Opening my eyes for the Third time in one day is definitely strange. Looking around I found I was placed into the den, although that must of been a little difficult for Mom to manage. I'll assume dad helped her out with that. No one else seems to be here for the moment. Did they really speak to me? Did I imagine that? ... Doesn't matter, nothing really changes because of their speech. I'm still a wolf, although a fast growing and bigger one than I knew of in my last world. They are still this bodies' parents. Dad said something about channeling Qi to my throat .... well, that is not that helpful. What is Qi, how do I channel it, and how do I then use it to talk. I feel like I am missing some important basic details here... and more importantly ... Is everything in my body supposed to hurt like this?

  After another month of just resting and recovering from what felt like the worst workout I have ever received, I am finally able to move around again. My stomach no longer hurts, and the pain radiated from there along what I can now say was EVERY muscle and nerve in my body. Thankfully everyone was willing to help me out during this time. Mom brought me food and water, using a wooden bowl from somewhere to bring the water. I wonder where she got it.... Dad kept trying to get me to talk, but when I followed his instructions everything just hurt again.

  One morning, getting up and starting to move around, I felt great. Almost as though the last month was just a dream. My body feels lighter now, quicker to respond to my demands. I can understand how Dad does his patrols so fast now. It isn't even tiring to run around the clearing the den is in. It used to be hard to just travel from one side to the other. Now, I feel like I could run a marathon and maybe be just winded by the end. Whatever this Qi, and Awakening stuff is, seems to have done a lot more than just let me be able to speak. I'll have to ask Dad or Mom when they get back how this stuff works. I guess I can go find one of my siblings to see what they are up to...

  ***********

  Finding Mole wasn't hard at all. All around the clearing are different holes he has dug now... to use measurements from my old life, the clearing is probably 200 meters by 300 meters roughly, in a rough crescent moon shape. Mole has dug maybe 30 random holes that are deep enough to hide in at this point. He seems to just like digging. One time he found a wierd plant root thing and got really excited, bouncing around and making happy noises for a long time. I grew bored of watching him then so I just went to annoy Dad at that time. Now I wonder why he was so happy to find a plant...

  Mole was resting in one of his oldest holes at this point. As I approached, I heard his voice from inside the hole.

  "Deeper .... Deeper... I can smell you little root, where are you hiding... You can't escape my nose..."

  Yeah, I don't think he even knows I'm watching him at this point. The hole is probably 10 meters deep now. That's about 10 Moles deep, and is about as wide as the average car. He always seems to come back and keep expanding this one hole. The rest are no where near this deep or wide.

  "Little root... little root... AH! the smell is stronger this way...."

  I am forced to jump to the side as dirt starts getting flung my way at a high speed. I let out a small growl at his carelessness and that seems to bring attention to me as I watch him yelp in shock before jumping and turning around at the same time to glare at me.

  "Who! what?! Where.... oh brother, You sneaky vole. Where did you come from? I didn't hear you approach."

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  Met by my stare and no response seems to remind him that I in fact do not know yet how to speak.

  "Oh .... oh, right... you can't talk..." He stares at me for a solid minute straight, just dead silence. "I'd assume you wish to learn... hmmm... I'll show you how mom showed me."

  At that statement he climbs out of the ... pit? hole? not sure exactly what to call what he has made here. For now hole will do. He then approaches my side and uses his paw to poke and prod at my side before one of his prods hurts more than the others causing me to dance to the side out of reach of his arms. I let out a small chuff to signify my annoyance at the pain.

  "Sorry brother, couldn't help until I found the source of your Qi. That part is called the Dantain by mom and dad. It stores the Qi in your body and is used to do fun things. Like speaking for instance. Mom says the humans gave all these things names and stuff so the different spirit beasts, which is what we animals who can use Qi are called, have started using these common words as well."

  This blatant information dump is giving me another headache. But since knowledge is always useful, I will have to bear with it.

  "Mom says that we spirit beasts have it easier than humans. They have to do weird things to get stronger, like eat things called medicine, or pills. Just to gain a fraction of the power we do by eating prey and lesser spirit beasts." He seems to pause and think about what he said at this point. "Enough about the humans and all the lessons mom and dad have taught the rest of us so far. For you, lets try again. Imagine you have a lake in your body, and this lake connects to a bunch of different rivers. Some feed into the lake, and others take from the lake. These are Channels and they travel throughout your body. The Qi in your body prefers to be in this lake. As a spirit beast like us, the Qi does flow naturally around our bodies, making them stronger and tougher than a humans. Altering the flow of this Qi is how you will be able to speak."

  This is starting to sound more and more like some of those Old monks sayings... One must understand oneself before being able to understand others.... Some mumbo jumbo like that. With a sigh and a plop to the ground I just start to imagine it like meditating. Search inside yourself... find a state of calm... blah blah bl.... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! Its almost too easy... It cant be that easy right... just relax and think about nothing important, BAM suddenly staring at this lake .... The rivers are a good analogy... What i can "see" though, looks like the rivers are dry, with lots of dams and boulders and stuff in the way... Some of them are working though... The one he says should flow up my spine does seem to work... That's good. This one is the one I should use to be able to speak... Lets see... If its a river, and I need to be able to speak, it will have to pass through my neck. Water likes to flow along the path of least resistance right... so if I was to connect the pathway leading along my spine to the return path after it loops around my brain, I should be able to connect them at the neck right.... What could go wrong with that? I start to "dig" a connection between the spine along my neck to the front my throat. It feels like minutes later and I have the path dug out. now to open it and see if this worked....

  *****************

  "MOLE'S" POV and Thoughts

  Brother is here. He finally can do things again. He spent a long time sleeping. I think he might be sick. Mom said he was born wrong. Something bout being more Wild than the rest of us. I don't fully understand what she means. It is nice to see brother up and about again. He sneaked up on me though. I was impressed. I was doing the thing dad told me. Enter the state where I am not thinking. Just doing my hole digging exercises to make stuff easy. Then brother growled. I thought I was paying attention. I should of heard him coming. I tried to talk to him. I feel bad, i forgot he couldn't speak. soon maybe? I can teach him how...? Mom told us lots of stuff. I will repeat it to him. Then he will be able to speak right...

  After telling brother what mom told me he got this weird look on his face. Looked like Sister when she ate some bad meat and was regretting her laziness. Then brother started whimpering and making pained noises. I started to stand to walk over and see if he was good, when he started screaming. Good news, brother can speak now... bad news. Brother is sleeping again... Why is brother so lazy but yet so big and strong? I should go get Dad or Mom... maybe they can tell me what happened.

  After covering brother with some Dirt that is... don't want him to get cold. Be back soon brother.