You want to do what your beloved bear cub brother Wotjeo asked you to, but you also don’t want to get thrown out of class, like Decavo did, so you decide to ask Elder Minaro about Wotjeo’s plan. You look up at your old instructor wearing a simple robe made from the fur of a yellow leopard with black spots and ask, “Wotjeo says I could bring him with my when I send my spirit into the tin vein. Would that be better?”

Elder Minaro huffs angrily. “Hmm, let's see. On the one hand, you could follow the instructions of the best vital-essence manipulator in the whole valley. On the other hand, you could listen to the voices in your head. Let’s, think. Should you do what the voices in your head are telling you to do?"

Elder Minaro turns his hand's palm up and moves them up and down like the sides of a seesaw. If you’d ever seen a scale, you might have said it looked like that, but you have only barely survived just four winters and have never heard of such a thing as a scale. He drops one hand to the floor and raises the other over his head before roaring: "NO! YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO YOUR VERY OLD AND VERY EXPERIENCED TEACHER! NOW, REPEAT THE EXERCISE, CUB!"

You, being a very young girl who has only survived four winters, scramble backward until you are plastered against the cave wall in an instinctive reaction to the threatening roar of a human, a predator, many times your size.

Elder Minaro continues in a quieter but no less angry voice: "And don't try to blame your foolishness on your brother again. There's no way Wotjeo will be able to communicate that clearly for many winters yet. Even I couldn't hear my sister until I reached Tin."

You try to explain that you really can talk with Wotjeo, but the Elder coldly dismisses all your claims and insists you continue following the exercise. You wipe away the tears beading up in your eyes and sniffle before resuming your meditative pose and following the Elder's instructions.

With continued practice, it gets easier to keep the vital-essence in a solid shape while carrying it. By the end of the day's lesson, you can almost keep it solid without having to stop 'walking' but it requires constant focus, and you feel mentally exhausted. When the class ends, Elder Minaro instructs you to stay behind.

Felero pats you sympathetically on the shoulder before leaving but isn’t brave enough to stand up to the Elder enough to actually say anything.

Bato and his cronies sing-song "Pūmiè's in trouble. Pūmiè's in trouble" as they leave, and Elder Minaro does not correct them.

Elder Minaro beckons you up to the front of the class where his spirit sister sleeps. You don’t know her name, but she is even larger than Papa’s silver bear spirit sister, Arely.

Your knees quiver with fear as you obey his gesture and walk towards him.

Elder Minaro lifts his silver bear spirit sister’s head into his lap and pets her tenderly. She growls contentedly in her sleep as he runs his fingers through her metallic yellowish-brown fur. You don't think you've ever seen her awake. "Much as it upsets me to admit it, you're making good progress girl. Be patient and learn how to walk before trying to run. Your concern for Wotjeo does you credit, despite your outrageous claim of being able to talk to him already. I will teach you faster techniques when you are ready and not before. Now run along. I have better things to do with my time than convince foolish little girls to give their elders the respect they earned before the little girl was even born."

You run out of the classroom, eager to leave before Elder Minaro's unusually pleasant mood changes. You briefly consider trying to experiment on your own. Not knowing of any other places to find vital-essence quickly puts an end to such thoughts and you continue on your way to meet with Mina.

On your way to the training cave complex, you brood about Elder Minaro’s dismissive attitude. You can so speak with Wotjeo! You’ll show him! You’ll show him by… by… by... Uh… You’ll show him by…. By telling Mama and Papa when you get home that you can talk with Wotjeo. They’ll believe you!

You arrive at the training cave complex, and it is quieter than usual. You look around a bit and discover that everyone has crowded into one of the caves to one side. It is one of the caves with a sandy floor in the center and a ring of benches carved into the walls that you’ve started thing of as a fight cave. You’re not even waist high on the adults, and you can’t see past the thick crowd at all. Fortunately, one of the adults, not one you recognize, feels you trying to squirm past and lifts you onto his shoulder. From your new vantage point, you can see two people and their spirit companions facing each other in the center of the sandy cave.

One of them is a vaguely familiar teenage female with bright yellow hair and a brown-furred bear. Facing her is a lanky adult male with orangish hair and a silver bear with fur the same orangish color. They bow respectfully to each other and move to opposite ends of the cave. The adult puts his hands to his head and draws out a sword and a shield. You could have sworn he wasn’t carrying anything a second ago. It looked like they were inside his head and he pulled them out, even though they’re clearly too large to fit even if his head was hollow.

Across from him, the teenage girl points at his spirit companion and the bead bracelet she is wearing starts spinning. Suddenly the man’s animal companion tumbles backward and grunts with pain. You blink, and in that brief instant when your eyes are closed the man moves to stand between the girl and the man’s spirit companion. Something moving too fast for you to see whacks into his shield and he goes skidding backward. The girl has two fewer beads on her bracelet now. Is she shooting them at him somehow? How? You didn’t see her arm move to throw them.

The man whose shoulder you are sitting on says to his companion beside him, “How is she throwing those without moving?”

The woman beside him replies in a bored tone, “All women can do that.”

The man whose should you are sitting on jumps in shocked fear, jostling you. “Really!? I’ll make dinner tonight sweetheart. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

While you were listening to the people near you, the man in the arena’s spirit companion scrambled back to her feet.

All four combatants charge each other. They’re moving too fast for you to follow with your eyes. Even the sounds merge together into one continuous thump. When the combatants separate, the man’s sword arm hangs limply at his side, and his spirit companion is slowly making her way out of the ring. The girl’s top is disheveled as if she’d been hit several times, but it hasn’t been cut. She is helping the man’s spirit companion out of the ring, but her’s is cautiously circling him, always moving to his sword arm side. Suddenly the teenage bear charges forward, and the crowd collectively winces as a metallic thump rings out. The man holds his shield to his head, and it slides smoothly inside, even though that’s impossible. Small lead beads zip through the air and join the handful remaining on the yellow-haired girl's bead bracelet. One of your fellow audience members hurries into the ring. and helps the man carry the brown-furred teenage bear out of the cave. The crowd parts to let them out. They go right past you, and you can see both humans are smiling and congratulating each other.

After that, the man holding you up lets you down: “Down you come. I bet your parents are going to regret missing seeing that.”

You thank him politely, the way Mama taught you, but he’s already turning away. The crowd breaks up murmuring. You overhear someone say “Not often you see a Lead last even two seconds against a Copper.”

You have so many questions, but before you can ask any, Mina shows up. “Good morning, Pūmiè. How are you doing?”

You try to tell her you’re feeling great, but she isn’t paying much attention as she runs her hands over your forehead. “Not even a scar on your forehead?”

Mina looks amazed then shrugs it away. “Guess you weren’t hurt as bad as I thought. You really scared me; I wasn’t sure I’d see you up and walking again.”

The fantastically fit and ripped woman pushes your sleeves up, revealing numerous dark bruises. “Rest of your injuries still have a few days it seems. Rest up now; I already told you I won’t train you until you’re healed. You can stay and watch the rest of the spars if you want though.”

You stay and watch a few more of the sparring matches. The people with orange hair move too fast for you to see. You can’t really tell what the older fighters are doing either, but you can at least see their limbs moving. The crowd is never even half as big as the first fight, but they cheer and clap during the bouts. It’s exciting and makes you feel like part of a group even though you don’t really understand what is going on.

***

When you get home Mama has you sit down on one of the rocks your family uses for chairs clustered around the currently banked cooking brazier. It’s cold and you shiver, but Mama tells you that the family doesn’t have enough firewood or burning rocks to keep the fire lit during the day. She begins combing your hair with a fishbone, a frequent ritual. Mama spends more time on her hair than anyone you know, but her hair is also the prettiest. She always looks neat and beautiful. You wish you were as pretty as her. Lately, Mama has spent a lot of time combing and brushing your hair, but it always gets messy and tangled soon afterward. Mama also insists you wash before and after eating.

You tell Mama you can talk with Wotjeo and she just looks puzzled. Then she smiles at you and resumes brushing your hair. You can tell she’s smiling even though she’s behind you from the sound of her voice. “That’s very nice growllita. All spirit animals can talk. It is good that you are starting to learn how to hear them. I was worried you wouldn’t be able to since your father is a Silver Bear.”

Mama’s comb pulls painfully on your hair as you twist to look at her. “The teacher said I couldn’t. When did you start talking with Azuria?”

Mama turns you back around and quietly untangles her comb from your hair so she can resume grooming you before she answers. “That’s odd. I’ve been able to talk to Azuria ever since we bonded. In the Crystal Butterfly tribe, we have to persuade a spirit animal to form a bond with us. If I’d known the Matriarch was going to bond you so young, I would have objected, but what’s done is done. You and Wotjeo seem to be good for each other. He’s starting to look skinny though.”

Mama sounds a little worried: “I wonder how we can find more food for him to eat? It should warm up soon, that’ll help. I hope that’ll be enough.”

Wotjeo reassures you that he’s fine, but Mama doesn’t hear him. No one but you ever does.

***

When Papa wakes you up for training that night, you tell him you can talk with Wotjeo. He scoops you up and hugs you so tight it feels like he’ll squeeze you in two. This is the way his hugs always feel so you’re not worried. “That’s my clever Pūmiè! You’re so like your mother.”

He gets a dreamy look on his face at the mention of his pretty wife. “Rica can talk to Azuria too. I’m still not very good at talking with Arely. The other Hunter apprentices used to make fun of me for that. At least until I grew up.” He looks embarrassed and removes one arm from the hug to rub the back of his head. It doesn’t seem to take any more effort for him to continue hugging you against his chest with your feet dangling in the open air with one arm than it did with two. Papa is really strong. “We’ve managed just fine though.” He rubs Arely’s head, and she growls contentedly in her sleep.

The mention of Hunters reminds you that Papa has several younger siblings that are still Hunter apprentices. Papa mentions human relatives infrequently but has never introduced you to them. You wonder why not. Except for very young children, like you, the tribe is organized first by tier and then by family groups during morning meditation. Papa's and your spot is only three rows from the front where the Elder of the day leads the tribe through meditation. So you don't even sit by your relatives then. He hasn’t even pointed them out at morning meditation. You know some of the people you see then are related to you, but you don’t know who, so you try to be extra polite in case one of them is your relative. Your aunts and uncles are mostly farmers or fishers. The only times Papa leaves the cave mouth you live in is to join the rest of the tribe to meditate. Except for that one time when he left the cave to meet Mina with you! He left Arely behind to keep guard though. It still made you feel special that Papa left home just for you and you hug him, eliciting a pleased smile from your giant hairy Papa.

Wotjeo, on the other hand, is quick to point out his, and thus your, relationship to other Silver Bears. Most of them are your brother's and sisters. The rest are nieces, nephews, cousins, and a couple of grand-nieces, grand-nephews, and grand-cousins. Everyone except Mama and the Matriarch meditate in the central cave in the morning, so you've probably seen everyone in the tribe, even though you haven't been introduced to most of them. Come to think of it, you've never seen the Matriarch's spirit companion.

***

Although you were ahead of everyone in your vital essence manipulation lessons by two days before your fight with Decavo; the other boys have started catching up. Elder Minaro announces when each of them makes their first breakthrough to perceiving vital essence. While you had to struggle and stumble your way through every step after that, Bato, Chuno, and Decavo are all able to extract vital essence on their first try. Elder Minaro still has them repeat the process until he's satisfied, but from what you can tell by listening to their lessons when you are supposed to be meditating; all three seemed to start with a much better understanding than you did, especially Bato.

If Felero didn’t have to work just as hard as you do, you’d think the Elder was cheating and helping the boys. As it is, it justs seems unfair. It’s bad enough that you’re not just the only girl but also the only half Crystal Butterfly in the class, without most of the boys getting extra lessons from someone too. You resolve to work twice as hard to try to catch up.