“Sunny?”

“Wuff,” said Sunny.

“Do ye think ye could catch that thing?”

“Mmmm. Wuff.”

The necromancer had to spin around and catch the sleeping Sou Yuet as the si dzi exploded away after the hippalektryon.

Unfortunately, it was fast, despite its ludicrous appearance. Sunny was big, strong, and slow.

“She takes after me, I guess,” the necromancer commented out loud.

“Hm?”

“Ah Yuet, ye're awake.”

“M'yeah... see...?”

“Uh... what?”

Sou Yuet blinked. Their tongue didn't feel like it belonged to them. Neither did their brain. “What...?”

“Oh, one of those hippie things appeared. Sunny's trying to catch it, but it's fecking fast.”

Sou Yuet squinted blearily at the hippalektryon, galloping in brainless circles, with the increasingly dizzy Sunny following behind.

A green spark left the monk's eyes.

A small vine shot out of the ground and wrapped around the hippalektryon's legs. It fell with a squawking, whinnying thump, and Sunny was on it immediately. Proudly, she brought the struggling creature back in her jaws.

“Hey, ye're supposed to be resting!” The necromancer rapped Sou Yuet lightly on the head with her knuckles.

“I'm fine. Just tired.”

“Considering ye lost half ye blood out ye nose, ye're lucky ye're not anything else.”

“That's an exaggeration.”

“Let me look at ye.”

Aside from being a bit pale and having dark rings around their eyes, the monk did, in fact, look fine. Although...

“Yer eyes have gotten real green.”

Flecks of green light sparkled in the black irises of Sou Yuet's eyes, like wind-tossed leaves.

“Pang Yau?”

“Have ye gotten more magic or something?” The necromancer let go of Sou Yuet's face and put a respectful distance between the.

“You could say that.”

“And that happened... when?”

“I had a bit of a breakthrough earlier.”

“Right, so pushing yerself until ye bleed out ye nose and faint means getting more magic powers. Good to know.”

“Isn't there a saying from your part of the world – what doesn't kill you makes you stronger?”

“Never heard of it before. There's a lot of different races in my 'part of the world' as ye call it. We're not all the same.”

“Sorry.”

“Ugh. Whatever.”

“So what do we do with this?”

'This' clucked and brayed as it flapped about in Sunny's mouth. That mouth was increasingly filling with a thick drool that coated the hippalektryon's body. The necromancer's stomach rumbled again. She could have sworn that Sou Yuet's did the same.

“That merchant said they were becoming hard to find...”

“... We probably shouldn't eat it, should we...?”

There was no doubting it this time. Sou Yuet's stomach was definitely making hungry noises.

“Let me try something.” The necromancer closed her eyes. The tattoos on her body shivered and stilled.

“Well that was as useful as teats on Torc Triath.”

“Sorry?”

“I mean... these chatty things... There's a few dead chickens hanging around but they just keep gabbing without making much sense.”

“Can you actually understand them?”

“When something's dead, I can talk to it. Doesn't matter if it weren't human or spoke a different language. But that doesn't make up for a difference in intelligence... Hang on...”

She frowned, eyes still closed. “Hm... Yeah, something about scary bits of wood. Reckon that's our foxy friend and his sentient broomsticks?”

“It could be. I don't think that's enough evidence though; it's circumstantial conjecture at most.”

“We won't get anything else out of them. And I'm too hungry to bother anyway.”

“We have a little money right now. We could find somewhere to eat.”

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“Sounds good. But Sunny...”

The big si dzi whimpered hungrily again.

“The way everyone reacted to her was very odd,” Sou Yuet said, scratching behind her ears. “I understand that many people have not seen a living si dzi before, but along the Jade Road, there are so many unusual things. Why was their reaction to her in particular so extreme?”

The necromancer groaned. “I can't think. Let's go and eat. I'll just bash anyone that gives Sunny a hard time.”

“No, I'll do it. You need to eat more than I do.”

A little while later all three of them sat in a row by a roadside stall, gobbling down hot lentil soup and barley bread. The necromancer glared continuously at even the mildly curious glances of passers-by, so Sunny was able to eat peacefully. Despite their hunger, Sou Yuet ate slowly.

“Trying to make it last longer, monk?”

“I'm trying to identify the spices.”

“... Can ye just eat and not work for a moment? Hey owner, do ye have any meat?”

“Only chicken. You want?”

“'Only'? Chicken's fine! I'll take it.”

“You have a little piece of hippalektryon, you no say that.” The owner of the stall, an older man with a perfectly bald head and a fluffy grey beard, ladled out a couple of pieces of cooked chicken.

“We heard about them at the last city,” Sou Yuet said. “I hear they're quite rare.”

“Not always. Too many people eat them.”

“Could you not farm them, like chickens?”

The man stared. “Farm? Hippalektryon? Sharp claws, big bite, too dangerous! You crazy?”

“Hey, don't talk about yer customers like that.”

“We just put prices up,” the stall owner grumbled, retreating from the necromancer's fierce glower. “Rare food, you pay rare price.”

“So you're going to keep selling it? What if they go extinct?”

“Then better eat fast. Can't eat it again once it's gone!”

“Wouldn't it be better to leave them alone for a bit so the population recovers?” Sou Yuet argued. Sunny and the necromancer watched the monk quizzically, their mouths full of chicken. “Why hunt them until they're gone?”

“Eh... maybe there's more than we know. Hiding in the hills. Ya, more in hills. They no disappear.”

“Now you're just making excuses. You can eat and sell other things, why not leave them alone?”

“Hey, is tradition! What you know? Outsiders stay out! You eat and go!”

The stall owner swept up their money and irritably pulled a curtain across the front of the shop so he wouldn't have to look at them.

“Ugh, what a pain in the arse. Let's get out of here. Hey... monk? Ah Yuet, you're shaking.”

There was a click like teeth being tapped together, than Sou Yuet swung around with a smile. “Yes, let's go.”

Sou Yuet carefully stacked the plates by the curtain before rapidly marching away. “What are you laughing about?”

“You. Ye still neatly left the plates even after he got ye mad.”

“That's just common courtesy.”

“Is it?”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

Everyone within a ten metre radius froze.

Sou Yuet clapped a hand to their mouth.

“That was loud,” the necromancer laughed awkwardly. She glared at the travellers who had stopped to stare, making them hurry on with their business.

“S... Sorry...”

The necromancer kept walking. “Did it upset ye that much?”

“You didn-”

“Not me. That guy. Or more like, what he said about the chicken things.”

“Have you ever thought about it?” Sou Yuet asked, hurrying to catch the necromancer, then falling in step with her. “Why is it that Lí has been poaching legendary animals, and successfully? Medicine, food, protection... status... Products made from these creatures provide so many things. There must be a huge demand... but can't people see that they're driving these creatures to the edge? What will they do when they're all dead and gone? We'll never have anything like them again in the world, it's not like legendary beasts just appear every day.”

The necromancer didn't answer.

“I can't imagine it... a world where these creatures are gone... What kind of place would that be? Can no one else see it? If it's medicine, we have plants that can be cultivated and processed to make cures. If it's food, there are farmed animals. If it's the protective properties, we can make charms and talismans from wood and paper and a little blood. If it's status... I don't understand it.”

The monk almost walked off the road and into an olive tree growing beside it.

“Watch where ye're walking, eejit.” The necromancer took Sou Yuet's hand and led them back onto the paved road. “Ye're really mad, aren't ye?”

“Aren't you?”

The necromancer pulled a face. “If there's anything I've learnt, it's that it's hard to change the opinions of a lot of people, 'specially all at once. What will ye do, preach at them until they convert? Beat them up? Get power so ye can order them to act the way ye want?” She smiled bitterly. “Do what I did when a group of people had a different opinion from me?”

“That was different.”

“Was it?”

“I don't know! Ha... I'm really still just a child, aren't I? What have I been doing for over a century? I feel like I know nothing.”

“I mean, true. OW! It actually hurts when ye jab me like that!”

At this point, they both realised they were still holding hands. Sou Yuet felt the necromancer's fingers go stiff.

“... Should I let go?”

The necromancer's hand trembled. “Uh... Can ye...”

“Wait... Is that someone on the ground up there?”

They were approaching another large city. Unlike the last, this one was set away from the Jade Road, a wide paved trail leading off to its large gates. At the intersection between the main and side roads, a figure crouched on the ground. People walked around them without looking, trying hard to act as though there was nothing there. Patches of drying blood splattered the stones around the figure.

Sou Yuet was by their side in a heartbeat. “Hello? Can you hear me? Are you alright?”

The necromancer arrived as the figure lifted her head, eyes dark and huge and frightened. There were bruises all over her face and arms, and dried blood and mud caked her curly black hair and torn clothing. She shook her head vehemently.

“No... No... Go away!”

“But you're hurt. Let me help you.”

“No! Leave...” Tears began to make clean tracks through the dirt on her face. “No... Help... Help me... I don't want...”

“Let's go somewhere else,” the necromancer muttered, glancing at the passers-by who were staring coldly. She picked the injured woman up easily. The latter's eyes grew even wider.

“You... You are... like me?”

“Maybe. Don't gab right now, let me concentrate.”

“Let Sunny carry her. We need to be ready to defend them.” With the attention they were gathering, covetous eyes were turning on Sunny once more. The necromancer loaded the injured woman onto the si dzi, and they hurried away, even as some of the bystanders were starting to gain the courage to move closer.

They found a small sidetrail, worn through the vegetation on the side of the road by multiple pairs of feet, and charged up it, Sunny's bulk snapping off branches along the way. The track led them once again up into the rocky hills, startling a girl with a flock of goats, until they were well away from the road.

“Good thing no one decided to chase us,” the necromancer panted.

“I'd just summon my leaf then.”

“No, ye're not showing anyone that particular trick. Ye'd be hounded from here to Abona.”

“Where's that?”

“One of the countries just east of my homeland.”

They turned their attention to the newcomer. She leaned against Sunny's comfortable fur, her eyes closed. Her breath came in short, stressed gasps that gave way occasionally to deep sighs as her body fought for more oxygen.

“Can you understand me? Can you tell us what happened?” Sou Yuet asked gently, as they dampened a cloth in a small mountain stream and began to clean her wounds.

The woman tried to pull back, but she had no strength. Her lips were cracked and dry, and she tried to drink eagerly when given water. She had to be encouraged to slow down.

“What's your name?”

“No... no name.” Her exhausted eyes sought the necromancer.

“Ye said I was like you...” The necromancer crouched down, but he spoke to Sou Yuet. “I noticed it when I picked her up, but I didn't want to think on it right then, with everything else going on.”

“What is it? Is she also a necromancer?”

“No.” She held out her hand, and the injured woman wearily placed her own within it. The necromancer's face darkened. Her tattoos writhed wildly, until Sou Yuet thought they might burst from her skin.

“No... She's a scapegoat too.”