White Fur - 4

Our feet padded the ground, that star above us had soon found its way… a warmth in the middle of the sky that helped to offset the discomfort the mountain tops had to offer.

We crested over the mountain, the world seemingly so small in that tiny moment. In which we all stilled. Ever so slightly.

I had seen a view as such millions of times. More than I could count with variations as many as there were planets.

But this sensation. That warmth that clung to my neck, like some child that refused to part from their mother, his warmth. It… it made this scenery… there was just something so magical about it.

To share this view with a partner that I could say for certain would be there for me. I found that a small smile had graced my features. Only in the next moment, wherein I was forced from my entranced spot.

I gave a sardonic smile. One that seemed to truly disturb Lin and Naea. Their smiles strained as both tried their very best to push us along.

Of course I obliged and soon we had reached a gate. A barrier that separated this sect from the world. A simple barrier that I would not even use to defend a bathroom. And here it was being used for the protection of a sect.

"Awe inspiring, is it not."

The twins seemed to take pride in what they saw as astonishment. When in reality it was just confusion.

Until I remembered the time period, the strength of this planet.

It made sense in that context but that context alone.

"Yes. awe inspiring…" I parroted.

But they didn't pick up on that closely hidden sarcasm.

Only the slight shift in my tone. With a stride forward they smugly walked on.

I rubbed my finger against Okami, his own head purred slightly to the direction of my scratch.

So that when the gate was opened, a disciple much older than either of the three of us appeared.

"Mission please."

She spoke, her voice tinged with absolute boredom. Yet there still was this tinge of… happiness at the slight interaction that we had given her.

It must have been years since she had seen a living being.

As most would, as I had come to know and expect, isolate themselves from the world.

It was quite a common practice, and among this planet too.

After the first time they cultivated, or after one had bought enough resources.

They would go and isolate themselves for years on end, training to sleep, to training and back to sleep. The only thing upon their mind would be some nascent idea of immortality.

Yet there were still times when they would come out. The most common of which was that they had merely run out of resources, whether that be some special elixir, or they had merely ran out of things to learn. Or more commonly, they just ran out of food.

And rather than starve themselves they would make a quick trip to the outside world, to the alchemical sects, to pick up grain pills that could sustain them for a dozen more years.

There was one other reason that one would leave their isolation, a golden opportunity that came in bursts of infrequency.

It was for that reason why this gatekeeper, upon the far side of the sect's influence, would appear so bored.

Combine both factors and you get someone that, while a guard for this barrier, barely saw a person. Maybe one every couple of years.

Either way she was professional, needed only the token that the twins had been given and soon she let us free to roam the world.

"We'll be hurrying down the mountain and making camp at the base."

Lin, I believed at least, spoke. It was quite hard to tell the two apart.

Both of them had the same appearance and both had the same inflections in their voice.

However I was quite sure that this was Lin, for the simple reason that she had taken charge.

Just as Lin had in their introduction.

Cultivators rarely changed. So if they were shy in an introduction it was quite assured that they would be shy in all of their interactions.

I nodded my own agreement and hurried after them.

…

The day had passed by quite quickly, with the sun to set in mere moments.

Already we had set camp. Fire placed in the middle. And a hunt that they had come across placed above it.

Held tightly by some string they had brought.

The two licked their lips, drool all over their mouths as they watched me slowly season and cook their own pieces.

So that when I was done, they both hurriedly sat next to me, like a duckling would to their mother.

And soon they started to devour their food.

"Here." I spoke softly, "have some."

Okami sniffed at it before his maw opened and devoured it with just as much vigor as the twins had.

I smiled.

"Are…" one of them began, Lin I believed.

"You up for first watch?" The second finished. Naea.

I nodded and let them retreat to the tents they had set up against the natural trees that scattered the base of the mountain.

In the distance, if it were still as light as before, I would imagine that I would be able to see the town that we were to head to.

"Are they asleep?"

Harshly, my head turned. A glare sent well and truly to Okami.

"What did I say…?!" I harshly whispered. And in doing so brought his head down. A sort of depressive smile that had him sink further within that robe of mine.

"Sorry…" he muttered and… and I could not stay mad.

"So am I… I should not have been so harsh."

A silence rose between us. Comfortable within the confines of the night. As the sun faded well and truly into the night sky.

A moon that hung high above our heads. With a reflected glow that told me of the switch of duty.

Only…