Cleaning up after their mess

02 frowned when Yinyue untied her leather quiver filled with arrows and grabbed her bow from the bow scabbard tied to the saddle. He wondered if she was going to shoot the villagers, but didn't dare to ask.

"Have the rest cleared the place?" She asked.

02 whistled at a few of his men around the area. Too far to talk to, but not far enough not to hear a shout. They turned around and his hand signalled to them. After watching them nod and another signalling back, he replied, "no one around. Villagers left the area."

"Good," she said, slinging the quiver across her back.

His forehead creased at her action. She was out to shoot something, but not a wild beast. He didn't detect any big movement in the vicinity. Animals would detect them.

02 looked at the crows perched on the pine trees huddling together with their feathers fluffed up. The crows with their black eyes watched their movement with mild curiosity, making no effort to take flight. If they became flustered at the sign of danger, they would flee to the skies while cawing incessantly to warn others. He glanced at the horses standing together. If they felt uneasy, he would hear neighing or see them rearing. Yet the horses seemed more interested in digging at the ground.

"Are you hunting?" He asked, trying to figure out the reason. The question sounded non-intrusive.

Yinyue didn't answer his question. She took a few steps towards into the pine forest, surprising him. Shouldn't she take off to the trees if she heard a predator? He looked around with his eyes darting around the surroundings, nervous at the uncanny calm in the forest. A human was easier to handle than a large animal with all teeth and claws sizing him up for a meal.

She halted, straightening her back and pulling out three arrows, which made his eyes almost pop. As a markswoman, that was her signature kill shot in hunting. He squinted his eyes into the pine forest, desperately searching for movement with his ears pricked up at the slightest noise.

Her foot slid slightly apart from the other and her heels dug deep into the ground for a firm footing. She nocked three arrows onto the bow's taunt string. A string of vapor flowed from her nostrils, almost like the paintings of legendary dragons in the scrolls. With a stretch, the bow bent to her will.

Her eyes narrowed at something in the pine tree. "So there's no one around?"

"N-N- none," 02 stammered, now unsure of his answer from the way she asked.

Her chest heaved from a deep breath while her steady hand pulled the string back, aiming at the tree.

"DON'T SHOO—"

02 clasped his face in disbelief at the one calling out. Why did it have to be him?

She released her grip, propelling the arrows forward to meet their unseen target.

The three arrows soared through the skies, whistling as they sliced through the air at the rapid speed of a peregrine dive. Three glints of metal flashed into the shady branches full of pine leaves.

A blackish shadow zipped out like a flash of lightning, rolling on the ground.

"ASSASSIN!"

"GET HIM!"

Five of her men pursued Chiyin without a thought while he leaped up onto the trees to flee them. Unlike 02, those bodyguards were not familiar with Chiyin. Yinyue noticed the slash tear on Chiyin's black sleeve contrasting against his inner white clothing. Her arrow tore through it.

02 stared, stumped, at Yinyue, who merely shrugged with a nonchalant smile on her face. She had shot at her own uncle, relieving the frustration gifted to her since his arrival. He blinked a few times and shook his head while following her into the forest, where the smell of decay grew stronger.

She gave a little jubilant skip, hopping over the twigs and the fallen branches as though happy with what she did, and halted at the clearing. 02 could see the carnage before them.

Three bodies with dishevelled hair laid flat face down under a broken carriage. Planks of broken wood from the wheels and compartment laid around. The carriage broke in half. A few paces from it, a carcass of a horse laid in a frozen pool of blood. Its eyes rolled up in a dead stare with a bluish tongue stinking out of its frost covered mouth.

Yinyue's smile melted into a side smirk. "What a waste of a good horse…"

"Do you want me to pull out their bodies?" 02 offered, hoping deep inside for her refusal.

"No. Leave it to the magistrate to settle."

He nodded, keeping a straight face, careful not to reveal his elation at being spared the disgusting task.

"He won't be here for a while, takes about a joss sticks time to burn out," 02 said, watching her take a step forward and bending to lift the hair from the face of a body piled onto the other two.

Both Yinyue and 02 grimaced at the unrecognizable meat mass of a face when she held up the hair. The eyelids on the corpse swelled like a small purple rice ball. She noticed how fair and slim the neck was, together with a torn ear hole with the piercing gone.

"Shit," Yinyue cursed.

She had a feeling that these mangled bodies, sprawled on the ground, squashed by the carriage, belonged to the three women sent to Hushiyi. Only after she finished her business with Chief Eunuch Li, this had to happen.

The odor emanating from their bodies didn't bother her anymore. She had bigger matters to worry about.

"Stall anyone who wants to enter the scene," she ordered and 02 bowed and left her alone to continue gawking at the grisly spectacle made gloomier by the gathering clouds above.

Yinyue shook her head at the mess both Chiyin and Hushiyi created. Now she was stuck cleaning up after a bloody mess. Her brain went through the lists of explanations to give to Chief Eunuch Li until a growl interrupted her.

She snapped to her senses and noticed moving rocks in the snow heading her way. A grey pair of eyes appeared under the snow cover. Those weren't moving rocks, but a snow leopard prowling nearby. It caught the whiff of the bodies.

She slowly moved backwards into the forest for cover. The snow leopard could climb trees. A twig broke under her foot and the spots stopped moving.

She cussed and swung around, running towards her men shouting, "TAKE COVER! SNOW LEOPARD!"