"Lolo Yi!"

"Shen-shen!" Huo Lohse dropped to her knees, arms outstretched as little Xiao Shen rushed into her arms. "Shen-shen, you had a birthday! Are you here to start your training?"

Xiao Shen nodded enthusiastically. "I turned five! I get to train like you, Lolo Yi!"

Huo Lohse raised her hand for a high-five, and Xiao Shen jumped to meet it.

Lolo turned to her group of friends. "Everyone, I'd like you to meet Xiao Shen. He is my baobe!" She looked back at Xiao Shen to nag, "you'd better hurry off to class! I will see you later, so you can tell me all about it, ok?"

Xiao Shen nodded, "mn," and off he went.

Huo Lohse turned back to her friends. They were all staring at her. "What?"

"You have a baby?" Ulana asked, expressing everyone's thoughts aloud.

"A baby? No. Xiao Shen is my baobe. Though I can see how that could be confusing."

"What’s a baobe?" Fortus and Shanti asked in unison.

Zhongyan decided to take this question. "In the Wolf Tribe, it's sort of a tradition that when a new baby is born, a young woman from the tribe, generally between the ages of nine and eleven, gets assigned to the new mother as a designated mother's helper and as the baby’s ‘yi’. The girl assists the mother in the care of her baby for at least a year by feeding, holding, bathing, or tending the child so the mother can rest, or get chores done, or vice versa."

Xaowan added, "the theory is that the girl learns skills she will need to prepare her for own motherhood while the new mother is provided with much needed help. The baby wins too because it gets another person in their life to love and be loved by."

"So to answer your question," Lolo wrapped up, " Xiao Shen, my baobe, is the newborn I was assigned to help care for when I was nine years old, and I am his yi."

Everyone looked impressed, except Standig who was unreadable as usual.

"You helped care for that little boy?" Et'zana gaped.

"Yup! Until he was fourteen months old. Since then, I've kept in touch with his family, and we visit each other periodically. His parents are farmers.... Actually, you've met his grandparents, Ulana! Mr. Tuliao and Mrs. Genga!"

"Oh yes! They are the sweetest!" Ulana remembered them fondly.

"Xiao Shen is a rare animal spirit host from a common household, so I've been lucky to be able to mentor him in ways his parents can't. He is an amazing kid: smart, kind, and imaginative." Huo Lohse didn't try to hide the pride in her voice when talking about her baobe. "And now he's staying here at Pack Hall to start his training as an animal spirit host! So I get to see him all the time."

Lolo regaled her friends with stories of Xiao Shen the rest of the way to, through, and back from lunch.

***

That weekend, Fortus was passing by a smaller side courtyard when a child kicked a rock that took a bad ricochet and hit him in the shin.

"Ouch! Watch it, will ya?" Fortus registered the little face in front of him. "Hey kid, aren't you Lolo's friend?"

Xiao Shen sat down on the ground pouting. "Lolo is my yi."

"That's right! And you are her baobe," Fortus remembered out loud.

Xiao Shen nodded, his eyes downcast.

Fortus rubbed the forming bruise on his shin and winced. "Is something wrong?" Not exactly the nurturing type, this question came out almost aggressively, and Xiao Shen started to cry, causing Fortus to panic. "Whoa, kid. Um, it's ok. You're ok. It's no big deal." His efforts were met with harder and louder sobs. Not sure what to do, Fortus turned as if to leave, but he changed his mind and instead sat on the ground facing the crying child. Time for a new tactic. Fortus leaned forward and patted Xiao Shen uncomfortably on the head. "There, there. There, there."

After what felt like an eternity, but probably was only a minute or two, Xiao Shen calmed down, his little face covered in tears and snot. Afraid to ruin a good thing, Fortus kept quiet and waited. He was rewarded with a wet, sticky hug around his neck.

Somewhere between charmed and disgusted, Fortus peeled the child off of him and stood him up. "Now can you tell me what's wrong?"

Xiao Shen wiped his face on his sleeves and began to ramble about how frustrated he was with his training. He couldn't figure out "the sword stuff" which was disappointing because he wanted to be “just like Lolo Yi”, and he missed his mom and dad.

Fortus did his best to listen. When Xiao Shen had finished, Fortus stood up, walked to a nearby tree, and used his sword to chop off two straight, sturdy sticks. He handed one to Xiao Shen. "Let's work on 'the sword stuff’ so you can show your yi."

The two boys spent the rest of the afternoon together as teacher and pupil. Running through drills, working on footwork and basic forms, Fortus was an awesome teacher for Xiao Shen. By the end of the day, the little five-year-old was giggling at his own progress. He and Fortus finished their lesson with a sparring match which Fortus let Xiao Shen win.

"Well done! I need to go now, and you need to return to wherever you belong so they don’t worry about you. Keep practicing, and you will do well, little soldier." That's what Fortus's father used to call him-- little soldier. Fortus bowed to his student, and Xiao Shen embraced him around the thighs as a thank you.

Walking back for dinner, Fortus smiled to himself thinking about the many swordsmanship lessons he had had with his father. As the Lion General, his father had always pushed Fortus to develop his swordsmanship. Fortus felt that his efforts with Xiao Shen today would make his father proud, and it was a gratifying feeling.

His thoughts shifted to Xiao Shen. “It’s no wonder Lolo is so proud of the kid. He is a hard worker with tons of potential. I even like him, and I am not a kid-person.”

Fortus envied the closeness of Xiao Shen and Huo Lohse's relationship as he himself was an only child. His mother died shortly after he was born, and, apart from his father, he had no other family to speak of. As much as Fortus loved his father, it was lonely with just the two of them, and the Lion Tribe, well, it was not the Wolf Tribe. Lions didn't have friends, they had networks of alliances and connections.

By contrast, here was a little boy with a mother and a father, involved grandparents, a built-in yi, and a supportive tribe. “The wolves have definitely got one thing right,” he thought. “Everybody has somebody here. Xiao Shen is a lucky kid.”

***

Every free moment he had, Jadu could be found reading medical texts, studying the medicinal properties of various herbs and fungi, scribbling notes into his research journal, or making some new potion. Today, when Shanti got back to their room from dinner, she could smell Jadu’s latest experiment simmering over a small cooking station. Unlike so many others, this particular project smelled delicious.

“What are you making, Jadu?”

Jadu looked up at his sister and waved her over. “Tell me what you think.” He handed her his research journal and pointed to an experimental recipe in the bottom corner.

Shanti read through the ingredients.

Curcumin, capsaicin, ginger, cloves, white willow bark, and…

She looked again, “Crescent Lake water?” she read aloud and looked up at her brother who smiled and nodded. “The rest of these ingredients have anti-inflammatory properties. What’s special about lake water?”

Jadu took his notebook and turned the page back. “This.” He pointed to a section written in miniscule handwriting.

Wolf Tribe boils Crescent Lake water for inflammation. Suspect algae unique to lake. Research: Lake water comparable to traditional medicines? Lake water enhance traditional medicines? Effective to condense substrates for practical use/ transport?

“Cool,” Shanti said simply. “What have you learned so far?”

“The lake water is effective for treating inflammation.”

“And now you are testing to see if it can enhance traditional brews?”

“Mn,” he nodded.

“Let me know what you find.”

Jadu smiled and returned to his simmering pot.

The Bhuje siblings were from a small village called Pahaad in a mountain basin outside the main Dragon Tribe territory. Historically, the Dragon Tribe was known for their medicines, but in recent generations, that interest in healing potions was corrupted by a new interest in killing potions. Such being the case, Pahaad was founded with the intention to preserve the medical knowledge and traditions of the Dragon Tribe, so, while the Dragon Tribe as a whole was now known for their poisons, Pahaad was known for its unparalleled medical prowess.

Shanti and Jadu had the distinction of being the great-grandchildren of Pahaad’s founder, and Jadu, with his rare aptitude for pharmacology, found his calling in the village mission to preserve medical knowledge and spread healing. The varied elevation of Pahaad’s landscape provided a wonderfully diverse collection of herbs for medicine-making and Jadu’s innovations, but he was always looking for more variety and foreign expertise to enhance his research. Every year, Jadu came to the training exchanges with the intention of learning from the local doctors and pharmacists in his free time.

On the other hand, Shanti was also a budding pharmacist and physician in keeping with the Pahaad tradition, but her interests were more varied. Shanti enjoyed coming to the training exchanges to meet new people and study other cultures. This year, she found the Wolf Tribe to be warm and friendly. She especially enjoyed the focus on teamwork and the overall pack mentality. People here looked out for each other, and the boundaries between the leaders and the common folk were extremely thin, each individual playing their part dutifully for the greater whole. It felt similar to the isolated, small-village community she'd grown up in, just on a much bigger scale.

With Jadu engrossed in his work every night, Shanti had lots of time to herself. She couldn’t complain. As a brother, no one was more gentle or loyal than Jadu. But sometimes, especially this summer, she wished they had a more interactive relationship… “like the Lang or Zugeer siblings,” she thought to herself. “But then again, Jadu and I can talk with each other on an intellectual level that they can’t. I guess this is the purpose of these exchanges-- to understand and appreciate our similarities and our differences.”

Feeling a little too philosophical for her current mood, Shanti shook the thoughts from her head and got ready for bed.