The first expedition with three cultivated huskies began with an argument about breakfast.
Da Bao wanted to leave before dawn. Xu Hao wanted to eat. Er Bao wanted to check the weather and finish repairing the strap on his sword sheath before either of them did something regrettable.
Sia wanted Da Bao's breakfast.
Little One wanted Sia's breakfast.
Grey sat beside Er Bao, looking as though she had already worked out which of them was most likely to keep a sensible schedule.
"We lose the cool hours if we wait," Da Bao complained.
Xu Hao held up his bowl. "Then the cool hours can manage without us."
"Good prey moves early."
"So do hungry men, apparently."
Er Bao tightened the last stitch in his strap. "We leave when everyone has eaten and Xu Hao's boot is properly tied."
Xu Hao looked down. The right lace was loose. He corrected it without comment.
"See?" Da Bao said. "Now we're waiting on his shoes."
"We've been waiting on your breakfast since sunrise," Er Bao replied.
They set off a few minutes later. Da Bao led with his club over one shoulder and Little One weaving excitedly among the trees. Er Bao followed with Grey at his side. Xu Hao came behind them, Sia close enough that her shoulder brushed his leg whenever the path narrowed.
Three enormous dogs made an impressive hunting party. They also made stealth considerably more difficult until Da Bao remembered the training rules and stopped encouraging Little One to investigate every fallen branch.
Xu Hao carried his staff, a small water skin and a strip of bark for recording observations. The staff was the only item that might help him in a fight. He hoped not to find out how little.
* * *
The lower trail was familiar. He recognised the twisted pine and the slope where he'd carried stones until his arms trembled. Beyond that, the forest grew denser. The trees stood close together, their roots rising from the ground like the backs of sleeping animals. Ferns covered holes between rocks, and the light came down in narrow shafts that shifted as the morning passed.
Er Bao stopped beside a patch of disturbed soil.
"What do you see?" he asked.
Xu Hao crouched. There were three hoofprints, the edges soft from the previous night's dew, and a narrow scrape in the dirt leading away from them.
"Something with hooves. It came through after the ground was wet. The scrape could be a tail."
"Or a branch dragged by a foot," Er Bao said.
Xu Hao nodded. "I didn't think of that."
Da Bao leaned over his shoulder. "A boar. Big one."
"How can you tell?" Xu Hao asked.
"Because a small boar doesn't make prints that big."
"A masterful deduction."
Da Bao grinned. "You should write it down."
Xu Hao did, adding that Er Bao had pointed out an alternative explanation. He had spent too many years watching researchers fall in love with their first theory to make the same mistake merely because the marks were in mud rather than ink.
They followed the prints a short distance, then lost them where the ground turned stony. Grey stopped at the edge of the bare rock and sniffed carefully, while Little One wanted to investigate a hollow log. Sia remained beside Xu Hao, but her ears turned constantly towards the trees.
"Can the girls follow a scent?" Da Bao asked.
"Of course they can smell," Xu Hao said. "The question is whether they understand what we're asking them to find."
Er Bao crouched, showed Grey the disturbed soil, and pointed along the trail. She sniffed, moved forward, then stopped near a thorn bush where another hoofprint was visible.
Da Bao was delighted. "They can track!"
"She found one print," Xu Hao reminded him. "Let's see whether she finds the next."
Grey did. Then she lost the trail again. By the time they reached a small clearing, Xu Hao had recorded as many failures as successes and was beginning to enjoy the work.
The feeling didn't survive what happened next.
* * *
A lean animal burst from the grass beside the clearing. It resembled a deer, except for the black ridge of bristles down its neck and a pair of short horns that curved towards its ears. It saw them and bolted.
Little One ran after it.
"Back!" Da Bao shouted.
She didn't stop.
For a moment the giant stared, surprised that a command which worked beside camp had become entirely optional in the forest.
"Little One! Back!"
Grey had already begun to follow. Er Bao called once, sharply, and she halted beside him. Sia turned towards the fleeing animal, every muscle ready to spring.
Xu Hao grabbed the fur at her collar.
"Stay."
She held, though her whole body trembled with excitement.
Da Bao took three enormous strides and disappeared through the brush after Little One. There was a crashing noise, a surprised yelp and then silence.
Xu Hao felt his stomach tighten.
"Was that her?"
Er Bao listened. "I don't know. Stay here."
The order lasted until Da Bao emerged carrying Little One in both arms. She was unharmed, but a length of thorny vine had tangled around one hind leg. The giant set her on the grass and began freeing it.
"She chased it straight into the thorns," he said, sounding more embarrassed than angry.
Xu Hao knelt to examine the paw. There was a shallow scratch near the ankle, nothing deep, but a little blood had soaked into the fur.
"Hold still, girl."
Little One tried to lick his hands. Da Bao steadied her head while Xu Hao washed the scratch with clean water and removed the last thorn.
"It's a small injury," he said. "But it could have been much worse."
Da Bao was quiet. He had promised to bring the dogs home alive, and they had barely left the familiar trail before he'd learned how quickly enthusiasm could become danger.
"I called her," he said. "She didn't listen."
"She listened beside camp," Xu Hao replied. "There were no frightened animals running away there. We haven't taught her to stop in the middle of a chase."
Er Bao checked Grey's paws while they spoke. "Then that's something we'll practise before another hunt."
Da Bao stroked Little One's head. "I should have stopped her sooner."
Xu Hao looked up. Da Bao rarely admitted error so easily.
"Yes," he said. "And now you know. We stop the chase before it reaches the dangerous part, not after."
Da Bao nodded and helped Little One stand. The husky tested her paw, found she could put weight on it and immediately wanted to chase a butterfly.
"Absolutely not," Da Bao told her.
She wagged her tail.
They paused long enough for Xu Hao to wrap the shallow scratch with a clean strip of cloth. Little One endured the attention with less patience than Grey would have shown, but she allowed Da Bao to inspect her foot once more. Xu Hao made him repeat the recall command while the injured husky was standing still, then reward her immediately when she turned towards him. The point was not punishment. She had done what an excited young dog was inclined to do, and now they had to teach her something better. Da Bao tried it twice more before Xu Hao was satisfied. He had learned the lesson too: affection didn't protect an animal from careless instructions.
* * *
They continued deeper only after Er Bao judged Little One fit to walk. He led them away from the thorn thicket and towards a low ridge where the wind blew steadily between the trees. From there they could look into a second clearing before entering it, an arrangement Xu Hao appreciated.
The brothers moved with care now. Even Da Bao lowered his voice. Their earlier laughter gave way to soft instructions and the occasional signal to stop.
Xu Hao tried to imitate their steps. He set his feet where Er Bao had placed his, watching the ground ahead rather than staring at the dogs. It was slower than he liked. Every few paces he found another root that would have tripped him a month earlier.
He thought of the one speck of light in his mind palace. First layer of the Dust Realm. It sounded grand until he compared himself with the men ahead of him. He was breathing harder than either giant, and he had nearly lost his balance twice on the slope.
Sia moved beside him without effort.
"At least one of us is talented," he whispered.
She glanced up and wagged her tail.
From the ridge, the second clearing looked empty. A broad flat stone lay in the middle, half covered by grass. Sunlight had warmed its surface, and several insects hovered above the ferns near its edge.
Da Bao started forward.
Er Bao caught his arm.
"Wait."
Xu Hao followed the direction of his gaze. A patch of striped fur lay across the stone. At first he thought it was a hide left by another hunter. Then something moved at the far end of it.
A tail.
He crouched, suddenly cold despite the warmth of the morning.
The creature stretched. An enormous forepaw slid across the rock, claws scratching faint lines into the surface. Its head turned enough for Xu Hao to see the broad skull, the white markings around the mouth, and eyes closed against the light.
A tiger.
Not the sort he'd seen through glass at a zoo. This animal was nearly as long as a horse, with shoulders that rose above the grass and stripes dark enough to look painted onto its coat.
Xu Hao leaned closer to Er Bao.
"We leave," he whispered.
Er Bao nodded. His hand was already signalling Da Bao to retreat. There was no question of attacking it merely because they happened to have three dogs. They had come to train the girls, not to prove how bravely they could die.
But Sia wasn't looking at Xu Hao.
She was watching the tiger.
Her ears had gone forward, and every hair along her spine was slowly lifting. Little One saw her posture and stiffened. Grey took one silent step towards the clearing.
"Back," Xu Hao whispered.
Sia didn't move.
He reached for her collar. A branch cracked beneath Da Bao's boot.
The tiger opened its eyes.
It looked directly at them.
Then its mouth began to open.
Xu Hao remembered Er Bao saying that some beasts possessed powers of their own, powers that could turn a man's body against him before he had time to fight.
He wanted to run.
The tiger drew a breath.