Departure from Pinyin
You and Min depart from Pinyin early in the morning. The is painfully bright, and the gets hot only an hour after you leave.
"If we take the forest road north," says Min, "we should arrive at the mouth of the Xiao Canyons by nightfall. Once we pass the canyons and reach the next village, it should be fairly easy to move from villlage to village untill we reach..."
"Ai," you say.
Your spine shivers as a hideous memory rises in your mind. You can see Ai looming above you, laughing, her eyes bright with cruelty and lust.
Min lowers her voice. "I never thought we'd see Ai again. Not since, well..."
"Since she tried to rape me four years ago," you say, bluntly.
Min girmaces, ill at the thought. "I still don't understand why Sifu Ha let Ai live. Banishment seems too light a punishment for what she'd done."
"If Sifu Ha hadn't interefered, I would have been raped and eaten alive by that monster. I'm not about to question what our Sifu did, even if her mercy on Ai was wasted. Maybe she hoped Ai could find her redemption outside the temple walls."
Min pauses. "Will you be alright, facing Ai again?"
You scoff. "Of course. Ai is a member of the of Order of the Beast, and I have sworn to strike her down. Fighting Ai will be no different from those assassins at the Fa Pu Inn."
"You're bad at lying, Ti."
"Ai is nothing but a bully," you insist. "She took advantage of me because, back then, I was too young and weak to stop her. I'm not a child anymore, but Ai is the same brutish coward she was when Sifu Ha banished her."
* * *
It is noon, and you and Min have trekked deep into the forest. The shade of the canopy shelters you from the heat, but you've been walking for hours, and you're beginning to tire.
Min stops and leans against a thick babmboo plant. "Hey Ti, did I ever tell you about the great little fishing pond that's only half a mile from here?"
"Something you picked up from the locals, Min?"
Min nods. "That's right! I chose this road so we could rest and go fishing together."
You sigh and palm your forehead. Once again, Min has managed to find a way to squeeze leisure-time into your quest. You know you can reach the canyon sooner if you keep moving... but then, perhaps stopping to enjoy yourself wouldn't be so harmful after all?
