by Kivutar » Thu Aug 16, 2018 1:26 am
Dewang watches Boxiao leave and shakes his head worriedly. Wenchang’s adjutant might just find Hua Tuo - but he is needed here more, and Dewang doubts his ability to convince the famed doctor to return with him. If only he could be sure the man will have the sense to find his apprentices, instead of ignoring his instructions and rushing off himself...
Baozi isn't sure what to say to the men who followed him, after they are safely off the battlefield and the prisoner has been placed under guard, so he slips away as soon as he can. There is still a great deal of confusion, fear, and excitement around the camp, mingled with relief now that the terrifying manifestations are dispelled and the battle appears to be won. He manages to get washed, dressed in clean clothes, and his arm bandaged, but it is busy and noisy and he is tired, and it doesn't seem that he is needed just now but it is quite, quite possible that someone will want an explanation from him.
A few minutes privacy, and no-one will find Mao Xu again until he chooses to be found.
The little brown tabby cat puts its left foreleg gingerly to the ground. He can move it alright, but it feels like the cut will open again if he puts any weight on it. He limps off; he can walk, barely touching the injured paw to the ground, but it’s mostly easier to run on three legs.
Wenchang. All he has found out is that he was carried in off the field, and Dewang too. He couldn’t bring himself to go and ask after him, not when it was thanks to him and his far-fetched ideas that his friend came to harm. But in this shape he can find out many things without being noticed.
By chance, he recognises Wenchang’s adjutant as he leaves a house, looking agitated. Boxiao hurries away without so much as looking at the cat. The cat slips down the side of the house to look for a way in. He spots an open window.
Dewang looks up from Wenchang’s side. He smiles wearily.
“You could have come in through the door,” he says. Baozi looks shy, even in his cat form.
“It’s only Wenchang,” says Dewang. “He’ll be alright.” There isn’t much conviction in his voice.
Baozi is still hesitating. “Oh, come on, Baozi,” says Dewang. He reaches down and picks the cat up a little awkwardly, placing him beside Wenchang on the bed.
Baozi’s first instinct is to jump down again and make his escape. But he is awkwardly placed, close between Dewang and the sick man, who he must certainly not disturb. So he stays put.
Wenchang shows no signs of consciousness but his hand, slightly buried in the soft fur, twitches, almost as if he was stroking the cat.
Gang Ling bursts into the tent dramatically. “Who’s Xiao Khan here?”
Fuli gasps, Cuiying jumps to his feet immediately. “Who is asking?”
“Lieutenant Gang to you.”
As he speaks, Fuli slips out of the tent, and seconds later the other three clerks push their way in. Zaitian is carrying a sword.
“Who sent you?” says Cuiying, calmly.
“Your master, obviously,” Boxiao says impatiently. “He told me to tell you to go to him so he can tell you to tell the rest of these weirdos to get ready to go find a local old man, Hui Tao or whoever, and tell him about my captain and to pack his bags and come with you to see to the injured here or else!”
Zaitian looks at Xufeng in confusion, who shakes his head.
“Can you repeat that, slowly, and in Chinese?” says Bitong sarcastically.
Boxiao grits his teeth and deliberately focuses on their ‘leader’. “Well?”
Cuiying frowns at Bitong. “Do you have proof of that?” he says to Boxiao.
These people are so slow. Boxiao all but throws the quartermaster’s letter at them. “Come. Now. And I hope you're not thinking of frightening me with that little chopstick.” He doesn't look anywhere but at Cuiying, but it's clear the last remark is directed at Zaitian.
Fuli takes the letter, but instead of examining it, she closes her eyes. She doesn’t even need to look at the writing - Master Du’s anxiety pervades it like a perfume.
“It’s real,” she says, a moment later. Great, Boxiao thinks. Another one of them.
Bitong reaches out his hand, and she hands it over to him. He squints at the scribbles. “This is vague.”
Cuiying pauses a moment, ignoring Boxiao’s glower.
“If Master Du says we have to find this doctor, we must,” he says. Boxiao glowers, Also because you must make yourself useful to the army someti- “We can’t leave this moment, though. Fuli, can you talk to Madam Whatshername? And Xufeng, let Song Xiu know - no, leave him a note in the offices, he’ll be asleep. We’ll leave before morning.”
Everybody had a finger in this, thumb orgy plz
Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes."
Hosea 3:1