Instinct was a superior thing. It guided everything before knowledge and in a way, it was the truest knowledge of all, written into your very being. Before a baby knew anything, it knew how to breathe. It knew how to cry.

Instinct, the type you were born with, not the one you developed, was one of the hardest things to overcome. Put a newborn next to a teet and it would suckle instantly, rooting. All without ever knowing why or how.

It was a fact of life, and one few had to address.

But the raccoon had to address it now, as did every animal within a mile’s radius. Nai was superior, something in them told them that and they could not dare to deny it. Instincts normally help you survive. The wolf paddling against the depths of a lake, the deer fleeing from any slight noise,

Fear held them. Fear and something more.

Respect.

It was a strange idea to animals.

Respect.

They liked things and they could even love each other, but respect?

No, that was a human thing.

Tob walked with Nai on his back, standing like a giant relative to the rodents beneath.

The raccoon watched as the large figure with a stick approached him, and he was quivering. Something told him to bow. The same part of him that told him to eat, to sleep, to hunger, to run, and to hunt, told him to bow.

How could he possibly deny it?

The animals all lowered themselves, heads looking straight at the ground and one by one, began to expose their belly.

Submission.

Even the crows had come down and lowered their heads to the ground. It wasn’t just pure qi or strength, no if that was all they would run.

Nai hadn’t released her fifth rank aura upon the beasts. As far as they knew she was just a first rank.

It was her nature that had brought them down. Her mother howled from beyond and her father… Well, that part had been corrupted by Wukong and the damn sword.

She still had his nature, but it had mingled with Wukong’s qi. The Monkey King had told her that it was so her father wouldn’t find her. When she asked about her mother, Wukong only laughed.

“That old monster wouldn’t pay attention to you even if you became my equal,” Wukong had stated.

And he was right. But still, the shadow of her was on Nai, and had any cultivator been close enough, they would have sensed it too, though she doubted any would recognize her aura.

And she was right, none had.

Except for a bird in the distance. A small phoenix fell out of the sky and chirped widely to no one in particular. The beasts had known the child was special, part animal in some way, but not this.

An annoyed Bill grabbed the bird before she could go off and tell her kin and watched the shed in silence.

He gave the phoenix a very stern set of instructions, and the poor bird nodded before heading off to the distance.

Nai looked at the animals slightly disappointed. She had come here to defend the shed and the food of the people… but she had also come here to fight.

She was looking for an adventure, a challenge, yet all the opponents had given up immediately.

Her club itched for blood and justice and her mind demanded vengeance and--

Nai sighed. She had thirsted for rage but found herself spitting out the sour taste of politics instead.

“Augh!” She spoke, putting her meaning into the word.

Humans wouldn’t make any sense of that, but to the beasts that was as good as words.

Why are you trying to steal the village’s food?

Nai immediately regretted the question. They were animals, why else would they be trying to steal the village’s food?

The raccoon looked in her direction with confusion.

We were hungry, it replied.

But why here? Isn’t there food in the forest?

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Yes, it replied once more.

Then why not eat that?

This is easier.

He looked at her with confusion and she looked at him with annoyance.

That’s not right! Nai replied.

It’s not?

No. The food belongs to the people. They worked hard to make it. You shouldn’t steal things!

The raccoon frowned. What a stupid thing to say. Food was food. It fed. The more you ate the better, and if these humans couldn’t hide their food well enough, then that was their fault.

Nai smacked him with the stick.

No, she reiterated.

The raccoon sat there quietly clutching his head.

It’s. Not. Yours. Nai repeated.

Then she sighed. Of course, an animal wouldn’t understand the concept of private property, much less respect it.

But they had to learn somehow. Nai knew Chin, and there was no way he’d let something like this happen again.

The beasts were smart, but they weren’t smart enough. They might get away with this a few more times, but eventually, Chin would send hunters.

Nai could see one of the hunters reporting back their intellect and Chin questioning Bill on the matter. Even if the animals managed to outwit the hunters, they’d be dust in front of the cultivators.

Death. That was what awaited them unless Nai did something.

Nai thought for a second, stroking her non-existent beard in concentration.

In a way, these animals were the first. Eventually more and more would grow intelligent, and soon, the forest would grow unsafe.

What could she do? How could she fix this?

Nai thought and thought but the problem seemed too large for her young mind. There were too many variables. Too many possibilities.

Nai nodded and Tob marched.

“Arg!” She yelled.

And the animals followed her from behind.

On the hill, Bill and a very skittish phoenix were watching curiously.

“Uh oh,” Bill muttered, watching the small horde of animals walk silently through the streets.

Some of the maidens looked curiously but once they found no threat, they ignored it.

Rin Wi almost came with her cleavers but Bill stopped her just in time.

But the night had just started for an elderly couple.

Chin woke up that night to find a horde of animals at his front door with a very stern-looking baby staring up at him.

He frowned and turned to Bill who was standing next to her.

“She wants to negotiate about adding new residents to the village.”

Chin looked at the baby, then back at Bill. That day, he started taking cultivation more seriously, if only so he could one day truly beat up the grinning old man at his door.

********

Medin walked over with tea and honey, giving a bit of both to the men and giving a bit of milk and honey to Nai.

All three sat there in silence.

“Well?” I asked.

“Well, what?” Chin replied.

“What do you think about Nai’s plan?”

“Ha,” Chin grumbled.

“It sounds like a good deal to me,” I replied.

Chin just frowned harder. I didn’t realize that was possible.

Then he sighed, taking a sip of his tea.

“I have nothing against the idea, but there are a few things,” he mumbled. “First, what do the animals have to offer? I wouldn’t mind adding them to the village as…aids of some sort but I have no idea as to what they would even do. And then there’s the problem of a growing population. Animals and rodents, reproduce much faster than humans. Two rats in a year will have fifty. What then? Do I feed ten thousand useless mouths that just keep growing year by year till the village is out of food and land?”

Chin looked at me with those questions and I shrugged, turning towards Nai instead.

The little child looked teary-eyed, but she still stared firmly at the old man.

“Aue! Argh, ab, dou!” She replied, smacking her hands against the table in reply.

“She says that qi beasts reproduce much more slowly than their lame counterparts and that if these beasts were allowed to become spirit beasts, their reproduction would compare to that of humans.”

Medin for her part was smiling silently. The horde of animals had given her quite a fright, but after hearing out Nai’s situation and proposal, her heart had grown soft.

She was now petting a badger while offering it some sliced fruit. Several crows had also snuck their way into the building and Medin had given them some old bread and seeds.

The main leader, the raccoon, sat nervously beside Nai. Medin had apparently given him some tea and cookies and while he occasionally munched on them, his main focus was the conversation between the baby and the old man.

“What about new qi beasts?” Chin asked. “How many more will grow out from that forest? It already has those other things, how much more will come from it?”

Now that was a good concern. In truth, the small amount of aware qi beasts hadn’t been born from the forest’s qi. I had fixed that little leak a while back. The trees would grow and so would some of the plants, but I made it so that most of that growth only happens on the other side of the forest, the divine beast’s side.

These little fellas had come from the new influx of qi within the Great Desert Strip. It was natural. Most of the qi flooded into the desert ground, nourishing the dead land beneath, but of the qi that made it into the valley, some would flood into the village and most into the forests. But the forest was already lush with qi, so it had gone to the small animals instead.

But before I could say anything on the matter, Nai already had a response.

“She says they’ll be brought into the fold. That the animals will scour the forest for signs of new intelligence and that they’ll bring every new qi beast to them.”

“What if they don’t want to join?” Chin asked.

“Emph,” Nai breathed.

“Death. Death or exile,” I translated.

Chin looked a little shocked.

“Arg abd ab fo,” Nai blabbered.

“She says as long as they don’t hurt the village or the qi beasts, they would be allowed to live, but if they should choose to rebel against her rule, then they would die.”

Chin looked at Nai with wide eyes.

“She said that?” He asked.

“Yup.”

“Well… I suppose if it guarantees a complete lack of rodents and rat infestations then it's already a good enough bargain. I’ll see what we can do in terms of them earning their keep. Foraging maybe? And they can live off raw vegetables and such. Maybe the dog trainer would know what to do with them? Or maybe…”

Chin trailed off in a head full of ideas and I sat there filled with slight surprise and amusement.

I hadn’t expected this to go well. In fact, I had suspected that I would need to warn off the animals and shove them back into the forest, using the array to keep them from coming back out.

That or relocation.

I hadn’t expected Chin to say yes or for Nai to bargain.

The most peaceful resolution had come to be, and I wondered for an instance if I had anything to do with it.

But no, I hadn’t done a thing except translate. This was all Nai’s doing.

I looked closely at the little girl’s soul. Something had compelled her to lead these animals, to dominate them. That wasn’t surprising given her heritage. But something else had also compelled her to care for them, to move them towards peace.

Her choice.

Her reasoning.

Her dao.