Shen couldn’t get the woman out of her head for the rest of the day. Something just seemed special about her. Familiar. Shen tossed and turned that night, dreams of that woman going through her mind. In the dream the woman was trying to talk to her but everything came out muddled, like that woman was talking underwater.
The next day, the last day of the caravan, Shen put on her normal clothes. As she hadn’t gotten in much practice that last few days, Shen decided to practice one of the scrolls. She read over the Telepathy one again, and it seemed to make a bit more sense this time, like the concepts just seemed to slide into place. By the time she started getting hungry she had cycled her chi the way it said to several times and her mind felt clearer. The encounter with the woman had taken her concentration away, but now she had gotten it back.
She spent the day hanging out with her friends and, that night, they went to watch the fireworks the caravan had shot off. All in all it was a good festival.
She did both the chi pathway cleansing and the telepathy meditation that night, and slept soundly. Still, she dreamed about that woman. She could almost understand what the woman was saying. She was inviting her somewhere. She had heard horror stories about adults inviting children to different places so that they could do evil things, from enslaving them to sacrificing them in some ritual, to things the adults wouldn’t talk about until she was older. This didn’t seem that way, though. This woman seemed nice, like she wanted to help Shen. Shen thought about it the next morning. The dreams might be a form of telepathy. She knew that the most basic form let you detect if they were lying or telling the truth, followed by their emotional state, then transferring concepts, then words. She wasn’t sure how far telepathy could be taken, as the scroll only described things up to that point, but she knew that it didn’t feel like the woman was lying. If it was telepathy, and she was lying, she must be really good at it.
For the next month Shen practiced the Restricting and Releasing her chi, using it to clear her minor pathways. She had learned to mostly close off the flow of chi during this time, so she could Restrict and Release her chi about every five to ten minutes, making it a good exercise between reading the seven scrolls and one book she now owned. Every night, though, she would spend at least an hour practicing those techniques.
The boys spent a lot more time at the training field during that month. Danka even started landing blows, so the field master had given him a wooden sword to practice with. Ponma mostly spent his time after the basic practice at the magic training field, eating Water Blossoms and throwing ice at the target dummies.
One full moon cycle after the festival Shen found that her minor pathways were completely clear of toxins, and realized that to get any further she would need to break through to Gathering again. She planned on taking the next day to do that.
That night, however, she dreamed of the woman again. “Sister.” the woman said. “I can finally see you.” the woman said.
“Is this a dream, or telepathy?” she asked.
The woman looked a bit confused. “Have you never dream traveled before? It is both, I suppose. I am sorry, however. It is hard to speak, as you are a bit far away. Come to me, and we may speak.” With that the strangely vivid dream ended and Shen’s sleep returned to normal.
When Shen woke up, she felt like she needed to visit the woman. She just didn’t know where. She didn’t know enough about the woman to figure it out. Was she one of the monsters that lived on the mountain? Shen wasn’t sure. She was sure, however, that she would be better off if she could find the woman. After washing and eating she came back to her room. Today she had something important to do.
She started by wrapping a layer of chi over her dantian. The chi the layer was made of came from the dantian, so she knew that it would start reabsorbing it, but she needed to get enough out of the dantian that it would refill and she had some extra to work with. After struggling for a bit, as it seemed to reabsorb the chi almost as fast as she could draw it out, she put her hands together and drew out as much neutral chi as she could, much like she had once done with Blood Chi. The fact that her chi pathways were so clean must have made it absorb chi faster, she thought as she took the rest of her chi, seeing the dantian fill up behind her. It was like a well that would almost refill as fast as you could draw water.
She held the chi in her hands as the dantian refilled and, when it was full, started using the chi in her hands to form a string. This first shell would have to be simple. She wrapped the string around the dantian like one would rewind a ball of string, and continuously made more chi into a string as she did so. There were better, more efficient ways of forming a shell, but for now this one would work. Eventually she ran out of chi in her hand and had to start drawing it from her dantian. The layer of chi string was thick enough now, however, that it didn’t reabsorb the chi at once.
With each layer she found that less and less chi was being reabsorbed from outside, instead refilling from the natural bounty of neutral chi within the world. It soon only allowed chi in or out if she willed it and, not long after that, it started to glow and compress. She kept adding layers and not long after that the glowing stopped. Any string she tried to add to the top just added to the shell, no longer looking like string. There was now, in her perception, a white sphere around her dantian. She could still feel the chi flowing into her body from it, so she knew she hadn’t cut it off completely, and was able to move chi into and out of it. She had succeeded in breaking through to Gathering and could now draw in chi rather than having to wait for her dantian to naturally fill.
She tried using Restrict on her Dantian, but found that it acted differently than before. The chi didn’t enter her body, but it also didn’t fill her dantian. At least not the outer layer. She drew in a little chi from around her. She could make it take in chi, but it wasn’t automatic. When she thought about it, though, it made sense. This layer wouldn’t fill up automatically until she filled it on her own and broke through to Foundation, teaching it what it needed to refill the layer with.
She opened her eyes and stood up. She realized she needed to go to the bathroom and ran to the toilets. When she got out, however, she noticed that people were coming back to the dorms. “Mae,” she said, after returning to her room. “Why is everyone back so early?”
“Early?” Mae said. “Evening meal just ended. It’s getting dark so I’m going to meditate and go to sleep.”
“Wait, it ended?” Shen asked. Now that Mae mentioned it, Shen was pretty hungry. Mae nodded and Shen ran to the cafeteria. Thankfully they hadn’t put up everything yet and, when they heard that Shen had just got caught up in breaking through to Gathering, the congratulated her and one old woman volunteered to stay behind and clean up after Shen left. She only had rice and a bit of leftover vegetable broth, but as hungry as Shen was, it was delicious.
When she got back to her room she sat down on her bed. Mae was meditating, apparently trying to cleanse her minor pathways like Shen had, but Shen didn’t want to meditate again. She had been meditating all day and was restless.
She laid on her bed and watched Mae. ‘Watching people meditate is actually really boring.’ she thought, then had an idea. Maybe she could see what Mae saw. She activated her telepathy technique, something that was almost second nature after a month of practice, and focused on Mae. She started to get flashes, little bits of information that told her what Mae was doing and, more importantly, what she was doing wrong. ‘You know, it would work better if you built up some pressure and forced it through.’ she thought. ‘You are being too delicate.’
“I know that’s how you did it, but I want to try a different way.” said Mae. “I think this way will be faster in the long run. Now, can you please not talk to me while I’m doing this? You’re disturbing my concentration.”
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‘Wait. She had heard me?’
“Of course I did. You weren’t exactly whispering. Now, please be quiet.” As Mae was being polite about it, Shen decided to talk to her about it later. She ended the telepathy technique and closed her eyes. The fact that she had managed to get telepathy to work was a major breakthrough and, thinking about it, she went to sleep.
The next day she decided to take a break. She put on the worn clothes that she was wearing when they rescued her and walked out of town after morning meal. An hour later she found herself entering Fisher village. She didn’t really have anywhere to go, so she just kind of wandered around town. She had exchanged what gold she had for Points after the festival, so all she had on her was her Point bracelet and a small bag with a few coppers and silvers. Her Point account was now up to two hundred and thirteen points after depositing seventy five gold, but she didn’t really need it up here.
She saw Po and Ko bringing it some nets on a dock and they waved at each other. She didn’t want to disturb their work so she didn’t go and speak with them. Eventually she found herself wandering further up the mountain. Their wasn’t really a path up this far, but the more she traveled the more she knew that this was the right direction.
Eventually she stepped into a clearing full of flowers. Each one seemed to glow slightly. “Sun orchids.” said a voice behind her. Shen turned around to see the young woman from the festival. “I grow them here. Hello sister.” The woman bowed slightly and Shen returned the gesture.
“Are they magical? Alchemical?” Shen asked.
“Technically they have Gathering level Sun chi, but that’s not why I raise them. They just look pretty.”
Shen smiled. “I guess they do.” She stood there and thought about the situation for a few breaths when she realized something. “Wait, did you call me here?” she asked.
The woman smiled and nodded. “Yes, I did. My name is Shodanakarel, but you can call me Sho. Sister Sho if you want to.”
“That’s a long name.” said Shen. “I’ll stick to Sister Sho if it’s ok.”
“It is. So, do you want to see why I called you here?” Shen nodded and Sho motioned for her to follow. They briefly walked down a small path between the trees until the path lead into a large open area. All around were people that looked more or less like humans, and there were winged reptiles mixed in with them. These reptiles went from being as small as a dog to as big as a house. They were speaking in a strange language that Shen hadn’t heard before, but she knew at once what language it was. That was Draconic. These people were Dragons.
Shen stood there in surprise for a few breaths when a large blue dragon landed in front of the two of them. “Shodanakarel.” it said in a scolding tone. It continued speaking in that tone in Draconic and Sho responded. The large dragon looked at Shen, then started shrinking. After ten breaths a naked man stood before them. She hadn’t noticed it but all of the dragons that were in their natural form seemed to be naked. The man waved his hand and a black robe popped out of it, which he quickly put on.
“Shodanakarel.” he repeated. “How many times have I told you, you can’t invite a human back here without council approval. It’s bad enough that you left to visit that human festival a month ago, but to bring one back…”
“But she’s not just a human, father, she’s one of us.”
The man looked Shen over. “A relative, perhaps, but not a pureblood.” He looked at her for a few more breaths. “I’d guess she’s part Fire Dragon. Tell me, girl. Are you good at fire magic?”
Shen nodded. “It’s my best element. I’m not very good with water, which I believe is what your people are best with.”
He looked at her for a few more breaths. “I thought so. Strange. The nearest Fire Dragon village is over ten days from here, as we fly. Six months for a human. Tell me, are you from there? Maybe one of their descendants with a human?”
Shen bowed her head a bit in shame. “I’m not sure, sir. My father died when I was five and he never told me about his ancestors. My mother was already dead, but I believe it was his side of the family I get my dragon bloodline from, as he also had the Dragonscales ability.”
The man nodded. “Interesting. Few with blood as weak as yours still have that ability.” He thought for a few minutes, then looked at Sho. “For now, she can’t enter the village proper. Keep her here in the park until I get back. Maybe play with the other children. I need to speak with the elders.” Sho nodded and the man reabsorbed the robe into his hand and took his natural form once again before taking off in the direction of the mountain peak. That must be where the council stayed.
“Well.” said Sho, looking at Shen. “Would you like to go play? I’m sure the other kids would like to meet you.” Shen nodded and Sho lead her to another group of dragon women. After informing them that Shen was ten, the women praised here for her Shifting skills and tried to introduce their own children, all of them acting like toddlers. Sho had to explain that Shen was mostly human and therefore was an older child and didn’t need to Shift in order to look like a human. The women seemed much less impressed but eventually she was introduced to some older children who were playing some sort of ball game involving hitting a ball with a stick and running around a square.
A little while later all of the children started taking a break. Shen went to sit down only to have Sho walk over and hand her a plate. On it were several different types of raw fish. “It’s called sashimi.” said Sho. “One of the people that visited our village when I was a kid introduced it to us. It’s actually really good.” She handed Shen some sort of sticks taught her how to properly pick up food with them. While Shen didn’t like it at first, there were several sauces on the side that she could dip them in, so she didn’t mind eating it. One thing she noticed is that people didn’t look around while eating. Nobody talked, other than a few children. Only one parent actually looked around, when her daughter asked a question and suddenly the girl looked like she was being scolded. Shen could only guess that the woman had used telepathy to do so.
When she was done, the dragon from before, Sho’s father, returned. After retaking human form and putting on his robe, he walked over to where Shen was. “The council has come to a decision. As she is part dragon, she is allowed to visit us as long as she doesn’t break any serious laws or bring any other non-dragons here. She is also restricted to the outer city, and cannot visit the inner city without prior council approval.” He then knelt down and held out his hand. “Welcome to Water Dragon Town, miss Shen. I am Caliasara Nematari. I understand that most humans in the nearby town only use one syllable for a name, however, so you may call me Cal.”
After that Shen started a new pattern. Four days per week she would spend her time studying or meditating, and three days a week she would travel to Water Dragon Town and play or study with the kids there. During this time some of the other dragon kids started studying combat and having mock battles. As combat seemed to be an important part of dragon culture, she joined in their fights. There she met a boy name Dodonakas, or Do. He was thirty years old, an older child in dragon terms, but looked like an eleven year old when he took human form. Do wasn’t the best at Shifting, though, and usually still had scales over most of his body, and often still had fangs instead of canine teeth and a small tail.
Today’s sparring session required that he fight while in human form. The tribe often sent their people out into the world to learn about different cultures, technology, techniques, and other interesting information, so everyone in the village needed to learn to hold their human form even in stressful situations like combat.
As Shen didn’t have to do that, she had an advantage in this type of combat. The one she had trouble with was aerial combat. Sho was trying to teach her shifting, but even after a week she could barely manage to change the color of her hair. Spirit beings had the best natural talent for this, followed by magical beings, like dragons. After that came monsters, and then animals and humans. That was because the ability to change ones form was a spiritual ability, and most humans were weak in spiritual ability. Even when human monks studied for decades, few of them could manage even basic shifting, instead developing abilities to deal with spirits of various types as well as telekinesis, telepathy, and clairvoyance.
A week before her eleventh birthday Shen stood in the practice field across from Do. He had gotten better with his Shifting during their sparring sessions and now had gotten rid of the tail and fangs, as well as most of the scales. “I’m going to beat you today.” said Do. “I’ve got a special technique I’ve been developing.”
“I look forward to it.” Shen said. Neither of them had any weapons. Dragon culture rarely used weapons in combat, though if they were to be placed in a role which required one, like a guard position, they would be taught to handle a weapon. The adult in charge of the spar waved their hand, signaling the start of the combat.
The two ran at each other but, just as they reached each other Shen knelt down, dodging a high swing by Do. He usually opened with a claw strike at the other person’s head, a bad habit he had picked up more than a year earlier when fighting other dragon children. Dragons, after all, often used claw strikes against each other. Against a human, however, when you lacked claws, it was a poor move that would be better replaced by a fist.
As she knelt Shen held her fingers together and jabbed at his stomach. He saw the move coming and reacted by feeding chi to his stomach. In response his Dragon Scales activated and Shen hit a barrier. Angry that she had gotten the first blow he clawed at her several more times, but she managed to dodge all of them.
He did, however, manage to knock her off balance, and so decided to use his special attack. Water chi flowed into his mouth from the natural source within him, called a dragon heart. It was a stone which grew over the lifetime of the dragon and would naturally produce more and purer chi of their element, but could be improved with meditation. Once it was gathered he opened his mouth and exhaled the chi, causing a jet of water to leave.
Shen jumped to the side just in time to avoid the worst of his Dragon’s Breath attack, only getting her feet and lower legs soaked. The impact changed the direction of her dive, she she ended up rolling sideways before stopping. Do started laughing. “Careful.” he said, “I hear humans don’t like getting wet.”
“Oh, we can use attack magic, now? In that case, I hear dragons don’t like getting cooked.” He held her hands to the side, palms up, and balls of fire appeared in both of them.
“Hey, no fair using fire magic.” he said, then jumped back as a ball hit the ground in front of him, exploding with the force of a firecracker. Shen was actually holding back a bit, and creating this fire chi from the neutral chi in her first level. She had much purer fire chi, almost 7% purity, in the second level of her Dantian, but didn’t want to risk using it as it would damage the sparring field and risk causing serious injury. So she was using the five and a half percent purity fire chi she could make on a whim.
Do dodged several more balls of fire before letting his Shift fall and flying into the air. Most of the adults saw that Shen was holding back and purposefully missing him, so when he started complaining about her use of magic they just laughed at him. “You know that attack magic isn’t allowed in this type of spar. If you are going to cheat, why shouldn’t she?” said Sho. He looked surprised, like he couldn’t think of what to say, then Sho smiled. “I think he’s learned his lesson now, Shen.” she said. “Do you mind not using attack magic again as long as he also stops using it?”
Shen nodded and Do landed. They once again agreed to the rules and their sparring session continued, this time with Shen winning through normal chops and jabs rather than magic. Though the fight was close, Do’s predictable moves made it easy for Shen to counter him.