“What are you doing here?” Water-caller asks warily as she sees her sister and rival approach her camp, accompanied by two each of her strongest Pathwalkers and guards. With such few numbers, it’s a casual visit.

  “My Warriors returned from a hunt to tell me that they saw the leader of the green village of the twelfth mountain heading towards the Festival grounds. I suspect she’ll return within a few clicks,” answers Air-shaper neutrally, though her spikes flicker with murky troubled browns.

  “Already?” Water-caller replies in surprise. “It’s been less than two cycles since she left! Flying-blade is still scouting for something that she dares to attack or steal. Do you think Tamer could have failed and be coming to regroup?”

  Air-shaper scoffs at the suggestion.

  “Do you think that that is likely considering how many People she took with her?”

  “Mostly newly Evolved, and Wind-whisperer has never been known as a particularly competent fighter,” Water-caller points out, though she has to admit that her sister has a point. After all, although she won the battle against Tamer, that was without the other Pathwalker drawing on what seems to be her most powerful skill, if her name is anything to judge by. That said, beast-tamers are only as powerful as their beasts are – the main reason why their strength is not considered highly by the People in general. But if she’s capable of commanding People and not just beasts…. Still, facing a too-dangerous enemy without enough preparation could still be very costly. “Did their numbers look much reduced?”

  Air-shaper sways her tail back and forth non-committedly. “My Warriors couldn’t say. But,” and here she looks beyond Water-caller, “we’ll soon find out.”

  Water-caller turns to look in the same direction, immediately seeing what her sister was getting at. Two Warriors are holding the curtain of poisonous vines to one side as Tamer leads her group in through the resulting gap.

  The first thing the Pathwalker notices is that the group doesn't look significantly reduced. She’d have to count them to be sure, but as her eyes dance over the People, she doesn’t see any notable gaps. And then her eyes settle on something which grips and holds her gaze like a milakar’s sticky sap.

  “Is that…?” she clicks weakly.

  “It…it looks like it is…” answers Air-shaper, clearly enraptured by the same thing that Water-caller is.

  Quiet grunts and clicks whisper out around them as more see the same thing they have. Air-shaper and Water-caller both walk towards Tamer’s party, almost in a dream. Water-caller is vaguely aware of all her present Pathwalkers joining her in a delegation, almost all the Warriors joining too. She suspects it’s less about ensuring her safety, and more about satisfying their own curiosity.

  After all, it’s not every day that an Enlightened Pathwalker appears.

  The closer they get, the more Water-caller is convinced that they are right. Her eyes hungrily trace over the lines that mark the other Pathwalkers’ scales, shining an off-white which must be her mana colour. The meaning of the designs has been lost to time – it is such a long time since there were enough Enlightened Pathwalkers or Warriors around to make such things important. That the designs are always there, however, has been remembered.

  The Enlightened is big too, bigger than practically any of the Pathwalkers Water-caller knows of. Though, there is that oddity among Tamer’s numbers – the Pathwalker who looks far more like a Warrior than what she actually is. Smith, or something? It’s an odd name for an odd Pathwalker – well-worthy of being part of the village which is led by a Pathwalker who isn’t even truly one of the People.

  Yet it seems that it’s the village which had been the main topic of conversation during this Festival. And now it has proven to be this village which has been given the honour of bringing forth the first Enlightened samuran in living memory.

  And, oddly, it appears to still be led by the unusual Pathwalker, considering she stands in front of even the Enlightened. It seems inconceivable that one Water-caller herself defeated might be capable of in turn causing an Enlightened to submit. Unless the Enlightened graciously agreed to defer her challenge until later, that is. In which case, there might even be a ranking battle before the end of the Festival – Water-caller finds herself rather anticipating the prospect. It might even give her some insights into why exactly her sister was able to Evolve where none others have in the last hundred great cycles.

  Water-caller is hit by a sudden wave of longing. She’s felt stuck at a blockage for great cycles. Recently, she’s felt her life trickling away like water through her claws, has felt fragility starting to take hold in her scales. Her decline is not far in the future. Yet if she could become Enlightened….

  Taking another step forwards, she darts a look over at her friend and rival. Air-shaper, too, seems gripped by the same dream, the expression on her face and in her spikes one of hunger and desire.

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  And then they are close enough to the other party that they must stop or risk invading their sisters’ personal space without invitation. Water-caller looks over at Air-shaper and sees her still lost in her dream. Irritation sparks through her as Water-caller realises that she will have to lead the discussion since her sister clearly isn’t fit to do so.

  “The ancestors smile on your return, sisters,” Water-caller gives the traditional phrase, doing her best to smother her impatience – she wants to speak with the Enlightened, find out if there are any secrets she can give which might help her sisters Evolve a second time too.

  “The ancestors be in our meeting,” Tamer answers levelly. As always, it’s hard to determine exactly what she’s thinking – without spikes or a tail, more than half of the indications are wiped away. Yet something tells Water-caller that she’s pleased. Her expedition was a success? Or she is pleased because she has brought an Enlightened back with her?

  If that is the case, arguably, she might still be able to win it. Having an Enlightened to direct the Long Night celebrations would actually give as much of a boost to the ritual as a more powerful treasure might. It depends, of course, on what Flying-blade brings back – assuming she returns at all – but the other village is already a strong contender, just with the Enlightened in their ranks.

  “We see that one of our sisters has breached the canopy and stepped into the sun of the Enlightened,” Air-shaper says, snapping out of her dream. “Please, Honoured one, would you share a carcass with our village and relate your story to us?”

  Water-caller wasn’t the only one looking in askance at the errant Pathwalker. Being the leader of the most powerful village in her tribe was the only reason no one was putting their thoughts into words – Air-caller’s greed had obviously got the best of her manners. She should be grateful the Enlightened Pathwalker didn’t seem offended by her rudeness!

  “What my sister means to say, Pathwalker Tamer,” Water-caller continues with a warning tone in her voice, her eyes on Air-shaper, “is that we invite your party to join with both our villages to share a carcass to assuage your hunger and rest your bodies.”

  Air-shaper has the grace to look a little abashed at the implied rebuke.

  “Fine,” Tamer replies casually with an odd movement of her shoulders. Then, as if remembering her own manners, she rephrases a moment later. “We would accept your offer in gratitude, and offer the story of our hunt in return for your hospitality.”

  “Then let us adjourn to our camp as it is the closest,” Water-caller suggests, hearing a hiss of dissatisfaction from her sister. She can’t help feeling a moment of satisfaction at that. If Air-shaper hadn’t let her greed get the better of her, it could have been her camp that the Enlightened would visit first. But as it is….

  They start moving, Water-caller angling herself to walk next to Tamer. That that brought her close to the Enlightened was just happenstance. Air-shaper clearly didn’t believe that it was accidental, though, from the grumbling Water-caller caught at the edge of her hearing. But with the rest of Tamer’s party closing up ranks there was no space for her to come and join too.

  “I must ask,” Water-caller starts seriously, doing her best to keep her eyes on Tamer’s muzzle-less face, rather than hungrily tracing the lines over the Enlightened’s scales, “is the Honoured one’s participation in the ritual of the Long Night your submission for the Hunt?”

  Water-caller’s ability to recognise Tamer’s emotions is limited, but even so she has a feeling that the odd Pathwalker is surprised and confused. Then the emotion vanishes, only to be replaced by a flurry of other facial twitches, the odd Pathwalker’s face far more mobile than any of the People. The moment of silence elongates beyond what is comfortable. Water-caller is about to ask the question in a different way when Tamer finally responds.

  “Windy – Wind-whisperer,” she corrects herself, “is willing to lead the ritual of the Long Night, but that is not our true submission for the Hunt. Instead, we have sought another item which we will present with Flying-blade’s submission. Has she returned?”

  Water-caller is surprised enough that the participation of an Enlightened is not considered to be the biggest prize of their journey that she actually answers.

  “She has been scouting for a suitable prize. I do not believe that she has yet found one, though she appears to be narrowing down the possibilities.” She clicks her jaws together with a snap – that could technically be considered inside information. Then again, the other party appears to have finished her Hunt so it’s probably excusable.

  At least she has an answer of her own.

  “Wind-whisperer,” she murmurs thoughtfully, eyeing the Enlightened. Now that Tamer mentions it, she sees some similarities, even in her much-changed form. The Honoured one’s eyes rise to meet hers, flashing imperiously. Water-caller feels a moment of connection to the other.

  And in that moment of connection, Water-caller feels something else. The fury of the storm: the ripping, howling wind and the flashes of ancestors’ wrath. A sense of an angry tempest presses against Water-caller, stealing the breath from her lungs and pinning her in place for a moment. Flashes of ancestors’ wrath flash in her eyes and their cries of fury rumble loudly in her ears.

  And then the moment passes and Water-caller is left rooted in place as the rest of the party passes her by. With a sinking feeling, she suspects that prying for secrets of Evolution might be harder than she was hoping.

  Then again, Water-caller already feels a sense of inspiration, snatched from the jaws of the beast which briefly threatened her with its power. That brief moment of contact spoke of wind pushed to the limits; of boundaries tested, stretched, and broken. Of abilities examined, questioned, and transformed.

  Whatever happened, Water-caller just knows that it demanded Wind-whisperer re-examine everything that she is and that she is capable of – and find far more beneath the surface than she had ever anticipated. And now, Water-caller is eager to do the same.

  Perhaps she should go with her sisters to challenge a Great beast of their own after this Festival is over….

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