The next morning, Ira was still too weak to travel. Nokom thought the Mana Beast could manage a few miles in the evening, so she dedicated the rest of the day to Kellen’s training.

“The paths of the beastcallers are more numerous than the buffalo on the plains,” the old woman told Kellen at sunrise. “And that’s only the basics. If you’re going to be more than a calf thrown to the wolves, we must fit it all in that head of yours — that means you too!”

Vex froze. As Nokom talked, he’d pulled himself into a ball and was rolling around in circles on the ground. Kellen nudged him with the toe of his boot. “Pay attention or you’ll get us both in trouble.”

“Lots of info, something, something buffalo, got it,” Vex said. “When do we get to do something?”

Nokom swooped him up in her hands and rapped the fox hard between his ears.

“Ow!” Kellen and Vex said at the same time. Kellen rubbed his head but knew better than to protest the unfairness of the shared pain from their bond. He still wasn’t used to the strangeness of feeling sensations from outside his body. In some ways, Vex was like a voodoo doll.

“Until we put something in that empty skull, you’re not doing anything!” Nokom snapped. “We only have a few hours while Ira regains his strength. Come, we will not waste them.”

Kellen had his doubts that anything they could cover in a few hours would make a difference the next time the bird or another wild Mana Beast attacked them. He followed Nokom, Vex bounding at his side until they were about half a football field away from the rest of the band. Nokom pointed to the ground.

“Sit.”

Following orders, Kellen grabbed Vex mid bounce and restrained him in his arms while he lowered himself to the ground.

“I work better in an active environment!” Vex protested, squirming against him.

“And that is part of the problem,” Nokom said, sitting down across from Kellen. “Channeling mana is natural for you because you’re entirely made of it. But in the heat of battle, Kellen won’t be able to control the mana you share if he doesn’t learn to direct it beforehand.”

“Are you sure that’s the problem?” Vex asked, peering up at Nokom with a dubious expression. “It seems like a life or death scenario would be the best time to figure it out. You know, sink or swim!”

“Wow,” Kellen said.

“That will be enough out of you, little one,” Nokom warned. Her gaze rose to Kellen. “Now, listen. Do you remember yesterday morning when you sensed the pool of mana within your beast heart?”

Kellen nodded. He could still feel it there, like an itch, but instead of irritating it was almost a soothing spot within him.

“If you wish to use your mana, you must learn to move it, inside and out.”

“Does it seem strange to you that she’s talking about moving but making us sit still?” Vex asked, looking upside down at Kellen from his lap. “The word ironic comes to mind, but I have no idea what it means.”

“Vex!” Kellen said, exasperated. “This is important! Stop interrupting.”

The little fox sighed. “Right, sorry. It’s just, to me this is teaching a bird how to fly.”

“If you’d stay silent long enough, we’ll get to the part where you’re involved,” Nokom said. “Now hush before my knuckles find your head again.” She cleared her throat. “Now where was I? Yes — moving the mana within you. We’ll practice that soon enough, but there are more things to know before you begin.”

Nokom held up seven fingers. “You remember the seven forms of mana, yes?” She silenced Vex who seemed physically to be to the point of bursting with the answer.

“Um…” Kellen wracked his brand back to the previous morning. “Storm, water, fire, earth, nature…”

“And sun and shadow!” Vex finished when Kellen paused.

Nokom pursed her lips but let the interruption slide. “Very good. The seven great nations of Oras are tied to one form of mana: League of the Moose, Fire Bison and Storm Horse Tribes, Kingdom of the Sun Hawk, Earth Badger Empire, Shadow Owl Alliance and Otter Nation. A beastcaller’s mana attunement comes from which nation they belong to, or one of the nations if they have parents or ancestors from different tribes. I, of course, am of the Storm Horse Tribe, so mine and Ira’s mana is that of storm. You and Vex use sun mana, which is why we first suspected you of being Sun Hawk.”

“But I’m not from here,” Kellen said. “So why that kind?”

Nokom shrugged. “Someone wiser than I may know. I cannot say. Perhaps it has something to do with the life you lived in the Great Before.”

Kellen didn’t like these references to the “Great Before.” It gave the impression that he’d been given a one way ticket. Once again, he pushed away the thought that he and Allison might have died. If this was the afterlife, it left a lot to be desired compared to popular beliefs about heaven.

“Each type of mana has different strengths, but they all share similar and crossing paths,” Nokom said, pulling Kellen from his thoughts. “There are paths of war, medicine, crafting, growing, protecting and more. But they are all built on the same basic practices.”

“What are the different Mana Beasts you keep talking about?” Kellen asked. “You’ve called Vex a ward and both the bear and the bird were guardians. What does that mean?”

“I can answer this one!” Vex said, jumping out of Kellen’s lap in excitement. He looked to Nokom and to Kellen’s surprise, she nodded her permission. “I told you this already, remember? The first day we met?” He shot Kellen a fair imitation of Nokom’s scowl. At least, the closest imitation a round fox could make.

“I’ve had a few other things on my mind,” Kellen said in a flat voice. “Why don’t you remind me?”

Vex’s excitement carried him right past the sarcasm. “Alright!” He started bouncing as he spoke and Kellen had to look away to avoid getting motion sickness just watching. “So as Mana Beasts gather more mana, they get stronger. Every one of us starts at the Ward stage, which is where I’m at now. Then, like I told you before, we grow to Companions, then Guardians, then Chieftains then… uh, then…”

The little fox’s lecture trickled to a stop. He was so lost in thought he stopped bouncing in mid-air and Kellen had to catch him before he crashed onto the ground.

“Most wild Mana Beasts can reach Guardian strength given enough time,” Nokom said. “They gather mana from their surroundings and from fighting other wild Mana Beasts. For those bonded to Beastcallers, Guardian is easier to attain but still requires years of training and mana gathering, from battles with other Mana Beasts or through mana-rich materials. Beyond Guardian, the number of Beastcallers and Mana Beasts severely declines and their power grows by great marks. Those are the Chieftains. Any band or tribe with a beastcaller who has grown with their Mana Beast beyond Chieftain will be one of the strongest among their people. They are the Elders and Paragons. There are only a dozen or so Elders among all the tribes of the Storm Horse, and perhaps three Paragons at most. The Elders are a sort of council over all our people with the Paragons at their head, acting as great chiefs. To have one from your tribe is a great honor and a chance for much wealth and power. For a Beastcaller and Mana Beast to reach Paragon is the stuff of legends.”

“Well, take a good look,” Vex said, raising on tiny back feet and puffing out his chest so he resembled a fluffy golden football, “because me and Kellen are going to do it! Legends in the making!”

Kellen snorted. He didn’t have the talent, let alone the time in Oras to even consider becoming a legend of any kind. To his surprise, Nokom didn’t laugh.

“Perhaps,” the old woman said. Kellen couldn’t tell if she was patronizing them or not. “The path to becoming a powerful Beastcaller is not one you walk overnight, or even many seasons. It is the journey of your life, though that too will be extended as you grow in power.”

“So what form is Ira?” Kellen asked to change the subject. Talking about the impossible didn’t solve any of their problems. When he finished the question, he saw the same cloud pass over Nokom’s features he’d seen a time or two before from the old woman.

“He is a Companion,” Nokom said. “Once, we were more, not only Ira and I, but Gray Dawn, too. But that time has long past.”

A silence fell between them, broken only by the rustling of grass through the morning breeze.

“It’s your beast heart, isn’t it?” Vex asked, more quiet and sad than Kellen had ever heard him. “It’s broken.”

Nokom nodded. “In our younger years, we were Guardians. Perhaps with good mana and the blessings of the Stallion and the Wild Mother, we could have reached Chieftain and today Gray Dawn would be a mighty tribe, instead of a lesser band.”

She stared off over the smoky horizon and the silence stretched longer than before. Her acute loss draped itself over Kellen, even if he didn’t fully understand the implications of what she’d told them. At last, Nokom sighed and rose from her seated position.

“Come on then, we aren’t here for you to listen to an old woman’s regrets. Get up.”

Kellen stood, somewhat confused. He thought they would be practicing some kind of meditation. The picture in his head was him with his hands resting on his knees, practicing ohms.

“It is one thing to use the mana within your beast heart to refresh yourself,” she said. “And quite another to harness its power in the midst of battle. Mana wants to move through you. The better you become in tune with this movement, the more control you will have. As the depth of your mana increases, this control will become even more important. Now, watch closely.”

To Kellen’s surprise, she relaxed her knees and began to bounce up and down on the balls of her feet, as if moving to the beat of a song. Nokom raised her hands, still bouncing slightly and took a step forward with her right leg, twisting her body as she did. A moment later, her left followed, and she started to hum along with the rhythm of her movements. After another step with her right leg she did a quarter turn and raised her hands over her head, then stopped. Kellen stared.

“So you control mana by dancing?”

He’d never been a good dancer. Or even been an okay dancer. Kellen didn’t dance, period. To his horror, Nokom nodded.

“This is one of the most basic dances to practice pushing mana throughout your body. As you progress, you will learn more dances specific to certain powers and your type of mana. There are as many dances as there are paths, dances that call rain and lightning from the sky, that part the clouds — many, many dances. The most powerful are passed down within a tribe from beastcaller to beastcaller, protected and cherished. But the basics are common knowledge and the first steps you will take to learn control.”

“How am I supposed to dance in the middle of a battle?” Kellen imagined himself performing the same steps he’d just seen while mana beasts and arrows flew all around him. The picture soon changed to him lying dead on the ground. In the back of his mind, he wondered if he was in the middle of a cruel practical joke.

“There are battle dances, yes, but only advanced beastcallers at Guardian strength or higher attempt those. For the less experienced, it is enough to practice the dance as part of your daily training. If given enough warning, you will want to dance before a fight. It is the same as stretching a muscle. It will help you channel the mana throughout your body in preparation for its use.”

Kellen looked at Vex. “How come he doesn’t have to dance?”

Nokom frowned. “Don’t be foolish. He is a beast made entirely of mana. That is like asking a fish to swim swimming.”

That sounded a lot like Vex’s point early about teaching a bird to fly. Kellen didn’t think it was smart to point that out to either Vex or Nokom, though.

“You probably won’t look at stupid as you’re imagining,” Vex said, in a poor attempt at encouragement. “Try it!”

“Come here.” Nokom gestured to Kellen impatiently. “We will go slow. Now pay attention. We don’t have time for you to be stubborn.”

Glancing back at the camp, Kellen joined the old woman. He hoped the others weren’t watching. Nokom led him through the four simple steps three times, then ordered Kellen to do the dance while she watched. He completed the series and the moment he raised his hands over his head at the end, Vex burst into giggles.

“No, no!” Nokom smacked the back of his head. “Weren’t you watching at all? Now, see.”

She performed the dance again, which looked to Kellen the same as his version. When she finished, she gestured to him to start again.

He got two steps in before she stopped him.

“You move all stiff, like a man with tree branches tied to his limbs,” she said. “Do you feel the mana moving through you?”

Kellen, face red, shook his head. All he felt was idiotic.

“This time, I will try singing along,” Nokom said. “Again.”

By now, Kellen could feel the tension in his muscles. He didn’t need Nokom’s observations or Vex’s laughter to tell him he wasn’t doing it right, but he got more of both. Nokom sighed and rubbed her forehead with a wrinkled hand.

“I’ll bet you’d have the same issues if I tried to teach you to drive a car!” Kellen said, venting his frustration.

The old woman seemed confused. “What is a car?” she asked Vex.

“I think it’s some kind of magic horse where he’s from?” Vex said. “I can picture it, but I don’t really understand it either.”

Nokom shook her head and waved her hands. “Enough distractions. Again!”

They practiced for another hour, and if Kellen wondered if he had any aptitude as a dancer, Nokom left no doubt in his mind that he, in fact, did not. He almost stopped hearing her “agains” and automatically started the four steps over. By now, there was most definitely an audience watching him. Fortunately, they stayed back by the fire. Kellen hoped that meant they couldn’t make out his stiff, awkward movements.

“I can’t exactly hear that far, but my guess is they’re wondering if you found a snake in your boot,” Vex told Kellen in between dance attempts. His fox face scrunched into a puzzled expression. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me sometime.”

“Stop worrying about the others!” Nokom snapped at them both. “We’ve spent half our time on this alone. I need you to focus.”

They ran through the steps a half dozen more times. Each time, Kellen felt like he did the exact same thing as Nokom. Each time, she shook her head. It didn’t matter if he danced alone, danced with her, or danced while she hummed. The more times he failed, the stiffer Kellen got and the worse he knew each attempt was.

After Nokom shook her head yet again, Kellen gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. It wasn’t that he didn’t see the hypothetical value in these dance lessons. They just seemed a waste of his time. “I can’t dance — there, I admit it. Can we try something else?”

“There is nothing else,” Nokom said. “This is the way of it.”

Kellen sighed, resigning himself to another attempt, when an idea popped into his head. “What if I try another dance?”

Nokom wasn’t convinced. “This is the simplest dance we teach to children after they learn how to walk.”

Ouch. At least this time, Vex contained his laughter to a snort.

“Well, what would happen if I tried one of my own?” Kellen asked. “A dance my, uh, people do.”

“If you were a more powerful beastcaller, I would say you could run the risk of opening a fissure in the earth that swallows us whole, or starting a circle of fire around us that burns us to a pile of ash,” Nokom said. “But in your case… I think we are probably safe. Why not?”

Kellen cleared his throat. It was literally the only choreography he knew. If line dances couldn’t take the place of ancient, sacred rituals, he was doomed. He closed his eyes, pretending he was alone on the plains and started humming along to the track playing in his mind.

Out in the country, past the city limit signs…

Eyes closed, he started moving, kicking his right foot out twice, his left twice, then right, left, right. He grape-vined his legs, clapped, then advanced, waving his hand over his head like he was swinging a rope. Just as he started bouncing backward, he felt a sudden rush throughout his body. Shouting in surprise, Kellen tripped and almost fell on his butt. The spark of mana was gone.

“I felt it!” Kellen said, voice rising in excitement. “It was only for a second but there was definitely something!”

Nokom stared. “If that is the dance of your people, they must be a strange tribe indeed.”

“You can say that again,” Vex added.

“Do they have a name for this dance of yours?” Nokom asked. She didn’t look impressed, but at that point, results were all that mattered.

“Yes,” Kellen said, smiling. “The Boot Scoot.”