~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The party went on until almost 3 in the morning. By the time everything was cleaned up and put away, it was nearly 5 AM. Exhausted but content, everyone headed for bed.

It was almost noon before there was any sign of life in the cabin.

Jim was actually the first one up. Going down stairs, he put on coffee and started a fire to help to take the chill off the house.

In about 30 minutes, the others started to make appearances.

Getting their morning coffee and settling down in the living room by the fire, they just sat there in companionable silence, not wanting to wake up Jamie who was still sound asleep.

Jamie was still dead to the world when Mike made his appearance at 1PM. Taking the offered cup of coffee that was handed to him by Jim as he walked in the door, he joined the others in the living room by the fire.
"Do you know what Jamie had planned for today," Jim quietly asked as he refilled his cup.

"A couple of different things I think, but you are just going to have to wait until she gets up." Mike answered him.

"Oh, I've got a couple of things up my sleeve," Jamie replied as she rounded the fireplace. Everyone jumped, and several of them, including Jim spilled their coffee.

*"DON'T DO THAT!,"* Mike yelled as he ran for a towel.

"Well, if you were paying attention like I taught you, you wouldn't keep having that problem. Now would you??" she chastised, but with a large smile on her face.

Jim looked at her with a very confused look on his face, "I was listening to your heartbeat so we wouldn't get too loud and wake you up. But I never heard you wake up? Is that a shaman thing or was this one of your tests that you have been promising?" Jim asked as Mike handed him the towel.

"It was a test. I asked the spirits for some help to see if you would *hear* me coming or not," she answered him.

"Well, I guess we know how that test went. Don't we?" Jim retorted as he looked over to his partner.

"Hey, don't look at me, you're the Sentinel here, not me." Blair returned then turned to Jamie, "Good morning, Jamie, or should I say good afternoon?"

"Is it afternoon already? Boy have we got a lot of work to do today," Jamie answered as she rounded the sofa for the kitchen and her own cup of coffee.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After a very hearty brunch of the leftovers from the night before, Jamie herded everyone out on the back porch. I was somewhat cool, but comfortable.

Carol had arrived up about a half hour after Mike did and got her own brunch.

"OK," Jamie began,"This is what we are going to do. I'm going to explain the basics of shape shifting, and then I'm going to split you up with each of us for the actual `training´. I´ll be working with Blair while Carol will be working with Simon, and Mike will be working with Jim. Does that sound agreeable with everyone?"

"Why not just work with us in the group that we are in right now?" Jim asked, glancing over to Blair to see the same question mirrored in Blair´s face.

"Because it is very distracting to have another person in the same area when you are learning this. Each person needs complete peace and freedom from distractions, to be able to do this for the first time or two," Mike answered.

"That, and you won´t worrying, about what others are thinking of you, if it is taking you a little bit longer to get the hang of this thing," Carol finished
Seeing the question in Simon´s face, Jamie went on to explain,"And I know from the looks on your faces that Jim and Simon are both wondering `why´ they need to learn this as well. Am I right gentlemen?" At their nods of yes, she continued, "And this may also help in hiding your abilities from he press and prying eyes as well, Jim."

"Ok,...let´s take The Switchman case for example. Jim was in the building while Blair was getting in the bus to keep and eye on the suspect." When they nodded yes, she continued, "Instead of racing downstairs to try and get on the bus yourself, all you would have had to do was turn yourself into a bird and gone after the bus that way. Once you caught up with it, you could have flown in the window, which in itself would have been enough to be able to distract her so that Blair could have gotten the gun away from her." "Then turning back into yourself `sniffing´ out the bomb.

As far as your sentinel senses, it could have been explained as you being a Shaman and using your abilities to help better mankind. Which in itself is the truth. Am I right? Sure, in the beginning, it will bring out the sickos, but soon they will figure out that it isn´t safe to operate in the Great City of Cascade. Plus it will make people feel safe, because they will have the `Medicine Man´ of their `tribe´ watching over them and keeping them safe. And in the long run, they will start to take participation in what goes in their city as well. That in itself is a good reason, because the PD will have reason to get people to take a more active role in keeping their city safe. They will know that the `Medicine Man´ of the tribe cannot be everywhere 24/7 so they will help him to keep their city safe. Right now, Cascade is still considered the most dangerous city in the country, but that will soon all change."

"And Simon, even though you are Captain and spend most of your time in the office and what not, you are still out in the field and do stakeouts and stuff like that. Say for instance you are helping to search a building for a missing girl that was kidnapped. You can call on your animal spirits sense of smell and help to find her. Animals can smell fear in a person, and therefor you would be able to pick her out in the building very easily."

Simon sat there shaking his head with a small grin on his face,"That does make sense, not to mention making life easier"

"Not to mention finding the rotten container in the fridge without having to open it," Jim said as he was glaring daggers in Blair´s direction, but had a smile on his face when he was doing it.

"Here, here," Carol said laughing and glaring at Mike when she said it.

"Hey, don´t look at me like that. Who left the guacamole in the fridge until the mold was greener than the avocado could have ever been."

"Touche," she answered.

"OK people, as fun as this conversation is, we need to get back to the subject at hand." Jamie stated.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Shaman School Chapter 5b

After explaining the fundamentals of shape shifting, they broke up into their groups. Jamie and Blair headed off into the woods where Simon and Mike had gone several day before to find the pine nuts and leaves for the fish.

About a quarter of a mile away from the house, they came into a clearing that had seven tree stumps sitting in a circle. After motioning to Blair to sit, she sat in the one that was directly across from him.

"Ok Blair, you have to concentrate all of your energy into this. You cannot be afraid or it will not work." At Blair's nod, she continued, "Most people are afraid to shape shift because they are afraid that they will not be able to turn back int their human form."

She continued to explain all of the little intricacies and ins and outs of shape shifting. After getting Blair to relax, she guided him through the exercise that she had developed to teach her students to shift.
She started with a simple energy ball. After that she went to squirrel, then eagle, and finally wolf.

After getting to the wolf stage, she too shifted into her wolf shape, then said, "Hey Blair, race you back to the house," then she took off running.

Coming out of the trees at a dead run, they were about neck and neck. Rounding the corner to the house Blair stopped dead in his tracks as he came face to face with a black Jaguar and a VERY LARGE brown bear, and two very beautiful wolves. One was the typical grey, while the other was a pure snow white.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mike and Jim watched as Jamie and Blair headed into the woods, before they headed around the house and across the street to where Jim had parked the truck the first night that he had arrived. It was a large open field that led to a drop off several hundred yards away. Under a very large oak tree, there were several chairs that surrounded the tree and overlooked the valley at the base of Pikes Peak. Sitting down, they both sat there enjoying the view for several minutes.

After Mike could sense that Jim was a bit more relaxed he began the job of teaching him to shape shift.
He taught the way that Jamie taught, because it was just easier than the way that he was taught. Starting out with the energy ball, he helped to get Jim more relaxed so that he could accomplish the feat. After the energy ball, he went to the eagle, and then finally to the black jaguar. After Jim was in panther form, Mike turned into a wolf and said, "race you back to the porch, before taking off.

After checking for the nonexistant traffic on their dead end cul-de-sac, they both ran full tilt back to the back of the cabin, where they found a very large brown bear and a snow white wolf.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After Jamie and Blair headed off into the woods and Mike and Jim headed across the street to the park that was part of Jamie's land, Carol and Simon headed for the dock that was on the edge of their `fishing hole´.

Getting comfortable in the chairs on the dock, they sat there for several minutes just enjoying the beauty of the lake, before Carol broke the silence. "Simon, whether you realize it or not, you have a very important role in the lives of the Sentinel and Shaman."

"I was afraid you were going to say something like that." Simon admitted honestly. He´d learned over the last several days that these people were friends. And that you had better be honest with them in the first place because they would get it out of you in the long run otherwise.

"Well Simon, that is the one and ONLY thing that can keep you from accomplishing this. I know that this is all new to you. You never really wanted to know all about the Sentinel thing did you?" When Simon shook his head no, she continued, "Ok, let me ask you this. Are you afraid of your role, or are you afraid because this is all so new. With you being not only in the military, but also being a cop, you deal in hard cold facts. Not the esoteric mysticism you are finding here."

Again, a nod of his head was her answer.

"Well, I know this is going to be very difficult, but in order to be who you were meant to be, you are just going to have to jump in with both feet. As the saying goes,`Let go and let God´. You are just going to have to go with the flow as Jamie told you the other day.Just accept what you do not understand for the moment to let it sink in. After you´ve had some time to process it, you will begin to understand and things will be much easier for you, OK?"

Straightening his shoulders, he looked her straight in the eyes and said,"I´ll give it my best shot."

"That´s all I ask" she replied.

After getting him to relax, she took him through Jamie´s Shape Shifting 101. Starting with the squirrel, then moving onto the eagle, and finally the bear. After getting to the bear stage, she said, "now just think how much easier it will be to go fishing if you don't need a pole, or bait." Then turning into her white wolf form, they made their way up to the house. About halfway there they were greeted be the black panther/jaguar and another wolf. And several minutes later they were all greeted by two more wolves.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After all six of them had congregated in the back yard, they resumed their human forms. Blair was bouncing off of the walls. "God, that was sooo great. Do you know how little I've read about shape shifting, and was never able to learn much about it other than that one book that I found by John Perkins called Shape Shifting: Shamanic Techniques for Global and Personal Transformation. Oh, man, I love this, this is soo wonderful," Blair continued unable to stand still.

Jim finally walked over to his unstopping partner and wrapping one arm around Blair's torso, pinning his arms at his sides while he used his other hand to effectively gag him.

Blair froze in place, wondering what was going on when Jim said, "Now that we have some silence..."

Blair grunted and Jim tightened his hold.

Simon spoke up and said, "Yeah, but how long can you stand there like that? About another week would be nice."

Blair grunted again, but then closed his eyes and turned into his squirrel form and took off across the yard.

"That little..." Jim said as Blair stopped to taunt him.

Turning into the panther, Jim took off across the yard to the shock of everyone else standing there. They watched the cat and mouse game until Blair ran back and up Jamie's side to perch on her shoulder, where he thought that he as safe. Jim came up, and crouched down in the typical cat strike position eyeing Blair on Jamie's shoulder.

Simon quietly walked around and started to reach up to grab Blair off of Jamie's shoulder thinking to himself *I think it's time for those Rabies shots that are manditory for all domestic animals.*

Blair, `hearing´ what Simon was thinking, replied as he turned into an eagle and flew to the roof, "I don´t think so Simon, You´re the one that needs the Rabies shot. I´m just a lowly little wolf/squirrel/eagle, and anythhing else that I wanna be, so there!" And with that, he took off flying out over the lake.

Simon just stood there in shock at how easily he heard him. Looking at Jim, he asked, " Did you hear that?"

Turning back into his human form, Jim said, (although his lips were not moving and there was no sound coming out of his mouth), "//Sure did,//" then looking at Jamie Jim asked asked, "//Is this another Shaman thing or something else?//"

"It´s basically a Shaman thing, but anyone who wants to put the time and energy into it can learn to do it, although because of the shape shifting, it´s basically a given because that is the way that animals communicate. But because animals don´t uaually have the intelligence, they communicate in pictures. So if you ever run into an anmal that is communicating in language rather than pictures, you will know that this person is a shape shifter.

"Oh, and another thing," Jamie continued as Blair returned to earth and resumed his human form, "When you are communicating in, for lack of a better term `mind speak´, there is no language barrier."

"So basically, you can talk to anyone?" Blair asked.

"As log as they are open enough to hear you," Jamie answered.

Just then, Mike´s pager that was laying on the patio table went off.
~~~~~~~
Shaman School Chapter 5c

Mike went up to retrieve the beeper.

Picking it up, he looked at the readout then said, "Uuh oh, we got a triple 911."

"Well, you better go find out what is going on," Jamie replied, then added "then we'll go from there."

"What's a triple 911?" Blair asked

"It's either something very large or very important that needs finding," Jamie replied.

Mike came back out of the cabin with a sad smile on his face.

"What is it?" Jamie asked

"The Govenor's plane went down with his daughter and her fiance' on board. They're asking for us personally to help to find them." Mike answered.

"What can we do to help, Jamie" Simon asked. Jamie, Mike and Carol looked between each other for several minutes in silent communication, then turned to their three guests.

"Are you three up to using your spirit animal's forms to help find this plane?" Jamie asked.

"Sure, just tell us how to help," Jim answered for them.

"Ok, Mike, go call them and have them get out gear ready. Tell them that we will be there in 30 - 45 minutes."

"Will do, Doc" Mike said as he went back inside.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Forty minutes later, six eagles flew to the base camp where the S&R team had set up. Michael Johnson saw the group coming and cleared a path near the equipment that had been set up for Jamie's team.

Landing next to the equipment, the eagles turned into their human form. Michael then walked up and was introduced to the newer members of the team. Ten minutes later they had been briefed, geared up and shifted back into their eagle form.

Taking off, they headed in the direction where radar contact was lost. Landing in the area where contact had been lost, Jim reverted to his human form along with Blair.

"OK Jim, close your eyes and focus on both your hearing and sense of smell." Blair said as he put his hand in the middle of Jim's back to help anchor him and keep him from zoning.

Jim did as he was told. "Filtering out all of the unwanted sounds, he could hear what sounded like steam.

"I hear steam, Chief."

"Great, now try smell. If the plane went down in here, you should be able to smell the fuel."

Jim concentrated on his sense of smell. "I can smell the fuel, as well as blood. We've got to get to these people before anything else does."

"Ok man, you lead and we will follow. Can you tell how far away they are?"

"I'd have to say, less than a mile, mile and a half at the most, to the west here," Jim said pointing to a densely forested part of the mountain.

"Lead the way," Jamie said as they resumed their animal forms. Jim and Blair took off with the rest of them behind them. They flew in a V formation with Jim in the lead then Simon and Blair behind him, Carol and Mike behind them and Jamie behind Mike.

Of course, Mike and Carol were in dragon form and were carrying the equipment that they would need to get the three people to safety.

Ten minutes, later, they had found the site and went to work. The steam that Jim had heard was the water from the radiator dripping on the hot engine.

The blood that he smelled was from a nasty gash on the daughters forehead. Doing a sensory check, Jim determined that they were in no immediate danger, as their vitals were good considering where they were and what had just happened.

The fuel that Jim smelled was leaking out and going directly into the ground, so there was no real chance of fire that he could see.

When the plane came down, it landed against a large tree and because of that, they had to find a way to move the plane so that they could get to the only door.

"I have an idea," Blair said as they were trying to figure out how to move the plane without disturbing the passengers, in case there were any spinal or other injuries that could be aggravated by sudden jarring.

"We're all ears Blair, what's this idea?" Mike asked.

"Well...how about if Simon turns into his bear form and pushes it out of the way of the tree. With us helping, this thing's gotta move."

"You know, that might actually work. That is, if Simon is game.. What do you say Simon?" Mike asked.

"Hey, I can always try," Simon replied

"That's the spirit, Simon" Jamie added.

Simon sat there for several minutes taking several deep breaths, then with all of the concentration that he had, he shifted into his bear form.

"Ok Simon," Mike began, "let's get you on this side and see if you can get enough leverage to move this thing."

Simon did as he was told, and with a little bit of help from the others, they were able to move the plane far enough away that they could get the backboards in to get the three injured out.

After getting the three into the cervical and back restraints, and splinting the Govenor's leg that had a small fracture, they were able to get everyone out and on the gound where they could get a better look at them. They were all still unconscious and in shock.

As Mike, Blair and Simon got the carrier ready to transport, Jamie, Carol and Jim got their three patients ready. After the IVs were started and everyhing was immobilized they were loaded onto the carrier. Simon rode with Carol in he carrier to help if she needed it.

The carrier was in a clearing that was no more than about twenty feet wide. It was just big enugh that they could get the carrier through the trees without tipping it.

Because Jim and Blair were going to be working with the dragons, they were given permission to use their forms to help get the injured govenor and his family to the hospital. Turning into the dragon form that Jamie had used the other day, the each took a cable atatched to one corner of the carrier, and one by one lifted up to the tree top level. Once there, they lifted the carrier above the trees. Once it cleared the trees, they spread out so that they would have enough room too fly and not bump into each other, but also far enough apart that they could keep that carrier stable. With such large wings propelling them, they made it to the hospital in less than 30 minutes.

Landing on the helecopter pad, the area soon swarming with hospital personnel. They were also greeted be the secret service and the Lt. Govenor and his wife. After taking care of all of the reports and interviews, it was 9 pm.

During that time, the Govenor had regained consciosness and was told by security that his Lt.Govenor had done this to him and his family.

After all that was taken care of, he asked to meet his rescuers. As they were discussing the plane accident, and their various jobs, the Govenor found out about the Alex Barns case and their subsaquent trip to Mayaland in the morning. "Well, now that the problem with my attempted murder has been taken care of, I will have everything checked out and I want you to take my private jet to go and get that female, and I will not take no for an answer. Plan on leaving at 11 am in the morning, and it will be a direct flight. With the only stop for refueling. Do whatever it is that you need to to get that female, and return the nerve gas to a safe place."

"Thank you sir, we appreciate the help," Jim said to the quickly tiring man in the bed.

"Go home and get some rest, cause if everything that I've heard about this case is true, you are going to need all of the sleep hat you can get." the Govenor replied, then turned to his personal security officer, "And Jeramy, Get Roger to take these kind people home in the limo, it's not like I'm going to be needing it for the next several days anyway. And also make sure that it is there to pick them up in the morning to take them to the airport, OK?"

"Yes Sir," then turning to he rescue team "this way if you please," then proceeded them out the door and down the hall towards where the limo was parked in the lot out front. After explaining everything to Roger, Jeramy headed back into the hospital to keep his eye out for any kind of reprocussions that may fall out of this mess. Roger drove the exhausted team home and promised to be there at 10:45 the next morning.

After being dropped off, everyone headed inside and straight to bed. They were so exhausted, that they even bypassed dinner. They were sound asleep in a matter of minutes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
On To Part 9