"Greetings, Summoner."
"Greetings, Cannai. How are you?"
"The day is well. Six new pups were born yesterday. Three patrols returned safely this morning, with no sign that our lands are under invasion. Throughout the Clan, no elders have felt a need to go into the empty today. Our scouts have seen no sign of fire, or drought, and the prey remains sufficient. And yours?"
Hazō paused. That was...a much more grounded basis for evaluating the world than he was used to. There was no existential dread, no burning need for societal change, no worries about politics or bigoted neighbors or research protocols or mitigations for potential seal failures. Just a grounded assessment of the things that mattered.
"My day is...generally well."
"I find your words unconvincing."
"It's complicated."
"Mhm. I have noticed this about the Human Path. You seem determined to make your own lives difficult."
"I'm doing great too, thanks," Candoru said acerbically.
Cannon bounced. "Me too! I went running! Across the river, and I didn't even fall in!"
"'River'?" Canun sneered. "It's barely a creek."
"No it's not! The part where I went across is huge!"
"It's a mudpuddle!"
"Canvass! Tell him it's huge!"
"Do not bring me into this, children. Squabble your own squabbles."
"Who are you calling 'children'?" Canun sneered. "I'm as old as you are."
"You are not. You are a year younger."
"Oh, come on! It's only five months. Just because it crosses through the solstice doesn't count. And even if it did I still wouldn't count as a child."
Canvass was lying down with her head on her paws. She picked her head up, making herself taller than the little shih tzu ninjutsu instructor and allowing her to look down her long nose at him in a way that reminded Hazō of many of his Academy instructors.
"Only children taunt others," she said. "You may either mock Cannon's achievement or you may count yourself an adult. Not both."
Canun grumbled under his breath but said nothing more.
Cannai's tongue lolled in amusement at the antics of his pack. He lowered himself to the grass, flopping onto his side and panting happily in the dry heat of the Seventh Path's summer day.
"I believe there was something you wanted to discuss, Summoner?"
Hazō lay down on his back next to the Dog Boss and crossed his ankles, fingers interlaced over his stomach. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny with barely a cloud in the sky, and he had the full day cleared out so there was no pressure to get home.
"I'm curious about the Seventh Path in general, and about how the Clan fits into it and lives on it. What your lives are like, what the history and legends are. General cultural stuff, if it's not taboo for some reason. I thought maybe I could talk to some loremasters, or sages?"
"'Sages'?" Candoru asked. "You mean one of those dorks who sits around staring at their toenails and saying stupid things that are supposed to sound wise? Why would we have one of those?"
"Candoru is, as usual, a bit blunt," Cannai rumbled. "Foreoffpaw, he's not wrong. The Dog Clan feels no need for people whose only job is to sit and think on impractical matters. There are certainly those who find abstract ideas interesting to wrangle about over a camp fire at night as they watch the sparks ascend to the sky, but there hasn't been someone who spent their time exclusively on such things since Canton died fifty years ago."
"I'm kinda a sage!" Cannon said. "I know all the old stories better than anyone except maybe Canaria, or Canting. I tell them really well too, and I'm going to get even better. I'll be a bard and a sonneteer and a howl leader and everyone will say 'Boy, I wish I could do that as well as Cannon'! I've got it all planned out. I'm going to ask Canaria for lessons and then I'm going to write my first Night Chorus."
"You're not going to ask Canaria anything," Canun grumbled. "You don't have the teeth."
"Do too! I'll ask her tonight! You'll see!"
"Uh-huh."
"If you would like to speak to her, tomorrow lunchtime would do well," Cannai said. "She is leading a taleswap tonight and is already deep in the preparations. She will undoubtedly sleep late tomorrow."
"What's a Night Chorus?" Hazō asked.
"A specific literary form," Cannai said. "On the Human Path, the closest twin would likely be epic poetry. It has a very strict structure, at both the large and small levels. It requires four voices and takes an entire night to tell, meaning that it's very hard to write one that people will want to put in the work to be able to tell. A Night Chorus is typically a masterwork for those who follow the bardic path."
"'The bardic path'? You mean one of those tavern singers?"
"Bardic in the ancient sense," Cannai said. "Bards have been an archaic concept on the Human Path for at least three hundred years. They used to be messengers, heralds, keepers of wisdom, teachers, and entertainers all rolled into one. They carried messages between ninja clans and civilian leaders both. They were puissant warriors, since one needs to be in order to survive the wilderness of your world when traveling alone. Rarely ninja, either...it was a respected profession but no ninja clan wanted to let one of their own wander the earth to be captured or killed by the clan's enemies. As I said, they were respected and there was a general rule that they were not to be harmed. One could eject a bard but not lay a hand on them in anger. The rule was...usually honored."
"Hang on...
civilians used to travel long distances through the wilds?"
"Indeed."
"On their own. With no ninja."
Cannai picked his head up so that he could look directly at Hazō. "I believe I have now said this twice, Summoner. Are you suggesting that I am lying, or are you merely uncomfortable at discovering that your ninja skills are not, in fact, essential?" The words were cool but Cannai's tongue was lolling in amusement.
"...That second one."
"I thought perhaps that would be it." The Alpha Dog rolled on his back and wriggled his shoulders a bit to get settled.
"So the Dog Clan still has bards?" Hazō asked.
"You bet! Canaria is the best bard ever, too! She's been here for three weeks now—three whole weeks! She never stays that long with anyone but she stayed with the Green Hills pack because we're the best."
It might also have had something to do with Cannai's presence, but Hazō didn't feel the need to say that.
"We do indeed have bards," Cannai said, not bothering to open his eyes. "Although not precisely the same as those of the ancient Human Path. There are no warring nations in Dog to require peacemaking, and treaties with neighboring nations tend to be negotiated in a...more assertive style."
Hazō snorted in amusement.
"It's all a bunch of twaddle, if you ask me," Canun grumbled quietly.
Canvass leaned over and nipped him on the flank, drawing a startled yelp. "No one did, so stop ruining things for the Summoner."
"I'm not ruining anything, I'm just saying that if he wants to know stuff, he should focus on what's important, like—"
"Like how to bite the throat out of an enemy?" Candoru suggested, grinning at the much smaller dog.
Canun sniffed disdainfully. "I suppose biting is an adequate course of study for one such as yourself."
"You mean one who is big and strong and bites massive amounts of throat?"
"One who is incapable of more than the most basic chakra manipulation, who lacks creativity and self-discipline, who is incapable of—"
Candoru snarled and snapped at the air in the direction of his mocker.
"I am quite comfortable at the moment," Cannai observed, not bothering to open his saucer-sized eyes. The second half of the thought loomed over the conversation without need to be spoken.
The two dogs fell quiet and lowered their heads to their paws submissively.
"You must have some great stories," Hazō said, plucking a stem of grass and twirling it idly between his fingers. "What do they say about...oh, I don't know...the Seven Paths in general? Everyone has a creation myth. Shoot, we have a couple of them, depending on what you count. There's the one about the creation of the earth and sea and sky, and then there's the one about how the Sage created chakra and gave it to humanity." He paused, then glanced over at Cannai. "Hey, didn't the Sage come here, too? The Pangolins called him 'the Pantokrator' but said that yes, it was the same person."
"He did indeed. And were we to jump ahead to the point that you are so slowly and not as subtly as you believe wending your way towards: Yes, the Sage left behind journals that are said to contain much of his knowledge, and they are probably on the Human Path."
Hazō sat up straight, eyes wide. "What?"
"He did?" Cannon asked, jumping to her feet. "I don't know this story! Tell it!"
Cannai rolled his massive head lazily towards her. "My, my. Such a polite young lady and such a courteous and patient request."
Cannon hung her head, looking up at her leader soulfully. "Please, Alpha? Pretty please with peppermint and fish heads?"
"Oof. Peppermint and fish heads? Cannon, I had thought you were attempting to bribe me. Why would you offer peppermint and fish heads?"
"Peppermint and fish heads are the best!"
"I see. Perhaps I lack your refined palate."
"Yeah! That's right. You don't have my what you said, and I say that peppermint and fish heads are the bestest, yummiest, most delicious thing ever, so there."
"'Bestest' is not a word, Cannon."
"Is too!"
"Cannai, stop teasing the girl," Canvass said with a sigh.
"Ah, I am chastened. Very well. Cannon, I will tell the story at taleswap tomorrow night. It deserves to be told properly, and Canaria has already planned tonight's movements."
"What does that mean, sir?" Hazō asked.
"A taleswap is a Dog celebration," Canvass said. "We get together and swap stories, celebrate each other's achievements, and end with a pack howl."
"It is also a high art form," Cannai said. "A master talespinner such as Canaria will make the taleswap itself a tale. She will pick the tales, and the talespinners, and work with them in advance so that their stories are told with the proper rhythm, the proper pacing, each set of tales acting like one movement in a single larger work. She will help each spinner to find their truest tale that the evening as a whole shall be a paean to truth."
Hazō frowned. "How can something be your 'truest' tale? Things are either true or they aren't."
Cannai hummed dubiously. Canun snorted.
"True or they aren't?" Canun said. "What kind of idiots are they growing on the Human Path? Stars and grass, did I seriously promise to be your summon?" He grumbled for a moment, then asked, "Alpha, am I allowed to break that contract?"
"Did you promise to be his summon for a year in exchange for finding you a teacher?"
"Well...yes."
"Did he find you a teacher?"
"Well...yes."
"Were there any other caveats or requirements?"
"Well...I said that the teacher had to be respectful!"
"And has the teacher been respectful?"
"..."
Cannai opened the eye closest to Canun and peered at him.
"...Mostly?"
Cannai closed his eye. "Has he been at least as respectful as Packmaster Canceleer?"
"Well...yes."
"Suck it up."
Canun sighed and dropped his head despondently back to his paws with a grumbled, "Fine."
"To answer your question, Summoner," Cannai said, "a tale can be true or false, but most are a mix of the two. Few things are entirely true or entirely false. For example, suppose you were to say 'I am running with the Grassy Hills pack today.' We would accept that as true in the context of whose territory you were in, but it is not literally true, since we are lounging comfortably on the grass at the moment. Even were the six of us to set out across the prairie it would not be strictly true to say that you ran with the Grassy Hills pack, since we would not be with the entire pack. Then there is the question of degree. I am a member of Grassy Hills as I am a member of every pack, so wherever you and I might run, you will run with the Grassy Hills pack, but no one would interpret it that way." He rolled his head left. "Truth." He rolled his head right. "Falsehood." He brought it back to center. "All things are matters of degree, including the assertion that all things are matters of degree."
Hazō whimpered. "Are you
sure you don't have sages?"
Cannai's tongue lolled and he opened one eye to look slyly at his Clan's Summoner. "I shall allow you to meditate on the concept."
"Going back to those journals...?"
"Ah, yes. I know that there is a trove of them, and it is almost certainly on the Human Path. I do not have a specific location, but I can start you on the path if you so wish?"
"Yes! Please!" The journals of the Sage of Six Paths? What more could one possibly ask for? They would surely hold the secrets of chakra, of every technique that the Sage had known. The power to create entire dimensions and living beings! Visions of splendor, of a world uplifted and lacking in death or war, danced before Hazō's eyes.
"The poem is rarely sung these days," Cannai said thoughtfully. "Indeed, I suspect I may be the only Dog who knows it. Canaria might, I suppose. Possibly Canting, although he grows forgetful. Candareen did, but his mighty belly finally took him from us twelve summers ago. Terrible way to go, the belly sickness." He sighed. "I miss him. There was one time, when he was but a teen, that he and I—"
Canvass cleared her throat. "Sir? I believe you were going to tell us about the Sage?"
"I was? I feel certain that I was talking about Candareen."
Cannon was on her feet, bouncing impatiently. "Come on, you have to tell us! It's a story that nobody knows!"
"It's a poem, Cannon. Not a story."
"It's a
poem that nobody knows!"
"That's clearly not true. I know it."
She bounced back and forth, tiny little growls slipping out at she sputtered incoherently. "But...but...you have to tell us!"
"I
have to? Hm. I was unaware that this was among my duties as Alpha. Or are you suggesting that—"
"Tell us the story, you big meanie!"
"It's a—"
"Tell us the
poem, you giant poo head!"
Cannai gave a long-suffering sigh. "Ah, me. How low have I fallen when even the youngest lack respect for me? There was a time, back before I became so old and decrepit, that everyone—"
"Cannai," Canvass said sourly. "Stop teasing the poor girl."
"Oh, very well." He wriggled a little bit, getting more comfortable, and then began speaking in a slow, formal voice. "Now hear me patiently, children of the Clan of Dog, for this is a poem of the creator in The Time Before."
The four younger dogs settled down, lying stretched out on the grass with their heads up in interest. Hazō took seiza, struggling to sit erect instead of leaning forward in eagerness.
"It is one that I speak for you in care," Cannai continued. "With care, for I was not there and I know not the sides of the story, the shades of gray that run at its sides. Hear my words and accept them with care.
Unbounded you name me, yet bound am I
Wise One you name me, yet still I err
First Spinner you name me, and this I grant
I have spun your First Tale, my Great Tale
The Tale of Dog, and Cat, of Hawk, and Hornet.
All tales change and all tales flow
Days wend into weeks and years
Passing time bringing losses, cheers
Now must I go, my children all
My bed to make among the men, who need me more.
Flow of fire, standing high
Tower the mighty waves, grave and gray and green
Water's power raised by storm-wind's breath
Fire and wave in joyous chorus, the birth of earth to bring
Green the rising life shall grow
Trees of wood and iron and stone
Beware their shade, where my Lost Ones sing.
Beyond the trees my rest shall be
I leave there seven rocks with seven locks
Each rock a treasure's home
Treasures bright shall guidance give
Truth or death, no equal chance
To find the way to me.
Spin on, talespinner! Spin on!
Raise up the mighty word, unite the bounding arc of dream
With reason's bark and incisive bite
From first to last
To tread the path of wisdoms lost
Remember me, speak my name
And when the years have wended wide
Come and find me once again.
Silence fell as the poem concluded.
"That's it?" Candoru asked.
"It doesn't make any damn sense!" Canun grumbled.
"It's a poem, nitwit," Canvass said with a sigh. "It doesn't have to make sense at first sniff. You need to wallow a bit."
"But it doesn't scan right or anything."
Cannai sniffed. "It's an older poetic form, I grant. Went out of style quite a while ago."
"I think it's neat! What's it called?"
"It had a fancy name, one of those things that ends with -meter, but I've forgotten it. And, of course, it's been a long time since I've spoken it, so I'm sure I've gotten some of the exact words wrong, and that probably throws the scansion off a bit. My apologies."
He rolled onto his side so he could look at Hazō. "Does this answer your questions, Summoner?"
Hazō bowed. "It's far more than I had. Thank you, Cannai."
Author's Note: You spoke to various other dogs. They told you stuff that I don't feel like doing worldbuilding for at the moment and thus did not pester
@Velorien about. None of it was immediately actionable—assume it's the sort of thing you'd see in a collection of ancient myths. Monsters, heroic dogs beating monsters, blah blah blah.
I don't feel like writing Yuno/Isan stuff. Yuno was busy today so you weren't able to catch up with her.
You caught up to Noburi as he was heading out to join Yuno and had time to ask a few questions about medical chakra.
H: How does medical chakra work?
N: Brilliantly, thank you.
H: Yeah, yeah, but... What do you actually *do* to make it?
N: I mean...what do you do to make Earth chakra? It's like that, except not.
H: Not helpful, bro.
N: *shrug* Go down to the hospital and ask for lessons.
H: Hmph. Maybe I will.
N: Cool.
H: I mean it!
N: Ayup.
H: Okay, but how do you practice doing that? What's it feel like from your internal perspective?
N: It's like practicing any other chakra manipulation, except much,
much more precise. It's like doing embroidery with a very thin, very fragile, very slippery needle. You need to coax it in the right direction because if you squeeze too tight or push too hard it just breaks. Beyond that, talk to an instructor. It's weird.
H: Thanks, bro.
N: Sure. Now, excuse me while I go catch up to my wife.
XP AWARD: 3
Brevity XP: 1
"GM had fun" XP: 1
You spent the day on this and have now gone to sleep.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, at 12pm London time.
