Her plan to catch a ride had two major hiccups.

She had no money.

And she looked a fright.

Well, she probably looked worse than a fright with her running makeup, the blood, and ruined silks.

Like some ghost bride looking for a husband to drag into the underworld.

It took hours to see anyone and the first three heading in the right direction pretended they didn't even see her.

She'd spotted the Spine of the World on the distant, distant horizon as the sun rose from behind it as she followed the road. She'd only ever seen it up close in paintings, but now that she was free, maybe she would have a chance to see the towering snowcaps famed for their ferocious peaks in person. The few travelers who'd gotten close swore they pierced the clouds, told tales about waters so clear you see the bottoms of lakes hundreds of feet deep in the highest valleys. That they had snow no matter what time of year.

That there were peaks no living creature had ever reached the top of.

Meihua tried to imagine what they might look like and failed. The mountains she could see were green and brown and occasionally grey, but never so high you couldn't see the spine on the horizon behind them. The highest mountains in the Land of Xi have been climbed many times, most hosted a temple or a monastery of some kind, dedicated to whatever god was believed to reside in the heart of said mountain.

Meihua had opinions on gods, but she'd always been told it wasn't the time to discuss them.

Now probably wasn't the time either.

The fourth wagon had been stopped by the road for lunch, a small family with two teenage children. They'd had a fire going and everything when Meihua approached. The smell of smoke and meat had her salivating as she inched closer.

Their wagon and donkey were tethered off to the side. Steam rose from a pot on the fire as the mother stirred it. The two teenagers were holding bowls and spoons and shoving one another playfully. The father was sorting through a bag of supplies.

He spotted Meihua first, but he just stared.

His wife spotted her next, and she screamed, which made Meihua and the two teenagers jump.

"I-"

"Demon!"

"No, I-"

"Be gone!" The first rock had gone wide, so Meihua hadn't really realized it had happened.

The second landed a few feet in front of her. "Hey! I'm not-"

"Begone evil!"

"Make it leave, Cheng!"

"I'm not evil," Meihua howled, as the father scrambled for another rock and the teenagers ducked behind their mother, "I just want food."

"Why would we feed you? We barley have food for ourselves."

"Yeah, get lost, freak!" One of the teenager's jeered.

Meihua snapped, "I'm not a freak!"

Pain blossomed across her jaw and she stumbled back. The taste of iron spread across her tongue. "You-"

More rocks flew. Meihua ducked, scrambled backwards as the children joined their father in throwing whatever they could grab. "Please, I'm not- I'm just hungry."

"Go away!"

"Demon, begone!"

Another rock caught her on the thigh.

She turned and fled.

The rock had split the skin on her chin and made her lip swell. Somehow it had left a cut inside her mouth too and she'd been spitting out blood as she'd run.

They hadn't chased her, but she'd heard the impact of rocks for a while after she'd made it out of range.

Her stomach gurgled, awakened by the smell of the food she hadn't even gotten close enough to identify.

And now she was even more exhausted than before, from the adrenaline and the unexpected flight from the rocks.

And the pain.

They hadn't even given her a chance to talk. Did she really look that nightmarish?

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Or had they just not wanted to share food? Did everyone treat strangers that way out here? The palace had protocols, you had to treat people you didn't know a certain way, just in case they turned out to be someone important.

That family hadn't even let her say hello before they'd thrown the first rock.

Who did that?

She gently examined her chin with her fingers as she walked and tried to ignore the tears welling.

It was the pain. She wasn't used to it, so it was natural to cry.

That rock had hurt. They all had.

Who threw rocks at people? Was that legal? Could she report them to one of the regional officials?

Should she? They didn't look like they had much. They wouldn't be able to pay any fine. If the father was arrested, how would they make money? Were the children old enough to work?

What would people say if she put them in that position? Their Princess reporting them for not sharing food they probably couldn't afford to share.

Why did she even care? Was she even their princess anymore?

Her mother's voice echoed through her mind. How would that behavior look? You can't forget that people are always watching.

No one's looking now, mother! It was a vicious thought, but it made her feel better.

Ignoring that she was only a day ahead of the people hunting her. They were watching, but whether that interaction was big enough for them to report was iffy.

Still, it was embarrassing to think about any of them seeing her running from rocks. Failing so utterly to talk to her own people. She'd spent her entire life learning to rule them, and she couldn't even manage a single conversation.

She rubbed her lips, the taste of salt and iron just reminding her of the hunger gnawing at her stomach. Rubbing the tears away only made her look worse, streaking her makeup more and adding the dirt that had accumulated on the sleeves of her robes.

Gods, all of it was making her skin itch but trying to scrub it off only make it worse. She hadn't brought any of the products the maids used to clean, treat, and protect her skin three times a day. She probably had pimples everywhere. Looking like one of those old hags in the mythology books.

It was already getting dark again and there was a ginseng forest not far ahead. She remembered it from the last set of pathway maps she'd studied. Since this road didn't have tolls and as such, wasn't maintained by the Empire, it was difficult to traverse at night without breaking a wheel or axle. Most travelers would be bedded down by now, or in the next few minutes. There was no way she'd find a ride tonight, but there might be somewhere she could rest for a while. Maybe some fruit that was still edible among the trees.

Her stomach clenched painfully. Dizzy, she swayed. Exhaustion was making her vision blur.

Maybe she should sleep first? Then look for food.

Her stomach growled.

Or maybe she should eat first? Could she even sleep on an empty stomach?

But if she slept, she wouldn't think about being hungry. She argued with herself all the way to the forest. The great, bulbus roots of the ancient ginseng trees erupted out of the ground and left it uneven and shadowed. Smaller trees were often harvested for their roots, medicine Meihua recalled from a book, but the larger trees that had survived were off limits by the Emperor's decree. They were the Empire of Xi's official symbol, stitched into all their flags with glittering golden thread. A symbol of a noble line, a wise mind, and a healing heart.

There was a great ginseng tree in the heart of the gardens in the Inner Palace that had been planted by the first Emperor of Xi, the first of Meihua's blood line. A seven hundred years old it towered over everything and could be seen over the walls from outside the Inner Palace.

Meihua had climbed it often as a child, but it was never close enough to help her get over the wall itself.

She paused as she entered the tree line, it was heard to focus on where she was going. Even peering ahead a few feet seemed to take effort, and it took forever to climb carefully over the first few roots in her path.

She lost her grip on the fifth one, sliding and landed in a heap in the space between two larger growths. The space between them was narrow, cushioned with leaves and almost comfortable.

Maybe she would sleep first. She could look for food in the morning when everything had stopped hurting.

She was asleep in seconds, dreams of happier days filling her mind. The early years when Li Jie was still happy in the palace and they spent more time ditching their tutors to hide out in the library and garden, playing games that made no sense to anyone else. Sui Jiang arrived not long after and would comb Meihua's hair first thing in the morning and last thing at night, answering Meihua's endless questions about life outside.

Sui Jiang had always been so loving, so gentle and motherly in a way the Empress had never been. The first time Meihua had found blood between her legs and panicked, thinking she was dying, Sui Jiang had been the one to explain what she had to look forward too. She and the head maid had been the ones to change her sheets and show her how to fold a pad and made the only tea that made the cramps that came with it go away.

She dreamed of that beautiful summer afternoon she, Li Jie, and Sui Jiang had swiped fresh-cut watermelon from the kitchen and gorged themselves next to the lotus pond as the fireflies danced in the dying light, free from all worries of station and the future.

She'd never been happier than she had that night and all her attempts to recreate it had failed.

She was so wrapped up in that afternoon that she didn't wake until the moon was fully risen and daylight long gone. The chirp of crickets and shifting trees in the darkness was oddly peaceful in the face of her panic.

Despite the fallen leaves, there were enough left to block out most of the moonlight. Shadows stretched across the forest floor, a sea of umber concealing all secrets.

She started to pull herself out of her makeshift bed, mourning her mattress back at the palace, when suddenly, the chirping went silent.

Meihua went still.

Shuffling, breaking twigs- something was coming.

Vegetation rustled- something big.

Meihua jammed herself back down between the roots, spiraling into thoughts of murderers and ghosts and monsters.

The crunch of -claws? on chilled leaves made her shake. She had no weapons. She'd never fought anything that wasn't one of her parent's rules.

Snuffling, clawing, it was digging through the leaves, looking for something? Tracking something?

Meihua?

There was nowhere to run. She might be able to climb the tree but not quickly.

A growl echoed through the trees.

Hidden in the darkness, Meihua could only imagine what kind of creature made those sounds. Her imagination growing more terrible by degree, the longer her imagination worker.

Was it a jiangshi? From the stories Li Jie had told her when they were small? Learned his older brothers who'd been trying, and succeed, in scaring him.

Or a taotie, that she'd read about in a mythology book she's stolen from the palace library? They were said to devour beautiful young maidens whole.

Whatever it was, if it caught her here between these roots, there was no chance she could get away. All it had to do was stick a claw in her little hideaway, swing it around and Meihua would be ripped to shreds.

~ tbc