As Taylor was leaving school, she saw a familiar figure dressed in a green flannel shirt and cargo shorts gesturing for her to follow her behind the cafeteria: Marley Roberts. Taylor nodded and followed the stoner girl to her favorite school smoking spot.
"Hey there, Marley," Taylor said as she settled herself on the soft grass. "What's up?"
"I got you a present," Marley grinned. "Since I'm gonna be joining your pack pretty soon, I thought I'd give my favorite werehyena shaman something she could use." She held out a two-pound bag of weed and a small, easy-to-store bong. "You could use this shit, right? 'Cause I can get you something else if werebeast shamans don't use drugs."
"No, its cool," Taylor said as she accepted the weed and the bong. "Shamans use cannabis, peyote too. We just have to use good judgement with mind-altering substances. This stuff's very important for certain rituals, and it makes a lot of others easier. We just can't totally rely on it as a crutch or use it when negotiating with spirits likely to take advantage of our intoxicated state. Otherwise, we could get possessed by a prideful or angry spirit."
Marley shrugged as she tugged her waist-length brown hair out of her eyes. "That's fair, I guess. Wait, they're not gonna possess me, right? 'Cause I smoke a fucking lot and I'm not stopping for anything."
"No worries," Taylor smiled. "Only people with shamanic talent could be opened to possession by something as simple as smoking pot. Since you've never seen a spirit, you should be fine."
"Good," Marley sighed. "I'm a proud pothead, and no spirits are getting between me and my weed. Shame you can't smoke as freely as me, Taylor."
"Hey even I can smoke pot if I do it responsibly," Taylor said. "Particularly with friendly spirits like Sholeetsa."
"Who?" asked Marley.
"A local cougar spirit," Taylor answered. "She's fond of Selena's pack, and she gives me advice to pass on to the alpha. She isn't very manipulative, so it should be pretty safe to smoke around her."
"Sweet," Marley said as she slouched against the brick wall. "So... you wanna try your new bong out."
"Why not?" Taylor smiled. She took a bottle of water out of her backpack and used it to fill the bong. Next, she took some of the weed and put it in the grinder. Once the pot was was ground up, Taylor packed it into the bong bowl. After a few cleansing breaths, Taylor held the mouthpiece to her lips and lit the bong.
Taylor closed her eyes as she inhaled, her mind meditating on the mysteries of the universe. Slowly, her thoughts became more ethereal and dreamlike. When Taylor opened her eyes, the spirits were once more revealed to her. But these were not the indistinct shadows from before. These spirits were crystal clear, as if they were real animals wandering the school grounds.
Among the spirits, Taylor spotted Sholeetsa. The spirit cougar approached Taylor, growling at a sinister-looking hawk spirit that had been inching toward the young shaman. "Hello again, young one," Sholeetsa said. "I see you have discovered the joys of the cannabis plant."
"Yeah," Taylor said, her fogged forgetting to effect a formal tone, "I'm pretty high right now. That's not a problem for you, right?"
"On the contrary," said Sholeetsa, "the cannabis plant was made to be enjoyed by humans, even to enlighten them. Just be careful about surrendering your rational mind around certain spirits." She looked pointedly at the hawk spirit. "It has uses just the same as the intuitive mind that grows dominant when you are high. I am sure Shaman Kweli told you the same."
"Yeah, shi said something like that," said Taylor. "I'll try to be careful."
"Good," Sholeetsa smiled as sheturned away. "Until we next meet, Shaman Taylor."
"Whoa!" Marley exclaimed. "Did you just talk to a spirit, or did you get high and start having a conversation with the air?"
"Totally a real spirit," Taylor grinned. "Being a werehyena shaman rocks."
"Can't waited until I finally join the pack," Marley smiled longingly.
"You will soon," Taylor said as she stuffed the bong and the bag of weed into her backpack. "I promise."