Tali found himself at the edge of the swamp. He stood there in his shaman garb, several bones adorning his neck over his brown grass clothes. On his wrists were metal bracers with designs in them reminiscent of those the human that had visited wore in his armor, an upgrade to his early works. There were bands on his tail and an iron tipped spear in his hand, standard fair for warriors in the village these days. His dark green scales glistened in the midday sun as he gazed uncertainly into the trees ahead of him.

What am I doing here? he thought to himself. He knew what, but was still uncertain. He'd apprenticed under the village shaman for several years now. She'd always hated him, he thought, but one day she'd commanded that he learn her ways. In the beginning he simply ran errands. She would send him to hunt certain sacred animals whose bones were needed for ceremonies. She'd give him the task of collecting and grinding herbs that her old bones found difficult these days. Eventually though, she started teaching him the Sight.

Most in the village believed the shaman to be able to see the future, predicting bad storms and even the outcomes of some villager's lives. This was only partially true. The shaman's role was ultimately that of spiritual guidance and mediation of conflict, but that did not mean there was no mysticism involved. Velda had started teaching Tali about the Sight a few months ago, and he found the experience profound.

It started with external things. She'd been nudging him into noticing omens and the subtleties of readings since the beginning. The way the birds flew about certain places. The timing of a cloud passing overhead. The way the bones fell into the fire and how it reacted. These all had meaning, and it took him awhile to pick them up. Once Velda had him performing the readings on his own for about a year, she brought him into her seclusion chamber. There he guided him into a meditation like he'd never experienced before.

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The fire crackled and smoke filled the room. Oddly, the smoke did not make Tali cough like he expected. There was little ventilation in here, but still he felt relaxed. Comforted even.

"Sit, child." Velda commanded, and he did so.

"Breath deeply. This incense will help you to focus your mind." she continued.

"Will I need this stuff when I do this again?" he asked, his innate curiosity getting the better of him despite the solemn atmosphere. Velda sighed.

"No, but it makes things much easier. It gets those distractions out of your head." she said, pointedly.

Concentration. No distractions. Empty mind. Got it. Tali thought to himself as he deliberately did not respond. Once she was satisfied that he wasn't going to ask any more questions, Velda continued.

"This will start like your normal meditations, but I need you to listen closely once you start to fall into the trance."

Tali crossed his legs, curled his tail into his lap and rested his arms atop it. Closing his eyes and allowing his head to droop, he began clearing his mind and concentrating on the feeling of the fire on his hide. Once the sounds around him began fading from his awareness and stray thoughts stopped pulling him away from the feeling of the fire, he heard his master speak in a strange voice.

"The fire warms you. This is good, but not all. You feel it on your scales, but that is not enough. Allow the fire in. Let it reach deeper." she said with a rhythmic cadence.

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He tried to do as she commanded. He felt the fire, but it simply felt like it normally did, warm and mildly uncomfortable on him, but not distractingly so. He focused on it harder.

"Relax. You're fighting the fire, trying to keep it on the outside. Do not focus so much on the sensation, as you're building a wall for it. Allow it in. Feel it in your soul." she said/

Not fully realizing what she meant but kind of feeling the sensation concentrate outside him, Tali imagined his mind like a door. He was the hut, and it was cold inside. Cold compared to the fire. His mind was holding the door closed, not letting the warmth in. He eased his concentration slightly, and felt the warmth reach in a little further. Emboldened by this small success, Tali began to let the pressure off more an more. Eventually the warmth reached him to his very core.

"Am I the fire?" he wandered aloud. He heard a small chuckle in response.

"Not quite, young one, but you have let it in. Good. Now, follow the fire with your mind. It has reached within you. Allow it to light your path to your core." Velda advised.

Following her instructions, he followed the feeling of the warmth spreading. It wasn't a clear path, and he found himself hide-deep again several times. Eventually though, he stumbled into where his master was guiding him as the warmth became all consuming and everything fell away. Suddenly, in his mind's eye, he could see the fire within him. That wasn't quite right, though. He could see the fire, but it was surrounding something, drawing in streams of orange light from elsewhere all around him.

"Gaze within." a voice reverberated around the space Tali found himself in. He didn't need the reminder. He was already mesmerized by the dancing flame and curious about what was within it. As he subconsciously approached, the flame parted slightly, and he could see movement inside it. Then he was somewhere else.

...

Sploshing sounds as he careened between trees, a quick motion ahead of him moving off to his right.

A flash of iron as a spear tip thrust at his face.

His perspective falling sideways into the water before fading to darkness.

A stone room, his perspective jerking to the side to see a figure with two legs, two arms and a tail that looked little more than a silhouette with piercing yellow eyes.

Blackness with nothing but those eyes, gazing directly at him. Directly at him.

...

Then he was back, not in the strange space with the growing fire, but in the smoky hut in front of the real fire. He was coughing. Apparently hyperventilation was enough for even the incense in the air to choke him. He found himself being lifted up and directed out of the seclusion chamber, his back being smacked hard the whole way. After several minutes of resting and breathing clearer air out in the hut's sitting room, Tali finally regained his composure.

"What did you see?" the shaman asked gravely.

"Master?" he asked dumbly.

"What did you See?" she asked again slowly.

"The... swamp, I think? There was a fight. And those eyes..." he responded, still half in shock. "What was that?"

"Hmmm..." Velda hummed in thought. "This does not bode well. For your first vision to be so intense... This is the shaman's Sight, child. You glimpse into the tides of Fate. If you're lucky, you bring good tidings. If you're not, you see a calamity that cannot be avoided. I will not pry. To interpret another's vision is folly, in the end. Needless to say that what you saw appears to be an ill omen. It could mean conflict for you, or for another. Even offering that much insight could taint your perspective on it. It could be something happening now, or something to be. You will get a sense for it in time, but do not ever think that the visions the Sight brings are straight forward. I would advise you to take the rest of the day and meditate on what you Saw. You may tell me of your thoughts on it or not tomorrow." she finished her speech with a matter of fact nod.

Tali was not at all comforted by his master's words, but he took them in and resolved to consider them deeply.

"I will return to my hut, then." he said distractedly as he got up to go, not noticing his master's worried face behind him as he passed through the doorway.