Alfonso Carter was a tireless young man naturally, and it was because of this that he drove onwards in search of a sign or marker of his location. Throughout the night he rode and he noticed the time really passing only when he saw the sun’s rays in the sky.

“Wha- wha- what time is it?”

The dirt bike and its trailer came to a gentle stop and with practiced ease the kickstand went into place. Immediately pulling his phone from his jacket pocket, then Alfie checked his phone for missed calls, texts, anything. All he could confirm is according to the phone it was now apparently six thirteen in the morning.

How had he driven so long without getting tired? Why hadn't anyone contacted him?

“I would say maybe I am in a signal dead zone, but no part of Texas would have you driving through sparse woods and hills for hours without seeing a person or a no trespassing sign.” He reasoned out to himself.

In the ritual of his generation, Alfie turned the phone off and tried to reboot it. Maybe that would help?

‘I hope Mama Alma is okay.’ He thought to himself as he wondered what was going on and waited for his phone's reboot process to complete. As he waited, he looked at the dusty crossroads which lay in front of him and he took the keys out of the dirtbike’s ignition and hopped off. Pocketing the keys in his leather jacket’s pocket and buttoning it shut he walked towards the cart.

“Odie, you okay buddy? Let's go for a walk and make some food, why don't we?" The young man let the trailer’s gate open and checked his phone as he waited for the tan colored chihuahua to come forth.

***

Odiseo was not happy, and the way his legs quivered made that clear to Alfie as the dog crawled out of the cart. The long, almost vulpine movements of the dog’s yawn soon followed and then Odiseo’s tail began to wag.

Alfonso snapped the leash to the dog’s collar with the automatic movements gained from long practice at something and they began to walk in search of clues and a place to do their business.

Every few minutes for nearly an hour after they were done, they sat there and Alfie checked his phone. He might have continued if he did not feel and hear a massive rumble in his stomach. Indigestion? More likely, he was hungry. It had been over twelve hours since he ate. So he went back in his pocket and he went into the trailer to grab a camp pot, a hatchet, and a lighter.

After the dark-haired young Texan finished moving the camp pot to a safe spot on the side of the road, the lighter was pocketed and holding Odiseo's leash in one hand and the tool in the other they went to work finding dead wood and other useful fire kindling.

***

Through the cold night and the dewy morning Yangniu Diwu and Liaoshu Tienye had held their post. Holding their spot on the road and taking turns with watch, they had expected to see nothing but they did their jobs with enthusiasm nonetheless. It was not every day that a pair of country thugs were seen by the great Ding Hui and brought into his army of immortals. Sure, they were mostly glorified toll keepers and bandits but it was better than being nothing. They would do whatever Elder Ding Hui asked of them, even watching this stretch of road and the land around it for uninvited cultivators or foolish merchants who needed to pay a little tax and a little tribute.

As wiry Diwu watched his somewhat slow cousin Tienye eat one of the cold dumplings they had brought with them to this stretch of deserted forest he could not help himself.

He let out a sigh, thinking of their cold bedrools and the cold food they were eating as he watched the road. He thought of them and covetously of the heated stone warmed bedding of their superior office in the Army of Immortals. Xu Chasun was insufferable, from the name he had picked when he was chosen as one of Ding Hui’s lieutenants on to the way he carried himself.

Diwu, Tienye, and Chasun were cousins and from the same village. Despite that, Chasun thought of himself as some young master simply because he had reached the second stage of his cultivation.

The narrow, rodent-like face of Diwu scrunched up as he watched the road. If it was not for his sworn brother and cousin, Tienye, he might have chosen his own way instead of joining the Immortals.

After all, he knew the unspoken idiom. With the more people walking upon your path, the less room you had to choose steps which would cause you to rise instead of plummet.

He watched the road, and when he saw something interesting upon it, he nudged his elbow into the large, lumbering, and demure man beside him. As the behemoth known as Tienye blinked and suckled upon the bits of filling that had fallen from the dumpling and caught by his finger, he turned to look where his cousin’s vision was locked.

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With a smile, Diwu moved to stand. “With a strange mouse dog like that, and fanciful clothes, surely we have found ourselves a dumb and overly wealthy merchant to pay the fees.”

“Should I wake brother Chasun?” Tienye asked, dragging the words as if each syllable was an over heavy burden.

“No, let him sleep. A merchant without a drop of chi is no threat to members of the Immortals, and if brother Chasun was along with us he would demand the first choice of spoils.”

The pair began to stalk their prey.

***

It took nearly an hour of work, but Alfie had no issue gathering wood for his goal and now had a fire going with a camp pot of boiling with some of the leftovers from the night before and water to help it keep its moisture. In between checking it, he had put the hatchet back up in the cart without so much as looking, grabbing the cutting board he and his grandfather had used so many times before when using the trailer for day trips, and then he went to work.

He kept moving, kept up the process, because if he let himself slow down the young man would surely be lost in his thoughts. So with the cutting board, he sliced the new peppers he found in half, removing their seeds and then skewering them with a few gathered sticks so that they could be roasted.

Each movement made him remember his grandfather’s teachings, and like so many other times as he used those culinary skills, he felt as if his grandfather was there with him.

Alfie cooked and as the peppers roasted, the day old chili bubbled, and his chihuahua companion ate the food he had been provided, Alfie felt calm and without fear. Mama Alma would be alright, surely, and even if she wasn’t there was little he could do right now. One step at a time or you’d ruin any recipe.

So he focused on his craft as the fire boiled and as Alfie did, Odiseo devoured the piece of day-old cornbread made moist and more flavorful by some of the reheated chili.

***

Xiang Hou Gen was a man transformed by the tragedies of his life. He was convinced that he must have been a horrible man in his previous life, to be paying so much of a karmic bill now. Tragedy after tragedy, and despite being thrown out of his sect, what had happened to it, and thousand other small misfortunes, none of them seemed to provide the lasting pain that he felt from his choice the night before.

As he woke in a daze, finding himself in some goods laden cart, he remembered the night before and his entry inside of the vehicle. The owner must have not noticed, or left him be. He would have to thank the merchant with such a cart for allowing him a moment’s rest.

For now, though he simply lay upon the cart, dazed in the slowly lessening sting of last night’s tragedy. Those spearfruit had been a bad choice for a meal, and it was only something he agreed with more by the smells which he had begun to waft upon the wind. Now that was a meal.

***

Alfie had gotten the fire nicely roaring, and Alfie continued to turn the skewers of roasting pepper upon them. Like a priest leading a prayer with essence, he focused on this with simple clarity. Which is why he was surprised when Odiseo let out a growl and the characteristic warning bark of a chihuahua at finishing his meal.

Alfie ignored it, perhaps there was a squirrel or some other annoyance for the dog. It was only when he felt a tingle down his spine that he reconsidered. What was this danger that was around them?

Was there a bear? A catamount? A coyote? A particularly mean racoon? He tried to calm himself and to listen.

“Odie, what is it you feel?” Alfie asked his companion.

“The tollmen of this great imperial road, friend. He knows the threat that such as we present, and to begin with the tax - that delicious smelling food you have prepared.”

Alfonso “Alfie” Carter, felt that eerie chill, felt he was in danger, and felt anger. He was in some rural farm road and some jokesters decided to walk up on him and try to rob him? Was this some sort of stereotypical horror movie set in Texas? Were they idiots? Imperial road? He wrestled with his thoughts and his emotions.

From his place on the cart, Hou Gen began to stir. The kindly merchant was about to be robbed, and from the looks of the two triangles connected by their narrowest point, those men were a part of the Army of Immortals. He moved to jump up, he had to help! The merchant was not even a cultivator, and even from here Hou Gen could feel the foundational core born into each of the Immortals.

“My grandfather always told me to provide food to those who ask nicely and are in need.” Alfie said as he cooked, and something rose in him. Then the Texan youth spoke to his animal companion, giving it a simple command, “Ataca los, Odie.”

Then he stood up in a swirling motion, and in the same movement one of the right off the fire peppers was thrown in the face of the speaker. With a screech of pain, Diwu stepped back and it was then that the Chihuahua launched itself at the bandit’s leg, biting him and throwing him further off balance.

Alfonso threw himself into a defensive stance and smiled at the big man in front of him. Tienye simply threw his arms up, looking at his supportive and much more clever cousin being gnawed upon by the small mouse dog.

“This one begs mercy. Don’t hurt Tienye or brother Diwu with your strange spells! Please?”

Alfie stared at the large man for a moment, taking in his strange clothing, and strange mannerisms. Why were he and his brother dressed like this was a classical martial arts movie?

He did not get a chance to answer, as he suddenly found a grizzled man in threadbare brown and gray robes in front of him and the huge lug. In the next moment, the surrendering bandit was on the ground.

His chest still moved, so he was still breathing. But what was this wandering wuxia warrior in front of him for? Who was it?

The man turned to him and let out a partial bow.

“This one is Xiang Huo Gen. I apologize for not acting sooner, but these are members of a great threat to the region known as Juren Wuting, they are members of the Immortals.”

Alfie looked to the man, then to the men on the ground. He looked to the strange mountains in the distance, and took it all in for the first time, really. He then considered his lack of seeing the strike that Huo Gen had done on this man.

“I don’t think I’m in Texas anymore.” he murmured, before passing out.