The Land of Broken Roads

As evening came and the den grew dim, four wolves double Socks’ size returned from the day’s adventures, still not fully grown but radiating a predatory menace that the smaller pups had none of. The fuzzy gray was mostly gone from their fur, leaving it mottled black and sleek. They bent down to sniff him as they passed but otherwise ignored him, even shutting their minds to his sight. Dirt was sure it had been one of them who picked him up in the forest this morning, but if so, he didn’t identify himself.

Night brought the perfect darkness Dirt was used to, but all the sound and motion and heat in the den was new. The wolves all crowded and cuddled together to sleep, although they left room for Socks, who wasn’t allowed to move yet. And for Dirt himself, who would have been squished if one of them rolled over. Even so, if he’d been allowed to move his aching arms, he might have risked snuggling with Socks. Perhaps in another few days.

Despite being warm and comfortable, the night was restless for him, who startled awake at nearly every snort or scratch or shuffle. Each time he heard something, he thought it might be Mother rising to eat one or two of her children, as Socks said she did every night. He was afraid he’d have to hear the giant pups crying out in pain and fear. Hear their bones crunching, hear Mother chewing them up. What if they screamed for help, calling out with their minds and voices at the same time? What if everyone woke, and they all had to listen together in helpless terror?

At some point during the night, Father entered, a silent killer whose sheer presence filled the den and reverberated against its walls. He curled up near the entrance and fell asleep himself, and Dirt didn’t wake again after that.

At first light, Socks huffed and woke him with a puff of air, then licked him several times to say hello. -Good morning, little Dirt. You look normal in the dream now. Did you know that?-

“I did! Home put me all back together in a dream last night, so I wondered if I would look normal to you, and now I know.”

-My brother says you kept waking up all night until Father made you stay asleep.-

A wave of dread passed through him. The less notice Father took of him, the better. “I was afraid I’d hear Mother eating someone.”

-Did you? I didn’t. I never do. But there are three fewer of us this morning. Usually it’s one or two.-

“No, and I’m glad. I don’t want to hear that. I like you too much and I think all your siblings are cute, too. Except the big ones. Cute isn’t the right word for them.”

-I like them too, but Mother says only a handful will survive the first year. But don’t fret about it. Everyone would rather die than be a weak wolf.-

“Don’t you miss them?”

-I don’t think so. I haven’t thought about it.-

Dirt considered that for a moment but was distracted by the growing ache in his arms. He shifted his back a little to try and get more comfortable, and even that minor motion caused a scalding pain in his shattered right arm. He grit his teeth and hissed until it calmed back down.

-Oh, I forgot to tell you. Mother left, so try not to move at all until she comes back. Nothing is holding your bones together. Don’t even twitch or it’ll hurt.-

“I found that out already.”

-I saw.-

“She can’t do it from far away?”

-She can, but she doesn’t want to.-

“Oh. Oh well. So, how long do bones take to grow back together? It only takes flesh a day or so, so I thought it would be faster than this.”

Socks found that amusing for some reason, and so did two other pups who were nearby and must have been listening. They stood, padded over, and gave him a good sniff, then loomed overhead with their tongues lolling out. He didn’t even have to see their minds to tell they found something funny.

-That only works because I’m a wolf and the cuts weren’t deep. Flesh takes a lot longer to heal if a wolf doesn’t lick it.-

“Then what about bones?”

-Those take a very long time, but if Mother holds them together and you stay in the den, then it’s only a few days because this is a healthy place.-

“What makes it healthy?”

-It just is. That’s why Father and Mother dug the den here.-

-Show us your mind meld,- said a new voice. One of the pups above him. Two more joined them, then another, and Dirt was reminded again just how big they were. Their heads were bigger than his whole body, and with them pushing for a better look at him, he saw a lot of teeth.

-SHOW US- said several more, their eagerness turning to shouting that made Dirt’s brain squirm. -SHOW-

“Okay. Just talk quieter, because as you can see I’m just a little tiny human.”

Dirt looked over at Socks and the pup’s eyes were eager. -Let’s do this, and then we’ll try and fill up your mana afterward. Or maybe during.-

They eased into it, sending each other a stream of perception that built until it incorporated every sensation or thought. Dirt focused on relaxing his mind, opening, submitting, and receiving and understanding everything the pup sent him.

It only took a moment before their thoughts slid together and became one, and once they did, the link between them solidified and Dirt and Socks felt the ground with two bodies, saw with four eyes, smelled with two noses.

With Socks’ sense of smell, the den was almost miraculously different. It came to life with an overwhelming heady richness, so many smells, each telling him something new. Each sibling had his or her own scent, as did Mother and Father, and all of it lingered. But there was more—scents of blood and flesh, soil and water, pollen and rot. So many scents carried in their fur, all of it exciting.

Dirt smelled himself with Socks’ nose and fully realized for the first time just how complex it was. Emotions both current and old, everywhere he’d been lately, even the fact he was a child. No wonder they all kept coming up to sniff him. If their bones weren’t broken, Socks and Dirt might have gotten up right then and gone around sniffing everyone themselves, just to see what it was like.

And the human vision! Socks had never known there could be so many colors. The earth took on a richer brown and the gray of everyone’s fur showed faint hints of red or orange that Socks hadn’t noticed before. The small bits of plant life strewn around were green, an entirely new color. And distant things stayed in sharp focus—incredibly so. So bright and clear, even far away!

The fight with the tentacle monster had been too urgent and hasty for Socks and Dirt to spend much time taking it in, and now they found themselves in an entirely new world.

Socks and Dirt said, “-Hello everyone-“ just to see what happened when they spoke at once.

-HELLO- came several replies at once, from different directions.

Wait, directions?

“-Say something again. Just one of you. You,-“ said Socks and Dirt, indicating a sister standing toward Dirt’s feet.

She sent the thought simply and quietly. -Hello, brother and little human.-

A thrill of excitement filled them, rebounding back and forth on their mental connection. They could tell the direction! Before, thoughts came from nowhere, had no real voice or sound to them. Mind-sight had no front or back, left or right, and neither did mental communication. It simply was. Until now. Two eyes to see distance, two ears to tell direction, and now two minds joined together could show them both.

Socks and Dirt looked around with mental sight, amazed. Everyone’s mind was in a direction now, not just brighter or dimmer. Sister was there, brother was there…

The pups crowding around them watched it all and shared in their amazement. They raced all around the den, shouting things like -Look!- as they went. And just as wonderful, no matter how loud anyone shouted, it didn’t hurt little Dirt at all, because Socks could receive the extra pressure.

“-We will be the greatest hunter ever!-“ thought Dirt and Socks.

“-We will! Nothing can hide from us! We wonder if Socks is still the eighth strongest, or if he is now a match for the seventh, who killed the ogres, or the sixth, who fought the snake.-“

“-Mother will tell us when she returns.-“

Word seemed to be getting around, because several more pups came in from outside to watch, including one of the older brothers. The den was abuzz with activity, each pup eagerly chatting with its siblings and some still racing around, watching how Dirt and Socks could hear the direction in their unified mind. The second strongest even went outside and ran up the rock that made part of the ceiling, just to see if they could tell the direction. They could.

“-We should teach Dirt how to gather mana. It might be easier this way, with both of us.-“

“-Yes, let’s try that.-“

“-All right, it goes like this,-“ said Dirt and Socks to each other. Then Socks’ body made a connection with the earth and started drawing in energy, filling his mana vessel. From there, power spread to the rest of his body, infusing the muscles and increasing his strength several times over.

It seemed so simple that Dirt and Socks grinned to themselves as they prepared to make the attempt. Once Dirt’s body knew how to do this, the possibilities were limitless. They could play all sorts of games if Dirt could run and jump like Socks, or at least closer to it than now. And who knows what else they might come up with.

Dirt and Socks sent their mental awareness all through Dirt’s body looking for how his mana body interacted with the physical one, but they couldn’t find it. That made them go back and try again to understand how Socks did it, but it came so naturally to the pup that they made little progress there either. Dirt’s body tried to match the feeling of it, hoping for an epiphany, but it was like trying to catch a bird using just his feet. He simply wasn’t built that way.

Once they saw what was going on, all the pups shouted their suggestions, but none of it was useful. They repeated the same instinctual feeling that Socks already knew, and which Dirt’s body couldn’t grasp.

The joining of their minds shuddered and split apart, leaving Dirt with a mild headache and severe mental exhaustion. He felt like he’d just run for an hour, but only with his brain.

He looked over at Socks just in time for the pup to lick him with his enormous wet tongue again.

Dirt laughed, helpless to do anything about it. Squirming in pleasant discomfort made his arms move, though, and he could feel the break in the right arm flex with even the slightest motion. “Stop! You’re making my arms hurt!”

-That is an excuse. You don’t like it when I lick your face, do you?- asked Socks, as close to laughter as he ever got.

“I don’t hate it; it just feels weird.”

Socks affectionately licked him again right on the face. Dirt squealed with laughter but that jostled his arm again, which made him hiss and wince.

-I’ll stop. It’s hard to leave you alone because you are cute and fun to tease.-

“Well, just wait until I find a way to get you back someday!”

-How will you do that?-

“I’ll say something like, gee, too bad I have such a bad itch but I can’t move my leg to scratch. So, so itchy, right there, where I can’t do anything about it. My poor fur! Wow, it itches so bad! And all you have to do is not think about it, and you won’t notice any itches. So don’t think about it, not even a little.”

Dirt sat there and smugly let Socks roll it around in his mind. It didn’t take very long before Dirt saw him twitching his paws.

“Sorry, Socks. I’d go scratch it for you but I can’t move either.”

-You got me. How did you know about that?-

“Mother said I kept my wisdom from when I was an adult. That must be how.”

Father came in not long after, carrying fat, bloody cattle held in his teeth. In Dirt’s haste not to make eye contact, he caught only a glimpse of them, but he was sure he’d counted at least eight. He wished it had been anyone other than Father carrying them, though, because now he was painfully curious. He hadn’t known cattle existed until this moment. The word hadn’t even come to his mind before.

The den, already full of energy and commotion, sparked into even greater fervor. The pups barked aloud and shouted in their minds, creating an overwhelming cacophony.

Socks licked Dirt again, helping sooth him so he could resist the mental noise. -Try and hide your thoughts. It will help.-

Dirt focused on making his mind invisible, a trick he’d only accomplished once or twice and mostly by reflex, and the painful riot of mental noise dimmed to a low hum. Shutting them out made him feel vaguely disconnected from everyone around him, which he regretted, but at least he wouldn’t squirt blood out his ears.

“Thanks, Socks,” said Dirt aloud. Socks huffed in reply.

Father dropped the cattle not too far away from where Dirt and Socks were laying. The unpleasant sound they made when they hit the ground was disquieting and the heavy, smacking thuds reverberated in his memory long after the sound was gone.

After that, Father started ripping them apart to distribute. One of the pups must have gotten too close, because Father snarled, STAY BACK. I WILL DECIDE WHO EATS FIRST AND HOW MUCH.

There was no quieting out Father’s voice and the scolding tone made Dirt go rigid in dread, even though he wasn’t the target. He closed his eyes and tried to keep his fear from getting away from him, breathing deeply and schooling his thoughts. He was so focused that he didn’t notice Father’s hot breath on him until he heard the heavy chunk of meat plop down between him and Socks.

FEED YOUR PET A PIECE IF YOU WISH, Father told Socks. Dirt held his breath until the immense presence overhead moved on.

Socks eagerly gnawed a bite off the huge chunk of meat, which was tricky to do laying on the ground. He hardly chewed it before it was gone down his throat.

“Do you get meat often, or mostly milk?” asked Dirt.

-Mostly milk, especially at first. And they used to chew it up for us, but not anymore. Now they just make sure we don’t eat too much or eat a bone, because that will hurt our stomachs or teeth.-

“Didn’t you eat that goblin?”

-No, I just killed it and tasted a lot of the blood. And it was more than one. I’ve killed five.-

“I’m surprised Father gave you meat first and not the oldest or strongest.”

-He always feeds the littlest ones first. If we are weak, it will be because of ourselves, not because we didn’t get enough food. But don’t worry. I’ll leave you some.-

Dirt wondered about that. Why would the parents go through the trouble of feeding them so carefully if Mother was just going to eat them? And for that matter, why bother eating them? If they were weak, they’d just wander into something like the tentacle monster and that would be that. Even so, after seeing Mother and Father in the flesh and feeling the pure menace they radiated, there was no doubt they were capable of eating their pups.

Stranger still, Socks and all his siblings seemed affectionate with each other. They played and romped and slept in a pile, innocent and happy. And yet, every night there were less of them and no one seemed to mind. Why didn’t it bother them, even a little bit? How could that—

Mother’s voice filled his mind just as her shadow filled the entrance to the den. I HAVE MY REASONS, AND IF YOU DISCOVER THEM BEFORE I PERMIT YOU TO LEARN, I WILL KILL YOU WITHOUT HESITATION.

Dirt hastily replied, as meekly as he could, “Thank you for the warning.”

Mother gave no further reply, but he felt his bones tighten back together. As her immense black form passed silently over him, the pain faded into a dull ache, letting him relax in places he hadn’t realized were tense.

Socks left him a chunk of meat that was a little too much, but the pup’s teeth were too big to get it any smaller without using hands or paws. It was tricky to get a bite off—the meat was soft and bloody and kept sliding away when he tried to sink his teeth in and then Socks would have to nudge it back again. Between the two of them they eventually managed to get Dirt’s stomach full, although it resulted in a lot of frustrated giggling and tail wagging.

Once the meat was gone, quivering balls of water appeared for them to sip right out of the air. Dirt was sure Mother was the one who did it, and it occurred to him that for all her clarity about his position, she was being quite generous.

Father left after that and for the rest of the day, Mother rested at the back of the den, brooding and keeping a wary eye on her children. Socks’ brothers and sisters came and went, leaving to explore or perform tasks assigned by Mother. Each time one came back, everyone got a sniff, and they even came over to greet Socks so he wasn’t left out.

Dirt and Socks were too tired mentally to try another link or work on magic for a while, so they rested in between visits from siblings. One sister told them about a cave with rocky spines all over the ceiling, and another about a pond that was a perfect circle with a hill in the middle that had a bunch of little snakes on it.

Later when they took a nap, they met in the dream and raced up a tall, solitary mountain. It rose up from a flat plain of hard red dirt, and it was barren at the bottom, pine trees in the middle, and ice and snow on top. From up there, they saw farther than Dirt had ever thought possible, and he resolved to climb it in the waking world one day and see if it was the same.

In the afternoon, Mother instructed them to get up and move around a bit, with strict orders that it should remain restful and calm. Socks stood and the first thing he did was gingerly scratch his side with his back leg. Dirt felt guilty so he helped, digging in good with his fingernails and hoping Mother didn’t slack in holding his bones. Moving like that made them ache, but they stayed together.

They stepped just outside the den to get some sunlight and stretched and yawned and enjoyed the fresh scenery, and Dirt found the bright sun more pleasant than ever before. It warmed his skin and the ground he was standing on, enveloping him from head to toe like a blanket.

The field around the den was still a mess, with torn earth and sparse grass for quite some distance. The bone pile looked bigger now than he remembered, but he hadn’t paid close attention before.

Socks sat down to relax in the sun for a bit, and since Dirt was allowed to use his arms, he climbed up and lay on the pup’s back, stretched out comfortably in the fur.

“Socks, do you know what I just noticed? My face bones don’t hurt anymore.” Dirt pressed his finger against all the spots that used to hurt and found only a couple bruised places in the sharper part around his eyeball. “I think we really do get better faster in the den.”

-I told you we did.-

“Yep. It was several days ago and hardly got better that whole time. It hurt almost any time I moved but now after one night it’s almost completely healed. I bet your leg and my arms won’t take very long.”

-I hope it’s fast. It’s less boring with you here but it’s still boring. Everyone is telling me about all the fun they had but we haven’t had any.-

“Here, lift your head up,” said Dirt. He rose from his little nest in Socks’ fur and carefully stepped up to his front shoulders, resting one hand on the pup’s head for balance.

-What are we doing?-

“I want to smell the breeze, and I bet you want to see all the colors. Let’s try and meld again, just for a moment.”

Dirt and Socks reached for each other with the fullness of their minds, and after a little difficulty caused by the weariness from last time, they slid together again. Instantly the landscape exploded into brilliant colors and vivid scents from far away. Dirt’s eyes raced over everything, near and far, and they were amazed at how clear the distant trees were, even though nothing over there was moving. Dirt’s eyesight was much more impressive out here where there was a whole world to look at.

The air moved too slowly to feel, but Socks’ nose could smell the motion. The bone pile smelled of bone and blood and old rot, and the lingering steps of dozens of wolves left their own traces. Farther off, the smell of grass and pine tree sap and so much more painted a picture of the landscape just as bright as Dirt’s eyes did.

“-Laying around might be boring, but this is fun-“, said Dirt and Socks.

“-It’s too bad it’s so tiring. Maybe we’ll get better at it with practice.-“

“-We will.-“

They looked again at the inside of Dirt’s body, trying to find where to draw in mana, but just as before, it was impossible even with the two of them.

“-Perhaps we should understand better how it works for Socks first.-“

They turned their attention to Socks’ body and watched as he drew in a little mana, then again, a little more. From there, they watched how Socks distributed it, first in his mana body, then his physical one.

“-How does it know where to go?-“

That was a good question. They watched carefully, trying to understand the mechanism, but the better they observed, the worse they understood it. The mana was moving and not moving at the same time, for one. It came into Socks in the same place, which they thought might be near his belly button. But any time they thought about a different part of his body with the intention of seeing the mana move, it was already there.

“-Oh, let’s try this. Can we move the mana from Socks into Dirt directly? Maybe if he had some in him we could figure it out.-“

Seeing that was a great idea, they turned their minds to the task. Socks only had to think of jumping for mana to be in his legs, so they thought of Dirt doing the same.

A brilliant, flashing spark in Dirt’s body split the meld so abruptly that Dirt gasped and fell to his hands and knees. He felt stretched and torn inside, like he had a cough that wouldn’t come out. He wanted to smack himself in the chest but didn’t risk it with his arms broken, Mother’s help notwithstanding.

-Did it work?- asked Socks, turning his head all the way back around to give Dirt a little lick to get his attention.

“I’m not sure. Ow.”

-What’s wrong?-

Dirt had no idea what to tell him. The torn feeling inside him quickly evolved into unpleasant heat, hotter than the sunlight on his shoulders. He tried to be calm, to relax and take the pressure off whatever it was, to simply let it flow. If he could only twist and turn the right way, maybe it’d come loose.

-I don’t know what to have you do. Is there mana in you now? Is that what it is?- said Socks, sounding almost frantic.

“I don’t know. It hurts.”

-Try jumping. Do something. Try and use it up.-

“Hold on,” said Dirt, trying to focus. He stood up and stretched out his arms and legs, bending over forward and back to try and loosen up the lump burning in his chest.

Dirt must have found the right way to bend, because all at once, the fire melted and incorporated with him, filling him with something he recognized, even though this was the first time in his life.

“Magic! I have magic again! It’s been so long! I don’t even know what to do with it! But—“

Dirt stopped the thought midway and looked at Socks with a grin. “Okay, here I go.”

He willed his body to use the mana just like Socks did. If he hadn’t felt Socks do it across the mind meld he might not have tried, but it was natural as breathing now. He hadn’t just watched Socks do it—he’d done it himself.

Dirt slipped off Socks’ back and as soon as his feet touched the earth, he jumped with all his strength. He soared into the air, too fast for his mind to follow, and ascended much higher than he expected. Possibly as tall as Mother! He shrieked in joy at the top of his flight, looking around in pure excitement.

Then he began to fall and realized he’d used up all the mana. There was nothing left for him to land with. He was going to break every bone in his body.

“Catch me!” he yelled to Socks, his mind almost unable to form the words around his terror.

Socks scrambled to his feet to try and catch his human before he crashed, but before he could, Dirt’s fall slowed and stopped in midair, inches off the ground. Then the invisible hand that caught him rotated him until he was upright, then let go, dropping him harmlessly on his feet.

WHAT DID I TELL YOU TWO? DID I NOT TELL YOU TO REST? IS THAT RESTING? NO, DO NOT APOLOGIZE. COME IN HERE AND LAY DOWN.