Makatai quickly returned to the Rising Bear. The sun was indeed slowly setting, burning low over the horizon and causing a slight shimmer in the far distance. There was no sign of either Ahanu or Aitya, which Makatai was not especially surprised about. The two would often get caught up in fits of passion, sneaking off into the forest nearby or shutting themselves away in Ahanu’s tent at the corner of their settlement. But that didn’t especially matter now, as it was time to prepare for the Harvest. He tried to push all thoughts of Noaidi’s warning to the back of his mind, relatively unsuccessfully, but his mental checklist of things required for the harvest quickly took center stage in his thoughts and he got swept up in the preparations.

Making his way to the storage hut where the animals were kept, he took notice of his mother, already there, with her back to the open doorway. He realised it was the first time he had seen her today and called out in greeting, waving to her as she turned to greet him in turn. She smiled so kindly when she saw him, her eyes crinkling as she saw him and the corners of her mouth turning up delicately. She seemed to radiate warmth and as he made his way over she held out her hand to touch his cheek softly. “Makatai, where have you been?” she asked in a jokingly serious tone. “Only just rolled out of bed?” Her dark brown hair danced lightly around her shoulders, glimmering gently in the evening sun. Laughing half-heartedly, Makatai gingerly apologised for his absence although he knew it was a kind-hearted jab, and the pair turned to discuss what needed to be done.

The two decided to split the work, with Makatai agreeing to take care of the sacrifices and his mother measuring out and supplying soulsbane, and handing it around to the other clanmembers. After a quick kiss on the forehead from his mother that he had to stoop down for, the pair split up again to take care of their tasks. Makatai gathered up the crates with the animals in them and carried them to the bonfire. The creatures started to panic as he drew his dagger, and just like before he felt sorry for them. But they would be given back to the cycle of life and death, and nothing of theirs would go to waste. Their panicked eyes somehow reminded him again of Noaidi’s words and a grim feeling overcame him momentarily. Steeling himself he set to work, making sure that none of the children of the tribe were watching before he began.

An hour later and the anticipation was building in the Rising Bear. Everyone was overjoyed to see their loved ones in no more than half an hour. Makatai brought the pelts of the rabbits, beavers and the other small creatures to the storage hut and placed them on a high shelf. Then he went back to the bonfire and, unloading the bones from a pouch at his waist, started to carve a small line in each one with his dagger. The spirit glass pulsed a shallow white each time he did so, indicating the induction of a small amount of spiritual energy into each bone. They gave a slight shudder as their anchoring potential awoke. Since the poor creatures had only recently passed on, their remains still could act as a gateway into this world with a little outside encouragement.

With each bone now sporting a small groove running horizontally from one end to the other, he now laid them out running in a circle around the currently unlit bonfire. The sun had now all but set, and night had descended upon the untamed wilds of Navaho. It seemed as though the entire nation held its breath for this night, once every year. The night when the borders between the two worlds were at their thinnest. Nearby stood a low, long table packed to the brim with food and drink. Mouth-watering smoked meats and hand-baked bread, alongside many of the bounteous fruits and vegetables of the nearby forests and plains. Many traders passed through Navaho at that time of year, late autumn, as they knew there would be plenty of demand for the tastes of other countries. As it was, Kotan had purchased a crate of Helios Rum for the adults, and it had been a good deal. 50 Argin had bought a whole crate, and then another 20 for Zemlyan frostseed juice for the children. The iron vats the juice came in were still cold to the touch after weeks of transport, and the neon blue liquid frothed violently as it came in contact with the air. However, the children loved the cooling sensation and the tangy taste, and Makatai had to admit he enjoyed it himself.

A huge crowd had gathered to watch him work. His mother weaved through the bodies, passing out small pouches of soulsbane to the gathered people. If they took it now, its light poison would take effect by the time the gate between worlds opened and they’d be able to see the spirits as clear as day instead of the usual more formless shapes. The anticipation was building and the atmosphere was electric. People had already start to eat and drink, with Kotan liberally pouring rum into the assortment of clay beakers and glasses the tribe had and passing them around to the assembled adults, his warm laugh echoing through the idyllic nighttime scenery and mixing in with the other voices, the sounds of festivity reaching the clouds.

“You’ve raised a wonderful son, Nahla!” He called to Makatai’s mother, who was coming over to give the old man his pouch. Kotan had clearly had a little too much rum already, as he was far more excitable than usual and bore a large grin stretching from ear to ear. “Look how hard he works for us!” Instead of joining in with the others, Makatai remained diligently setting out the bones around the bonfire, working by torchlight as he buried them shallowly under the dirt.. He had to admit, Kotan’s comments made him smirk. It was nice to be appreciated. The other Bears all gave their agreement and his mother laughed along and agreed with them, still smiling so beautifully as the fire danced warmly in her eye.

He heard a small voice behind him calling his name, and turned just as Saddani jumped into his arms, giggling with delight. He couldn’t help but laugh back, holding Saddani up high in the air before setting her back on the floor. “Makatai! Makatai, come play with us!” She threw her hand back to motion to where the other children were sitting, waiting for the pair to come over and join them in causing chaos and running amok. “Later Saddani. We can play tag later. But I have to finish this first. Maybe your grandpa can join us? Wouldn’t that be fun?” Saddani’s eyes lit up and she beamed. “Grandpa is coming again this year? Ok! Let's do that! Don’t be long!” And with that she scampered off to steal more Frostberry juice and annoy Kotan alongside the other children. It seemed she had recovered well from her sickness, thanks to his mother’s tender care.

Saddani’s parents offered flustered apologies for their child disturbing his work, but Makatai smiled and waved them off. It was no trouble at all, and he was glad she was in good health again. Burying the final bone he called over to his mother, and she came over to help him begin the gateway ceremony. It was impossible on any other night of the year, so they wanted to begin as quickly as possible. The moon and the torches were the only light available to the assembled Bears now, but that was more than enough for Makatai to survey his surroundings, and as he did so an addictive sense of bliss swept over him. It was the one night a year where the dead and the living could be together as one, and yet somehow the entire nation never felt more alive than this night. The adults laughed and made merry, and the children of the tribe shrieked with joy, chasing each other and ducking between the legs of the older tribemembers. He and his mother shared a look and she nodded to him. The pair knelt before the unlit bonfire, beginning to chant together with their eyes closed. At the same time Kotan called for silence and all eyes turned to watch the two shamans working in unison, inviting their long lost friends and family back to see them once more.

As they chanted in sync as they both drew their separation daggers, pouring spiritual energy into them as they did. Once again the spirit glass pommels began to emit the warming golden light. The light began to fill the bulb of clear material, almost behaving like a liquid as it spiralled and swirled within the glass. Together they raised their daggers high in the air, the radiance growing as they pivoted the blades overhead before bringing them down and burying the razor-sharp points in the dirt. As they had many times before, the mother and son duo worked in perfect synchronicity, their chants keeping pace with each other and their hands moving fluidly like a single organism. They both raised their left hands and brought them down on the pommels of their respective daggers, where the spiritual energy had finished accumulating. Their hands rested for a moment as the drone of their voices continued, before they simultaneously twisted their palms clockwise and the energy ran down the outside of the blades and into the earth. The twin rivers of energy began to flow forward, leaving a golden trail as they cut through the dirt and coursed towards the ring of bones Makatai had set out. The glass bulbs emptied entirely, with all of their contents moving through the earth and linking the bones. Each bone absorbed a little of the energy and the grooves on the sides slowly began to fill to the top with that same light. Guided by the chanting the streams circled the bonfire, filling the bones and completing the ring before they met at the other side, now much dimmer than when they started. They made contact before pulsing once and fading out of existence. As they did so the chanting also ceased, with the two shamans completing their task.

Everything fell silent as the bones continued to glow, their latent anchoring power now awoken by the induction of a little energy. They trembled slightly in the earth, feeling the calling from the other side. As the light grew a little brighter a fissure in the thin air itself appeared high above the bonfire. Makatai and Nahla both stood and backed away from the opening as the gate between worlds ate away at reality on each side, rending the air around it. Saddani ran up and hugged the back of Makatai’s leg, peering past his thigh and looking up into the fissure whilst a miniature bread bun hung from her mouth. The whole tribe could see it now. The aurora painted in the sky of the otherworld, the lights dancing in the distance, the ghostly plains of ethereal grass and landscape whose geometry couldn’t have existed by the natural laws of the Living world. The excitement was palpable, but Makatai recognised instantly that something had gone awry, something was very very wrong. Alarm bells rang in his head and the warning that Noaidi had issued started to rattle around in his skull.

Not one spirit stood at the other side of the rift. At every other harvest he had attended, the gate had always opened to the overjoyed faces of a hundred or so of their ancestors, weeping and cheering to see them all again. They would swarm through with an uproar, both sides embracing, the tangible spirits running to join in the revelry and the more ethereal ones simply laughing and conversing along as the night ran its course. Saddani’s grandfather would always show off that he could pluck off both his arms and would chase the children around, waving one of them in front of him until her grandmother would cuff him around the ear. The pleasant blue of the spirits would mingle with the dancing orange of the torchlight in a comforting way as a tangible happiness filled the air, lasting long after the spirits had faded with the rising sun, with the promise of their return always being more than enough to prevent the emptiness that comes with leaving a loved one behind.

But not one single spirit stood on the other side. The tribemembers shifted uncomfortably, looking to Makatai or Nahla for answers. Kotan spoke out, attempting to calm the crowd. The old man could tell that they weren’t especially pleased by this turn of events, and most in fact were unnerved by the silence that filled the night air. “Perhaps they are on their way? Maybe they simply have not gathered yet? The least they could do is be on time! Haha…” Kotan chuckled nervously, obviously sobering up by the second. Even still Noaidi’s warning sounded louder and louder in Makatai’s head and he thought he saw the chieftain standing there on the other side for a moment, looking him dead in the eyes with his brow knit together and mouth turned down. But as soon as he came in to focus the apparition was gone, leaving Makatai to wonder whether he had been there at all. The little girl at his knee started to jump up and down, suddenly excited by something again. “Look!” she called out, and all eyes turned to follow her finger and look to where she was pointing. “They are coming, Kotan! They’re on their way!” Everyone peered off into the distance where she was pointing. Something was certainly headed in their direction, of that much she was correct. The fog of the Otherworld heavily obscured Makatai’s vision but if he squinted he could make out a tiny crimson light in the far distance, growing rapidly in the darkness. The aggressive red burned brightly against the black shades of the otherworld, and the longer Makatai watched it from afar the more he became convinced that the mass was not simply growing but rather heading towards the rift at a breakneck pace.

His shoulders grew tenser with every passing second, and he began to feel a similar feeling to that which Noadi had fed him, a torturous amalgam of rage and pain, except this time rather than coming from deep within him he felt it building slowly, but gradually faster and faster, as though the source of the light was emitting it and he was merely receiving. His head began to pound again, and a primal fear began to build in the pit of his stomach. As though his heart was between his ears he could hear it beating, ever harder and ever louder. He could bear it no longer. Finally ripping his gaze away from the light, which had increased tenfold in size and showed no sign of stopping, he whipped around to face Nahla. “Mati!” He screamed, shattering everyone else’s intent focus and drawing his mother’s attention. “We have to close it!” “Makatai- what ever do you mean?” Kotan started to protest. “That must be them! They’re-” but before he got a chance to continue Makatai shouted over him, a very obvious panic edging his voice. “DO IT! NOW! WE HAVE TO CLOSE IT!” He screamed at his mother, who understood from how frantic he sounded that this wasn’t something to take lightly.

The pair responded by running to rip the bones out of the dirt and snapping them. Each time they did so, the rift would shrink by a little bit and the otherworld became a little less clear. They moved quickly and within a matter of seconds every bone was destroyed. Makatai snapped his head around, looking up into the opening. It was shrinking fast now, no doubt about it. But the light was almost upon them, streaking through the darkness with obvious intent. The moon passed behind a cloud and the camp was filled with a murderous crimson glow as the fog no more than 50 meters away was disturbed by whatever the source of the radiance was. The rift shrunk to no more than five meters wide. Three meters. One meter. Fifty centimeters. Thirty centimeters. The whole tribe held their breaths as the fissure shrunk, with the light also shrinking as the opening grew tighter and tighter in the sky. Makatai began to breathe a mental sigh of relief. He vowed to graciously accept whatever punishment his tribe chose for ruining their evening. And then, with a vile and deliberate laziness, a singular humanoid arm the exact same hateful colour as the light from before pushed its way through the remaining ten centimeter hole.

The limb hung there, suspended in mid-air. Makatai stood, frozen in fear, unmoving and unblinking. Not one pair of eyes looked away from the slightly transparent apparition, holding entirely still a few meters above the ground. After what felt like an eternity, with every assembled member of the Rising Bear tribe holding their breaths, the arm very very slowly slid back into the rift, one centimeter at a time. It withdrew nearly all the way into the hole, leaving nothing but the knuckles of its fingers exposed. And then, even more deliberately, a second hand came parallel to the first one, and the hellish figure started to peel the opening wide apart again. The rupture grew. The head and shoulders of the creature came through into the dark night and immediately, all at once, the tribe started to panic. It appeared to be a spirit, that much Makatai could tell in his panicked state, but entirely unlike any he had seen before.

The apparition was missing all facial features, or even any distinguishing features at all. The only marking in its entirely smooth outline was a perfectly circular and deep hole where its mouth should have been. Otherwise its head was entirely flat and smooth. As it pulled the rest of its humanoid body through and crawled the whole way out, Makatai could see the shape lacked genitals or any kind of distinguishing feature at all. It tore its way out and seemed to stand upside down, toeless feet planted firmly on the night sky. Having fully emerged it began to take in its surroundings, turning its featureless head in each direction. Meanwhile another one of its kind began to drag itself through, and then another. Not many of the tribemembers noticed this however as they had started to run, retreating from the terrifying apparitions coming through from the Otherworld. Makatai stood frozen as the figures became legion, all the while burning with that exact same crimson red. And then, with an ear-splitting screech, they began to descend upon the people of the Rising Bear like hunting eagles attacking field mice.

One of the faceless apparitions lunged for Makatai’s mother. He moved to intercept it but he was too slow, and it was about to make contact with her when Noaidi materialised behind it, grabbing its neck and wrenching its head to the side. His burly arms crushed the spirit’s throat and he tore the head clean from the shoulders. It let out a high-pitched gurgle as its body started to dissolve away into thin air, the light fading as it lost its form and vanished entirely. But as soon as one was defeated two more took its place, the figures still pouring out from the divide that had now reopened. Makatai was about to rush to Noaidi’s side and help defend his mother, but as he did so he heard terrified screaming from behind and wheeled round to see one of the figures grab little Saddani by the arm. Her ear-splitting shrieks continued as he ran back to save her, drawing his separation dagger as he did so. The pommel turned black and he swung at the spirit in an attempt to send it back to the Otherworld, but the hideous being was far too fast. It sprung back onto all fours like a spider, Saddani tucked underneath its arm. Its head twitched and shuddered in a way that made him sick to his stomach. As quickly as it had come it rushed back and started to climb through thin air, all the while with Saddani screaming and shouting, flailing her arms and calling for her mother and father. The figure slowly started to disappear back into the rift, holding the girl tightly under its one arm.

Makatai was petrified with rage. His jaw clenched and he gripped the dagger tightly, and as he did so time seemed to slow to a crawl. He saw the girl being pulled away into the breach, her face warped with fear. But he didn’t need his eyes to see. Not at all. He saw his mother directly behind him, or perhaps “saw” was the wrong way to put it. Rather he could feel the outline of her spirit, could reach out with his mind’s eye and touch it. He felt Noaidi too, his ghostly body locked in a struggle with three of the invading spirits, one of their heads in the palm of his hand, slowly crushing it. It twitched very faintly, every convulsion seeming to last hundreds of times longer than it should have. He spread it further, reaching out with his newfound ability and allowing it to wash over the entire camp. He felt the collective fear of the entire tribe, felt parents stand before their children brandishing spears and axes to no avail. He felt Kotan, grabbed at the ankle by one of them, being dragged across the camp and toward the hole in the sky. Even as this happened the gears of time ground nearly to a total halt, everything becoming slower and slower still until there virtually was no movement at all. Makatai also stood frozen, although his awareness was not impeded whatsoever.

Not stopping to consider what he was even doing he spread his feelers out even further until he felt the shape of an animal, a rabbit, with its eyes emotionless in the dark and soul standing out white against the nothingness. Closing in on it rather than merely seeing it, he reached out toward it, as though he could touch it with his own spirit. He felt it, his invisible hands patting it down, discovering its form, learning the shape of its soul and memorising it. Still the creature stood frozen alongside everything else. Leaves levitated in mid-air, as though suspended by string. Drops of liquid hung in the emptiness as a bottle of Helios Rum fell to the floor, knocked from the table by a struggling Bear. And all the while Makatai and the rabbit stood in silent communication, with the animal lending its soul to him for him to discover. It held it out to him in the silent black, offering its shape, its feeling, its meaning. It was held open to him like a book, written in some unknowable language by those who had carved the very universe itself in letters incomprehensible to the human mind. But read he did. He hung on every word like a sinner at church, drinking them in as though he was a man three days without water. The more he deciphered the more his thirst grew until he knew the very nature of the animal. He shared in its silent days of existence, roaming the fields no higher than the grass that Makatai usually stood tall above. Cowering in fear inside warrens as bloodthirsty predators roamed. He kept deciphering, and finally came upon the shape of its powerful hind legs, carrying it far distances day by day. If it had been a book he had been reading these words would have stood out against the page, perhaps written in bold or a different colour.

He picked that shape out and copied it, feeling almost as though the creature offered it to him of its own accord. As he did so Noaidi began to pour his energy into Makatais own, the three spirits fusing in the motionless night. The gears of time slowly began to turn again, speeding up to their natural pace as motion resumed and the night was once again filled with the sound of chaos. But that didn’t matter anymore. The fragment of the rabbit he had copied began to incorporate itself into him, and with Noaidi’s help he started to twist the shape of his own soul. At the same time he felt power build in his legs, and his mouth became a smirk for a split second. No more than half a second had passed since he had spread his senses, and yet in that half a second he knew he had gained the power to fight back against the alien presence. With strength still mounting in his legs time fully resumed its flow, and Saddani’s cries were once again audible. She reached out to him, now too far up for him to reach her under any normal circumstances. But as Makatai crouched low and sprung, the insignificant rabbit offering him a way to fight, granting him strength through the hopelessness, he knew that his life could never be normal again. He kicked off the dirt and he soared, the spiritual power exploding from the soles of his feet as his legs extended with the force of a Zemlyan steam bomb. Noaidi watched him do so and a grin spread wide over the rough skin of his face whilst his thick and powerful fingers dug deep into one of the invading spirits heads, popping it like a balloon

The shaman rocketed upwards, legs slightly bent as he leapt toward Saddani who was now all but through the hole. With arm outstretched he reached for her, his hand passing through followed by the rest of his arm up to the elbow. Suddenly he cried out in pain as one of the spirits grabbed at his wrist just as his fingers brushed Saddani’s hand and began to haul him through as well. Frost started to form on his arm, spreading from the fingers of the creature and making him cry out in pain. Crystals of ice locked his wrist and hand in place and he lost control of his momentum. The ice reached his shoulder and he tried helplessly to pull away. As he panicked it began to creep up his neck, his body half in and half out of the Otherworld. The same was happening to Saddani, except the frozen wave spread around her body much faster. Makatai struggled in vain as the ice reached his chin, threatening to enter his mouth, but he saw a blur from the corner of his vision and Noaidi was there, lunging past Makatai to grapple with the creature. The immensely powerful ghost grabbed the spirit’s wrist and snapped its arm at the elbow, then planted his foot on its shoulder and tore the limb clean from the body. It vaporised into the Otherworld’s landscape, leaving a crimson stain where it fell.

However this meant that nothing was keeping Makatai in the air and, slowly spinning through the sky, he began to plummet back to the dirt below. That leap had taken more out of him than he had expected, and the spirit he had struggled against the moment before had sapped his strength. Ice still encased his arm from the shoulder up to the hand, and a ringing in his ears drowned out the sounds of terror and ruination coming from every corner of his settlement. One by one his tribe were being subdued, picked off by these invaders. As he fell head-first towards the dirt he saw them grab his mother by the throat, intent on bringing her to meet the same fate. With Noaidi no longer at her side the spirits met little opposition and began to haul her away as well. Quick as a viper she drew her dagger and plunged it deep into one of the spirits, but as it fell away another replaced it and grabbed her wrist, making her drop the blade. She grit her teeth in anger and struggled hard, but their numbers were too great and just like that they moved to take her too, climbing up again through the thin air with his mother in tow. She looked into Makatai’s eyes, his world swimming out of focus, and gave him a pleading look before she was hauled through to the other side, vanishing out of sight. As the rest of the spirits began to retreat back through the breach with his captive tribemates Makatai hit the dirt, landing hard on his shoulder. He cried out in pain, vision blurring as he came to rest on the floor. He could barely move his fingers and black spots danced in his eyes.

He watched, helpless, as one by one his people were taken. And with each one that went he sunk lower into the depths of despair. A cold, dry hopelessness quickly replaced the burning strength he had felt only moments before, and it enveloped him entirely pulling him tightly into its cold embrace. A tear rolled down his cheek as every last one of the people he loved were stolen away from him, and he was powerless to stop it. The spirits moved again to take him to the other side as well, their empty faces seeming to leer at him, but behind them the gate started to close and he saw the outline of Noaidi standing over him, battering any one of the invaders who came close. The figures pulled back from him and moved to retreat, trembling and shaking as they returned to the now closing portal.

The gateway closed and darkness and silence reigned supreme over the desolate and ruined encampment of the Rising Bear. The only sound to be heard was Makatai’s muffled sobs, choking them out as his cheeks turned wet and more tears came gushing.

He cried quietly in the ruins of the settlement, a pathetic heap on the floor. And eventually even his futile crying came to an end as he slipped into unconsciousness, total black enveloping him.