“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?!” The man bellowed.

He was heavyset with a light tan and had gone red in the face with anger. He wore clothes in a style unfamiliar to Sun, with blue pants made from some kind of thick linen-like material, rough and worn, held up by a leather belt buckled under his bulging midsection. He wore a white sleeveless shirt that looked too tight on him, but stretched out to fit, and a red hat with a visor that shaded his eyes.

He clambered down the side of the great beast’s head, or rather the massive metal carriage, now that Sun took a better look. He had no idea how such an artifice could function, especially as he felt no qi emanating from it or the man and no work animals to pull it.

The man dropped to the ground and began to storm up to Sun. He waved his arms about him and Sun could see the veins bulging in his neck and around his head.

“Of all the absolutely stupidest things you could do with your time you decide to just stand in the middle of the road?!” He yelled, “What could possibly be going through…your…mind. Oh gods, are you alright, kid?” When the man got a few steps away from Sun his face quickly shifted from anger to confusion to concern. “You look like you’ve been out here for days.” He said.

Sun’s mind had been numbed by the shock of his situation and so responded without much thought.

“I was…going to the city.”

“The city? And you decided walking through the middle of the desert was the bes-” He cut himself off and sighed. “Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Where are you even coming from?” He asked, looking back along the road.

Sun didn’t want to say he was from the sect, that’s exactly what he was trying to stay away from. Instead he raised his arm and pointed in the general direction he’d come from, keeping it vague enough for the man to form his own conclusions.

“But, all that's out there is the mountains? Wait, you didn’t seriously come all the way from the mountains on foot did you?!” The man suddenly got very worried and began to look over Sun again and Sun decided to follow suit.

He realized why the man had become so concerned seeing his appearance. His robes had become tattered, beaten, and torn from the rough journey through the mountains and the exposed skin was burnt and cracked from the desert heat. His shoes were all but gone and he wasn’t sure how he was only just now realizing he had trekked across the desert almost barefoot.

He was an awful sight and he surely smelled just as bad considering he hadn’t bathed in half a month. He’d washed himself in the occasional river at the beginning of his journey, but his paranoia had pushed that it was a waste of time and that he needed to stay on the move.

“Yes, I'm from a small village beyond the mountains.” Sun said. “My family is quite poor, so I planned to go to the city to earn money.”

The man crossed his arms as a look of consideration came over his features.

“I'd heard people lived out there by themselves for ages, but I never actually believed it. I mean who would choose to live in the middle of nowhere. Er, no offense.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The man looked back up to Sun and paused, taking a moment to think and gather his thoughts before carefully beginning to speak.

“You know, I’m actually heading to the city as well. I don’t know if you’d be interested but I could give you a ride down there in the truck. I’m sure it’d beat the hell out of walking the rest of the way.”

Sun scanned the man’s features, he didn’t want to get caught in a trap of some kind so soon after he’d gotten into the wider world. But he could sense no intent to harm or trick him from the man, only genuine concern for his well being, which left him at somewhat of a loss.

Well, I was hoping to find company on the way, Sun thought.

“Thank you, sir, it would be much appreciated.”

The man nodded as Sun composed himself, snapping himself out of his stupor and choosing to accept the reality before him. He stretched out his hand and Sun grasped it with his own, giving it a firm shake that the man returned.

“Name’s Mickey, but you can call me ‘Mick’ like everyone else.”

Sun paused and considered.

“...I am Sun”

He decided to omit his family name as he no longer considered himself a part of the Chen clan. Just as well, Chen could well be a common name to have in the city, but how many Chen Suns would there be? Many? Few? Either way wasn’t worth the added risk.

He'd thought about using an alias with the man, Mick, but it wouldn't help him much in this case. If anyone did come looking for him and described Sun to the man, it wouldn't matter what name he gave.

“Nice to meet you Sun. Hop in on that side and we can get going.”

Mick gestured over to the other side of the carriage from where he’d come out before climbing back inside. Sun walked over and carefully stepped up the stairs built into the side and reached for what he figured to be the door handle. With a dull clunk the door popped out and swung open revealing the truck’s interior.

Sun was stunned by what he saw.

The inside was relatively spacious with most of the front taken up by two incredibly plush looking seats. Sun peered into the back to see what could only be a bed laid out across a raised platform with a blanket and a very plump pillow resting on top. A wheel was positioned in front of Mick’s seat as well as some other strange artifacts facing him.

Mick himself dropped into his seat with a grunt, shuffling and adjusting his position to his liking before pulling a strap across him and pushing a metal hook into a slot attached to the chair. He turned to Sun and waved him in, with Sun tentatively following his lead and leaning back into the most comfortable chair he’d ever sat in and pulling the strap across him.

Sun looked out through the clear glass into the endless scorching desert and realized…he wasn’t hot. The inside of the carriage was warm, but it should have been far, far hotter in the enclosed space.

Mick took out a key from his pocket and pushed it into a slot, turning it, and causing the entire vehicle to rumble and purr. Sun tensed but when nothing else happened he let himself relax back into his increasingly comfortable seat.

The truck began to move forward, quickly accelerating up to its original speed before Mick had stopped to yell at Sun. The dunes outside turned into an endless blur as the truck sped down the road at a pace that would’ve left Sun in the dust.

Glad to see I made the right choice there, he thought.

Mick fiddled with a knob in front of him and suddenly Sun was being blasted with cold air coming out of the vents in front of him.

Definitely the right choice.

Mick fiddled with another knob and the device in the center of the carriage blared to life as the sound of strange twanging music emanated from it. Sun wasn’t familiar with the style of music but he decided that he didn’t particularly mind it, and the fact that it was coming out of a little box was now just a mildly interesting detail.

He had seen so many impossibly impossible things that he was beginning to fear that all this had been a dream. That he was going to wake up, open his eyes, and see the sect outriders or his father or an assembly of the elders.

But he was tired, so very tired. So he let his eyes droop and his body relax and fully lean back into the chair that an elder would pauper themselves for. He listened to the strange but quite catchy music coming out of the truck that was as big as a house and moved faster than any animal could hope to run without the aid of qi.

“Hey, uh, it’s gonna be a couple of hours before we get there so you can go ahead and get some rest, alright?” Mick said.

Sun mumbled a response, as he no longer had the mental wherewithal to form a coherent sentence. He tried to recall how much he’d been sleeping as he’d traveled south through the mountains, but found his memories sparse.

Sun let his anxiety go and let sleep take its hold properly for the first time since he’d left the sect, falling deeply into his dreams as the truck sailed down the road under the midday sun.