Chapter 60: Orchard’s Reach

Chapter 60: Orchard’s Reach

Sen stopped and cocked his head to one side when he thought he caught the sound of laughter echoing down the mountain after him. After a moment, the sound receded and didn’t return. Sen shrugged and continued on his way. He’d gone perhaps half a mile when he smiled to himself and called out.

“You can come out now!”

Sen didn’t stop walking. Instead, he maintained the same ground-consuming stride he planned to maintain most of the way down the mountain. Perhaps a minute later, Falling Leaf walked up and started keeping pace with him. Neither of them said anything. They just descended in companionable silence. Eventually, Sen’s stomach reminded him that it still existed. Much as Master Feng had done on the trip up the mountain, Sen kept an eye out for a convenient clearing. He shared his lunch with the big cat, tossing her bits of food to chase around. It was a bittersweet moment for him, knowing that it was likely one of the last times, if not the last time he’d do that with her for a good long time.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again when you didn’t come to the house this morning.”

The cat eyed Sen for a moment but didn’t deign to answer beyond a vague shake of her head. He’d known her long enough to know that was ghost panther speak for ‘don’t be an idiot. I can’t trust you not to fall off a cliff without me around.’ Sen smiled at the big cat, a little moved that she was still watching out for him.

It didn’t take long before Sen started to understand just how much Master Feng must have limited his natural pace on that first trip up the mountain. It had seemed brutally fast to Sen at the time, but it must have felt agonizingly slow to the old cultivator. By Sen’s estimation, he’d reach the bottom of the mountain by mid-afternoon. He did slow a little after he made that realization. It wasn’t as though Grandmother Lu was expecting him. He could drag out his time with Falling Leaf a bit. As they walked, something occurred to him. He looked over at the big cat.

“I never apologized to you, did I? I mean, after I stormed off that night.”

Falling Leaf gave him a look with narrowed eyes.

“Okay, I can see that I didn’t. In that case, let me apologize now. I shouldn’t have stormed off like that. You gave me good advice. I just didn’t want to hear it at the time. I’m sorry for acting that way.”

She continued giving him that narrow-eyed look for a moment before her expression relaxed into something more friendly. He gave it a moment to see if she’d say something, but she didn’t. Sen decided to take that slightly less hostile look as her acceptance of his apology. He did notice that the farther down the mountain they got, the more relaxed that Falling Leaf became. Sen supposed that the smarter and more dangerous spirit beasts probably lived above, simply to avoid the cluster of humans in the town below. While almost any spirit beast was more than a match for most humans, those odds changed when you got a whole group of humans working together. Sen thought it was an odd sort of balance that the spirit beasts had struck with this bit of encroaching civilization. Moreover, he wondered how long that balance could last. If the town grew, would the spirit beasts retreat deeper into the wilds, become more aggressive, or try to maintain the status quo?

Sen let that question roll around in his head for a while. It gave his mind something to do while they walked. Even covering ground as fast as they were, there was only so much to look at. After the first few hundred trees, they lost most of their interest for Sen. He kept his senses extended, wary for threats, but nothing bothered them. That left Sen with a hint of unease. Constant attacks from the local spirit beasts would have frustrated him, while occasional run-ins with them would have met his expectations. A total absence of attacks struck him as a bit unnatural. He voiced those concerns to Falling Leaf, who gave him a look that said she agreed, but that she also wasn’t sure what there was to do about it. Eventually, Sen started picking up hints of wood smoke and the less pleasant odor of trash. He glanced over at the ghost panther and stopped. They faced each other for a moment before Sen walked over and crouched down so he could look directly at the panther.

“It’s your job to keep yourself safe until I get back. I expect you to be here, safe and whole, when I return,” said Sen. “Go and visit Uncle Kho every once in a while. It drives him crazy that you can just ignore his formations, but I think he’d miss giving you treats.”

Sen saw a twinkle in the big cat’s eyes at those words.

“Your grandmother,” the man repeated before his eyes went very wide. “Are you Lu Sen?”

“Yes, I am called that,” Sen answered, offering the man a smile.

Much to Sen’s abject horror, the man dropped to his knees and slammed his head against the floor. “Forgive this lowly one, honored cultivator. Your grandmother is not here.”

Sen felt his heart try to stop in his chest. What had happened to Grandmother Lu? Had she died? Sen forced calm onto his racing heart and mind.

“Can you tell me where she is?”

“She is at her shop, honored cultivator.”

Sen frowned. Grandmother Lu had a shop? He didn’t care. She was alive. That was all that mattered.

“Please get up,” Sen told the man.

The older man hastily rose to his feet, but he never quite met Sen’s eyes. “How can I assist you, honored cultivator.”

“I only require directions to my grandmother’s shop.”

“At once, honored cultivator,” the man nearly screamed.

Sen felt a sudden surge of belated empathy for Master Feng. He imagined that the frustration he was feeling with the old man in front of him was but a pale shadow of the frustrations the ancient cultivator must have felt that day in the market. Sen schooled himself to remain calm and friendly.

“Thank you, uncle.”

The old man almost exploded with pride at Sen’s casual use of the respectful term. Sen repressed yet another sigh.