Perfection (2)

Fertam continued to make the maze for me in the tree tops while jokingly complaining about the other forest spirit.

"By the way?" I interrupted her rant. "How much can we regenerate?" I asked. I've seen my older siblings get messed up a lot on the hunts, even losing couple toes. Dad healed what could be deadly but otherwise left them to heal up on their own.

"As long as you survive, everything. Though that's oftentimes easier said than done. We started with really small number so we made sure there was no way you'd die off on your own." Fertam calmly answered.

"How many?" I tilted my head. It was fun learning about the past and Fertam seemed to enjoy talking about it. Or maybe she just liked to show off her knowledge? Who knew?

"Across all four species? About two hundred people. But it wasn't equally spread out between the species. The southern one ended up only with a single couple, the rest didn't bother having pups. Your species; I think only seven people from the first generation had pups."

"Isn't that..." I began, Mom told me what happens when the numbers of the prey fall too low and they have only their family to reproduce with.

"You underestimate us." Fertam flickered. "You think Anaji would let Sweryx and Iala get together if it were to cause issues for their pups? Even if they were littermates it wouldn't matter. Why do you think none of you look similar to your parents? If you compared it to other species, there would be at least five generations between you and your littermates."

"How..."

"I can't explain it in a way you'd understand... Just don't worry. The other main safeguard is that you guys can change your sex almost at will. If..."

"Almost?" I asked and jumped down to the ground.

"Will you not cut me off? Almost because you have to reach physical maturity first, and even then it takes about a month for it to fully happen, and if you change into a girl it will start a season you can't control. Just ask your parents, they have rich experience with it."

"Mom and Dad do?"

"They were both boys originally. Neither of them wanted to be the one to decide so they fought for it. They ended up going back and forth at least ten times anyway."

"Mom and Dad fought?" I couldn't imagine them ever fighting, they cared about each other too much.

"Yeah. The loser had to decide who will swap to being the girl. Anaji won and Asher gave up the leadership to her."

(AN: Caniro are matriarchal, and gender isn't a concept that is the deciding factor for the role, only the physical sex.)

"How did Dad lose? He's so strong."

"Talent. Healing and barriers are great ability to have, but when you need to overpower someone with destructive power like Anaji has, well, he'd need at least hundred year on her. When they fight together even I'd have trouble."

"How come?"

"They are pretty old already, and Forest spirits have fairly limited magic affinity, we can't use that much magic at once, Caniro and even Moon wolves have higher affinity than us. And with our size we have quite a few vulnerabilities."

I grunted in agreement. Being as large as Fertam definitely made it hard to avoid magic and it would be near impossible to protect all of herself with enhancements.

I jumped back up into the tree tops.

"Why did you make us have so little energy when we're born? I'm getting tired of running out of energy during training," I complained from up high.

"If you were born with the the amount of energy you have at twenty winters would almost guarantee that you would kill yourself by accident. If you were born with the maximum you can reach, that would be the best case scenario. Worst case you'd destroy everything within howl of you, including the ground. You guys have so much energy that if it wasn't like this there would be nothing left."

"Lame... When do we reach the maximum?"

"At around ten thousand winters. But there's a way to get it sooner if you are willing to take risks." Kanire said, suddenly dropping down onto the branch in front of me. He nonchalantly sat down.

"Why do you always feel the need to sneak up on me?" Fertam scolded him.

"I wasn't even trying to be sneaky..." Kanire sighed. "I just wanted to speak with you once you have time."

"How do you get to it sooner?" I asked.

"Magic, it's complicated. And no, I won't do it for you. As Fertam said, at best it'd kill you."

"I can control it. I promise."

"Stop with the puppy eyes... You have nowhere near the skill nor experience needed for such amount of power."

"I can! I won't let it kill me!" I barked.

"Why did you make our species so stubborn?" Kanire sighed.

"Don't blame this on us. It's your generation that started it."

"Yeah... anyone less stubborn and determined would earn the power from you woodheads," Kanire grunted. "You know what, Harukaze? Fine. I'll make you reach the maximum reserves we can have, but you must first prove you can handle it. You must learn to hunt the way I do, ideally before something manages to destroy me."

"I'll do my best!" I howled. "But how do I make them walk?"

"You don't need to do that. Just being able to pick out the weakest prey of the species in at least two howls with no mistakes is enough. And there are other ways to move something. I make them walk because it's the easiest way to make other predators stay away."

"Didn't it take you eighteen hundred winters to get to that point?" Fertam asked.

"Only seventeen hundred eighty three." Kanire laughed. "I still remember how Reya chewed me out because she didn't believe I didn't cheat."

"You must have had lots of fun together?" I asked, seeing tears gather in his eyes again."

"Yeah. Life was easy and fun. She originally taught me how to use magic. I couldn't catch up with her at all. She insisted we travel the world together after we left this territory to Eulie." Kanire let himself fall backwards onto the ground. In a fluid twist he landed on his feet. "Sorry, I'm getting sentimental again."

"I don't mind." I said, closely echoed by Fertam.

"I still shouldn't bother..."

"It seems it bothers you the most?" I grunted, I wasn't sure though. "Isn't there something that could help you? You said you don't want to live, but are afraid to die. Why don't you start over instead?"

"Even if I erase my memories they will come back. Some may not feel like they are mine anymore, but they will..." Kanire cut himself off. "I'll be back once you two are done playing then."

"Kanire? Could we go to the ocean tomorrow?"

"I will need to think few things though, it might be the day after."

"Did I say something bad?"

"No. Don't worry about it. And be sure to train well, You might not have that much time."

"Will do!" I barked and went back to playing with Fertam. Staying with her until the evening after which I returned to the densite.