The time of my fourth infusion came with the end of my second summer, when the tribe successfully hunted down a saber-toothed tiger. By then our 'age group' had increased to twelve and the four of us had taken upon us the role of big siblings, helping Ian teach the new kids.

When at the beginning of my new life the prospect of a new infusion caused only worry because of the dangers of the ceremony, now it caused only excitement. Be it my new body, be it the teachings that were being indoctrinated into us, as time passed, I found myself forgetting my old life more and more and feeling like a true member of the tribe.

Because of that, I proudly walked to the platform of the chief with my chest held high when he called me as the first to receive the blessing of my group. By then, I fully knew what to expect, and I tried my best to hold in the pain, but I still found myself shouting in pain before passing out like the times before.

At my awakening, the first not to happen inside my mother's tent but instead in the communal tent of the kids who had gone through their fourth infusion, I found myself in the body of a twelve years old, showing the first signs of puberty. A bit embarrassed now to go around wearing only a loincloth like I used to, I was happy to find that Olga, the woman in charge of our group, had some pieces of leather and furs ready for the girls who had successfully passed the ceremony.

Not all of our little brothers and sisters passed the ceremony, as two of them didn't make it but, where the loss of a child at their first or second infusion was seen as a tragedy, especially by the child's mother, a child not managing to pass the ceremony at an older age was merely seen as the spirits of the mountain curbing the weak and lazy from the tribe and rarely their death was mourned.

It still wasn't a happy occurrence and, for that reason, Olga took it easy with our training on the first week, barely replicating what we were already used to. It was only after that first week of had passed that we really got into what was the true training for our group. To the training that we were already used to, that was itself made more strenuous to match our improved physical ability, Olga added actual learning on the field, during which her and two other adults would accompany us outside the camp to put into practice what we had learned in theory.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

At first we went to pick berries and nuts in the woods, so that we could recognize the edible plants in the field. The simple training also served as a way to teach us how to navigate the impervious terrain of the mountains and to do so without losing our sense of direction. Soon the gathering of berries and nuts was joined by the collecting of rabbits from the traps, which pushed us further away from the camp and also helped to make us experience our first kills, so that we wouldn't hesitate on a hunt.

After a few months, we were split in groups of two and made to accompany hunters on their hunts. I ended up being paired with Andrei, while Tasha was paired with Ivan. Of course, our two groups ended up competing on the number of kills brought back even though it depended very little on our performance, as the adults were there to correct any mistake we made and ensure the food supply of the tribe.

As the months progressed, each of us started preferring one melee weapon over the other. Andrei, who hunted with me, liked to go out with a mace and a large wooden shield, which he would use to block the way of our preys and to defend from the sharp claws of the giants sloths that were way less slow and docile than I had first thought. Tasha and Ivan both settled for two-handed hammers that allowed to put a lot of weight behind one's blows. As for me, I decided to go with an axe that was long and heavy enough to pack a good punch when used with two hands, but that could still be used with only one hand if necessary.

On top of our melee weapon of choice, all of us, as per the rules of the tribe, had to carry with us a knife as an emergency weapon and a couple of javelins to use if there was ever a need to attack from range.

As winter came, the groups were shuffled around so that we could build up experience working with different people, and with it came my first scolding in a long while. I had been paired with Tasha, which had initially made both of us over joyous. The issue came when we went on our first hunt. Because of the competitiveness that had formed between us, instead of collaborating like we should have, we ended up trying to best one another until we ended up fighting against each other, interfering with the hunt and forcing us to return empty-handed. As punishment, we were relegated to kitchen duty for a whole week, not being allowed to go on a single hunt nor train with the others.

The punishment did serve to cool our heads and, when we next went out to hunt, while our competitiveness hadn't been curbed out, we put our focus not on besting the other on the single hunt in front of us, risking to make a mistake in the process, but to become a better hunter than the other overall. Soon, our actions started receiving praises again, although the odd comment on how maybe putting us on kitchen duty every now and then might be good for us never failed to make us shiver.