It took just over two hours for Riley to drive from Oxford to the small town of Bainbridge, Ohio, which was the closest town to the Greenwood camp. Her heart was pounding the entire drive, in part because Xander would not be there. “I’m working today,” he told her, “but Celia will meet you and take you in.”

She'd immediately panicked. “You’re not coming?”

“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe. You’ll recognize Celia when you see her. I’ll see you at your house tonight when you get back.”

When she arrived at the gas station Xander had directed her to, Riley poured a bit of mud she’d prepared into her sock and then, Unveiled, she looked over at the driver of the car that was waiting there for her.

‘Celia’ was Golden Fox Woman from the river.

“I’m so excited to meet you, Riley!” she gushed as Riley slowly got into the car with her. “We only get a few new warriors a year, and it’s usually people we’ve known all our lives. Like once a decade we get someone new!”

Riley exhaled. “I’m so nervous!”

“You’ll be fine.” Celia drove out of the parking lot and headed south. “We have an amazing clan!”

“How far away are we?”

“Five minutes.”

They were winding down a road between two hills that were so high they were almost mountains. Riley wanted to start a conversation, but wasn't sure what it was best to say to a half woman half fox. When they drove past some glowing orange flowers, and she thought about how her hand had passed through the plum tree in her back yard, she finally asked, “Celia... when you were by the river and those men tried to grab you, how come they couldn’t?”

“Because my animal spirit is a fox. We foxes can make ourselves illusionary. The Veil works a little differently for us. Anyway, I wasn’t there at all. I was at camp, keeping watch.”

Riley gaped.

Celia smiled at her. “Whenever I’m near one of our waterways, I can see all of our waterways. Every pond, creek, river and lake, and all the surrounding land as far in every direction as a fox can see. I see all of it at the same time no matter where I physically am. That’s how I was able to see you there. You were standing by a river in Shawnee territory.”

“How is that possible?”

“Because that’s what my power is: seeing by water. I only have one warrior power. You might have more than one. Although, the more powers you have, the weaker each one is. So the fewer you end up having, the better.”

Celia slowed the car down and turned onto a small, unmarked, single lane road that was nearly hidden by overgrown Japanese honeysuckle bushes. “This is the main road into camp.”

Riley hadn’t seen the road at all until they’d turned onto it. “Xander was right about this place being hard to find. I would never have found that turn on my own.”

“We keep it hidden on purpose.”

“How come?”

Celia’s expression darkened. “Because we have enemies. Like those men by the river.”

They drove for half a mile through dense forest before they came to a field full of corn stalks. Then they passed through a red farm gate, and the road changed from paved to gravel. Another gravel road snaked off to their left toward a small brown house behind the cornfield.

“The Cameron family lives there,” Celia pointed at the house. A rainbow was arching over it. “Clarinda must be in a good mood… she makes rainbows whenever she is. And up there,” she pointed further up the hill, “is another house that you can’t see from down here. We call it the Back House. The Colonel lives up there. Our military leader.”

“You have a military?”

Celia laughed. “No, no. He’s our War Chief. The Colonel makes sure everyone in the clan is protected. In case.”

In case of what? What the hell goes on around here?

They drove past a basketball court and a swimming pool. Riley squinted at them. “It’s so hard to see! I don’t know how you can drive Unveiled.”

“Oh! You can control that. Here, look at me. Decide that my glow should be brighter or dimmer, and it will be. And things that are Veiled will become either more or less shaded as you do that, too.”

Riley did as Celia instructed. Sure enough, she could adjust her vision. She toned down Celia’s glow until their surroundings were crystal clear. “Whoa, this is nice… like built-in sunglasses!”

“Yeah, it is. I love it. I stay Unveiled all the time.”

Celia parked in a small gravel parking lot at the end of the road, and the girls got out. Now that she could see clearly, Riley drank in her surroundings.

The land around her in every direction was forested, except for a square-shaped grassy field that sloped up and to the left from where they were standing. A long even hill that looked like a levee ran along the back of the lopsided field. On the left of it was a rectangular building.

“That’s the dining hall,” Celia explained, pointing at the building. “Elders live in the woods behind it. And behind you are the pavilion, and the chief’s house.”

Riley turned around. On one side of where Celia had parked was a large shelter building with a poured concrete floor and a couple of picnic tables. The back of it was enclosed.

The chief’s house was a small and plain-looking cabin. A bench-style tree swing was hanging from the branch of a large oak in front. 

“This place is like a big park,” Riley observed. “People live here all the time?”

“Yep. We move in as soon as we graduate from high school. People move away to marry and have a family, then they come back again in their fifties when they make the transition from warriors to elders. Elders stay here as long as they’re physically able to.”

As Celia was finishing her explanation, there was a loud crash. A thin red-headed man who was glowing blue flew backwards out of a dining hall screen door. He stumbled, trying to get his balance. A second later, a heavily muscled black man who was glowing greenish-gray walked out of that same screen door.

They both looked furious.

“Uh, guys—” Celia began.

As Riley watched, Muscle Man’s arms increased in both size and thickness until each of them was as big as the rest of his body. He swung a fist at the thin guy. Just as he made contact, the thin guy disappeared in a puff of blue smoke.

Riley shook with disbelief.

“Oy! Belman!” Celia yelled.

“Not in the mood, Cee!” Muscle Man snapped. His arms shrank back down normal size within seconds, and he stomped back into the dining hall.

The blue smoke shaped itself into a hawk as it solidified.

Celia rolled her eyes. “Ivan!”

The hawk named Ivan flew away, toward the forests.

“Well, there you go,” Celia said to Riley with a shrug. “That’s Ivan and Belman. Ivan can turn into blue fog, and Belman’s power is brute strength.” She gestured toward a small gravel road that snaked off to the left around the pavilion. As the two of them walked in that direction, she pointed ahead through the trees. “That’s the Warrior Lodge, where all us unmarried young people live.”

A small boxy reddish-brown building with a wooden porch that looked more like a trailer than a ‘Lodge’ to Riley was nestled at the end of the lane. On its porch, two men stood whispering, both of them glowing a pleasant shade of pumpkin orange. One of them Riley recognized as the hot guy who had been with Xander by the river.

“Darren and Gabriel,” Celia informed her as they approached. “They’re brothers. Darren is the older one… he’s the tall, dark and handsome guy on the left. His spirit is a bear. If Darren gets angry enough at someone and they’re standing near him, they get hit with energy darts, like little porcupine quills. If they get hit enough times, they die.”

Riley swallowed nervously. “What about Gabriel?”

Gabriel wasn’t handsome in the traditional sense like Darren was. He was several inches shorter, he was less lean and sculpted than his brother, and he had a baby face. But when he grinned at something Darren said, it was so dazzling that Riley was shocked. “That’s an incredible smile.”

“You like Gabe’s smile?” Celia asked mischievously, yanking Riley out of her reverie. “He’s our youngest Lodge member… nineteen, and he’s a cougar. Cougars are fast, playful, good trackers. His warrior name is Laughing Water. When he’s touching water, he can make it move... waves and water spouts and stuff. Watch this, they won’t even look at us until I step out from under your turtle shell and light up in front of them.”

Celia was right. The whispering brothers paid no attention to either Celia or Riley as they approached. But when Celia gestured to Riley to stop, then walked forward out of Riley’s shell, the two glowing men jumped.

“Damn it, Celia!” Darren snapped. He frowned, then squinted, at Riley. She wondered if his vision was bad or if her shell was obscuring her beyond what the Veil would normally do.

Gabriel smiled that smile again and leaped off the porch. He went sailing through the air — twenty feet at least — and landed in a crouch before standing and approaching the girls. “Is that her?”

“Yes. This is Riley.”

Riley stuck out her turtle’s head so everyone could see her animal. Both men exclaimed — and Gabriel stumbled back a few steps — as a thirty-foot turtle appeared in front of them.

Turtle Riley grinned at their reactions, then she transformed into her sky-blue self.

Gabriel blinked. Twice. “Wow.”

After a few seconds of him staring at her, Riley began to blush, which caused her glow to brighten.

Celia jogged up the steps and the walkway, crossed the porch, and opened the screen door for Riley. “Come on. Let’s get you inside.”

Nibbling her bottom lip, Riley walked past the still-staring Gabriel, and his grinning brother Darren with a wave, and into the Lodge.

“Welcome to our home,” Celia said.

Riley stepped inside, and she surveyed the room with her designer’s eye.

The inside of the Lodge was simply furnished. The walls were all dark wood. On the right wall were a large rough stone fireplace and a closed door. Along the left wall were several pieces of worn black leather furniture… a recliner, a couch, a loveseat, and ottoman that could be used as either a table or a footrest. Beyond the seating area was another closed door.

In the back of the room was a dining table, and beyond that a kitchen. Four high rectangular windows let in light from above.

The uniform darkness and lack of decoration went against everything Riley had ever read about proper interiors. Yet the Lodge still felt homey. They’ve done almost everything ‘wrong,’ but somehow it still turned out right.

She sniffed, then grinned and inhaled deeply. The Lodge smelled like many things: like wood smoke, leather, and pine. Like cedar and limestone and sweat. Like sassafras and black coffee and marshmallows. Like spring and fall mixed together.

If joy had a smell, this would be it.

“I’m back!” Celia yelled. “I brought the new girl.”

A few seconds later, the doors on either side of the room opened, and luminescent people emerged. Four women came from the left side of the Lodge, and one man from the right. Some sat down and some remained standing, but all of them were staring at Riley. She glowed even brighter with self-conscious embarrassment.

Darren and Gabriel came inside behind Celia, the screen door banging gently to punctuate their entrance.

“Everyone, this is Riley Thornton,” Celia announced. “I saw her wandering by the Little Miami river last week in the throes of her first Unveiling, and Xander claimed her for Greenwood.”

Hoots and clapping greeted this pronouncement.

A tall, thin, happy-looking woman whose light was bright red stepped forward. “This is Pashika, our Head Warrior here at the Lodge,” Celia said. “She’s a turkey warrior. All turkeys are brilliant, and Pash is the most brilliant, because her power is permanent memory. She remembers literally everything.”

“Welcome, Riley.” Pashika’s voice was warm and comforting.

“Thank you,” she replied.

“And this is Violet,” Celia continued, gesturing to the woman closest to Riley.

Riley had always thought of herself as short at five feet and two inches. This girl, though visibly older, was at least four inches shorter. She had big eyes and dark hair, and she was glowing a beautiful emerald green.

“Violet is a deer, and she has total control over everyone’s power of smell.”

Riley nodded. Violet did not. Not a friend. O-kay.

“And this is Alley. She’s a cougar, like Gabriel.”

Alley was the most beautiful woman that Riley had ever seen. She had perfect features, light brown skin and long black hair. Her glow was a darker shade of gold than Celia’s.

“Alley can, uh, charm men.” Celia said tensely.

I believe it.

“I prefer not to demonstrate. You get the idea.” Alley winked at her.

Riley grinned. “Yes I do.” She glanced quickly around the room and saw that Ivan watched Alley closely. Possessively. So did Darren.

Gabriel, on the other hand, was still looking at her.

Celia then introduced Katrina, the girl with the blood red light who had been with Xander and Darren by the river. “Katrina is our clan’s tracker,” Celia informed her. “Her power is that she doesn’t feel fatigue. So, given enough time, she can hunt down anything or anyone.”

“Do you still sleep, if you don’t feel fatigue?” Riley asked.

Katrina grinned, her teeth a shock of bright white against her black skin. “Sometimes. It’s relaxing. But my body doesn’t need the rest anymore. Not since I became a warrior.”

Perry was an overweight balding guy with a neatly trimmed brown mustache. In a room full of people wearing tee shirts and cargo shorts, he was wearing a tweed suit jacket. He smiled shyly at Riley and greeted her, glowing a deep reddish orange.

Celia tilted her head toward the doorway where the brothers had just entered. “And you’ve met Darren and Gabe, more or less.”

Riley shook hands with Darren, and then with Gabe. When Gabe took her hand, he looked into her eyes and smiled. And Riley was helpless not to smile back.

—He is always honest—

She liked him even better.

Pashika put her hand on Riley’s shoulder and smiled again. “I’m glad you’ve joined us, Riley.”

“Thank you.”

Somewhere in the distance, a bell began to ring. Four clangs later, it stopped.

In response, everyone moved toward the front door of the Lodge.