Jiang Xia woke up the next day at dawn and willing or not his parents were awake at dawn as well. The tempest lion chose to be lazy and remained where he was half asleep. The Xias started their day with a bite to eat and Jemba, noticing that the lion was still refusing to greet the day smiled. “Honey, could you get me that new batch of lye soap we need to clean out our new protector’s bedding.” Still dozing, not paying attention to all the two leggers walking about the lion didn’t connect with what was about to happen. Too bad for him. Before he knew what hit him, Jemba had gathered several loads of cold water and some lye dust. He scattered the lye all around the lion and his bedding then commenced to dumping cold water.
RROOOWWWWRRR
By the time little Jiang had turned his head the lion had made it into the trees outside. Nothing could be seen except tracks on the ground.
An hour later the ruffled lion was back and nearly dry again. He moved into the yard and spied Jemba preparing for the day. As nobody was watching for his return the lion quickly and quietly made his way to Jemba with a crafty gleam in his eye. Jemba caught a glimpse of the lion’s reflection in the nearby water barrel and quietly reached down to a piece of leather he had nearby. The lion pounced and Jemba immediately spun and fitted the leather around the lion’s mouth. Upon landing the lion paused with a puzzled expression. Jemba had the speed of the first level mastery realm despite not having broken through yet. The tempest lion’s previous companion had only been third level profound. Being equal in strength with his previous companion meant that the lion was much weaker than Jemba and much slower. Once it had broken past the confusion and realized it was muzzled the lion snapped. It tossed and turned and rolled around the ground fighting the muzzle until Jemba set his foot on the lion’s neck mid roll. The lion froze and Jemba began talking. “Rule one, you are my son’s protector and better act like it. Rule two, this is my home and you had better learn your place if you don’t wish to be cast back out into the wild and made to find your own lair. The comfort and quality of meals here go to those who earn them and some layabout cat that can’t fulfill its duty will not be tolerated. Rule three,” and at this point he dropped down to where the lion could see his face and eyes in particular, “if you harm any member of this household you will be skinned stuffed and mounted where my son can use you as a rocking horse. Are we understood?” The lion nodded and dropped its head in contrition. “Then get to the boy and get to it!” Intimidated by Jemba’s strength the lion quickly made its way to little Jiang.
Two hours later, Touma arrived with the twins and set them to studying with Jiang Xia. Jemba then brought him into the house where he informed them about his wife’s prognosis. He requested their help with finding a replacement nurse and set out to the forest once more. Shortly after he left Xiaoning departed to go visit Yun.
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Jiang Xia had been learning the forms of swordplay when the twins arrived and his father left to deal with Touma. He began telling the two about the fun stuff that had been happening. “…and after that dad tied a muzzle on his mouth.” The twins laughed along with him. “Oh, and one more thing, mum said that I get to have a new baby brother soon, can you believe it!”
About this time the companions began urging the three to begin training, especially the lion. They were old enough now to start learning to increase their elemental capabilities so the animals started using their own elements to motivate the kids to want to learn how to control theirs. Jiang started having success first. The grass he was focusing on began to sway in time with his fingers despite the lack of wind. Sisi was having trouble since she didn’t have any natural affinity. The tundra wolf kept encouraging her to keep her mind focused on the nearby soil. Saiko was able to have a little trembling on his pail of water but couldn’t separate the water energies from the metallic energies that he was directing. An hour later Sisi managed to flatten a small hump of earth but Saiko was still barely making waves and was growing more frustrated by the moment. Jemba came back and started them on lessons in weaponry albeit two year old size weapons. Jiang chose the spear this time, Sisi chose a whip and Saiko grabbed a mace throwing a sneaky look towards the lion and wolf or more accurately their tails which Jemba caught. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a saber and pulled Saiko to the side and started telling him stories about his dad in the war swinging his saber around dicing up members of the Xiao clan and helping to put an end to the rebellion that happened three years ago. Saiko turned his wide eyes to the saber and grabbed it tightly with an enraptured expression upon his face.
The lion had been aware of everything that took place and was now much more willing to follow the commands and even the slightest whims Jemba might express in the future. Just thinking of what might have happened made it draw its tail in closer to its body. The tundra wolf on the other hand was painfully oblivious to how narrow an escape it just had.
Jemba called forth the ex-military man he had hired to train the kids in combat and excused himself from their attention. After finally extricating himself from the situation he was now free to make his way to Touma and assist in finding out what exactly was causing the strange phenomena in the woods. Along the way he may even find himself a worthy companion. His was lost a few years ago during a particularly nasty battle and he had never been able to find another companion close enough to his own strength to replace it. It wasn’t only him though; even Touma and Yun had lost their companions in battle, although in addition to losing her companion Yun had also nearly lost her life along with the life in her womb.
Due to the unstable condition of his wife, Touma decided to bypass acquiring another companion in order to spend more time by Yun’s side. Jemba may have been able to exchange for a new one at the market but he was romanticized by the thought of fighting it out in the wild with his companion to be and coming away with both parties respecting the others fighting prowess.