You hurt all over, but you still have all your stuff. Both Wotjeo and you survived despite being horribly outnumbered by bigger and stronger opponents. Best of all, the memory of Bato collapsing bonelessly after you hit him gives you a fierce sense of satisfaction. The bigger boy has already paid for this fight, but you didn't manage to hurt the other two. You barely touched Decavo and you think Chuno probably did more damage to his hands punching you than you did to him. Chuno and Decavo, they’re the ones who hurt you. Who hurt your brother Wotjeo. You make a mental list of each injury done to you, stacking them one upon the other like an altar made of pain and swear an oath of vengeance on it. You promise yourself that the two bigger boys will pay for what they did to you. They'll both pay, but not today.

Today, the first step on your road to revenge is going to be showing them up by getting to class despite their best efforts to stop you. You don’t feel like anything inside you is broken. You’ll be okay, right? Wotjeo agrees that nothing inside him feels broken, but like you, he is in a lot of pain.. You’re going to minimize the danger to your brother by carrying him anyways. At least, that’s the plan if you are strong enough. Right now, you’re not even sure you can stand up. You’ve never been hurt like this before.

Okay, step one. Push your face up off the floor. You push and the bruises on your arms burn with unfamiliar pain but you force yourself to ignore it. You get your knees under you and pause to let the throbbing pain subside. It lessens but does not go away. Okay… you guess that’s as good as you can hope for. You’d been hoping that the pain would just go away like it does when Mama kisses it better. You want to cry, but if you do, you don’t think you’ll be able to take care of your bear brother so you choke back your sobs.

Now for the tricky bit. You cradle Wotjeo in your dominant left arm and lean against the right tunnel wall for support. You push yourself up, handspan by handspan until you are standing. Success!

You are still in intense pain, almost as bad as after the fight for the sweet liquid, but now you’re standing. Ha, ha! Take that, bullies! Nothing can keep you down!

Every shuffling step forward yanks a sob of pain from you. By the time you make it to the first opening in the wall your face is wet with tears. The prospect of walking across the open area without anything to lean on is almost overwhelming. After everything that happened today, your mental fortitude is exhausted, and you break down. Your legs give out from under you You collapse to your knees sobbing. You barely have the presence of mind to avoid crushing Wotjeo under you by landing on your elbows and forearms so that your chest doesn’t crush him against the tunnel floor.

A few moments later a young woman comes out of the connecting tunnel that you are crying next to and, not realizing how badly you were beaten, she tries to comfort you instead of rushing you to a Healer. “There. There. It’ll be alright. I’m Tunica.”

Tunica tries to pick you up, but you wipe your tears away and stifle your sobs to insist you can walk. An older, more confident woman likely would have ignored your insistence, but Tunica is still young enough to be unsure of herself, so she indulges you. She gently takes Wotjeo from you:

She puts your arm over her spirit companion's back “This is Valo. He's very gentle. Give him a big hug to introduce yourself. We're going to walk the rest of the way with you, you can lean on him for support if you want."

Just the presence of the kind young woman and her gentle bear brother after dealing with all those brutal boys and a mean man is reassuring. You hug Valo as best you can and lean heavily on him. As the four of you slowly make your way forward, Vala awkwardly tries to fill the silence with chatter. "Elder Minaro's classes right? He's, well, he's still awful once you get to know him, but he's really smart too. Just pay attention, and you'll do all right. He won't let fights get out of hand or disrupt his class."

"Oh, we're here." The young woman, Tunica, fidgets while you dry your eyes. She hands Wotjeo back when you reach for him. He licks your face comfortingly, despite the pain of his own injuries.

Tunica whispers "good luck," and then continues on her way.

The pain is still horrible, but you manage to stagger into the classroom without leaning on anything. Elder Minaro and Felero are the only people in the room.

The Elder's usually sour expression softens when he takes in your injuries. He strides over without seeming to hurry and lifts Wotjeo out of your arms, casually overpowering your attempt to hold onto him.

Elder Minaro covers Wotjeo's forehead with his right palm while he holds your bear brother with his left hand: "Nothing a few days rest and good food won't cure."

He puts down Wotjeo and places his right palm on your forehead. You feel a pulse of warmth travel down from your forehead to your toes and back up. "Your ribs are bruised, but nothing is broken. Try to avoid breathing heavily until they heal."

He grunts sourly. "I suppose congratulations on winning your first fight are in order since you are here and three of my idiot students are not. Perhaps the Matriarch was right about you being worth teaching. The worst part is she won't act smug about it like a decent person." His gaze sharpens: "You did not hear that last sentence, and you certainly won't repeat it. Go sit down under one of the tin outcrops. You've already missed half the lesson, don't waste any more time. Felero's been benefiting from my concentrated attention since he was the only one who managed to show up on time. He needs a break, which means it is your turn."

After the lesson, Wotjeo and you walk back to the common area to meet Papa. He scoops both you and Wotjeo up in one arm each and cradles you both against his broad chest. "Pūmiè! Wotjeo! You look like you've been in a war! Tell me all about it."

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You cry again as the story of how the band of bigger boys tried to bully you comes tumbling out.

Papa can’t resist smiling hugely, "That's my girl! You were very brave to fight all of them. Papa is proud of you." He starts to hug you but sheepishly stops when you protest at the pain as he squeezes your bruises. "You were very clever, using your breakfast like that. Next time, don't focus on just one opponent though. You have to switch between them, or they'll attack when you're not paying attention like they did this time. Mina will want to hear this."

Papa’s long legs carry him surely if not swiftly through the cave complex your clan lives in. His strong arms cradle you and cushion you so thoroughly from the impacts of his feet on the ground that it feels like you are floating on a cloud.

***

Papa was right, Mina did want to hear about the fight. Her laughter filled the training cave complex when you described knocking Bato out. "Hah, I can't wait to mention this the next time Aracato starts bragging about how strong his boy is. That ought to shut the loudmouth Hunter up."

After she stopped laughing she walked you through each step of the fight and suggested things you could do differently next time. You are a bit disappointed that you don't get to train today, but Mina assured you that she'd start training you as soon as you'd healed.

***

That night you dream. As is often the case, Wotjeo is beside you in your dream and together you frolick in a pit of mud. In the dream, your bruises and wounded pride seem far away. When you wake, the pain radiating from your bruises returns, but it is not nearly as bas as it was yesterday.

When you arrive at Elder Minaro's lesson cave after morning meditation; Chuno and Decavo are already there, but Bato isn’t. Mercifully, the Elder doesn’t make you do pushups for being late, and Bato never makes an appearance. Just like the past two days, Elder Minaro has you all sit down under the tin outcroppings and meditate. You quickly move through the visualization exercises as before. The previous two days of instruction, you’d been stuck at the same spot in your lessons. The mental image of one spot of tin ore completely filling your mind and impossible to get any closer to. Before you’d tried to pull the spot closer to you and you try the same again today. Again you fail.

The pain of your bruises and the mounting frustration shatters what little self-control you have left after the trying events of the past days and you wail: “The spot is as big as everything! How can I pull it closer?”

Elder Minaro grunts: “If you can’t bring it to you, you have to go to it. Hold the image in your mind and keep your body’s hands still in your lap. Now reach out and touch the spot.”

You visualize reaching out to touch the tin ore, and suddenly you are inside it. All around you is a disorganized lattice of white. The lattice looks like it wants to be a cube with another node at the center, but some of the nodes have been replaced by patches of different colors distorting the shape of the lattice. You reach out your hand and touch one of the nodes. It’s vibrating! With your eyes, you follow the rod leading from the node you’re touching to its neighbor. The rod leading to the next node is a little thicker, as is the rod leading to the next node, and the next lattice cube after that and “Stop girl!”

Suddenly you’re looking at the cave and Elder Minaro. He mutters so quietly you can hear him only because his head is right next to yours. “That woman is going to be insufferable after this.” Standing and facing the rest of the class he announces: “Pūmiè is the first of your class to be able to sense vital essence.” Felero claps for you but Red-haired Decavo and Yellow-haired Chuno glare daggers. You glare right back at them, remembering your promise to get revenge on them.

Elder Minaro continues: “I expect the rest of you sluggards to work hard to catch up to her.”

He looks back down at you. “As for you, resume the position! You still have a lot to learn so don’t slack off!” He works you hard for the rest of the lesson, having you repeat the mental exercise over and over again but not letting you touch the nodes or lattice. Finally, he moves on to the next student when you no longer feel like you're being drawn to look deeper and deeper into the lattice.

***

After class Felero comes up and congratulates you on being able to sense vital essence. You’re glad he’s not hanging out with the boys who are trying to bully you anymore and you let him walk back to the main cave with you. You chat with him while you walk and you learn that his mama is named Suena. She is one of the clan’s Dreamkeepers. As a Dreamkeeper, Suena holds the memories of every Dreamkeeper and clan member before her and shares their memories as a dream with Silver Bear clan members when they need to remember the past. Felero is very proud of her and wants to be one too.

When you get to the main cavern you see Chuno and Decavo splitting up and going their own ways. This is the perfect chance to make good on your oath of vengeance, you can’t be sure you’ll get another opportunity to fight them one-on-one. You’re still bruised and sore, but the throbbing pain of your wounds drives you onwards, but which one should you go after? You think for a moment. Decavo was the one who actually tackled you in the last fight, so you want to hurt him more. Besides, Chuno laughs when you insult Bato. That last thought makes up your mind for you, maybe Chuno isn’t that bad but Decavo definitely is. Decavo is going down.

You turn to Felero and say: "I want to challenge Decavo to fight. Want in?"

Felero nods eagerly: "Let's go! As a future Dreamkeeper, it is my duty to remember the results of all challenges!"

You hurry towards Decavo with your new, (maybe?) friend beside you. Is Felero your friend? You're not sure, you've never had a friend before. He seems to like you, but maybe he just likes you more than Bato and the others? Do you even like Felero? You're not sure, he talks funny, but unlike the other boys, he’s nice and seems willing to give you a chance. You wonder how he ended up with them that first day. You push those concerns aside, you need to focus on catching up to your target.

Weaving around the legs of confidently striding adults and rushing teenagers you just barely manage to catch up to Decavo before he leaves the busy main cavern. "Decavo! I want a rematch! Are you Silver Bear enough to fight me without your friends to help?"

Decavo wheels towards you and snarls, his hands curling into tiny fists. "Always eager to kick your butterfly behind. Let's go!"

Decavo stomps towards you but Felero rushes in between both of you. "That's not how you're supposed to answer! She challenged you to a duel so you have to pick the weapon and then she gets to OOF!"

Felero's speech is interrupted by Decavo swatting him aside. Felero is the smallest child in your age group, even smaller than you. The larger boy's backhand smashes into Felero’s mouth and knocks him to the ground.

Felero's spirit companion stands guard in front of him while Felero holds his jaw and mutters "ow ow ow ow."

Seeing Felero taken out with one hit, it occurs to you that this may not have been your best idea ever. A thought reinforced by the pain you still feel from your last fight.