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Her clothing fluttered in the slight breeze as she sat on the ground, admiring the view before her. There was an energy present, an earth power that pulsed despite the atrocities committed here by man a few decades ago...and yes, the ones that were still going on. It was easy to forget all that, and be one with this place as it must have been hundreds of years ago, before man cast his diseased finger upon this land.
She'd been led to this place, this very spot.
And here she sat. Waiting...
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, something came to her, a shadow at first, barely visible. But eventually it coalesced into the form of a lion, around it, other animals, some more visible, some less.
The figure spoke to her, in her mind.
"Abandon this path you are on. It will only lead to more suffering for yourself and others. Let the past rest. Let it be."
Outraged at what she was hearing, which was not at all what she had come here for, Kuasa stood up, ready to strike at the lion figure but it receded just out of reach.
"I am the true totem bearer! I came here to get your blessing, your help in finding my sister and the totem, to get revenge for what happened here! For what is still happening."
The figures were still calm, but their disagreement was palpable.
"Revenge is the wrong path. You are a protector, like your grandmother and all of your ancestors before you. But you have strayed from what is just and true. You need to stop."
Kuasa was angry now, not understanding how the spirits couldn't see the truth, what was necessary, what had to be done to restore this land to how it had been before mankind arrived. She only wanted to do what the totem bearers before her had always tried and failed to do. Give the Earth and animals and a better, changed mankind a chance to live in peace together. And if she had to enforce that peace, so be it.
"I don't need anything other than the totem. And if I have to rip it off my sister's cold dead neck, so be it!"
The apparition turned red, the lion roaring and the other animals charging towards her. But she stood her ground. She believed in her path, in what she had to do. So she just waited for the animal spirits to charge through her.
Turning around, she took one more look at the place, which now seemed far less inviting, less peaceful. She had come here because she had been led here and she had hoped to get a blessing from the spirits and the earth herself, but now she knew that had not been the reason, on the contrary.
But that did not deter her. She knew what had to be done, the only thing that changed was that now she knew she had to do this alone.
She sighed.
So be it.