With breakfast out of the way, it was time for morning chores. Or, if you were a younger child, free time, as you were not usually competent enough to be of much use. Lilac Governess might have some easy job for you, like putting cooking utensils away, but these were quickly done, and the rest of the time, you were left to your own devices. But for the rest of us, myself included, being more competent than a bunch of children, we had responsibilities.

"What is this black mark in the fireplace?" One of the children assigned to clean out the fireplace ashes broadcasted. Removing the ashes and other fireplace debris was now done after every use, following the ash wad incident. This garnered Lilac Governess's attention, but no one else. Well, no one else but me. I immediately broke into a cold sweet. "It's not coming off either. It looks like something got burned into the stone."

Lilac Governess was on the case. She looked at it and tried to scratch it with her fingernail, some of it came off, but it was clearly going to take a bit of elbow grease. I saw her look up, like she was piecing together thoughts that for my sake, best remain unconnected. "Don't worry, Miss Lilac Governess, I'll clean it." River was making her way over carrying a pail of water. Seemed a bit odd for her to offer to do extra work, not that she would shirk her responsibilities. "I'll get Indigo to help." I was about to protest; I hated scrubbing, but when my gaze met hers with her subtle upturned smirk I knew, that she knew.

She set the pail down, and without comment immediately got to scrubbing. Lilac Governess was so taken aback by this sudden enthusiasm to help that it appeared that her line of thought was broken. Perhaps she considered if there was a reason for this rarely displayed altruism, but decided it was better not to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Thank you River, that would be most helpful."

I was still standing there, but another coy grin from River got me rushing to her aid. Lilac Governess gave an approving nod before moving off. Once she was gone, River turned to me, a malicious toothy grin on full display. "W-What?" I tried to play dumb, but it clearly wasn't in my skill set.

"I was pretty impressed to see Miss Lilac Governess’s special child do something so against the rules." She announced with a smug look.

"When did I ever say I was a moral exemplar?" I had never made such a claim. It's true, I was against the chaos that often broke out. But I was of the mind, what you didn't know wouldn't hurt you.

"But Miss Lilac Governess would be so sad if she discovered that the God of Clear Skies' Chosen was a rule breaker." It was probably true to some extent. However, I doubted that she would be devastated by it. "Don't worry though, I won't tell her. I got up to my fair share of mischief too when I was your age... Well, maybe a few years older." She added with a self-deprecating laugh.

I guess she was taunting me for her own amusement, but then she added, "Just remember who it is that is keeping your secrets." The mischievous smile was back, I had the feeling that one of these days she would collect on those secrets. Well, she was my friend, so it shouldn't be anything too bad.

Despite the initial jabs, River didn't intend to torment me further. I was, however, still obligated to help her scrub the charred mark off the fireplace. As it turned out, that green fruit concoction left a considerable black mess latching to the wall and floor. Just imagine what this stuff must do to your GI tract! Still, scrubbing it out of the fireplace was an order of magnitude more tolerable than ingesting this stuff, so I called it a win.

As I was going to rinse the brush off in the bucket, I caught a glimpse of myself in the water. It occurred to me that I had never seen what I looked like and I found myself entranced by my reflection. Seeing myself from a third-person perspective gave me an appreciation for the name I had been given; the indigo hue was pronounced. Aside from that, I could see that I had distinctly purple hair, it was half a mess since I would never comb it.

Of course, the thing that most struck me was the animalistic face. I guess I had still seen myself as a human in some sense, but now it was clear that this was not the case, sharing the same animalistic features that my parents had. I had the same black outline around my eyes as my mother. Personally, I liked that touch, so I was glad I inherited it. Among other features I was seeing for the first time, was the color of my eyes, red as it would turn out with the cat eye slit, same as my father's. Guess that was my inheritance.

Inspired by the moment I took the chance to perform a self-audit. I had the same thin profile as others of my species. The adults were pretty scrawny, and I as a child was especially so. I hadn't seen a human yet, but I was sure that our race was a head shorter. One thing I did find interesting was that our fingers and toenails grew into a claw-like shape. That being said, they were not particularly tough. It was equivalent to a human shaving their fingernails into a point, with limited uses as a built-in tool. I guess it looked cool, so that was aesthetically a plus.

I mentioned before that we are digitigrades, so we walk on our forefoot like many mammals. That's not to say we couldn't walk like a human, but it was uncomfortable and awkward, and personally, I couldn't do it for any length of time. Sitting on your heels was more for just standing around.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't mention the two defining features of the species, mainly the tail, and large cat/fox-like ears. The ears were quite large and nearly doubled the size of my head. They could also be articulated to help catch sound, neat. As for the tail, it was about as long as I was tall, fluffy like a fox, and with a splash of purple at the end, matching my hair color. Of course, I knew much of this before, and am only articulating it now.

"What are you doing Indigo? You are supposed to be helping me scrub this, not admiring your reflection!" River's usually cool continence was shelved as she struggled to scrub the black soot from the fireplace.

"My apologies!" I rushed back over to help her.

After chores were finished, the rest of the free time was ours. Unfortunately, scrubbing that stain out of the fireplace took most of the time. We had just finished and put away the supplies when Lilac Governess announced the plan for the day; we would be visiting the Elder.

This was standard practice after morning chores, we would usually go visit one of the members of the tribe and get a feel for their profession, but not always if Lilac Governess couldn't convince anyone to put up with us for an hour or two. Sometimes I also felt like some of the people we visited were more for her sake than ours, not that I could blame her. Had to be difficult looking after 20 often unruly children.

But that would not be the case today. Today we were visiting the Elder! I had long wanted to meet him, as both my parents had alluded to wanting to take me to meet him and then leaving me in the lurch all this time. From the sound of it, he had to be not only wise but also a thinker! Not to sound too hard on the people here, but they didn't exactly come across as people who thought about the deeper meaning of anything. I'm sure they could, but they just had no interest, they were pragmatic like that.

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The elder promised to be different. You needed to be a thinker to fill that role. I was pretty sure that is what the Elder did, think. So I was not disappointed that I had missed out on my free time when I heard the news. River, however, did not share my enthusiasm. "You owe me Indigo!"

In truth, I enjoyed this part of the day. I got to see how the village functioned and what proficiencies the tribe had developed. There were Hunters, Harvesters, Carvers(this was things like larger-scale construction), medics, and a whole slew of crafters which included disciplines from weaving to pottery. There were of course those specialized disciplines as well, that is professions where you only needed one practitioner, such as Governess and Elder. I do think, however, that there being only one Governess was not the norm nor ideal.

Each of the trades made use of fox magic in different ways. I was pleased to find the flight was, in fact, something our people could do. It was primarily utilized by harvesters interestingly enough. Being able to fly made getting to those hard-to-reach fruits much easier. That being said, it was a skill that almost anyone could find a use for, so there were a good number who had at least some grasp on how to perform this feat, around 50% I would guess. If this seems kind of low to you, I would agree. Who wouldn't want to learn to fly? I couldn't currently defy the laws of gravity, so I had no additional insight.

In medicine the use of fox magic was remarkable. The practitioners of this profession could control their abilities with such minute precision, closing wounds and resetting bones. They could apparently do other miraculous things that you wouldn't think a third-world tribe capable of, like breaking kidney stones and restarting a heart, but that just went to show you the possibilities that fox magic held. I was also impressed with their knowledge of anatomy; it far outstriped the rest of the scientific advancement of the village.

All that being said, the most common use of fox magic was to fortify natural abilities. It could be used to reinforce your physical strength—we were not a physically robust people so this was a necessity—throwing a spear further, even to help stabilize your hand for more precise work. The latter was more of a specialized skill and wasn't common.

Of course, everyone had their own tricks and techniques that they had developed, but they were almost always in line with their chosen profession. It was rare that anyone would dabble in a skill that wasn't useful for their craft. I did find this odd. Personally, I wanted to learn as many uses for this ability as possible, regardless of its practicality. I guess I was just a nerd.

From the outside, the Elder's dwelling was just as nondescript as any other. However, once inside I was hit by a wave of erudition: books, artifacts, scrolls, maps, and various pieces of artwork. I didn't want to cast judgment, but this was the contrast I would expect between a rural village dwelling and the landlord's manor. Was the elder hoarding all the village's wealth for himself, Playing the role of the pigs from Animal Farm?

"Alright children, be on your best behavior, and for the love of the Deity don't damage anything!" Lilac Governess commanded, which was out of place from her usual tone. "Snowcap Elder is quite fond of this stuff, and will be most upset if anything were to befall it." While she was worried about damaging the elder's possessions, it didn't sound like she actually placed any value on them; not damaging the collection was in service of not upsetting the Elder.

"Ah, Lilac Governess! It has been a while since you last paid a visit," said the Elder, throwing his arms wide in welcome. "I must admit, I can't help but feel a little jilted," he said as he patted her on the shoulders.

"It's not that... It's just." She cast an uneasy gaze over the children that had filled into the den.

"They are no problem. No problem at all; I am quite fond of the village children." He gave off a jovial aura and felt like a friendly individual, like a kindly grandfather.

"But still..."

"Lilac Governess, you are far too young to be worrying so much. Your color will fade.” This was equivalent to saying it would give her gray hair. Our species didn't get gray hair; the color just lost saturation.

While this exchange was going on, I was recomposing myself from the Elders' eccentric choice of attire. It was the mask mostly, the rest of his garb was more or less on par. As for the mask, it looked like something I imagine a witch doctor would wear, with its most prominent features being the long bushy eyebrows and goatee, and yes, they were actual hair, but from where I could not say. While we are on the subject of appearances, I will go ahead and say he had a fading blue color, reminding me of a glacier, with white hair on his head. Perhaps that is why they called him Snowcap Elder.

"Welcome children! I'm so glad you have come to visit." Many of the children had their attention captured by the Elder’s warm continence. I was not expecting this level of congeniality. He looked over all the youths of the Kite's Klub (TM pending) and as he passed over me, thoughts began to enter my mind. "So you must be Indigo, I've wanted to meet you for quite some time."

I was taken aback; I had certainly not suspected that the Elder would address me in particular. "You have been wanting to meet me?" I had a sense that he was using the Whisper, I couldn't say why. So I responded in kind with the Whisper. I felt that the Elder approved of my choice to communicate in this manner, so it seemed my intuition was correct.

"Rumor has it that you are a genius."

"There are rumors about me? I don't think I'm a genius..."

"The fact that you are talking to me right now, at your age, is decisive evidence that you are." Well, I couldn't exactly deny that, but I still wouldn't go as far as to say genius, gifted perhaps.

"You honor me." I didn't know what else to say. I felt like the Elder was giving me a warm smile as he turned his attention to the collective.

With pleasantries out of the way, the elder began to talk at length about the role of Elder. And speak, he did, about all kinds of things from how the village is run, to the village surroundings, to why it is necessary to be well versed in various subjects. To this later point, he alluded to the collection of books. I had the feeling that nobody understood the connection and that included Lilac Governess. He rambled on about noteworthy events of the past and offered the kind of advice you would expect your grandfather to give you. Personally, I found most of it fascinating, and also funny in a way. Some of the things he said were clearly the product of a people that had not advanced past the Neolithic age, like how not to overharvest a kind of root we used as a popular seasoning, which is a wise idea. However, the reason given was because it would anger the Goddess of the Grove, whose existence is suspect at best. But then he would follow it up with how it is wise to be open-minded and to expand our knowledge, which is enlightenment-era stuff.

While I listened attentively, many of my peers were dozing off. I suppose it was a deep conversation for children. Seeing this I was surprised to find that Dusty hadn't caused any trouble, but once I picked him out of the group I saw why. Lilac Governess had planted him squarely in her lap and maintained a secure grip on him. It looked like he was trying to wriggle free, but with each tug he made, her grip on him only tightened, like some kind of protective boa constrictor.

Snowcap Elder prattled on for a little longer; I could tell he liked to talk. He really was like a verbose storytelling grandfather, but he eventually brought his sermon to a close. Looking out the window, "Where has the time gone," he said. "I suppose you have other business to attend to?"

"I'm afraid so, Snowcap Elder." I could tell that she was relieved to be leaving before any misfortune befell the items in this repository of knowledge.

"I do hope you will visit again soon, and not, say in another cycle." He added with the same light-hearted mien that permeated our entire interaction with him. Though he wasn't trying to deride Lilac Governess, I could tell he was genuine in his wish.