Called by the Goddess

Chapter 17: Debriefing

I left Tasha and Maya after I finished my hot chocolate and the s’mores and headed to my room. I had made a special meditation spot in the window sill, looking out into the forest. I made myself comfortable on the cushions and closed my eyes.

I focussed on my breathing and connected myself with mother earth, like I had done hundreds of times by now. I started to feel the connection with the trees outside and with the rest of the order members and all the living creatures in the forest. It feels like we all are connected through some kind of web of light, that is the best way I can describe it.

In the direction of the pack territory, I feel a wall of energy, shielding us from them and keeping them away. The last few weeks I can manage to feel through the shield and feel the connection I have with the pack members as well, although it is being lessened by the shield.

“Ok Kate, don’t digress, stay with this morning and what happened”. I once more went through every move I made this morning. Exploring my choices, thinking of other ways I could have done things, and what would have been the best choice in the end. Especially my encounter with Tasha got a lot of attention, since there was the most room for improvement there!

Having a clear mind, I went downstairs and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before heading out to the training centre. When I entered the conference room, I saw I wasn’t the first to arrive.

Henry was there already, scowling at me. I smiled apologetic to him, or tried to, the memory of his outburst this morning did almost make me giggle. We sat a while in an uncomfortable silence, after the reluctant ‘Hi’ we both said to one another. I sat down and at that moment I heard Maya and Tasha come in, happily chatting amongst themselves about training schedules.

“So, Kate and I will be training separately from now on, except for special training sessions like this morning, have you got everything you need to take over from me?” Maya asked Tasha.

“Yes, I do. I will miss you two during sessions, but we will manage! Won’t we Henry?” Tasha asked her soon to be number two, at which Henry scowled at her too.

“Enough with the attitude mister!” Maya scolded him. “What were you thinking this morning, did you not feel the wind shift? You should have paid more attention. Tasha would not make a beginners mistake like that and I expected better from you, so even if the rules allowed you being the war chief, I sincerely doubt if you would make the cut, seeing your reaction just now. I am dissapointed in you!”

Henry shot me an angry look, that I felt piercing though my soul… then he flushed and sank down in his chair, looking defeated. “Yeah you are right Maya, sorry, I was just angry at myself for making such a rookie mistake” he mumbled. Then he looked at me again, this time searching for something, like he was hoping that I did not catch that look he shot me.

“Oops”, I thought, trying to look like nothing was wrong, “good thing looks cannot kill, there went the last bit of good will I had with Henry, thanks Maya…” I let out a big sigh.

Maya looked at me and raised her eyebrow. “Something wrong?” she asked me through a mindlink. “I will explain later, now is not the time” I replied. It was time to share my concerns about Henry with someone, and who better to share it with than with my beta, I figured. And Granny, she should probably be brought into the loop as well, I mused on.

“Think of the devil…”, I smiled to myself, because just at that moment Granny joined us, together with Jasmin and Tara.

Granny smiled at me. “We’ve prepared everything for tonight, now the only thing left to do is go over everything with you and Maya once more, we can do that after this debriefing session!”

“Perfect!” I replied. And I meant it, because this would be the perfect opportunity to discuss my worries about Henry with them all. Tara and Jasmin would also be able to help her figure out what she could do about it and if it was really something to worry about, or if she made the whole thing up, because of her own secret dislike of Henry from back when they were still together in the pack. .

Abe, Bowie and Sarah were the last ones to enter.

“Now that we are complete, let’s start this debriefing session”, Maya started. “First thing of order is that, since I will relinquish my position as chief warrior tonight during the ritual, and Tasha will take over from me, she will take the lead today, so Tasha, the floor is yours!”

Tasha cleared her throat. “Yes, thank you Maya, let’s start at the beginning. Henry, what happened, you laid out a perfectly good plan for us all, but were the first one to be detected. Where did you go wrong?” she asked him in a very business like way.

Henry looked down, took a deep breath to collect himself and managed to answer just as business like. “I had the perfect angle, or so I thought. I was so caught up in keeping quiet, that I missed the wind shifting. It was stupid, I should have paid more attention!” he said with a grin. He almost seemed sincere. Almost, but I still could feel his resentment radiate from him. Although I felt like I was the only one that caught up on that. “And then suddenly that skunk appeared, pissed as hell. She did not try to avoid me, but just started spraying me, so that is when I knew I had been detected by the chosen one” he continued.

Was there a hint of sarcasm at the way he said ‘the chosen one’? Or was it just a way of showing respect for my abilities? “I’ve told you, just call me Kate!” I interjected, at which I got an irritated look, quickly followed by a smile. Again I wondered if I imagined his resentment and if it was just all in my head, which is why I never had mentioned anything about it to Maya or Granny. Sometimes it felt so real, and then I started to doubt myself. Maybe it was the trauma of being bullied all my life, who knows?

“Kate?” Tasha asked, meaning she wanted to hear my side of the story. “Yes, well, I connected with Luna and started to feel around for the team. It did not take me long to sense every one of them and their locations. Which is also because we know you guys so well by now, so that makes it easier for us to detect you, you have a familiar energy print for us by now, not to mention familiar scents and sounds.” I explained.

“First we identified our biggest threat”, I smiled at Henry whilst saying this, I tried to get on his good side. “He was closest to us and almost ready to find a good ambush spot, but then the wind shifted and Maya also sensed him through her sense of smell. We had just pissed off that mother skunk, she was very protective of her young and we had come too close for her liking. She was just in between where we were and where Henry was, so I thought that a good strategy. Being sprayed would render his sense of smell useless, eliminating him as a threat!”

At this point Tara interjected. “How did you get that skunk to spray him instead of trying to stay out of his way?” she asked me. She was my teacher that had the biggest affinity with nature and animals, she was the one that taught me how to communicate with them.

I smiled at her. “Well, I sensed that she was in a foul mood already because of us, so I reached out to her and apologized for disturbing her, letting her know and feel that we were no threat to her. Then I warned her that Henry was ahead and I convinced her that he was up to no good and out to get her and her baby… and that did the trick!” At this I smiled apologetic to Henry. I saw Granny lift an eyebrow. She was going to question me some more about the skunk incident later on, I could tell.

We went on discussing how we caught the others, and how each of us could have improved on our actions. Poor Bowie was released from active duty, until he could prove he could focus on the job without being distracted by thinking of Willow. He was reassigned to be a PE teacher at the order’s high school, a job reserved for disgraced warriors.

Finally we got to Tasha and how she had almost got us, because of my foolish mistake. “So, I really did not think things through back there. Next time I will let my projection sneak up on you from behind and scare the bejeezus out of you!” I winked at Tasha.

“Oh good Goddess, I am very glad you did not think of that”, Tasha replied “I was really already quite antsy thinking about what you could have in store for me, after what you did to Henry and Abe, pun intended! But I do think that is an excellent improvement. Next time I will be prepared!”

After that assessment, Tasha gave one last look around the table and decided it was time to finish up.

“Ok, that would be everything for us warriors. Henry, Abe, Sarah, let’s go, we still have some training to do and you, Bowie, can go tell Parker that his time as high school coach is over soon because you are taking over. Let him show you the ropes the rest of the week and then he is to report back for active duty next week!” Tasha said, walking out the door, with the rest of her warrior crew on her heels.

“So, that leaves us for debrief part two and take you two through the last preparations for the ritual tonight!” Granny said.