Hao woke, not opening his eyes from meditations in a bedroll that was not his. It was not the worst thing to see first thing, a beautiful woman looking down at him. But the willowy woman had more of a scowl on her face than anything as she dabbed sweat from his forehead. What happened? I got the poison out myself, didn’t I?

  “Is Junior Brother awake?” Bao, as she was called in name, said, reaching out to pull on the back of the man’s robe.

  Lang, the man she grabbed, was sitting firmly to Hao’s left with his back straight.

  Hao snapped his spine up, his back just as straight, but before he could get to his feet, the other woman, Yao, leaped between the two of them. The scowl of Bao deepened as she set the crude, dirty cloth she wiped Hao’s forehead with on his leg.

  Hao felt an urge to reach into the Spirit-Holding bag, his mind wrapping around the spear, if he pulled it out now, this Yao would land on its, going through her stomach and spine, the possible threat in front of him eliminated. Yet she was faster than him. Even though all he had to do was think a thought. But she was a woman; the idea of killing her, his hands being soaked in her blood, bothered him as much as the woman did herself

  Yao’s hands, soft but clammy, touched his cheeks; he could smell the dirt in her fingernails. Her wing necklace tapped his forehead, and the cold chill of the medallion calmed him. Only to put him more on edge.

  Hao pushed her away, his nose brushing her flesh, which smelled of sweat from the toil of the Secret Realm. He tried to stand again, and succeeded, which made Lang stand too in response. The wolf-like man, with hair like night, held his sword in hand, undrawn but ready to kill, but not if he struck the woman Yao, that much he knew.

  They traded places, Yao and Lang, which pushed Hao more on guard, escalating, still his head buzzing, but now clear as his blood was poisonless. The woman, Yao, smiled with mirth like she had won a game. While the one named Lang brought up a free hand to touch Hao’s chest. He stopped that hand fast, knowing that when Hao gave a warning like the pillar before, ‘don’t touch’, it was a real warning or, in this case, threat.

  Hao didn’t say it in words, but with his eyes, and the man understood. Though not fully the threat in front of him. As Hao had a hand on a blade as well, invisible to the world outside the Spirit-Holding bag. If his robe was shifted, he would try to kill all three, no more than the two that already knew of the spirit-holding bag, and the Drifting Stream Elders needed to know of the bag bound to his chest. And he would get rid of Swordface, leaving just the one, the girl he saved. Hao had no wish to kill her, he hoped the girl knew dignity and held honor in her heart.

  Lang opened his mouth to speak, but Hao cut his tongue with nearly spat words, “Did you search me?” Hao asked; he didn’t want to put up pretenses with this group, not if they were to go forward together. Or if he had to kill them. It was better to get unpleasantness out of the way. He didn’t want to watch his back like he had to with Jingshe and Tui, back on his few Green-horn bull hunts.

  Lang pulled his hand away, but it touched his holding bag on his waist instead. His second hand on his sword tapped like it did before, faster, until he burst. “Search you? PAH! My wife helped you rest your head after you hit the ground, because she was feeling bad. Let Senior give you advice. Don’t assume or jump to conclusions, or whatever knife you’re holding will be….”

  The willowy woman stepped in front of Yao, which made the white cloaked woman frown. Bao pulled on Lang’s sleeve. At first light, then as hard as the robe would let her, slipping through her fingers at the end of its stretch. She silenced him with her eyes. Which made who his wife was a non-question. Only a wife or death could make a man so silent, even a drunk Islander celebrating the day’s catch would go silent just from his woman’s eyes.

  Hao was scanning himself as he looked this Lang up and down, keeping half his attention on that sword handle which he had a habit of tapping. The only thing about his person that was shift was the two biggest bandages on his person. The one on his shoulder was looser, but more secure. And his foot was wrapped, he did it once himself, the bandage going half up his leg. Now it wrapped just the mostly healed burns.

  This Lang’s words seemed fair, he would keep the lesson and the harsher words in mind. Not that he liked the comment on a knife he made at the end.

  The Willowy woman calmed her husband, pulling that tapping finger of the sword-hilt. Getting him to bow his head, like a mother eyeing her child, a wife indeed. She turned to Hao next, her eyes far less harsh but sharper than any blade Hao yet knew.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Junior Brother doesn’t need to worry. No one searched you. It would be a bad foot to start on if we are to go forward together. Worse than this one already. I only wrapped a few of your wounds while the others searched the area. I apologize if we scared you early, it’s been a few days in this cave after all, I shouldn’t have grabbed my weapon.”

  Bao smiled, a soft smile, the kind that could have a young man, and Hao felt calm, but in his head, he could have laughed. The two of them reminded him of others, but he couldn’t quite place his finger on it. Who the pair reminded him of became more apparent when Lang spoke again.

  Lang looked to the side as he spoke, making his words come off snide. “Like you have something we would want to take, anyway. You didn’t come with anything. And anything you’ve found looks like it was stolen from you already.”

  Bao turned back and pinched Lang’s arm and nodded her head. A certain level of exasperation laced his tongue, his eyes still elsewhere in the dark cave, “Is Junior Brother willing to join us?”

  Just like Grandma and Grandpa He wrought young. Or perhaps every married pair on land acted in such a manner; there was a lot about them that was different from the old couple. Though Hao wasn’t sure, he didn’t think the old couple ever entered the Secret Realm. The two of them didn’t experience a breakthrough past the Second layer of Reclamation.

  Hao was about to reply when the woman called Yao jumped in front of him. Standing between him and the couple, she flourished her shawl, indignation pressed between her lips. As her feet touched the ground, she pressed her arms together in front of her, acting as if nothing else, her bounding chest earned her the right of attention.

  “Little Brother should join us. There are a lot of dangers ahead,” Yao’s voice sounded forced, full of youth and energy, but no matter how she spoke, Hao couldn’t get the voice of the mean old Island Aunties out of his head.

  She did distract Hao for a second, though. That necklace it’s a symbol from the desert in one of the Tailian Rekkensen books. Hao would have thought it a coincidence if he hadn’t heard Swordface speak of the Southern Tip like he didn’t belong. A man who speaks of the South in a distant way. And a woman with a symbol from the Desert of the Northern Reaches around her neck. Both wearing the white cloak of the Blue Moons Mountain Sect.

  Hao took a step back from the woman called Yao. He nodded his head a few times, “If you’ve cared for me, then I owe you. I will join you for the time being, but I don’t think the reward at the end of the trial is for more than one.”

  The three held neutral looks on their faces. Lang was the one to speak, not giving Yao another chance. “We’ve already thought of that, but each of us, those who enter alone anyway…” he looked at the back of Yao’s head. His eyes drifted to the front of her robes before going back to Hao. Eyeing Hao the same way, there was no beast in this room or the back.

  “... have faced a demonic beast. There are no formations to the trial but the one outside. I think our only challenge is the fight our way through. I don’t think the battles will get easier. We have to make it to the end before we think of the reward.” Lang finished, holding tight to Bao, his wife’s hand.

  They all nodded their heads and agreed, including Hao.

  “Come, let’s rest and talk before we go to find the first trail awaiting us.” Lang went back to the same seated position he was in before. His hand went back to tapping the pommel of his sword.

  Hao went around the three, glancing a few times at the pillar of black crystal. “Does anyone have water? I will forfeit any right to the first beast we fight,” he stated, a generous condition of trade. It was better than making any sort of promise. He would need it, now that he knew the blood of the snake was poisonous. Plus, he was eager to wash the sticky wine he used to wash the snake blood off himself.

  Yao jumped at the opportunity, “Little brother can still have a few bits of bone,” she giggled.

  A relatively small water skin flew across the air. Hao caught it, opened it, and found what seemed to be water inside. “This…” The amount seemed a little small, but he found a rune on the bottom, one that reminded him of the Runes on the side of the flying boats that brought him to the Secret Realm’s entrance. He took a drink, and when he saw inside again, the level had not changed. An artifact for holding water. Not the craziest idea, but the first one I’ve seen or heard of.

  Hao nodded his head and thanked her. Using as little as possible as he rubbed down his hand and face. When he tried to give it back, Yao shook her head, “Little Brother Hao, you can keep it until I ask for it back, just don’t dump it out for fun.”

  Hao took the bag and tied it to his side, sitting and cultivating a few steps from the pillar and the group. Lang said they would rest and talk as a group, but he was the one to speak the least. That was until they were ready to go forward.

  Hao had already moved to the tunnel from which the three came. When Lang walked up behind him, his steps were nearly silent. He nodded to Hao, then leaned to whisper his words nearly airless, but clearly mouthed. “Be careful of this, Yao.”

  Lang straightened out and turned like he never opened his mouth, “Alright, let’s go forward, which way did you scout, Senior Sister Yao?”

  Hao was already weary of all three, even if the couple reminded him of others, they weren’t them in any way. The only thing the warning from this man Lang did was make Hao eye all three with more suspicion than before. This time, he hid it better.