Shortly after the sun reached its apex in the sky, the caravan set out from the stockade, traveling westward along the beaten dirt road. The party was fewer in number than when they had departed, and so the arrangements for who drove some of the herdbeasts were changed, but Strong River remained seated behind Blue Ripple on the same creature they had ridden out to the forest on.

The factional frictions that had marked the start of the journey had dissolved by now. Without the leadership of the arrogant and well-connected Soaring Wave, the remaining warriors in his party sticking to their previous aloof stance became meaningless. This did not mean that they did not have any suspicions or thoughts of their own on the matter -- they knew Soaring Wave very well, after all -- but they also understood that this was neither the time nor the place to air such ideas. Without Soaring Wave to go to the field, their ability to do and act as they would in the future would also change.

In almost no time at all, Blue Ripple had returned to his trademark gabbiness, regaling River with a heroic and no doubt embellished account of their battle with the Moon-striped Sabermaw. River felt a momentary twinge of regret that he couldn't tell his friend the true story of the past couple of days and wondered if he'd ever be able to share that tale with another living person. Probably not.

"We should go into the deep forest and fight one of those together, Blue," River offered once the talkative man had finished his tale and taken a moment to catch his breath.

Blue Ripple shook his head. "That's not very likely gonna be any time soon."

"Why's that?" River frowned.

"Well, for one, the fact that I concealed my actual level of physique before going on this journey is bound to come out. Not only is that going to land me in hot water, but it means I have to transfer over to the veterans now." Blue Ripple snorted at the thought of that. "As for you, you've grown too fast with way too little training and practice. They're going to want to keep you close to amend that. As for going to the deeper forest, you're still not quite ready for that yet."

"And if I broke through the sixth-grade Human Realm?" River responded.

Blue Ripple turned in his seat and looked at him more closely. "Is breaking through really going to be like that forever for you? You sound pretty confident, you know."

"I, uh," River scrambled to find an explanation. "I can still feel... something from that fruit if you get what I mean. I don't think it's done all the way yet."

Blue Ripple turned back to facing forward. "I'm going to caution you to not say that in front of anybody else and I'm going to try and forget you said it. The elders have all been at their current realms for years now, bottlenecked, and some of them continue to look for one more breakthrough. I wouldn't put it past one or two of them to want a closer look, and neither of us is strong enough to guard our backs against them all the time."

River nodded in assent, and for a couple moments they rode on in silence. "You ever think that there's more to life outside the clan?"

Blue Ripple laughed. "All the time... all the time. It's just that for such a long distance all around there's... nothing. How would I make my way out there, where fighters of my level are common as dirt and even those of the chief's level sprout up like weeds?"

"Why not live off the Primeval Forest for a while, Blue?" River offered. "There's everything there you could want to live off of, and plenty there to strength you. You could temper yourself, become better and stronger than ever, and with that experience then burst out in the greater wide world."

"My my, spend a couple days lost in the forest, and now you have all kinds of praise for living there," Blue Ripple chuckled. "It's a nice dream, brother River, but it's not that easy. Otherwise, the warriors would have all ran off long ago. Not everybody can keep getting stronger like that, and we give to the clan so we can receive back from the clan. Our families, our lives, our ability to live in peace... would you trade that for a constant and never-ending battle for life and death?"

"What are benefits worth when they're getting shoveled into the maw of someone like Elder Wave? What's peace when we're at the perpetual mercy and ransom of a gang of murderous thugs like the Dragon's Den?"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Blue Ripple sighed. "I agree with you more than you can ever know. It just... isn't so easy for me to give it all up? I mean, no offense, but your ties to the clan are fragile. Mine aren't. Now if you took a look at that cousin of mine, you might get some different ideas..."

"Sorry, man, but that's not something I'm bothering with right now. I'm more concerned about a system that produces Soaring Waves. Just because it also made a Blue Ripple doesn't make it right and good, does it? And while the big wheels turn and turn, they crush the little Rivers underneath it, unnoticed unless they are lucky."

River finally let out the torrent of complaints that had been bottled up every time he considered the clan's circumstances. For a moment, there was silence between the two men, the steady treading of the beast underneath them the only near sound. Had River pushed too far?

"I'm sorry, Blue Ripple," River apologized, feeling an anxiety like that of standing at a cliff's edge.

"Don't be," Blue Ripple replied after an agonizing wait. "You're not wrong, after all. It's just that... I want that all to change. Before I reach beyond what I know, I want to help the place that gave birth to me. You know?"

"I do. But I think that the only thing that can fix this clan now is strength. In front of true strength, all the maneuvering and petty rivalries and hidden crimes can disappear. I don't know much or honestly care much for who is pitted against whom, figuring out who can't be offended and who is more easy-going. It was only a couple days in the forest, but what I saw there... some things need a more permanent resolution."

"Yes," Blue Ripple agreed, "there are quite a few things I'd like to resolve in a permanent way. But I can't do it alone. Promise me," he turned and looked River straight in the eye, "Promise me that you won't just run off by yourself. That you'll stick around and help me fix this place, together. Then," he smiled, "we can go conquer the forest and become famous out there in the world, yeah?"

River nodded. "As long as there is a home for me in the clan, Blue, I won't abandon it, or you. But if that changes..."

"I understand." Blue Ripple nodded in return and then turned back to steering the beast. "Just imagine it, us bringing back the glory of Flowing Water. We'll pass up all those elders and the chief and make the Dragon's Den fear us. Then that Brave Dragon won't be the most powerful person in the region, and people won't have to live in fear or pay him for his 'protection' anymore."

Blue Ripple continued gabbing, his extraordinary ability to fill every moment with speech returning with his spirits. River inwardly sighed.

"It won't work, you know," Mister Black chimed in, as River knew by now that he would. "You can't force people to go against human nature, particularly once you pack up and head off to greater prospects. Once you leave, new crimes and rivalries and maneuvers will replace the old. Cultivators aren't any better about that."

"I know," River replied to his mental mentor. "But I figured it's a test to pass. I know you said that cultivation is a lonely path, but that doesn't mean I have to walk it all by myself, right? I mean, look at those monks, or even that man and that woman."

"Those are different," Mister Black replied. "People with similar strength and interests can find ways to work together for a time. But it doesn't last."

"He could at least keep up for a while, couldn't he Mister Black? I know I'll have to leave him behind someday, but why not have the friendship?"

Mister Black chuckled. "My, you're getting pretty cocky there. What makes you think that because you've already surpassed him that it'll stay that way forever, River? Your relative positions could change in the space of mere heartbeats, my young friend. All too many relationships like yours end when the benefits arrive and someone wants them all. I've seen sworn brothers driven to murder by treasure, lovers of a millennium torn apart by an opportunity. You're opening yourself to weakness."

"You're right, of course, Mister Black. But I don't have to give this up right away, do I?"

"You can try it your way, my young friend," Mister Black admonished, "but understand that your fate and his will part at some point and learn from it. This conversation is hardly the first or last of its kind between a master and disciple, and there are some things that you know in your head that still have to punch you in the gut before you get them."

"I understand. Thank you, Mister Black." River sighed in relief.

"Hm, something up?" Blue Ripple asked.

"Nah, not really. I'm just not looking forward to the interrogation we'll be getting when we get home."

Blue Ripple laughed. "You and me both. You and me both."

A couple hours later, the sun nearing the horizon's embrace, the caravan returned to the clan's village compound. The porters were summoned, and while they took their time to arrive -- the men were already lazy by nature and weren't expecting them back so soon, Blue Ripple reminded River -- Blue Ripple and River went out into the compound together to walk out the kinks in their legs from the extended ride and to drop off a few things.

Approaching River's old hovel, the pair halted in shock at the sight that greeted them. Where there had been a shack before, the most miserable of all abodes in the clan but nonetheless River's own home, there was now a dug-up indention and a scattered pile of wood chips, all that remained of the ramshackle building.

"What the--?" Blue Ripple began to exclaim but immediately lost whatever words he had to say.

River looked at the pile of what wasn't even rubble, his thoughts dark. His words of a couple hours before now rang in his mind.

As long as there was a home for him in the clan...