Sword and Snow

Emery

The second day of our travel appeared to go well. Avuri's medical techniques, despite being relatively amateur, helped with the injuries immensely over time. While they wouldn't have helped an injured Cultivator return to a fight quickly, it worked wonders for the injuries that plagued our group.

Karn could walk on his ankle again, and Kord was no longer actively doubled over with his bruised rib. Enrik's extremities had healed most of the actual damage, leaving angry bruises that would persist for a while, still. Briar and Risha seemed to both be doing somewhat better after another round of Avuri's Qi application in the morning, with both of them able to focus their vision more normally, and walk straight without dizziness.

Fal, too, was mostly recovered when it came to the pain, but was still visibly injured. Avuri couldn't do anything about his missing teeth, but she did help with reducing the swelling around the rest of his face and eyes.

Basically, the entire group was capable of moving under their own power for most of the day. We had to be careful to take breaks and not aggravate any of the injuries, but we no longer needed to carry anyone. We still did a few times for the gain in distance, though.

Despite the second day going much better than the first, the group's morale hadn't really improved. The kids were all silent except for the occasional grunt of pain or whining that was to be expected from the kids. But they clearly could sense the dour mood around them and were unable to shake it off.

Risha and Fal tried a few times in the morning, especially after seeing how much everyone's injuries had improved, to brighten everyone up a little, but it had little effect.

I felt emotionally drained and empty. While I was no longer drowning in my negative emotions like the previous day, the long night had taken its toll. I was exhausted, and I felt the same weariness from Avuri for most of the day.

If anything, I felt like Avuri was worse off than I was, after she forced herself to be more upbeat in the morning while treating everyone. That outward glow that she had put forward seemed to leave her even more tired once we were on the road.

While neither of us had properly processed the regrets we held, we both had cried out much of the emotional weight - at least for the moment. Taking comfort in one another had been a huge boon, and while we weren't able to cling to each other physically while we moved, our Domains were locked together as strongly as ever, holding on to the other with the desperate grip of a drowning woman.

As the long silence dragged on all morning, everyone seemed relieved when I eventually called for a lunch break. We had made solid progress into the Blooming Wilds by then, and were surrounded by massive jungle trees on all sides. The canopy was high above us, but the greenery was still oppressive, especially as the heat and humidity grew throughout the day.

Avuri used her Domain to help temperature control for our entire group, but even that only went so far. The air was heavy with moisture, and while Avuri could conceivably remove it, it would flash-freeze the whole area and potentially hurt the less hearty members of our party.

When the day was approaching a little after what I imagined was noon, the heat and humidity continued to climb further still. An hour later, we passed a small makeshift campground that was set up beside the road we followed. It was made for a caravan of carts to circle up and bunk for the night, with some simple wood and stone constructions to assist with simple chores, like a very basic oven and a firepit.

It allowed us to actually cook, though, and that was at least a small boon. Not that anyone wanted hot food in the middle of the day, but Avuri could chill already cooked food.

Once the decision was made, Avuri did take the time to focus for a moment and blast-chill the entire campground before the rest of us stepped into it. She froze the moisture in the air solid into a wintry wonderland of hail that hovered in the air for just a moment before falling. The process made the campground pleasantly cool and dry, at least for now, and Avuri would be able to manage the chill better to extend the effect while we ate.

Once everyone was sitting on the carved stone benches that were for seating, Avuri and I wordlessly got to work on food prep. As was normal for us at this point, we worked while preemptively solving each other's next tasks in a way that must have looked unnatural to the adults with us, because Risha spoke up for the first time in a while, her voice full of amazement.

"How…how do you do that?"

"Hm?" I turned to look at her, though my hands continued to work on fileting the fish I had pulled from my storage ring. Food may have been able to last for a while in the pocket space, but not indefinitely, and some of my older food was starting to reach the end of its freshness.

"The -" Rish mimed widely with her hands, the actual motions not really carrying any meaning. "You two seem to know exactly where the other is, will be, and what they need."

I blinked at her, then turned back to what I was doing mechanically. "It's because we do."

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"You…do what?"

"Do know exactly where the other is, will be, and what they need." I repeated, then created a small set of metal skewers, which I tossed into the air toward Avuri with a flex of Qi. She caught them neatly and began skewering the cubes of meat she was working with.

"That's incredible." Risha breathed.

"I can't imagine how useful that could be." Fal added, similarly stunned. The kids, however, were just watching as if we were putting on a show.

Admittedly, even through our deadened moods, we might have been trying to entertain the children out of reflex.

"It has been very useful, yes." Avuri said, glancing my way briefly before continuing, "Problematic sometimes, too."

I felt a spiritual squeeze from Avuri, reassuring me that she didn't see her connection to me as a problem, but rather recognized that it had certainly played a role in our combined unraveling the previous night.

"Is it…some kind of Cultivation technique?" Risha asked hesitantly, but quickly said, "Am I allowed to ask that?"

I shot her a smile that I wasn't sure felt real. "It's fine to ask. It…is, technically, a Cultivation technique I suppose."

"Could anyone learn it?" Fal asked, also clearly interested.

"Yes, although my understanding is that taking it to the point that we have is rare." I said.

I felt Avuri roll her eyes at my lack of explanation as she put the first skewer over the flames in the firepit. "Emery is being difficult. We practice Dual Cultivation."

"Ah." Fal said, suddenly a little red. "I see. You did mention you were married."

Risha just looked at him confused. "What does that have to do with it?"

Fal waited a moment, but when we didn't answer her immediately, he leaned over to whisper into her ear. I could hear him perfectly clearly, as he said that it was a style of Cultivation that involved using physical intimacy as a means of sharing power. When he sat back up, Risha shared the slightly red dusting over her cheeks that Fal had.

"That's an oversimplification of the technique, just to be clear." I said without turning around. "Intimacy can be involved, but it doesn't have to be. It is, in our case, but it didn't start that way."

"Getting the most out of the technique requires a lot of practice, good balance between the two partners, and a frankly unreasonable amount of trust." Avuri said.

I took my turn to roll my eyes at Avuri. "It worked out for us because we're both idiots, is what she's saying."

"Hey, I did not say that."

"You implied it."

"Even if I did, you have to admit, we're only in this deep because you look before you leap, and I'm dumb enough to follow like a puppy." Avuri shot back, but none of our 'argument' had any bite to it.

"We're clearly better for it," I said with a shrug, "and I love you for it."

"I love you too." Avuri said.

"Wow." Risha said flatly.

"Don't see that every day." Fal agreed.

I glanced back at their slightly raised brows, and mild disbelief. A small trickle of amusement flowed through me as I made my first silly decision of the day. I had gotten four fish fileted, but they needed actual cutting now. I raised my hands and created an array of kitchen knives that floated around me. The two adults behind me gasped and the children suddenly cheered as I brought my hands together in a clap and the knives flew about, slicing the fish filets into well-measured, clean pieces that would go perfectly over rice.

"Show off," Avuri muttered good naturedly, trying to seize on the sudden burst of good cheer.

I snorted in response. "Says the one that froze an entire campground in an instant. Still feels lovely here, by the way."

"Sure, but they didn't cheer for me…."

I rolled my eyes again. It was rare for Avuri to act so pitifully, but I was hardly about to say anything after the way we had been all day. Instead, I refashioned my floating knives into wider, thinner blades of metal that could work like spatulas, and gathered up the fish.

While Avuri finished searing off the skewers of meat, I let the fish float around me while portioning out the rice we had made over the large campfire. Thankfully, with my metal abilities, we didn't need to carry around cookware, because the large pot we made the rice in would've been an unwieldy monster to carry around, even in a storage ring.

Similarly, I was able to craft simple bowls for everyone, and even chopsticks. The Qi-based metal should have been perfectly safe for food related use regardless, but we still let them sit in the fire for a while to just be sure.

Eventually, the entire group was able to sit around the doused campfire with a bowl of rice, a filet of fish, and a few skewers of meat each. Truly not bad for a camping meal.

The kids eagerly tucked into the food, having had just some trail rations for breakfast to keep energy up throughout the long walk for the day. Risha and Fal did similarly, but were distinctly less noisy about it. The children were loud as they tore through the food, uncaring of appearances.

It made me smile a little, seeing them like that. I was sure part of it was that we were out in the wilderness, but I similarly had no doubt that it was because they hadn't had such a hearty meal in a while. Or, at least, Enrik and Karn hadn't. And the healing that Avuri provided was physically exhausting, too.

As the thoughts whirled around in my head, I pulled out some sugary candy I had stored away in my storage ring as well. It wasn't anything extravagant, just some very simple street vendor candies, but with all the walking and energy being spent, I felt like extra sugar might be a good idea.

Without much effort, I dumped the candies into a newly fashioned metal bowl and let it float around to everyone as we ate. Everyone took at least one piece of the simple treats, but the kids took handfuls of the sugar crystals each.

Enrik was first in line, and had snatched a whole handful before looking over at me and moving to put some back. I shook my head and moved the bowl along, then smiled at them each in turn, assuring them that it was fine and they hadn't taken too much.

If anything, I really hoped we weren't pushing them too hard with all the walking, but they hadn't caused more than the expected fuss yet, and I was keeping an eye on their bodies to make sure they didn't end up with hurt feet. And they get carried in a rotation, too.

As we wrapped up dinner and I let all of the cookware vanish to avoid any real clean up, I looked down the path that we were still set to travel. Avuri's temperature control over the campground was starting to unravel under the stress of the afternoon heat, and I couldn't help but sigh as I thought about the walk yet to come.

On the bright side, I could see the Dragon Peaks in the distance, just barely, between the small gaps in the canopy. It may have been far away yet, but home was technically in sight.