Wolf Children: Our Nature: Chapter Two

"Hey Aki, check out this caterpillar" Isshoni yelled to her brother. The creature was quite a find, its skin glistened like oil on water and it was covered in greenish hairs. She hoped it was a new species so she could name it and have her name in encyclopaedias. She gently picked it up and put it in the base of a jar, half full of weeds she had yanked up from the courtyard earlier. She shouted to Aki again with a laugh.
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"Wait a minute Issy, I'm talking to Siko!" Akihito turned back to his mobile, wandering back inside. Isshoni overheard him talking to his best friend "really? That crazy? Oh man I wish I could be there. There's nothing to do here. Just hang out with Issy. Is so boring, man."
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"There would be stuff to do if you took any notice" Issy muttered, her good humor evaporating. She was normally tolerant of her brother's ways and even found them amusing but he had been even more disinterested than normal these few weeks and all her plans for thier hikes in the woods, collecting stones to paint and animal watching seemed to be evaporating.
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"You alright there, kiddo?" Asked the voice of her grandma. She looked up to find her carrying a tottering pile of washing. "Want a hand, Grammy?"
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"That would be helpful, yes!" Hana replied. Isshoni stuck the jar in her shorts pocket and took the top half of Hana's load. Once they had deposited the pile on the floor of the cleaning room Hana turned to face her granddaughter "now, what's Aki done? You two don't seem...quite right these past few weeks."
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"It's not really what he's done. It's what he can do but won't if that makes sense."
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"Go on" said Hana gently, sitting on the upturned laundry basket and patting the bench next to her.
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"It just seems so unfair, that's all. Akihito can transform properly, he's been able to ever since I remember. But he's not interested. He doesn't care that he can do it. It's not special to him. He doesn't use it. He doesn't even like nature! Why does he get to be the one that's good at it and not me?"
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"Issy, dear, you can't force someone to enjoy something they are good at. Normally you do anyway but he doesn't have to use it if he doesn't want to."
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"That's what Mum and Dad say. But why? I mean, there might be a reason for us to have these powers." Issy had always thought of thier condition as a superhuman ability and liked to imagine that they were destined for a purpose.
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"Oh, Issy. It's just genetics that's all. It's up to you how you use what you can do."
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"But if we're meant to do good, shouldn't we? Like, like superheroes. Like what Uncle Ben in Spiderman says, with great power comes great reponcibility." She said grandly.
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Hana laughed at the mispronounciation. "You know I could see you being a superhero. Shall I make you a cape?"
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"Grammy! Look I just wish I could transform as easy as him. I'm the one that actually cares about it."
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"You just have to give yourself time, Issy. Besides, I don't think he doesn't care about it. He just takes it for granted because he can do it so easily. I bet he'd miss it if it was taken away. You just have to keep on practicing. Besides, there's plenty of other things you're brilliant at. That drawing you made me of the wolf and the eagle. You could put it in a gallery!"
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Isshoni gave her a sideways look "am I better than Aki?"
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"Issy, that's not fair. You're both equal. Don't try to be anything but the best you, okay? Now, why don't I take you two down to the creek?"
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Isshoni laughed "if Aki's off his phone."
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"I dread to think how much that thing is costing your poor parents! Let's go see."
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"Hold on a minute" Issy ran to the room she was sharing with her brother and placed her jar in a shady spot next to the window "see you later, little guy". The caterpillar seemed to be too preoccupied with munching through a stalk to take much notice.
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*
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Half an hour later, the three of them had packed a lunch and were down by the small bridge that Hana and a group of local farmers had built across the creek. Her son had fallen into the waters in the freezing winter months once and it had drawn the local community's attention to the dangers posed by needing to cross. It was a simple, sturdy construction that Akihito and Isshoni were currently sprawled over, watching the pooh sticks they had set sail emerge on the other side. Hana's favourite sight in the world was watching her grandchildren at play.
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"This is so relaxing" Aki was saying to his sister.
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"See, told you you'd like it." She said. After a few minutes of furtively glancing his way she jumped up suddenly and slapped him on the shoulder "tag!"
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Aki shrieked in surprise and promptly tumbled head first into the water, much to isshoni's amusement "right, I'll get you! C'mere!"
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"Issy squealed and ran into the trees, only distantly aware of Hana's warning not to go too far. After all, she and her brother were better able to find thier way home than most kids. After a minute or so she found herself instinctively on all fours, her fingers becoming shorter and sharper. She shook her hair and velvet ears sprang from it. "Come on, Aki. Do the transformation!" She laughed. With an eye roll, he too jumped to all fours and was following his sister as a wolf. The ground dipped sharply into a hollow and Issy fell in with a yelp and a tangle of long limbs. "Gotcha!" Aki crowed, leaping on top of her. They rolled away from each other with a laugh. Isshoni turned to the blue sky and gave a howl which her brother soon joined.
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Once they stopped, another canine song replied. "Is that Uncle Ame?" Asked Issy of her grandmother, who had just caught up to them. She and Aki had met thier maternal uncle only three times and neither could remember him that well. Hana and Yuki had told them about how this was because he had taken the place of his Sensei as guardian of the mountains and the creatures that inhabited them. In private, Issy had overheard her mother saying she wished he would occasionally concern himself with his own family. At the time Hana had been recovering from a broken wrist and to thier knowlege Ame hadn't visited for a number of days afterwards. All this had made Uncle Ame quite a mystical figure in the children's eyes. Isshoni had always longed to meet him properly. Perhaps he could teach her how to express a true wolf form since he had chosen to spend the majority of his life in his own.
"Yes, dear. Just doing his rounds". Suddenly there was another, deeper howl, joined by a chorus.
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"Who are they?" Asked Isshoni.
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"Yeah, I thought we were the only ones round here" Aki frowned.
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"I don't know..." Hana gazed deeper into the forest. The two children stared in the same direction searchingly. Hana gave a shudder which seemed to snap her out of her reverie. "Come on kids, who fancies some lunch?"
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