With scant light focused on his work, an immigrant laboured with a blade of obsidian in one weathered hand and a fragment of dead wood in the other. The man was carving a small totem, in-keeping with the customs of his people.

Within the rusting confines of a corrugated iron shack, a three-legged crow flapped over Gum do Mugu's head and landed on his shoulder. The bird was a fleeting companion, a spectral ally conjured from the ether for no more than a moment. "He is coming again," the bird whispered, warning Gum of a familiar visitor; a warning to which the shaman responded to with a shallow sigh.

A rattling rap-a-tap-tap shook the shaman from his trance. The crow faded into the flickering murk of the candlelit home. A bumbling man burst into the darkness with the day's light consecrating him from the rear. "Gum! Gum! Gum!" he wailed while Gum squinted in the flush of light. He pressed his plump palm against the thin metal sheet walls, causing orange flakes of ferric iron to crumble across his billowing shirt.

Gum looked up from his work. "Hello, Mr. Themesc," he said, his face bearing the sullen scowl of a life's struggle. "You must be careful coming to the slums to visit me, it is a dangerous place."

"Have you found my dear Eida?" he boomed, with his head ducking under the low ceiling and his free hand brushing the dirt from his clothes furiously.

The shaman returned to carving the driftwood he had collected from the beach that morning. Meanwhile, his uninvited guest took a seat in the shadows. "I have yet to locate Eida," he conceded to his guest before he put down his jagged stone tool and placed the finished totem between himself and the visitor.

"I miss my dear puppy, I miss her so much," Mr. Themesc whimpered, failing to notice the carving positioned between them.

Do Mugu replied with patience and empathy, "I have searched the Underworld for Eida's soul." While he spoke, Gum rubbed the wrought lines of his forehead with his emaciated digits; it was as though erasing the worry from his face would also erase the anxiety in his heart. "An animal's soul is difficult to find in the afterlife."

"I know, you have told me that... but..."

Gum moved to placate Mr. Themesc, and to do so with the solemn truth of the matter. "Animals are different to us." His explanation began with an evident fact so as to sidestep the minefield of ambiguity. "They do not fear death as humans do." The candle next to the shaman, the one that had previously illuminated his work, blew out.

"You've told me that before," Themesc begged, "but my Eida was different..."

"And because they do not fear death," the shaman continued, "they do not linger close to the world of the living." Gum rested his palm on the top of the totem, it was carved in the shape of a Radasanthian Shepherd—a popular breed in the city. "That is why Thayne worshipers teach that animals have no souls, but they are wrong. They are as eternal as you or I."

"I understand," the mourning man said, wiping a tear from his reddened cheek.

"Put your hand on the totem," Gum said to Mr. Themesc, guiding the man's touch to the carving of the deceased dog.

"Okay," came the man's response. "And then what?"

Gum do Mugu closed his narrow eyes and lowered his head. "Now we wait..."

Time swept away the minutes, free from the sun's chastising glare. Their reflection flowed, uninhibited; and as those minutes pooled into hours, the solemn pair remained silent. Their thoughts were focused on Eida, and Eida alone.

Themesc opened his eyes and looked up. "Nothing?" he asked, giving up after what might have been hours.

They both pulled their hands from the totem and Mr. Themesc struggled to his feet in the cramped confines of Gum's humble home.

"Here," Mr. Themesc said, offering the shaman a handful of shining silver.

Gum do Mugu closed the man's palm, refusing the payment. "Come back next week. We will find her eventually."

As the visitor stood from his seat, the totem fell over. "Oh dear," he said, saddened that his awkward movement had knocked down the symbol of his lost love. The clumsy man set the wood carving straight and turned his back to leave.

The totem fell again.

"Come back," Gum said with severity.

Themesc turned around and watched, the totem was vibrating on the muddy floor of Gum's makeshift home.

"Is it Eida?" he rasped.

Gum nodded his head. "I will speak with her soul," he said as he grasped the quivering curio between his arthritic fingers. His lips peeled back as his yellowing teeth began to grind, straining to the hold the totem still while his narrow eyes rolled back.

The awkward man struggled to steady himself in the moment's darkness, waiting for something.

But the shaman fell silent again.

"Mr. do Mugu?" he chanced, placing a hand on his host's slumped shoulder.

Gum jumped when the man touched him. "I have anchored Eida in the totem," he explained as he put the totem down again. The carving was still shaking, but with much less vigour.

"Is that okay? Is she okay in there?" asked the man, peering with concern at the wooden carving.

"It is safe," Gum confirmed. "She is happy in the afterlife and says that she is happy to see you again. She says you were a kind owner and that she misses you."

Mr. Themesc broke into tears and begged, "I want her back so much." He span away from Gum, cupping his cheeks in his hands as he wept. "I want to be with her again."

"One day," said Gum, comforting his guest.

"TODAY!"

"No..."

"TODAY!"

The black tone of the man's request consumed the last of the light in the dim shack. Fear flooded Gum's mind, the weight of his command was utterly intimidating. The shaman's ritual had filled the psychosphere with nascent energy, and escalating the mood would put all three of them in danger of being lost between the realms.

"I want to die and be with my Eida," he screamed, swiping at Gum desperately.

Gum reached for his carving blade and slashed back at him, slicing Themesc's throat from one side to the other.

The shaman tumbled to his knees as the man's pulsing jugular showered him with blood. With both of his weary hands, he wiped the crimson mask from his leathery face and smeared the blood across the totem. He began chanting, the shaman was channeling the man's spirit towards Eida's. Gum had to reunite the pair in the afterlife.



For the rest of his days, Gum do Mugu kept Eida's totem amongst his most prized possessions. The slums of Radasanth were a fearsome place, but not even the most dangerous denizens would challenge the shaman's sanctuary; it was known that Eida, his pet ghost hound, would protect him from harm.

He may have turned down Mr. Themesc's silver, but Gum had received something much more valuable in return for his service.