“We’ll be at the forest’s edge waiting,” Elira whispered, her words soft but heavy as she sat astride a scalehoof. Beside her, Vara and the young, lucky male sat on their mounts, the creatures jittering with impatience, eager to leave. The sorrow in Elira’s voice hung like a shadow; she knew, as did Vara, that this might be the last time we’d see each other. Even so, no farewells were spoken.

  “When it’s over, I want to hear it all - every word, Korra, you hear me?”

  ?Just go already,? I groaned, even though I knew she couldn’t understand a word. She grinned at me anyway, nudging her scalehoof onward. The other two followed her lead, the herd flowing after them like a restless tide. Not a single human, myself included, could have watched them leave without a pang of envy.

  Before long, the clearing was left with less to worry about. My eyes, in unspoken accord with the others, found the adult mossbears. Many of them were now pushing each other, snapping at one another.

  "Poor bastards," remarked my potential - no, my quite possibly mentor aloud, voice low as he watched the snarling beasts. It didn’t take much to realize he wasn’t speaking of mossbears—or anyone standing here.

  "W-Who do you mean?"

  "My years in the army just came back to me," he replied, like that explained everything. "Won’t be long now till these adult beasts leave the nest. When they do, the Empire will send troops to deal with them. I was one of the poor sods they sent after 'em more times than I care to remember," he reminisced, a bitter shadow crossing his face.

  "As punishment," he added sourly. "It's a shitty job. We had to track them down and kill them before they settled elsewhere."

  "Wait, are you saying that there are more places like this? Like Esulmor?" My throat tightened. What if every forest was home to beasts like the mossbears? It was a chilling thought.

  "Not in Sahal. At least, not that I know of," he said. "The Empire has been thorough. They don’t want another Esulmor in their backyard."

  I gave a slow nod, but my mind stuck on the mossbears. They lived under Esu’s protection, but the moment they left, they were hunted down. Killed. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. No wonder that when the opportunity arose, Esu took it - wanting them to gain experience in fighting humans. Still…

  "And he's okay with that?" I nodded towards the massive beast towering above me as always taking his time with whatever he was planning next. Truth be told, the waiting was hell on my nerves, but I figured he was stalling to give my pack and animals more time to get clear. It was not hard to imagine that the coming battles would be - ugly.

  My quite-possibly mentor gave a lazy shrug. "Esu would eventually kill the males anyway, and the same goes for the females. Mothers would get rid of them if they didn't leave the woods."

  ‘Oh, well…’ As sad as it was, it made sense. Watching Esu’s growing impatience with the adults, I figured there could only ever be one male pack leader in the territory. Did it work the same for the females? Was there a final number? I didn’t know. But I couldn’t help wondering if Esu had been driven from his nest the same way. And what about his home? Did it even exist anymore? Chances were, the thought fuddlers had destroyed it long, long ago.

  My potential mentor’s voice cut through my thoughts. "Are you ready, girl?"

  "R-Ready for what?" I asked, glancing around in a rush of nerves. While the adult mossbears fought among themselves more than a moment ago, thankfully, none still dared to challenge the humans - or rather go against Esu.

  "For your training. I don’t think it’ll be much longer.”

  "No," I didn’t hesitate, shaking my head.

  His grin was all teeth. "Right answer."

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  "W-What? Really?"

  “Don’t ever think you’re ready. Stay sharp. Expect the unexpected."

  "That doesn't make sense," I argued. How were you supposed to prepare for something you couldn’t even guess at?

  "Does it make sense that Esu claims you as his cub?"

  It made plenty of sense to me, but I bit my tongue. He wasn’t wrong. Without knowing about my mutations, it would have to be the last thing one would expect. Still...

  "But if you know..."

  "And that's the problem," he cut me off. "You never know what might happen. You never know what you'll face. One moment, you’re set to march against mind mages, and the next, you’re knee-deep in some tits-forsaken swamp with leeches the size of my hand chomping your ass because someone can't read maps."

  'Eh? Was he hinting at my poor sense of direction, or...? No, there was no way for him to know. Besides, that sounded too personal.' Knowing better than to dig deeper, I simply nodded. "Right, I get it. B-But considering what I'm about to face, I'd rather hear some actual advice?"

  He chuckled, shaking his head. "You have some balls, I'll give you that," he said, grinning like a fool with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Alright. You see the moss on their backs? Rip it off, and you're halfway there. They use it to defend, to strike, even to heal and eat when they have to. But to do that, you need skills you don't have. So you're gonna have to beat it the old-fashioned way."

  I asked, “And that is?” though I already had a pretty good idea of what he would say.

  “My way,” he replied with a grin. “Punches and kicks. Lots of ‘em. Looking at you, maybe add a few scratches and bites to the mix.” He didn’t wait for me to respond to his snark. His face turned serious, then. “Eyes, nose, ears, belly - balls if it's a male. The usual spots. They’re huge. Don’t get caught under them.”

  Finally, some real advice I so desperately needed. It made me all the more disheartened when, according to him, I had no other way to win the upcoming struggle, that was my training, other than by beating the mossbear to a pulp. Worse, the weak points he mentioned - eyes, ears, nose, crotch - were all things I had already before. They were the weak spots every damn mammal seemed to have.

  "What about the throat?" I asked, trying to think of something new while keeping my eye on the young mossbears in the clearing and my ear sharp for Esu’s next growl.

  "Good thinking. But do you think you can get past the fat?"

  'Shit!' I'd forgotten about that. No matter how hard I tried to get the bitch-controlled mossbear to let me go, my claws didn't penetrate deep enough. "No. Got any other ideas?" I asked, practically begging.

  He paused, shuddered, and let out a deep sigh. "There’s a spot on their bodies..."

  "Oh, which ones? Where?" I pressed, eager to hear it.

  "One that even humans shouldn't forget to protect," he said, not offering much more than that, leaving me to figure it out on my own. Annoying. We might have been just a few breaths away from a potentially deadly fight and he insisted on teaching me. Yet just when I was about to snap, my thoughts snapped into place. The anger I had felt shifted to understanding, then quickly to embarrassment as my focus to where my tail met my back.

  My basically-mentor smirked. "Not a pleasant thought, is it?"

  I felt my face turn red, shaking my head without thinking. No, it wasn’t a pleasant thought. Getting attacked there? Cowardly, if anything.

  He turned his gaze to Esu, his voice calm. "It's on you, girl. You don’t have to go for that spot - or even beat your opponent. The big guy wants to train you, to experience the actual fight. Do that, fight, train, learn, and remember that most creatures have the same weaknesses, including you."

  "But..." hesitated, wanting to argue that this didn't seem like good training to me, even though I knew it wasn't true. It was an amazing opportunity for someone like me who has basically zero fighting experience - especially in my beast form.

  "Protect your floppy ears, guard your throat, don't forget the moss on its back. The shoots can gouge your eyes out in a second. Seen it happen many times."

  The moss shoots - didn't need him reminding me of those. Sure, the moss shoots weren't what killed the three humans, but I was certain that their deaths would be etched in my mind for a long time to come.

  "Be wary of shoots, got it!"

  "Good. Don't know what else to tell you. Be quick, be sharp. Don't get caught."

  'Don't get caught.' That one stung deep. I intended to never get caught again. Yet it proved easier said than done - even for someone like Rayden. The female had promised me it wouldn’t happen, and yet it did.