We rode along the road in the rain and at one point the sun had risen a few hours after we started. Not that I could really tell with the overcast sky. There were a few minutes when I couldn’t help but watch the sky as lightning tore through it over and over. I thought it almost looked like a painter trying to paint the sky with electricity the way it streaked around. It almost looked like some sort of design that I couldn’t quite make out.

  I was pretty happy that we never ran into trouble. Maybe the bandits didn’t like the rain because we never saw or felt anything that might have been a threat. If it wasn’t for the battering rain, this could have been a pretty pleasant ride through the countryside. The mountains turned to hills, which turned to flat lands as far as I could see, with rolling hills far off to my right.

  By the time we got to a town called Kyokai, I saw it. There was a wagon, no wagons held together by some wood. It was two pup wagons that had a squared canvas roof. Between the two, they looked like they’d be the same length as my current overly long wagon. The front one was a little shorter, and the back was about the length of a regular sized wagon in this world.

  “Betsy, look!” I shouted and pointed at them.

  She gave a nod and a bellow and picked up speed. Not too much speed since we weren’t too far away, but I barely blinked and she came to a stop parked next to the wagon train. I was running my hands along the polished wood of the outside and admiring it. There were small etchings into the wood. I wasn’t sure what they meant or what they did as I looked at them and ran my fingers over the etchings.

  “It’s extra durable.”

  Came a voice behind me.

  “And super light, depending on how powerful Betsy is, she might be able to fly with it. There are wind runes on there.”

  I turned and looked with my mouth hanging open wide. Hisai stood there with his arms crossed against his chest and looked very pleased with himself. Well, more than usual.

  “This is amazing,” I said before I turned back around to look at it.

  “Yes, like I said, Elder Kuchiki took a particular interest in this project. His own hands carved all the runes on it. He is a master craftsman,” Hisai said as he stepped behind me.

  I walked over to the lead wagon and looked inside from in between the two carts. The bunk area looked almost nice as the bunk in my old truck back home. There was a plush mattress and pillows. The bed ran lengthwise and on the side was a small chest of drawers for storage.

  Hisai left me alone while I walked up to the front of the wagon. The harness and clasps were rigged so that Betsy could free herself if she needed to. Then I looked up at the bench, investigating it. I climbed up and sat, and the seat lowered a little. I grinned and bounced. The seat jumped up and down with me. I looked over at Hisai, feeling like a kid in a candy shop.

  “Yes, he used an intricate design with springs and hinges and such to make the seat bounce if you go down rougher roads. Should be easier on your backside,” Hisai said with a nod. He stood there and watched me with a half grin and his arms folded.

  “So…” Hisai started.

  I frowned and looked over at him. Betsy was ignoring us and just was looking over the wagons. She nudged it with her horns here and there to test various parts of it. No one was letting the rain bother them. Betsy and I, in our excitement, just ignored it and Hisai seemed to have a small bubble of wind around him. I don’t even think he got wet.

  I smirked and lowered my head. “How much?”

  “Sorry to uh…” He covered his mouth and coughed before he held out a palm.

  I felt a pulse of power and the rain hit his hand.

  “Rain on your parade,” Hisai finished and watched the rain.

  Another pulse of power and he lowered his hand and he once more wasn’t getting wet.

  “Come, let’s go get a drink and get warm. We can figure out the details,” Hisai said and pointed over to a building that had an open door.

  “Some of my sect mates already had some tables and are enjoying their lunch,” he said as he walked over with his hands behind his back.

  I gulped and watched him for a second before I looked back at Betsy. She gave me a soft bellow and nodded her head vigorously. Apparently, she was excited for the new wagon as well. I sighed and followed Hisai to the tavern.

  I sat with the young Elder at own private table away from the rest of the people he was with. Upon seeing Zhong Fen, I happily waved at him, remembering him from my previous visit. I put my coin purse on the table and as soon as I sat a bowl with a dark rich looking broth filled with udon noodles was set in front of me by a large frumpy looking woman.

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  Before I could even tell her thank you, she walked away and was helping someone else. I shrugged and looked down at my bowl, and my stomach growled. Me and Betsy didn’t even stop to have breakfast. We just wanted to get here as soon as we could so we could stop riding through the muck of the road.

  “How long have you guys been waiting for me?” I asked as I picked up one of the large flat-bottomed spoons to try a sip of the broth.

  The broth wasn’t as good as it looked, or that I was hoping it’d be. It was still hot and tasted good enough, though. I slurped down some noodles.

  Hisai smiled and shrugged, his eyes showing a bit of playfulness as I tried to delay the hit to my pocketbook. “We got here a little earlier than I expected last night. Didn’t think we were going to show up until tonight sometime. That cart really does make moving easier.”

  I gave him a nervous chuckle and drank a bit more of my broth. Finally, I grabbed the coin purse and upended it, dumping my money out onto the table. I kind of lamented that this world didn’t have paper money, it would have been much easier to deal with and quieter.

  Hisai looked over at the small pile of coins and raised an eyebrow. “It seems you’ve come into some fortune.”

  “Ah, yeah. I got paid for hauling clay for the SSA and now I’m on another job where I need to get to Toya as soon as I can. Delivering some..” I thought about it. “You know, I’m not sure exactly what it is. Was just told it was supplies. Anyway, they paid me a lot and said someone would be a bunch more if I got it there quickly.”

  Hisai nodded and smiled. “Probably one of the sects. We’re actually on our way there as well. Actually, we’re a little late so I could meet you and get you your wagon. We also ran into a spot of bother on the road from some of the bandits.”

  “Oh? Anything serious?”

  Hisai shrugged. “Not for us. I think they were surprised by our large numbers. Your friend Zhong Fen wiped the floor with most of them before I even had to get involved.”

  I grinned and looked back at the lead guard. I remember him being quite menacing. Fen just gave me a wave and nodded his head as he drank with the rest of his sect mates.

  While Hisai spoke, he was playing with the coins, pulling some towards him and pushing others away as he figured out the price. I sat there and watched him nervously, wondering exactly how much of my money he was going to take.

  “Are you trading me that long wagon of yours?” He asked and looked up at me.

  I shrugged and nodded my head. “Yeah, I might as well. I won’t need it anymore.”

  He nodded and returned his gaze back down to my pile of coins and slid a few of the etched ones back over to my side of the table. My pile just had the few etched coins he slid and then some silver ones and the golden ones with the holes in them.

  “I think this about does it,” he said and smiled.

  I frowned and looked down at the pile of coins on my side of the table. Truth be told, it’s more than I thought it would be. That was something. Still, he was taking a large hunk. Ah well, I started with less than that and I’d be getting a payday.

  “Help me move the cargo into the new wagon and I suppose it’s a deal,” I said and smiled up at the elder.

  He slapped the table and nodded his head. “Excellent.”

  Hisai held out his hand for a shake, and I eyed it dubiously for a moment before I reached out and shook it. He gave it a soft yet firm shake three times to seal the deal and then let go of my hand.

  “Been practicing?” I laughed a little before I slurped up more noodles.

  He nodded and smirked. “Just so.”

  “You know, some people like to spit in their hand to really seal a deal,” I told him in between bites.

  His lip upturned a little, and he looked at his hand and then at mine, which was dirty. “Let’s not do that.”

  I laughed a bit more and nodded. “Deal.”

  Everyone finished their lunch and ale, and then we trudged outside to move the crates. Fen and someone else climbed up into the long wagon and me and Hisai went into my new one. The two others stayed outside, and we got a sort of fireman’s ladder going with the crates. They handed it up to me and Hisai, and we worked on putting them down and organizing them.

  Things were going pretty smoothly despite the rain until we got to the last couple of crates. With everything soaking wet, I heard the two cultivators outside curse and then a crash and then questioning. I looked at Hisai and he shrugged.

  “Elder, Maikeru, you should come look at this,” one of them called to us.

  We stared at each other for a minute before we jumped down from the wagon and outside. The two cultivators stepped away from the broken crate with its contents half spilled out on the ground. Hisai drew in a breath.

  “That doesn’t look like supplies a village that was attacked with no survivors would need,” Hisai said and looked at me. His look was somewhere between confusion and anger.

  I stared at something I never thought I’d see in this world. There were long metal barrels encased with wood. I blinked. I couldn’t see the whole thing, but I recognized the wood and barrel and sight at the end of my days of being a revolutionary war nerd. These were an early form of muskets.

  “Where did these even come from…?” I asked no one in particular, but looked at Hisai. “You have these here?”

  Hisai frowned and shook his head. “If these are what I think they are, they’re a newer invention. I haven’t seen them before but heard they were all the rage in the west.”

  I nodded my head and wasn’t quite sure what to do. I didn’t realize Betsy had walked up. She was eyeing the guns next to me and then took a few steps back. I looked at her and she gave an annoyed sort of half bellow. She started to bellow and then cut it short once more.

  Betsy stamped her foot, and I heard her cough. Her mouth worked once more and in the burliest, gruffest voice I’d ever heard in my life. “I’m not hauling those things.”

  The voice reminded me of the guy with the cigar from that old RTS video game where you built a base and stopped waves of aliens. I just remember he used to always say ‘It’s about damn time.’

  I looked at Betsy, my mouth hanging open stupidly. “You are a guy?”

  Betsy glared at me, and I could feel the electricity in the air in her anger. I could feel it through our link and she snorted so loud mud picked and blew away from in front of her.

  “I’m not a guy, I’m a queen,” she said with the same voice before she turned and I watched her stomp away.

  I looked over at Hisai. “She can talk?”

  He just stared at me with his eyebrows high on his forehead before he looked back down at the guns.