Moxie did not like being locked up. He was a smart little guy and was small enough that he could not be contained effectively. Tui didn’t like tying the piglet up either. It was cruel to keep a wild animal bound up. Instead, the little beast roamed everywhere it wanted to, except for the garden, which was off-limits.

  It worked out pretty well. Moxie followed Tui everywhere of his own free will.

  He roamed in front of Tui as they headed toward the teak tree, pausing to dig up some roots. Then Moxie moved to gleefully tear apart a rotting log, gobbling up some squirming grubs, suddenly exposed to the sun.

  Tui strode through the jungle, spear hanging loose in his hand. He was unsettled about the state of the hut as he’d found it. The situation did not have a ‘peaceful, planned departure’ feeling, more of a ‘something horrible happened here’ vibe. There was no way of knowing what had happened.

  Additionally, though he hadn’t seen any sign of him, Moxie's dad should be somewhere on the island. The thought of dealing with another hog left him feeling anxious,

  As he walked, he worked on activating his third meridian without activated mental abilities. The pathway to his heart meridian was convoluted and engaging it while walking made things even trickier.

  However, with practice came familiarity. Tui had the pathway from dantian to meridian engraved in his mind from constant repetition. He drew a pipeline of fire, chanting, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast”

  The fire died in the pipeline. Too slow. He sighed and started again.

  Tui and Moxie emerged at the beach, not far from the teak tree. It had fallen a few days ago, and now the real work began.

  He started a large fire using his fire sticks and laid burning coals on the top of the log. The coals burned through the green wood slowly, hollowing out the log. It was hot, dirty work. His eyes were red and sore from the smoke which always seemed to follow him.

  Fire was his axe. It did all the work for him. With fire, he trimmed off the largest branches and cut the log to size. His hand axe was simply inadequate for chopping through the thick wood.

  He used his hand axe and newly made adze to strip the bark from the log and to rough out the exterior shape. His hands bloomed with blisters, unused to the labor.

  As the end of the day approached, Tui watched Moxie digging under a low-lying plant with broad leaves. The pig dug up a large root the size of Tui’s foot and chewed it happily. The tubor had white flesh with little purple spots and looked vaguely familiar. On the walk back to the hut, Tui noticed another of the same plant and dug it up for himself. Moxie chuffed at him approvingly.

  After chopping and boiling the root, the name came to him. Taro. He popped another piece into his mouth. It had a pleasant texture and a slightly sweet taste. More variety in his diet was always welcome, and there seemed to be many taro plants around.

  Moxie pressed himself up against his leg and grunted demandingly, the greedy little pig. All he had done all day was eat things, and now he wanted Tui’s food. He obligingly dropped a piece into the piglet’s open mouth. It disappeared without even seeming to touch the sides. Moxie didn't bother to look grateful, opening his mouth again. Working together, they ate the remaining taro. The meal was filling, but Tui was beginning to crave something fried, something crispy.

  Back in civilization, oil was so widely available. Tui wished he had oil for cooking. And for lights. Darkness fell early here in the hut, in the middle of the jungle, in the middle of the high-walled caldera. Once it got dark there was little he could do besides go to bed. He missed reading books, but at least he had plenty of time to work on his cultivation.

  He sat in lotus. He had been working on restoring the functionality of the harder-to-reach abilities.

  Earlier in the day, Tui had practiced rapid activation of his third meridian. For that technique, he drew that pipeline in one shot, pulling the fire along as he navigated the conduits. He needed the whole pathway memorized to succeed with the connection. More convoluted paths required a different approach.

  He already had his mental abilities activated, allowing maximum concentration. He created an intersection at the pipeline just before the meridian. Instead of drawing a pipe full of fire, Tui drew out a solid rod.

  He brought the solid rod from the meridian all the way into his memories, to the entrance of the connection to Uncle Ari. He dragged it through that twisted passageway, all the way to the doorway marking the activation point.

  Then he returned to the intersection and pushed a hole through the rod, following as it dipped and looped through spiritual space. This was the same approach he used when he activated his fiery qi for the first time. This technique did not require having the whole path memorized. He only needed to follow the rod smoothly until he reached the end.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  It sounded simple, but he’d been trying for five nights to contact his uncle, and he kept fucking it up. The rod technique worked to enable all his other qi abilities, but this pathway was just so long and tricky. It was hard to concentrate for so long.

  The fire died in the pipe again. It was time for a break. Tui got up, added some wood to the fire, and walked out to where he could see the moon. It hung in the sky like a giant silver ball. The shining sphere highlighted the wispy clouds drawn across the sky in long, glowing brush strokes.

  He had been on this island for more than a month, and civilization seemed like a distant memory. His hair was growing bushy and matted, and his beard was the longest it had ever been. His best friend was a pig, and they shared each meal together.

  Not so long ago, his every command had been carried out by servants. He ate the best picks from the marketplace. He had worn new silk robes, giving the old ones away at the first sign of wear. He had dignity and the respect of his peers.

  He needed to get out of here and maybe hang out with some people for a change.

  He was going to get off this island and was well on his way to cobbling together something to help with that. He needed more of the mysteries of his people to navigate, to survive out on the water. He also needed to talk with someone who could communicate in something other than grunts and squeals. He felt isolated here, lonely.

  He sat once more in lotus position, bathed in moonlight. The only sound was the popping of the fireplace... and the snores of a piglet.

  He brought fire into the fifth meridian, awakening his mind once more. He created a branch and drew a rod to the connection with his uncle.

  He paused for a moment, gathering his will, and focusing his concentration. He settled his mind and cleared it of intruding thoughts.

  Once more, he pushed the hollow into the rod, drawing fire behind him. He kept his focus on the section in front of him, following it carefully and smoothly. Burning qi followed him like the tail of a comet.

  Time passed as he followed the path, growing increasingly confident and with greater control. Gradually, it started to get away from him. Like a runaway cart rolling down a hill, going faster and faster, careening out of control. He stayed on the path, hanging on.

  When he popped out at the end, it came as a surprise. Fire followed him, flooding the space and lighting it up.

  There was no need to knock this time, Uncle Ari knew he was there. Tui could feel him approaching.

  [What the fuck is all this!?] His uncle gaped at the flaming qi situation.

  [Where have you been Tui? I haven't seen you in weeks!]

  [I’m sorry Uncle, I’ve been trying to get through, but there was a hiccup with my qi. It's changed a little, as you can see.] A bubble of guilt floated into the space between them.

  Uncle Ari’s aura wrapped around him in a hug, expressing relief, a burden lifted. [Oh, my boy, I have been so worried. Your momma’s been asking about you every day, and I didn’t know what to tell her]

  The connection was more solid, and Tui’s presence felt more real with the upgraded qi. He caught his uncle up on the latest events on the island, explaining the uplift in his cultivation.

  [I’ve never seen anything like this. Some of our family have some capability as mystics, but your presence was like a fireball approaching!] Uncle Ari was shaken.

  [My sis… Your auntie could talk to me a little like this,] he continued. [the ability appeared in her after being imprisoned. Something terrible happened to her there. But she could only establish contact while asleep. She’s the only one I've talked to this way until you did a month ago.]

  [But your granny had powerful psychic abilities. She could reach dozens of people throughout the islands.]

  This was news to Tui.

  [Was she a cultivator?]

  A negation tinged with a note of disgust flooded his uncle’s aura. [We had never heard of it until the Imperials turned up. They are so stingy with those pills that I was shocked to see that you could cultivate.]

  [Mysticism is in our blood, stretching back for generations. Granny never shared the secrets of her ability with me, but my sister knew them. It’s a damn shame the Imperials murdered her.]

  Anger and grief filled the space between them. [I hate them so much…]

  Within Tui, the guilt blossomed even stronger.

  [You have the knack too, Tui, and you can use it at will through your qi. You are a true islander, and the Imperials have given you a gift. I hope it bites them in the ass!]

  A month ago, this sort of statement would have stirred up feelings of conflict within Tui. But things had changed. He had changed. He had given up on returning to civilized life and reverted to his childhood roots far more easily than he would have expected.

  Instead, a feeling of acceptance welled up in his heart. Uncle Ari felt it too. He smiled. [You have a lot to learn before you can sail away, little Tui. Let me teach you some things…]

  ***

  The next day, Tui woke up while it was still dark. He ate a cold breakfast of coconut meat and trotted toward the teak tree. Moxie ran, panting behind him. He was keen to get started. Eager to move on to the next stage.

  Trying to activate his meridian while running was even tougher than his usual practice. Three times he tried to pull fire into his heart. On the fourth try, he experienced the same runaway feeling that he'd felt when connecting to his uncle.

  He just focused on the immediate path in front of his spiritual sense, and it pushed him faster and faster through the conduit before popping out in the meridian, flooding it with fire. The rush exploded through him, and he leaped into the air with a whoop!

  Little Moxie was left behind as Tui sprinted through the jungle, his spear weightless, nearly forgotten in his hand. A breakthrough had occurred. Something had clicked.

  He slowed down and came to a stop. He could hear the little pig running, squealing through the bush, desperate to catch up. He let the fire fall out of his meridian and returned once more to reality. This was practice. Just because it worked once didn’t mean anything. It had to work the first time, every time.

  As Moxie ran into view, Tui returned to his jog and reached into his dantian for some fire.