The next morning, Gu Xu woke up before the sun had fully risen.
For a few seconds, he lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling, listening to the quiet sounds of the early morning the birds, the faint rustling of leaves, and the occasional barks of dogs somewhere in the village.
"Training starts today," he thought to himself.
Gu Xu sat up immediately.
He washed his face with cold water, brushed his teeth with a chewing stick, and cleaned himself carefully. Then he put on simple, clean clothes and tied his hair back neatly.
As he was about to leave, he noticed that his father had not come home.
Gu Xu looked at the empty sleeping mat in his father's room.
He wasn't surprised.
He thought about it for a moment and then concluded calmly:
"He probably won't come back for a few days."
That was usually what happened when Gui Xu went to watch exciting bull fights or communal sports. He would drink, gamble, sleep at a friend's house, and only return when he ran out of money or clean clothes.
Gu Xu felt no disappointment.
If anything, it made things quieter.
He left the house and began walking toward the clearing.
He arrived at the clearing at around 6:40 in the morning.
The grass was still slightly wet from dew, and the air was cool and fresh.
The clearing was empty just like it had been two nights ago.
Gu Xu stood there and waited.
At exactly 7:00, Maki appeared, walking into the clearing with his usual calm, steady steps. He carried a weaved basket upon his back.
Gu Xu straightened and bowed when Maki reached the clearing.
"From now on, you are my master and I, your student," he said respectfully. "I am ready to learn from you!"
Maki stopped in front of him and looked at him carefully from head to toe.
Then he nodded once.
"You have improved," Maki said. "From just one day ago, your attitude has improved. Good work. This is the right attitude."
Gu Xu felt something warm in his chest.
It was a very small compliment.
But it was the first time in his life that an adult had looked at him seriously and said he did something well.
He tried not to show it on his face, but inside, he felt a small sense of pride.
Maki then asked, "Yesterday, apart from treating your wounds, I helped you in another way. Were you able to figure out how?"
Gu Xu thought for a moment.
"Was it because you gave me warnings?" he guessed.
Maki nodded slightly. "That is one of them. But the biggest way I helped you was by slowing down our walk to your cottage."
Gu Xu looked surprised.
Maki continued, "I know of your father's habits. I also observed that he did not attend the pre–coming of age ceremony. And I knew that you told the Chief he was ill. From these things, I concluded that he was drinking."
Gu Xu blinked.
"If we had walked faster," Maki continued, "we would have arrived earlier and found him still conscious. That would increase the likelihood that he would be the one to punish you personally."
Gu Xu's eyes widened slightly.
"But by slowing down our walk, we arrived later, when he was already drunk and half unconscious. That reduced the chance that he would beat you badly."
Gu Xu said slowly, "Ohhh…"
He had not thought that far at all.
Maki looked at him seriously.
"That is the importance of strategic thinking," Maki said. "I always want my students to think strategically in every situation. I do not want stupid students. Stupid students die early."
Gu Xu nodded seriously.
He remembered his father's words yesterday:
"Use your eyes and your brain. Learn by watching."
It seemed that even a drunk man could accidentally say something useful sometimes.
Gu Xu then asked, "Master, what will be our first lesson today?"
Maki looked him up and down carefully.
"The first lesson today," Maki said, "will be learning how to take care of your body."
He took off the weaved basket from his back and opened it.
Inside were small tools — a knife, some cloth, small containers, and rope.
"Come," Maki said. "Let us go gather herbs for your wounds. Now that the Chief has already given you your punishment, there is no need for you to continue looking so wounded."
At these words, Gu Xu's expression became slightly downcast.
Maki noticed immediately.
"You are thinking about the lions den," Maki said.
Gu Xu nodded.
"I don't understand," Gu Xu said honestly. "How can I succeed? I am weaker than everyone. I am slower than everyone. I have never trained properly. I don't know how to fight. I don't know how to hunt properly. Everyone says I will die."
They walked into the forest as they spoke, looking for herbs among the bushes and under the shade of trees.
Maki did not answer immediately.
They gathered herbs in silence for a while.
Maki occasionally pointed at a plant and told Gu Xu to pick it carefully, explaining which leaves were useful and which were poisonous.
After some time, Maki looked around carefully to make sure no one else was nearby.
Then he said quietly, "You will succeed because of your bloodline."
Gu Xu stopped.
"Bloodline?" he asked. "What do you mean?"
Maki looked at him.
"Yes. Your bloodline."
They continued walking slowly as Maki began to speak.
"There are four tribes on this island," Maki said. "You know this already. The Fox Tribe, the Cheetah Tribe, the Leopard Tribe, and the Lion Tribe."
Gu Xu nodded.
Maki continued, "It is now the year 900 BC. About a hundred years ago, the four patriarchs of our tribes were not enemies. They were friends. They hunted together."
"One day, while hunting together, they encountered a strange animal. It looked like a lion, but it was more beautiful, more powerful, and its body seemed to shine in the sunlight."
Gu Xu listened carefully.
"The four men thought they would surely die after looking upon it," Maki said. "But instead of attacking them, the animal blew a powerful wind at them… and then disappeared."
"A wind?" Gu Xu asked.
"Yes. A wind," Maki said. "After that wind touched them, something changed inside their bodies. They did not understand it at first. They returned to their people."
"It took three days for the changes to fully develop. During those three days, all four of them were very sick. Fever, pain, weakness. They could not get out of bed. Their people thought they had caught a strange illness."
"But when they recovered and went hunting again… everyone noticed the difference."
Maki looked at Gu Xu.
"They were stronger. Faster. Their senses were sharper. Their instincts were different. One had the instincts of a cheetah — speed and precision. One had the instincts of a fox — intelligence and ambush. One had the instincts of a leopard — stealth and patience. And one had the instincts of a lion — dominance and leadership."
Gu Xu listened without blinking.
"But instead of celebrating them," Maki continued, "the other men became jealous. They feared them. They isolated them socially. They whispered about them. They said they were no longer human."
Gu Xu frowned slightly.
"That sounds strangely familiar," he thought to himself.
Maki continued the story.
"At the next bonfire celebration, the people of their tribes decided to get rid of them. They poisoned the four patriarchs and their families with sleeping drugs. Then they put them on a boat and pushed the boat leaving it without oars into the ocean while they were unconscious."
Gu Xu felt a chill when he heard that.
"When the patriarchs woke up, they were in the middle of the ocean," Maki said. "They thought they and their wives and small children were going to die. So they prayed."
"They prayed for three days."
"And on the third day… the shining lion appeared again."
Gu Xu's eyes widened slightly.
"The lion did not speak," Maki said. "But it pushed their boat across the ocean and brought them to this island."
"This island is special," Maki continued. "It is separated from the rest of the world by a barrier. People outside cannot easily enter and people inside cannot easily leave."
"The four patriarchs settled here and created the four tribes. And their subsequent children inherited their instincts, though the ones they already had did not. That instinct is what we call bloodline."
They stopped walking.
Maki turned to look directly at Gu Xu.
"In the Cheetah Tribe," he said, "the Chief's family has the strongest Cheetah bloodline. Your uncle, the Chief, has the strongest. Your father has the second strongest."
Gu Xu frowned.
"But I don't have any power," he said. "Everyone knows that."
Maki looked at him for a long moment.
Then he said quietly:
"That is what everyone thinks."
Gu Xu felt his heart beat slightly faster.
Maki continued, "Most bloodlines awaken early. Few awaken late by the age of 10. But what most people don't know is that a few have awakened before only when the person was pushed to the edge of death."
He bent down and picked a small herb, then placed it in the basket.
"The lions den," Maki said calmly, "is a place where many people die."
Then he looked back at Gu Xu.
"But that is surely not the place where you will meet your end. Not only do you have the ability to overcome it, I will also train you properly."
Gu Xu stood there silently, feeling the cool morning air on his skin.
For the first time since he was sentenced to the lions den, he felt something different from indifference and fear.
Maki handed him the basket.
"Carry this," Maki said. "Training begins with learning how to keep yourself alive. If you cannot even take care of your own body, then you do not deserve to talk about surviving the lions den."
Gu Xu took the basket and nodded seriously.
"Yes, Maki."
As they continued walking through the forest, Gu Xu's mind was no longer filled with thoughts of death, he was thinking about the tribe's history.
He thought about it, and wondered.
Then he looked up to Maki and asked him, "When you mentioned the tribe's history after I asked about bloodlines, I am assuming you said this because it has something to do with my mother, right?"