Tian had found the body of the sister who had been looking out for Hong Liren. She was surrounded by three long, many legged gu which looked like they were stuck between being a furry caterpillar and a centipede. She hadn’t died with an intact corpse. The woman had been holding a heavy saber, hacking down with it. There were some insect bodies around her with spear wounds. Hong.
Tian sat and puzzled it out. She could have been taken, but by who? Everyone was dead except for him and the two Heavenly Person realm cultivators, neither of whom had the time or interest in kidnapping her. She could have run off, but… Hong was always stupidly aggressive. Charging in when she should have been carefully fighting and watching the people around her. She wouldn’t run. That left being dragged off by a Gu or she hid. Both of which could have happened. But how? And where?
He went back to where he found the sister. The sand was all torn up by the battle, then again when Brother Ku launched whatever the attack was that made all the holes in the desert. If there were tracks, he couldn’t see them. He widened the search area. Nothing. But no signs of something or someone being dragged either, and even with everything, there should be some sign of Hong being carried away.
If she didn’t go on the surface, she must have gone underground. But again, there was nothing but disturbed earth. Trying to figure out where she hid herself seemed impossible. Besides, the battle ended hours ago. Why was she still hidden?
Tian squatted down again and started drawing circles in the sand. The wind pushed around the sand, leaving little ripples across it. A bit like a strong breeze across a pond. Something almost audibly clicked in his memory.
“Thank you Senior Brother Hwang.”
I was going to suggest it, but I’m glad you figured it out on your own. Use that big bit of wagon timber over there. That will make a good thud.
Tian grabbed a piece of a shattered wagon as thick around as his leg and longer than he was tall. He changed over to Counter Jumper and kicked off his shoes. He started banging on the ground, feeling the vibrations. Such as they were, and they weren’t much.
Put your back into it!
Tian banged harder on the ground. There was something hard just a couple of feet down, near where he found that senior sister. He felt a stab of guilt. Hong had mentioned the senior sister’s name, and Tian completely forgot it. He got closer to that hard thing and banged hard. Definitely something hard, just a couple of feet down. Smaller than the tall Hong Liren, though, and the wrong shape. It was kind of egg shaped, but rough and uneven.
His rope dart buried itself into the sand and wrapped around the object. Tian passed the rope around him and started slowly walking backwards, hauling whatever it was out of the ground. It looked like a mass of sand and something organic. Lighter than something that size should have been. He gave it a solid rap with his stick. Hollow. Something inside of it, filling almost all of the interior. He gave the exterior a whack with the stick. The stick was damaged, the object wasn’t. Tian sighed, loudly, and got to using his rope dart like a saw again.
It took quite a bit of cutting, but half an hour later he was looking at Hong Liren.
She wasn’t breathing.
The desert winds blew softly across the sand. It was the only sound on the battlefield. Even Tian’s breathing seemed to have stopped.
Tian stared at Hong Liren. She was the only person he knew that was his age. He didn’t know what their relationship was, beyond brother and sister. And now she was dead. Trapped in an egg of sand. Did one of the gu cocoon her in there to eat later? She was injured, but not severely. Maybe it was poison.
He stared at her for… what felt like an hour. Grandpa held him. Waiting for Tian to be ready to say something. Eventually, Tian reached out to remove her storage ring.
It didn’t come off her finger. He tugged harder. Nothing. But that meant that…
Tian hauled Hong out of the sand coffin and had her flat on the ground inside of a second. He checked her neck for damage or swelling, then opened her mouth to look for any blockage of the airway. Nothing, but the inside of her mouth was a bright orange color, and smelled like mint and black pepper.
He quickly dug into his bag and pulled out his medicine manuals. He had experience playing this game. He found the answer in a few minutes- Breath Sealing Liquid. A half ounce would be enough to send a grown man into a three-day coma where they would appear, to a casual inspection, dead. A week of weakness afterward should be expected. The counteragent would wake the person up, but couldn’t prevent the weakness.
Tian looked to see if he could figure out how to make the counter-agent. He couldn’t. He frowned. Hong would have expected someone to dig her out, right? She wouldn’t have left the sister guarding her with no options. Tian searched her robe. Tucked inside was a rather conspicuous little vial. He gave it a sniff. Bitter herbs and strong alcohol. This was it. He tipped it down Hong’s throat and waited.
He felt his own heart stop while he waited for hers to start. She took a gasping breath and he collapsed on the sand. He could feel some of the hate boiling away from around his heart. Not gone entirely, or even mostly. But a big piece of it was gone. She was alive.
“Troublesome probably-girl!”
She gasped, coughing.
“Very troublesome! AND you never took your medicine! I worked hard finding all those things, and you didn’t even try them. But you still drink weird stuff and hide in eggs. If you won’t let me fix your head, find someone else to do the work!” Tian slowly poured water into her mouth. Just a trickle. Letting her drink slowly and regain at least a little strength.
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“Ancestors forgive me. I’ve died and gone to Hell.” Her voice was weak. “I must be in Hell. I can hear that idiot Tian.”
“Smarter than you. At least when I ate garbage I knew how to find the stuff that wouldn’t make me sick.”
“Only an idiot would eat garbage.”
“No, only someone starving would. I was very smart. I ate garbage and kept myself alive. Which makes me smarter than you. What weird thing did you trap yourself in?”
She had a coughing fit. Tian slowly trickled more water down her throat. “One of Grandmother’s lifesaving measures. A kind of charm, maybe? I had to crush a little figurine.” She tilted her head a little and looked at Tian. “She turned up with them almost as soon as we reached the camp. I think she was embarrassed the Elder gave me talismans and she didn’t. You are crying. Why are you crying?”
“Because you are alive, stupid probably-girl, and I thought you were dead.”
“Oh.” She looked away. “Sister Rou?”
“Her body will not be defiled by animals or the unclean ones.”
“Oh.” Hong sniffed and fought to keep her expression under control.
“Just cry.”
“What?”
“Just cry. Who cares?”
Hong made a choking laugh that sounded like sobbing. “You can’t just cry. Dignity. Reserve. Propriety.”
“Yeah. On the other hand, you are a brain damaged probably-girl, so we can’t expect much. Just cry. I’m crying. You cry too.”
Tears started running down her face as she choked out another laugh. “Am I going to have to get my mother to prove that I am actually a girl?”
“Your mother is a rock thrower and cannot be trusted.”
Hong laughed, but the laughs soon turned into sobs. Tian sat next to her and squeezed her hand. It was a lot. It was too damn much.
“Everyone is dead, Sister. All of them. I have their bodies safe with me. Martial Uncle Ku is still alive, chasing a Heavenly Person realm heretic. But you know what? Do you know what the most cursed thing is even with all the other cursed things? Now that the Heavenly Person heretic is gone, we don’t have any excuse not to finish the mission.”
He sighed and made a stretcher. He didn’t want to stay in this accursed place even one second longer than necessary, and no amount of exhaustion would persuade him otherwise. “We shouldn’t stay here. Come on. Let’s find a place to camp for the night.”
An hour of dragging later- “I can walk now.”
“You can’t.”
“I damn well can. Watch me.” Hong got up and forced herself to take a few steps. She got her spear out and started using it as a walking stick.
Tian watched her for a minute. “I have seen faster snails, and you are shaking more in just four steps. I bet if I looked under your survival suit you would be white as a crane. Lie down.”
“I can walk!”
“You can get knocked the fuck out, how about that?” Tian ‘smiled.’
“You swore! You never swear.”
“No, I definitely didn’t swear. I would never. That would lack reserve and propriety. I definitely asked you to lie back down on the stretcher like a good person so we can get you into the shade to recover from the heat stroke that is making you hallucinate. That is a thing that can happen in the desert. It’s written in my first aid book.”
She eventually lay down. It was a mercifully dull afternoon, and they stopped for the day early next to a hill. It wasn’t much of a hill, but it had the virtue of existing and providing both shade and protection from the wind.
“How do we want to handle standing watches?” She asked. “And before you say something stupid, you are the only one who can fight right now. You need to sleep. I’m weak, but not sleepy.”
“What is there to handle? I’ll sleep first, you wake me around midnight or something.”
“Alright. Where are you pitching your tent?”
“Tent?”
“To sleep in. Your tent. Brother Tian… how badly were you kicked in the head in that fight?”
“I wasn’t! I was stabbed in the gut and my throat was cut, but definitely not kicked in the head.”
“Wait. You were what now?”
“Not kicked in the head. One is stabbing. The other is kicking.” He slowly wiggled one foot and pointed at it so she would understand. “Next time I’m pouring that medicine down your throat, this is silly.” Tian sighed and got out a shovel. He quickly dug himself a pit a few feet deep.
“Not really beating the “kicked in the head” theory by digging a hole instead of setting up a tent.”
“Why would I set up a tent when we need to be hiding? Just push the sand over on to me. I’ll use my rope as a breathing tube. And before you say anything, yes, I have done it before and yes, it works.” It would too- the barbs in the rope wouldn’t contract unless he willed them to.
Hong looked like she had a lot of questions. She settled on “What do you want to eat for dinner?” Tian stopped with a jerk.
“I have some buns stored in my ring. I could… make a fire and steam them a bit? Plump them up? I have some cooked vegetables too, if you like, but I’m not sure the best way to reheat them.”
“That works. I can contribute some twice-baked pork.”
“Oh! That sounds very nice. Thanks, Sister.”
They got to work setting up a little fire pit, taking care to conceal the flames as best they could.
“Tian… Brother Tian?”
“Yes, Sister Hong?”
“Did you really eat garbage?”
“For many years. Sometimes I was able to catch grubs and insects, or hunt little mice or rats. Sometimes I could snare something bigger, but those were the main things.”
She was silent for a while, staring at the flames.
“What about your parents? If you don’t mind me asking. I know you are an orphan, but do you have any idea-?”
“No. And I don’t want to know.”
“You don’t want to know?”
“No. They threw me away. So I threw them away. I found… better people.” He still didn’t want to tell anyone that Fu was the father in his heart. The thought was like a little treasure. A secret only he and his father shared. Though the thought of treasure sparked a realization.
“That reminds me! We have all the loot to sort through!” Tian clapped suddenly.
“You mean all the stuff you took off the heretics? Could it be as many as two spirit stones?”
“I don’t think they are that rich, though the Gu Masters were all Level Nine. They are sure to have decent stuff. No, I meant the caravan.”
“What about the caravan?”
“I told you that we didn’t have any excuse not to finish the mission.”
“So? And, Brother Tian, I’m in the Disciplinary Squad. We have an excuse.”
“Well we don’t need it. I looted the whole caravan, Sister Hong. I have it all right here with me. Let's see what we got!”