The next morning, Cebrice woke up hungover. He had rarely ever drunk, so it was no surprise to him that his head pounded. It was still worth it though, he thought, to have spent that time with the pack.

The practice and breakfast that morning wasn’t as bad as usual for him. Cebrice even managed to grab the dream manifest’s attention. He had distracted it while the others ganged up on it for a kill. He felt that he had actually been useful, although he was still too weak to be any help on the attack.

The practice had used all his energy, and even after having a big breakfast, he wanted to go back to sleep. He dragged himself over to the farmyards nestled beside the Bheorse Home. Hopefully, they might let him get some more practice in before his teacher arrived. He hadn’t managed to get much more practice in at all in regards to his command ability. He was looking forward to seeing the oxen as well. He hoped they were alright and weren’t all eaten by Rohchec’s pet.

As he approached the farm, he slowed to a stop. Rohchec was already there. He was rubbing an ox behind the ears from over the fence, and it was thoroughly enjoying the attention.

“Oh. You’re early.” Cebrice said. He had wished he had a chance to at least try to practice beforehand.

“What a welcome, Cebrice. I figured we’d get more time in today.” Rohchec had been alone this time. There was no Era bat with him for now. Cebrice wondered where it had gone.

“We found a roost for it, by my quarters.” He gestured up to the top of the Home, which loomed over them, tall and blunt. Cebrice thought he could make out a shape hanging down from beneath a rafter. Its wings wrapped up around itself like a tight blanket.

Cebrice rubbed his neck. “Well, I’m glad it’s doing okay,” he said, still trying to forget the viscera of its lunch he saw the day before. He glanced at the spot where it had committed the atrocity. It had been scrubbed away.

Rohchec smiled and shifted his weight, “I’m sorry it ate an ox you liked.”

“I like all the oxen,” Cebrice said as if that somehow made the loss of one less important. Rohchec watched him as if it was waiting for something more.

Cebrice had so many things he wanted to ask him. He took the pause as an opportunity. “Sir Rohchec? I would like to increase my mental defences. Can we work on that?” If they focused on that, he might not have to move the ox that day - although he doubted that.

“We will. In time. It’s a hard balance to get right, you know. You must be open to command. You must be closed to defend. That could be why your friends haven’t the aptitude.”

“How do you know that?” What he said also confused him. Rohchec seemed plenty able to put up a wall. Cebrice hadn't caught a single thought from him.

Rohchec raised an eyebrow as if it was obvious. “Records of your progress. Briefing before taking you on as a pupil.”

The idea made Cebrice a little nervous. “All good things, I hope,” he joked.

Rohchec hummed and leaned against the gate. “Why do you want to close yourself off?”

He thought of the real reason: Secrets as dangerous as Runiek’s yesterday. If his pack was going to trust him, he wanted to have the means of protecting those secrets.

“Ah,” Rohchec said with a nod. The ox returned to its herd. “That is considerate of you, Cebrice. And how do you feel about Elder Issik?”

This must have been a trick question. Cebrice hadn’t even been thinking of what Runiek had said, but Rohchec had picked it up anyway. His teacher's skill at reading minds must be immense.

Cebrice scratched his arm. He didn’t know what Rohchec wanted him to say. “He can be kind. Sometimes. We wouldn’t be packmates without him. He oversaw our early education,” he told him. But of course, Rohchec knew all that. “So I’m grateful to him for those things.”

Rohchec stared through him with warm blue eyes that felt somehow like fire on his skin.

“You are afraid that I will reprimand you for disloyalty,” Rohchec told him.

Cebrice’s heartbeat quickened. He felt so useless. There was nothing he could do when he was seen through like a window frame. This was why he wanted defences. He felt like he was betraying Runiek already.

“He has told you that loyalty has a hierarchy, correct?” Rohchec looked down at his hand which he rest on the gate. There was a ring on his left hand.

Cebrice anticipated repercussions to come and braced himself. “He has, sir. I understand that, sir.”

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Rohchec gazed at him kindly. “Elders are closest to the ancestors only because they are old. They will be ancestors themselves soon. And what then? It is we who outlive them who will draw on them for our own strength. Do you see? They use us now. But remember who will be using them, soon.”

That was dangerous talk. If Elder Issik heard Sir Rohchec talking like that then he could have him tortured, or worse.

“What for? It is the truth. Death will come for them, one way or another, and that will not change. What matters is only that I am loyal to them now, and until that day. And I am, deeply, and truly.” He leaned forward, and Cebrice felt small. “I say this, Cebrice, to make you see your power. You have something Elder Issik does not have.”

He searched Rohchec’s eyes, not quite understanding.

“Time." Rohchec pulled himself more upright again, and looked away from him, back towards the oxen. "Assuming you don’t throw it away.”

Cebrice turned his gaze to his shoes.

“You didn’t get to practice, did you.”

“No, sir.”

He got the oxen to start walking again, around in their pen. Cebrice felt bad for them. He could tell they were scared that the Era bat would come back.

“Have you been excited about the ball?” Rohchec asked with a side-eye.

Cebrice thought it was a little awkward to talk about that kind of thing during training. But to be honest he hadn’t considered it. “I don’t want to marry out. I’d rather stay with the Bheorse. So going to other Homes isn’t that interesting to me. I belong here.”

Rohchec wasn't surprised, but Cebrice wondered if he ever was. “I’m glad to hear that. The Family will need you.”

“Really?” That was nice to hear. He had been wondering about that, and now seemed as good a time as any. “What does it need me for? What kind of jobs will I be doing with my pack, anyway?”

“There are a few possibilities. But much of our outside work does involve dealing with other Families. Balls are for more than just dancing, Cebrice. I encourage you to meet people from across Entithea. Get to know them. Understand the other Families. Do that and you’ll have a much easier time navigating life on behalf of the Bheorse.”

Cebrice's future was taking shape in front of his eyes. He nodded. He would go to the Ball and try to meet people. The pack too. He was sure they’d be going anyway, so that wouldn’t be hard to sell.

Rohchec nodded back to the oxen. “Now, the task is the same.” The oxen continued their march.

Cebrice watched them and listened. What motivated the oxen to go forward? Well, there was one real thing that Cebrice could think. It was Rohchec that did it. They wouldn’t go forward if they hadn’t been told to. But he figured that wouldn't be the right answer.

There were six oxen in the herd. They formed a cluster, with one in the lead, and the others huddled together against its haunches. Two or three wide. Was the leader the one that was being directed, he wondered?

He listened to them. Animal thoughts were so confusing, but he had practised over the last week, if not the last day. Taking time off had made him feel a bit rusty already, but it was feasible. Listening to the thoughts in his surroundings were messy. He tried instead to only lean into the head ox’ perspective. Could he feel Rohchec’s presence in their mind at all?

Unfortunately not, it all felt like a jumble. He moved his mind to the next one, feeling Rohchec’s eyes on him. He ignored him as best as he could. His mind focused on each ox, seeing if he could get some kind of an angle to understand them. It was the one on the very end of the line that felt closest to him. He could do something with that.

This ox didn’t want to be left behind and tried to keep up. It pushed its snout over the backsides of the others, trying to find a way deeper into the cluster. The others ignored it or swatted at it with their tails. But it persisted onward. He couldn’t see where they were going, that they were just going in a circle, but he followed along anyway.

“Hello, big guy. It’s okay. You're not alone now.”

The ox’s eyes darted over to him at the fence and it flicked its dark ears. Its thoughts were confused. He didn’t know what Cebrice meant.

Cebrice looked up to Rohchec, who nodded at him, and he felt he should continue. “I am your herd, too. Try to go the other way, please.”

That wasn’t much better, and although the ox did watch him as he walked, he stayed in with the others. It was as much to say that he already had a herd. He didn’t need Cebrice.

“Your herd needs you to turn around now.” Still nothing. Cebrice racked his mind for more to work with. “Come on, please, ox, sir.” That had never worked, as far as he could tell, but he wouldn’t give up. “Turn around, now.” Cebrice clenched his fists.

He felt Rohchec’s eyes piercing into him. He was a Bheorse, he reminded himself. He could do this. He reminded himself of all the people who came before him, those who filled a whole book to pave the way for him to be there. He thought about Rohchec, saying that he had been like him once. He thought about that presence in his mind when he had last done it. That comforting rush of emotion and the feeling of memories he didn’t understand. He remembered that moment against Runiek yesterday. He had realized that he needed to win for their friendship.

And his thoughts met with those of the ox. It was an emotional creature, trying to keep itself going. It wanted food, and it wanted warmth, and it spent its day not entirely sure of what was going on around it. It wanted to get out of the pen. It wanted to roam somewhere far away from people, even the farmer, who it enjoyed the company of. A space so large it dreamed of that Cebrice couldn’t imagine it. It wanted something better. Its skin was itchy by its sides, and it flicked its tail to scratch. Its hooves were heavy with the labour of walking. Cebrice could smell the scent of the animals around it and its own heavy breath.

"Turn.”

It turned from its herd, towards the middle of the pen and then towards Cebrice. It lifted its head to go and lick his face. He petted the ox’s head but pulled his own away a bit after getting an unexpected affection. It satisfied itself by licking his arm instead. Cebrice couldn’t help but laugh at the unexpected result. He beamed over proudly to Rohchec.

Rohchec had a warm and open smile. “Well done. You’ve passed the first lesson.”

Cebrice swallowed down his grin. What would the second be like, he could only wait and see.