were kind of different. It looked at Nibu, in a warm way, and started for the frozen forest together with the rest of the pack.

"Hail to thee shaman, you will never be forgotten by your people."