After we picked up the supplies from the warehouse, we stopped to meet Amber and Norimoro. We only stayed with them for a few minutes, though. I got my money and said goodbye to Amber. She was going to stay to watch the sumo tournament and then continue her journey to study the different sort of creatures and yokai in this world. She was a scientist, so it made sense. We all might as well stick with what we’re good at in this new world. I idly wondered how many others were zapped by that weird lightning and on this planet.

  I scowled and thought it over. Was I on a different planet? In a different world? In a different universe, maybe? Or did the lightning act like a portal like on Sliders? I could be Rembrandt, cause I was smoooooooth. I snorted and shook my head.

  “Anyway, now we need to figure out how to meet Hisai and get that new wagon for us,” I said to Betsy as she pulled.

  I reached into my pocket and fished out my new crystal. A second later, the little blue glittery butterfly was flying off to the north and up into the sky. I just told him we were leaving the Song region via the Royal Road and would meet him wherever so we could swap out wagons. It was also going to leave my purse significantly lighter.

  It only took a few minutes before I received a response from him. Apparently, he’d meet me and Betsy right along the border of the region. I was sort of thankful for that. I wasn’t sure about this whole bandit and rebel situation and it’d be good to have a little backup in case trouble came up.

  “How are you doing, girl?” I looked up at the sky and realized the sun was already setting. Maybe we should have just stayed in the city for the night? No, I don’t think so. The city was a kind of dump and this group of people were paying me a lot of money to get these supplies there as fast as possible.

  Betsy gave a grunt, and I nodded my head.

  “Yeah, we’ll have to stop for the night, I think, and get some rest,” I said to her, and she just nodded her head once more.

  “Oh, maybe we’ll find that Lying Lily place again. The bartender seems like a cool guy and he makes a mean stew,” I said.

  She stayed silent, but I got the image of a shrug in my head. Apparently, Betsy didn’t care either way.

  We rode on for a few more hours and I watched the golden sunset. I smiled to myself as I watched it. This world really did have the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets I had ever seen. Maybe it was the lack of chemicals in the air? Made it more pure? I shook my head and saw some clouds coming in from the north. Dark menacing clouds that made me frown. Maybe they’d go to the east, where we weren’t heading? Hopefully? I reached down by my feet and picked up my map to look it over.

  “Let’s go ahead and just pull into the next rest area and get some sleep. We can get an early start and maybe miss the rebels or whatever is going on,” I suggested.

  Betsy nodded her head, and I yawned. It was another hour, the New York thruway where there was a rest area every thirty miles, this was not. I blinked. Maybe it was thirty miles? I turned and looked behind me as we pulled into the little lot off the Royal Road. How many miles did we go?

  There were only one or two other wagons with people pitching tents next to them and various plow animals, including a yak. Betsy pulled us in and I climbed down from the driver’s bench to help her free of the clasps and harness. She shook her body almost violently and I could feel the happiness she felt to be free from them.

  “You’re a good girl,” I said to her and patted the area between her massive horns.

  I thought about just grabbing my bedroll and sleeping under the stars with her but one more look at those dark clouds made me decide against it. Betsy gave a bellow and looked at the clouds with me.

  “Yeah, you might be getting wet tonight, and things might be a little sloppy tomorrow,” I told her.

  Betsy just nodded her big head.

  “That’s alright. You love the mud, don’t you? Your father was a mudder,” I said as I looked her in the eyes, giving my best New York city accent.

  She just stared at me.

  “Your mother was a mudder!”

  She huffed.

  I gave a soft chuckle to my joke and shook my head. “Never watched that show, huh?”

  She gave an annoyed bellow.

  “Alright, alright. Stick close to the wagon, maybe it’ll help block some of the rain,” I told her and climbed back up to my bench.

  Betsy nodded her head and walked over and flopped down on the ground right next to the wagon. Her legs pulled up underneath as she got comfortable in the grass. I smiled and looked down at her and told her goodnight before I climbed back into my makeshift bunk.

  I sent one last message to Niku telling her about my adventure and asking if she was doing alright. It had been too long since I sent her a message and I wanted to check in. I watched the little glittering blue butterfly fly off before I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

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  I was used to sleeping in busy truck stops and random parking areas and even without my little eye mask and headphones, I could sleep soundly. It just took me longer without the signature ‘it’s me, busy bee’ asmr. Once I was out, I was out and didn’t wake up till the middle of the night without a powerful need to relieve my bladder.

  I grunted and sat up. There were raindrops hitting me in the face, and I stared at the opening that led from my bunk out into the world. A sigh and I just wrapped myself in the outer robe and put on the hood while I climbed over the bench. I cursed as I put on the canvas shoes I wore that were now soaking wet. I should have put them in my bunk with me since I knew the weather might change.

  A smile as I looked at Betsy nestled as close and under the wagon as she could manage so she could keep her head dry. Then I grunted as a loud crack of thunder followed by lightning lit up the sky. I could look up and catch the lightning and noticed how it looked like a completely normal white streak of lightning.

  I stumbled away, fully awake and pretending not to lose the sleepiness in the hard rain till I went a little way into the woods. Another crack of thunder scared me and jolted me, so I got a little on my shoe.

  “Fuck my life,” I sighed and shook my head and then looked up as I put everything away. I wiped the rain from my face and walked back over to the wagon.

  When I got back, Betsy was standing up, and she looked at me.

  “Ruined your sleep too?”

  She nodded.

  I sighed.

  “Feel rested enough to just get going?” I asked her and wondered about what time it was. I figured it was somewhere between midnight and one in the morning, since that’s usually when I woke up. Or well, it was back home. It could have been almost morning or we could have only been sleeping for an hour.

  How the hell did people tell what the time was at night?

  Betsy gave a bellow, and I got the impression of a shrug as she walked over to the front of her wagon. I strapped her in and clasped all the right buckles and clasps and tightened them so she was in securely. Once I was up on the bench, she pulled us away.

  There were still only the two small groups of people in the rest area. Everyone else must have been much smarter and decided it would not be a good night to travel. It was easy to maneuver around the little camps they had set up and get us back on the main road.

  I went back into my bunk and washed up as best as I could using rain water and some lye soap I had gotten. Then I got dressed and sat on the front bench. I could have sat in the back and let Betsy haul us, but I figured if she had to not only sit in the rain and pull us through the mud, the least I could do was sit in the rain on my bench.

  “It shouldn’t be too long till we meet with Hisai, I don’t think. Maybe by morning we’ll be in the town where we’re supposed to meet him?”

  I was looking at my map and traced my finger along the road and yelled up to Betsy. I was talking more for my benefit than hers. She just seemed to know where to go all the time.

  “Depending on if we run into trouble or not.”

  _____________________________________

  Deep in the Song Region of this so-called empire, deep in the mountainous Jianghu, a man stood in a small hut on top of one of the smaller mountains. He took a break from the chalkboard he was trying to design runes on to work on cooking his breakfast. Under his arm was his weapon of choice, a riding crop. A weird weapon, but it was a powerful item, and it brought him comfort.

  It was a simple breakfast of rice, eggs, and a bit of fried pork. He used the crop as a spatula to stir all the food together and fry it up as something he could easily eat while he worked.

  “Master, the cargo is en route,” a voice interrupted his thoughts as he cooked.

  The master looked younger than the apprentice. He was tall, and well built, but lithe and athletic. His form very much deceived most people who met him, who didn’t think he was strong or as powerful as he was. The long hair was bound and kept up on his head. A more stable topknot than those worn by the people north of the old borders. He didn’t flop around just because he didn’t ride a horse.

  He was young, but far more powerful, and had certain gifts that gave him an edge above others. He had an ability that usually old women were granted. Old women that were called Mother’s that were considered oracles. He served as one of their guards, but they banished him after he claimed to share their gift.

  “That’s good, Meng. Do you know which way they’re going to go?” He asked without looking at the apprentice. He was dishing out his food into a small wooden bowl, still using the riding crop.

  Meng bowed his head in a nod. “Yes, master. They’re taking the Ro- main road.”

  The master turned and frowned at Meng at the mention of the so-called royal road. A road the Sasuke thief’s mandated they build and didn’t help pay for. The Song people worked, and bled, and some even died to build that road. He sighed and frowned. He admitted the road was a good thing. Commerce increased, and the region’s population grew as a result of the new road. It ended up helping the working-class people of the Song Region, but to call it Royal when it was anything but. It took him a minute, but he let it slide.

  “Good,” the master said plainly as he went to the doorway to leave his cabin.

  Meng let his master walk by him and stepped to the side. He looked at the bowl his master left on the table and then went to fetch it and some chopsticks. He didn’t want to be scolded for leaving it if his master wished to eat outside. Though, with the rain, he wasn’t sure it was the best idea.

  The apprentice stood in the doorway and watched his master stand in the rain and raise his riding crop. He used the weapon as a baton and directed lightning through the sky. He ignored the rain that fell on him. It rolled off the fabric of the spirit spider silk robes he wore anyway, and the man had his hood up.

  “Is our group in position to intercept?” The master asked.

  Meng stumbled. He acted so casually about it. “They are, but master, can I suggest we not kill the man delivering them? He seemed like an alright sort. Just someone trying to get by in life, also, he uh…”

  “Yes…?”

  “Well, he seemed pretty powerful,” Meng offered meekly.

  “Is that so?”

  Meng nodded his head. He didn’t verbally answer, and he knew the master directing the lightning would notice the simple nod.

  The Master shrugged. “It’s no matter. Either way, they’ll end up in our hands. I’ve seen it in my dreams. With our friends in the west, and the powerful backing we have, this is going to happen.”

  Meng smiled when his master turned to look at him, the riding crop once more held in the tall man’s armpit. “Yes, Master, we’ll have our freedom once more.”

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