Chapter 85
By morning we’ve built a makeshift clay oven and baked 6 dozen puff pastries. I was short on whipping cream, so they’ve all got pieces of fruit in to make up for the sparse filling. Not really a loss.
"Your fighting style is really interesting" one of the girls tells me, her excitement to talk about the fight clearly evident. "At first it was soft, like ours, then suddenly it was a hard style, like Sacred Thunder."
"Thank you, growing up outside a Sect I learned to cobble together what works for me. I learned a little martial arts from a failed disciple of the Blooming Lotus, and then watched the tournaments to find moves for what she couldn’t teach me."
"Did you hear, the Blooming Lotus isn’t coming this year? Their Sect Master’s favorite nephew and presumed heir died of a tragic illness and the Sect is in mourning"
"That’s horrible. It must be hard for a parent to outlive their children" both Elders nod in agreement.
We chat the morning away about everything from flowers to food to cultivation to food. Giving out puff pastries at random was a genius move on the part of their guardian. It really helped the mood.
Twice during the day we met up with other groups traveling the same way, but all either gave us a wide berth or made small talk before going their own way.
Before dark we were in line to enter the city, along with thousands of others. Elder Song offers to carry me if I wanted a nap, and seeing no good reason we should both stand, I curled up in his arms to meditate for a few hours. He declined my offer to return the favor, citing an immense blow to his dignity if he let a young girl carry him.
"You and your master are a bit odd aren’t you?" one of the girls asks.
"In what way?"
"Well, for one, you don’t really have that strict Master disciple relationship that everyone expects. It’s more like you’re family. But he doesn’t seem over protective of you like family, more like he’s confident you can take care of yourself and he’s just spectating."