Some cultivators would seize an opportunity like this to practice their craft, hone their battle instincts, and leave a legendary tale behind. I however, settled into an easier route, one of far less resistance, and one less likely to leave me a dead soldier to be sung about by the bards. I heaved my Commander over my shoulder, draping him like a stiff scarf over my much smaller frame, and dashed through the sands away from the shallow waters. The treeline blazed, the waters churned, and the land was dotted with corpses and confusion.
He groaned in pain, but did not resist even as his wounds reopened and his blood dripped down my back, staining my robes red. I could not spare the strength to heal him again, focused as I was on simply keeping us in motion, keeping us alive. There was a thump, and a deep groan, knocking us over the top of a dune. The crack of wood as the Commander tumbled from my shoulders told me the story before I witnessed half a spear jutting out of his side.
My voice surprised me, “You….You will not last if we do nothing…” He gritted bloodied teeth and shook his head, “You should leave me, don’t let me drag down your Way…” But my head shook once more, dark tresses swirling around my head. The dunes offered us but a moment of respite, and I gathered myself, felt the tugging of my vessel as the waves crashed behind us. “Wood…You are of wood, I will find them.” He half-nodded before trying to protest, “Wait I…” But my back was already towards him, a disrespect to be sure, but for the moment I outranked him by sheer virtue of ability…Though should I prove successful, he would be my commander once more.
-
A cornered foe is exceedingly dangerous. Some say those with nothing left are the most dangerous, others contend that those with something to protect are the most fearsome. In either case, the enemy armies tumbled into the shallows were proving their mettle just the same. Visible ascensions were followed by brief surges of power, met by those also recently ascended, others were mortals locked in combat with their counterparts, buffeted by impetuous and guttering powers all around. None here showed skill with their chi just yet, unused to it, unpracticed, unpolished. A few I could see were even using their newfound abilities to flee, buoyed on wood, racing away across the water. Others were gathering others to themselves, working to drag sands under themselves, working to shield their companions so they could ascend, all following their own path to survival.
Reaching out with my senses now was a dizzying prospect, but I could feel them, the warmth, the coldness, the firmness, the grain, and the slick. Casting my gaze around I found my solution, though one surely not draped in honor…It was the work of moments though to swap helms from the dead to the dying, dragging them back through groaning protest, ripping off their upper garments, and finally rolling them down the dune to rest at my Commander’s feet. I pressed a blade into his hand, held it above the young man’s throat, and murmured, “The Emperor’s armies need more strength.”
Maybe he would curse me after his ascension, maybe he would even strike me down, or punish me publicly. But in order to do that, he needed to survive. So I aided him, nourished him, drove him to the Kill before he could see the face of the dying soldier under his command. I turned away from them both as roots grew between them, as the air whipped around them. I paced a perimeter around them as he ascended, guarding his life with more arrows. Stealing the futures of enemy soldiers, ending their Way, securing our victory and the life of my Commander. Minutes passed, and the frenetic churning over the ridge started to fade. I turned to a hand on my shoulder, pain, grief and more warring on the face of my Commander. He loomed over me now, more solid, still limping, but slowly healing before my eyes. He hesitated, then nodded once, “Thank you…” Then there was darkness.
-
I awoke to the churning of the waves, the rocking of a vessel, and the pounding of the sun on my aching head. Reaching back, I found no wound, only dark locks of hair on a wooden bench. Carefully I sat up, finding myself in a small vessel, a landing craft maybe, bumping against the sands of a beach. Unsteady but for a moment, my body seeming to understand the flowing rhythm of the surf more than I did. The beach I was on was not familiar, no scent of iron and fire in the air, no heaving mass of armies pitted against one another. No smoldering carcasses of ships or screams of the dead and dying. Glancing around the vessel I did not even find an oar or sail. Instead I found a bag, and inside a note, scribed in blood on what looked like torn off pieces of leather armor.
Many thanks for saving my life. The cost is too great. I know of your past, and your potential. But you do not belong in the Glorious Emperor’s armies. With these our debts are settled, Your life for mine, your place for his. No others shall know of your actions this day, and your family will only receive recompense for a dead soldier, not a cultivator. May your Way find you Virtuous, and the Emperor’s Gaze never rest upon you.
Commander Shu.
I sighed for a moment…But it was true, both our debts were repaid…In some sense, but truthfully I held a mix of both resentment and relief. I’d done my duty, and merely offered the life of one already not long for the world. Banishment though was not the worst outcome, and it did save me from explaining…Well…Myself to anyone else. There was more in the bag, a simple waterskin, some dried fruit and meat. No weapons though, no oars, no sails. For it was right to offer even an enemy a meal…But no fool would offer a foe a weapon or a way to find them. “And so wood drains the water that nourishes it…” Once more I found myself surprised by the silky sound of my own voice, a burbling warmth and happiness filling my core despite the dryness of my throat. I took a swallow from the waterskin, and elected to try and figure out where I was.
Carefully alighting onto the sand, I hurried to drag the boat up onto the sand, huffing with the effort. Though a single day…Or however long I’d been asleep ago, I would’ve struggled to heave the heavy wooden vessel alone. Now though I was able to drag it up past the crash of the surf, then looking about, I dragged it further still, above the mark of the water at the high part of the day.
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The aching pain from before started to fade once I was in motion, once I was churning the chi through my body. I felt good, fantastic even, stretching now in the morning sun, readjusting my ill-fitting garments once more. I even felt briefly thankful that the Commander was not of an ill-temper or lustful gaze, after observing my own form in motion once more. More than one soldier had had to be disciplined after a battle for availing themselves of prisoners. Others had not even suffered for their indiscretions, though their reputation suffered for it in turn. I shook my head to clear it of further thoughts along that line. I was no soldier anymore, I was no longer who I once was, I was…Mae Nam…
Satisfied with my new name, my new self, I decided to take stock of my new domain next. Fish and crab dotted the shoreline, forestalling any worries for food in the immediate future. Glancing upward I noted several trees that we’d enjoyed the fruit of, and with a smirk I remembered the look of surprise at the splash that had met a soldier who took an axe to its tough shell. Water of a sorts too was sorted. Pausing my exploration, I decided to test my new body. Leaping up, I found my shorter arms and legs struggle to encircle the tree, but the newfound strength in my limbs let me cling to it with my thighs and my fingertips nearly buried themselves into soft wood. Clambering upwards was slightly awkward, and as I ascended, the tree swayed, enough so that I had not even reached the top yet before a pair of the strange fruits fell from the tree. Satisfied with that for now, I too let myself fall backwards in a careless flip. The sands accepted my descent with a puff, and my bones shook but did not shatter. I grinned, pleased with myself, and went to collect the fruits. Tucking one under the bench of the boat I came in, the other I looked at curiously. I knew it contained vaguely bittersweet flesh and a core of water, but I had no sword, axe, or even knife to carve into it with. I looked around for a rock, and braced the fruit between my thighs, tensing as I swung the rock down. There was a CRACK, a splash, and now my legs, torso, hands, face…All were splashed by the shattered coconut. I sighed, gathering up a few pieces with water still puddled atop it, sipping at it here and there. I set the remains in the boat, figuring I could eat them later, and looked at my remaining coconut.
There was water on the inside…Maybe I could…Closing my eyes, focusing on my Vessel, feeling the fullness of it, I drew out a tiny modicum of power, pushing it into the flesh of the coconut, breathing out as it slid past the outer shell, and found the water inside. This time my eyes flashed brightly, and my grin grew broader as I PULLED on the water, enveloping it in my power, tugging it against the constraining flesh and shell around it. It wouldn’t budge…So I poured more of myself into it, more power, a more solid shell, shaping it like a raindrop, tugging, pulling, piercing. I heard the splintering crack of the shell, then finally, the water inside drew upward, surrounded by my power, floating in the air. I guided it to my lips, parting them to drink the water as through a bamboo straw. That was when I encountered my next problem. I was forced to choke down the chi as well as the water, leaving my throat burning with the effort, eyes watering even as I consumed the insides of the coconut. Chi churned in my belly as I had to wait to release the hold till the last of the waters were nestled there as well.
My stomach gurgled with the effort as the liquid splashed suddenly, the chi dissipating into my body. I shuddered at the sensation, my hands clasped over my stomach. I would need to learn a better way to do that, or a way to simply open my chi bubble again once I had made it. Frowning to myself, I looked into the scattered trees deeper inland, down the beach of white sands. I knew not the dangers or opportunities that lay further inland, maybe it would be better to ascertain my own prowess and abilities before I started to explore…
-
If I fully emptied my vessel I found that I could hold an amount of water roughly ⅔ the size of my own body. I could shape it, move it around me within about 50 paces, and most importantly, it left behind a thin smattering of white dust and other debris. The water I gathered with my chi was pure, not tasting like seawater. So I need not fiddle with the nuts unless I wanted to from now on. I could move it about as fast as I could move a limb, though it seemed to impact slightly harder. The full weight and momentum bolstered by my energies swirling inside it. I was able to draw the energy back into me after releasing the liquid, though not without some loss it seemed. My Vessel constantly ached to be refilled once emptied, and so I lay back to rest, eyes closed listening to the crash of surf, the churning water not far below.
It was a subtle thing at first, a simple whim, matching the pulse and swirl of my breath to the crash of the waves. A little game I played, humming out as the waves fell back, matching the rhythm, chest swelling as the waves tumbled in again. Rolling in and out, breathing and humming, crashing and churning, swelling and refilling. Soon I began to understand, the waters crashing, unceasing in their tumbling motion, going nowhere it seemed but always changing, always new, always refreshed. So too was my Vessel…I felt it then, that I would never cease changing, cease growing…Maybe pooling, maybe resting here and there, but changed and shifting, swirling churning with every breath. That was my Way, that was my Cultivation. The flow of the sea swirled before me, waves breaking farther out, foamy sea lapping at my feet, the sun having risen high above by the time I opened my eyes once more. Blinking, a salty crust left my eyes, and as I shifted, more and more salt fell from my body. A strange coating, a filtering out of the water I pulled from the ocean air around me.
Standing, I shook myself, my hair a whip dotted with white crystals, drawing a pout onto my lips. I would have to keep that in mind should I seek to cultivate at a beach once more. After brushing more of the clinging crystals from my skin, gathering my shroud around me, I attempted to wash the salt from my skin. But instead the salt only seemed to cling more, depleting the waters and my chi, even as it slowly dissolved. A strange phenomenon indeed, one I would need to meditate on going forward…Or just simply avoid.
I had taken enough time however, now it was time to explore, to see what this island had in store. As I turned to look deeper inland however, I was distracted by a nearby CRUNCH of shattering wood. Leaning over the side of my little boat, a crab larger than the Commander’s horse, had crushed the coconut I had merely plucked the water from, massive claw dwarfing my torso. The other claw however seemed to have split many times over, a dozen smaller claws following it’s bobbing whiskers to gather up the remnants of the other coconut I had gathered. It’s stalked eyes locked onto my staring ones, and one massive leg clambered over the boat, large claw snicker-snacking in my direction. I attempted a step back, but another CRUNCH CRASH ClaCK SniCksnack made me glance towards the treeline, showcasing another one of these creatures simply crushing the trunk of the tree that held the coconuts. Glancing back, the creature’s massive claw was nearly upon me, and I leapt back.
Further retreat though would take me in the path of the even larger crab by the trees.
I side-stepped one, two, three more clacks of the smaller claws as the strange crab scuttled back and forth, alternating it’s strikes. Not just hungry, but territorial, hostile, driving her back towards the trees and the sounds of more of it’s fellows. No, this was not to be my end, weaponless or no, I would not end my Way under the claws of an oversized dinner dish. I would fight.