Hunting was hard.

So hard that I decided I needed a nap.

Naps were the best when your tummy was full, especially after a great hunt. It had been hard work dragging that fish out of the water, so I needed a nap even more.

I hadn't built a nest yet, so there was nowhere safe to snuggle, I mean guard. I would have to build one, naps were even better when you could settle down in a nest that you had lined with the choicest rocks and bits of shineys.

It was going to be hard to find the rocks I needed, there had seen so many trees when flying, that I hadn't seen any. But there had to be shineys and rocks, doesn't a tree need rocks and soil to grow? I was sure I could find some that would make for a good nest. But I would look later. The nap came first.

The rain had stopped, and before I got started, I found a nice puddle where I spent a few moments preening my feathers. Sister said it was good to wash after eating, that I needed to practice a strange word she taught me. Hygine? Something like that.

I tried to learn the new words that sister taught me. Some were easy. She could create a picture with water essence when saying Entelodont to show me what an Entelodont was. But there was no good picture for hygine. Words like that were hard to remember.

She had convinced me to take baths after eating by promising there would always be good things to eat, that being clean was more important than saving bits of meat that wouldn't be needed. So, I did what sister said and took a bath, not every time, but sister didn't need to know that. Once my last feather had been preened, with the lightning settling back to rest in the afterfeathers, I was ready to take flight and find somewhere good to nap.

I'm not sure how, but I knew where to head to find rocks and shineys. It was probably because I am a Roc. A Roc should be able to find a rock whenever it needed one. There weren't any mountains or cliffs in this world sister had given me, at least not that I could see, so finding rocks was harder.

Those places were the best to find the rocks I would need and to build the best nest. I would keep searching after my nap, to see if I could find a mountain, but for now, I was able to find some on the ground near where the stream I had followed emptied into the lake.

The area where the land and water met had all kinds of shineys, and a few rocks. Not big enough to make a nest, but good enough for right now. The ground was wet, making it easy for me to claw out a depression near the water, one that had enough tumbled rocks to keep the water away.

I finished and settled in just in time; I felt sister begin collecting world essence and do that funny thinking that made us stronger, it was always better to nap when she did that; it was soothing. Almost like being back in my shell.

As I fell asleep, my body began copying her. Sister said it wasn't cheating to copy, but only if I copied her, so I wasn't worried. Content with a full tummy, the lightning elementals playing in my afterfeathers, and sister safe and doing her funny thinking, I began to dream.

Dreams were strange things. Sister said what I saw when sleeping wasn't real. I was glad because sometimes there were bad things I saw. Sister said those dreams were called nightmares, and I didn't have to worry about them. She said if I was scared, she would be there to protect me.

I had a really bad nightmare the day sister's family was attacked. I didn't want to make her feel bad, so I didn't tell her about that dream. I was glad those bad men couldn't hurt her anymore because the bad thing I dreamed of was sister dying and me not being able to help.

That was a scary thing.

Life without sister.

Sister had a lot of family members, but I only had sister. I didn't like that I had to share, but sister told me that I had to be a big girl, she promised sharing was a good thing. I wasn't sure, but I think she might be right. She shared her special world with me. She shared the world essence with me. She shared her funny way of thinking with me. And all of those things made us stronger.

That was the best thing of all. She shared her strength.

I dreamt of flying as sister did her funny thinking, playing in a storm, and drawing in the lightning essence that I liked to do the most. I was enjoying the dream when I jerked awake. It happened sometimes. My body waking me up for no reason. I'm not sure if sister had this happen to her, I had forgotten to ask, but I knew that there might be something important that made me wake up.

My body was still copying sister's funny thinking. The world essence flowing in to fill my channels. I think that might be why I woke up. Sister had always been the one to gather the world essence that she then shared. It had always been her job to collect the essence. But I was collecting energy now too.

I didn't know I could do this; I didn't think she knew either. We had never tried to collect the essence together. But now that I knew, this was another way I could help. I closed my eyes and tried to do the funny thinking that sister was doing, to move the world energy that I was collecting the same way sister was, and to share that essence across our bond.

I wasn't good at it, but this was just my first time, I could get better. I started paying attention to the surrounding essence, noticing it seemed as dead as the air had been. There were thin wisps that I managed to see and collect, but the essence in this magic world was thin.

I extended the way I could see the world like sister had taught me, increasing my view as far as I could reach. It let me see so much more when I tried to see the essence in this way. It helped me to see where the world essence might be stronger and how it was moving.

World essence, when looking at it with the extended vision sister had taught me, came in a mix of colors. Mostly shades of blues, reds, and yellows. The colors would twist together, but somehow no matter how twisted they got, they never combined.

As I looked around, I was sad to see that those energies were so thin in some places that I couldn't find even a hint of color. I decided to abandon my mud nest and follow the flow of the thin traces that did exist. Maybe I could find a place that was blocking the flow.

I tested the bond between sister and me to make sure she was still doing her funny thinking. I didn't want to hide what I was doing from sister, but she had said this world was mine, so it was only fair I get to explore. I was sure following the flow of essence wasn't dangerous and sister wouldn't care. But sometimes it was better to just act, and pretend I forgot to mention my ideas, in case she might.

It was hard to follow the world's essence. I kept losing it beneath trees and in pools of herbs. But I was a hunter, and hunters knew how to sniff out even the hardest to follow prey. I just pretended the world essence was prey and used my extended senses to sniff out the small signs of essence that clung to a leaf or branch.

It took a long time. I needed four naps, and one hunt to finally find a place where the essence was strong. Sister might say I found it by accident, hunting something to eat. She would laugh and say my tummy would lead the way, but I would have found it even if that stupid Entelodont I decided to eat hadn't tried to escape in the burrow where the essence was pooling.

I think Sister would be proud once she was done laughing. I had hunted and caught two things at the same time.