After the training, Jachum was feeling really hungry. He hadn't gotten a chance to grab food since he had awoken, and the pain in his stomach was driving him crazy. The thought of a rabbit freshly skinned by his father that morning after catching it in one of the traps they had set up made Jachum's mouth water. "Dad, I'm starving." He said, falling on his butt in the yard.

"Oh." Said his father looking up at the sun.

"I guess it is already afternoon. I wasn't really paying attention. Let's grab some radishes and dried meat, then we'll start working on your understanding of the different races of spirits and their uniquely weird habits."

Jachum gave his father a mournful look. "But Dad, you just caught three rabbits this morning. I saw the skins hanging out back. Can't we eat something hot and delicious? Please??"

His father looked at him for what felt like forever before slowly cracking a smile. "I suppose we can. We already have a lot of dried meat stored away. There's no harm in something fresher."

"Yes," cried jachum in his mind. Fresh meat was the best.

Unfortunately, his happiness was short-lived as directly following the meal was one of the most boring lectures his father had ever given him. It was all numbers and what types of spirits, like who and who hated each other. There was so much information Jachum already had a headache by the first ten minutes. He tried really hard to pay attention, but after fifteen minutes, his mind was mush. The lecture carried on for another 2 hours.

After which, he had to do the afternoon chores of fetching water and checking the traps for any new animals. He found a raccoon in one of the traps. The animal was trapped inside a small cage. Jachum slowly drew his knife and, picking up a stick, began sharpening it. His father had gone over with him many times how important to kill the raccoon without ruining the hide. So after making a sharp point, he stabbed to makeshift spear at the animal's head. It had taken him a lot of practice with his father to kill the animal with the first stab, so he was particularly proud of the raccoon slumped over after only one try. Nodding in satisfaction, Jachum reset the trap, tied a robe around the animal's body, and moved on to check the rest of the traps. Sadly, there weren't any more animals to be found, and Jachum made his way back to the cabin.

He still wasn't good at skinning animals yet, but after pleading with his Dad, Jachum got to give it another try. While he was able to save the meat without getting any stomach acid on it, the skinning part was ruined. "Better luck next." He thought to himself with a sigh.

"Man, this is really hard, Dad." He said aloud.

"Ahh, don't worry about it too much. It takes practice. You'll get there eventually."

After the dinner of coon meat, it was Jachum's time to go play on his own. "Remember what we talked about earlier today," said his father. "I am just a shout away, and as long as you don't try to kill something too big, it will be alright. But do try to show manners. I'd rather not have spirits spreading gossip that my son was brought up like a barbaric menace."

"Dad, this morning wasn't even my fault. The cat guy was just being mean." An annoyed Jachum replied.

"I know, I know, just try to be nice, ok. Maybe you will just be able to play in peace. This is just in case."

"Ok, I will. Jeez, Dad, you worry a lot." Said Jachum as he waved and walked into the forest.

"You have no idea, child." Said Elden watching the boy step into the shadows of the massive trees overhead. Elden sighed, then fell into his own shadow, disappearing from the cabin's entrance.

Jachum was happy as soon as he left the clearing and entered the forest. It was so lovely being able to go do anything he wanted without his Dad telling him what to do. He began humming a melody from a song he couldn't remember where he had heard. Jachum looked around for a cool-looking tree. Spotting a rather big one, jachum reached into his bag and pulled out the hand and foot claws his father had made for him. This was one of the funniest things his father had given him, and he loved climbing up on a tree and then trying to jump over to the next like a squirrel. It was so much fun.

It was, of course, actually tough to do, but Jachum didn't mind. That feeling of freedom when he leaped from one branch to another was nothing like he had ever felt before or since. He was terrified when his father jumped across two trees while carrying him, but after Jachum had gotten used to it, it made him giggle. Now that he was older and could do it himself, it still made him giggle a little.

The annoying part was the initial climb up, his father could do it as if he was walking up the tree, but for Jachum, it took him a whole forever. By the time he made it up to the lowest branches, he was sweating profusely. Jachum laid down on his back on the branch and caught his breath. Staring up at the branches above him, there was a small red fox sitting comfortably on one of the branches.

"Hi, Mr. Fox." Said Jachum giving a tired wave.

"Hello, little boy." Came the surprising response.

This made Jachum shocked. The fox wasn't glowing or anything. He didn't expect it to be able to talk. "How come you don't glow?."

"Am I supposed to glow?" Asked the fox looking bemusedly at him.

This made Jachum think, was the fox actually supposed to be glowing? Realizing he really was going to need to listen to more lectures from his father, he sighed. "I don't know. Do you not glow at all? Like ever?"

The fox shook its head contentedly, "No, I don't think I've ever glowed before. Have you ever glowed?"

This made Jachum have to think again. He was pretty sure he had never glowed before. "No, I don't think so."

"I see, I see." Said the fox. "Anyway, what are you doing up on this tree, little boy?"

"I'm not a little boy. My name is Jachum." Said the newly named aatma. "I'm going to go jumping across this tree to that one over there." pointing to a tree close by.

"Ohh, that sounds like a lot of fun, Jachum. Can I come too?" Asked the fox. "

Jachum gave this question a lot of thought. He remembered all of his father's warnings but seeing how Mr. Fox was so much nicer than that evil cat creature, Jachum didn't see the harm. "Yeah, that would be lots of fun, Mr. Fox."

So off they went, a little boy leading with a fox following behind as they sought to find the perfect place to leap across. Jachum soon found someplace suitable and, taking out a small but really long rope, tied it around his chest, then around the tree branch. He had already put away his foot claws but left his hand claws on just in case. He licked his lips as he stared at the opening between his tree and the tree he was planning on jumping. It suddenly felt larger than when he had picked it out earlier. "Mr. Fox, do you want to go first." Asked Jachum, suddenly feeling a little tentative.

The more he stared at it, the more he realized that this would be the largest jump he had ever done, and by a wide margin. "Nonsense, this is your fun. How can I take the excitement of being the first one across away from you," said the fox somewhere behind Jachum.

Jachum nodded his head silently before rechecking to make sure his claws were on the right way. Steeling his courage, Jachum began sprinting as fast as he could towards the end of the branch. Faster and fast, he went moving towards the place he was going to jump. The fear was gone; instead, there was only excitement and the thrill of laughing at death in the face. Just as he was about to jump, a force from the side threw him off balance. He tried to catch his footing, but he stumbled. Fear flashed through his eyes. There was no way he was going to be able to stop without falling off the tree branch. Jachum pushed on off balance and jumped with all his might towards the tree branch that seemed so far away. Even directly after the initial jump, Jachum knew he wasn't going to make it.

Elden felt frustrated with his child. He had talked to Little err Jachum about this many, many times. Yet the boy still decided to pick a jump that was too large for him. Elden watched as his son looked nervously around while talking to a little fox that was following Jachum around. Anything that had anything to do with foxes worried Elden, but after thinking it over in his head, he decided to let it be. This was Jachum's independent play time, and he had to learn. Elden saw when Jachum suddenly stumbled, then watched as the idiotic child decided to continue to try to make the jump. Sighing to himself, Elden prepared to rescue his child for the umpteenth time.

The world felt like it froze as he suddenly couldn't move his body. "Ah, Ah, Ah," said a maddingly singsong voice. "Just what do you think you're doing."

The body of the voice entered his vision, and Elden found himself staring at a small red fox. Elden found his tongue to be loosened and spat out, "I'm trying to save my son."

At this point, Jachum was in midair and starting to make his descent. For some reason, there was no longer a rope tied around his chest. "Poor little Jachum has to learn. You saving him won't teach him anything."

"Learn what? He's going to die if I don't save him. Please, Wisahkeha, let me free." Cried the father straining at his invisible bonds.

"Now, now, relax. You didn't read very much into spirit law before you allowed me to name him, did you? Since I named him, he's mine. You have no legal right to tell me what to do. You don't even have to right to save him if I don't wish it."

Jachum was moving closer to the ground, and it felt to Elden as if he was losing a year for every second his boy was falling. "I'll use my last favor, please Wisahkeha, just save him."

The little fox cocked its head to one side as if thinking. "Nah, I'm good."

A second later, Elden heard to sickening crunch of a small skull caving in and the snap of a spine fracturing into pieces. "No, no, this can't be real." He said as tears began to trickle down his face. Elden felt shocked, and sorrow bested up inside him. It was as if all meaning in life had disappeared. The whole reason he had moved out into this forsaken forest. The reason he had abandoned everything for the last seven years. All of it was meaningless in an instant when that body hit the ground.

"Oh, quit being a baby." Came the sly voice of the fox sitting beside him.

Elden's sorrow turned into rage, and he sought out his gift. He pushed all his hatred and anger into the darkness hoping against the impossible that he could hurt the creature that had just, in a practical sense, killed his son. Nothing happens. The shadows didn't congeal to stab the fox. The darkness didn't shelter him. Instead, he simply stood there trapped in invisible bonds with tears moving down his cheeks.

Elden didn't know hold long he stood there. It didn't really matter. But just as the sun was setting, something pulled Elden out of his fugue state. Jochum's body twitched. After another five minutes, the boy sat up, stretched, and looked around. "Mr. Fox, where did you go?" the little boy called.

Elden could only stare in shock.

Jachum stretched and looked around for his new friend. He couldn't remember what exactly had happened, but his back felt really sore. "Ahh, Little Jachum, your finally awake." Said the voice of Mr. Fox.

Jachum turned to see the creature languidly relaxing on a stone.

"Did you have a nice nap?" asked the creature.

Jachum nodded his head, "Yeah, I feel pretty rested, actually. Oh no." he said, startled as he looked at the setting sun. "Bye, Mr. Fox, my Dad is going to be really angry if I'm late today. I'll come to play with you later."