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Jeseia woke me early, dawn just starting to fade the stars away with a soft kiss. Her arms holding me close and warm. "Good morning Tan, how'd you sleep?" She giggled just a bit.

"Give me my fox back to hug and a few more hours, and ask me that again." I slowly sat up with a yawn, followed shortly by a grab at the already awake vixen. "Why are you up so early?"

Jes nimbly dodged my hands before slipping into my lap on her own, cuddling into my chest. "I couldn't sleep, and, I figured you could get a head start preparing for today so that you'll have a little more time."

I smiled softly, getting a head start was a good idea. But, with the vixen sitting there in my lap, I really didn't want to go anywhere else. I held her close and started to press light kisses in against her neck. She didn't complain in the slightest, rather, she leaned her head aside and started to coo and squirm each time I made contact. "What if I'd rather stay here as long as I could?"

She murred pleasently and squirmed in my lap once more, petting a paw along the back of my hair, "I'd like that, but Granh will be here soon to get started." She leaned her head back down and pressed a warm kiss to my lips before reluctantly standing and offering a paw to help me up.

"So what can I do to prepare?" I asked as I stood, stretching out my limbs.

"You can eat this, then you must cut a tree to firewood." Came a gruff voice that I recognized immediately even as he stepped from the trees and tossed a piece of dried boar to me.

"Well good morning to you too Granh, I don't suppose you brought an axe for me?" I asked a question to which I already knew the answer. This wolf never did anything the easy way. I tore into the meat hungrily while wandering around idly, looking at the trees.

He gently handed some meat to Jes before turning to me, "You know three of five elements. You know how to commune with them. Now you need to learn application. Soon you will need what you learn."

"Well, that's all good to know, and I intend to try and learn as much as you'll teach me. But, could you at least give me a hint so I know what I'm doing?"

"Watch and Feel." He stated bluntly, resting his large paw over a pouch similar to Jeseia's that hung over his heart.

I understood that that ment see with my eyes, but feel through the elements as he guides them around himself. It took me many minutes to calm myself enough to listen to each token at the same time. The noise was deafening. All three, Water, Air, and Earth were there and communing at once. Like listening to three shouting conversations at the same time in a small room. "There's too many, I can't make sense of the noise."

Jeseia came to me and rested her paws on my shoulders, murmuring softly in my ears. "Relax, I'll help you focus." With those words soon I felt a buffer between myself and the three elements, like a focus, balancing the efforts of each into a harmony of sensations than a cachophany of shouts.

With her help, I could easily feel how the three elements moved around Granh and could almost see the flows about him as he walked to a young tree. Water, then Earth, then Air, just that fast and the tree had a large chunk of the truck torn away. Water, Earth, Air again and the tree fell against its neighbors, severed from the ground.

"Water to dry, Earth for Strength, and Air to cut." He stated simply. "Do this to a tree of your choosing, and cut into firewood. You have until noon."

Jeseia slowly removed her hands from my shoulders, the noise came back quickly. Each element wanted to work with me at the same time. Now I knew how to do this, one at a time. The tree I chose was a thick old oak, it was tall and would burn hot, perfect for firewood.

I drew upon water, peace filled me immediately, I guided the water from the spot I chose out of the tree and into the soil to dry it out. Then I filled myself with earth, My feet planted firm and my strength renewed I finally drew upon air. With a sharp motion of my hand I guided a sharp blast of air from around me into the dried out place in the tree truck. Some of the bark chipped away.

Again I tried, and again some wood chipped away from the trunk. Each time I tried, the elements came to me quicker and easier more instinct than effort. Each time I tried, more of the wood chipped away in larger pieces. And each time I tried, a more worried look came over Jeseia's features.

After nearly an hour I had finally managed to cut this stubborn old tree down, that was the easy part. Now I set to the task of cutting it into short logs, then splitting the logs. The process was the same, but with the practice I was becoming proficient in the application of my new skills. I had the tree chopped and stacked almost half an hour before I needed to finish and earned a nice heavy sweat in the process.

Jeseias ears twitched slightly at a sound I couldn't hear, and she drew close to me. "Good luck" With that she turned and walked away into the woods with tears in her eyes. I ment to follow after her but I barely had time to take a step before Granh...and his two other clan members I met the night before, Iergon and the shorter one, stepped from the woods. "Bind him."

Swiftly, both wolf clan males were atop of me. I managed to throw one from me with the help of earth, but there was just too much and soon my hands were tied behind my back with thick animal sinew cords. I glared at the betrayal from Granh, anger boiling in my blood even as I was forced to stand. "Iergon, Keep him there, watching. Lucon, Stack the firewood there, in the center of the circle."

Sharp claws gripped my throat, holding just strong enough to keep me still as I was forced to watch Lucon build a pyre of the wood I had recently finished cutting to size. The work took him only minutes while Granh watched like he was carved in stone.

"Set him in the center Iergon, and light it."

Only the reassurance of water, keeping me company through the token at my chest, kept me from screaming out. I fought anyway, trying to draw on earth to break free. Each time I drew the flow of elemental earth into me, I felt it again flow away. My eyes drew immediately to Granh who nodded in affirmation, he was channeling away from me as I was channeling in.

"Before you die, Tanthis of man, know this. Fire is anger, fire is hate, fire is energy. Fire does not fly, fire does not flow, and fire is not unmoving. Fire ravages, fire consumes."

I yelled out something even I couldn't understand as Iergon left me there, atop a pile of perfect firewood that I'd personally cut for my own funeral. As he cleared the wood, Lucon lit the fire. It spread quickly to the outer edges of the wood pile and began the steady climb upwards.

The heat was unbearable, I could feel it burning at the skin already as I struggled with my bonds. Water did its best to keep me cool, but it wasn't enough. The smoke cleared away easily enough with air aiding me, but it only let me watch the flames come for me that much easier. I suddenly heard a higher pitched wail from just outside the trees. I knew that voice, and that voice made me suddenly very angry.

It was Jeseia, she had stayed after all. She had made that noise only once before, when lightning had nearly taken her from me. I pushed away air and water, I didn't want calm. Anger boiled again in my blood, my wrists bloodied now from struggling. I stood proud in the blaze, glaring hate at Granh as I stood there. Revenge, that's what I felt, raw unbridled revenge for the one doing this and making her watch. The fires whipped into a frenzy, lapping at my pants and tunic, starting to burn away at the hairs on my arms and head as the flames lept higher and higher. A deep gutteral growl came from my throat, the fires having caught my tunic ablaze, yet I stood there, letting the last thing Granh saw of me was the hate in my eyes.

He called out to me, features still stoic and emotionless. "Fire ravages, Fire consumes, Tanthis of man"

Again I felt the anger rise in me, The bastard taunting me as my skin blistered and cooked in the fire I stood amongst. Anger...I'm not an angry person, even at my most desperate time, I should just give up. That anger boiling inside me, keeping me consciense and focused wasn't mine at all. Fire was there, consuming everything that I was and fueling just what I had left, hate.

I drew upon water to clear my head, and earth to regain my strength. Fire was there, hungry for me, for everything. I guided my hate and anger away from myself and into the wood, then, slowly, I pushed down the anger. As I calmed and understood the anger was not my own, it was the influence of fire, I began to channel it away from myself and the wood and into the bindings that held me. The sinewed burned, cracked, and fell away in pieces. Eventually I guided the fire into nothing more than hot coals. There before me, burned a single coal, a perpetual flame rolling out from beneath it. I kneeled down and picked up the coal, it was warm to the touch but did not burn me. There, I could feel the energy, the drive, of the fire element. It was anxious to come out, and burn more.

I strode confidantely over the rest of the coals to stand before Granh, I tucked the token of fire into what remained of my tunic. "I beat your test," was all I could mutter before darkness claimed me. I heard a dull thud, myself hitting the ground, before all went quiet.

I awoke briefly to being carried somewhere, I could hear muttered approvals from several wolf clan, but more I could hear quiet whimpers from a more familiar source. Looks like I'll have more to apologize for. Again darkness claimed me, for how long, I did not know.