The taste was disgusting.

Rui Yifu had to struggle keeping his face composed as he chewed on the sappy bark of the willow tree, but the relief of the throbbing pain from the stitching in his chest and on his back was welcome. Bo and Rui Yifu had stripped some bark from the tree to take with them, although Rui Yifu knew it would not be nearly as effective chewed upon since they lacked the necessary tools to extract the full potential of the tree's bark. It did not help that Rui Yifu currently lacked molars and could not mash the bark properly. His teeth were meant to tear flesh.

Doing the most one could with what was available was a very valuable skill, and one Rui Yifu despised having to press into usage.

But the unpalatable medicinal bark in his mouth was not his gravest concern at the moment.

Zhu'er was cold.

She was still moving and would speak when spoken to, but she had been close to him for the entire ride and he had felt her body grow from cool to cold. He was happy Bo did not know how to ride a horse properly, suspecting that if Bo felt the rapid drop in Zhu'er's body temperature he would rightfully become extremely distressed. If Zhu'er realized, she had made no sign or suggestion of it and he hoped she had not noticed it at all. The child had been on the strange border of life and death for a long time, but without Liu Xie to maintain that state she had fully slipped into becoming a moving corpse.

Rui Yifu felt that time was growing ever shorter for them.

He held the reins of the horse-like beast tightly as his eyes swept over the land before them. The eerie willow trees were growing more common, dotting the land and providing shade from the noon sun with their heavy boughs. With the speed of the horse and the drift of the wind, Rui Yifu felt like the trees were actually reaching for them although their leaves never quite connected with any of them. Zhu'er was quietly and tucked against him, her cold body radiating chill into his guts. Bo's arms were wrapped around him again in an obnoxiously tight embrace while Bo hummed an off key tune.

The smell of peat was dragged on sluggish winds that pulled at his hair and sleeves. The ground beneath the horse's hooves became more muddy, softening the sharp thuds of its hooves. The willow trees thinned out slowly to be replaced with the stiff grasses and plant life that dominated northern marshes, including squat thick salt-trees that held out their thick stubby branches with their drooping deep green leaves. If he had a kettle and a cup, he would have picked some of the leaves. A concoction of salt-tree leaves was disgusting but it also provided bursts of energy and he had the feeling they would all sorely need such soon.

Right ahead was a tall lumpen white hill covered in moss, a willow tree stubbornly clinging to a high point of it while trailing its roots all the way down to dip into the salty water below. Rui Yifu opened his mouth to make a soft 'ah' sound.

"Huh?" Bo's attention was roused. "What is it?"

Rui Yifu spat out the remains of the bark in his mouth, the lack of dignity in doing so would have driven him mad with shame a few months ago, and rolled his shoulders that had grown about as stiff as his hips. "We're here," he pointed towards the 'hill'. It was in fact not a hill at all, but the remnants of a massive statue made of pure mutton fat jade. Most of it was sunk deep into the marsh, but from what survived he guessed they were currently looking at the arm and chest of some venerated emperor long gone. The air was enjoyably cool and moist all around them, a faint mist was suspended in the air giving everything a slightly blurred appearance that deepened into a white fog deeper in.

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Bo slipped from the back of the horse before Rui Yifu could stop him, and he walked a few steps forward while putting his hands on his hips. "...This place smells awful," he finally declared. His boots had already sunken a little into the muck as he stood in place.

"It smells..." Zhu'er had stirred to give her own opinion, "it smells like home. In spring!" She nodded.

"Did you grow up in a latrine, little sister?" Bo asked.

Rui Yifu took the moment to dismount from the horse as well, pulling Zhu'er down with him and setting her unsteady feet on the ground. He held her by her upper arms until he was sure she would not topple over herself if she tried to walk. Only a few feet away from Bo was there a wooden platform only just barely big enough for three men to stand upon. It was rimmed by stone, but it was clear that years of disuse and a lack of maintenance had rotten the wood itself. Rui Yifu remembered Khenbish's words and wondered if it was in this state when he came, or if it had been a long time since he had last approached the marsh. Mentally measuring out the dimensions of the platform and the shroud wrapped horse, Rui Yifu came to the sad conclusions that they could not continue riding the beast. "You're not a normal horse," he said to the beast idly. "Can you take yourself home?"

The horse shook its head, and for a moment the part of the shroud on its head flipped up just enough for Rui Yifu to see its snout had been long eaten away at, replaced with some gross tendril like mass that writhed around in the air for a moment before it turned around and began a jaunty little tromp back the way they came.

"Hey, where is it going?" Bo asked, yanking himself free from the muck to jog back over to Rui Yifu's side.

"Back to the forest," Rui Yifu shrugged, "we can't ride it over those platforms."

Bo looked like he was going to protest before he turned around and walked straight over to the closest platform, stared at it for several minutes, then walked back and shrugged. "You're right, but I don't like it."

Rui Yifu laughed a little bit and then took Zhu'er's hand in his, hiding his expression at just how cold it felt. "Well, we just need to cross the marsh and get to the mountain right? Zhu'er, do you want to walk or would you like me to carry you?"

"I can carry her," Bo volunteered.

"No," Rui Yifu replied sharply, before biting his tongue. "I mean, it's better if I do right now. My arms are stiff from holding the reins for so long, so putting them in another position would help." It made no sense.

"I'll walk," Zhu'er replied, looking grumpy. "I'm big enough."

"Your legs are so short though," Bo observed, reaching towards her. Rui Yifu took his hand and pushed it away, "hey, I wasn't going to pinch her or anything."

"Just let her walk, when she gets tired, I'll carry her," Rui Yifu assured him. "Now lets go, I want to get to the mountain before the red moon comes again."

Rui Yifu picked up his focuses again, rolling them around in his hand as he took a tentative step onto the first platform. The wood squished a little, a few maggots and other bugs fleeing the destruction wrought by a giant upon their home. The platform itself was very stable however and did not give even a ripple in the quagmire around it. He waved the others after him as he stepped onto the next equally as stable platform. Zhu'er and Bo followed him, the smaller child needing to add a bit of a hop to her step to fully clear the muck to reach the platform.

"I wonder how big the marsh is?" Bo asked.

Rui Yifu pretended he did not hear the question, preferring to imagine the marsh was small enough they could reach the mountain soon. Ahead he could see ripples where the marsh water became deeper, and slithering things squirmed down from their perches on the immobile 'jade corpses' of the marsh. He held the coral monks tightly in his fist.