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After moments of standing in the pit contemplating with the rain water rising above his knees, Daniel finally fell upon an idea, the success of which was only limited by whether or not it could actually work. And Daniel knew it could work for him.
Raising his hands to his sides he gestured with both hands and said, “Raise!”
The pool of mud and rain water in the pit began to roil and bubble around him. The skies flashed lightning all around the vale in which he was trapped, filling the sky with strobes of white and blue flashes. Rain fell rapidly and the rushing sound fell upon him again, as it had during the fire. As the pool water started to rise the Shaman’s visage appeared at the edge of the pit again from whatever he was doing with Rachel and glared with glinting eyes, staff gone and the elongated misshapen prongs of the headdress missing.
As the water rose, so did Daniel. It had swollen up to his belt line and then lifted him, his arms still outstretched. The volume of water seemed to expand as well and as Daniel and the water crested the edge of the pit it picked up speed, rushing upon the Shaman. Lightning flashed all about Daniel and the torrents of rain picked up again. As the water swell knocked over the Shaman, Daniel willed it to rush into and through the woods towards the one glimmer of moonlight still hovering over Rachel. She warily lifted her head from the rock and stretched her hand to Daniel as he came through the trees riding a mounding hill of water.
Once within a few feet of Rachel, Dan’s arms lowered and the water dispersed around the two of them in an outward wash. Ray was trying to stand, using the rock to balance her. Before she nearly fell face first he was with her, holding her, warming her as best as he could, soaked through with water. And then she collapsed into his arms. Scooping Rachel into his arms, Daniel looked about for any sign of the Shaman and then turned and began his retreat from the mountain side.
He had willed the water to surround and wash the Shaman away from the land, but he knew the idea was impossible. A water Shaman cannot merely be washed away.
As they made their descent Rachel seemed to stir in and out of consciousness. Approximately thirty minutes down the hill and past the meadow already, as Daniel was making good time, large, beautiful flakes of snow began making their way in through the canopy and onto the open areas.
Well, that’s different at least, Dan thought to himself.
By the time the end of the dirt road where the truck had been left was in sight, the snow was beginning to collect and there lay a half to one full inch on the ground, stirring with his boots. The temperature had dropped below freezing and he held Rachel to him as tightly as he could while he carried her.
Finally, with the truck nearing ahead of them, Rachel stirred and placed her head as close to Daniel’s neck as he could. She wrapped her loose arm around his opposite shoulder and held him tight to fight of the cold. Eyes warily rolling to catch sight of the truck and a promise of warmth she finally spoke.
“Dan?...”
His reply was hoarse and he huffed with the exercise of carrying over a hundred pounds down the mountain side. “Yes, Rachel?”
“I think…” she stuttered with the cold, “I may be ready to have a relationship now…”
Daniel smiled. He could feel her smile as well against his neck.
Epilogue
Daniel’s Story
Daniel sat staring at his new self in the mirror for a moment after applying the shaving cream. It had been four months since the events leading to his exchange with the Shaman and he’d still not gotten use to the visage.
Things in Woodland Hills and the surrounding areas began to return to normal almost immediately on the twenty-first of December. They’d had four months of typical snowfall, and Dan had to assume all the other areas, Mesa Verde, Cortez, the Arches and further up north from him along the Rockies were all within normal precipitation amounts. The citizens of the area were considerably more friendly again as well. It seemed the opportunity afforded him during his confrontation with the Shaman was all for the better of everyone around him.
There was only one fallout from the events: Rachel seemed to immediately sense the change in Daniel after returning home on the morning of December 21st and had quickly reversed her openness to a relationship with him. She constantly appeared nervous about him, and rarely conversed. The new Daniel for his part acted as though her choice was just fine with him. She stayed on for a short time at the house while he got into the rhythm of working at the packing plant and putting his life in order, but he could not hide the new outlook he had and she soon left him. Ray had found an opportunity at Yosemite in California which was a year-round position. She packed and left within twenty-four hours of confirming the position with not even a kiss, hug or any real display of emotion at all. And so she was gone.
Considering the new light in which Daniel saw the world it was not a terrible thing to have Rachel go. In fact, he found it easy to let her go since he hadn’t even been the one to initiate his interest in her in the first place. Instead, after learning a little more about the contemporary conditions of courtship he’d settled on another young woman at the plant and started dating her: the secretary to the president of the company no less.
As he raised the blade to the right side of his check and began the gentle strokes downward to remove the weekend stubble, his face was lost in steam on the mirror. But before wiping he could sense the slightest of shadows among the mist. Red eyes glinted at him and a shadowed form materialized.
“You can manifest yourself already then?” new Daniel said after the initial shock.
The shadow nodded.
“How do you like being a Shaman?” he asked another question as he began shaving again.
Again the shadow replied with a nod, but this time only singularly.
Daniel tried to maintain a casualness about the conversation, even though if he admitted openly to himself it did carry some small amount of fear with it.
“You took to using snow so very quickly. I’m impressed!” Dan continued with another stroke on the opposite side of his face.
“Tell me,” he asked working on the space below his nose and on his chin, “Are you satisfied with our trade?”
A soft grumble came from the shadow standing in the mirror. Daniel knew the old Daniel Shaman was there standing directly behind his right shoulder, but did not think he would be able to see him, so he continued to watch the figure in the mist on the mirror. There was no staff and no headdress. Daniel Shaman had no war paint upon his face either. It was simply a darkened face with glinting eyes.
“Yes,” the Shaman whispered.
“Rachel is safe. I have done no harm.”
The Shaman nodded his head.
As the new Daniel finished his shave and rinsed the Shaman remained.
“What is it?” Daniel asked. “Why do you linger then?”
It took a moment before the rain Shaman’s reply, as though it was a concentrated effort to make his voice heard.
“Others…” he finally growled.
Daniel put down his towel. “Yes? Have you met them?”
“Yes,” the Shaman replied.
“Does it surprise you there are others?”
Another moment of thought, more to focus on the words than the idea, and the Shaman replied, “No.”
“Have you spoken with them yet?”
“Only one…” the Shaman nodded, “But I didn’t know there would be others.”
“Well there are,” Daniel said and then attempted to turn and leave.
A hand on his shoulder prevented him from turning.
“Is that a problem for you?” Daniel asked. “I would think you should like company. Just because I didn’t, does not mean they won’t be agreeable with you. Just do your duty with the waters.”
The Daniel Shaman released Dan’s shoulder and nodded. “I was just surprised. …Is there more you should tell me?”
Daniel stood with
his hands on either side of the bathroom basin and pondered for a moment.
“No, Daniel. There is nothing more for me to tell you. Do your duty well for as long as you wish. Let me go and live the remainder of my live now.”
Daniel turned and exited the bathroom. He hollered back to the mirror, “Thank you for the visit. I need to attend to my employment now…and so do you I think.”
The shadow in the mirror was gone.
Rachel’s Story
Standing in the lobby of the lodge in Yosemite, Rachel unwrapped the quick-lunch packages she generally picked up as meals for her tours and duties. It was raining outside, the first rain of the season following a heavy year of snowfall. The weather report indicated it might rain just a bit in the afternoon, but late April was very early in the season for rain and the precipitation would likely return to snow as the sun went down. She took a cautious bite of her sandwich contemplating it.
Could it be Daniel? she thought. She didn’t think so. She imagined a Shaman was bound to at least some sort of defined geographic area, even if it was likely a very large one.
Her memory remained vague of the last few minutes in the possession of the original Shaman. She had only come to marginal consciousness just as Daniel began fighting the Shaman and was still mostly out of it when she was carried from the forest.
But one thing stuck in her mind above all other cloudy images from that week she was entwined in the Shaman’s web: Daniel’s last words.
Dan’s bare-chested figure loomed over her while she clung to the rock upon which she had awoken. He had nearly disappeared into shadow, but his voice was still calming.
“I have traded with the Shaman, Rachel,” he said.
She had tried to shake off the fog in her mind as she listened. She’d tried to ask why he would trade, but never got her answer directly. He was explaining things but his voice kept fading in and out. She never knew if that was her own wariness at the time or something about his new existence. One statement stood out in her mind, one that she later vowed would not be part of the deal.
“We’re trading so that I can do good, and he wants out…and…he wants you.”
Ray later recalled shaking her head and finally mustering a response, “No! Please don’t go yet. I need you.”
Her mind slipped again into sleep as she heard Daniel’s last words echo in her head, “Don’t let him fool you. I am something different now. You can be new too.”
Once her mind was fully hers again back at Daniel’s house in Woodland Hills the following day she knew the figure of Daniel moving about his house and looking through just about every possession he owned was not really Daniel. He did not speak the same. He acted lost initially. He was awkward. And he was very needy. He plead for attention, and she refused it, recanting what he had told her she had said on the descent from the mountain: She was definitely no longer ready for a relationship with him.
Never once did Rachel confirm for the new Daniel what she knew, but she became quickly certain he was aware. If he didn’t realize the real Dan had spoken with her before he rescued her and returned her home, new Daniel probably did within a day or two. And it was time for Rachel to leave.
A friend had gotten her a job with the coveted Yosemite Rangers and it was the perfect opportunity to start fresh. She’d never been to California before and Northern California and the Sierra Nevadas from Yosemite to Lake Tahoe were absolutely beautiful. Within the first week, her friend had taken her on a tour of the San Francisco Bay Area as well. It was all a new and unique environment for her. On the return to the park they came through Pleasanton on 580 and took Highway 5 south before heading east on highway 140 towards the park. They had decided to take 140 instead of 120 through Manteca and Modesto so that they could stop for some popular pizza in Mariposa.
On the southern route from Highway 5 there were a couple rises where Rachel could look directly east and see the sun just settling into the crevice of Yosemite nearly seventy-five miles away. It was a beautiful sight, and in many ways, the park became home to her in that moment. She thought she might remain there for a long time, particularly because she’d hoped if she stayed in one place long enough she might be able to make contact with Daniel, the new Rain Shaman, once again. She considered loving someone again a very real possibility, but she needed to know what Daniel felt before moving on.
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