The newest member of our band, Foxy, had been a great addition to our little team. Occasionally, she would run around and cause trouble and Xie Wen will just start fuming and chasing after her, when she's caught, Xie Wen would lecture her about behavior and grabbing attention and Foxy would start to fake her whines she stopped.

The part where I'd wondered if this the "what could've been" for the little girl- whose name is Su Duan, as I've come to learn from Xie Wen last night, - if she managed to live and go along with us.

I smiled fondly at her memory but didn't think of it much. I don't know, it feels like I should think about her, feel guilty, and even cry about her death but I just... don't. And somehow that doesn't really change anything for me. Odd.

"Okay- Listen-" Xie Wen's been much livelier since last night too, and she's basically the one who got to watch Su Duan pass away. I stopped directly behind both her and Foxy, whose forehead is getting poked by Xie Wen's finger, "-You need to be careful about what you're doing okay? Y- you can't just try to catch a dragonfly in this forest!"

I looked at the insect in question, it was... a real dragon of the chinese variety. Or at least it looked like one, with a long body ending in a tail and starting with a draconic head. The only thing that changed from the typical dragon are the long eight legs as well as the four transparent wings on its back. Those features looked alien compared to the horns and scales and even the dorsal spikes on its back.

Foxy whined, "Yes- I know that you just want to play-" Oh, and did I mention that Xie Wen's now starting to emphatically understand Foxy?

Safe to say, that Xie Wen, for all her complaints about not wanting to bring Foxy along with us earlier, clearly enjoys the little gal's company. I watched them both as they continued to bicker, smiling. 'It's exactly one of those "Dad doesn't want us to buy a pet" meme.' Can I say that to her and explain what a meme is? That'll be weird, I think? 'But then I'd have to tell her just how much of that type I've seen while working for animals.' The most ridiculous I've seen of which is a guy holding a polar bear under the same template.

Russians are insane, me and my friends agreed.

"Yu Song?" I pretended to not be in deep thought and hummed, "Since it's your idea to try and take care of the fox, why don't you be the one to try and keep her from getting us killed?" Again, she sounded serious which is pretty concerning all on its own but I like to think that Foxy's working her way to getting Xie Wen out of her paranoid shell. I'd have to talk to Xie Wen about her actual source of paranoia at some point but this is also fine for now. 'Still, going back to being a social worker and thinking of ways to help her feels a bit too fucked up. Even for me.'

I don't like treating Xie Wen like a traumatized person because I feel like there's a professional divide between both us whenever I think of her that way. 'A victim and a helper,' I thought while trying to keep my face neutral.

I've done it so many times now that at this point, it just feels natural for me to react like this. 'And is that such a bad thing?'

I focused back on the road and kept my eye on Xie Wen, right now, she was walking right beside me while doing her best to try and just watch Foxy play around without chasing after her but the way her body kept flinching as if it was just about to move and chase after the fox is a telltale sign that she's still not comfortable for letting Foxy do what she wanted.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

'I'm sure there's a solid reason behind it,' I thought while mulling about the things Xie Wen told me about her past; She had been living in the outside for 3 years before the Sect took her in, moving from village to village while pretending to be a boy- or so she says. I don't know... I remember her telling me that she was taken in by the immortal who saved her village from the bandits at one point but my memory of that time is pretty fuzzy, mainly because I didn't know that it'll be relevant so I just let her words fade as I heard them.

Did she say those words to me or was it just an assumption on my part and I just jumped to conclusions? I don't know. Can I ask Xie Wen about it? Yes, but I probably shouldn't.

The best I can do is help with her trauma and Foxy seemed like a good start on that front.

"I'm tired, Yu Song." Xie Wen walked up to me with a frown, "It's just- can we stop?"

"We haven't gotten attacked yet haven't we?" I asked her rhetorically.

"Yes but! - The Sect just got attacked by Bandits right?" Oh, so I guess she was trying to think of an argument while we both walked in silence. Huh. "So what if they hear us?" She quickly continued after I nodded.

"They won't." I think. The Ninjas, if dedicated enough, can probably try to find us but I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.

"And why would you think that?" She asked, keeping an eye on Foxy still.

"It's simple," I started, "You see how they just finished attacking the Sect?" She slowly nodded, "Well, my best guess here is that they'll try to recover after that so I'm guessing that they're sending scouts and watchmen out here sure-" And that's assuming most of those scouts ad watchmen are Ninjas, the Bandits, I think, are just incompetent enough that they'll stay around the perimeter of the Sect instead of going out and actually doing their job."

"And how would you know this?" I stopped. She did have a point. How am I so confident in saying all this?

"It... just makes sense?" I quizzically replied. It does, doesn't it? I mean, I'm not that smart, never been really, and I'm pretty sure that if those words and observations flow easily out of my mouth then it's basically common sense for everyone else right? I thought of them after all. Otherwise, the only thing that I can think of that'll get me smarter is refining my nervous system which I already did.

'Well, I don't feel smarter.' I thought with a frown. Are you supposed to feel smarter? I have no idea.

"Okay..? I'll believe you." She said and I nodded at her, thankful. "But that doesn't change anything about your pet going around and being a loud little thing. She's gonna attract the attention of something at some point and you better believe that I'm gonna run away the moment that she does."

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied.

"So... where are we going?" Xie Wen asked and I replied that I had no idea. She walked on the edge of the cobbled road, overlooking the grass and the trees to our side, "Right. Again, this is just confusing me. So you have no idea where we're going?" I met her eyes, they were shining with excitement. 'Is she trying to bat me into saying something?'

I decided to fall for her trick, "No. Do you have something in mind?"

"Yes!" She ran to me and grabbed my hand, "I have a few spots that I think will be perfect for us going into seclusion-" Right, forgot that she just wanted to cultivate instead of exploring the world. Bummer. "-And we're gonna go to them to see if they're dangerous or not and if they aren't, well, we're gonna start cultivating there."

I nodded, "Okay." Fair enough. I just need to convince the girl who's (probably) lived a life on the outside world for quite some time to get out of her paranoid ways and start exploring the beautiful and dangerous world of cultivation with me. There's no way this'll backfire when I succeed. Definitely.