We left the gear where it was but with my broken leg we didn’t make it back to our hut until almost mid-morning. Cali was outside the hut looking frantic and when she saw us she rushed over and hugged me hard enough to hurt.

“Where have you been all-night? What’s…... Your hurt? You went back into the forest didn’t you? You lied to me yesterday! You didn’t go watch the tournament at all did you?” She shouted. Her relief instantly replaced with righteous anger.

“We did.” I said honestly. It seemed pointless to lie about it after all.

“And your leg….. I knew you’d get hurt, you won't be able to walked for weeks and you'll be twelve soon. What will the clan do when they find out you can’t work.” She said worriedly as she looked at my injured leg.

“I’m sure they’ll have quite a few interesting things to say.” I said with a grin. “We actually did it mom!”

Her face turned a few odd colors and she looked at Shimak and I with horror. “You …. What?”

I cocked my head sideways in puzzlement. Then laughed when I figured it out why he looked like that. “We didn’t do IT. We killed a beast. We can bind a soul-beast now.” I said with a chuckle. “Shimak and I can become warriors and move up to the middle caste.” I said with genuine relief. It had taken nearly a month to accomplish but two children had managed to kill a Soldier rank beast.

Mom’s look of horror changed into one of incredulity. “But…. How? You're just kids. Most of the villages adult warriors couldn’t fight a Soldier ranked beast. You two can’t even cultivate.”

“Mostly luck but also physics.” I said as I pushed past her and into the hut. Walking up the mountain on one leg was causing it to cramp and I really needed to sit down.

Shimak and mom trailed me inside and I slumped onto my bed. Then carefully arranged my leg so it was stable and wouldn’t move too much. Mom and Skimak followed me in and mom started cooking breakfast while she peppered us with more questions.

“What’s physics?” Mom asked. I’d used the English word since the language they spoke here didn’t have anything similar.

Shimak rolled her eyes. “ Don’t ask. He’s been trying to explain it to me for a month and I still don’t get it.”

“We’ll have to tell your father when he gets back. He’ll be so happy.” Mom said as she handed Shimak and I some fresh bread as she continued to cook.

However, when dad finally did get home he wasn’t ecstatic at all. In fact he looked more haggard and worried than usual.

“You really killed a thunder-boar and absorbed it’s core?” He asked after Shimak and I told our story. I could tell from his tone he was taking this very seriously.

“Yes….?” I said carefully.

He sighed deeply. “I knew you were showing too much interest with all those questions you were asking, but I didn’t think you’d actually try it. And I’d never have guessed in my wildest dreams that you would succeed.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “You kids can’t tell anyone about this. Not the other kids, not Shimak’s mother noone…... If someone from the upper caste finds out you killed a peak-Soldier ranked beast and didn’t give them the core they’ll be hell to pay. You’ll be lucky to escape with your lives.” He said looking from Skimak to me in turn.

“Won’t they be happy to have more warrior’s? They lost so many on the last hunt.” Shimak said confused. It was clear she didn’t understand but I was beginning to. I hadn’t thought the problem all the way through in my haste to get a core, but hearing dad speak the picture was starting to come together.

“They don’t want random low caste becoming warriors.” I said now understanding. “Their entire caste system is supposedly based off of martial arts talent. If the rest of the low caste find out anyone can cultivate it’ll will undermine the entire caste system. Not to mention they probably wanted the core for one of their own children, or even themselves if that core was as powerful as you said it was. With you it won't be so bad, since your dad was a warrior and pretty strong but I’m a farmer's son. They would try to undermine me at every opportunity and might even try and kill me if it turns out I’m any good at it. “

Dad looked at me oddly for a moment, obviously confused about how a child would understand. However, I’d already been through one life and one thing remained constant across worlds. Those with power always care more about keeping it than they do about anything else.

Shimak looked stubborn. “I won't tell anyone but I’m still going to find a beast and it’ll be a way better one than Kalar’s shale-hound.”

*************************************************************************

Shimak had splinted my leg with a few sticks in the forest, and after dad had traded a ration token for a decent crutch I could use, I was mobile again. Shimak and I had to buy off the smith with a couple more tokens to get out of coal-hauling duty but with my bum leg I couldn’t work anyway.

My burns healed surprisingly fast and in two weeks I didn’t even have scars. My leg took much longer and it was nearly another month before It could support any weight. As badly as I’d broken it the speed of healing was pretty miraculous but Shimak told me it was because of the Essence I’d absorbed.

“So how do you bind a beast anyway?” I asked when I could finally stand on my own again. My twelfth birthday had come and went and Shimak and I were finally going to head back to the forest to get our gear. Mom and dad had to pay a token for every week I didn’t work but they had plenty now and weren't worried.

“There are a few ways but usually it’s done by tempting the beast with your purified essence then aligning your energies with it’s soul. Once you’ve matched wavelengths you can pull the beast into your body. That’s the least forceful and allows the user the best initial connection with the beast.”

“What do?” I started but she cut me off.

“The stronger your connection with the beast the more able you are to absorb essence from it and the more benefits you’ll receive from cultivation. That’s why essence alignment is usually the best way, but you can also forcefully bind a beast if you're strong enough. That would let you bind a more powerful beast directly instead of having to start with a baby and evolve it like most people do. However, that makes you start out with a very bad connection to the beast and it takes time and effort to strengthen it. “

“So if you were strong enough you could just walk up to that thunder-boar beat it up and enslave it?” I asked stunned.

“Pretty much, although it would take someone really strong to dominate a beast like that. It’s about ten times easier to kill it than it would be to bind it. At least a low Sage rank. The last method is both the simplest and least useful. It’s done by simply pressing a drop of your blood onto one of the beasts Qi points. When that happens you start a battle of wills with the creature. If you win it’s bound to you and you get a good connection. If you lose then it the beast will forcefully steal all of you stored world essence.”

“So it’s an insane do or die method.” I asked.

“I don’t think you die, but I’ve never met anyone who’s tried it so maybe?. Maybe it would turn you into it’s beast. Who knows?” She said with a shrug.

“Alright, last question” I said as we walked down the mountain towards the boats. A crisp wind was blowing up the mountain from the river and it felt great in the spring sunshine. “What’s a cultivation path.” I had a pretty good handle on the basics of cultivation now but I’d heard Shimak use the phrase a few times and still didn’t know what it meant.

Shimak sighed but answered dutifully. “When you're bound to a beast and absorbing the world’s essence the way in which that energy passes from the beast into you is know as a cultivation path. They are very important because the way the energy passes through you determines the benefits you receive from the energy. Absorbing any essence improves the body and spirit. Even though we don’t have any beasts we are already slightly stronger and faster than we were before. However, once you bind a beast it will influence the way your body absorbs the essence.

That’s why cultivators with stone beasts are much harder to injure. Because most stone-type beasts cultivation paths are focused on improving a person's defense. It hardens their skin and bones. That’s also why the quality of the beast is so important. A cultivation path also determines the amount out essence that can be absorbed. So a cultivator that binds a better beast can absorb essence more quickly than one with a poor quality beast. There are a lot of different attributes that can be improved, strength, speed, agility, regeneration, even the ability to transform one's Qi into an element, but all of that is dependent upon a beast's cultivation path. It’s sorta hard to explain without your own beast but once you bind one it will make a lot more sense.” That was a lot to chew on and it kept me silent for our trek down into the woods.

The bow and tools were where we had left them but the boar’s body was gone. The weather hadn’t been kind to our equipment after a month exposed to the elements. Although, the bow was still in surprisingly good condition. It must have been made out of some special type of wood.

We drug the rope, pulleys, and bow back to the boat and left them their while Shimak and I headed out to hunt for a starting beast. Before we had always ignored the small beasts that didn’t attack us, but this time Shimak carefully inspected each one looking for the perfect specimen.

While we walked Shimak continued to explain different beast attributes to me. Fire beasts had the best attack, Lightning beasts had the beast speed, Earth and stone had the best defense, flying types were all-rounders but would be able to act as a flying mount when they grew so were very popular. Plant and wood type beats were usually weaker than other elements but granted their cultivators the ability to heal themselves and others which made them very useful.

We didn’t find any that passed Shimak’s inspection the first day and the second day we stumbled across a larger beast and had to run for it. We went back every day after that but Shimak was exceedingly picky and after a week neither of us had found a suitable beast. In order to stave off boredom Shimak finally decided to start teaching me martial arts. As a complete novice I knew completely nothing so she started at the basics.

“Not like that.” She said as she walked up to me and pushed my back foot more to the right. “You have to maintain a stable center of balance. Footwork is the basis of everything. If you have a shoddy base you’ll have to shift your weight before you can attack. It will slow you down while making you easier to knock off balance. Try it again.” I sighed and dutifully moved my back foot before I did a simple front kick.

“Better, but you're still leaning too far left. Again” I reset my stance and kicked again. As my kick came out Shimak slapped my leg on the right side pushing me left. I was already leaning slightly that direction and the small motion made me fall over. “See, balance…..” She said ruthlessly as I stood up again.

“When do I get to learn a weapon.” I asked as I took my stance again. I was looking forward to learning how to use a sword. Then I’d be like a bad-ass anime character.

“You can’t even do a simple kick and you want to start with a weapon?” She asked incredulously. “You’d cut off your hands and I refuse to have to go to your mother and explain it to her when she asks what happened.”

I sighed heavily as I took my stance and started my kicks again. “Can’t we at least go look for beasts again. This is so boring.” I whined petulantly.

“Your such a baby, but fine we can go back to the forest AFTER a hundred more kicks.” I groaned loudly and kept kicking, focusing on keeping my balance even.

It was mid-afternoon when we finally crossed the river. We only had a few hours until we’d have to leave but both of us were getting a little antsy. Once we got a beast we would be real cultivators, but until then we were stuck in limbo.

“Ugh, not another one.” Shimak sighed as we both looked at the animal cowering in a hollowed out tree-trunk. It looked like a rabbit back on earth but it had a long spiraling horn sticking out out of it’s forehead. It was the third horned-hare we’d found over the last week and Shimak was not taking it well.

“Why don’t you just bind it. You said they usually have a decent cultivation paths and are great for speed. That would be perfect for you.” I said reasonably.

“No” She said firmly. “Tali has a horned-hare bound and I refuse to have the same beast as her. She’s always sucking up Kalar because of his family. She probably hopes to marry him when she's older.”

“Well, at least you're not bitter.” I said sarcastically, making Shimak give me the evil-eye. We were both getting ready to turn away from the hare when there was a rustle in the bushes next to us. We both froze praying we weren’t about to become lunch. We had been going into the forest every day and we both knew that eventually our luck was going to run out. Our need for bound beasts had been pulling us back every day even though we both knew how dangerous it was.

We both turned slowly and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw the creature. It looked like a fawn with a dark-grey coat. It’s four legs were thin as sticks and it’s knees were large and knobby. It wobbled precariously as it tried to walk. It was one of the most adorable things I’d ever seen. A video of this thing would have been worth at least a million views on You-Tube.

Shimak hadn’t relaxed as I had and continued to stare at the creature with wide eyes. When she finally spoke it was in such a low whisper I could barely hear her from two steps away. “Ash-fawn…….”

I turned and looked at her stupidly but she didn’t seem to acknowledge my presence at all. Her entire being seemed to be focused on the creature and she suddenly sat down and started making some complicated hand-seals. Realizing what was happening I watched enraptured.

A few seconds went by then the fawn froze as if it had heard some faint noise before it turned it’s head and stared at Shimak. The creature wobbled over towards us each step slow and careful. It’s head turned from side to side as if it was looking for danger but it seemed drawn to Shimak as if it knew better but couldn’t resist. As it approached, Shimak lifted a hand outwards and spread her palm.

The small fawn obediently placed it’s forehead onto her hand and they stood like that for most of an hour as I watched. Then the fawn shuddered and a white glow started to shine from Shimak’s palm. It slowly grew brighter and brighter until there was a loud pop and the fawn seemed to turn into a small white cloud. Then black lines started to appear in the cloud and as they revolved a picture of a styled fawn surrounded with odd glyphs and tribal markings.

The image shrank until it was a inches across before it flew towards Shimak and landed on the inside of her right forearm. Once there, it seemed to ripple a few times before there was another flash of light and everything went still again. When I could see again there was perfect tattoo on the girl's arm. Only then did she open her eyes with a triumphant expression.

“Just wait till Kalar find out I bound an Ash-fawn he’ll throw up blood for a week.” She said with a vindictive grin.

“Did it work?” I asked. I assumed it had but honestly everything that happened had been so crazy I wasn’t sure what was going on. It’s hard to watch an animal turn into a tattoo and keep a reasonable state of mind.

“Yes… “ She said as she sprang to her feet before giving me a hug. “Thank you. It was you who said we could do this. I never believed you before but now even though dad's gone I got my own beast and it’s a great one.” I just patted the girl’s back awkwardly not sure what to say. Honestly, she’d done most of the work, without her knowledge and quick-reflexes none of this would have worked at all.

“Let’s head back it’s almost dark.” She said as she released me. I just trotted after her in silence as we crossed the river and walked home.

*****************************************************************

Shimak said she needed to stabilize her connection with her new beast and spent the next week in the hutt. That left me alone for most of the day for the first time in quite a while. I’d been spending most of my time with Shimak so it was nice to get out on my own for a while. To celebrate I headed down to the river and just lazed around all day. It had rained last night and today there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The bright blue sun shined down from above and bathed the mountain in it’s clean white-light. I just laid back against the rock and listened to the water gurgle. It was a shame there weren't many fish in the river. It would have been the perfect day to throw in a line.

I was half dozing in the mid-day sun when the sound of the river changed. There was a odd bubbling sound and I sat up and craned my neck to see into the water. The water was crystal clear and it was pretty shallow near the edges. On the bottom of the river a few feet from me was a black lump. It was vaguely tube shaped and about two feet long and nine inches wide. Its was porous looking and reminded me a little of a sea cucumber. Honestly, it looked like a big black turd. As I watched a bubble came up from it and made the odd sound again. The thing didn’t seem to notice me and just sat there. Shrugging I laid back down and took a nap.

When I awoke it was afternoon and I stood and stretched, deciding to practice my foot-work some more. After a few dozen kicks there was another bubbling sound and I walked over to look at the… whatever it was again. It was still laying in the same spot apparently oblivious to the world. So I did what any self respecting twelve year old boy does when he find something strange. I threw a rock at it.

The ground was littered with small rocks and after finding a decently weighty one I gave it a soft toss. The rock hit the water with a small splash and then fell through the water. However the current pushed the rock too far down-stream and I missed. Frowning I picked up another rock and played the current. The rock landed on the middle of the thing but it didn’t so much as twitch. I scowled then found the biggest rock I could life and flung it at the thing.

It hit the thing directly and then the black tube finally moved. It was fast as lightning as it lunged up out of the water at me. One end of it’s tubular body opened revealing a circular maw filled with jagged teeth. It didn’t seem to have ears or eyes but it landed on the rocky bank with a squelching sound then turned towards me.I fell backwards away from it scraping my hands and arms on the hard rock as tried to back away from it. It twitched a few times as if orienting itself then it’s body compressed and it jumped directly for my throat. I screamed like a girl and flailed my arms at it trying to defend myself. The situation would have been comical if it hadn’t changed my life forever. Because as I slapped at the thing my bloody left palm landed directly on it’s head.

A white light exploded from my palm and I screamed as my brain was suddenly in agony. It felt like my mind was being crushed by some monstrous weight and I fell to me knees as the weight pressed me down. I struggled against it instinctively.

As I pressed back against it the weight increased and I moaned piteously as the pressure tried to snuff out my mind. I could taste blood in my mouth as I bit my tongue and that small physical pain helped me focus. I gathered my will and pressed it back against the force as hard as I could. The pressure seemed to retreat for a moment and I sucked is a gasp of air before it fell onto me again. This time the pressure had the weight of a mountain and my vision started to darken as my consciousness was forced into a smaller and smaller ball.

I screamed in rage and fear and threw everything I had left against the force. It resisted for one agonizing moment before the pressure seemed to shatter and my mind returned to normal. I was laying on the stone near the bank of the river. Blood ran from my nose and mouth as I sat up and looked around.

What the hell….

The sun was setting and it cast the world in violet light as I tried to figure out what the hell had happened. The black creature was gone and the river was gurgling merrily as always. Then a horrible thought stuck me and I looked down at myself. Sure enough on the outside of my left bicep was a stylised picture of a small black turd. It had to be the smallest beast tattoo I’d never seen. In contrast to the size of the beast though, the glyphs and tribal markings around the tattoo were large and amazingly detailed and intricate. They were both savage and oddly beautiful and my mind seemed to float away as I stared at them.

I shook myself back to consciousness and groaned loudly. Shimak was never going to let me live this down and I walked back to the hut with my head drooping.