After my new nap I awoke to the sounds of laughter. Not a nice thing to wake up to if I'm honest. Trying to use this Qi Speech thing, I felt along the "channels" in my body to make sure the Qi was flowing properly. After confirming it was, and the new path was functioning, I thought about what to try and say first. Unfortunately the brain is a lot slower than the body when just waking up and apparently the first thing I said to my family who now formed around my once unconscious body was "Urghag *cough* I am never trying that again." Which seems to explain why laughter was what greeted my ears. Hooray....? Qi speech working! As I right myself and search along the channels that I opened to use this new found ability, It appears my experimentation caused some blockages to break open and allow more Qi to flow. "Son, it appears you have managed to ... *snicker* fix your problem with your speech. Well done." comes from my Dad after he recovers from his sudden onset of the giggles. "Normally one doesn't just do as you did though. The way we open paths isn't so blunt as your experiment. It could have gone horribly wrong, you got lucky this time." Now that this brief chastisement is apparently over my family one by one approach me to nuzzle and bop me to reassure themselves that I am fine and healthy, relatively speaking. My head feels like someone decided to learn the drums and triangle at the same time... No seriously why is there a ringing noise. "Dad, should I be hearing a ringing noise or not?" This seems to startle my Dad and he stares at me for a moment. I guess this is as new to him as it is to me. He places a paw on my shoulder and just sits there for a moment. "Hmmm, interesting... your experiment opened a few channels that aren't normally open for a while longer. Here, focus with me. Follow the flows of Qi and try to slow or stop the leaks along the neck channel. You are bleeding Qi into your ears which can be useful later for some other techniques but for now is just causing the ringing noise. You are trying to hear sounds that are really far away and cant process them."

  This explanation makes me recoil, mentally thankfully. Wouldn't want to ruin his focus. Following his advice is both easy and hard. Like any good water source it is much easier to carve new paths, but blocking that flow causes some problems. After a few minutes I set up a mental gate system. Wide open and restricted flow is much easier than just completely stopping the flow itself. Instead of stopping the flow I just painfully and slowly carve a loop around so the Qi leak is sprouted back into the main channel. After opening my eyes and looking at the sun in the sky I look around to find my other family members have left. Just being me and my Dad here now, I decide now is better than any other time to ask a question that has been bugging me for a while. "Dad, what are we? We grow fast, don't seem to eat anywhere near as much as this growth should need, and for some reason we can speak like this... I'm very confused." He just stares at me. Did I say something strange...?

  Apparently asking such a question is strange. I got a very long lecture about it. But Dad seemed to sound proud in his speech... Not much else made sense. I did get a few solid answers in all the deflections though. We are a creature the humans call Celestial Wolves. My Dad's parents, who are still alive, said to him that for as far as they knew, we never really considered what to call ourselves so we just went with whatever the humans said. Celestial Wolves are wolves that can channel the powers of the stars, according to legends of the humans. We grow so fast because of our nature as spirit beasts. We are nurtured by the land itself supposedly, absorbing a lot of Qi during our early years, but after reaching maturity we produce excess Qi that is Heaven aligned... whatever that means... which is seemingly absorbed back by the land. He did call me smart for my age, but I don't think I'm that smart. I was just a regular adult after all. Worked a normal job... wouldn't it be natural to ask these questions...

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  Welp, lecture and forced learning time over, time to go explore for a bit. Being the size of a german shepherd and not done growing yet has its perks. Long runs through the woods are easy. 30 minutes of a nice "jog" later, I hear what sounds like running water. Heading in that direction for a few minutes I start to hear something I was not expecting. Voices. Not Qi speech voices, but actual voices. PEOPLE! Excited to finally find a human I start to follow the sounds of voices for a while. Taking long heavy strides eats ground fast... it also makes a lot of noise. The voices start to sound distressed as I get closer. When I finally get to see them, my first instinct was to just step out and greet them. Upon leaving the trees I am quite surprised to see the 6 men arranged in a defensive circle around 3 children and 6 women, a carriage behind them. Seeing me seems to have completely upset their formation though. So I just sit down at the edge of the clearing and watch them, listening to their words.

  "H-H-Hey M-Marcus" the youngest looking human male says, voice shaking while holding a spear. He then swallows loudly and tries again. "Why is it just staring at us...?"

  "How should I know, Luke?" A grizzled older looking old man, maybe 60 ish by old earth standards, says, holding his own spear steady. "The thing came charging out of nowhere just to stop on the edge of the trees, do you think I speak giant wolf? Just be ready."

  Just staring at them seems to have made them even more uneasy for some reason... then I remember, Im a 3 and a half foot tall wolf, heavily muscled and probably terrifying to them. I would be scared of myself if I ran into me in my human body. Lets see about making them a little less scared... maybe speech will help.....

  "Hello humans... why are you in the forest... are there any roads or towns nearby?"

  "DID IT JUST SPEAK?!" "EMPEROR SAVE US ITS A SPIRIT BEAST!" "HOLY SHI...." "MARCUS! WHAT DO WE DO?"

  Yeah... speech seemed to have made things worse.... Maybe laying down and looking less scary will work...... as I do this, Marcus seems to have gathered his wits and courage.

  "Hey beast, we mean no harm to you or your forest, we are a just some simple farmers passing through, we needed to refill our water and Stephen found this river when scouting around. We were headed towards Lomburgy, a human town about 2 or 3 days walk from our village, depending on how the oxen are feeling."

  The younger looking Luke sets his spear down and sits on the ground with a loud groan and a sigh causing Marcus to look at him with surprise clearly written on his face.

  "What are you doing Luke... have you gone mad?"

  "Marc that's a spirit beast, if it wanted us mortal men dead, what could we do? It woulda just tore through us, ate the women and children, and maybe us, and would't of noticed our spears anyway. If I am gon'a die I can at least do it relaxed."

  This was news to me... do blades not work on spirit beasts, or is it something specific to do with the word mortal? "I mean you no harm humans... I am merely curious." Maybe now we can have a simple discussion...? I'd like to learn what these humans know.

  "Luke you're not right in the head. But I can't deny the point ya make." Marcus says, setting the butt of his spear down but not ditching the weapon entirely. "No need fer the weapons boys, won't do us any good anyways." The rest of the men seem to take little heart in this and just deflate like popped balloons, going to reassure their families. "Alright there beasty, Let's talk."