Threads 432-Green 1
She found Zhengui in the midst of one of his patrols through the farmlands of Shenglu. His routes through these lands had become roads just by the natural effects of his tread, a wide path of packed earth, cleared of boulders and trees for his own convenience, and where he walked, even the grass had shifted to grow verdant and green along its edges rather than the clumpy patches that might catch a foot or wagon wheel. The earth itself was dark and baked by the heat of his shell to give firmer footing.
Out here, her little brother did not restrain himself. He loomed over the land, a walking hill whose footsteps sent small tremors through the earth, some nearly eight meters from the front of his shell to the back. On his back was the mobile shrine he had described to her, much larger than the one which he had worn in their little family garden. Racks on racks of ceramic planters were set into metal piping affixed to his spiky shell, and they were filled with a menagerie of plants from the farms and town given in offering. He was a steep tiered field unto himself, and the rattling of the planters was matched only by the buzzing of the bees which flitted among the flowering plants, each one like a drop of liquid gold.
She floated, Qiyi’s silk rippling around her, toward him through the hazy, light flow of ash wafting off of him. The ash scattered on the breeze, carried out to the surrounding fields to fertilize the soil. since she was flying today, she'd let the dress grow out the train of her gown into a long fluttering thing that waved a good half meter behind her, little wisps of mist rising from it.
"Big Sister!"
"Come to see this young king's walk today, Elder Sister?"
My, Zhen's haughtiness was reaching critical levels. She would have to tease him over it later, and gently deflate it, but now was not the time
"I did. Do you mind if I join you, little brother?"
"If sister comes around the front, Zhengui had his friends build a seat into the new model!"
She circled lazily above him. Indeed, among all the flowers, there was a hollow set with a chair made of thin metal tubing and sturdy linen padding. She didn't miss that it was surrounded by darker colored and more cold resistant plants, too.