Chapter 1 — A Mist-fit Among Warriors

The Kyrren were a tribe of warriors. The hunters—warriors. The scouts—deadly serious and warriors. Even the shamans that presided over the Awakening ceremonies—warriors of the spirit. They were a proud people that took the path of martial enlightenment as a truth of being Kyrren.

Surely, it was Xyn’s human blood that resulted in such a weak martial path for him. That his Element was Mist was bad enough. For his Aspect to be Illusion was just adding insult to his already weak fate. Did the Kyrren ancestors despise him so much?

Unlike his half-human grandmother who was dainty, mostly furless, and human-like, he, his parents, and siblings all had the proper feline features of their race. His parents were well-respected and powerful warriors. Both of his littermates were viewed as talents with bright futures. Quen was doing well integrating both Mom and Dad’s styles into his own Path. Kerra, while not strong like Quen, was doing well learning the Path of Soothing Waters as a shaman apprentice and could already heal minor wounds and draw out poisons and sickness.

Why was he the only useless one? Sure, gaining a composite element could be viewed as lucky, but why was it the weak Mist instead of his mother and brother’s Storm element? His mother’s side, the powerful Cloudstrike clan, all had Evocation Aspects and were all powerful hunters. Without a doubt, his father’s Wintersky clan was the problem, with it’s more diverse Aspects leading to many scouts and shamans being counted among their ranks. But his father still became an elite warrior in spite of his Enchantment Aspect and being a scout.

It was his grandmother’s Illusion Aspect that was the most problematic—even among the various shamanic Aspects on his father’s side. At least the Divination Aspect could be useful when paired with the Path of the Seer, but what use was Illusion?

Xyn didn’t hate his half-human grandmother. She had always been kind to him and had taken him on as a disciple when it became clear that his mother’s Path of the Fulminating Storm and his father’s Path of Severing Winds would be impossible for him.

And maybe it would have been fine had he been a Wintersky like his father and grandmother, but instead of the blue and white of the Wintersky clan, he was born with the stormy darks and bright white markings of the proud Cloudstrike clan. A disciple of the Path of Dancing Petals as a member of the Cloudstrike clan? Unthinkable.

Xyn let out a discontented sigh and drained the last of his breakfast soup from the bowl just as his little brother and cute little sisters came in to ladle their breakfast from the soup pot mother had left out before leaving with the morning hunt.

But even as Grandma Kaylie’s disciple, his Path wasn’t the true Path of Dancing Petals. Though grandma Kaylie was determined to teach him the proper Air Element version of the path, that didn’t mean he wasn’t experimenting with his Mist Element to find his own Path. Not doing so would mean wasting the Water half of his composite element. As for naming his Path… he hadn’t gotten that far yet.

“Brother Xyn,” cute little Tia addressed him as she took her seat at the table.

Lea joined her, also placing her bowl on the table. “Our Awakening ceremony is coming up soon, and we were wondering… if you could tell us about how you prepared for yours.”

Lerr took his seat next to his littermates, nodding interest as well with ears swiveled forward attentively.

Hmmm. It wasn’t often that Xyn’s younger siblings came to him for advice, but the Awakening was the most important event in a Kyrren’s life. For them to be worried was certainly understandable. He had personal experience with being disappointed with his own Awakening after all.

Xyn gazed out at the clear sky peeking between the canopy branches visible outside their treehouse’s kitchen window and gathered his thoughts.

“Well, when Quen, Kerra, and I were your age, we spent most of our time training mom and dad’s martial arts and working on our physical conditioning. Back then, Quen and I were very competitive with each other, and I often bested him during spars. Kerra tried hard as well, but she’s a Wintersky and wasn’t as suited to physical martial arts, so she spent more time training with our Wintersky cousins and her friend from Snowfur clan.”

Lea leaned forward. “Did you do any special training for your Element and Aspect?”

“Yep, sure did. Quen and I practiced meditating under the waterfall at the pond north of the village during the seasonal storms and would practice our martial arts forms on the rocks at Rockhill Ridge on windy days, always trying our best to improve our understanding of Wind and Water. Mom even made us meditate inside her Storm aura on calm days. Lots of stuff. But you three are already doing all that with mom and dad, right?”

Lerr frowned. “You sure? You did everything the same as Quen?”

“Yep. I have no idea why our results were so different. I was really depressed about my Awakening.” Xyn made a sad smirk. “Maybe praying to the ancestors is the only thing that matters.”

“Ugh.” Lerr groaned. “We were hoping to find out what you did differently from Quen. That you were lazy or Quen did special training… anything so we wouldn’t end up like you.”

“Lerr!” Lea rebuked. “You can’t say it like that!”

The little shit! Xyn was also worried that they not end up like him, but saying it like that was too much! He flicked his spoon at Lerr’s forehead with an illusionary copy to each side to prevent him from dodging.

“Oww!” Lerr complained, wide-eyed with his ears flattened as he rubbed his brow.

“Even the weakest of Kyrren scouts has his pride. Focus on your own training before you make judgements on another’s.”

“Yeah, Lerr. It’s your own fault for telling Brother Xyn to his face that he’s an embarrassment to Cloudstrike clan,” Tia added.

“I never said that!” Lerr protested.

Lea was clearly exasperated with her litter-siblings and made Xyn an awkward apologetic gesture.

Having had his happy moment of providing guidance to his supposedly cute younger siblings so thoroughly stepped on by reality, Xyn was determined to get them good, even if it was a bit petty and childish.

“Guess it’s time to go train with Grandma Kaylie. But, since the three of you came to me for advice, it would be wrong of me not to assist with your training,” Xyn intoned with a cold smile while gradually enveloping the room with his aura.

Lea was the first to notice the mist forming around the room and the patterns of light and shadow beginning to change, disorienting them. “Ah! Don’t, Xyn!! We’ll be late for morning training!”

“Lea, isn’t this really bad?! What if exposure to Mist Element-”

Xyn chuckled a bit as he slipped out the door and jumped off the rope-lined walkway. The illusion had taken most of his aura, but at least in front of his younger brother and sisters, he wanted to show-off a little. Still, he had kept some aura in reserve to make gentle footholds in the air as he fluttered to the ground like a flower petal floating on the wind.

The Floating Petal Step was one of the few bright spots of Grandma Kaylie’s Path of Dancing Petals and always brought a smile of joy to his face.

“Xyn, I know my path wasn’t the path you desired to walk, but you should know I am pleased with your progress,” Grandma Kaylie was saying as she gave him a kind smile, her furless human face wearing its usual illusion of youth. “The truths of the Path of Dancing Petals are deep, and while you are not yet ready for the deeper mysteries, there is one revelation you are now ready for—one that will hopefully grant you insight into the truth of your own path.”

Xyn’s ears perked up attentively at his tiger-eyed master’s words. “The truth of my own path?”

“Of course.” Grandma Kaylie’s flower-soft cheeks raised in mirth, and she let out a bell like chuckle. “That’s why I’m teaching you, isn’t it?”

Ah! Why had he assumed that she was just passing on her knowledge to the only suitable student? Wait! That wasn’t the revelation, was it?! It wouldn’t be the first time she set him up for a big reveal only to have the question be the insight he was supposed to ponder upon.

At his suddenly worried brows and fidgety ears, Grandma Kaylie began trembling and tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she pressed a hand against her stomach to keep from doubling over with the laughter she was straining to hold back. “Ah, you’re so precious, Xyn. My one great regret is that I missed out on participating in your pre-Awakening training.”

Xyn wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

His grandmother pretended to gaze past the colorful garden of flowers surrounding the marble gazebo they were sitting in and made a show of wiping the tears from her eyes. “Maybe it’s not too late to enjoy the reactions of your younger siblings…”

“Um…” Xyn prompted. Not that he was adverse to whatever mischief was being planned for his disrespectful younger siblings, it would just be terrible if Grandma Kaylie got side-tracked and forgot the truth she was planning to reveal to him!

“Hmm? Oh, right! The truth about the origin of the Path of Dancing Petals,” she replied and nodded to herself as she met her grandson’s gaze. “Or, The Way of Dancing Petals as it was originally called. You see, even if it was your great-grandmother who taught me when I was young, have you wondered how I could master such a martial art when my physiology is so different from the other Kyrren?”

He had indeed wondered that—also, why Grandma Kaylie insisted on teaching him the path she adapted instead of the original path intended for Kyrrens was also a reoccurring frustration.

Grandma Kaylie grinned mischievously. “That’s because your great-grandmother learned the martial art while in human lands—from your great-grandfather.”

The revelation stunned Xyn. Did that mean there never was an original Kyrren path? That the Way of Dancing Petals was a human martial art from the start?

“Now that’s a great expression, my young disciple. But I think you are not yet understanding the key significance of this truth,” she teased. “Or at least, the significance of how this truth applies to you and your own path.”

What would the martial art being created by humans mean for his own path other than him having to adapt it to Kyrren physiology? Surely, that was too mundane an observation to be a revelation of significance.

“Maybe it’s unfair to expect you to know that humans don’t have innate Aspects, or Elements either, for the most part,” his grandmother supplied as a hint.

“But if they don’t have Elements…,” Xyn considered, still unsure what his grandmother was trying to help him realize. “How can the humans master an Air Element path such as the Path of Dancing Petals?”

“Not just master, create,” Grandma Kaylie corrected. “Though magic is difficult for them, some humans have developed ways to cultivate and improve their elemental affinity. They have even created martial arts and paths that can be passed down from master to disciple even when the disciple is not a descendant.”

Okay… that was impressive, surely. “But I’m Kyrren, not human…” The moment the words left his mouth, he didn’t need to see his grandmother’s all-too-human raised eyebrow to realize his stupidity.

Wasn’t he just lamenting his human blood earlier? But, did that mean…? Could he really use human methods to improve his Element? And his Aspect? Was that why she insisted on teaching him a human martial art? No, his gut told him there was more to it. But if there was a way to improve—to become a Storm Element or greater! He would no longer be an embarrassment to the Cloudstrike clan. His heartbeat quickened and his fists clenched at the direction of his thoughts.

“Heh. So just that was enough to reignite your motivation.” Grandma Kaylie smiled wryly. “But, I can’t teach you in the way the human masters could. At least, for any Element other than Air—and even for Air, there is no mountain or other suitable location nearby for you to master the Element.”

Xyn’s face fell. “Are the humans really so willing to teach other races?”

Grandma Kaylie laughed. “Not hardly. The Ways are jealously guarded by ascetic sects that isolate themselves in places of power to train themselves and their disciples.”

“But how did great-grandmother learn?”

“How indeed.” His grandmother again looked out wistfully past the flowers to the tree town outside her garden retreat and hummed to herself, suddenly deep in thought. “I wonder if you are ready to learn such a secret…”

At his grandmother’s mood change, Xyn’s ears perked forward and his tail curled around the bench leg.

Grandma Kaylie nodded. “Perhaps it is time indeed.”

Xyn waited patiently. Was she about to teach him a new illusion technique?

“Well, my cute grandson, what do you know about the hidden clans?”

At Grandma Kaylie’s surprise question, Xyn could barely keep the shock off his face. What did the legendary hidden clans have to do with his great-grandmother learning secret martial arts from humans? “That they only reveal themselves during times of crisis for the Kyrren. And were part of the founding of our tribe.”

“Good. What if I told you that one of the hidden clans had white at the base of their fur?” His grandmother smirked and casually parted the fur on her ear to reveal the white under her Wintersky blue.

This time, shock clearly showed on Xyn’s face. That white, he knew it well, for it was the same white that showed when he parted his own fur. He had always assumed it was because of a sickness or malnutrition in his youth. Later, after his Awakening, he had assumed that it marked him as defective or inferior. That Grandma Kaylie was telling him this now, it meant his life was about to become a whole lot more complicated. A secret that he would have to keep from his own family. Or at least his mother and siblings.

“Silly boy, as a Hiddensnow, you never needed to be so worried about the approval of those lightning-obsessed Cloudstrike peacocks—even if it was helpful that you acted your part.”

Xyn’s mind was spinning with the ramifications. The Path of Dancing Petals couldn’t be the inheritance of his hidden clan because that was learned from the humans only a few generations back. Was it his unusual Illusion Aspect? Was that why he had Mist instead of Storm? “W-what about dad?”

“Kreel doesn’t know. The Wintersky clan’s colors breed strong, and our clan’s colors tend to only show when we produce offspring with other clans—or with humans.” Grandma Kaylie winked at her own joke. “As such, the Wintersky clan has been a useful means for us to hide through much of the tribe’s history.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You mean, what does being part of a hidden clan have to do with your great-grandmother learning the Way of Dancing Petals?”

“Well, that too…”

Grandma Kaylie chuckled. “You sure you’re ready to handle more secrets?”

“No…” Xyn’s brows knitted together and he pulled his tail tight behind him. “If it’s worse than being from a hidden clan, maybe not.”

“Wise.” Grandma Kaylie smirked. “But I’m afraid it’s too late for that.”

Xyn groaned.

“You see, because of our Hiddensnow clan’s human bloodlines, we’re able to make use of ‘Human Rings’—rings containing a special magic which draws out our human blood to transform the wearer. The stronger the human blood, the more complete the transformation. It’s this ability to transform into a human coupled with our Illusion aspect that allows our clan to carry out it’s mission of stealing the human’s knowledge and bringing it back to empower our tribe.”

Xyn’s eyes widened. How many of the Kyrren paths were based on knowledge stolen from the humans? The thought rocked his world. “Do you have a Human Ring, grandmother?”

“I do.”

“And great-grandmother, too?”

“No, she’s retired now and returned her ring to Elder Thanle. He keeps it in an unnecessarily fancy purple box hidden in a secret room only accessible from inside his training hall.” Grandma Kaylie rolled her eyes and made a dismissive motion with her hand. “I’ve told him that it’s silly to hide the ring, since the ring is useless to anyone who isn’t a member of our clan and only our clan knows what it does. Who would bother to steal it?”

“Will I be getting a Human Ring of my own?”

“The rings are reserved for those who have passed a test of ability and been assigned a mission to infiltrate the human lands. Don’t you think taking on such a mission is a bit beyond you with your current skills?” Grandma Kaylie asked and fixed him with a penetrating gaze that dared him to say otherwise.

When he kept silent, she continued, “Let’s call an end to today’s lesson. I’m sure you have more than enough to sort through for now. Meditate on how this new perspective changes your view of yourself and your own abilities. We’ll discuss more tomorrow.”