After his initial incident, Kellen managed not to fall off the storm horse again. He attributed most of that to the fact the animal held a steady canter with its fellow horses, but after being transported to another world and almost eaten by a magical bear, he would take any win he could get.

By the time they’d set off from the creek and found signs of the slavers headed south, there were only a few hours left in the day. The sun seemed to loom over the horizon as it set over the rolling plains to the west, shrouded in a fiery glow through the haze of smoke still clinging to the air. It gave Kellen some small comfort knowing that, wherever he was, at least the sun still behaved the same. Of course, his allergies also hated the constant veil of smoke in the air and his nose ran incessantly. Some things never changed.

They stopped at dusk when the two scouts out in front grew unsure of the trail the slavers had taken. Camp was a dark affair, with no one bothering to make a fire, whether out of a desire to stay hidden or another reason, no one said. Kellen slid off the storm horse before he fell, his legs and rear aching from the ride. He knew from painful experience he had days to go before his body adjusted to sitting on a bouncing horse for hours.

Although he’d slowly felt his stamina return since the fight with the bear, a weight of exhaustion settled over Kellen the moment his feet touched the ground. Vex, who found a perch between Kellen’s arms in his bat form, let out an enormous yawn. His mouth stretched open far wider than Kellen would have expected, revealing his tiny fangs.

“Let’s hope every day isn’t like that, huh?”

Although part of his brain still struggled to accept he was talking to a fluffy, football-shaped fox, Kellen agreed wholeheartedly.

“That’s enough excitement.”

Bowlegged and limping, Kellen followed the lead of the others and remove the simple saddle blanket from the storm horse. Seeing the others leave the bridles on their horses, he followed suit. Without a bit in their mouths, they wouldn’t hurt over night, anyway. Even if they weren’t Mana Beasts, it seemed the storm horses were smarter than their Earth equivalent — one animal tossed its head when the reins fell over its head to put them right back on its neck.

Aside from Nokom, none of the others had spoken to him throughout the day. When one woman — a warrior with a long braid down her back — checked on her horse, Kellen tried to make polite conversation.

“Aren’t you worried about the horses wandering off during the night?” he asked.

The woman looked at him liked he’d asked if she was worried the horses legs might fall off. “They do not wander,” she said, appearing irritated by the question. “They will watch the camp while we sleep.”

“Oh, uh, great!”

But the woman turned away before Kellen could finish. Still, he supposed that was good news. If another bear or something worse tried to kill them all in the dark, it sounded like the horses would give a heads up. Standing alone once more and feeling more awkward than before he’d tried to strike a conversation, Kellen returned to Vex, who was speaking with Nokom and Ira a short distance away.

“And I’m telling you, we’re naturals,” Vex said. He sounded exasperated, like he’d explained himself several times already. “We don’t need practice, we need training!”

“Isn’t it the same thing?” Kellen asked.

“You can’t train until you’ve learned the basics, ward,” Ira said to Vex. “It was only dumb luck and our intervention that the two of you survived the attack from the earth bear.”

“Oh, yeah?” Vex said. Sensing he was about to get them both in trouble, Kellen grabbed Vex but wasn’t fast enough to keep him from finishing his sentence. “I don’t remember even seeing you two when the other warriors took down the bear!”

To Kellen’s surprise, Nokom didn’t get annoyed at the fox’s outburst. He also noticed the knowing look between her and Ira before she spoke. “True, we are old and tired. Which is why in the morning, it should be no problem for you two young warriors to rise before the dawn, so we may instruct you before the rest of the group awakens.”

“Hold on,” Kellen said. “What am I being punished for?”

“Punished?” Nokom’s face was a perfect mask of confusion. “What do you mean? You said you wish to grow stronger to rescue your sister, yes? And since you are bonded with a Mana Beast of exceptional talent even at a young stage, we’ll have you exercising your powers in no time.”

“Well, I’m glad my potential is noted,” Vex said, completely oblivious to the undertones in Nokom’s words.

“Until then, eat and sleep,” Ira said, showing his teeth in a wide canine smile. “You will need your strength.”

Kellen’s apology was lost on the pair, who walked away. He looked down at Vex. “Nice going.”

The little fox blew a raspberry at the pair. “Don’t worry. They may talk all tough but they don’t have energy to keep up with us. They’re just trying to intimidate you, trust me.”

“I get the feeling you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kellen said.

What felt like a couple of hours later, Nokom’s voice woke Kellen from his sleep. “Get up, mighty hero. We have much to do before we hit the trail.”

Kellen groaned and rolled over, searching for Vex in the pitch black. The little fox was curled into a ball, snuggled up to Kellen’s back. Recalling Vex’s assurance from the night before, Kellen narrowed his eyes and poked the Mana Beast’s fluffy fur. Vex mumbled and nestled the snub of his nose deeper into his tail.

“Hmmsnrff. Pass the gravy…”

Trying not to wonder about how many of Kellen’s experiences and memories from Earth Vex had access to, he picked the fox up and gave him a gentle shake.

Vex’s eyes shot open and his ears pointed straight up. “Gah! What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Nokom says it’s time to get up,” Kellen said, words still thick with sleep. “Remember when you told me that wouldn’t happen?”

The little fox yawned and tried to curl up under his bushy tail while Kellen still held him. “Tell her we’ll start tomorrow.”

At Nokom’s side, Ira let out a low warning growl. “You’ll start now if you know what’s good for you, little beast.”

Fearing Vex would get them in more trouble, Kellen shook him again. The fox smacked his lips. “Okay, okay… what are we doing?”

Nokom pointed to a one of the skewampus towers of rock rising over the plains. Kellen could barely make out the twisting, crooked spiral thanks to a sliver of moonlight hovering overhead and what might have been the first hint of dawn on the horizon. It wasn’t particularly close by.

“That is where we are going. Start running.”

Kellen stared at the old woman, sure he’d misunderstood. This sounded like boot camp, not mystical lessons in magic. “Sorry, I’m not sure I…”

“I suggest you put your moccasins on,” Nokom said. “In a moment, Ira will start chasing you. And I can promise, his bite matches his bark.”

Nearly dropping Vex in surprise. Kellen scrambled to lace on his work boots. Although well worn in, they weren’t designed for running. His stomach growled and his mouth was dry from the smoky night air, but asking for breakfast or drink didn’t seem like a wise choice. Could Nokom just be messing with them? Nothing he’d seen from the woman so far indicated she had any sense of humor.

Finishing lacing his second boot, Kellen stood. He nudged Vex with the toe of his boot with the Mana Beast tried to curl up again on the blanket they’d been given to sleep with.

“How is running supposed to help me?” Kellen asked. “Shouldn’t we save our energy for traveling?”

“The body is the vessel your mana flows through,” Nokom said. “If the body and mind are not fit, the mana will not be strong in you.”

That sounded like something a social media life coach would say. However, online life coaches didn’t have the benefit of a grouchy coyote to motivate their clients. Ira’s teeth flashed and his mouth snapped shut a hair’s breadth from Kellen’s pants. Vex jumped into Kellen’s arms.

“What are you waiting for? Run!”

“Not so fast.” Kellen paused and looked at Nokom. Maybe it really had been all a bluff. He allowed himself a brief glimmer of hope that was squashed a moment later. “You will not carry Vex. He will fly or run on his own.”

Kellen looked down at the fox. Vex put on his most innocent, puppy dog face looking back at him like some infomercial for the Humane Society. Kellen almost felt bad. Almost.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “They don’t have the energy to keep up with us.”

Kellen dropped him. Vex yipped in surprise and just transformed into his bat form before he bounced off the ground. Kellen had already started running, Ira close on his heels.

Footwear was only part of Kellen’s problem. While skinny, he wasn’t particularly fit or fast, at least not fast enough for Ira, who chased at his heels like a sheepdog after a stray. Trying to distract himself from the effort, Kellen thought back to the last time he’d ran. It wasn’t any time in recent memory. He’d been out of high school going on three years and hadn’t so much as thought about going for a jog since. Farm work kept him in reasonable shape, but didn’t require much cardio.

His legs started burning in the first few hundred yards. To make matters worse, the tall grass made the jog akin to running through shallow water or maybe sand. Kellen soon learned to lift his knees higher in spite of his burning muscles after his feet got tangled in the tall grass and tripped him not once, but three times. Ira gave him only a minute to scramble to his feet before the coyote spurred him on again.

At first, Kellen was jealous of Vex’s ability to fly right over the grass with little resistance. But it soon became apparent that Vex’s short, stubby wings weren’t meant for extended fligh. Vex was soon huffing and puffing as much as Kellen. Shortly after, he crashed into the tall grass and abandoned flight to bounce alongside Kellen. Ira herded them on until they reached the base of the rock and physically touched it.

Kellen’s hands rested on his knees, and he doubled over, gasping for air. Vex lay on the ground, belly up, like roadkill on a hot summer day. Kellen guessed they’d ran over a mile, but struggling through the grass made it feel much harder. Nokom, who rode behind them and brought Kellen’s storm horse, dismounted and frowned.

“Is everyone as soft as you where you come from?”

Too tired to take offense, Kellen could only cough in response.

“We have much more work to do than I imagined,” Nokom said. “But we have an old saying among the Storm Horse Tribe — you ride a new horse one day at a time.”

“Are we… going back now?” Kellen asked. He felt good enough to stand up, but continued to lean against the rock column. By now, the gray dawn was indeed upon them and he knew the others would soon wake.

In answer, Nokom dismounted and joined Kellen at the base of the rock. She slapped the stone with her hand. “These are the Tall Spears. They have strong mana and offer protection from the dangers of the plains. You will climb to the top.”

Stomach lurching, Kellen craned his head back to look up at the rock. He guessed it was almost a football field length tall and would be a completely vertical ascent.

“That? I — I don’t think I… I mean, I’ve never really climbed anything before and we don’t have a harness. Maybe I can do some push-ups or something?”

Nokom slapped the rock again. It was like she hadn’t heard Kellen at all.

“Don’t worry. Ira and I will not let you hurt yourself in the fall.”

Kellen wasn’t worried. With the way his legs felt, he wouldn’t get high enough off the ground to be in any danger of falling and hurting himself. He stared at the wall, half-heartedly searching for a potential route off the ground. It felt like rock formations in a world of magic should have the same colored hand holds and a climbing wall, but the rules of Oras never seemed to be in Kellen’s favor.

“I can help!” Vex, who recovered much quicker than Kellen, fluttered just above Kellen’s head. “Here’s a spot!”

Kellen saw the diagonal cracked Vex hovered by and thought he could boost himself up to reach it. His leg shook from the effort. In a display of technique that would have made an actual climber cringe, he boosted himself off the ground and used the momentum to grasp the lip of the crack. When he tried to pull himself up, he almost got his elbows to right angles before his feet lost their spot. He hung by his hands, legs scrambling to boost him until his arms gave out and dropped to the ground.

He didn’t bother looking back at Nokom. He already knew the expression he’d get. This time, thinking of Allison, Kellen hauled himself about four feet off the ground, where he clung to the rock like a baby squirrel to its mother’s back.

“Good!” Vex said. “Now here.”

Pressed against the rock, Kellen twisted his head and saw Vex a few inches above his right hand. Feeling his grip slipping, he panicked and lunged for the next handhold, only to fall off the rock again. He dusted himself off, embarrassed and frustrated. The third time, they tried a slightly different route, but once again, Kellen only made it a few feet of the ground before his strength ran out. After the fourth time, he finally turned to face Nokom. He had a better chance of sprouting wings than climbing to the top of the rock.

“I can’t do it.”

Arms folded, she said nothing for a long moment. “Do you know the lesson?”

Kellen shrugged. “I’m weak?” It was nothing new to him. He’d never been fast, strong, or athletic. “I could have told you that before I tried.”

Nokom approached him and poked Kellen in the right side of his chest, right in the center of the spot where he’d felt the pressure and second heartbeat during the fight with the bear.

“This is your Beast Heart,” she said, tapping her finger a couple times in the same spot. “The place mana is stored in your body. The lesson is that unless you learn to use the mana, you are the same as before. Now, focus on the spot I showed you. It is a lake that resides inside you. But a beaver has a dam across the lake so the water cannot escape. We must get rid of the beaver’s house so the mana can run through your body. Picture it in your mind. Take a deep breath. Feel the mana move as you breathe.”

With little confidence, Kellen closed his eyes and did as he was told. After his first deep breath, nothing happened. He took two more. The only thing he felt was silly. He opened his eyes.

Nokom rapped him on the head with her knuckles. “Did I say you could open your eyes? Did I tell you to stop breathing?”

“Ow!” Kellen rubbed his head and sighed. “I’m sorry, I just don’t understand what —”

He cut himself off as Nokom raised her closed hand again. Kellen inhaled deeply, trying not to picture Allison getting farther and farther away every minute they spent on the pointless exercise. After three or four breaths, his anxiety lessened, and he felt his tired muscles relax. After ten breaths, he felt a warmth pulsing in the area Nokom called his beast heart. Like warm water trickling down from a shower, a pleasant, tingling sensation spread throughout his body, to the top of his head and down to his fingertips and toes. When he opened his eyes, he felt like he’d just awoke from a long night’s sleep in the softest, most comfortable bed ever.

“You did it!” Vex said, popping into his bat form and doing a flying somersault. “I don’t know about you, but I feel great!”

Nokom nodded in approval. “Well done. Remember, like any spring, this one can be drained dry if not cared for. Until your beast advances to a higher form, the mana pool will remain shallow. Try to draw upon your beast heart again.”

Kellen closed his eyes and repeated the breathing process. This time, nothing happened. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked after a minute passed.

“You used your store of mana to rejuvenate yourself and Vex,” Ira explained. “In the beginning, the amount of mana in your beast heart is small and recovers slowly. Your beast heart must rebuild your supply before you can tap into it again. This is why we practice by the Tall Spears when we can. They aid in recovering our mana faster.”

Now that the coyote mentioned it, Kellen experienced a strange sensation in his chest. It reminded him of a steady trickle of hot chocolate hitting his belly, except this was in the right side of his chest, apparently where his beast heart was.

“A Beastcaller and their Mana Beast share the same source of mana from the beast heart,” Nokom said. “This is what gives a Beastcaller power but also allows a Mana Beast to become stronger much more easily than they can alone in the wilderness. When you fought the bear, both you and Vex pulled from your reserve. That is what made you sick. It was not until after you rested you had enough mana to refresh yourself. As you grow you will better control the mana you use and sense how much remains in your beast heart.”

“Strain yourself too far and your risk breaking your beast heart,” Ira said.

Kellen thought he had a good idea what might happen if he broke anything important enough to be called a heart. As a lifelong worrier, however, he needed the specific details. “What happens then?”

“At worst, you will die,” Nokom said. Kellen noticed she was looking past him, staring off into the hills almost as if the rest of them weren’t there. “If you survive, your mana will diminish. You and your Mana Beast will be unable to advance to more powerful forms.”

“I’m beginning to think there’s always a catch,” Vex said, hovering next to Kellen’s head.

“Our path is not easy,” Ira said. He too seemed downcast and Kellen wondered if they knew another Beastcaller and Mana Beast who had suffered a broken beast heart. He didn’t have the courage to ask.

“We have shown you your limitations so you may reach beyond them,” Nokom said. As she spoke, she held her hands palms down toward the ground. Kellen noticed the grass below the old woman waving back and forth as if someone were fanning it. “Now, let us show you what is possible.”

With a shout, the old woman jumped. A gust of air drove Kellen backward and he threw his arm up to protect his eyes from the dust.

“Oh, wow!”

Vex’s shout of surprise made him look up. High above them, Nokom rose through the air, Ira circling around her, wings spread. In the faint morning light, Kellen saw her alight on the top of the rock.

“I’ll see what’s up!” Vex pumped his little wings and soon rose to the top of the rock, leaving Kellen alone at the bottom. He felt discouraged, although it was crazy to think he could have climbed the rock and beyond ridiculous that he could fly like Nokom had. He couldn’t deny he’d done something when he’d summoned the two golden shields and attacked the bear, but it felt more like an accident than anything intentional. Some people stayed on the ground while others flew. That was a fact of life.

By now, orange rays of morning light cut through the smoky dawn. The emergence of the sun painted the dry prairie in a golden, fiery light. To Kellen, it looked like a scene out of the apocalypse.

He jumped in surprise when Nokom landed with a soft thud beside him, Ira and Vex close behind.

“There is a group about a day’s ride ahead of us, still heading south,” she said. “I believe it is the slavers and our stolen people.”