Rhythmically tapping my cws on the only table in our house, I struggled to keep the saliva in my mouth; unlike a human mouth, a muzzle and its dentition were hardly ideal for keeping saliva from flowing.

  Still, I ehe smell of honeyed salmon, tauntingly feasted on by the little shits that were my siblings, which served only as a distra. The st gulp of the glowing water in ay gss bottle did little to alleviate my hunger.

  I was growing tired of this water; it was the only substance I was allowed to e for nearly two weeks. Yet, I resisted the urge to vomit the sweet, electrifying liquid. Its supernatural properties came into effect immediately, energizing my body and queng my thirst by pumping mana into my system. A drop more in an o from all that I drank sihis began...

  The hunger remained, however.

  It wasn't for fun or some kind of experiment that I was drinking myself sick. It was te my body and soak my metabolism in mana—a necessary preparatory step for the ritual to e. It was a y, and I had chosen this. So, I bit the bullet and didn't pin too much. It was very unpleasant.

  Evidently, it wasn't just any random liquid; it was magical water made by infusing my mana into pure water with a few redients. And thank Ursol and Ursoc, it came to aonight. In fact, the oo take me just arrived. I could feel her life force behind the door.

  Halting my rhythmic tapping, I stood up before my parents could read opehe door to Fara, one of the younger shamans around and somehow one of the strictest.

  There werent many notable distins between male and female furbolgs when it came to sexual dimorphism, aside from size aalia. The rest was quite imperceptible to those with mediocre senses of smell or those uo interpret the meaning of our ors.

  "I e to escort you, Ohto," she said curtly, her focus shifting from me to my mother, then to my father, and back again as they approached.

  She noticed their worries, among other emotions, and while they fully trusted whatever the shamans told them, it wasn't a mystery that the process of being an ursa totemic was unpleasant. I had plenty of worried questions about my well-being.

  It was why, among other things, it restigious position, equal to that of shamans, yet did not py any major role in the day-to-day life of the tribe aside from their role as protectors. At least, that was the norm, but there was always an exception. From the training to the pns of today, it wasn't a path open to all, nor a safe one.

  heless, parental emotions, especially, tend to igionality. It wasn't unpleasant as I was given a hug, nuzzles, and licks of good luck—as, aside from the first, that I would have once cssified as 'animalistic' or 'feral' as a human but now were part of my existence.

  "Trust him, the aors' wisdom, and the spirits of the wild. His past feats prove him worthy and ready to thread upon this path," were Fara's words of fort as we walked away. I waved a paw with a nervous smile at my parents before I caught up to the female shaman, my shs f me to qui my patil we suddenly stopped at the edge of the vilge.

  "I see that the time has e, Fara." A massive chestnut-furred furbolg dressed more colorfully than the average said to my escort, who smiled almost bashfully. Iing… Heh.

  "Indeed, Chieftain Murgut. Young, he is, eight unions, and that is of age for the aors. He has proven worthy by his temperament and abilities." She expined, and he nodded, nuzzling her shortly before croug to my level.

  I would think he was an ursa totemic if I didn't know better. But no, he was just that big and one of the best warriors. He was the son of a female ursa totemid a normal if less than sane male furbolg, expining his bulk, but that was hardly parable.

  He could have been one if not for being chosen by the spirits to lead our tribe. However, being physically big wasn't the only requirement. Being a minimum smart was in the same boat if the result desired was not a rabid animal incapable of higher thought processes.

  And there was the fact that there couldn't be an infinite number of ursa totemics from the get-go. They were massive creatures with equally massive appetites. It's evident what an excess of apex predators would do to an ecosystem. Ergo, destroy it.

  "Hello," I spoke, staring into his brown eyes. I alked to him properly, but with what I had to deal with daily, getting nervous was impossible here, "What is the matter?"

  "Oh, I have e to wish you the best for the trials ahead. May Ursoc bless you with a resilient body and Ursol with a calm mind, young Ohto. You are the pilr for the future of the Greenweald." He chuckled, patting my shoulder with his big paws, almost causio stumble.

  'Well, thank you very muo pressure with the newly added expectation py shoulders, Chieftain,' was my sarcastic thought. It was nothing new, but it reminded me of how I erceived as important. And I would like to say it wasn't of my own doing, but that would be a big fat lie. With power es great responsibility or some other nonsense, and I was w towards that. I didn't want to die et corrupted; the same was true for the tribe.

  After this little pause, we tinued forward uninterrupted until we arrived at a small clearing with a ft stump id amootems, Ursine runes ad everything and thrumming with power—the moonlight of the twin moons breached shily through the thick opy adding to the otherworldly air.

  The first to notice my pretense as Fara left me to help was an ursa totemic I didn't know; his silent, quick, and purposeful step betrayed his mass as he approached me. His fur was a light brown, almost goldish yellow in tint, if the refle was correct.

  "Ah, your little disciple is here, Miel!" I stared at him as he sniffed me briefly and grinned wildly, showing gleaming fangs, "Fresh meat indeed, but he smells of blood. Excellent! Good, cub! Aed, too!"

  "And you are?" I titled my head and asked without feeling it necessary to present myself after he said. It was a drag to present myself. And his presence, while it did make me tense up, was only to a healthy level; instincts were like that.

  "This zy oaf is Nalle." ing into view from behind a tree, Miel ented humorously with a shake of his head while said zy oaf growled in faux e.

  "I'm not zy. I use my time optimally! By Ursoc's furry balls, it's not plicated to uand!" Nalle defended himself with fervent righteousness. His swearing earned a brief gre from the surrounding shamans, which he ignored or didn't notice. I bet on the former.

  "Te yourself in honey and sleep only, yes. It's not plicated. That's your only desire in life." Miel rebuked in a bored voice, and it seemed to be the coup de grace for the goldish bear, who abandoned immediately and began grumbling nonsense. I kept a snort of amusement at the se from ing out.

  I mean, zing around was nid all, but that stopped here, not that I was going to py the moral high ground on that front. I retty slothful person myself.

  If not for the real possibility of death aru of myself and all I loved, I wouldn't work that hard. It was an alien behavior, almost, even if what I was doing was mostly studying and doing magid I loved it. I never put this much effort and hard work in those past few years to grow as I did in my entire human life.

  "You two go back to your station and follow me, young cub. We begin." My heart rate increased at the call from one of the shamans, all the calm I had until now seemingly puffing into smoke. But I advanoheless.

  "Don't scream too loud, cub." Miel 'emphatically' excimed, my head snapping behind with a measured glower, and he chuckled, "It's not that bad."

  "Say the one who cried the loudest like a doe i." The other ursa totemic shot back, and I zoheir bickering out. I wasn't in the mood for that. Taking a deep breath to settle down, I put myself in position oump, back fag the sky, and cws in the right pce.

  "You two brats, be silent, or I will force you to." The stern voice of Oakpaw broke the rhythmic beat of my heart in my ears, making me aware of the shuffling around.

  "We will begin soon enough, Ohto." The Elder Shaman informed me, "Make your left paw face the sky."

  And with a nod, I did just then from the sheath around his belt. He took the handle of something, a crystalline bde, an athame. My breath hitched in preparation as he gently brought it down on the earlier mentioned paws and diagonally cut in the tral pads to draw my scarlet mana-infused blood, painful but far from anything I wasn't uo.

  I just frowned, jaws tensing, but otherwise, I remaiill.

  Then, fourteen marks were drawn with a brush made of my fur using my blood as paint, which took almost half an hour. Once done, I didn't panic ht back as roots locked my body ihe paw cut was healed and pced like the ainst the stump.

  A sed ter, the mana in the air became denser, indig the beginning.

  "Spirits of the aors, be wito the path taken by this young ohe hardest and h of Ursoc. May he embody the Bear of Might ferocity and strength!" The shamans spoke in a chorus, the runes shining brightly as aral presence desded, their many voices eg faintly and loudly as they ted with the shamans and spoke.

  ~Let it be so.~

  ~May huide this cub path.~

  ~He is ready.~

  These were among the most cohereences I could hear from them; some weren't even properly speaking and, in fact, far more animalistic, primal even. It was raw, a, and wanting, hungry and eager to share it with me... ted I was worthy.

  And I was! Snarling right back to the aral spirits delighted bestial rage.

  But in truth, my focus lit. I was mentally preparing myself for the main course of pain to e.

  As, there wasn't much else to do but grit my teeth as a bde cut through my skin, the mana I had ied shifting as the Totemic Ritual came in full bloody swing. The first cut of the athame was nothing pared to now; the knife was moved methodically ay back as mana-infused blood oozed from my wound as I growled.

  Yet, trary to what one might expect, it didn't soak my fur in blood. I couldn't see it, but I se was kept afloat while further scarring of my body posed of entire ks of pelt and skiaken. Blood poured into the air from those wounds. It was only superficial, little else but scratches pared to injuries I got in the past years, but it was on multiple points, shoulders first for the rgest, followed by my head. It was in the same location I had been 'drawn' on.

  I would like to say I didn't whimper or that I soldiered on impassively, but the reality of the matter was not so. My cws dug deep into the trunk as I gnashed my teeth, a stant pitiful yowl ing out. But I remained retively silent and perfectly still, not even as the crystalline bde dug below my eyes along my muzzle.

  I wasn't aware of how much time passed, but I khe purpose of the runes on my body. I had been part of the process of adapting them for my body. The Totemic Ritual was as unique as the individual, but nothing drastically differed in each iteration. It was retrofitted to each furbolg from a standard blueprint of plexity far beyond anything I had ever seen.

  Admittedly, there was not much to go by, but that didn't diminish the fact that it was a gift from Ursod Ursol to explore our a ary with our minds and intelletact.

  It was essentially adaptive magical tattoos made from a mix of blood, Life, and Nature magic, pumping growth hormones and steroids, along with tless other substances, into my body by using myself as a focus.

  If I uand right, the part about blood was quite iing, sacrifig my mana-infused blood to anchor the ritual to my flesh and more, no matter its state of existence. And it wasn't an instant transformation, well, not truly. It was like a pseudo puberty with a better effect the you's done.

  My 'uniqueness' regarding my vermillion-colored mana among the sea of green hadn't been ignored in that. I couldn't hide it; it was how I was so good at healing, the best iribe. It could do so much more in theory. For example, it let me igeps requiring taking the life force from the enviroo heal wounds row pnts when, otherwise, up from a certain point, it became obligatory. It wasn't a small advantage when it came to that. I was a source of life and the guide of its nature.

  The shamans judged it as a non-factor in the success of the Totemic Ritual. They saw it as a blessing of the spirits, and I trusted them on that matter, the success rate, that is, even with the innate risk of it all going down to shit. They teo attareted happenings to the Bear Lords and our aors. By virtue of on sense, I took everything they said in that regard with a few grains of salt.

  Unscious biases were a sin to which all were susceptible. Not even the mightiest of gods could say otherwise without lying.

  Afterward, it remained unknown, but I needed power. In the end, it was a worthy risk-gghfuck! Shit! Urso-fuck!

  My train of thought to divert my focus from the pain reached a halt and shattered into i fragments that viciously aedly stabbed my brain.

  'Fuck!' I couldn't scream, but my pitiful growls reached a new level as the pain increased immensely, my bones cracked, my flesh twisted, and my blood boiled as energy overflowed my body. The fourteen scars burned like hot metal as new skin and fur regeed, my mana c through them, amplifying the pain as they transformed their surroundings.

  Then all the pai away, vanishing from my system like it never existed, leaving me exhausted, panting, and staring bnkly at my snout. Two glyphs glowing a soft greenish-white for proof of the ritual success, but I couldn't do anything or care to do anything.

  My limbs were so heavy, thinking made my head throb, my thoughts were sluggish and hard to uand, and the pce was fy. By the aors, I was so sleepy… I wao take a nap… a little one…

  "You have done well. May the Twin Bears watch over yhtful rest, young ursa totemic." I heard someone, and all went bck as my eyelids, by the will of gravity, closed soon, followed by my st shred of awakeness.

  I woke up two days ter, and after a feast to my success, they made me do a series of tests to explore the ge under shamans' careful gazes and see if everythi well.

  There weren't many. It was akin to activating a set of genes, and time was necessary for them to take effect to any meaningful degree. So, no big–well bigger–muscles aal cws for now; it was why it was dohin puberty, which I was entering, to my displeasure—I could already feel some of the ge, lust for once even if it was tame… for now.

  Anyway.

  The greatest ges outside of my new awesome white glowing fur markings were reted to my senses, at the forefront being my olfactory.

  It was strohan before, nothing mind-bogglingly, but it was here. It wasn't uo my oo. My sight didn't ge, but my hearing and ability to perceive mana were marginally better. Again, it wasn't my jump from human t, but there was a notable improvement.

  It made me think back to a random thought. Cities are going to be a nightmare.

  Imagining an unfortably fined space, with noisy crowds of potentially scared small bipedal creatures and a horrendous smell, makes me shudder. It would be iing… but it wasn't for now, and the Totemic Ritual hardly affected only my senses. But the tter parts would bee apparent with time.

  It affected most of everything. Nothing that would dramatically alter my personality, but that was essentially a super puberty.

  The_Bip_Boop2003

  Thanks, EmilBigErk, Mike Stewart, Dyn Mayfield, BzeSavage, What Ewer, Jeff Fischer, Hope Bain, Vex, Jackietron201, Crach Grey, Michael Carter, Ben Lockwood, Kunta, Nezih Süzer, Devon Emmons, Furry Bear, sadomazox, Jarvis Schellinger, jacob griffin, Mitch, Velzon, Cameron Youngman, TheFuzzySamurai, Grey Heart, Marc Smith, James Wood, Proxy, shadowSeth, Talberts, Scott, Gal Anonim, PIEGURU8, Thomas Hendrix, léroy jenkins, Tobias, Jose Matos, K, Alex pritchard, Falk Hüser, SirSp, Sam Mbya, Alexander Amann, Name, Man Robertson, Aaron Taylor, Mika Willems, phil, Brian Beard, JchuckS, Wold Layman, Gee Dean, Nateica Burlock, Wildvoid, andre, Eioe, Scarletmenace, Pilot Pirx, er Ja, Carlos head, Thomas Dey, Asura, Gronnr, Lucas Gossett, ton Jenkins, Desote, Tristan Nadeau, Mest450, Ang, Sabypyz, charlie wagner, Hedgeboar, JJ JJ, Linus Bengtssone, Mason for the support it's greatly appreciated.

  [colpse]