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Chapter 58: "Are You a Panicking Child?"
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The caravan arrived in Gatewash with little fanfare. The whole caravan was tired and eager to be in a city again. An uneasy tension hung in the air as the wagons slowly trickled into the city. Shae might have noticed it because she was privy to a bit more of the drama and tension as the medic wagon was Mistress Ping's office.
When Ping arrived she only exchanged greetings with Shae plus a few words. The younger woman cleaned up her belongings and rolled the mattress up for storage. Then hopped out to walk herself into town.
Mistress Ping looked relieved and thanked her for doing that without being asked. Shae nodded, but stayed near the rear of the wagon simply because she had nowhere else to be.
A few officials and guards from the town arrived and their conversation grew tense. Shae didn't have interest in eavesdropping, so she was focusing on her own thoughts instead.
Eventually Mistress Ping leaned out and asked her to find and bring Master Long over. She gladly accepted the task. Moving towards the front of the caravan, she watched the steep cliff walls rising on either side and slowly drawing the road to a narrow point where the gate was.
Long was easy to find; standing clearly with the other sect members at the front of the 'van. They were watching the wagons slowly trickle into the town through the tall, heavy gate.
While he clearly wasn't happy that Shae was running around, he didn't berate her. "Did she say why?" He asked as they began to walk back.
"No, and I wasn't listening to their conversation. Everyone here seems tense, though. I think it's something unusual." She pointed at a few of the gate guards that were clearly a bit jumpy.
His jaw tensed and he nodded. "Good instincts, Wise Shae. I noticed that as well." He picked up the pace and they jogged back to Mistress Ping's wagon in silence.
Shae's interest was piqued now, and she listened to her soundings while waiting near the wagon.
The guard captain's request of Long was to borrow some of the sect's cultivators to relieve their wall guards. It seemed the town was experiencing a surge in spirit beast attacks and so their guards were stretched thin. Shae didn't catch all the details, yet it seemed the nature of the attacks was also strange in some way.
The guard captain requested they stay for an additional day. Then heavily implied the town's managing nobles would also have a request for the sect. She thought the most yelling moment was when he said, "We made a formal request to the sect a few days ago, yet we haven't received word back." The silent pause that followed couldn't have been less ominous.
Shae was asked to find Apollo next. She nodded and said she would try, but also admitted that she hadn't seen a trace of the woman since the morning.
That took her to the rear of the caravan, where most of the sect guards were stationed. As they were fully in the canyon already, there was little reason to guard the sides or front.
She looked around, but didn't see anyone suspicious. I suppose she wouldn't be good at her job if it was that easy. She shrugged and called out, "Marco!"
Several people glanced at her, then frowned or shrugged and looked away. With no better ideas she walked around occasionally shouting "Marco!"
At the fifth call, something changed. The tension in the air snapped and all the guards drew their weapons. Most turned to face south, the way they had come. A few looked around frantically, along with the other bystanders. Senior guards tapped their neighbor's shoulders and pointed back towards the caravan line, indicating to fall back.
Shae took the hint and scrambled to string her bow. Right as she dropped her pack and began setting her quiver at her hip properly, the ground shifted.
The initial tremor of an earthquake would be too much of an exaggeration for how the ground moved. Shae had only been in a single small quake back on Earth and this was just a single impact running through the earth. More like the heavy bass hit at a loud concert. The one you can feel in your chest.
Several of the guards watching the caravan moved in the next heartbeat. The sound of both a large crash of rock and an oxen bellowed from further up the wagon train.
More guards moved until someone shouted to hold the rear and some returned to settle back into formation.
Mere heartbeats later, Shae spotted Guard Hon sprint out of the caravans and dash to the senior guard who had taken charge of the line. A few quick words were exchanged and the defensive line was split, half the group being sent back into the caravans.
Another bassy thud rang through the air, louder and causing the ground to shift under their feet. Everyone staggered and most of the mortals in the caravan fell to the ground.
The sect guard and oxen seemed unaffected. Shae's own footing had felt like someone had pulled at her legs while her inner ear balance had suddenly said she was falling. Her wide archery stance seemed to save her some embarrassment as she only dropped to one knee and leaned on her bow for balance.
Her mind caught up to what really happened. That was a qi and intent attack. The ground didn't actually move. Knowing that didn't really help her when the next one came, rumbling along with a dust cloud from the south.
While the tremor and sound traveled to them quickly, the dust stayed in the distance. It looked over a li away, if she had to guess, and appeared like something had broken up some of the canyon wall as the dust clung to one side.
'Get Long,' reverberated through her, the silent message arriving in Shae's ears a heartbeat after she dropped to a knee from another tremor. Apollo's voice was calm, cold, and unmistakable.
Shae immediately turned and ran, taking her bow but leaving her travel pack behind. Just a few steps in and a whoosh of air moved past her, combined with body sized colored smudges, it told her others were on the same mission, and they would surely beat her there.
Her panicked mind didn't let her legs stop moving.
More tremors knocked her around but her feet stayed mostly under her. The civilians were not so lucky, their fearful scramblings were interrupted every few breaths. A corner of Shae's mind said that was helpful in a way. It should slow the inevitable crush of bodies at the town's gate.
She stumbled into the side of the wagon that was her destination and immediately dry heaved at the dirt. Knowing what was likely to happen felt almost as bad as seeing it happen.
Mistress Ping grabbed her, said something, then forced her to drink from a waterskin. It wasn't water, but rather strong wine.
"Blah. Why?" Shae coughed and tried to spit out the foul flavor.
"Liquid courage." Ping snapped off then took a drink herself. "What's going on back there?"
"Some kind of attack." She shook her head. "Didn't see anything but the canyon wall collapsed about a li south, so it's big. Where's Long?"
"The guards grabbed him and they went south. They didn't say why."
"Apollo asked for him."
Ping swallowed nervously.
Shae remembered her own gut wrenching prediction. "These people are panicking. They will trample each other once the tremors stop and they can all run for the gates."
Ping nodded with wide eyes. "We need to get all the wagons inside the town."
"Fuck the wagons." Shae shouted at her. "Just the people. Maybe cut the animals free if you can. But we need to keep the gates clear so they don't cause a crush."
The older woman's jaw worked silently. Hey hands beginning to move like she was counting, or moving an abacus. She had seen it before from many merchants.
"Ping. Ping Ahna." Shae grabbed at the woman's hands, then her shoulder with her stronger hand, pulling to make her look down at herself. "Spirit beasts won't eat the wagons. They will kill and eat the people. And the oxen. Scare the animals south as a distraction. Get everyone inside the town."
She looked down at the young woman with shaky eyes. Another tremor passed by the pair, completely unnoticed.
"Hey!" Shae put her other hand on Ping's other shoulder. She wanted to grab the back of her neck, to really look in her eyes, but couldn't reach. "Are you a panicking child, or a caravan Mistress?"
The woman's composure shifted instantly, she smirked, then flattened her expression and stood straight, her hands smoothing her robes out. "Right." She broke away to quickly shout foul language at the nearby caravan workers, getting them scrambling. Breaths later she turned back to Shae. "And you? Are you a panicking child, or a cultivator?"
Shae coughed. "Heh. I can be both."
"Hah!" She laughed and stalked off, shouting out more expletives. A wake of order trailing behind her and breaking through the chaos.
The young cultivator took a deep breath and steadied herself. A small fire grew in her stomach. Ah, no, that's the alcohol. She brushed herself off and took in her situation. Her bow had become unstrung in her panicked rush. The top loop sliding down the arm it was over.
She took a deep breath and restrung it. A part of her was expecting Apollo to send another message, a small hope she would be told what to do next.
Another tremor rippled down the wagon train. People missing their footing and falling on their hands and knees. She saw it coming and stood firm. The effect made her slightly nauseous as she resisted it, yet her footing did not waver.
The dust looked closer now. She adjusted her grip on her bow, wondering if she should be near the front. Oh! Apollo sent me off to not be near the fighting, to be safe. She shifted nervously, the thought warming her heart even as it annoyed her that she was sent away. Or, she sent the message to everyone nearby. I wasn't the only one to run off.
Someone nearby shouted, looking for someone they knew. The oxen shifted and snorted, something made a noise like a whinny. Shae tilted her head at the noise; she hadn't seen any horses.
"Right." She said to herself, slightly too loudly, then shook herself. Setting off in the opposite direction as Ping she shouted some of the same thing's the caravan mistress had. Throwing just a bit of intent behind her words when people didn't pay attention.
She tapped into the idea of warning she knew so well from her tribulation, fueled by the cat's-eye marbles in her Dantian. She didn't really need that strong of a connection for most people. Yet, the one or two that were nearly catatonic quickly snapped their attention to her as she overwhelmed their current fear with the more immediate threat of herself.
For those that seemed to already have their wits in order she directed them to the town gates, and encouraged them to guide others. Making sure they understood to do so calmly.
Whoever looked capable she directed to release some of the oxen and chase them south, away from the town. One of those suggested hobbling the animals so they couldn't stampede, and she agreed wholeheartedly. They even demonstrated it easily as the wagon's harness already featured it as an option. Unprovoked, they explained it was usually used to prevent spooked animals from dragging away wagons at a full sprint.
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A small group of cultivator guards rushed past her, likely coming from the town gates. She quickly caught up to them after following south for a hundred paces. They had spread out along the edges of the canyon and were walking along in a strange stomping gait.
A high-pitched and pulsing scream from the other canyon wall revealed what they were looking for. Small beasts that looked like pangolins covered in rocky plates emerged from the canyon walls to attack the cultivators. The first scream seemed to be a signal as small dust clouds erupted all along the canyon walls and ground. Followed by more pulsing screams.
A much louder, and deeper scream came from the south. It echoed off the canyon walls, and Shae reflexively covered her ears against the noise. Shortly after, the pulses repeated, but as unbalancing tremors along the ground.
She dropped to a knee again, this time just to feel the ground. The nearby high-pitched screams also traveled through the ground and she could feel them as they passed just behind the audible screams. She could also feel others that she didn't hear.
Before she could give warning another cultivator yelled, "Don't lower your guard. There's more underground. Keep moving. Never stand still."
She quickly got up and moved several paces away. Then kept drifting towards the action.
She watched the guards work in teams to distract the spirit beasts, until one could land a blow from underneath, into their soft bellies, she assumed. Like normal pangolins, they were covered in scales, but these had ridged scales running in rows down their backs. Larger plates grew across their shoulders, down their forearms, and at the back of their necks. Most of these were hexagonal, making them look like partial turtle shells.
She kept moving, finding her path wandering further south. Why am I moving towards the larger danger? She asked herself when a nearby thud drew her attention.
She found a topped oxen, the quiet beast having tripped in a hole created by one of the spirit beasts. This animal had died without even releasing a bellow of pain. Not necessarily, Shae rubbed at her ears, making sure they weren't bleeding, it probably couldn't be heard over everything else.
She quickly looked around for civilians in danger but saw none and a sigh or relief escaped her. Her constant movement brought her around to see the armored pangolin that had downed the oxen.
It's small, was her first thought. Only the size of a medium dog, and it looked even smaller beside the downed oxen. Then its claws flashed. Wide and glistening with metallic sharpness, they quickly scooped a bloody chunk out of the oxen. The dexterous hand attached to the claws brought the meat to its mouth and revealed a much too-wide and far too-deep mouth filled with sharp teeth.
"Crocodile mouth, it's part crocodile! What the fuck?" She muttered to herself in disbelief. Its head turned out to be wider and longer than any pangolin she had ever seen. The small head and neck were just an optical illusion of the armor plates. The open jaw looked to extend all the way down its belly.
Then she saw its eyes. Tiny beady things that shone with a spark of knowledge. It looked at her and she shuddered as its alien killing intent rolled over her. Just testing her to see if she was food or foe.
She drew back her bow, ready to land a killing blow. The Beast reacted slowly, shifting its stance to guard the edges of its armor. Yet, it did not stop eating. She aimed at its eye, too small, then the edges of its armor, then its mouth, not a killing blow. What then? How would I fight this thing?
She slowly lowered the bow then took a few steps back and put the oxen between them again. Its killing intent lapped at her, blindly reaching where it couldn't see, and no longer dug into her nerves. It had never hurt like strong killing intent or pressure, it was simply uncomfortable due to its alien origin.
She took a slow breath, looked around for a guard, then just shouted out. "One here, eating."
Two agonizingly long breaths later a woman from the town guard was suddenly beside her. "Good callout." She said and rested a hand on Shae's shoulder. "You probably shouldn't engage them with that bow. It'll just tickle them and waste arrows."
She nodded in response and let herself relax again.
"They're not worth fighting while they're eating, and the ox is already dead. Let it feast and call over its sisters. They will all be overfed and sluggish when the meal is gone." She smirked, showing Shae some teeth.
Shae tried to return a friendly smile.
The woman squeezed her shoulder. "You should head to the gates. But if you really need to help..." She grimaced as her qi swept over the young woman. "Keep moving, keep your distance, they can be fast when they want to. Use an arrow or two to save the mortals by distracting the beasts, then callout when one is chasing you. Don't drag more than one around." She patted Shae on the shoulder and nodded. "Keep moving." She said and stomped the ground.
A few paces away the ground collapsed slightly, revealing a tunneling pangolin as it was forced to emerge.
The guard whistled and dashed to it, swinging her short sword. The dao's wide blade landed solid hits, but the pangolin moved quickly to defend when pressed, only suffering small cuts as it emerged from the ground. Its pulsing scream was more unsettling when Shae saw it hadn't even opened its mouth.
Claws clashed against forged steel and two more cultivators appeared to surround the beasts.
Shae remembered the guard's advice and quickly put her good right leg to use. Moving away quickly, then around the battlefield strewn with abandoned wagons and oxen patiently awaiting their slaughter.
Fewer large tremors had washed along the caravan since the small beasts had arrived. The break seemed to have given the mortals ample time to escape. Shae found her ability to distract wholly unnecessary.
The two times she did fire her bow, the arrow bounced uselessly off the pangolin's armor, and the beast didn't even flinch. It had already been fighting another cultivator and clearly only considered them a threat.
She moved quietly from wagon to wagon; checking for living mortals. Killing intent from spirit beast and cultivator alike washed over her from all directions. Yet, she felt so relieved to have not found any dead humans that she didn't consider stopping.
The sound of a much louder battle grew closer. It was about half of the familiar sounds of loud clashes and whooshing air she had heard from Master Long and Sword Saint Bai training at the Jian Quan.
It was perhaps a hundred paces from the main event that she found what she had been dreading. An elderly man, trapped in his wagon by an old amputation, completely unable to leave. He smiled openly and awaited his fate, enjoying the sight of the cultivator battle. Even the knowledge that it could be his last few breaths was unable to diminish his enjoyment.
Shae panicked as she tried to find a way to save the man. His ox was already being eaten by half a dozen spirit beasts, still tied to his wagon.
He chuckled and pulled her to sit beside him. "If they already have a meal, then I have more time."
"I could carry you?" She pleaded.
"And not have free hands to defend yourself? No, I am twice your size and twice-twice your weight." He shook his head with a smile. "If fate decrees, this will be my grave, but I think your sect friends will deal with this threat before then." He tapped his nose and pointed at the noisy battle.
"How can you be sure?" She swallowed nervously.
"Heh, when you're as old as me, you've had time to see a few things." He rapped a knuckle on his missing knee, making a hollow wooden noise seem to appear from the empty air.
Shae gawked with her mouth open. Then saw his other hand was hidden out of view. Finally she sighed and forced a smirk. "I'll have to trust in fate, then."
"You say that like it's not your way? Don't you cultivators all believe in it?"
She shook her head. "I'm still young, and yet to be convinced." She gave him a wry smirk then stood to leave.
"Going so soon? I was enjoying the company of a cute Fairy!"
"Hah! Now I'm definitely leaving, old man."
"Watch your step out there!" He laughed.
She didn't laugh back; it was actually good advice. She leaned out the back to make sure there were no spirit beasts in waiting, then used as much of her strength as she could to long-jump out of the back and clear a half dozen paces away, the wooden boards creaked and cracked behind her.
She ran a few paces then jumped up to a nearby wagon, to run across the top like she had seen the other cultivators doing. They effortlessly jumped from wagon to wagon like they were stepping stones in a calm river. She barely kept her footing on the crates she landed on and had to stop to keep from falling off.
The added height gave her a clearer view of the larger battle taking place. Most of it was obscured by dust but the large lumbering figure of a gigantic turtle-backed pangolin couldn't be missed. "Shit." She swore loudly.
The crates shifted as another cultivator landed beside her. "Miss," he scanned her with his qi, a rough and scratchy feeling, like lightly brushing sandpaper across your fingertips. "It's dangerous up here, you should retreat to the gates."
She looked up at him and immediately hated the pity in his eyes. "I'm with the sect. There's an old merchant in that wagon. Immobile but currently safe."
He nodded. "We know, we've been waiting 'till they finish their meal, then we'll clean them up. Like the others." He thumbed towards another bloody scene in front of a wagon.
She flinched away from the sight. The oxen and half dozen spirit beast corpses were barely recognizable. "Good." She swallowed her bile with a nod.
"Can you use that bow?" He asked, his expression unchanging.
"Yes, but it's a distraction at best, can't do any damage."
"Hmm, and you're probably too far for any killing intent to bother them. If you have any." He frowned, then dipped his head and raised an open hand to show it wasn't intended as an insult.
"They react to intent? I should have guessed that, or tried it."
He nodded. "Not a lot, but it's enough for a distraction." He pointed at one chubby spirit beast walking its way between wagons. "Try that one."
She set her footing and drew back an arrow while trying to summon some kind of intent to throw at it. She paused, then relaxed tension on the string. "Shouldn't someone be ready for it? Kind of a waste of it does flinch."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Uh, if you wouldn't mind, Senior." Shae bent at the waist, performing an awkward partial bow while still holding her arrow ready.
"Hah, alright, can't hurt. Whenever you're ready." He casually hopped off the wagon and landed behind another one to circle around out of view.
She reset her stance and drew the arrow back again. An idea slowly formed in her mind. She focused her aim just below the beast, intending to bounce the arrow into its vulnerable underside. Then threw her intent behind it, imagining a large spear of steel bursting out of the ground.
Her timing needed work, the pangolin turning to face her before she even loosed the arrow. When she did release it the beast simply hardened its defenses in her direction.
With a bit of her mental focus burning, she had time to strengthen her effort, simplifying the underground attack into just a sense of impending doom from below.
As the arrow struck the earth the beast suddenly moved, rolling to the side, away from the arrow. It rolled up like an armadillo, using its wide tail to cover its belly, and placing its thicker back scales towards the ground.
A heartbeat later, the male cultivator was beside it, sliding a Jian through the gap along its sides and into soft flesh. Unlike an armadillo, its scales and plates didn't interlock to fully protect its sides.
Shae was still stunned by the sudden movement from both parties when the cultivator made it back to her wagon.
He gave her a friendly slap on the back. "Well done! Never seen one do that before, almost missed my chance."
She shook herself and stood up straight, she assumed the qi flowing through her was supporting her from the inevitable focus backlash, and immediately began cycling divine qi to her head. "Hah, thanks. Not sure how many times I can do that, it takes a lot out of me."
"Heh, that's fine. Save it for the important moments, not picking off stragglers. You intend to stick around?"
She nodded slowly, surprising herself at the automatic reaction.
"Hah. Crazy kids these days. I'm Guardsman Chang, who do I get to say the crazy kid with the bow is?"
"Well met Guardsman Chang. I'm Wise- hah, well, in the middle of a battle I don't feel Wise. Call me Heavenly Shae."
"Ha ha! You sure you can claim that title?"
A pulse of something strange drew their attention south.
She nodded, "Very sure. Guardsman."
He shifted uncomfortably, his hand gripping the hilt of his sheathed blade. "What in the hells is that- that feeling?"
It was a familiar feeling to Shae. A new version of it, but familiar nonetheless. "That, Guardsman Chang, is a Dao being pressed into the fabric of the world."
"A- a domain?" He swallowed, then shook himself and firmed his expression. "But whose? Surely not the bloody pangodile's?"
"Pango-dile? Is that what they're called? Hah." She closed her eyes, hummed and felt at the warp in space with her most rarely used sense. Even almost a hundred paces away, it was still fairly clear. "It's earthy, firm like rock, focused on defense."
She heard Chang force a slow exhale through shaky lips. Yet, his words were firm. "That's not what I wanted to hear. Ugh. Look!"
She opened her eyes to see where he was pointing. The dust had cleared around the gigantic pangodile, revealing nearby wagons that looked dusty and strangely textured. The strangeness soon became clear as it exhaled another cloud of dust towards its adversaries. The dust clung to everything, clumping like mud then growing like crystal deposits.
"Ugh, wouldn't want to get caught in that." Chang said.
Shae nodded. "Master Long's domain isn't much better for bystanders. It is sharpness focused, so he should have a chance to break through this thing's defense."
Chang gave her a look. "I apologize, Heavenly Shae. I believe I misjudged you."
She shook her head. "You judged what you saw, no mistake in that." She glanced around, "We had another strong fighter, maybe more elusive, possibly using steam?"
"Hmm. There was another archer, I thought they were you for a breath. I think they ran out of arrows."
"Tsk." Shae clicked her tongue and tapped her quiver. "Can't help with that, these haven't been very effective."
"Speaking of," he mumbled and raised a hand for her to be quiet. A strange gesture on a noisy battlefield. "Things to do." He nodded and stepped to launch himself away, then reconsidered. "They're trying to lure it to the canyon wall, but the smaller ones are getting in the way. You might get a few useful shots in over there. Though, by your cultivation stage, you should really just fall back to the gates." He pointed to the nearer west wall. Then gave her a friendly one handed salute, first over his heart. "Stay safe."
"Stay safe." She mirrored the gesture, but he was already gone when she finished.
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