- Sam -

Senior Hall was waiting by the camp fire pits. He did not mention the presence or departure of the giant snapping turtle. Instead, he said, "How many?" They each held up their tree bunnies. Sam had seven. "Alright, you all get to eat dinner. First I'll show you how to dress the tree bunnies, so you don't waste anything important, then we'll get to the cooking, and how to save the extra tree bunnies for later."

As they dressed their kills, the Senior pointed out all of the important bits, including the beast core. He told them that the beast core's location varied, but in tree bunnies it was alway in the chest, close to the heart, since tree bunnies primarily relied on speed, and balance.

He explained that the beast core was a solidification of chi that could serve different purposes. Demonic cultivators used it to advance their cultivation, at the cost of risking their sanity, damaging their foundation, or a list of some other side effects that he said didn't matter as long as we understood not to try using them that way. They could be used in formations, and arrays, to improve their chi density. They were even useful in making weapons, talismans, and artifacts.

"What matters most for you, though," he said, as the children finished separating the meat, skin, and offal, "is that you can turn them in for contribution points."

Next, they preserved the parts that they wouldn't eat tonight, including the hides, and even the offal which could feed thunder chickens. It involved various applications of things that were similar to salt, lemon, and other familiar substances, except that in each case that had some spirit aspect, and required an application of chi to be effective at preserving the chi-density of the materials.

Once that was all done, they were given bags that they would place everything in, and paper to wrap the pieces that needed to be separated. Sam was surprised that they didn't have to wait for anything to dry or cure. Instead, the application of chi caused all of the preservation process to be nearly instantaneous.

Finally they were allowed to cook their meat over the fire. Senior Hall gave them some spirit herb seasoning, which smelled a lot like rosemary and lemongrass. After watching the meat sizzle for what felt like ages, Senior Hall told them it was ready. Sam quickly took his off the flame, blew on it a bit, then took a bite. The juice rolled over his tongue, and the flavor exploded in his mouth. He had never tasted anything so delicious. He quickly finished his meat, and soon felt chi rushing into his body.

He moved to his tent so he could sit and cultivate. He noticed that Kyle followed right after him, and the girls went to their tent as well. Instead of feeling a warmth from his lungs, the warmth was spreading from his stomach, and instead of a trickle, it was a stream. He moved the chi through his body and felt the normal pathways expand. It was an odd sensation, like when he ate too much, and his stomach was painfully full, except this was everywhere in his body. He could see how this would be dangerous for mortals.

He directed the chi toward his dantian, while at the same time working to control the flow out of his stomach, and around his body. Soon the pressure was under control, but his dantian had filled up quickly, and now it was feeling full. Instead of feeling painful and tight, like the pathways had felt, he could feel the chi start to move somewhere deeper into him. "That must be the spirit root," he thought. It was absorbing the excess chi greedily, soaking it in. The chi kept flowing out of his stomach, so he moved more and more toward the spirit root in his dantian. It was starting to feel hot, but he knew he couldn't stop as long as the chi kept pouring into his body.

Then, all at once, the outpouring of chi from his stomach stopped. He was covered in sweat, and his dantian was throbbing. He practiced his breathing technique, and kept up the circulation of the chi in his body. He felt like it was too soon to stop. It felt like something had changed, and while he wanted to go to bed soon, it would be dangerous to sleep without making sure his chi pathways were stable.

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As he circulated chi, what he found was that the pathways had gotten wider, and he could not only push more chi through them, but he could also draw in more chi with the breathing technique. He followed the chi as it moved around his body, until it entered his dantian. He could feel the spirit root, still absorbing chi, and still pulsing, as if it had its own heartbeat. Everything felt okay, if changed from that dramatic influx of chi, so he decided it would be safe to go to sleep.

He opened his eyes to find his blanket, but was frightened to see that Kyle looked like he was in a great deal of pain, and was still cultivating. "He must be having a harder time because of his weaker spirit root," Sam realized.

He sat behind the other boy, and placed his hands on his back, like he had seen the Seniors do. He injected a small amount of chi into Kyle, like Senior Hall had shown them how to do with spirit rocks, and herbs. He was immediately able to feel an overwhelming pressure of chi. Sam hadn't expected the sudden wave of sensation, but there was so much excess chi in Kyle's body that it would have been difficult not to sense it. It must have been building up in his body because he wasn't able to divert it to his dantian fast enough.

Sam mixed a small thread of his chi with the chi flowing through Kyle. He now felt like he could help Kyle control the flow of the chi. He started by identifying Kyle's chi pathways, which were similar to Sam's own. Then he found the most efficient path from Kyle's stomach to his dantian, and guided the chi there. As he did so, he repeated what he had done in his own body, stabilizing the flow through his pathways until the pressure was manageable. Kyle's dantian filled faster than Sam's had, and for some reason while Sam's had felt like a bottomless pit, Kyle's felt like something fragile, that could easily break.

Sam wasn't sure what to do, so he followed his instinct, and guided his own chi from his body directly into Kyle's dantian. He wrapped his chi around the weak spirit root, and found that he could suddenly feel some kind of damage. He wasn't sure what it was or how he could feel it, but he got a sense that he could repair it somehow. He tried to move his chi into the spirit root, and when he did, he immediately lost his sense of self.

He was Kyle, but he was also Sam. He was one boy, but also two. He could remember things from Kyle's life. Kyle's family wasn't so different from Sam's. He was getting distracted, he needed to focus, but their was too much going on. He knew it was dangerous, but he couldn't let his friend explode. Sam used the Basic Intense Focus Breathing Technique, and that brought clarity. He still felt a duality of identity, but he could feel the unity of purpose, and he could ignore the distractions.

Sam and Kyle were now able to guide their chi in and around Kyle's spiritual root. With their chi working in tandem, it could act as both a glue and a support, to reinforce the spirit root. With Sam's chi moving through him, Kyle now better understood his own chi. With Sam's help, he they could move the excess chi into Kyle's spirit root, and he no longer felt like he would explode, and the spirit root no longer felt like it would break from the strain. They stayed like this for several hours, until Kyle felt like he could handle the rest on his own.

While Sam had used the focus technique, Kyle had not, and was able to wake Sam from his cultivation. Sam was crying. Kyle knew why. Sam had thought he could go home eventually, and Kyle knew now how much the boy had missed his family. His mom, his dad, and his brothers were all he had never known, and they were a loving family. Plus Sam was barely six years old. Now, through Kyle's memories, Sam understood that he would not be going home.

Kyle wrapped his arms around Sam, and let him cry. "Mommyyyyyyy!" the boy sobbed. Kyle wondered why they hadn't made it more clear to him what was happening. Did they not want to scare him, because he wasn't likely to be taken? Well it was too late now. "I want my mooommmyyyyyyy..."

"Hey, buddy," Kyle said, "you know what?"

"N-n-no... w-wh-what?" Sam choked out.

"You saved my life, my friend. I was about to explode. I don't know how you knew to do that, but thank you."

"I j-j-just guessed," Sam said, as he sniffled, "b-but you technically s-saved mine, too."

"Oh, did I?"

"Y-yeah. I used the f-focus b-b-b-reathing and you woke me up."

"Haha, yeah" Kyle laughed, "I guess I did."

"Yeah, so we're even."

"Okay," Kyle said, "we can be even. How about we go to sleep now?"

"Okay," Sam said, "will you hold my hand?"

Kyle knew that Sam's mom used to hold his hand when he'd had a bad dream. "Of course, buddy," Kyle said. It was the least he could do.