You size up the four children facing you. The only one you are bigger than is the boy hanging back. The other three are all larger than you and look stronger. The silver bears that accompany them are all larger than Wotjeo. Papa hasn't taught you how to fight yet, and you've never been hunting. You have been exercising with Papa, but your muscles are not as big as the muscles on any of the three boys in front.

You could try to fight them, but you think you’d probably lose. Maybe there’s another way though. Mama is much smaller than Papa, but Papa always does what she wants. You’ve only seen her raise her voice once and that was in a dream. Instead of shouting to get her way, she has as many tones of voice as there are shades of green in the forest and she uses them to expertly control Papa’s emotions. You think back to one of the few times Mama chided Papa. Mama came home with her hands covered in scratches and Papa wouldn’t stop hovering protectively. You do your best to infuse your voice with the same elegantly dismissive tone she used as you address the middle boy: “You can't be huntmaster, Bato. Your face looks like hunt-bait. Now leave me alone.”

The stunned expressions on all four of the boy’s faces are hugely satisfying. You sweep past them with Wotjeo beside you and hurry towards what you hope will be the safety of the Elder’s lesson cave while they gape at you in shock.

Standing beside Bato, the yellow-haired boy’s shock transitions into laughter. He laughs so hard he bends at the waist.

Brown-haired Bato turns on him and savagely shouts “Shut up Chuno! My mom says I have a handsome face! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

This only makes the yellow-haired boy laugh even harder.

You can still hear the other children squabbling when you arrive at the cave Papa told you about. The walls are pockmarked with some sort of soft-white rock. The Elder looks old to your young eyes and has a thick bushy beard. Both his beard and hair are a bright yellowish-brown. Beside him, a large bear with bright yellowish-brown fur sleeps soundly.

Elder Minaro growls as you enter the room: “The first day and already you arrive late. I will not tolerate such insolence! Give me thirty pushups at once. No, not there, over there!” The Elder points to the part of the cave furthest from where he is sitting with his legs crossed and feet resting on his knees.

You move to the far side of the cave and are half done with your pushups by the time the boys arrive. The Elder growls at them too. “The first day and already you arrive late. I expect no better from the butterfly girl, but you should know better than to keep an Elder waiting. Five pushups from each of you before the lesson begins, and another five to atone for the shame of allowing yourselves to be shown up by a useless butterfly.”

Only ten pushups for them when you got here first and have to do thirty! Papa never made you do thirty pushups at a time. You complain about the unfairness, but Minaro’s cold glare silences you.

The boys finish before you do and the Elder’s eyes gleam with malice. “No point in waiting for a butterfly like you if you let the others finish before you even with a headstart. Ten more pushups for being so slow, Pūmiè. You may join us when you finish.”

Elder Minaro beckons the other children close to him and whispers so that you have you to strain to hear him. “As new Silver Bear members, I will be instructing you in the basic elements of cultivation for the next three months; as I instructed your older siblings and parents. Pay close attention. A solid foundation determines everything about how far you will progress. To ensure you are properly motivated; whoever makes the most progress during the first season of lessons will receive an additional season of instruction from me.”

You finish your initial 30 pushups and start on your ten additional. Your slender arms quiver with the effort of supporting even your slight body weight. Every time your nose touches the stone floor of the cave, you want to give up and just lie there, but you force yourself to keep going. You’re going to prove you’re just as strong as the other Silver Bears even though your Mama has a different spirit companion.

The Elder continues, “Young as you are, you do not yet realize how valuable instruction from an Elder such as myself is. Your lack of understanding forces me to explain even such basic concepts to you. We Elders take students rarely, and of your families, only Chuno’s mother has ever qualified for additional training from me.” Elder Minaro boasted. “It was under my instruction that she advanced from Copper to Iron when she was thirty-eight winters old. She is a talented woman, and fortunate to be joined with the exceptional Silver Bear, Junio, but even so, she is unlikely to ever advance to the next rank to become an Elder. I doubt any of you will reach even that high so I will waste no more of my time discussing such matters. There are seven levels of cultivation, Ore, Tin, Lead, Copper, Iron, Bronze, and finally Silver.”

You finish your pushups. Even though your arms quiver with exhaustion and you are panting for breath after your unprecedented exertion, you tiredly jog the length of the cave to join the others. Judging by the elder’s cold gaze, jogging was a good choice. “You, young sluggards that you are, have not even reached Ore level yet, but the trial demonstrated that you all have at least the potential to reach that level soon. If you have not done so by the end of our lessons, I will consider it an insult to my teaching abilities. You do not want to insult me.”

The Elder pauses a moment to let that sink in before continuing. “Your first step along the path of cultivation will be learning to locate vital essences so that you can help your spirit companions absorb them. Vital essence rains down from the sun, which some superstitious folk call the World Yolk, and slowly accumulates in inanimate objects and plants. Animals naturally convert the vital essence in the things they eat into madra. As they age and gather more madra, an animal's intelligence and strength increases. After a few decades, most animals learn how to draw vital essences out of even the things they can’t eat and convert it into madra. This is why all the tribes in the valley have spirit companions. With the help of the other half of our souls, we can learn to access the madra that they have converted and use it to strengthen ourselves in a variety of ways.” The other children murmur excitedly as they speculate on all the incredible things madra might let them do.

Elder Minaro only gives them a few moments before silencing them. “Madra manipulation is for a future lesson. First, you will learn how to sense nearby vital essences. You lazy layabouts are fortunate to have been born Silver Bears. There are only a few places with strong vital essence left in Aestia Valley. In most places, an animal will draw it out and consume it as soon as even a little begins to accumulate. We, however, live in these wonderful caves.”

Elder Minaro pats one of the white outcroppings with the closest thing you’ve seen him display to affection so far. “Our cave complex is riddled with veins of metal that draw upon endless reserves of vital essence deep underground. These outcroppings are tin veins suitable for training young children like yourself. Pick a tin outcropping to meditate under, and I will walk you through the process of sensing the vital essence. Some of your families may have already started teaching you this, Bato. If so, wait for my instruction. If I catch you experimenting, I will throw you out. If you do it a second time, I will aim for the wall.”

Decavo, the red-haired boy, rushes forward before Elder Minaro finishes speaking and claims the tin outcropping Elder Minaro had been petting. Having been forced to listen to the Elder’s lecture from behind the boys proves to have its advantages. It means you are the closest to the other tin outcroppings and the second to claim a spot. Not trusting the Elder after your unfair treatment on first entering the cave, you listen closely to the instructions he gives the red-haired boy. Decavo is too impatient to wait and follow Elder’s Minaro’s instructions. Decavo keeps incorrectly guessing at what the next step is and rushing ahead to try it. After the third time, true to his word to punish experimentation, Elder Minaro grabs the boy and effortlessly flings him out of the cave.

Even though you are closer to him, Elder Minaro turns the other way and instructs Bato, the largest boy, next. Anger and relief war for control in your heart. You are angry that the Elder treats you so unfairly, but you are relieved he didn’t turn towards you. Would he have thrown you out of the classroom too if he’d noticed you weren’t meditating? You decide it is best not to risk it, and pretend to meditate while really listening with your eyes closed.

The instructions he gives black-haired Bato are similar, but not identical to those given to Decavo. Does Elder Minaro tailor his teachings to each student? You’ve only ever been taught by Papa and Mama, so you don’t have any reference point to tell if this is unusual or not. The Elder turns to yellow-haired Chuno next. The smallest boy would have had that spot, but Chuno had pushed him out of it, the Elder either not noticing or not caring about the casual violence.

You decide you’ve eavesdropped enough to be able to attempt the lesson even if the Elder doesn’t instruct you, but remembering what happened to Decavo you decide to wait and see if he'll instruct you before trying on your own. Turning your attention away from him, you try to meditate. It is difficult to let go of the roiling ball of conflicting emotions. Anger at the unfairness of it all, shame at being seen as less than a Silver Bear, pride at having put the boys in their place with a few sharp words, eagerness to learn the real secrets of the tribe. The Elder is halfway through his instructions to Chuno, the second-largest boy before you feel your emotions calming. Elder Minaro’s voice fades to an incomprehensible buzz, and you let his half-heard instructions to the other children flow through you without affecting you. Your mind floats in serene but isolated balance, aware only of your body and Wotjeo beside you.

Elder Minaro’s hectoring voice sounds from right beside you: “At least you can do this much. No thanks to your witch of a mother.” You are so startled to hear Elder Minaro’s voice beside you that you nearly lose your meditative state. He growls grumpily: “Calm yourself girl.” With unexpected patience, he waits silently until your thoughts are once again serenely balanced.

The next time he speaks, you are prepared for it. “Relax your body and think about the tin outcropping above you. Remember how it looked when you sat beneath it. It is a rough surface splashed with patches of black and white. Got it? No? I didn’t expect you to yet girl. Keep trying and don’t even think of lying and saying you can see it in your mind’s eye before you do.” It takes a few tries with Elder Minaro endlessly describing the outcropping before you have a clear mental picture of it. He’d done the same thing for Decavo and then Bato, although more politely in your opinion.

You tell him you’ve got it, and he replies “Good. At least your father taught you not to try to lie to me. Now pick out one of the white splotches. Both the black and white spots are tin ore but focus on just one white splotch today. Focus on that one splotch until it fills your spirit’s eye." This part is a little different from what he'd told the boys, but your father repeatedly told you to follow the Elder's instructions so you follow them exactly instead of trying to do what he told the others. "Yes, now keep focusing and move your spirit's eye closer and closer and closer.” You make your mental image of the splotch larger and larger until it completely fills your field of vision. You can’t imagine how to get any closer, but you keep looking at your mental image as Elder Minaro continues to urge you to get closer to the splotch and make it bigger. How could something possibly be bigger than everything?

“Enough.” Elder Minaro snaps his fingers by your ears, snatching away your mental balance. The transition from mentally focusing on a vast white spot to seeing the whole cave is as jarring as trying to take a step up that isn’t there, and you are disoriented for several moments as he urges the other students to their feet. It seems he instructed you last, giving the other students additional time to practice his instructions.

Elder Minaro ushers you all out and you nearly trip over Decavo. The red-haired boy is asleep; sprawled out across the entrance to the cave and sucking on his thumb. Minaro growls louder than you have heard him do so yet. “Stupid boy. He should have known better than to try to get back into my class after I threw him out. The Matriarch is too soft, if she’d permit me to use nightmares he wouldn’t try that again and neither would any of you other idiot children after word got around. You, Bato! You are his friend. Take him home and tell Aracato the boy will wake just after dinner so your father can punish him for not listening too.”

Bato gets Chuno to help him, and the two boys carry the third off.

The last, smallest boy turns to you and introduces himself: “It was amazing the way you stood up to Bato! Nobody does that. I’m Felero, and I’m going to tell everyone what you said to him. See you tomorrow!” The small boy scampers off quickly.