Winter in the Imperial Lands
Ten Rabbit cleaned his blade on the cloak of an attacker, this was the third time this week that the party had been attacked while they rested for the night. Thankfully Fulha had informed them that according to the guards atop the walls that they should reach the Great Gate tomorrow. They couldn't reach the gate soon enough as far as Ten Rabbit was concerned. The almost nightly attacks were interfering with his sleep and Ten Rabbit didn't appreciate that. Sure he could go for days without sleeping and function fine but that didn't mean he enjoyed it, and it also didn't mean the rest of the party could do the same. Although he was fairly certain that both Nahla and Fulha probably could too.
At least this time the attacking Oster had been more than just children, not that it had made any difference to the outcome. The attackers had all died and the party had their sleep interrupted. Ten Rabbit had noticed that at least thanks to the attacks Devshi was getting better all the time at fighting, she even started to use a shield that she had taken off of a dead attacker after the first battle below the wall. Bisha had gotten much better at using his majic without a distressing side effects that had so accompanied his attempts. In fact there hadn't been an exploding fire or miniature sun for a while now.
After a quick talk with Nahla and himself, Bisha had started practicing his majic every night so that he could use it without risking the rest of them. Considering how disastrously his first few spells had gone practicing was a great idea. Bisha had said that he wasn't very happy with why he had to practice and what the situation forced him into, but now he had a beautiful wife that he really wanted to get back to and nothing was going to get in his way of that. His spell with the flying rock had improved nicely, they now flew where he wanted them. In fact, he had even started perfecting his aim. Ten Rabbit had started referring to them as "Bisha's Arrows", he didn't get the joke.
What had started as a worrying side effect of the spell, the rock exploding at the end of the spell, had turned out to be one of the better aspects of the majic atatck. Through practice Bisha had been able to get the speed of the flying rock faster and faster, until the eye couldn't see it in flight. Because of how durable majical obsidian is, the small shards were like arrow heads that would be going so fast that they would go through one maybe two enemies, embed itself in another and then explode with enough force to cause serious damage to its victim. Ten Rabbit had been the one to point out that the faster the rock went the larger the explosion at the end.
One thing about Bisha's use of majic that Ten Rabbit wasn't sure of, he wasn't even sure he was seeing it, was that as Bisha practiced more and became more proficient Ten Rabbit thought that he could almost see strange symbols in patterns around Bisha when he cast a spell. It was very strange, it was just for a moment and not defined enough for him to say that it actually happened. It was almost like a mirage, a strange flickering in the air. It was there, but it wasn't. It was as if the symbols were made of thicker air? Ten Rabbit decided to wait and see before he broached the subject to Bisha, he wasn't sure he was ready for another lengthy stream of consciousness lecture on the nature of majic again.
The next morning Ten Rabbit saw the largest gate he had ever seen. To be honest he hadn't actually believed Fulha when he described the thing. After all Fulha had admitted that he never actually seen it and was using what was written about it for his description. But here was the proof that at least this time the description wasn't wildly over stated, if anything the description was an understatement. The iron gate itself was over thirty feet tall with one of the large structures that held their devastating weapons in it. The gate was so well balanced that it could be moved by a single child but was so sturdy that it would stop any attack. The dual gates each had large dragon designs that mirrored those on the walls but instead of having symbols that were representative of the areas it protected. These were surrounded by the symbols that represented the celestial emperor or at least that's what Fulha had said.
For once they didn't wait until it was getting dark to land instead they landed before the noon meal. Fulha had told them that they needed to wait for the guards to open the gate and that they should unload the animals while they waited. Ten Rabbit wondered if the Atlom's Axe was going to still be here when they left after all of the attacks they had withstood. So they unloaded the beasts while they listened to Fulha discuss who knows what with the guards that were over the metal clad gate. It wasn't until the gates opened that Ten Rabbit found out what all the chatter was about. Fulha had arranged for the Atlom's Axe to wait for their return just inside of the gates as well as a translator to travel with them all the way to the capitol. According to Fulha their being allowed to travel through the Celestial Empire at all was surprising and from what Ten Rabbit was able to learn a translator was a huge concession and never happened, it was expected that visitors be able to be conversant in Yi Jen before they came.
Later that day everyone was mounted and ready to go right after eating the noon meal. Fulha had asked for and had received permission for the engineer to stay with the ship, although the banker decided to accompany them to the Celestial Palace, apparently the Hafla banker needed to speak to the Emperor's court in person. Ten Rabbit wasn't too sure that was going to happen but didn't mention it in case he was wrong. The translator, who was a little shorter in stature than Ten Rabbit, had a beautiful iridescent blueish coloration to his scales and he wore thick blue robes with a dragon chasing its tail embroidered on the front. When he had first seen the Long Yi that made up the Great Dragon Army of the Chi Eng Zhou empire upon the walls he had been reminded of the sole Long Yi that had he had fought back in Alkadharam before he had joined this group of misfits that had become his friends. Thanks to Fulha he now knew that female Long Yi had scales that were dull brown and green as well as being larger in build. The males were all brightly colored and more petite in build. That was when Ten Rabbit realized that he had fought a female Long Yi back in Alkadharam not a male as he had originally thought. That realization however didn't change how he felt about what had happened back in that rented room. The only thing Ten Rabbit regretted was not letting them talk before the fight, considering that they were all members of the assassins guild there wasn't much regret at all.
They were all ready to go once they had finished the noon meal. The farm filled plains stretched out before them. The translator told them all that they were currently in the Huang Jia prefecture which was the bread basket of the Celestial Empire and that they would be expected to say a prayer and make a small donation at the shrine just inside the gate. The shrine was a large statue representing the Great Celestial Emperor with a large bowl of sand in front of it. The sand had several sticks of burned incense sticking out of it and a flat area in front for people to kneel and say their prayers. The statue, bowl, and prayer area were all protected by a large square wooden gazebo. Off to the side was a small outbuilding that had a monk in simple brown robes, apparently you made the donation to them and they gave you your incense to burn. Fulha paid the monk, lit the incense, and kneeled to make his prayer. He pulled a small string of beads from a pocket and counted the beads with his fingers as he made the prayer, the monk seemed somewhat impressed by this.
After the prayer and they had started their journey off in the distance they could see some of the farms that the translator had mentioned. The cold dry air was sharp in Ten Rabbits nose making him wish for the wetter weather in his homeland. He had never enjoyed winter but the dryness of the air here was much worse than the cold wetness of Michocan and he was fairly certain his air passages were being cut up. The only good thing about winter here was the lack of ice cold mud, instead there was snow on the ground which was something Ten Rabbit still wasn't used to.
The party rode out from the gates on the icy path that lead towards the Celestial Palace. The ground crunched under their mounts feet as they headed northwards to their hoped for meeting with the emperor. Ten Rabbit was still uncomfortable riding, never mind that he had been riding for almost a year now, he was never going to feel right about doing it. The crunch of the ice under his mounts feet added a cadence to Ten Rabbits thoughts as he listened to the translator describe the land around them. The sun glowed bright in a cold blue sky with no warmth at all as the wind whipped around them all like daggers. Ten Rabbit was glad that he had switched to the heavier clothing that the Oristani Great Chieftain had given them, otherwise he would have frozen long ago.
Ahead of them the road wound before them like a ribbon. On each side of the road were fields that lay fallow for the winter. The scrubby remains of the crops stuck up out of the snow that lay on the ground like a blanket. Above the party a bird flew in circles periodically giving a lonely cry that struck Ten Rabbit in the depths of his soul, resonating though him like a beat so deep that it was felt rather than heard. Ten Rabbit felt more alone than he ever had before, even more alone than when he'd been traveling to Alkhadharam alone. He didn't know why that solo bird's cry affected him so much but it did. A fact that confused Ten Rabbit almost as much as the felling itself, he had never felt alone before so this was definitely new to him.
Ten Rabbit listened quietly as the party talked in low voices around him. It seemed that he wasn't the only one feeling the desolation of the winter that they were riding through. It was actually reassuring to learn that he wasn't alone in his feelings of loneliness, yet another thing that the party shared with him, at this rate Ten Rabbit was going to feel closer with his fellow party members than he did with the people in his own order. Once again Ten Rabbit wondered about how close he now felt to the party especially Bisha who he now looked at like he was one of his younger cousins. Particularly since the visit to his home when the cousins had taken Bisha and Irene to a race. Bisha being able to successfully guess which dog was going to win had surprised Ten Rabbit, it was still somewhat hard to believe.
Ten Rabbit was startled by the sudden scream of the bird of prey that had been slowly circling above their path as it streaked down through the sky to strike a small mouse sized animal that had been hiding in the snow covered scrub. As Ten Rabbit watched the bird winged its way back into the sky, its dinner clutched in its talons. That was when he realized that he had spent more time feeling like the prey in the birds talons than he did the bird itself. Why he feel like the prey not the predator Ten Rabbit had no clue, but he did. Nor did he know how to feel about that fact either, yet another thing that had started to confuse him. Deep in his mind Ten Rabbit felt rather than heard the questioning thought as it also resounded through him.
