On the run

The morning sun shone without concern down on the small group around Kiyu and did not want to know anything of what they had to go through in the last days. Especially for Kiyu. These images floated around in her head. She just couldn't forget all that had happened in Jarifa.

'I don't want to forget it at all.'

The slave beheaded by the former representative city ruler, the boy she had just saved, and Toras. Above all, Toras' death weighed most on her and she wished more than once that he would live again. But that time wouldn't come back, ever. What she had left was to cherish what he had taught her.

Laki was still in her arms, and just like Zhèngyi, seemed unfazed by the sun beaming in their faces.

"Get up," Kiyu whispered to Laki, giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead before standing up.

"Is it morning already?" yawned Laki, straightening up.

The floor was cozier than the prison cell in Xianzhu's mansion, but it was also much colder out in the wilderness.

"Slept well?" asked Zhèngyi, who had also woken up by now and whose grin was wider than the sky when he caught sight of the two girls.

They had wrapped their legs around each other, providing warmth in the night's cold.

"Very well, in fact," Kiyu countered, grinning at him as well. "I didn't even need a blanket."

Laki laughed to herself as she caught sight of Zhèngyi's dazed face. That Kiyu would react so cunning to his innuendo was something neither of them had indeed suspected.

"Whatever," Zhèngyi countered, folding his arms as he averted his gaze in offense.

"We have to be on our way. The smuggler's route goes through the mountains, and even if it's not well used by now, there may still be traps there," he explained and packed his things.

Kiyu and Laki followed suit and gathered what little belongings they had. Since they had fled Jarifa as criminals, they didn't have too much to carry around with them. After only a few minutes, they were all ready and looked at each other.

Zhèngyi stared at Kiyu and Laki, who meanwhile were staring at him and not saying a word.

"Is..... anything wrong?" he asked, confused, stroking his cheeks with his hand to check if there might be anything on his face.

"You are our guide here," Laki joked, chuckling. "The smuggler's route was your idea, so you get to go ahead."

"I see," Zhèngyi replied, almost seeming to beam with joy. It was quite pleasant for Kiyu to see the two of them getting along well despite their situation.

"Besides, I can't let anything happen to my love with all the traps you mentioned," Laki grinned, putting an arm around Kiyu's waist. "Sure, a big, sturdy boy like you will protect us, weak girls, won't you?"

Kiyu wavered somewhere between rolling her eyes and laughing out loud in her mind when she heard Laki's words. She knew how to manipulate people in such a crude way like no other and got away with it quiet often. Especially with old Mert, with whom they had always exchanged apples.....

But Zhèngyi didn't even give her time to reminisce. "Hmph!"

He wrinkled his nose and turned toward the mountains. "Then I'll be the leader. Two little girls can't do that job, anyway. That's for men!" he retorted in a huff and ran off without waiting for further comment.

Kiyu looked at Laki with a grin. The three of them were about the same age, and if it went by height, Kiyu surpassed Zhèngyi by. But they had teased him enough for now, so they refrained from further teasing.

Instead, they went on their way in silence.

Despite their initial worries Xianzhu might have sent a squad in pursuit, the journey to the foot of the mountains was uneventful and without problems. They did not even encounter any other travelers, which was not surprising considering that they were traveling off the official path.

The river that ended in Jarifa came from an enormous lake, which also reached to the foot of the mountains. The group around Kiyu had spent the entire morning and afternoon walking around the lake.

However, since the official path from Jarifa to Oras seemed to be on the other side, or so Zhèngyi said, the chance of meeting anyone had been slim from the start. 'I'm not very sad about that either.'

If Kiyu's assessment of Xianzhu was anything to go by, the latter had perhaps increased the bounty that Tānlán had already placed on her and Laki. Thus, anyone who wanted to make some extra money was a danger to the group.

They arrived at a small section of forest, which had spread out in front of the mountains.

"Are we in the right place?" pondered Kiyu, looking around.

No matter where she looked, there was nothing that even looked like a path. "Nothing here seems like a smuggler's route."

"What do you think?" hissed Zhèngyi. "Are you expecting signs here? With the inscription `To the smuggler's route this way'?" Without further comment, he headed into the forest, following no particular route.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" called Kiyu after him, catching up the distance to him. "I already realize that there shouldn't be an obvious route. But I thought there would be a lot of goods smuggled? For example, with small carts?"

"That used to be the case, didn't it?" added Laki while looking at the ground they were walking over. "Perhaps before Xianzhu seized control?"

"Yes..." whispered Zhèngyi.

"This isn't much of a smuggling route anymore. And Jarifa isn't quite interesting enough to be worth the risk now that Xianzhu is securing his regions. People smuggle what they can carry on their bodies."

"I see" Kiyu had only discovered the path last.

Many smaller plants and also grass had covered some of it, but if one looked and knew what to look for, one could see that they were on a path often traveled in the past. 'But now they do only what Laki can do.'

Not that she felt any sympathy for the smugglers. They were criminals who defied the laws. Now they too had broken the law. Dividing the world into good and evil had always been easy, but it also had a price. A price that one did not always pay oneself, but other people, whom one might never get to know under normal circumstances. 'But normal circumstances have been few.'

"I don't think anyone else is using the route," Zhèngyi said, "but I think we should keep our eyes open, anyway. Otherwise, we might end up as the merchandise of some rich merchant who likes to keep child slaves."

In contrast to the start of the journey, Kiyu had now strengthened her eyes and tried to keep a better eye on her surroundings. Once again, she didn't want to end up in the situation of being someone's prisoner. Soon they reached the mountain pass that would lead them to Oras.

'Can you even call this a route?'

Even knowing there was a smuggling route here, it was hard to see anything that looked like a path. Zhèngyi, however, strode ahead undeterred. Laki followed the boy's every step, and Kiyu did the same so that she would not fall into any traps.

The narrow mountain pass had widened into a wide path when they had passed a few hundred meters. So far, everything still seemed normal, except....

"Snow?" Kiyu reached out and let a snowflake melt in her hand. "It's summer, isn't it?"

Only now had she glanced at the path ahead of them, leading them higher and higher to the top of the mountains.

"What?" groaned Laki, also glancing toward the top of the path where snow was falling. "Snow in the summer?"

"I didn't say it would be easy," Zhèngyi replied, shrugging. "Besides, it's only the top that's covered in so much snow. Down here, it melts away fast."

"You could have mentioned something anyway," Laki replied more angrily. "Then we might have equipped ourselves differently."

Zhèngyi stopped without a warning so that Laki and Kiyu almost crashed into him, and turned around. "We couldn't have changed anything anyway, could we? After all, the soldiers were chasing us!"

Kiyu lowered her gaze and looked to the ground. She concentrated on the ground and tilted her head, but her eyes snapped open. "Guys... we have to leave!" she shouted.

But it was too late. They noticed how the ropes that lay camouflaged on the ground straightened up and formed a flexible cage. Someone had put out a net, and the three of them had blundered in as well.

"Zounds! Somebody fry me a stork. Something got caught in my net!", someone cheered, rejoicing over his catch.

'From the voice, it's a man, and he seems to be older.' Kiyu nodded to Zhèngyi, who then dropped his body through the net with his powers so that he landed on the ground and could hide.

"Then let's see what I caught here..... children? What are you doing! You're not edible!" shouted an older man who had stepped out from behind some rocks, spotting Kiyu and Laki trapped in mid-air.