SFS - Chapter 31 (Patreon)

”… and that’s how I saved Crane’s life once more.” I stretched out my paws and dropped low into a pouncing stance as I regaled my avian friend with the story of how I fearlessly guided Crane through the infested streets of Dragon Vein Village to find the scholar. 

“Caw, Fluffy’s a liar! Caw!” He flapped his wings and dodged a tail swipe aimed directly at his stupid head.

”Don’t call me that,” I growled out. I had a name—a darn good one at that. Snow! Lady Snow! Empress Snow! Fluffy totally took my sacred, noble image and tossed it into the gutter. “And I’m not lying! I really did fight off four dozen Ophidian while he was knocked unconscious.”

”Krawww.” He rolled his eyes, and started to preen his feathers like he couldn’t be bothered with me any more.

 “Why you—“ 

The door into the main hall of the Forlorn Temple opened up. I’d been so focused on Heizen, I almost missed the sounds of steps approaching down the hall. Graft entered the room with a basket full of candles tucked under an arm. “You’re quite lively today, Snow. Heizen.” 

“I’m always lively.” I pouted, and looked away from my foolish subordinate. How dare he not praise and venerate me… whatever, it was his loss.

Graft moved around the main hall and lit fresh candles. The dim lighting of the room improved, though only slightly. “Of course, of course.”

”Hey, why aren’t your thingies working any more?” I hopped off the altar that’d been turned into my bed, and poked around at one of the bronze pipes leading up to the steam lamps. 

“The pipes?” Graft looked over her shoulder back to me as my claw tapped across the metal. “The temple’s been shut off from the central distribution center.”

Woah, that was a lot of big words. So the humans cut her off? Why? No, wait, she also didn’t have any patients either. “Why?”

“There’s no need to concern yourself.” She moved over to me and patted my head lightly. “It’s just a small matter.”

”Isn’t it annoying, though?” This place used to be so brightly lit without any effort, and now she had to light dozens of individual candles to get half of the light back. 

“Maybe a bit.” I could hear the smile in her weak, sickly voice. She continued to lightly play with my ears while her two other hands got to work replacing a set of candles just over my head. 

“I’ll help!” I grabbed a candle from the basket with my mouth, and was instantly flooded with a regret as the wax stuck to my teeth. I’d already committed, though. I hopped up onto a nearby rack, and carefully put the candle down next to a half melted one.

”Caw! Caw!” Heizen flapped his wings, and grabbed a candle that was just about to burn out. He carefully flew it up to me, and used it to light the new candle. 

“A thousand thanks, little ones.” Graft laughed quietly, and covered her shadowed face with a hand. In the time it took Heizen and I to get one done, she’d already gotten half of the rest done. “Why, we’ll be done in no time.”

My tail waved bashfully behind me, and I glanced at Heizen. It was the bird slowing me down, really. I’m as quick as lighting and as ferocious as the wind! Heizen’s fault that we’re lagging behind, yip.

“And done.” Graft lit the last candle while I was distracted. Already, the main hall felt much more homely. “Have you anything today, Snow?”

”Ugh… I have to go back out into the village.” My ears flopped to the sides as I headed back to my bed. I wanted to stay here and just sleep… but I promised Wujin I’d find his father, and that was exactly what I was going to do. I had a starting point thanks to Crane now, too.

”Caw!” Heizen dropped down beside me and tapped his feathery chest with his wing. ”Help Fluffy!”

”Stop it!” I pounced on the crow, this time easily pinning the unprepared bird under my bulky—ahem, under my lithe and agile form. “It’s Snow!”

“Fluffy Snow! Cawk!” The bird wiggled around underneath me in an attempt to get away. Eventually, qi flooded his body, and he easily displaced me. “Kakakakaw.”

I shot a wounded look at the bird as I flopped back onto my side. My wagging tail abruptly went still. How the hell is he getting used to qi so fast? It takes me, like, forever just to figure out a simple technique… Maybe my days of using my superior size against him are over?

“You Spirit Beasts are always so lively.” Graft sat down on the corner of the altar and half-dangled off the side of it. Heizen backed away to the other edge and put me in between him and her. “Would you do me a favor?”

”Yip!” I sat up straight, and snapped to attention. I pushed away the annoying crow with a paw, and gave Graft all of my focus. 

”I can’t leave this place.” She waved a hand toward the Forlorn Temple. “My stocks of spirit plants run low with the times… Can you look for some while you’re out there?”

“Sure!” I should have more than enough room in my satchel for them, anyway. “What, uh, what do they look like?”

”The crow knows Renewal Grass.” Graft stood up, and shuffled over to a locked cabinet on the far side of the main hall. She slid a key out of her robes, and unlocked it. Rows and rows of books and dusty manuscripts sat safely tucked away. She grabbed one in particular. 

My eyes narrowed on the locked away treasure for a moment before she shut the cabinet once more. If I could get in there, I might be able to level up the Record again? “What’s in there?”

”Useless books, mostly.” She set down the dusty leather bound book in front of me. “Beginner stuff… This is the Herbalist’s Field Guide: Dragon’s Spine.”

“Dragon’s Spine?” Was that some kind of herb that grew on the side of the mountains here? I eyed the dense book. Seemed like a lot of effort for just one plant.

”It’s the western region of the Shenwu Jade Empire.” She flipped open the book and ran a hand down the faded script. “The Ghost Dragon Mountains are in the far southern part of the Tielin Kingdom, so focus on the back eighth of this.” 

My head throbbed as I tried to absorb what she was saying. Were we in a kingdom or an empire? I thought it was the latter with the Jade Quarantine Army present, but maybe I was way off? “Is there a map?”

”Sorry.” She patted my head lightly, and backed away without the book. “Maps above the provincial level are highly illegal strategic resources. The best I can do is a city map.”

”Does legality matter here?” I mean, we were in the middle of a disaster. I highly doubted anyone would care about such a small crime compared to the endless waves of Ophidian prowling the streets.

“Probably not, little friend. I myself don’t know, though. It’d be the blind leading the blind.” She shrugged lightly. “You don’t have to read through that all today, but if you’d glance through it when you had time and look around, I’d appreciate it.”

”Yip.” I eyed the book, and opened it up to the glossary. There were nearly seven hundred pages inside the tightly bound leather. The information for thousands of different kinds of plants were held within the book’s pages.

[Collecting Record… 3%… 7%…]

While old Thorny was focused on that, I had one more question before the doctor could leave. “What about that blue stuff? Should I look for that?”

”Blue Mercury?” Graft paused just at the door out into the rest of the Forlorn Temple. “If you can find it. Most of it’s been collected from the main points around the village by the Purity Scholars already.”

Ah, so I wouldn’t be able to go to a medical pavilion to look for some, then. That was fine. I might be able to find small quantities around still. It seemed like a pretty rare resource, so I’d feel pretty bad using Graft’s supply when I finally decided to try my hand at making pills. That’d, naturally, have to work until my qi learned to follow my orders better. Finding more was killing two birds with one stone, though.

“Caw?” Heizen shot to his feet next to me as if sensing my thoughts, and glanced nervously toward my prone form like I’d pounce on him once more. 

“KekeKEKEKE!” I let out an evil laugh and smirked at the bird… I wasn’t actually planning anything this time around, but I had to keep him guessing. It wouldn’t be good if I got too predictable.

While Thorny slaved away to copy the book into its silver pages, I flipped through the book idly and looked through the hundreds of spirit plants held in its pages. Most of them went over my head. No way could I remember the differences between dozens of different kinds of grasses.

I can totally cheat though, can’t I? Beyond just having the Record make a copy that I could always carry around, of course. Most of these plants were special because of the qi flowing through them. I didn’t necessarily have to remember what they looked like since I could see qi itself with Eye of the Recorder.

”Hey, Graft—“ I looked up, but the mysterious woman had already disappeared while I was distracted with the book. “Guess it’s just you and me, huh.”

“Caw!” Heizen flapped his wings and disappeared up into the rafters as if to totally prove me wrong. I was left all by myself once more. I thought you said you’d help me…

“Nyehh…” My ears drooped, and I flopped onto my side. I really didn’t want to head out into the village by myself, though. I dunno… I stood up and stretched out. Even though I didn’t want to go, a promise was a promise.

I shuffled off to the small hidden passage to the cliff-side ledge that I’d previously used as an escape. While I was bored last night and didn’t want to sleep, I dug out a small burrow with my claws to hide my goodies. The soil was loose from the constant rain, so it wasn’t that hard.

Now it was my secret hiding spot for all three of my jerky jars. I popped one of them open, and stuffed four pieces into my satchel for the walk ahead of me… and one for me. Yip, I deserved another. I gobbled down the piece, and carefully screwed the lid back onto my treasure.

“Snow Snow?” A voice echoed down the tunnel to me. Heizen paced uncomfortably just outside of the tunnel out to the cliff-side.

“What.” I poked my head back out the temple-side entrance to the tunnel and looked at the traitorous bird that’d abandoned me. He’d so heartlessly left me to head into the village all by myself.

“Here.” Heizen reached around and tucked a black feather into my bag. “No lose it.”

“Does that mean…” Did that mean he’s coming with me? My gloomy mood melted away as my number one subordinate committed to helping me once more. My traitorous tail wagged around behind me as I lifted my head proudly. ”The word is ‘don’t’. Don’t lose it.”

“Donut? Caw?” Heizen’s head tilted to the side, and he stared at me with his beady black eyes. “Dooonnnut

“Hmph.” As I thought, his intelligence was simply too lacking. It was fine. It just meant I had to teach him. “It’s a mix of do and not. Do not. Don’t…”

While I taught him the intricacies of speaking, I turned back down the passage out toward the cliff. Thanks to the information Crane gathered, our destination was on the north side of the village. I couldn’t wait to be in the refreshing snow once more.