Spots is, sadly, not getting up. He’s awake, or at least alive going by the one eye he is lazily opening and closing, moving it around just a bit. Its distant, unfocused, poor thing looks half dead despite having no wounds… And the reason he looks half dead is the fact that I can’t see the fog-like mana clinging to him. It’s even less than in the grass around. That, in itself, is going to be a problem. I don’t know what happens if we run out of mana, but if he’s any indication, it’s like the end stages of thirst and hunger at the same time. Too weak to even be conscious. Guess that’s why we needed relatively little food and literally no water for the early parts of our life, mana was doing all the work. Even later on it might help, since I have yet to see an animal that would be big enough for mother to not starve.

I notice RT trying to poke him awake, progressively getting more aggressive in his attempts, but he isn’t getting any results. Crown, on the other hand, bites one of his legs but ends up drawing blood. She gets startled and pulls away. I understand why she’s surprised, after all we’ve been nipping, clawing, tackling, even wacking each other without getting hurt once. He’s not only exhausted, his body is frailer than ever. It’s like he’s half a step from death, and that’s just because of what? A couple headbuts from an oversized pig?

Well, no, I am letting my worries cloud my mind. He took two goring hits from a boar without even a bit of gore, meaning, he exchanged mana to protect against deadly strikes. Wolves are the closest animal to our current size and shape, even though I have bigger legs and I am overall larger, my siblings are about the common size of a mutt, and even I am not that much bigger than a wolf. So a wolf for comparison it is. If a boar and a wolf came face to face, the wolf would need to run. It’s that simple. A single tusk hit and the canine is done, even if not dead it would be crippled for life.

From what I see, Spots will be fine with just a nap in a mana heavy environment, or after consuming something rich in mana. Which, in itself, is absurd. Imagine being able to shrug off one or two deadly strikes every day, maybe more if you eat well? That’s more than most people have to deal with in decades. But being put in this condition, in this place? Spots would be dead without us. Let’s see, what should I-

My instincts tell me to eat him. I frown, then give myself a slap and wrap my tails around him. My bad for ever thinking base instincts are good for making decisions… I can’t lift him on my back sadly, and even if I could I wouldn’t be able to hold him there. My tails are not strong in that way, sadly, so I just drag him slowly. He’s bleeding a bit from the wound Crown made, but there’s not much I can do about that. I don’t see any plants that I know could help with clogging the blood or disinfecting the wound. Ah, no I do know one thing that I can do, but I am worried. His wound is going to get infected if we leave it open, especially since I doubt his immune system is unaffected by him being so weak. The problem is that I don’t know how to control my output.

As I drag him, slowly, I think about how magic works for the nth time. My “breath” is my simplest and most versatile “spell” so far. However, it is also very fixed in what it does. I can use any element or combination of elements that I want, provided I have the mana for it, but the result is always the same. I make a strong phenomenon happen through my mouth. Is it lightning dancing around my teeth? Air frosting over? A god damn flamethrower setting rocks on fire? Whatever it is, it happens and it is always meant to, in some way, hurt something by using up a lot of mana at once. It’s a “throw shit forward and see what happens” kind of magic.

The other magic I’ve been using, like the light rune and whatever I did that made water float? They’re different in that regard. They don’t demand my mana, like the flashbang breath does. When I use that, it takes as much mana as it can and releases it in one moment. The light rune and water magic were both streams of mana being used to cause a continuous effect. They weren’t trying to explode, but rather be orderly. Which is why, if I want to burn his wound to stop the bleeding and to make sure he doesn’t get infected, I would need something that isn’t a breath attack.

I’ll leave that thought for later. Right now I need to keep going, but I am getting tired quickly. Thankfully, by moving slowly I am not suffering from having my tails busy carrying him instead of helping me balance. On the other hand though, they are getting sore. They’re not meant to drag behind a whole person, or even half of one, so it is quickly becoming a problem. I wish my siblings would help but they are too dumb to do this sort of thing without hurting him, especially with their lacking dexterity, so I persevere.

I try to focus on everything around us. I try to listen for anything useful or dangerous, I try to catch a scent that might lead us home, I even taste a few plants on the way to try and see if they have any kind of mana concentration. They didn’t, of course, but it was worth the try.

My body is trying to keep me calm, but I feel my mind clawing at that stoicism. Spots is a strong breeze away from death, my other siblings are getting hungry and tense, starting to get halfway through their mana reserves if my eyes aren’t wrong, and I am the only one with even a semblance of an idea of where to go, yet I have to make sure they don’t wander off randomly, like Spots did. If another one gets hurt…

A sigh gets stuck in my throat as I hear a rustling sound, followed by growls. The wolves are back. I let go of Spots and roar, my siblings turning to the nearest wolf to keep it at bay. It’s not a big pack, thankfully. I number about six in total, two are still juvenile, but they’re not defenseless cubs. They’ll get involved. I look at each of them and notice immediately who is the leader. It’s the only one with some mana… not a lot, but it might have migrated here to a less dangerous hunting ground to be a big fish in a small pond.

That’s a problem though… It might not be a hulking brute, or filled with bone spikes, but those teeth are longer and sharper than they have any right to be and he’s even a bit taller than me, though still agile. Overall, just an improved wolf rather than something so changed it might as well be a different animal.

We’re outnumbered though… RT and Crown need to each take an adult and a young one, and I’ll still be stuck with the two biggest and baddest ones. And that’s without taking into account the wounded kid behind me… I need the others to keep formation, but they look like they might leap away to chase a kill.

Alright, I need to focus. I didn’t want to waste mana, but I need that wolf dead. It’ll probably scare the others and it might even be enough to kickstart Spots, so I start focusing my mana. I’m not the only one, as I see the enhanced wolf approach me with mana flowing around its body, circling me, trying to draw my attention as its mate tries to take my flank.

This sort of thing tends to work on animals, and might even work on my siblings, but I am prepared. I turn towards the big guy, just as its mate leaps at me, thinking it found an opening. It’s not, of course. It’s a tailwhip. A double one, just to be sure. I hear the yelp and see the big guy turning towards its mate for a moment, just as I leap at it.

It doesn’t come at me, instead it backs away, growling and howling. The whole pack does, but they are just out of range, not away. Even the one I knocked down recovered and is now limping away, jumping for speed on the limbs that didn’t get hit. I think I used up a bit of mana on that strike. Annoying. At least it crippled one of them, but the others seem fine. RT scared a few with a bit of fire, but even that won’t last.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

This is the time for regrets, because unlike before, these wolves can just back off, wait, then attack us again before we can recover. At the lake every animal was cornered. They had no escape, so they just fought, yet even with that desperation they always felt weak and slow. Hell, even the more enhanced wolves seemed to be slower than this guy and that doesn’t seem to track. Were they so afraid they were worse than they should be? Was mother’s presence such a distraction that we had an easy time beating creatures we had no right fighting? Might be.

Which just means that even these guys can be dangerous to us. Especially without the ability to recover mana. I turn to the side and see my siblings being restless, squeaking, growling, hissing, doing anything to try and calm themselves while keeping the wolves away. I don’t know what to do. If I step off to try and kill one of them, another would sneak in and grab Spots. Even then I don’t know if I can run fast enough to grab any of them before they run off.

I didn’t want to use a breath, as it’s costly, but I think I don’t have a choice. I growl to draw attention, there’s three of them looking straight at me as I move just a bit closer to the big wolf. I need just a second… there. I open my mouth fully and a flashbang erupts, startling and blinding the three wolves. I don’t have time to wait, I jump for the throat, but I am met by two other wolves attacking my side. I make the very bad decision of ignoring them, letting them bite into one tail and wing, but I still manage to lunge at the big one, sinking my fangs into its throat, while waving my tail around to try and scare off my attackers.

The wolf I bite struggles, clawing at me, trying to bite back, but it is choking with its own blood. meanwhile my siblings seem to have abandoned Spot completely and came to help me, as I stop feeling my limbs being bitten. I tear away, ripping a chunk of flesh and look around. four managed to escape, scared off by my siblings, probably. They also looked a bit bloodied, but overall they wouldn’t come back. We’re too expensive a meal. Meanwhile, the enhanced wolf is bleeding out, unable to even get back up anymore, while his mate, still half blinded and deafened, with a leg out of commission, is just growling and biting roughly in my siblings’ direction.

We got two of them and only I sustained some wounds. That’s fine with me. I do however flinch as I turn to look at my body, realizing the damage I took. Good thing my sense of pain is a bit dampened or I would be crying right now… My wing is broken, I’m actually missing the tip of it, including a bit of bone. That’s nasty… My tail is doing better at least, only a bit of blood and bruising. Still.. I don’t think I can carry Spots anymore like this..

I hear a gurgled howl and see as the other wolf is finally dead. Good, I need them to focus on that corpse while I use this one… I bite into the now dead mutant and drag it over to Spots, ripping away at its chest to get the core out. Spots opened his eyes, smelling the blood, and made a weak sound while opening and closing his mouth. Alright buddy, here… chomp down on this if you can.

I put the core in his mouth and he starts crushing it, drinking the blood, then gulps it down. I wait a while and it takes about five minutes for him to start crawling towards the rest of the body, eating greedily. Good. At least he’s recovering. My siblings on the other hand made short work of the other wolf, and start inching closer to this body, but I snap at them. I need Spots to be able and walk by himself, or we won’t get anywhere.

It takes about five more minutes, but he does manage to eat the whole thing by himself. Yeah, actually low mana is basically starving squared, good to know. He still has Crown’s bite on him, but it at least closed by now, unlike my wounds, so it won’t be a problem. We can continue our walk.

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I lost track of time. I can’t even put on a song to calm down because I need to be alert and focused, and it’s starting to really take its toll. Still we do manage to find something good, after all this almost aimless wandering. We found water! Sure we don’t need to drink, but that’s the thing, this isn’t just water, it’s water that smells like water! And nature! It’s mother’s river.

I rush towards it, as do my siblings, and we find a small oasis. Wild growing grass, plenty of flowers of all sorts and a river with a fair bit of mana in it. It’s not like the lake, but it still is more mana than even that wolf. We go towards it and after taking a few mouthfuls I am starting to feel my mana recovering. The only downside about this is that it’s mostly water and nature, two kind of useless elements for any of my purposes. Still it is better than no mana, so I will take it.

We can finally sit down and relax a bit. We can also follow the river to get back home, so it’s all the better. We’re close, even if we still have a ways to go, we’re getting close to being done! As I rest and look in the water I can only sigh and smile. Today was a nightmare, but we pushed through. Honestly I am impressed Red Tail and Crown were so capable when it came to holding their ground, even in that situation. Now, just gotta follow this river up… and a bear comes out of the woods, towards the water. It’s a large brown bear… Not just large, but massive. It has teeth jutting out of its mouth, it tilts trees just by brushing against them and it is looking straight at Spots. He can’t run at full speed right now… and even if he could, the bear is probably faster still.

Time slows but it doesn’t matter, there’s nothing I can do. I have a lightning bite in me, but that’s all I got. This thing is bigger than anything I ever dealt with and I doubt I can kill it in one attack. Even if I could, Spots is away from me, resting on the grass, not at the bank of the river. I can’t do anything, he’s going to die and I am powerless to stop it, instead I am just seeing it in slow motion.

I think about closing my eyes, to not see my brother die. I think about running with the others, so we could escape Spot's fate… But I am frozen in place. I take all the water mana I devoured and push it forward. My body is as fast as it is, but magic may be as fast as I make it, so I push all my anger and terror, all the affection I have for my siblings, be it biological or just from the fact that they are cute buggers. I focus everything I have into just stopping this being that is about to rip my brother in two.

I let out an involuntary cry as time speeds back up, but I see the bear stopping. It’s understandable that it did, of course. After all, wouldn't you stop and stare if the river decided to get up and turn into the shape of a dragon’s claw? The beast runs as the claw swings at the ground it was just standing on, then turns back into water and splashes the ground. There’s even fishes struggling to jump back into the river.

That wasn’t me, though, as much as I wish it was. I turn my head to the sky and see mother’s form approaching swiftly. She lands and says something, while having that strange smile of hers. My siblings rush towards her, excited. They don’t understand what she did, not really. They just know that away from mother life is hard, not that mother put them in that position intentionally. They don’t understand, and they’re happier for it.

But I understand.

So as mother turns her head towards me, I approach, and instead of rubbing against her leg, I bite. It’s harder than rock, harder than metal, it hurts me more than it hurts her, but I still bite. I even let out an electric shock, though it also does nothing. She looks confused but I am angry and continue clawing and biting her. My vision becomes blurry.

I didn’t know I have tear ducts

Unlike my happy siblings I end up crying, half from anger, half from fear. We could have died. So many times we could have died. She heals me, but does it really matter? This monster keeps putting us in harms way… and for what? What did this teach us? That being away from the nest leads to us starving to death over the course of less than a day? Is that the lesson? Is the lesson that we shouldn’t get cocky about getting used to hunting terrified, cornered animals mother picked out of some mana infused hell?

I take a deep breath and calm down as she picks me up. It doesn’t matter, ultimately. I am used to having horrible family members that would flay you alive for some coins. This time it just happens to be my mother. I just need to become independent as soon as possible. I need to learn all the powers of my body and of this new world, and then I need to get away from here.