They had taken her out from the building full of corpses, gently leading her to one of the tents where they all sat together. It made things a bit crowded and Bo folded his legs up against his chest as he sat next to the pale shivering woman.

When he had first met her, it had been way back in the town in the Southern Kingdom. He had thought about snatching her money pouch but changed his mind when she offered him some food she had been carrying. He had been surprised she spoke his language, and more surprised she had not been angry about his attempt at stealing from her. Soon after he met Liu Xie. It felt like a lifetime ago suddenly. He had thought he spotted her at the inn, but until those monsters came he had not been sure.

The lady from before had been sunny and full of life, with bright eyes and a pinkish tinge to her cheeks. The one beside him was thin, with dark circles under her eyes and flesh eaten at by bruises and poorly healing wounds. Her cheeks had become gaunt.

“Miss?” Li Baobao asked hesitantly.

The pointy eared woman glanced briefly at him, shivering, before looking back down at the ground.

“Boss, what did you call her?” Bo asked.

“When Idony and I met her, she called herself Anemone.”

“Anemone…” the woman’s voice was hoarse. “Y-yes. I’m… I’m Anemone. I…” She cast about, eyes weary and distant before she glanced at Liu Xie and then Bo. “I… I remember you two. There was a little girl with you, I think? A little girl or boy…” she was looking at Liu Xie, putting a hand against her head. “And you, you… I gave something to you?”

“Yeah! Food! Thank you!” Bo moved so he was a little closer to her, bending slightly so he could look into her thinned face. “What happened? How did you get here?”

She shook her head, “I… I don’t, I was with people. Friends? My friends! Yes, we were going to a place… tombs. There were tombs. Underground. Near a big black river. But there were things in there and…” She clutched at her head, curling into a little ball. “I don’t remember! I got out somehow, and I don’t… I kept going somewhere, I just had to get away from that place but then there was this city and a fire and more of those things and…” She made a strange gurgling noise, somewhere between a cry and retching. Foamy spittle fell on the ground as she heaved, sobbing.

Bo awkwardly reached over to put a hand on her back, “it’s going to be okay.”

Rui Yifu, who had been silent for most of the time, moved forward to gently take the woman’s wrist, placing his thumb against it, “miss have you eaten much?”

“If you are going to Lady Gu, perhaps you can take her with you?” The veiled woman asked, “we’ve done what we can but we are not healers, and I don’t think she’s human so we hadn’t dared try some of our tonics or acupuncture with her. The best we could do was bandage up the wounds and give her some food.”

“Well, we could,” one of the disciple girls said. “But she doesn’t quite look fit to walk.”

“We can give you an ox and cart,” the woman said. “Bu-”

“I can pay!” Li Baobao got up and pulled out several large glimmering blue jewels and coins to press into the woman’s hands. Even with her face obscured she seemed quite befuddled.

“Th-thank you for your kindness sir, but I was going to say all of our oxen are rather old, so it may be slower than simply walking.”

“Boss?” Bo looked over at Liu Xie for his opinion.

“An ox is an ox, it would probably be better if there’s a cart for some to rest in, unless you want to volunteer carrying Anemone here.”

Bo looked at the fragile trembling thing and thought he probably could carry her for hours which did not mean much when he did not know how much longer it would take to get to Lady Gu.

As it turned out, it took much longer than a few hours. All would take turns resting in the wagon next to the wan figure of Anemone while the others walked. Still this hardly seemed enough to take the weariness from the group’s feet.

But finally after what seemed like months to Bo, a jagged shape rose from the horizon. The broken tip looked to be swathed in vibrantly verdant plantlife while blue colored stone and streaks of dirt broken by patches of trees formed the rest of the mountain. Black birds seemed to swirl around it as a flock before peeling off one by one to fly southwards. Bo idly wondered if it meant winter was coming. Something plunged in his heart as he remembered back home it would mean that harvesting was over. There would usually be a small festival.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“We’re almost there!” One of the young ladies said with relief in her voice. The other girls, both the few in the wagon and the others walking, also gave out a ragged cheer. Bo tried to match their cheer with his own but his throat felt too dry for it. Li Baobao coughed wetly. Rui Yifu stirred from his nap for a moment. Liu Xie muttered something incomprehensible, swaying slightly as he moved forward.

Hesitantly, Bo reached out to touch Liu Xie’s shoulder. “Boss, are you okay?”

Liu Xie was still before he looked over his shoulder at Bo, “I’m just tired. Coming back… was a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be. How is Anemone?”

Bo was not sure how to respond, “ah. I understand, I guess.” He did not understand. He looked back over to the cart. She was sitting up, her pale yellow hair obscuring her face but she seemed to be breathing still. “Not any better or worse.”

Liu Xie kept walking forward.

After a moment more of walking Bo looked back at the wagon to see Rui Yifu had gotten off and now Li Baobao was sitting up. In the warm sunlight Li Baobao looked like he had aged somewhat. His chubby face had thinned some and his long curly hair fell over his shoulders as he awkwardly fiddled with his hair tie in his fingers. Bo slowed down in his walk until he was right beside the cart. A few of the disciple girls were also sitting in it with tired faces. “How are you doing, Baobao?”

Li Baobao looked up as though awoken from a daze, blinking blearily at Bo. “My shoes are still missing, the ones I was given fell to bits, and my hair tie broke.”

Bo scratched his chin, “I don’t have a hair tie.”

“Your hair is short. Like a criminal’s,” Li Baobao said while still focusing on his hair tie. “Not that you are one.”

“I was about to say-”

Li Baobao sighed deeply, “why is your hair short anyway?”

Bo glanced at Liu Xie who was still walking at the front with plodding steps. Rui Yifu had walked up to move beside him and they seemed to be talking in low hushed voices. “To be honest, apparently my hair was full of small bugs. Liu Xie grabbed my hair and cut it off and then dunked my head into water.” Bo frowned in discomfort at the painful memory. “I thought I was going to drown. Or get the flesh boiled off my face.”

Li Baobao’s eyes widened slightly and a greenish tint crossed over his cheeks. “Maybe it’s better he helped you like that. I heard some parasites can get so big they suck all the blood out of a person’s body.”

Bo had never considered that fact and found himself imagining his own desiccated corpse in some alleyway, a fat giant tick scuttling off. He wrinkled his nose in disgust. “You’re right.”

“Bo, how long had you been traveling with Liu Xie and Zhu'er before Rui Yifu and I met you?”

Bo shrugged, “not very long. Maybe a few days before we ran into you guys.”

“Mmn,” Li Baobao adjusted himself to lean back a little in the cart, letting the hair tie fall on his lap. His fingers wrapped around one of the curls of his hair. “In the Southern Kingdom, there’s a belief that curly haired people have unfortunate fates.”

“...Do you think you have an unfortunate fate?” Bo asked, “where I am from we have a belief too. You can’t tell fate accurately all the time, so it’s better to not worry too much about it and instead focus on what you can do now.”

“Zhu'er has curly hair too.”

Silence passed between them before Bo felt the shadow of the mountain on his face. Another round of cheers issued from the disciples. A path of well trodden dirt snaked upwards on the mountain before disappearing under lush foliage, some of the disciples gently coaxed Anemone from the cart, and the biggest one among them pulled her onto her back and walked forward, seemingly following another route up the mountain.

But in front of the path before them stood a woman in similar clothes to the disciple girls, although she wore some sort of light armor over her chest and forearms that Bo did not recognize. Of course Bo did not consider himself an expert on armor either. She stood resolutely in the middle of the path, holding a bow with an arrow already drawn.

“We’re back!” One of the disciple girls called out. “We have some guests!”

The woman looked beautiful, Bo thought until he got closer to see the deep frown on her face. There was also something strange about her face. It was almost blandly beautiful. Like someone forgot to give her any starkly noticeable features. He recalled his mother once calling such faces as ‘cheap but proper’. She also was not putting her bow down. “Who are your guests?” She called out. She gestured towards Rui Yifu, “and why did you bring a prostitute with you?”

“Pr-prostitute?” Rui Yifu sputtered indignantly.

“That’s a man!” Bo called out between snickering.

“Men can be prostitutes too!” The woman replied. “Also we don’t let dogs on the mountain.”

“We didn’t bring any dogs!” Bo yelled.

“I think she’s talking about you,” Liu Xie commented. “We’re here to come speak to Lady Gu. I’m an old friend of hers.”

“What, you think she accepts appointments or visits right now? Don’t you know that several free cities have burnt down and there’s monsters roaming around? How about you stay at the base of the mountain and I can go talk to her about whether she wants to talk to you?”

Bo walked forward and squeezed past Rui Yifu and Liu Xie. “Who are you anyway? Why are you so fucking rude?”

“My name is Ji Ying, and I’m supposed to be helping protect the mountain from any intruders,” the woman replied. “That includes dogs like you.”

“They’re actually really nice!” One disciple girl protested.

A gust of wind suddenly rolled down from the mountain, leaves snapping from the trees and Bo getting a face full of dust slapping him. He yelped and stepped backwards. Ji Ying stood as straight as a reed, but lowered her bow as she looked up towards the mountain.

“...Never mind, I guess she does have business with you ugly bastards,” Ji Ying grumbled, motioning for them to follow her as she turned around.