"Mightiest Wolfie."
Da Bao said it with the conviction of a man announcing the name of a future emperor.
Xu Hao looked at him. "Sorry?"
"Mightiest Wolfie. For her." He pointed to the husky sitting against his leg. "A mighty beast needs a mighty name."
The dog wagged her tail. She had accepted roasted meat from Da Bao that morning and appeared ready to support whatever else he proposed.
"She's a husky," Xu Hao said.
"She's bigger than the wolves I've hunted."
"She's still a husky."
"Mightiest Husky, then."
Er Bao turned his face away. Xu Hao recognised the expression. His quieter brother was making an heroic attempt not to laugh.
"Imagine calling that across a clearing," Er Bao said. "By the time you finish, she'll have caught whatever she was chasing."
"I can shout quickly."
"You can shout loudly," Xu Hao said. "There's a difference."
Da Bao frowned. He put both hands around his companion's broad head and considered her seriously. She looked back at him, untroubled by the responsibility of naming herself.
Xu Hao remembered the first names he'd given the brothers, when he couldn't understand their language and thought he might never live long enough to learn it.
"Little One," he suggested.
Da Bao glanced up.
"You were Big One. Before we exchanged names, I mean. It seems only fair that you have a Little One of your own."
Da Bao tried it quietly. "Little One."
The husky nudged his wrist.
He tried again, louder. She put one great paw on his knee.
"She likes it!"
"She likes you," Er Bao said. "There's a difference."
Da Bao hugged the dog's neck. "Little One it is. I'll keep you fed, and you'll keep me company when these two become unbearable."
Little One licked the side of his face.
"She must have understood the last part," Xu Hao said.
Er Bao's companion waited beside him, her silver-tipped ears turned towards the voices. She had spent much of the morning watching Little One climb over Da Bao while he attempted to persuade her to sit still.
"Grey," Er Bao said, resting a hand on her neck.
"That's it?" Da Bao demanded. "Grey?"
"She's grey."
"She's silver as well."
"I could list every colour in her coat, but she may grow tired of hearing it."
Grey pushed her nose into Er Bao's palm. He scratched beneath her chin, and she settled against his boot as though the matter had been decided long ago.
Xu Hao smiled. "Grey it is."
Da Bao muttered something about wasted opportunities for greatness.
"Save Mightiest Wolfie for the next creature you meet," Xu Hao told him.
His eldest brother brightened. Xu Hao realised, too late, that this had been a dangerous thing to say.
* * *
They began with commands the dogs could use outside the camp.
Xu Hao chose a stretch of level ground well away from the drop below the ridge. Sia came at his heel. Little One tried to lead Da Bao there by pulling on his sleeve. Grey followed Er Bao without needing to be called.
"No hunting today," Er Bao said before his brother could suggest otherwise.
"I hadn't said anything."
"You brought your club."
"I always bring my club."
Xu Hao looked from the weapon to Little One, who was chewing a fallen branch with every sign of enjoyment. "We have enough things to worry about without giving her a job before she knows her name."
Da Bao looked at the dog. "She knows her name. Watch. Little One!"
She looked up at once.
"See?"
"Now ask her to come to you."
"Little One, come!"
She bounded across the grass and struck Da Bao in the chest. He landed on his back with an enormous laugh. Little One stood over him, licking his forehead.
Er Bao regarded the scene. "She came."
"We ought to work on stopping," Xu Hao said.
"I'm perfectly capable of stopping her," Da Bao said from the ground.
"That isn't what it looked like."
Xu Hao showed him how to receive the dog without throwing his arms open and encouraging a collision. They tried again. Da Bao held his ground; Little One reached him and sat, although her tail continued beating the grass so hard that dust rose around her.
Grey was different. At Er Bao's first call she came quietly to his left side. When he asked her to stay, she watched his face until he released her. She didn't seem frightened of making a mistake. She simply preferred to know what was expected.
"Just like you," Da Bao said.
"She's known me for one day," Er Bao replied.
"Long enough."
Sia sat beside Xu Hao, watching the lessons with the alert expression she usually wore when somebody was opening a food packet. She had learned the same commands on Earth, though she still interpreted them according to her own interests.
"Sit," Xu Hao told her.
Sia sat.
"Stay."
She stayed until he stepped away, then rose and followed him.
Da Bao laughed. "The teacher's dog is the worst student."
"The teacher's dog knows when the teacher is leaving," Xu Hao said. "That has always been her objection."
He asked her to stay again, this time returning after only a few steps. Sia waited. When he praised her, she put her front paws against his knee and demanded something more tangible.
Er Bao watched the exchange. "You don't punish her when she gets it wrong?"
"She has to understand what I want first. And I have to make it possible for her to succeed."
Da Bao considered that with great seriousness. "Father never said that when he trained us."
"You once tried to lift a boulder before you could move a pebble," Er Bao said. "Father had other problems."
* * *
By midday the brothers had worked out which words their companions understood, and Da Bao had nearly emptied the pouch of meat intended as rewards.
Xu Hao took the pouch from him.
"You're feeding Little One whenever she looks at you."
"She looks hungry."
"So does Sia. That isn't evidence."
Sia, who had been patiently waiting at his elbow, made a small noise that suggested disagreement.
Er Bao divided the remaining scraps into three portions. "Supper isn't far away. We can use praise for the rest."
Da Bao accepted his share reluctantly. Little One watched him tuck it into his pocket, then pushed her nose against the cloth.
"She knows exactly where it is," he said, delighted.
"Yes," Xu Hao replied. "Which means the lessons may have been going in both directions."
They sat in the shade while the dogs drank at a shallow pool beside the stream. Xu Hao washed his hands and inspected the small scratches on his forearms from the morning. Little One hadn't meant to scratch anyone, but she didn't yet know how much force she carried.
He thought of Sia's first Wind Step, when she'd skidded too close to a stone. A dog didn't need to be malicious to hurt herself or somebody else.
Da Bao had been watching him.
"You're worried," he said.
"A little."
"They can fight. Their cards say so."
"Their cards say they have abilities. That doesn't tell us when it's wise to use them."
Da Bao looked over at Little One. She had put both front paws into the pool and was trying to catch her own reflection.
"She's not exactly frightening at the moment."
"No. That's part of why I like her."
Da Bao's grin returned.
* * *
In the afternoon they tried calling the dogs from farther away.
Er Bao stayed near the rock with Grey. Xu Hao walked down the clearing with Sia, while Da Bao and Little One waited at the other end. There would be no Wind Step. Xu Hao wanted to know whether the dogs would come back when something more interesting was happening.
For Grey, the first trial was simple. She sniffed around a tuft of grass, heard Er Bao call, and returned to him at an easy trot.
Little One was doing well until something rustled in the low brush beside the stream.
Her head came up. She sniffed once, then plunged towards the noise.
"Little One!" Da Bao called.
She kept going.
He started after her, reaching for the club at his back.
"Da Bao, wait," Xu Hao said.
"Something's there."
"And we don't know what it is."
That brought him up short.
The bushes shook again. A small brown animal broke cover, raced across two stones and vanished among the roots farther upstream. Little One skidded after it, far enough from the camp that Xu Hao could no longer reach her in a few steps.
Da Bao drew a breath to shout.
"Call her once," Xu Hao said. "The way you did before."
Da Bao lowered his voice, though the effort was visible.
"Little One. Come."
The husky stopped at the stream. For a moment she stared after the vanished animal. Then she turned, bounded back through the grass and threw herself into Da Bao's arms.
He staggered, but held his feet.
"Good girl," he said, burying his face in her fur.
Xu Hao let them have that moment. Then he said, "If she'd gone farther, you might have followed her without looking."
Da Bao scratched Little One's neck. "I thought something had frightened her."
"I know. But you told me yourself what lives in this forest. We have to notice the danger before we chase after it."
Er Bao joined them with Grey at his side. "And the command worked only when she was ready to listen."
"Then we'll practise until she listens sooner," Da Bao said.
There was no argument in his voice. He was looking at Little One, who had already forgotten the incident and was watching a butterfly.
* * *
They ended the day without trying another skill.
At supper, Er Bao asked whether he could feel Grey when she passed out of sight. He closed his eyes while she wandered behind the shelter, then nodded.
"She's there. I don't know precisely where, but I know she's safe."
Da Bao tried the same with Little One. His eyes stayed shut for three breaths.
"Near the food," he announced.
Xu Hao looked over. Little One had put her head inside the empty cooking bowl.
"An impressive supernatural gift," he said.
"I could feel her," Da Bao protested.
"I believe you. The bowl just helped."
Xu Hao could sense Sia, and faintly, through her, something of the two copies. But each dog responded to the brother who held her card. They were no longer simply pictures he had made; they had begun making homes of their own.
When the fire burned low, Sia curled against Xu Hao's legs. Little One sprawled beside Da Bao with one paw across his boot. Grey settled near Er Bao, her ears angled towards the trees beyond the warning line.
Da Bao watched the three of them and shook his head.
"Mightiest Wolfie," he murmured.
"Little One," Xu Hao corrected.
"I know. I still think it was a good name."
Er Bao looked at the dark trees. "Tomorrow we'll practise calling them back again. From farther away, with distractions. Then we'll decide whether they're ready to hunt with us."
"The supplies won't last forever," Da Bao said.
"No," Er Bao agreed. "But we aren't starving tonight."
Da Bao looked down at Little One, sleeping with her paw pressed firmly over his foot.
"All right," he said. "One more day of lessons."
Xu Hao scratched Sia between the ears. He had given his brothers two powerful companions. Today he'd seen how quickly affection could send a strong man running after a dog into unknown brush.
He wanted the three of them to come home from their first hunt.