Idony decided she did not like candied hawthorns very much. She had made Ji Ying taste it as well and watched her spit it out and start yelling at the street seller, who in turn yelled back that Ji Ying just could not possibly enjoy the refined taste of magpie hawthorns.

Bo leaned against a wooden fence that awkwardly sat beside the small street. The wood looked old and small splinters were flaking off, and the smell of animal life came from it even though she could not hear any mooing, oinking, or clucking. Bo was enjoying an orange while watching Ji Ying kick at the dirt and curse. The spot they had settled in for the moment far in the back of the town, so far back that one could see the gate that opened up properly to the mountain path. The gate was made of bronze with green splotches on it, half open with some armored men sitting near the entrance, spears leaning against their shoulders.

The entire area where the street hawkers had been was still obscured by the shadow of the mountain. It covered everything around them with a deep heavy shadow, the air itself chilled by it.

It was quiet as well.

So quiet.

Idony shivered slightly as a brief breeze tumbled through the streets, but there was no sound of shifting dust and leaves. The buildings around them sagged under the weight of the mountain's shadow, and as she peered up at windows she saw no shapes of people going about their day. "Why is it quiet?" She asked no one in particular.

"It's the mountain," Ji Ying said, pointing at the stony observer far above after walking closer to Idony. "The Silent Mountains got their name because they're silent and they make everything else silent."

Bo finished his orange, "I dunno why people would build houses here then."

"I don't know why either," Ji Ying said, scratching her chin. "Maybe the houses are only inhabited seasonally? Or maybe it's because it's so cold over here."

"My grandmother said it's because the mountains are expanding," a new voice said. It was close enough that Idony jumped right into a surprised Ji Ying's very warm arms. "Oh!" The new person, a thin young woman with a set of perpetually worried eyes looked apologetic, she wore simple clothes and was carrying a long pole that wooden tokens hung from on thin ropes as well as a basket with dried flowers. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Ji Ying was about to open her mouth, anger on her face, but then Bo stepped in front, "nah it's ok. You're lucky she didn't bite you. What do you mean the mountains are expanding?"

Looking relieved at the short exchange of acceptance and quick change of topic the woman nodded, "yes! She said that so long as people keep going there and dying, the mountains will keep slowly growing to contain everything until eventually they cover the entire world."

Idony looked up at the looming mountains, imagining them slowly moving like a slug across a leaf. It was so ridiculous that she almost laughed.

"I think you and seventeen generations of your descendants have absolutely nothing to fear of that mountain," Ji Ying said.

"Maybe, maybe not. But a lot of people haven't been coming back from their pilgrimages beyond the Silent Mountains," the woman shrugged. She then pulled off three of the wooden tokens, round things that had reddish paint on them, "my family have been selling these talismans for almost five hundred years!" She declared, "they have a special symbol on them, and I can guarantee they'll raise your chances of surviving past the mountains!

Idony leaned forward in Ji Ying's arms to get a better look at the wooden circles, while Bo took one of the offered things. Carved into the flat faces of the wood was a downward facing horse head with a single sharp horn. "...What is this thing?" Bo asked, handing it to Ji Ying.

"...I don't know, it looks like someone stuck a spear point to some poor horse," she said.

"It's a guardian animal," the woman said.

"Did you come all the way over here just to sell us this?" Ji Ying asked with a deep and unapproving frown.

The woman shrugged again, "business has been bad. When Old Cheng said we had some travelers and said I could find you here I pretty much ran right over. But I promise that I was not lying about what my grandma said," she nodded solemnly. "I'd rather bite my tongue off than lie about the mountains."

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"How much for five of them?" Bo asked.

"Sixty five coppers."

"I got twelve oranges and seven persimmons," Bo said, looking into his sack.

"Fruit!? Sure," the woman's eyes practically glittered with anticipation as he started pulling them out. She held out her basket and Bo put the fruits inside, and she cheerily gave over the wooden tokens. "I didn't know there were still any orange trees this far north. And they look so fresh too!"

Bo grinned and handed two of the talismans to Ji Ying and Idony. "We got them from-ARGH!" Bo doubled over and Idony looked down in shock quick enough to see Ji Ying moving her foot away from Bo's. As Bo scrunched up on the ground, holding his foot, Ji Ying stepped closer to the woman.

"Thanks a lot," Ji Ying said in a sugary sweet voice, smiling as she leered over the woman. "We really appreciate you taking the time to find us, we should probably be going back to the rest of the idiots we travel with, so we'll have to say goodbye here."

The woman had grown pale and nodded, "y-yes. I-I hope you find whatever you need past the mountains." Then as quick as she arrived, the woman was already bolting down the street.

"Why did you hurt Bo?" Idony asked, finally finding her tongue. She reached down for the young man, who was still holding his foot in pain.

"He can't just go around saying 'oh yes we got all these fruit from a magic courtyard!', desperate people might try looking for it, and then get themselves hurt or piss off the wrong deity," Ji Ying explained, shaking her head.

Bo got back to his feet, his eyes reddened, "that hurt! You could have just asked me to be quiet, not break my foot!"

"I preferred doing it this way," Ji Ying replied.

Idony felt another breeze gently tug at her hair and the faint scent of burnt metal and roasting meat drifted over her. She wondered how Rui Yifu and Liu Xie were doing and some small part of her wished she had just stayed with them. Bo grabbed Ji Ying's free arm and started pulling her and Idony down the road. "Come on, lets get somewhere warmer." He said.

"Don't pull on me!"

Bo did not listen, so Idony felt herself shaken and jiggled as Ji Ying purposefully dragged her feet or swung her weight backwards. Idony wiggled in her grip, eventually falling out and landing on her feet, a puff of dust sent upwards and she moved to walk beside Bo. Bo finally released Ji Ying. The group walked quietly together even as the chatter of voices and baying of animals rose around them. It was like stepping into a completely different town. The streets were crowded once more with people going about their day, tattered soldiers. The doors of shops were open, an ornery ox had decided it was quite happy to sit in the middle of the road. The sharp smell of forges aflame battled with the smell of alcohol and tea. Despite how busy it all looked, Idony could see shop owners leaning against the entrances of their shops with sharp eyes scanning through the crowd, street hawkers (including the man with the bad hawthorns) had set down their wares to simply chat amongst themselves. Nobody was buying anything. Idony was no expert in shop things but she felt that it was likely not very good for the town to have no visitors.

"So why did you drag us here?" Ji Ying asked Bo acridly. "Did you want to help the people shove that ox off the road?"

"Shut up, I'm looking for boss and the fish," Bo grunted, peering into the crowds as his voice grew farther. "Lots of people around."

"Look for the one guy with white clothes."

"I know!"

Idony got to her tiptoes in an effort to look past the moving crowd, trying to pick out the other two from the sea of adults.

"Hello."

Liu Xie was crouching beside her, a hand wrapped around hers so she did not run in fright, lowered enough so they were almost eye level with each other. "Where's Bo and Ji Ying?"

Idony blinked, twisting her head around in confusion. Ji Ying and Bo had vanished among all the other adults, leaving her alone except for the white clad form of Liu Xie. "...Uhm, I don't know!" She said, turning on her heel to see if perhaps they were behind her, or to the side. But there was no one but strangers.

Liu Xie sighed heavily, scooping her up and holding her with one arm while the other rested on his waist. "Rui, the kids vanished."

"Leaving them to wander out on their own was a bad idea," Rui Yifu said, seemingly emerging from the crowd like mist. "We should have just gone with them."

"At least they're both loud," Liu Xie muttered. "Zhu'er, are you still hungry?"

Idony's stomach grumbled, the two bites of hawthorn hardly enough to satiate her bottomless pit of hunger, "yes!" She was so excited by the idea of more food that it took several minutes of walking and chatter between Liu Xie and Rui Yifu for his words to sink into her. He did not call her Idony, but Zhu'er. Like everyone else did. Idony closed her eyes and laid it against Liu Xie's chest.

Her name was from her mother, and when her eyes were closed and she focused she could hear her mother's voice saying 'Idony'. It was a special thing. The thing from her mother that could not be taken. She tried to imagine her mother walking beside them, saying her name. But the words became mixed, and the image of her mother's face was a blurred smear, fading into light.

The smell of cooked meat made her open her eyes and she found a skewer of meat in front of her. "Did you fall asleep?" Liu Xie asked, amused. They were sitting in a small covered patio connected to a smaller walled area that the pungent smell of cooked food came from, a few empty tables beside them. Bo was squabbling with Ji Ying while Rui Yifu calmly sipped from a cup, focused on a paper covered in scratchy writing with a small sirk on his face.

"No," she lied.

"Here, have it," Liu Xie put the skewer in her hand.

Idony looked at the skewer in her hand, then back at Liu Xie. She pulled a chunk off and offered it to him. He took it with careful fingers, and Idony focused on devouring the rest of the meat, her heart a knot of warmth and sorrow.

The meat tasted delicious, despite the salt of her tears.