“So what is it?” I asked as I showed Shimak my tattoo. It looked as odd here as it had down at the river, it’s glyphs and markings intricate and beautiful, while the beast it depicted was small and ugly. She inspected it thoroughly her expression serious as if in deep thought.

“Poop?” She said as she made a ‘who knows’ gesture with her hands.

“Common…. “ I said “So far you’ve known everything, Why are you drying up on me know?”

“Dad knew how excited I was about becoming a warrior so he borrowed some of the clan’s scrolls on beasts and cultivation to let me read them. But the Mountain-Sun clan is just one small clan in a backwater Kingdom. The Xi Shan continent is nearly 200,000 leagues across and contains hundreds of Kingdoms and hundreds of thousands of clans. The beasts they have records of are only those generally found in this area. Besides, why are you trying to blame me for this. I’m gone for a few days and you bind your soul to a poop monster.” She said angrily.

I was taken aback by her words. I figured there would be other clans, but honestly this world was nonsensically large. A league in my world was about three miles, so this continent would be nearly twenty times the size of the earth and that was one continent. Honestly, a planet that large shouldn’t even be habitable. It’s gravity would be too massive and the heat and pressure at it’s core would be so huge it would have turned into a star. Then again this entire place didn’t make any sense. Maybe the gravitational constant was lower in whatever dimension I’d ended up in. Maybe the world the world was flat. Honestly, what the hell did I know?

“Well it’s not my fault you were up here doing whatever it was you were doing.” I said defensively. My sheer bewilderment had upset me and my mental battle with whatever god forsaken beast I’d bound hadn’t helped my mood.

“I told you, once you bind a beast you have to stabilize the connection before you can cultivate!” She yelled.

“Mine connection feels fine.” I shot back, my own anger rising.

“That’s because you used a blood pact like an idiot!” She said exasperated.

“It was an accident. It doesn’t matter now anyway.” I said my anger quickly abating. Hell, was a yelling at a little girl, how sad was that. “What’s done is done. Now how do I do this?” I asked as I calmed down and set on the floor of our small hut.

“First summon your beast. You should be able to feel it in your dantain.”She instructed as I closed my eyes and turned my focus inwards. Sure enough the…. whatever it was was happily swimming around the cloud of energy in my dantain. “Now you should be able to feel a link between it’s mind and yours. Focus on that and start rotating the energy and in your dantian.”

I did as she ordered. The connection between us was an odd feeling. It was like having another consciousness inside of myself. I gave the link a prod and start rotating the cloud of energy. The miniature beast started to grow rapidly until it suddenly vanished. There was a wet squelching sound next to me and Shimak let out a startled cry.

The black-whatsit lay on the dirt floor of our hut motionless. Shimak looked at with a grimace. “That thing's so ugly and disgusting.” She said as she turned her nose up at my new companion.

“Hey, lay off. What did Rupert ever do to you?” I asked as I gave it’s odd tubular body an affectionate pat. It’s skin was textured like rubber and my hand came away covered in slime. I waited till Shimak looked away before wiping it off on the ground.

“Alright, now what?” I asked excited. Although my beast didn’t look like much I still had high hopes for it. After all the markings on my arm were some of the most intricate and complex I’d ever seen. So, I was secretly hoping my beast would be some rarity that would grant me incredible powers.

“Now, Make this hand seal and calm your mind. She said as she demonstrated. The seal was a simple triangle shape and as I held my fingers in position the mental link to my beast started to vibrate like a tuning fork. Then a tiny trickle of power started to enter my body. It was nothing like absorbing the monster core. That power had been condensed, wild, and powerful. This was more gentle, but putrid, almost rotten. It was obvious that world essence in its unrefined form was not something good for you.

“Now…. can you feel the flow of power between you and the beast?” I replied in the affirmative and she continued. “ Trace the connection back to your beast and you’ll find the origin of the beasts cultivation path. Most beasts of this power level only have a single one so you shouldn’t have to worry about it.”

I did as instructed and as I traced back the connection the power was obviously coming from the spot I’d touched when I bound the beast. However there was another spot farther back in the middle of it’s body that was also producing power. My beast had two points. Looks like it was special.

“It has two, one on it’s head and another in the middle of it’s body.” I said smugly. I didn’t open my eyes but I’m sure Shimak’s look would have been priceless.

“Hmmmm….. Alright then. Now, this is the tricky part. First select one of the paths then push your consciousness down link and through that path into the beasts body. Once you do that you should see the power moving through its body as it pulls in the essence. What you need to do is copy that path and move the energy you receive around your body in the same way while it purifies. It takes most people quite a while to get right, but once that’s done the hardest part is over. Your body will absorb half of the purified essence as it traverses your body, then you simply send the rest back to your beast so it can absorb what’s left. Some people try to take a larger portion of the essence for themselves but that’s a bad idea in the long run. ”

“Sounds simple enough.” I said as I attempted to do what she’d said. I ignored Shimak’s disbelieving snort and pushed my mind down through the link and into the spot on the beast's head. In my mind I could see a complex path of connected dots that represented the beasts meridians. They lead all over its body in odd twisting patterns that seemed to lack any semblance of rhyme or reason.

“Blood and Bile.” I swore as I came to appreciate the complexity of the problem. The worst part was its physiology was so fundamentally different than mine. At least if I had a beast with legs and a neck I could make some educated guesses about how it’s meridians would compare to mine, but Rupert’s entire body was a tube. It was like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle when every piece was the exact same shade of white.

“Well, let me know when you finish that part. It will probably take a while.It took me a couple of hours with my fawn.” I could hear the suppressed laughter in a her voice. She knew it was going to be way more difficult for me.

I had to stop after a couple of hours because Rupert's body had started to dry out in the hut. IThe next morning I moved down to the river so I could put him underwater while I continued to struggle. I was also supposed to be cultivating in secret, so I couldn’t just sit by the boats and relax. I had to hide myself down by a bunch of boulders that would obscure me from the village. The only good thing about it was the the world’s essence seemed quite a bit denser near the river than it was up in my hut, so I could absorb energy faster down here.

I got about half-way done by the end of the second day, and things started to go more smoothly the third. My focus was turned inward as I pondered the last choice.

“Alright, one-hundred forty-five points down. One to go….” I muttered as I compared my options. I had three choices and picked the middle one. A sharp bolt of pain shot through my left lung and I winced as I quickly withdrew the energy.

Not that one then…….

Shrugging I picked the next choice and as the energy passed through it met back up with the first point and the cycle completed. As it did a feeling of profound comfort passed through my body and I sighed in relief.

In my mind’s eye an image of my body appeared. It looked similar to the image I’d seen inside of my beasts body but the points and lines shined much more dimly and were in shades of violet and orange as opposed to the uniform white they were in Rupert’s body. I didn’t understand what it meant so I ignored the imagine and continued to circle the energy though my meridians. When it was purified I pushed what my body hadn't absorbed back though the link to Rupert. As I did a bubble came up from where he was laying underwater and a faint feeling of contentment seemed to pass between our mental link. Apparently. he was happy.

I continued to absorb and refine essence for another hour before I left to find Shimak. I’d finally completed my task and wanted to find out what the next step was. I headed back up the mountain and finally found her in the middle of the village. It appeared she’d stumbled into some trouble though as she was surrounded by a Kalar and his gang. I rushed over to her hoping to help, although I wasn’t sure what I could do, I’d been successfully cultivating for all of an hour. .

“I hear you're living with that low caste boy now. Didn’t think you’d fall so far ,carrot-head. Kalar said with a sneer. He stood across from her his warrior's tunic spotless. He’d torn the sleeves off to show off his tattoo but with the size of his arms it didn’t look as silly as it should have.

Shimak didn’t take the bait. “Look Kalar I’ve got things to do today. Take your little gang of misfits and go home.”

Kalar grinned maliciously. “You’ve been mocking me ever since we played together as little kids, and when your father was around I had to swallow it, but your a nobody now Red. I could beat you to death right here and nobody besides that whore you have for a mother would even care.”.

Oh no….. This will not end well

I groaned inwardly as I turned to see Shimak’s reaction. Usually when she was angry her face would turn tomato red but now she seemed eerily calm. I took that as a very bad sign. The expression of cold fury on her small face was not a look a twelve year old girl should wear.

“What did you just call my mom?” She asked. Her voice was gentle and relaxed as if she was asking about what we were having for lunch today.

“A whore, but at least she has the good sense to aim high. You're spending all your time with that dirt-farmer.” The boy blustered on, apparently oblivious to the danger.

The words were no sooner out of his mouth when Shimak moved. If I hadn’t been looking right at her I might have missed it. One moment she was standing next to me as calm as could be. The next she had crossed the two steps between her and Kalar and had kicked him right in the balls.

He made an undignified sound and attempted to curl himself around his abused man-parts. Shimak however, wasn’t finished and had spun around him while he doubled over. She leapt into the air and clutched her fists together. As she descended she she swung her clenched fists down directly at the back of his head. There was a rustle of wind from behind me and suddenly there was a tall lanky boy standing directly beside Shimak and Kalar. He deftly caught Shimak’s strike before it landed, but for all the expression on his face he might have just picked an apple.

So Fast…..

Was the only thought I could put together as I gaped at him like a landed fish. Shimak had moved quickly but I’d barely even seen a blur as the boy had run into the circle. He stood there with Shimak’s fist still in his hand as he looked at her with a vaguely amused expression. He was wearing a white Chinese style robe with green embroidery that matched perfectly with his long leaf-green hair. He was older than us by a few years but was likely only 15 or 16.

Shimak scowled at him, but the others all bowed reverently to the youth. He was definitely one of the upper caste. I’d known they were supposed to be elite but the boys speed was superhuman. He looked around at Kalar’s gang for a moment before he spoke with a bored tone.

“You should take your battle elsewhere. However much it amuses me to watch a beastless mite abuse Hallon’s nephew, you would be wise to stop now. Beating Kalar unconscious in front of this many witness would probably make his uncle kill you just to save face.”

I looked around and only then noticed how crowded the street was. It seemed half the village was watching the fight. Shimak snorted derisively then turned on a small heel and walked back toward the poorer part of the village. I crossed my wrists and made a formal bow to the youth before trailing after her.

“Making friends as usual I see. “ I said as we made it back to the hut.

Shimak gave me the evil-eye before she sighed. “Kalar’s family is going to make trouble for us now. Probably for your family too. “ She kicked one of the wooden supports angrily.

“Yeah probably.” I agreed. To the upper caste families image was everything, and although Kalar’s father was middle-caste he was a branch family of an elite upper caste family and had their backing. “But the look on his face when you kicked him in the balls was completely worth it.” I said smiling.

She just shook her head is resignation. “He’s lucky Ruiek stepped in. Otherwise I’d have had him.”

“It sounds like YOU were lucky he stepped in. Otherwise you'd be killed. What family is he from anyway?” I asked curious. I knew he had to be from one off the big families. I just didn’t know which one.

“He’s actually from the main Mountain-Sun family. You can tell by the hair.. Apparently one of their ancestors was a genius with plant type beats and it turned his hair green. Since then it’s been past down to all the descendants.” She answered. “He has a sister our age as well. He uses a lightning type and his sister uses a plant type. They are both top fighters in the younger generation and one will likely be the next clan head. “

I nodded. The boys speed was ridiculous. I couldn’t imagine how anyone could fight against that. It wasn’t surprising he was considered a top fighter. Then I suddenly remembered why I’d come to find her in the first place.

“Oh, I finished mapping out my cultivation path. What do i do next.” I asked excited.

She looked at me for a moment then blinked as if switching mental gears. “Nothing really, That’s pretty much it. Once you have the path mapped out you can find out what your cultivation talents will be, but the work is already done.”

“You said there was another step.” I said confused.

“Well it’s not really a step, but it lets you find out how good your beast is.” She said with a shrug. I rolled my eyes.

“Alright then. Mine has a lot of orange, a little red, and some violet lights that seem to go all over, but it’s kinda hard to see they are all pretty dim.” I said as I waited for her verdict.

She frowned slightly. “Well, yellow usually indicates the senses. Red if for a physical talent, and Violent is an elemental affinity. In your case probably water since your beast is aquatic. Where are the other light located?”

I closed my eyes and brought up the image of my body again. “The orange are pretty much all over, but the red seem to be mostly around my joints.” I said as I inspected the mental image of myself.

I opened my eyes and she looked thoughtful. “Well, orange would be something between senses and physical talents, probably coordination and acute muscle control, not very flashy, but definitely useful. The red around your joints is probably flexibility. Your beast is kinda serpent like, flexibility is a pretty common attribute among snake types beasts.

I sighed. “So I have flexibility, coordination, and the water element.” I said dolefully. “And I’m guessing the brightness of the dots represents how quickly I can absorb essance?” I was really hoping I was wrong but I figured the world would add insult to injury.

“Yeah,” She looked apologetic but agreed. “Although that’s really not too bad of a cultivation path in terms of attributes. Flexibility and coordination cultivators are very tough opponents and if you can master the water element it will improve those. It’s not an uncommon path at all. Although, usually the people who choose it are female.” She said with a giggle.

I groaned loudly, my dreams of crushing stones with my bare hands and running for miles in seconds were dashed. Shimak must have read my thoughts because she added. “Don’t worry. Regardless of your specialization all of your attributes will improve. It’s just the ones that are cultivated specifically will improve faster. Besides you still have a second path to look at, it might be better than the first one and you can use it instead.”

My eyes widened and I quickly summoned Rupert and dove through our connection and into area in the center of his body. Then stopped confused. The first cultivation path had been a nightmare of twisting lines and scattered dots. In Contrast the second path was ridiculously simple. It was thirteen dots which lead in a circle around the beasts lower body. My time spent on the first path had let me draw some parallels between it’s body and mine and it was obvious the circle was around it’s lower dantian.

I quickly started to cultivate and pulled world essence though my own body and around the thirteen Qi points around my own dantain. As I did a new image flashed appeared in my mind this one with the circular path around my dantain illuminated in an extremely faint silver light.

“The second one is even dimmer than the first but all the points are silver.” I said confused.

“Silver?.....” Shimak seemed more confused then I was. “Where are the points?” She asked with a frown.”

“There are only thirteen and they form a circle around my dantian.” I answered.

Her frown deepened. “I have no idea. Your beast is just weird, but if the path is even dimmer than the first one I wouldn’t waste time using it. Your progress is going to be slow enough with the other one.”

I sighed before starting to circulate energy according to the first path. If this was my fate I may as well embrace it. I might be a mediocre cultivator but at least I’d be a cultivator. Eventually I’d be able to leave this village and see the rest of the world, I just needed enough power to survive.

I was happily cultivating a an hour later when I heard shouting from outside the hut. Shimak and I quickly un-summoned our beasts and ran out to investigate. Dad was in the middle of the street confronted by four of the clan’s guards. One was standing directily across from dad and they seemed to be arguing.

“You're not sending my son to that death-trap. He’s only twelve.” Dad said angrily his face red from from fury.

“His presence was requested by the stable-master specifically.” The guard across from dad said in a bored voice. “Look, I understand your anger but your boy was offended a powerful family. Your lucky he’s getting off this easy.” The guard seemed to sympathise with dad but orders were orders.

“EASY!?” Dad shouted angrily. “Most people who work the pins loose a finger a month. Old Turran is down to one leg and three toes.” Dad shouted. “How much do they want this time? Ten tokens a week? Twenty?”

The guard grimaced. “No money this time. It came down from Hallon directly. He said and I quote ‘If that little rat is well enough to get into fights then he’s well enough to work. If he’s not at at the stables by an hour after sunrise tomorrow then I’ll kill him myself.’”

Dad’s face purpled but before he could start yelling again I spoke up. “It’s alright dad. Shimak and I are the ones that made the mess, it’s only right for us to clean it up.” I said seriously I knew the pins were a hell-hole but dad getting into a fight with one of the guards wouldn’t help anyone.

“Speaking of the girl, she supposed to go to the main house tomorrow.” The guard added. “They are putting her with the laundry women.” I frowned. The laundry was hard work and the soap they used was very bad for the skin, causing it to dry and crack. For a young girl it was an exceedingly hard job, but then again Shimak was a cultivator now. In a few months the work would be laughable for her and her skin would heal almost instantly.

I’d definitely gotten the worst end of the bargain. As bad as the low caste part of the village was there was still one place even fewer people wanted to go. The clan stables, or the ‘pins’ as they were usually called, were the single most horrible place in the village. The clan kept wild beasts there and raised them as livestock or for warriors to bind. The problem with the arrangement was an obvious one. The animals of this world were pretty much all blood-thirsty killing machines and trying to feed and care for them was something akin to madness.

The general idea was that young animals that were caught in the wilds or born from already captured animals would be brought in and caged. There they would be offered to cultivators to bind or simply raised until they grew too wild to keep anymore. Then the clan would kill them for meat. It was inhuman, brutal, and slightly insane, and work there was usually relegated as punishment for various misdeeds and offences throughout the village. Accidents were almost a daily occurrence and loss of fingers or other larger body parts was inevitable. In short, it was a very effective method of maiming or killing a person without getting one’s own hands dirty.

***************************************************************************************************

Mom roused Shimak and I from an uneasy sleep just as the sun was rising. After a short silent breakfast and a quick goodbye I left the hut and headed to the west end of town and toward my new place of employment. The sun was just creeping over the top of the mountain and heavy fog covered the village as I walked around the narrow huts. Most people were still alseep and the village had a quiet serenity to it. It was a far cry for the twenty-four sever chaos of Chicago and a sudden pang of homesickness hit me. I wondered if Allison was ok, or my parents, or my sister.

This world was so magical and so brutal. I missed the easy mediocrity of my old life. I missed video games and Ty food at 3am. I missed Bears games. I missed sex. I laughed at the absurdity of it all as I looked up at the blue colored sun. Everything here was so surreal. I was caught up in thoughts at home and I didn’t hear myself being called until the third time.

“Hey You!” Shouted a burly middle-aged man. He had silver-streaked brown hair and had the build and scowl that would curdle milk. He looked intimidating and his missing left arm made him seem more frightening instead of crippled. “Damn boy can’t you hear?” He shouted again and I finally turned his direction. The ‘pins’ were a series of large barns surrounded by fenced off paddocks. The man was standing near the barn and I waved to him and trotted over.

“You the new meat?” He asked as he inspected my scrawny body. “Empress’s tits boy, you're a damn baby. Your ma aint gonna have to stop by to nurse you later is she?” He asked with a guffaw.

I wasn’t sure why, but I took an instant liking to the man. I’ve always found the most foul-mouthed people to be the most honest.

“Na” I said with a shrug. “My mom’s breakfast I usually hit your wife up for lunch.” The main stared at me blankly for a second then burst out in a booming laugh that echoed off the far mountains and seemed to fill the entire village.

When he finally stopped laughing he clapped me on the back hard enough to rattle my teeth. “You got balls boy I’ll give ya that.” He said still chuckling. “So what did you do to land here? Pick some lordlings pocket? Or get caught barking up the tree of some upper caste lass?” He asked as he lead me towards one of the barns.

“Wasn’t me actually. I was with my friend and she got into a fight. She ended up kicking Hallon’s favorite nephew in the balls in front of about a hundred witnesses.” I said with a grin.

He let out his loud booming laugh again. “Blood and Bile boy, You keep friends like that around you won't need enemies. The feisty girls are always the best though. You should keep that one around.”

He lead me though the main door of the barn and the overpowering smell of urine and animal crap hit me like a hammer. I nearly gagged from the stench but managed grit my teeth and endure. Wooden cages lined both walls of the barn and each cage held a feral looking beast. I recognized quite a few from my romps in the wilderness but there were lots of others I’d never seen.

“The beasts are separated by age, Species and type. The youngest are meekest are in the left barn, The oldest and meanest are in the right. I was supposed to send you to the old barn but I’ll be damned if I let one of those upper caste assholes give me orders in my own damn domain. You’ll be working the middle barn at least until I think you can handle the other one.” He explained as we walked through the main aisle.

I could see other workers putting out food or moving the beasts around. He explained my job, how to clean the cages, how to feed them without getting eaten. It was nerve-wracking and tiring work and even under Judan’s supervision I had quite a few close calls. He let me go around mid-afternoon and I quickly ran down to the river to get in as much cultivation as I could before dark.

Interestingly enough my exhausted body seemed to soak in world essence like a sponge and the feeling of the purified essence entering over-worked muscles and tendons was incredably relaxing.So much so I ended up falling asleep and was two hours late for dinner.

When I asked Shimak about it she just snorted. “Well of course it’s better when you're tired. Sure, you can cultivate by just sitting around all the time but it’s way better if you actually train, then use cultivation to recharge. It’s gonna be hard to find enough time for a while, but we should start training again soon. It will be especially important for you, since your cultivation path is so bad.”

I looked at her like she was a mad-woman. “You want me to work all day, then come home Cultivate for a few hours, then do Martial Arts training?” I asked incredulous.

She looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, actually it would probably be better if we did training first thing in the morning when you're fresh.” She said reasonably. “As you cultivate you’ll need less and less sleep so let’s give it a month then start training before work. You still haven’t even got your basic kick down yet.”

I looked at the girl as if she was some devil from the pit. Honestly, it was the first time I’d wanted to cry since I’d arrived here.