Choices

The rain was falling steadily when Chún stumbled blindly out from the concealed entrance of his Immortal's Cave, pushing aside the greenery of the Heaven and Earth vine listlessly with his hands as leaves and creepers brushed and clung wetly against his body.

Water attributed Essence mist and motes curled and bobbed around him as he trudged slowly across the small clearing in front of the cliff, ignoring his clothing growing damp and then soaked. His hair fell limply into his eyes, obscuring his vision, but he couldn't be bothered to comb it away from his face.

Mindlessly moving forward, he crossed back into the dimness of the overcast forest around the clearing, surrounded by the heavy scents of wet and composting foliage. The direct rainfall was cut off as the leaves of the trees above him caught the drops, but the occasional 'tree shower' kept him from drying off as he bumped into bushes, branches and smaller trees that unceremoniously dumped accumulated water on him.

Head bowed, Chún moved in a straight line ignoring minor obstacles, until he impacted directly into a barrier with enough force to make him stumble and fall, sliding down the massive tree trunk he had walked head first into, in a crumpled heap at its foot.

"Ai… stupid place to put a wooden wall...oh, a tree… good place for it then - in the forest…aha..ha"

The boy's mirthless chuckle was choked off by a quiet sob. "I am the one who does not belong here…" Raindrops slid down his face - if there were tears too, no one could tell.

Some time later, the rain's constant platter on leaves slowed and stopped, although the grey sky he could see through the forest canopy didn't promise it would stay away. Chún rubbed his eyes harshly with the back of a damp hand and blew his nose on a fallen leaf he picked up off the forest floor, letting it fall back to the ground after he was finished.

"I am alone again...what do I do now?" Years of harsh turns and fending for himself alone steadied the orphan's thoughts as they moved past the shock of the situation, and he pushed himself upright to lean his back against the side of the forest giant, speaking aloud as he began to take stock of his situation.

"Ok, so I may be a sort of Cultivator, but I don't really know how to Cultivate. My Teacher has abandoned me in a forest filled with Essence Beasts with less than a day's worth of training… I have shelter, but no food, other than a few withered apples, no farming or building tools, no weapons to hunt with unless I count my staff and rope and barely any clothing… and I've soaked this set through."

Thumping the back of his head against the tree in self recrimination at that last item, he closed his eyes , blew out a heavy breath and scratched his wet head in thought.

"I could go back to the village. It is that way... about twenty… li… sort of? So I am not lost… which is...odd…"

Just the realisation that he knew where he was, where the cave was, the clearing, the village calmed his considerably and the panic which he had been controlling with long practice, receded.

"...there is nothing for me there - except being treated even worse if I come back like this ...ish, ok… I'd rather stay here with the Essence Beasts than go back."

The thought steadied him further and he felt a sense of correctness well up from somewhere. "Yes, this will work… I can forage for wild fruits and vegetables…. like that berry bush five paces away… and those wild onions over there - and come to think of it, that giant vine over the cave entrance has enormous fruit - Teacher said they were good stuff…"

Muttering to himself, Chún opened his eyes and picked himself up off the ground, starting to walk purposefully back towards the cave, with the occasional detour to the left and right, absentmindedly uprooting wild vegetables and fruit along his route back as casually as a village wife examining fruits and vegetables at a farmer's market stall.

"...I'll just dry out my clothes once I get back to the cave… don't need a fire, the hot spring provides enough heat to boil these in the hottest part… huh…?" Looking bemusedly down at a wild yaro he had just dug out without thinking about it from behind a large boulder - after he had veered half a dozen paces to the left of the route back to the cave - he blinked, focusing at his frankly absurd harvest. "How did I know this was there…?"

Suddenly, now that he was asking himself the question, he was conscious of - knowing - all the edible flora within a half li radius of his body. He even knew about the wild hive up in one of the trees about five paces up and ten paces to the east… and there was a stream almost hundred paces west - he could sense the Water Essence moving, the movement of fish and other water creatures flickering in and out of his Essence sense.

"Those bees are Essence touched. Bad idea to bother them... but Essence infused honey would be worth..."

Chún shook his head and slowly lowered himself onto the boulder he had found the yaro behind. "My sense of Essence is not this precise…" Still holding onto his gleanings he closed his eyes and remembering what Yijing had told him previously, cast out with his Essence sense.

It was like his eyes were still open - only the colours were a hundred times more vibrant, accompanied by the now strangely cohesive musicality of every object that gave off Essence. Where before they had clashed and competed with one another to his sense, now they seemed part of a harmonious whole. Underlying it all was an inaudible rumble, sounding like a really big version of one of the village cats when they were content and purring… but so deep he felt it echoing in his bones. A sense of careful observation accompanied the rumble, as if he were being watched...no, watched over by…

There was a wordless concept of ageless existence and immensity… and then suddenly Chún knew, without knowing how.

"Honoured Mountain…"

A strange sensation feeling a mountain laugh without moving, but Chún swore that's what it felt like - and then a sudden clarity.

"You are showing me everything I need. Why?"

A rush of memory, but not his - quiet songs, day after day, month after month, from the source of Essence that moved on it's skin - slowly growing more and more aware - stronger - each time. And then - a burst of joy/Essence - to be awakened and connected directly…

"I forgot… That was that Essence wave before I fell unconscious - I am a part of you…?"

A sense of reassurance and protection pulsed through him…

"Thank you then… I think I have enough food now though. I will... just go back to the cave…?"

The knowledge of all the various items around him faded, just the sure direction of his destination left.

"Ah...well, thank you. Guess I am not alone after all then..."

Dropping off the boulder to his feet with crunch of damp leaf litter, he frowned down at the collection of vegetables and fruits in his arms. "Awkward...hmmm…"

Chún squatted down and placed his gatherings on a relatively dry patch of ground, then pulled off his threadbare shirt. Twisting to one side, he wrung the shirt out as dry as he could, then wrapped it around the pile of edible items into a makeshift sack, tying off the ends to let it hold.

Slinging the bundle over his shoulder, he resumed walking directly back towards his cave.

Less self-absorbed now, he felt his spirits lift with the patter of water falling from the greenery around him, and the dense smell of 'ground after rain' scent that mingled with the cool freshness of the morning air. Somewhere above him in the canopy, birds called back and forth - a songbird bursting into joyful song among the squeaks, chirps and flutters of other species.

He was free. And had a mountain for a… friend? He smiled at the quiet ripple of amusement that he sensed as he thought at that and without realising it found himself singing:

"The birds live free

The same as me;

The food grows wild

On the Mountain mild;

A place for all the creatures free

A place for me"

A sudden sense of dangerous pressure from his left behind him was his only warning; singing broke off mid-word as his body reacted on instinct with a drop and roll backwards - towards the creature that flew over his shoulder in a forced overshot.

There was a yelp as it crashed into a tree trunk - one that Chún would have been smashed into if he hadn't evaded the attack - then a snarl as it shook off the impact and sprang back up the ground at Chún's throat.

Chún recoiled in terror. The forest and ground around him shook violently as massive tangles of roots, vines and branches exploded from the forest floor, trees and plants in all directions striking out towards the beast in mid jump.

Crashing to the ground, Chún stared upward wide-eyed at the large Panther impaled mid air as it whined weakly then crumpled, clearly dead. Carefully he touched one of the tangles of wood that covered him protectively.

It crumbled away at his touch as if a year's decomposition was happening in miǎo - the tangles of wood and vines holding the creature transfixed turning to dust. He scrambled on all fours, pushing leaf litter aside as he lunged away from the falling body of the beast crashing to the ground, blood leaking from at least five large puncture wounds that he could see.

"All the gods… what just happened?"

His memory seemed to replay in slow motion, but it was as if from … above? Someone else's senses… it wasn't eyes, because he sense everything - as if he was using his Essence sense, but even more detailed; he could see himself walking along, ripples of essence pushing into the ground as he sang - then the Panther coming up behind him and leaping - missing its pounce and stun attack as his body flashed with Essence, suddenly moving much faster…

...The panther leapt again and the Essence crashed out of the - memory him - into the ground and plant life all around for a quarter li, carrying a demand to attack, defend, kill the threat…

...and the Essence imbued foliage responded as ordered… burning the Essence he had pushed into it to create living spears and nets which crashed into the unsuspecting panther with unstoppable force.

A flash of dark red essence burst out as the beast died, soaking into the land around it. Essence rippled out as the plants around grew a little stronger, then the attacking growths ran out of the Essence he had instinctively provided and withered away…

...Leaving a silly looking boy staring at a beast with a glowing Essence Stone in its head.

Chún blinked through his own eyes again, feeling an odd sense of disregard for what had just happened, then realised that wasn't his feeling. "Mountain? Did you…?"

A sense of exasperation then a negative… for a miǎo that weird view of him falling and blasting Essence in all directions flashed through his mind again.

"Oh, I did it. You did not warn me…" Confusion and a distinct sense of 'not a threat' flowed back over whatever link this was.

"Not to you… to me… and of course I am part of you now, so not a threat," he groaned in bemused realisation at the feelings that responded, "I am not a mountain...ugh, too subtle...hopefully, you will understand eventually, or you might crush me by accident…"

Sighing, Chún looked around for his makeshift sack, picking himself up and dusting off the leaves and other forest detritus that clung to him wearily. Spotting the worse for wear shirt and contents a few paces away he walked over to it slowly.

"I cannot believe I survived that first attack… or moved that quickly. It must have something to do with Essence… I fought an Essence Beast and won with Dao techniques, like something out of the stories!"

Chún found himself laughing with the exhilaration of being alive after a close brush with death. Picking up his sack, still giggling slightly hysterically, he walked back over to the corpse and prodded it experimentally with one foot.

"An Essence Beast, with meat, bones for tools and weapons, fur and an Essence Stone for the taking; and I have no knife or anything else to harvest with... Mountain, can you help?"

His question was met with a sense of confusion. "I need something sharp enough to cut open the beast… like a knife or a flint stone…?"

A 'memory' surfaced in his mind of a broken up field of stone about fifty li around and further up the mountain. Something had broken up and turned the surface like a farmer tilling a field and flint stone lay about in abundance.

"...eh, that is a bit far away, not very useful right now..."

..I wonder if I could do what I need with Essence - like Teacher made the water move into his gourd…

The sudden thought seemed feasible and he thought back to when he had to help the village butcher skin and dress carcasses.

Closing his eyes, he imagined his Essence splitting the skin and muscle down the stomach of the animal to the pelvis; pulling out the entrails to one side while leaving the inner organs in place. Frowning, he decided to bury the blood and entrails on the spot - he did not want scavengers following him back to his cave.

Like the water into the old man's flask, the blood ran out of the beast at his urging, soaking into the ground, the entrails and bowels sinking with the blood into the softened dirt.

"That was...easy?" Maybe, he was better off than he had thought. And if he could do this without getting blood or viscera on him he could take the meat and fur back to the cave without leaving a blood trail.

Concentrating harder, he peeled the skin away from the muscles in a single movement, like he had seen the butcher do to a deer. It seemed even easier than before. Shrugging, he cut away the nutrition rich organs and placed them carefully on the skin side of the now separated pelt, along with the skinned carcass, then divided out the limbs, creating several smaller groups of meat.

Opening his eyes he shook his head in disbelief. A wealthy person's meal - Essence beast meat, and an Essence Stone, once he had a chance to break open the skull...

Grabbing the edges of the pelt he carefully gathered it up into another makeshift sack that he tied off with some tough vine. Grunting with effort he slung both sacks over his back and set carefully off back towards the cave. Thankfully, the panther was not as heavy as he feared - possibly removing the blood and most of the viscera had helped with decreasing the weight?

"No other Essence beasts waiting to ambush me, Senior?" Chún queried sardonically as he noted that the sounds of the forest had resumed as per normal around him.

A sense of nothing but smaller creatures nearby reassured him, and he hastened back towards his new home with a sense of relief and growing excitement.

Maybe things would be ok after all.

Unnoticed behind the path of the young boy, the new clearing in the forest rippled with rapid growth and numerous fountains of Essence motes.