New esun

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Alanoth trudged through the snow feeling miserable. He'd just escaped a pack of feral wolves, and the cold had only slowed him. He climbed up a mountain following a scent of other wolves. As the cold stung at every part of his body, Alanoth tried to heal himself of the frostbite, but to no avail.

Up ahead, came the scent of the Shinkou wolves, their territory and possibly safety was up ahead. He trudged on until he saw a cave, barely visible in the snowstorm. He tried to reach it, but his muscles finally gave in and he dropped to the snow. At least he was under a tree, maybe he would survive long enough to gain the strength to move. So, his strength weakening, he fell asleep.

[umbre0lupus]

The snow, bitter as it was, felt a comfort to Chiyu's warm paws. She had been running and running all day, so eager to explore the entirely of the territory she could now call her own. The Northern Mountains were not what she would call welcoming to say the least, but they weren't as bad as she had previously thought.

The scent of another wolf soon filled her flaring nostrils. For some odd reason, she felt her magic shiver across her whole body, glimmering through the silver streaks in her pelt and her gentle blue eyes. She followed her nose to the yawning mouth of a cave, empty save for a lone tree and something--or someone--taking shelter beneath it. As she approached, Chiyu could make out the form of a large male wolf, several moons older than she, who was sleeping beneath the tree. His face appeared twisted in pain from the many wounds and scars that he bore, and she couldn't help but notice the frostbite that was slowly eating away at his paws.

This was her time. If she ever wanted to be an esun for the Shinkou pack, she had better start practicing now. Chiyu focused all her attention on the male's right forepaw, shutting out any other distractions. "Restore," she whispered softly to herself, and she felt her life energy slip away as the frostbite faded into oblivion. Please with her progress, she proceeded to the other forepaw, with similar results. Then to the right hindpaw, but this time she was feeling much weaker after healing it. One more paw, she thought to herself, and once more she whispered, "Restore." The magic flowed through her again, borrowing from her life energy to remove the frostbite. But she did not have enough strength to complete the task. Just when the healing was almost finished, Chiyu snapped at her limit, retaining just enough energy to maintain consciousness. She collapsed in a heap next to the male, struggling to stay alert in case he meant her or her new pack harm.

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Alanoth awoke suddenly, his strength renewed. He stood up and quickly shook all of the snow off of himself and looked around. He easily saw the female wolf next to him, and he slung her over his shoulders and then moved over to the nearby cave. The moment they were inside, all cold ceased to bother him. He dragged the female a short ways into the cave and set her down gently. She was still breathing, but she had lost a lot of life energy, probably saving him. He touched his paw to her side and muttered, "My gratitude, becomes your life." A slow aura of silver emanated from his paw and sunk into her body. He felt somewhat fatigued, but was used to doing this. He decided to guard the entrance while she slept, and sat down to wait.

[umbre0lupus]

Chiyu saw the male rise quickly out of the corner of her eye, felt him hoist her over his shoulders as he padded into a nearby cave. She knew she had failed; she could never be the esun she wanted to be, and she was foolish to think that she could control her magic more. She felt the cold kiss of solid stone beneath her already shivering body as the male lowered her to the ground. He touched his paw to her side, and under any other circumstances she would have bolted; now she had barely enough energy to think. "My gratitude becomes your life," he muttered faintly. In an instant, Chiyu felt completely at peace as her energy returned to her. "He must be an esun too, a powerful one...at least more powerful than me..." Chiyu thought to herself as she drifted in a soft sleep.

She awoke with a start; she did not immediately recognize her surroundings, but as the sleep left her Chiyu remembered all of what had happened earlier. She sat up, and as she looked around her she noticed the male who had saved her, for saving him, sitting by the entrance to the cave. Cautiously, she padded silently towards him, remembering always that this was an esun older and more skilled than she. She sat down next to him, avoiding his gaze, keeping her head low and ears back. "Thank you," she said softly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be a bother, I was just trying to help..." Her voice trailed off as despair over her weakness overwhelmed her.

[Deleted]

Alanoth looked up as the female esun cried. It saddened him deeply to see anyone fill with despair, espescially after...

"Its all right, I understand. I am eternally grateful for your help, without you I may very well have died out there. Don't underestimate yourself, you did great in using your magic. It takes many esun great amounts of time to channel their magic as well as you did. I know all of this because I talked to an elder esun just before his death. I'm only able to do well in healing because of the knowledge he gave me, not because I'm older or more skilled. Always remember young one with a full life ahead: knowledge truly is the source of all power."

Then Alanoth tried to look reassuring, not wanting to seem insincere. He had truthfully meant every word he had said, and he hoped she knew that.

[umbre0lupus]

Chiyu fought back her tears with all her strength; how weak for him to see me cry like this, she thought to herself. The expression on his face, however, was one of reassurance, and his words of encouragement was more a healing than the physical healing this male had done.

"You...I'm sure you will be one of the greatest esun, especially since you had a mentor and all," Chiyu sniffed softly as she spoke. "I have almost no idea what I'm doing! I'm just a roan with the Shinkou pack, not even an esun. The little bit I know about healing I've taught myself, and I almost killed myself trying it again. The best I can do is heal a small scratch, a bee sting, things like that. I was hoping in coming here to Shinkou I would be able to receive more training..."

The silver streaks on Chiyu's dark pelt shivered violently as the magic ran through her. What was the point of her gift if she could never use it properly, if she would never really be able to help others?

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Alanoth sighed and stood up. She had trusted his words, but they were not enough.

"Look, you just need proper training. When the storm has fully disapated, we'll go to the Shinkou together. Along the way, I'll teach you what I know. I'm not good at eaching because I've never done it before, but I'll do my best for your sake. The process of learning to fine tune your power won't be easy, but you have more strength than you realize."

Alanoth then put his head near her face, closed his eyes, and muttered "Peace be unto you young one who will live on beyond me." A silver streak of power flowed from his mouth into her body and through to her heart to comfort and calm her emotions. The effort of this exhausted him to almost death, so he curled up in a corner and fell asleep.

[umbre0lupus]

More words, more words were all Chiyu was hearing. But then a whisper: "Peace be unto you, young one who will live beyond me." A silver streak of pure magic flowed out of the male's mouth and straight into her soul, the true feelings behind his words. Immediately she felt a wave of peace wash over her, her heart and magic strengthened by his own. However, the effort appeared to take a great toll on the older esun, as he curled up in a corner and slept.

"Thank you," Chiyu whispered to his still-sleeping form. The winds were howling outside as the snowstorm continued, and not even the shelter of the cave was enough to insulate any heat. Shivering in the cold, she decided to curl up beside her new mentor, sharing what heat they both could to both survive. As she too drifted off to sleep, she breathed faintly, "Restore," hoping somehow her magic would be enough to heal the male and keep them both safe from further frostbite.

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When Alanoth awoke, it was day and the storm had ceased. He looked beside him and saw the sleeping form of the female esun in training next to him. He got up, stretched a bit, and then walked towards the entrance to get a better look at the outside world. Snow was everywhere, not to be unexpected. There seemed to only be a handful of trees that had been able to not be covered in white, and they were mostly covered. The sun was bright, though nothing seemed to be melting. Alanoth took in the warmth of the sun for a moment before returning to the cave.

The female who's name he had failed to get was still sleeping. He gently nudged her and tried to wake her. "Hey, wake up young one. The storm's ceased and I think we can move on to try and find the Shinkou."

[umbre0lupus]

Chiyu slowly came to as she was gently nudged. "Hm, what?" She muttered, squinting her eyes to the sunlight that was filling the cave entrance. The storm had passed, and that meant it was time for some training...and travel, of course. She felt more rested than she had in a long time, longer than she could remember. "Good morning, I'm up now, I'm up," she said to her new esun mentor who had awoken her. Ever so slowly she stood up, not wanting to give up her world of dreams.

"I know the Shinkou are all around here, that this is their territory, but not many of us come up here I guess. I was just exploring and maybe I kinda got lost, but I found you instead," Chiyu said, still sleepy but excited to be in the presence of another esun. "I'm so sorry, I don't think I caught your name in all of this. My name is Chiyu." She smiled a puppyish grin, her tail twitching behind her.

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"My name is Alanoth, sometimes I'm called the Wanderer. Its because I never knew my parents, and I've never really had a pack to call my own. That's why I decided to cross these mountains and find the Shinkou. Anyway, enough about poor old me, let's get going. We can make some good distance towards the heart of the Shinkou Packlands before dark."

With that, Alanoth led the way out of the cave and slowly down a slope.

[umbre0lupus]

"Alanoth...nice to officially meet you! I've only ever had one other pack, and then I was on my own too," Chiyu chattered on, only too glad to have a friend again. "Then I found the Shinkou wolves, and they accepted me in just like that! It was great!" She followed Alanoth out of the cave, but tripped over her paw and rolled down the hill through the snow. She was laughing and laughing as she sprang back up and shook the snow of her. "That was great! When do we start training?"

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Alanoth chuckled at Chiyu's enthusiasm and impatience to start training.

"In time, I still have to recover from that comfort spell I used on you. I'm pretty sure that no one else knows how to do that, so no one knows how exhausting it is. I will, however, share some of my knowledge with you as we walk. Now, what is the hardest part of using your esun abilities?"

[umbre0lupus]

Chiyu thought as she rose out of the snow and fell in step beside Alanoth. "The hardest part....the hardest part....well, I would have to say it would be controlling the magic. When I want to heal, it just happens, but I really don't know how. The magic works itself, but it borrows all it wants from my life energy to heal the smallest of wounds. That's why, I think, I get so exhausted after healing anything." She squinted her eyes in further thought, training her focused gaze on the ground in front of her. "How long have you known you were an esun?"

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Alanoth thought for a moment before answering Chiyu's question, it was hard to remember sometimes.

"Well, the day I found out wasn't exactly pleasant. I was traveling, trying to find an accepting pack, when I came across an injured wolf lying next to a tree. He was unconscious, and had a large gash in his side. I wanted to do the right thing and touched my paw to the wound in and attempt to close it. Instantly, a silver wave of energy emanated from my body into his wound. The wound quickly healed and he started breathing again. When he woke up, I was still pondering what had happened, when he suddenly sprang at my throat. I dodged just in time and managed to escape, which I wish hadn't been necessary. Evidently he had misinterpreted my prescence as to meaning him harm, when it was just the opposite. I found an older wolf later on who was an esun, and he taught me how to control it and what it was for."

Alanoth was silent for a moment as he tried to supress the hard memories of all the wolves who hadn't believed he was an esun and so had treated him hostily. He shook his head and then turned to Chiyu again.

"Anyway, the problem with your using large amounts of energy isn't so much not being in control, but being able to stopper it."