Mean Girls

"You need to reach out with your intentions," I began working with Moonlight Guardian the next day on the wraith blade. "Reach out and form it into the shape you want, then hold the space tight." Truth be told, I might have been more excited about her learning this technique than she. That's not to say that she was uninspired, but...

"I'm... Not sure what you mean. What should I be reaching out to?" It seemed this concept of intention without a target was a bit allusive. Her brow was so furrowed that I could see it pulling the sides of her head taut.

"Hmm... Maybe if you focus on the air, that would be easier?" Her brow loosened. It seemed like this was something she could wrap her head around.

She tried this for a while, but before long she started grabbing her head. "...My head hurts."

I reached a hand out to her. "It's okay; it's a strange concept. When I first learned wind control from Lilac Governess, it proved challenging."

"Lilac Governess can do wind magic?"

"Yes, you didn't know?" She shook her head. "She is a skilled practitioner, but she mostly uses it to still the winds at the shrine of the God of Clear Skies... and to cool her food."

"Lilac Governess must be fairly adept then." She pinched her chin as she mulled this over. Come to think of it, she never really did anything grand, but when she did employ fox magic, it was always smooth and controlled.

"So, let's work on holding onto the air. Once you get that, we will move on to the next step." Moonlight Guardian nodded.

Sparring commenced as usual after this brief introduction to wraith blades. I myself had been using it exclusively in sparring for several months at this point and was becoming increasingly comfortable. It felt like my sparring was almost where it was when I was using the wooden sword. I judged this by how injured I was at the end of our sessions. No longer was I sprawled out on the ground, and the number of lumps I was taking was not as great as it had once been. Of course, this meant I wasn't given the same tender treatment after sparring I was before. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.

Ever since the day my sister had joined the Kite's Klub (TM Pending), I had made a point to regularly visit my immediate family. For my mother, this was nearly daily as our den was already on my patrol route. Father was also there frequently and I would also sometimes bump into him while he was out hunting with his crew. They were always a rowdy bunch, and I will admit to slacking off with them from time to time.

I would see my sister too when the Kite's Klub (TM Pending) was out and about, which was nearly daily—barring inclement weather. I would wave and she would wave back. She always seemed happy to see me. I will admit to feeling distant though. I was busy after all. Well... Maybe that is just an excuse. The truth was that I didn't know how to interact with a 4-year-old in any meaningful way, aside from just showing a general interest. And honestly, I wasn't comfortable showing affection in such a public setting.

However, I did make sure to keep a watchful eye on her. Especially after hearing Moonlight Guardian's story, I wanted to ensure her safety, even if I wasn't interacting with her as much as I should.

One day while making the rounds, I found the Kite's Klub (TM Pending) down on the forest floor during their afternoon recreation. It was the tail half of winter, so the snow was taking on that wet and heavy quality that made for good snowballs. Needless to say, the tykes made good use of it. What caught my eye, however, was a small group of children. They were surrounding another child in such a way that strongly suggested that she was not part of the main group, and that child happened to be my sister.

Naturally, I moved in to investigate. "Your color is really weird," one of the children said.

"She is like some kind of strange plant!" Said another.

"That combination is jarring. When you get a mask, make sure it covers your whole head." The kite that said this looked to be the oldest, and possibly the ringleader. Dusk was crying.

Well, that was it! I was ready to dive in there and... Well, not beat the crap out of them, but give them a lesson in manners—probably just a slap to the back of the head.

But Moonlight Guardian always said it was best to get a grip on the situation before acting. Since there was no risk of physical harm, I held myself back to assess the situation.

That older child seemed to be the ringleader. She was probably around 6 if I had to guess. She carried herself with a sense of pretentiousness and her light pink tone and long lilac-shaded curls only added to this facade. There were three other children, of varying ages, but I would say the youngest was about Dusk's age.

"Really," the ringleader did one of the popular girl hair flips with her finger. "I don't know why Lilac Governess would favor someone so ugly." How dare she say that to MY sister! I was ready to jump down there and cleave her hair clean off her head!

Calm down Indigo, she is just a child. A bitch sure, but still a child. So it seemed like Lilac Governess was giving Dusk special attention. Why would she do that? Because she was my sister?

Well, that was enough intel gathering, I dropped down from my vantage point and landed between them and my sister, right in front of the alpha bitch, giving her quite a fright. "You all need to leave," I said in no uncertain tone while gesturing with my hand in a random direction. They didn't need any more convincing than that and took off running with a look of minor terror. Was it the mask? It was probably the mask.

Dusk ran up and hugged me. "She is always so mean to me." There were still tears in her eyes. I rubbed her head. This was the kind of affection that made me uncomfortable while others were around. Luckily, we were far enough removed from the center of activity that it probably went mostly unnoticed.

She continued to hold on tight, and I continued to muss her fantastic red locks—that other girl was clearly envious—which she had started wearing in short spiky pigtails. Dusk would be okay for now, but I had no doubt that the bullies would be back once the coast was clear. I could probably put the fear of the Deity into them. I was certainly capable of that now. Or I could arrange for Lilac Governess to intervene.

That latter option probably would only make it worse. Knowing her, she would just give them a lecture only inciting more bullying. Even the former option had its faults; intimidation tactics could build some serious resentment that could boil over and cause real problems. And with both these ideas, the root issue was not being addressed, that being special attention from Lilac Governess. In fact, both these methods would only increase the special attention on Dusk.

"You have friends, right Dusk?" I couldn't imagine such a cute girl wouldn't, but you never know.

She nodded. "Red, Sky, Raindrop..." she looked off as she tried to think of more names. Well, three was plenty as far as I was concerned.

"You should stick around them. She won't be able to bully you so easily if you are in a group."

"But Pine will still make fun of me..." She said with downcast eyes.

"Yeah well, she has a face like a boar's head, so you can tell her that she can't get her mask soon enough!" Dusk laughed at this and it seemed like it had pulled her out of her dour mood. I guess children were easy that way. I made sure she made her way over to her friends before I headed over to have a chat with Lilac Governess.

"Oh, Indigo! It's an honor to have the God of Clear Skies' Chosen pay us a visit." It might sound like Lilac Governess was mocking me, but unfortunately, she wasn't.

I looked away uneasy. "Could you please not refer to me in that way? It makes me very uncomfortable when my childhood mentor holds me in such regards."

"That's the kind of modesty I would expect from the God of Clear Skies' Chosen. I understand. I will try to tone it down." She had missed the point entirely.

"Anyways..." I began scratching my face. "Are you giving Dusk special treatment?"

"Special treatment?" She put a questioning finger to her face. "I don't think so."

"...Really?"

"Well, she is your sister, so I keep an eye out to see if she has any hints of genius that could be developed, but I don't treat her any differently."

"...Is that not treating her differently?"

"No, she doesn't get any special privileges or suffer any diminished punishments." I couldn't imagine what a diminished punishment would look like.

"But you are interacting with her more?"

"Well, I suppose so..."

"Is that not special treatment?"

"No, that is just more normal treatment." I wanted to take off my mask just so she could see the incredulous look on my face.

"Sigh, well regardless, could you stop it?" This came out more brusk than I had originally intended. "It's causing Dusk to have a hard time."

"Who is giving Dusk a hard time!?" Oh, now she understands without elaboration.

"Look, if you give someone special... more normal treatment, those left out are going to feel jealous." I didn't want to call out my sister's bullies. With Lilac Governess's signature disciplining methods, they would be on Dusk the very next moment. "My sister is normal. She is not equipped to handle the other's vindictiveness." I myself had to deal with quite a bit of it, but my case was special, and I was equipped to handle it.

Doubtfully, she tilted her head. "If you say so, Indigo. But now I'm going to have to keep an eye out for children harassing her."

I sighed. "Fair enough, but please be discreet. Children are sensitive to imbalances in attention."

"Of course, but I will admit that it makes me a little sad that you are so doubtful of me." It made me sad too.

The period leading up to my 9th year of life was fairly sparse on noteworthy events—I still didn't know when my exact birthday was as we didn't use a calendar, and even the Elder didn't have a current one. The one exception of note, however, was that River received her role name of Hunter and was now a full-fledged adult. The bestowing of a role name is done by the Elder and was one of his few responsibilities that he couldn't foist off onto one of his apprentices.

The practice of bestowing a role name was a clandestine affair, at least for the person receiving it. The granting of a name was usually initiated by the mentor and then signed off on by the Elder—this was pretty much just a rubber stamp. After it was cleared, they usually allowed for about a week for the word to spread. Tribesmen would spread the word to almost everybody but the recipient. This wasn't foolproof though, and the number of people who were actually aware of this promotion to adulthood would vary depending on popularity. At the very least, the direct family members would be informed by the Elder, and the parents would inform any friends of the recipient and anyone else they felt should know. Those people would spread it as they saw fit.

The ritual itself was pretty basic. Anyone who wanted to witness it was welcome to attend, assuming they had been informed. The entourage might also give away what was about to happen, but I imagine it was still surprising. The Elder would stroll up to you, place a hand on your head, and say, "From this day forward, you are River Hunter." And that was it. People would send you their congratulations. Some roles had hazing rituals, though those seemed to be kept trade secrets. All I know is River Hunter came back later that evening soaking wet.

Moonlight Guardian and I continued our training. She had difficulty gripping the air, but she eventually got it. We had moved on to trying to hold empty space, this was the essence of the wraith blade, but it had still proved elusive.

"You have to pull it in and at the same time push it out." I could see smoke coming out of her ears as they twitched in frustration. Well... I was sure she would eventually get it.

Our sparring continued, and Moonlight said that I was getting better. It didn't seem like it to me; I had been getting thunked at the same rate for a while now.

"Trust me Indigo, you are improving." Tell that to my sore ribs!

My studies with the Elder continued. Elders needed to know a little bit about everything, and certainly about all the trades. You at least needed to know what materials they needed, what conditions made their work easier or harder, and what kind of output you could expect. While I went around and observed them at work, it took some effort not to offer innovations that would make their work easier—I really wanted to introduce a pottery wheel.

All in all, as my 9th year of life approached, I reflected on how far I had come since I had received my mask and become a "not child." Looking back I had come a long way.

Fox Magic Stats:

Force: Max lift, 4 shrine-worthy stones (240lb).
Endurance: I can hover indefinitely.
Control: I can shape my intentions into pseudo-solid objects of various shapes (i.e. wraith blade).
Focus: Power range: 5 feet, Effective range 10 feet.
Proprioception: I was a Yutsuukitsuu MRI machine.

Not Bad.