By breakfast, Da Bao had examined his card so many times that Xu Hao was beginning to worry he'd rub the picture off.
He held it near the fire. He turned it towards the morning sun. He even tried looking through it, as though the secret of creating a living creature might be hidden in the thickness of the paper.
"You'll wear it out," Xu Hao told him.
"It's not paper."
"That's not a reason to bend it."
Da Bao straightened the card immediately. He looked rather guilty, which was unusual in a man who normally considered every opinion an invitation to argue.
Er Bao ate his breakfast before examining his own. He had kept the card in the little wooden box from the previous evening, between two pieces of clean cloth. When he took it out, he first inspected the writing on the reverse.
"These numbers," he said. "Do they change when the beast trains?"
"I don't know. Sia's haven't changed from running around camp."
"And the skill?"
"Wind Step works. We've seen that. Guardian's Instinct may work, but it's difficult to tell whether she's sensing danger or merely smelling Da Bao."
Da Bao looked up. "Why does everybody keep saying that?"
"Because the evidence is persuasive," Xu Hao said.
Er Bao suppressed a smile. "Then today we learn how to accept them. No hunting, no demonstrations of strength. One new thing at a time."
Da Bao glanced towards his club, then put it down with visible reluctance.
* * *
They went to the flat stone where Xu Hao had first summoned Sia. It was far enough from camp that an unexpected burst of light would not set their shelter alight, though Xu Hao doubted white light behaved like fire. He preferred not to learn otherwise.
Sia followed them and settled beside the rock. Her ears stayed turned towards the brothers, particularly Da Bao, who seemed unable to pass her without announcing how magnificent she was.
"I'll show you what worked for me," Xu Hao said. "I brought Sia's card towards the middle of my chest, and something pulled it in. It wasn't painful. I can't promise yours will behave exactly the same way."
Er Bao nodded. "I'll go first."
"Why you?" Da Bao demanded.
"Because if I make a mistake, I won't shout about it so loudly that you forget what to do."
"I wouldn't forget."
"Last week you forgot where you put the salt while holding the salt jar."
Da Bao folded his arms. "That jar is very small."
Xu Hao held up a hand. "If you both intend to quarrel, could you do it after we finish giving you magical animals?"
Er Bao looked faintly embarrassed. He pressed the card against his chest.
Nothing happened.
They waited.
"Are you thinking about accepting it?" Xu Hao asked.
"Yes."
"Not pushing it through your clothes?"
Er Bao gave him a patient look. "No."
Another moment passed. Then the card shimmered, and Er Bao's fingers closed on empty air.
He stiffened.
Da Bao lunged forward. "Where did it go?"
"Inside," Er Bao whispered.
He closed his eyes, one hand still against his chest. Xu Hao watched his expression. The giant had always been difficult to surprise, but wonder spread across his face before he could conceal it.
"I can feel something," he said. "My earth power is heavy. Steady. This is different. Like a small creature breathing near a hearth."
Xu Hao felt a tightness ease in his own chest. "Can you sense whether it wants to come out?"
"I think so. It notices when I think about it."
"Don't force it. Let the feeling settle first."
Er Bao nodded and stepped back from the rock. He looked like a man who had just discovered a new room inside a house he'd lived in all his life.
Xu Hao noticed that the original card was stirring faintly within him, almost in answer to the one Er Bao had accepted. Sia rose from the grass and stood beside his knee, watchful but calm. He rubbed the soft fur between her ears. There was no sign of distress, no sudden weakening or loss of balance. It didn't prove the copies were harmless to her, but it gave him one encouraging observation. He made a point of remembering the sequence: acceptance first, warmth second, new presence third. Later he would ask Er Bao to describe the feeling again, without suggesting any of those answers to him. An experiment was of little use if he supplied the conclusion himself.
Da Bao was already holding his card to his chest.
"I'm next."
"You were always next," Er Bao said. "That was the entire arrangement."
"Then why didn't you say so?"
Xu Hao covered his face with one hand.
The second card disappeared almost immediately. Da Bao yelped and began slapping his shirt, then his shoulders, as if checking that none of his ribs had been replaced by dog bones.
"Stop hitting yourself," Er Bao said. "Close your eyes."
Da Bao obeyed.
A grin spread slowly across his face.
"She's there," he murmured. "I can feel her moving. Little brother, she's really there."
Xu Hao wanted to laugh. He also remembered the first time he'd felt Sia answer him from the other side of the card, and found himself unexpectedly moved.
* * *
They agreed to summon one beast at a time.
Er Bao stepped forward. He closed his eyes, took one slow breath and held out his hand. Xu Hao felt Sia lift her head beside him. The bond in his chest stirred, as though the original card recognised the possibility of another creature arriving.
A pale glow appeared on the stone.
It spread, gathered into the outline of a dog and faded.
A husky stood where there had been nothing a moment earlier. She was smaller than Sia, though still much larger than any husky Xu Hao had known on Earth. Her coat was grey and white, with fine silvery markings along the ears. She took one step, sniffed the stone, then turned towards Er Bao.
He didn't move.
The dog approached, looked up at him and put her head beneath his hand.
Er Bao's fingers closed gently in the fur at her neck. He was smiling now, not the patient little smile he gave when Da Bao said something foolish, but something Xu Hao had never seen on him before.
"Hello," he said softly.
The husky leaned against his leg.
Da Bao looked between them. "She likes you."
"It seems so."
"Mine will like me too."
"Let us hope so," Xu Hao said.
They gave Er Bao a few moments to become acquainted with her. He crouched and examined her paws, ears and eyes as carefully as Xu Hao would have examined an unfamiliar artefact. The dog tolerated this with extraordinary patience. When he asked her to sit, she did, then lifted a paw as if to request something in return.
"Already better behaved than my brother," Er Bao said.
Da Bao snorted. "Watch this."
He summoned his own copy with all the enthusiasm he brought to swinging a club.
The light had barely cleared when the second husky bounded forward and struck him in the chest. Da Bao went over backwards, laughing, and the dog climbed on top of him to lick his face.
Xu Hao stared at the enormous man lying in the grass beneath an equally enthusiastic beast.
"Apparently she knows exactly who you are."
"She's perfect!" Da Bao shouted, attempting to hug her without losing an ear to her excited movements.
Er Bao's new companion watched from beside him, dignified and quietly curious. Sia rose and approached the newcomers.
At once both copies turned towards her.
There was no growling, no raised fur. They circled carefully, noses working, then paused as Sia inspected them. The larger dog touched noses with Er Bao's companion and sniffed Da Bao's, who had finally managed to stand.
Xu Hao watched the encounter with more interest than he'd expected. He could sense Sia through her original card, and through that connection he felt the faint presence of the two copies. They weren't his companions in quite the same way, yet their existence left an echo, as though he'd given away two sketches but could still remember drawing them.
Sia sat beside his leg.
The other two sat as well.
Da Bao pointed. "See? They're following her."
"Perhaps," Xu Hao said. "But dogs also copy one another when they aren't made of magic. We shouldn't mistake one observation for a rule."
"You managed to make three enormous dogs appear out of cards," Da Bao replied. "And you're worried about the rules of sitting?"
"Particularly when I don't understand the rules of anything else."
* * *
Before they returned to camp, Er Bao asked whether he could summon his companion back into the card. Xu Hao had never tried returning Sia, and the thought made his stomach tighten.
"We don't have to do everything today," he said.
Er Bao nodded. "Then we'll wait."
Da Bao was already offering his new husky a piece of dried meat. She accepted it, swallowed, then looked expectantly at his other hand.
"You have excellent taste," he told her.
Xu Hao looked at Sia, who was carefully watching Da Bao's food pouch. "Apparently it runs in the family."
Three grey-and-white tails waved in the afternoon light. Three pairs of paws disturbed the grass where, an hour earlier, only Sia had stood.
Xu Hao knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. The strength he'd spent creating the first card seemed worth it now, but he wasn't foolish enough to think the work was finished. Three living creatures were three lives to feed, protect and understand.
He looked towards the brothers.
"One more thing," he said. "Before we teach them anything dangerous, we should give them names."
Da Bao's eyes lit up.
"I've got one!"
Xu Hao glanced at Er Bao.
"Why does that worry me?"
"Experience," Er Bao said.