Willow and her sister were both exhausted as they sat down to eat dinner, though the family was unaware why the younger girl seemed as tired as she was. Dinner today was a simple affair of stir fried vegetables, with most of the veggies in question having been harvested earlier that day by Rowan, Yew, and her.

  The girl really wished she had more energy to deal with the coming reveal she had planned for her siblings, but she supposed she should have expected a new exercise would wipe her out considering how much the first one did the same.

  “What’s got you so drained, sprout? The harvest today wasn’t that difficult.” Her father asked, clearly concerned about his youngest’s lethargic state.

  Willow was too tired to think of a lie, and since she was going to tell everyone everything in a little bit, she just decided to tell the complete truth this time. Well, except for how much the exercises hurt, she didn’t want to worry them after all.

  “I started doing a new exercise today, but it was harder than I thought it’d be.”

  Her brother snorted. “Saw Maple training and decided to copy her or something?”

  Her sister tilted her head in thought. “No, she was watching me for most of the afternoon, but she was just sitting by Ma’s grave from what I could see. Unless this new exercise was done after I went in to start cooking?” The last was asked as she looked directly at Willow.

  The girl shook her head, curls bouncing with the movement. “Nah, I did it near the start of your training. It was an energy exercise, which is why it looked like I wasn’t doing anything.”

  Yew opened his mouth to snark, but stopped and thought for a moment. “Did Meteoros give you a secret technique when they gave you that rock or something?”

  This was the big moment. “No, my other spirits taught it to me.”

  “Wait Willow, what are you doing?” “Are you sure this is wise, child?”

  Change and Harmony sent to her simultaneously. Oh right. She forgot to tell her friends she was gonna be doing this. Oops. Well it was already done so there was no backing out now.

  “It’ll be fine” She sent back to them before looking at her family's reaction to her statement. Maple looked confused, Yew looked incredulous, and her father just gave her a “go on” gesture while crunching on some snap peas.

  “I found some friends when I got lost in the woods that time last year.” She shifted uncomfortably as her siblings continued to stare at her. “They wanted me to keep them secret because people were chasing them, but we haven’t seen or heard of anyone looking for them in a while so I think it’s safe to tell you guys now.”

  “You can come out now.” Willow sent to both of them.

  “Fine…” “If you are sure…”

  Change and Harmony sent back before appearing above her.

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  “Everyone, meet Change and Harmony.” The girl said while gesturing to the spirits.

  “I knew you were talking to yourself more!” Her brother cried out, pleased he had known something was up with his younger sister.

  “It’s nice to finally meet you two.” Rowan said while continuing to munch on stir fried veggies.

  “It is nice to officially meet all of you as well.” Harmony said with a slight bow. “Although we both wish Willow had given us more warning.”

  “Yeah she really dropped this on us last minute.” Change harrumphed.

  “They can talk?!” Her siblings said simultaneously while their father calmly crunched on some carrot.

  “It’s not that big a deal is it?”

  Everyone stared at her, including her spirits. Change cackled which caused her siblings to look at him with alarm.

  “That’s one of the things I like about you, friend!” He appeared closer and gave her a pat on the head. “You have no idea how out of the ordinary my sister and I truly are.”

  Maple started speaking after he was finished. “Willow, while most spirits can communicate in one form or another, actual human speech is… uncommon to say the least.”

  “Yup.” Her father continued as he finished off the last of his food. “From what I know, which is many years out of date mind, only four of the clans have a talking spirit, and I think it was two more of them with the wanderers.” He stroked his beard in thought. “Or was it three? Bah, it doesn’t matter. Point is you’ve got some special spirit’s on your hands.”

  Willow looked at her friends with slightly different eyes. “Does that mean you guys are stronger than I thought?”

  Harmony scoffed. “It is not a matter of strength, child, but one of nature. We are not hiding any facet of our power from you.”

  “Yup! The one secret we did have, you’ve already discovered.” Change chimed in, grabbing a veggie from Willows bowl and popping it in his mouth. His void of an eye widened slightly. “This is pretty tasty, how much qi did you spend growing this?” The spirit asked of Rowan.

  Her father puffed up with a farmer's pride at the question. “Me and Bough have a growth and enhancement field around the crops basically at all hours. Due to the ambient wood qi of the area, cost of upkeep is much smaller than you’d expect. Just have to make sure to have the right mix of crops in the field and rotate them out each season.”

  “The downside being the constant weeding we have to do, plus the harvesting every other week.” Her brother grumbled. He looked between the two spirits. “Hey, any chance one of you would like to bond with me instead of my sister?”

  Oi. Stupid Yew was trying to poach her friends!

  The sudden question caused Change to laugh. “I like your guts boy, but we’ve already made a deal with your sister, and we don’t break our word.” Her friend's instant refusal made the young girl feel a lot better. She definitely wasn’t worried they would say yes, why would they?

  Harmony was far less amused by the question. “I would like to reiterate the fact that we do not break our word if at all possible, and there is a part of me that feels insulted you would ask us to. Plus I do not feel we would be as compatible with you as we are with your sister.”

  “Fine, fine I get it.” He looked at Willow and looked away again. “I just feel it’s a little unfair that she has four spirits already and I don’t even have one yet. I’m older, I should have” he gestured vaguely at the air before slumping in his chair “something…”

  The girl felt a little bad for her older brother. Yes he had human friends while she didn’t, but spirit friends were with you always and she could understand feeling left out. That didn’t excuse him trying to steal them from her and she would have her vengeance for it, but she could understand why he would try and would get some mercy because of it. But only some.

  Nodding to herself, she continued to eat her tasty meal. Glad that the initial meeting with her friends went well.

  She could see her sister off without worry now.