Ki-sen
#3 of Journeys in Xel
In the Wolven Packs pups are brought along on hunts and gathering outings at a very early age. They learn all about navigation, what you should eat, and what you shouldn't; and how to best find that which is good. No Wolven are left out, even craftsmen and seers are expected to be able to fend for themselves. The children are expected to tag along with the rest of the pack and watch not do; but it is fairly common amoung young wolven to grow impatient and try to catch something for themselves.
"Russ We're lost" I told My best friend. "No we aren't I know exactly where I am" He responded. I sighed, this happened every time the older hunters tried to take us out. I should probably have stayed back this time, but I couldn't let russ wander off on his own. Besides, it was WAY more fun being with him than being with the old wolf they'd sent with us this time. "Back in my day we woulda told you to hunt yer own food and not let you come back until you had enough to share, in the winter and uphill the whole way it woulda been." we mocked. This led to a bout of laughter. Russ stopped us "I smell something sweet up there" he said, and began to climb up the tree. I got a worried feeling as I watched him climb "maybe you should wait...." I stopped as a beehive plopped right onto my head, followed directly by Russ' body. I fell to the ground with a grunt, soon Russ was on top of me, our fur stuck together by honey.... and bees crawling all over us. "AHHHHHHHH" we both yelled as we got up, our fur being pulled by the stickiness of the honey as we ran around being stung.
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I woke up wincing as my fur was pulled by my attempts to separate myself from Russ. Beneath me he started to laugh. "Just like honey eh?" he commented. I smiled at our shared memory pulling myself away from him with a parting kiss.
Akeru was laying across the cave snoring loudly. We had lost our packs and supplies to the Nezumi, having only our stolen swords for our own. So we went to check out Akeru's pack, by sniffing the pockets we found some jerky. "Do you think it's ok to take this Gill?" Russ asked. "Yeah we'll be catching her dinner soon enough, no reason she shouldn't share now." I replied. "hmm... ok, but what if it's got spells and stuff on it?" he asked. "We better go wake her up" I concluded
As it turned out we didn't have to wake her, she was soon up on her own. She took one look at our mussed up fur and began to laugh. She herself was pretty sticky and we laughed right along with her. "We're gonna need to find a place to wash soon" she said. "In the meantime, the meat is perfectly mundane, pass some over here, then help yourself".
"So" I began, "lets continue where we left off last night". "What? Yiffing" she asked. "Nooooo, we want you to tell us why you rescued us, aside from being hornier than sin." Russ responded, on the same wavelength as me.
"Well actually it is because you" she said pointing at me "are giving off magical energy like like a fallen star, and I want to invoke the rite of Ki-Sen". I froze "what in the hells is Ki-Sen, some kind of witch sparring?" Russ asked. "Something like that" I replied. As a potential seer I had heard of Ki-Sen, a rite called by any magic user of any of the races which allowed one month of observation over another magic user whose potential you believed was un-realized. It was a kind of forced internship designed in order to stop young untrained mages from causing damage with inproper use of magical energy. It became null and void in the case that the caller of the Rite caused the mages life to be put at risk; but otherwise guaranteed a month in which the caller could follow you everywhere, observe your every action, and comment on your practices and coach you as they saw fit.
It was taken very seriously, and typically not called by people outside of the pack; but since the pack wasn't here.... "You can't call the rite of Ki-Sen for a non-magic user Akeru...." She laughed in an irritating way "You my boy, have more magical power than anyone I've seen in a long time; even if wolven magics are different. I'm bound to be able to teach you something, besides, you already agreed to let me travel with you, and there isn't much you have to hide from me now." Russ was looking from one of us to the other thoughtfully. His face settled into a smile and he hit me on the back "sounds like mister hopeless has found a way to get those 'skills useful to the pack' he wanted eh. Well you guys can talk about your mumbo jumbo while I try to find the balance of this sword I've got, then we can leave in an hour or so." With that he began going through sword drills in the corner of the cave.
"Ok so what do you know about magic?" Akeru asked me. "Magic is the art of communing with spirits in order to create contracts in which the spirits will form specific tasks in response to agreed upon rituals" I answered by rote. "Hmm, well that could be right. Let me tell you how nezumi see it. Magic is the art of redistributing attributes with which the caster is intimately familiar. Our casters first meditate on a specific attribute, likely a direct equivalent to your communion with spirits. Once that attribute is ingrained into our conciousness we define a specific change in the distribution of that attribute that we want to happen, then, with the focus on that create a binding ritual which we mentally connect to that change. The attribute I focus on is attention. When I stunned the guards I took their attention and redistributed it so that it was focused only internally and they would be unaware of their surroundings. When I charmed you, I redistributed your attention from your disgust at my species, to all of the positive things you could see in me. I'm sorry for doing so; even if I didn't put any new thoughts into your head with it." This she said with a sly greasy smile, I gave her a look that told her just what I thought of it.
"ahem... sorry, anyways: The stage you seem to be at is the aquisition of an attribute, or as Wolven would put it, spirit. Traditionally Nezumi take the attributes of life: sense, which attention is a form of; and animation, such as strength, movement, speed ect. Wolven, if I understand properly typically speak to spirits of either knowledge or nature." I affirmed this "all of our spellcasters begin as Seers by persuing a spirit of knowledge; the stronger ones than commune with the elemental spirits and become callers, they are the most prestigious people in a pack." "and you have tried to commune with a spirit?" she asked. "Yes" I said " I've tried talking to the seeing spirits, meditating for hours and even eating shamanic leaves, but they do not respond, I've tried the dreaming spirits, the thinking spirits, the prophetic spirits. none have responded.... but if I were to try again I would attempt the dreaming spirit, although I could never speak to it, I did feel aware of it, and I have very lucid dreams sometimes, which I am told is a good sign."
"Maybe you are going about it backwards" she said "huh" I responded. "Try an elemental spirit". "WHAT" I said "that would be backwards, knowledge must always preceed power, I've always been taught that!" She looked at me and shrugged "As ki-sen I can only recommend, this is what I recommend, you should think about it." I heard Russ walk over " So are we going to find a place to clean up so we can continue on our journey, or are we gonna settle down in this cave?" he asked.
We were walking soon. I smelled a stream ahead and we all ran towards it. Once there we jumped in. I began to think about what Akeru had suggested. I decided to ask Russ for advice. "Hey Russ", I asked. "Yeah" he responded. I explained Akeru's suggestion to him. He thought about it for a few moments; then shrugged and said "I trust you, I the traditions are nice, but we aren't exactly traditional people, between our relationship and this jouney we are already likely to be frowned upon socially, so if you avoid elemental spirits, do so for your own reasons, not because of tradition. If you want to speak with an elemental spirit, do it, and remember, you are stronger than you think you are; and" He stopped here to kiss me, I kissed back passionately, breaking it off feeling happy for his support. "... I love you" He finished. I smiled, "We'd better get cleaned off eh?" I said.
We jumped into the water.
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Hope you enjoyed it, as always comments and critcism are appreciated. Thanks for reading.
When we continue our friends will go for a swim( with some fun added in), explore the differences in culture between Nezumi and Wolven, discuss geography and squirrels, and finally make solid plans for the future of the journey.