The next rodent I caught, it was time to try to make it sleep through my previous theory. I carefully slit its throat but held the blood in, closing off circulation for a few seconds. It passed out. Acting quickly, I restored its normal blood flow and closed up the wound. Good, it worked out perfectly. I laid it back on the ground and began my concentration. To the core. The strong flow of Ishu. The beating heart. It was still alive. Blood. Flowing blood. Filling both of our minds. A sea of red. The slick liquid that stains all it touches. This is what knowledge I left in its core. Once it awoke, it was incredible. It had worked. Though maybe not in a way I had hoped. The slit on its neck had opened up and blood spewed forth and formed another thing like it, conjoined by the blood from it. It knew how to Shape, I think. The bloody thing leapt at me, its nose forming into a point, but it must have ran out of Ishu or pulled all its blood out of its body. Because it fell short and left me splattered with blood. Upon further examination, it was definitely out of blood. Ishu I could not say, for the core Ishu seemed to disappear on death. Maybe blood wasn't the knowledge that I should have granted. But it had worked. I have been able to give knowledge of an existing concept to something that didn't know how to Shape it. I should be ready to be attacked once they reawaken, most likely weren't going to be on friendly terms after cutting their throat open and forcing them to pass out. From this I went onto something bigger, something with a bit more Ishu within its core.

This time I was going to seek out a canine of some kind. The first one I found leap straight at me, biting my metal coated arm. Its fangs weren't about to get through this, so I was in an advantageous position before it started to scratch at my body. Shaping water to it, and forcing it off and pinned down till I could grab the back of its neck and force down without Shaping. It resisted it quite well till cutting its throat and repeating before. Cut off circulation till it fell over and fell unconscious, restored blood flow and normalized breathing, stitched up its cut. Repeating the same process for Pure Ishu manipulation. It was now time to decide on what knowledge I was going to impart on this beast. I had a wide range to choose from. Soil, Clay, Mud, raw Metals, most Liquids, Blood, Wind, Flame, Ice, to a lesser degree I suppose Snow. Seeing as it'll probably kill itself with blood again, I decided that this time it would be something small and easy, such as Wind. The gentle relaxing breeze. Heavy cutting winds. The pain and pleasure a breeze can give. With this, I've left the knowledge within the core of this beast. Being able to use more of myself since it was a bigger creature felt better, but still took a bit out of me. I rested while watching the beast to see what happened. There are a number of uses that Wind can be applied to. But with a beast that just attacked me, that I attempted to kill, or that's how it will view me despite my intentions, being unable to communicate with it, it is unknown what it'll do with this new knowledge. There are many factors to this that I dislike, as I am at a disadvantage to them, but this is the place I have put myself in. People will be too scared to act on instinct of the new knowledge that is given to them, beasts will use this new knowledge immediately to defend themselves. I have seen a few Half-Magi react in such a way. They learn to Shape but stop doing it as it distances themselves from humans. They would have to have a Shaji parent or Half-Magi somewhere in their line to have been granted the ability to Shape. This innate knowledge doesn't just appear out of nowhere. Just as the higher deities granted us this knowledge, I am doing the same to these beasts. I wonder how many times they had to kill those they granted the knowledge. Upon finishing the thought, the beast awakes, and the next show begins.

It stood back up, a bit weary, before noticing me and growling. The emotional component of Shaping should be strong enough that they don't need a concentrated stance, though this leads to uncontrollable Shaping, it should be fine for this experiment. It just has to prove it can Shape and not kill itself in the process. A breeze blows by, it makes me realize the mistake I made, the only way I will be able to tell if it can Shape is with heavy winds. I should have granted Soil, at least then its easier to tell when the ground is moving. A single stroke down my metal arm, forming spikes along the way. I need it to be hostile and feel that its life is in danger, that it'll use whatever it can to win. Demonstrating the knowledge that I granted it, taking a step forward, with my stance ready, sweeping my arms once from one side to the other, hands open, fingers spread, and conjured a single gust of heavy wind from the side, pushing it. "Show me what I've granted you." Growling, the canine charged at me. Ready for it, I let it bite my metal arm. Wrong, there was no Shaping. So I flipped it over and off of me. Turning to it, still ready. Again. It did the same thing again and again. "Do you not learn?" As if my words had any meaning to it. If I was going to get an emotional Shape response, I guess I'd have to put its life in danger then, instead of being on the defensive. So be it. My physical workouts haven't taught me anything to do with combat, but Shapeless Shapes should be sufficient. The only Shaping I did was a small boost from the Soil to push me away and some wind to push me further along to it. Smashing into the ground with my metal coated arm, missing it barely. Am I a threat to you yet? Will you Shape to save your own life? I threw the needles I had made before, now more proficient at throwing them. They landed in its side. What will you do to live? Taking a few swings at it, scraping it barely as it dodged. It darted behind me, incredibly fast, leaving a small breeze behind it. Reacting as quick as I could, but not quick enough, the beast leapt and bit down onto my non-metal shoulder, as I started making a soil wall hitting it mid bite, causing it to go over me and pull me down with teeth in my shoulder. A hot flash of pain surged through my arm. Swinging with my metal arm into it. I definitely got a good hit into it, as multiple hits into it caused quite a bit of blood to fly, at the same time of it trying to rip my arm off. I couldn't take the pain, I yelled. Yelled as loud as I could. A single punch to its mouth, it pushed its teeth further into my shoulder. I grabbed the bottom part of its mouth and pulled it open as much as I could. I could tell it was hurting it as it started to whimper. Releasing its bite it backed away and looked at me. I could feel the blood soaking my top. I had enough concentration to coat the spot with metal, sealing it as best as I could. Looking back at it, it was having trouble standing from all the open wounds inflicted on it. Even if I were to close the wounds now, it still might not live. But I need it to live. I need to know if this can be passed down to the next generation. Otherwise it's only a temporary grasp, and that's not good enough to me. Getting to my feet, I couldn't stand straight, I was shaking with every step I took towards it. Every step I took, it took a step away. You idiotic beast. For once I'm trying to help. No, it was just instincts telling it that I was going to harm it. It only saw me as a threat. Stopping in place, I took a bit to take a breath. Just enough so I can shape my arm back into a smooth surface. Still snarling at me with blood dripping from its mouth. What can I do to make sure you live? Its blood is all over the place and most likely no good anymore to go back in, on top of that, I'm in no condition to do a complex Shape such as blood. Maybe If I just leave it, it'll be fine. That's what I had to hope. I had to hope that both it and I will live. I was extremely tired at this point as well. I kept pushing through the desire to sleep, to keep taking another step forward, another step to another day. But your will to keep going and your physical capability in doing so are two different things.

I did eventually end up passing out for some time. As I awoke suddenly, still feeling tired, but I had something fuzzy in my face as well. It was the fox. Patting its head a few times, it awoke with a noise. "It's time we go home..." Slowly getting to my feet, with my hands on my knees and head down. I was finding it hard to stay on my feet even after resting for an unknown amount of time. I believe it was sunset, but I could barely see. I just had to take a step forward, I didn't need to look where I was going, if I was heading in the right direction then that's all I needed. Just to concentrate on taking steps. It felt like an eternity, like I was trudging through mud as tall as my body. This was the feeling of nearly expanding most of your Ishu and some life force. The metal that I had tightly on my shoulder was causing pain and muscle soreness, I wanted to remove it, but I needed something to take its place. The walk, it felt like an eternity. I must have been absent minded because I can't recall thinking anything that entire time of walking back, it's all a blur. But I managed to make it back home with the fox guiding me there. I didn't even care what dirt I was tracking in, I just wanted to get this metal off of me and rest properly. But I recovered next to no Ishu through that walk and sleep before. I needed food. I don't know if you've ever had that feeling, where you're barely conscious from sleep deprivation, something similar of staying awake for maybe a week straight. Well, maybe not that extreme, but for you non-shapers that is what it feels like when you've exhausted all your Ishu. I broke some of my railing to be used as a cane. An easy fix for when I was of more sound mind. I made my way to my food storage, grabbed a few fish to be thrown onto the pit. I should have prepped some dried meat, or jerky I believe its called, for times like these. I was so used to tossing a tiny amount of Ishu into the pit to start fires that I was now facing a dilemma. How would I now start a fire with no Ishu and not being able to properly shape even if I was willing to sacrifice an incredibly small spec of my life force. And when I mean small, if I had to guess, maybe a couple of minutes at most.