Group Work

The Singing of Blood

Group Story

The wind blew cold, but it always had. Usually, I am calm and collected. But that is a hard thing to keep up when you’re being chased by a bear. This should teach me never to approach a cub.

I ran through a thicket of trees and saw a hiding spot—a small cave, just wide enough for me to fit. I could hear the animal breathing, heavy and close behind. I slathered mud on my chest and neck, just in case. I stood before the once grand beast and struggled to regain my breath, a piece of broken rib insistently pestering my lung. With the hole blocked by the bear, I decided to venture deeper into the cave. It split into a thousand different directions. The thought of just going outside and surrendering came across my mind. I didn’t know where to go. A slight breeze came from one path. Hot air wafted from another. An instinct I could only explain as gut feeling told me to take the narrow tunnel slightly off to the left.

As I ventured into the unknown tunnel, I felt goosebumps run down my arms and greatly regretted not bringing a torch. I could hear ancient water dripping somewhere very close to me. The cave ended in some sort of underground meadow, with a hole letting sunlight in through the top. There was a small hill seemingly in the center of this massive underground system. The light coming in gave it a ghostly, heavenly look. On the shallow peak of this hill was a weeping oak worn down by endless ages past. A lady was sitting in the tree, wrapped in what looked like a cloak of feathers. She was holding a shivering, small ball of fur, half hidden by the tall flowers that surrounded the tree. I took a step forward, and the ball of fur growled. The woman looked up, and I froze in the sight of her golden eyes. She continued to stare at me, waiting to see what my next move would be. Upon closer inspection, the ball of fur turned out to be a dead rodent on a string. That’s when I heard the soft thump of someone landing on the ground behind me. Look what going near a bear had brought me!

I whipped my head around and grasped for my axe, only to remember that the bear had taken it when it found me. The blood in my veins turned to ice at the sight of the girl with snakes for hair. A man with a giant wildcat sitting

on his shoulder landed next to her, and I got the sense that he was, in fact, the bear. Now, being the scholar that I am, I knew what should’ve come next—I prepared to become a statue.

“Say what you want; I’m very good at chasing people,” the bear man said to the gorgon. She rolled her eyes and hissed at him.

“You wanted me to find this place?” I said, my confusion level rising.

“I sent them to bring you to me,” the lady in the tree said.

“Naturally. You possess blood that can turn you into a person...like us. I was born as a gorgon, but my blood changes me into a shape-shifter. Mistress wanted to bring you here to see your potential.” The gorgon shifted around and blinked into the bear cub from before.

“Did you just say I’m a gorgon?”

“No. Your blood will change you into a magical creature,” the bear said gruffly, and I thought on it for a moment. I had always wondered where I came from, but this? What would that mean for my parent’s origins?

“How do you know all of this about me?” I said. “Do you know who my parents are? Did they send you?”

“Not quite. Our blood sings, you see. And the Mistress can hear it. She heard it in you,” the gorgon said softly, and my neck started itching.

The lady descended from the tree and approached me. “I knew them long ago, but I have not seen them in years.” I could tell by the expressions on the bear man and the gorgon’s face that this was news to them.

“I’ve never seen you before, though,” I answered.

“You do not remember it, that’s all,” she said, and her voice was birdsong in my ears.

“We have something to show you,” the gorgon said. “Please follow us.” And with that, the gorgon, bear man, and I exited the meadow. I looked back and

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watched the bird woman melt into the shadow, golden eyes shining and then disappearing.

“I’m Kayla,” the gorgon said, “and that’s Johnny.” She pointed to the bear. I continued to follow Kayla down one of the tunnels and raised an eyebrow when I saw what lay at the end. We walked into a meadow similar to the one we left, but this one had a village with dozens of little wood houses, each adorned with my family crest, with a statue of two people embracing each other in the middle. I was very confused.

“Is that them?” I asked.

“Yeah, they helped to found our clan. They gave their lives to save us,” Kayla responded.

“They gave up their child amid battle. We believe you are that child. Somehow you survived the fighting. When they were looking for their dead, they found you,” said Johnny.

“You parents possessed the power to heal the wounded. We would like to see if that power lies within you.”

“But I don’t know how to heal people,” I replied. “How can we test my abilities?”

Kayla pulled out a small blade and pulled it across her hand. “Try this,” she said as the blood dripped from her hand.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked.

“Just focus,” Johnny said. “Picture the cut closing; focus on bending the injury to your will.”

I cupped my hands over her injured one and pictured the cut closing, the blood ceasing its cascade. Then I opened my hands and saw that the cut was gone.

“I think he’s the one,” Kayla said, smiling up at Johnny.