The biggest change wasn’t the added subject of Spirits into the lectures his father provided, nor was it the extra hour of physical and mental training he had added on top of the training he was doing before; instead, the biggest change was the freedom in the afternoons that his father gave him.

The day after his birthday his Father had told him, “Now that you have reached aatma it is time to build your own understanding of the world, and it is impossible to do so if I am always there. One must find understanding in their own heart, even if you have questions, search for understanding in your soul. So instead of doing your chores every afternoon, you are going to go explore the area around us.

I don’t care who you talk to or what friends you make, I only have three rules; First you’re not allowed to sign anything; I don’t care who it is, you must ask me first. Secondly you must be back at the cabin before the sun starts to set. And finally, you have to bring back something for dinner. Understood?”

“Ok, I understand father. Are you really not going to tell me what the gift Wasehkeha gave me?” Said Jachum asking for the hundredth time.

“That my child is something you are going to have to figure out on your own. I have my suspicions, but it doesn’t look like this gift is simple at all. It is nothing like my shadow.” Said he

“Now go away before I change my mind and make you weed the garden.” Said his father in a dramatically solemn voice.

“It doesn’t matter if he is being fake dramatic or not.” thought Jachum as he started walking into the outer depths of the clearing their cabin was located. “He’d probablyl try to make me weed the garden out of spite.”

So, off went the seven-year-old child went a single guardian to protect him; into the wilds with only a knife on his waist and the knowledge his father had forced into him over the years. It was early spring at the time, the undergrowth was only beginning to wake up after having survived a cold winter. The trees towered over him as he moved through the forest dwarfing the width of even their cabin, they were so large.

“Why don’t we live inside the tree instead of in a clearing” Thought Jachum, “It would be a lot more comfortable.

In the beginning all that Jachum did was stare into the massive trees picking out which ones would make the best home. He tried guessing at the species, which is sometimes difficult when most of the leaves were unavailable. He also tried to search for spirits but no matter where he looked, he was unable to find any. The world looked just the same as it did yesterday, and if not for his Father’s unerring seriousness on the matter, he would have almost thought the entire adventure into the Spirit world was just a dream.

It was mid afternoon by the time he realized he was kind of hungry and thinking of his father’s request for food, became looking for dinner. Thinking about what sounded good Jachum realized something, so climbing on top of the roots of a rather large tree he went looking for mushrooms. It was the third tree he came upon that he was able to find a grove of young mushrooms hidden away. Of course, some mushrooms are poisonous, but thanks to his annoying father, Jachum could tell immediately which where which. Picking out one of his favorites, he grabbed his knife and gently cut it. “Now to make this perfect” he thought to himself, “all I need is some nuts.”

After about ten minutes worth of searching, he found was he was looking for, a very large squirrel nest. Although his father had drilled into his mind the dangers of breaking into a squirrel’s nest, he had seen his adult counterpart sneak into them many times with ease and had full confidence he could do it himself.

Using the knife at his waist he began the very slow climb up the tree trunk the nest was located upon, in search of some amazing nuts that squirrels always had stored.

Just because he was climbing did not mean he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, his “old man” had always drilled into him the need for awareness, so as soon as he saw it he froze.

While not the deadliest of creatures that could be found in the wilderness, bears were still pretty high up on the list. Standing three times the size of his father this bear “could eat him as a snack.” thought Jachum.

“It must have just gotten out of hibernation and is looking for food.” thought Jachum gulping.

The bear began to wander around, strolling this way and that, it ambled about without a care in the world. “Stupid Bear, go away there is no food around here.” thought Jachum, who at this moment was directly opposite the bear. He was stuck in the middle of climbing a tree. If he made a sound the bear would come up and eat him. But his muscles were not going to be able to take the strain of staying perfectly for very much longer

Right when Jachum thought he was not going to be able to hold on, the bear meandered directly underneath him and started digging for tasty roots underground. “If I can just get right above him, I may have a chance to survive” he thought. As if seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, Jachum found renewed strength as he inched his way along the trunk till he was exactly parallel with the bears head. Not even thinking about the consequences of a child jumping from twenty foot, he pushed himself off the trunk and started to fall, his knife aimed for the bears neck.

The crash that occurred was not the one Jachum expected. Instead of his knife going through the bears neck it was knocked out of his hand. He rolled off the bears back as quickly as he could and tried to move towards the tree when a massive paw crashed into his shoulder sending him sprawling.

Numbing pain shot up his arm, and Jachum began crying when he realized he couldn’t even move it. “Shut up.” Growled a deep angry voice. “Here I am wandering around for fun and Human child falls out of the air. Do you have any idea what would have happened to you if I was an actual bear?”

Jachum turned around still sniffling, but instead of the ferocious maw he was expecting, the bear in front of him looked intelligent and had compassionate eyes.

“I will congratulate you on ingenuity, I have no idea why you thought attacking a bear like that would do something. Maybe if you were a bit bigger, but right now you weigh nothing. What has your father been teaching you.” the bear guffawed then began to wander away.

“Don’t attack things bigger than you little human, others may not be as nice as I.”

Jachum tried to quite his crying, and slowly made his way towards home. Every step left a burning sensation jolting up his body. “I think my dad said this is my collar bone, as he glanced down at the hump that was pushing out of his shirt” By the time he made it home, he had somehow stopped crying, but was completely exhausted. He pushed the door open and smelled his father’s stew hanging over the fire.

“Dad” he cried in a tearful voice, and then everything went dark.

“He made it a lot farther than I thought he was going to be able to” Said the father thinking out loud as he carried Jachum into his bedroom. “I appreciate that his listened to my lectures and tried to go on the offensive, but clearly I didn’t teach him about weights and physics, I may have messed up on that end.

“Oh well, what doesn’t kill a person makes them stronger, well or traumatizes them.” he thought with a sigh. He, gently placed Jachum onto his bed and cutting off his shirt looked at the wounds he had accrued during his little misadventure.

“A fractured collarbone and dislocated shoulder, bruising on the Deltoid and Biceps femoris, as well as across the scapula. Not even mentioning the bruising on his abdomen. I expected nothing less from my own blood’s first adventure. Though where was that stupid fox when he needed protection.” With that, and a couple more curses towards the hated spirit, he began chanting in Spirit tongue.

Jachum woke up to his father yelling. He stretched forgetting that he was injured and was then shocked to find he didn’t feel any pain. He moved his right arm back and forth and saw it worked perfectly well.

“Dad, Father, I know what my gift is” Jachum shouted.

And running downstairs showed his father his healed arm. “Look Dad, I was able to heal everything over night, I know you can’t do that, this must be my gift.”

His father stared at him unsure whether to laugh or cry. “Sorry, Jachum I am going to have to ruin your happiness, I am the one that healed you, not your gift.”

“How did you do that?” Asked Jachum, still hoping to catch his father in a lie.

“That” Said the adult “is something I will teach you at a later date, but right now you have to go eat breakfast so I can start giving you a lecture about Physical science. “

Jachum, started muttering to himself as he made his way to the table after grabbing a quill and ink. “Why does he always offer the boring stuff for free, but never tells me anything actually interesting. And I still have no idea what my gift is.”