Tian Xia PW 124: The Road to Shanyi

[Cai]

Cai crashed into the group of men, striking down one, then a second, in a short span of time. As the other two stepped back to defend, a flash of light accompanied the sound of hemp being torn asunder.

A third cudgel wielder fell to Cai's staff as the word 'D-d-demon!' accompanied the appearance of a completely naked man.

Cai was shocked, and in that momentary loss of focus the last two standing members fled, one calling out 'Regroup!' over his shoulder. Not that his companions could hear him in their present state.

The Jinyiwei was accustomed to horrors, and the unusual, thanks to her long career. But sometimes even she could still be completely dumbfounded by a turn of events - and the sudden presence of a tall naked being was enough to bring some colour to her cheeks before she could even begin to take in the inhuman aspects of its appearance.

Then it sank in that the tall naked newcomer had spoken her name as it appeared. The eyes were familiar, as was the colour of his hair. Cai had a horrible feeling she knew what she was looking at "...Piao Bai?!"

[Long Piao Bai]

Piao Bai blinked slowly, letting his eyes get accustomed to the darkness that now filled the clearing. Three of the five men lay where they fell, one was groaning. Piao Bai looked at his hands and down at his body. A wide grin suffused his features. Taking long strides across the clearing toward her, he nodded. His arms were opened wide as if he fully intended to embrace Cai in a bear hug.

"Yes! I don't know what happened exactly, but... yes! This is the second time since I arrived. How strange..." Given that Cai had bared herself before him, Piao Bai thought nothing of being naked in front of her now. He reached for her, to complete the hug. On his right arm, a line art tattoo was plainly visible, marring the porcelain beauty of his skin.

[Cai]

Cai blinked and stepped to the side, evading the embrace by force of habit as she tried to take stock of the situation. Taking refuge in protocol the Jinyiwei asked "The second time?" while she looked around. She needed to gauge whether it was safe to release the Emperor's Protection. She'd have mere minutes before the consequences set in if she did, but the longer she held onto its power, the worse off she'd be. "More importantly, have they gone?"

Carefully keeping her eyes on Piao Bai's face, Cai moved to her pack as she talked, carefully removing Piao Bai's blue changshan and a thick piece of leather with signs of bitemarks on it. She could tell she was blushing from the warmth on her cheeks, and it irritated her to no end. She held out the changshan "You'll catch a cold."

[Long Piao Bai]

Cai side-stepped his hug and Piao Bai blinked, arms falling to his sides.

"Yes. It happened in the village." He watched as Cai moved to the backpack and pulled out his blue changsan.

"What are you doing it's going to get muddy. Hey! You!"

Piao Bai crouched near the groaning man, evidence of his gender obvious when the man's eyes cracked open. The eyes promptly shut.

"Give me your clothes. It's the least you could do. She might show some lenience and let you leave instead of arresting you immediately."

The man flopped around and passed over his muddied shirt.

"Thank you. Now, go on, fast! Before she cuts off your head like that demon in that song!" Piao Bai bared his teeth and held out his claws. The man, trying to look anywhere but at Piao Bai, blanched, scrambled, and ran.

This was kind of fun. "I don't think those two are getting up any time soon." He gestured to the two other men whom Cai had smacked thoroughly.

Piao Bai stood and pulled on the shirt. It covered what needed to be covered for the moment at least. He tilted his head and looked at Cai in curiosity, the motion similar to one she'd seen when he wore his dragon form.

"What is that leather for?"

[Cai]

Cai supposed Piao Bai had a point. She stowed the changshan again while Piao Bai extorted some muddy clothing off one of their fallen assailants.

There was definitely something amusing about Piao Bai's antics as he waggled his claw-tipped fingers suggestively at the man who'd given up his shirt. She glanced around the clearing to determine their situation. With three having run off, that left five unconscious forms spread around the clearing.

However, Piao Bai's question brought her focus back to the concern at hand, and the Jinwyiwei sighed "It is for me. So the screaming doesn't attract unwanted attention when I pay the price for drawing upon abilities my body was not designed for". Cai needed to find a spot where she wouldn't risk doing more damage to herself while afflicted by astral withdrawal convulsions. She released the Emperor's Protection and the translucent jade scales vanished "I have a few minutes before the seizures commence."

[Long Piao Bai]

"Seizures?" A worried concerned look suffused Piao Bai's face. "How far away are the hot springs? I don't think you should do that here."

But, it was too late. He could see the shimmer as the magic faded.

"How far can we get before they hit?"

Piao Bai reached for the backpack and slung it over his shoulders. "I could carry you?" His eyes searched the clearing until he found the metal hat pot. Thankfully it had fallen top down into the mud. His gaze raked over the three men. He liberated a pair of shoes and slipped them on, wiping his feet on some grass before doing so. A belt was liberated from another. He held it out to Cai.

"If we tied your hands and around both our backs, then even if you had convulsions you wouldn't slip off my back." Piao Bai sounded worried now, unsure how long he had before the pillar of strength and perseverance he was used to, disappeared.

[Cai]

Cai tried to visualise Piao Bai's solution. It was hard to imagine.

No matter how she looked at it, it seemed like a terrible idea, though the sheer absurdity of it forced half a smile "No, we won't get far. It is best to use the limited time to find a grassy patch of ground as devoid of rocks and mud as possible. I estimate that it should only take up a quarter of an hour of our time on this occasion. You may not want to watch. I'm told it is almost as unpleasant to view as it is to experience."

Certainly, the songwriters seemed to think so, as did the stories of demonic possession attributed to her in some areas. She started looking for a likely spot.

[Long Piao Bai]

Piao Bai trailed along behind Cai, ducking occasionally as a branch slapped back toward his face. The metal hat made a ting of noise with every branch. The tying thing would have worked. Piao Bai had seen women carry babies strapped to their backs. Why not Cai on his? Piao Bai looked over his shoulder. He had a broad back, didn't he?

"Are you sure we won't make it to the hot springs?" Piao Bai could swear he smelled something on the air. Walking on two legs in someone else's shoes felt weird. And, there was a draft. And, the mud had started to cake and harden. That felt weird. For a moment, Piao Bai considered whether he could become incorporeal and take refuge in the tattoo, but then he thought he didn't want to risk losing this new form again.

"I wonder how long it will stay this time..." A passing thought. Piao Bai's gaze drifted to Cai.

"Are you still doing alright?"

[Cai]

Cai's first order of business was to distance them from the clearing and the sorcery enacted upon it. Piao Bai's concern was touching but, in Cai's mind, somewhat misplaced "I will be fine. This is something you will need to grow accustomed to, inconvenient as it is." The jarring presence of someone's unwanted sympathy was a reminder of why she generally preferred to travel alone.

The Jinyiwei was also concerned about the five men they'd left unconscious there. Pragmatism suggested their deaths would be wise. But Cai had seen too much death since climbing the mountain to Yunshan, and didn't feel that she could stomach several cold-blooded executions. It was a courtesy she'd not extend them twice, though, if they continued to stalk herself and Piao Bai.

Three minutes later, despite having failed to find a truly suitable location, Cai felt the first spasm of pain course across her chest and stumbled. The nerves in her body were already bearing witness to the astral and material plane energies clashing within her as they began to re-establish their rightful equilibrium. Cai jammed the leather bit in her mouth, dropped the pack, and flung herself onto the softest-looking patch of ground she could see: a mess of grass and moss near an old lightning-struck tree. She flashed a brief message along their newly-restored link, "Try not to watch. It will not be pleasant." and attempted to stifle further communication slipping through from her end before the worst could come.

Then the seizure began in full force. Cai's eyes bulged and she clenched her fists. Her meridian lines were a mess of chaotic qi, and each Dantien was in flux with the imbalance of energies. The raging storm of qi and astral energies ran acid through her entire nervous system, and Cai's form writhed and twisted with little she could do but bite down on the leather and thereby stifle her screams. Veins and muscles popped and flexed as agony suffused every part of the half-elf's physical being. Her limbs thrashed and flailed beyond her ability to control, granting Cai new scrapes and bruises when she managed to locate a tree root hidden beneath a clump of moss. The cut along her side, caused by the spearman earlier, opened further and bled freely.

[Long Piao Bai]

Piao Bai's hands raised, reaching out for Cai as she flung herself to the ground. Worry creased his features. She seemed to just crumple, before stiffening, muscles ridgid.

Then, it hit. It started in his forearm as a hot, itchy burning sensation, limning the matching line art tattoo on his arm in an ugly green. The pain traveled up his arm and stopped at his heart, clenching tightly. Piao Bai stumbled backwards into a tree and just stared glassy-eyed as Cai struggled.

Oh, Cai!

She bled and Piao Bai grit his teeth. He had to help some how. He couldn't touch her, that much was obvious, but he could... a rock! The rock was grabbed and thrown with surprising force across the clearing. A pointed stick, wrenched out of the way and disposed of with equal vehemence. Some things couldn't be removed, but he did what he could, waiting and watching the ordeal. He also sent as much soothing emotions as he could across their connection, for all the good it would do.

For Piao Bai, unlike Cai, to be alone and in such pain was worse than to see his weakness witnessed by another. Piao Bai settled onto his knees and waited. His head hurt, but that didn't matter. Eventually, the motions slowed and Cai's breath came in ragged, exhausted pants through her clenched teeth and nose. The pain from the connection had receded, too.

Piao Bai grabbed the canteen and poured water onto a clean cloth. Scooting closer to Cai, he whispered her name.

"Cai?" The cloth was pressed to her forehead, then wiped down her cheeks.

"Cai?"

[Cai]

When the seizure finally passed, as it always did once her qi had regained equilibrium, Cai's first step was to remove the leather bit from between her teeth and draw in a ragged breath. Then she regained awareness of her surroundings. Dampness on her face, pain in her side, and the human? form of a very worried Piao Bai. "It's fine, Piao Bai. This is normal."

Cai rolled painfully to her feet and winced as her side gave complaint, at which point she remembered the wound. "Except the wound. That will be an inconvenience. We can't afford to stop here for a proper restorative sleep. We should return to the unconscious ones, make temporary bandages from one of their garments. Are you alright?"

A moment later, it finally hit home. "Wait, when did you stop being a dragon?"

[Long Piao Bai]

Piao Bai inhaled a breath of relief when Cai drew in her ragged breath. He reached for her to scoop her up in a bear hug, but her words stopped him. He nodded, watching her rise to her feet. More than a few times his hands lifted as if he would help her up. When she was finally standing, he rose easily from the kneel, then stumbled slightly. Two legs required some getting used to once more.

"I am fine. Bandanges?" Gaze casting about, it landed on the shirt he wore.

"Forget traveling back, that doesn't make sense." Using his claws to break the stitching at the sleeve, he quickly removed the sleeves from the shirt and held them out to Cai.

Piao Bai blinked, confused by her question. His head canted to the side for a moment and his brows drew together, though no lines marred his brow.

"I never stopped being a dragon."

"Here. Will these do? If not, use the belt from the chang san. It is clean. " His accent was a tad exotic and the spoken words more formal than the ones shared through their direct connection.

[Cai]

Cai nodded "Those will do. At the hot springs I can recover properly. For now, we should move." It was going to be a rough day of travel. "When we've put some distance between ourselves and here, I will need to boil some water to clean the wound properly." Focusing on breaking the day down into manageable segments was the best way of dealing with being wounded in the middle of nowhere, Cai had found.

Still, Piao Bai had neatly dodged her question. "How long have you been able to change form?" It shouldn't have surprised her, really, given that the Emperor could do likewise. She made a mental note to blame the slowness of thought on extenuating circumstances. Such as the wound, not the sudden appearance of a naked man in the middle of a fight.

Cai carefully applied the makeshift bandages, holding them in place with her own clothing and belt.

[Long Piao Bai]

Piao Bai watched Cai tend to her wounds, observing keenly her actions. When she finished, he took the pack and slipped it on, putting the pack on his chest. Then, he crouched down in front of her presenting her his back. A noble gesture, though, whether he had the strength of limb to carry it off was to be discovered only through experience. He'd read books where the hero always offered the woman his back when she was injured. Now that he looked human, he thought he should at least try.

"I haven't. I mean, I was supposed to be able, but haven't been able since I was a child." Speaking of it made Piao Bai feel uneasy, a fact that transmitted itself easily along the link they still shared. "I... there was an accident after which I was unable to transform."

The vision the triplets gave came to mind and the knowledge that the source of both the accident and his banishment was the same.

"You have carried me often. Let me return the favor."

[Cai]

Even dragons had their problems. What a world. Cai retrieved her walking stick "My legs work well enough. I'm not so old or frail that I need carrying. I thank you for bringing the pack, however. That will put less strain on the cut."

Cai mused aloud, to change the topic from the issue of being carried around like a sack of cabbages "What do you think caused the change?" She began walking, guiding them back to path. The hot springs were going to be a blessing.