Only once had Ox beheld the ‘sun’ of the outside world. It was a bright, wild, and hot thing, yet so very remote and indifferent. The Sun-mimicking formation overhead, in contrast, was gentler and more purposeful. Ox supposed that it made little difference.

  The Golden Child had been gone for two days, now. Ox had weathered his absence many times before, though the others were on edge this time. He left them to it, preferring to watch the other Ironhorn Oxen on the opposite side of the river. The cows grazed while the young bulls challenged each other for dominance; and this was good. With one exception, this was all as it should be.

   came a jolly mental voice. A fat, pink creature many times smaller than Ox trundled up from behind. The small, dark-furred form of Rat rested on his head.

  Ox didn’t answer immediately. Given the shape of his head, he could watch both Pig and the herd simultaneously. Pig was many things; he was Pig, the Pink One, the Teacher. Were it not for him, Ox would lack much of what he now had… both good and bad.

  Pig sat down on his haunches to wait, his sharp mind evidently picking up on Ox’s pensive mood. Finally, Ox decided to share his thoughts.

  

  After a moment of silent observation across the river, Pig answered, He looked up into Ox’s eye.

  Ox snorted. Coming from his massive lungs, the action caused a light breeze to ripple through the grass for a dozen yards.

   Pig’s cheer did not falter.

   Ox’s gaze lingered on the herd, then he turned his head, and his attention, entirely to Pig.

  Pig, at last, seemed to understand, his fat face lifting.

   Ox scratched his back with his horn as he mulled it over.

   said Pig, in that tone that implied that he did not see. He tilted his head in thought.

  Ox shook his massive head side-to-side, eyes closed.

  

  

  Pig snorted aloud, accompanied by a laugh in his mental voice.

  Ox turned an eye back to his herd.

  <’Conquered!’ It’s another thing beyond my depth, I’m afraid. Anyway, I’ll be happy if we can all go together.>

  They were silent for a moment, content to watch the herd of titanic bovines go about their business. The formation shone bright overhead, and the river burbled merrily along its course. It was a good day for watching and thinking.

  Pig broke the amicable silence once again.

   Ox replied, with iron in his ‘voice.’

  

   He turned his head entirely away from the little Teacher, focusing his vision back beyond the river.

  His son wrestled another of his peers to the ground while the cows milled about, grazing or standing between their calves and the fighting. Utterly content.

  Pig didn’t answer. Instead, Ox felt a small, warm weight lean into his ribs as his friend nuzzled into him. he said at last, and Ox could not help but relent.

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   he said.

  Pig agreed, and the two took up their stance opposite one another. This business was another example of Pig acting as Teacher; a ‘technique’ based on the Golden Child’s work. It required far tighter control of his vital energy, his ‘qi,’ than Ox was used to exerting. But what a thing it would be, if they could get it working!

  -

  Monkey had often found himself spending time with Sheep, of late. Even now, his mentally-silent Sister served as his backrest as he sat outside of the Master’s alchemy shed, her wool soft and soothing. He needed to stay close to her; otherwise, she would sneak up on him and bleat at maximum volume when he least expected it.

  The scroll divulged yet more secrets the second time he read it, and now the simian undertook a third reading. It was one of several such scrolls Master had copied down for his Zodiac, all from memory. A ‘basic treatise’ on mathematics, Monkey could practically feel his intellect growing as he reflected upon its precepts.

  It wasn’t easy to concentrate. As Monkey and Sheep sat in the pleasant shade of the building, two figures tore up the ground just beyond in a frenzy. Tiger and Dog chased each other back and forth, struggling for position at lightning speed.

  Tiger found a perfect angle to pounce, and launched his enormous bulk two dozen feet through the air. The big cat carried ten times the weight of his opponent; but Monkey, glancing up, had seen this play out too many times to be fooled.

  Dog switched directions, turning around even as his opponent bore down on him. Tiger’s jaws opened wide and his paws reached out, though his claws remained retracted. Dog showed no such restraint. Just before the larger spirit beast came down on top of him, he leapt into an interception course with fangs bared.

  They landed together in a tangled heap. The winner was the same as always: dog’s jaws gripped tightly onto Tiger’s throat. The larger spirit beast remained submissive on the ground as Dog released his hold and lifted to his feet. After shaking himself off, he bent back down and licked Tiger’s face, the universal ‘just playing’ signal.

  Tiger rolled over onto his paws, but did not get up. His ‘voice’ remained calm and respectful, despite repeated losses.

   Dog said as he sat down, letting his tongue loll out the side of his mouth.

  Tiger yawned. For a cat, it was a rather intimate gesture, a non-verbal signal of friendship. Master had taught them so months ago, during their ‘orientation.’ Pig’s linguistic and teaching abilities proved invaluable, of course, but they were all animals first and foremost. The speaking members of the Zodiac had to get used to each other’s body language as they learned and grew together.

  After a long jowl-stretch, Tiger spoke again.

  

  

   Indeed, Dog’s tone was not mocking in the slightest.

  The two prepared for another bout and Monkey returned to his reading. He made it halfway through one equation before the next distraction struck: a loud beeping noise from inside the shed. Now that piqued his curiosity. The two combatants ceased their play while Monkey disengaged himself from Sheep’s wool to investigate.

  Once inside, he found the sound emitting from a small slip of paper, just outside of the Master’s favorite material storage closet. The closet’s door had opened, as if of its own volition. The top shelf linked directly to a certain fold of the Master’s sleeve via formation. The Master, himself, sent them a message?

  Monkey picked up the paper, flipping it over in his leathery hands. On the back was writ a formation which caused the sound, and on the front… instructions.

  “Ook!” he cried aloud. Instructions personally directed to the Zodiac! He charged out into the open, the now-silent paper clenched in his raised fist.

  Dog and Tiger dropped what they were doing and crowded around Monkey as he scanned the horizon, looking for…

  

  … a little cloud of dust, growing larger and closer at a rapid pace. At its head galloped a magnificent red steed. At least, that is how he would describe himself. He skidded to a stop just in front of Monkey.

   It was a rare occasion when Horse ‘spoke’ at a normal volume, and this was not such an occasion. Monkey didn’t bother chiding him for it this time.

  

   Horse shouted, reared, and then bolted off, as was his habit. Dog trotted off to get Rabbit, as well as Rooster and Snake. When it was a matter of official business, the whole unit needed to act together. This was the proper way of things.

  Meanwhile, Monkey wrote "Received," on the paper and slipped it back into the closet’s ‘sleeve zone.’

  Once they’d all gathered together, those who could physically fit inside of the alchemy shed waited by the shelves. Items would apparently come flooding through any moment now, and their duty would be to arrange them. The note said there would be more than the shed could hold.

  After a few moments, something emerged from the glowing pattern etched into the wood at the back of the closet. Then another, and another pushing the first object off of the shelf and into Monkey’s waiting hands.

  It was his favorite thing in the whole world: a scroll. And yet more came, and more, and more beyond that. Scrolls, posters, flyers, paintings, even a few books, a veritable library flooded out to be neatly piled by the chain of spirit beasts.

  Knowledge, like rain out of Heaven! But Monkey couldn’t help but wonder as he passed the sacred objects to his brothers-and-sisters-in-arms: just what was the Master doing out there?

  Action Adventure Comedy Fantasy