A tree reaching for the sky

A clear night full of bright stars looked down on Bai Hao, he found himself on the side of a mountain approximately hallway up to the top, standing on a ledge 3 meters long and barely wide enough to support a human, with no apparent way to get up there unless one could fly. The mountain itself was several kilometers in height and the air felt thin but strangely refreshing. A cold breeze played around with the robe he was wore, searching for a way in so it could cool down the body below it. Bai Hao shivered, he didn't remember how he got there or what he was doing. His gaze was attracted to the one thing that was impossible to miss, it seemed to fill this world completely. A tree so gigantic in proportion that it would be hard to measure, its roots the height of 3 floor buildings, its branches reaching for the stars, it gave of a feeling as if it alone was responsible for holding up the skies. Bai Hao's lost himself in the beauty that radiated from the tree, a beauty that comes from witnessing a moment that you just can't forget. The tree looked so gigantic Bai Hao felt like an ant in comparison. The tree radiated an air of wisdom that could only come from living an unimaginably long time. While looking at the tree, Bai Hao got lost in the appreciation of the tree.

Bai Hao abruptly awoke from his dreams, his heart pounding. His body was covered in cold sweat, his eyes darting around trying to recognize where he was. Slowly he realized that he was in his bed and that he just woke up from a dream, his heart slowly returning to a normal rhythm he sat up in bed and observed the surroundings. "That must have been a dream" Bai Hao told himself, feeling slightly relieved. "It felt real, but obviously it was a dream, a tree could never grow to that size" he said out loud as if it would reaffirm his thoughts. Getting out of bed, he started preparing for the new days, Only 4 days left, I must succeed he thought to himself. Splashing his face with some water he felt refreshed and ready for a new day. "I can not try medicine concocting in the backyard again, I nearly lost my little life yesterday. Today I need to find a new place to concoct medicine far away from people that can disturb me." Bai Hao packed up all the tools and herbs needed for the healing salve and set out.

That morning Bai Hao could be seen walking with a backpack that was entirely too big for such a young guy. Heaving and grunting, Bai Hao carried the weight of the furnace and pot focusing on setting one foot in front of the other. Used to the lazy lifestyle, his body was loudly protesting to Bai Hao as pain shot through him with every step, however he knew that he could not go back to concoct medicine. Carrying everything might be uncomfortable, but at least he would keep his life, if anything like yesterday happened again, he could not be certain he would manage to survive. Leaving the city through the south gate, Bai Hao followed the main road for the time it takes an incense stick to burn before turning into a small trail into the forest and walking up a mountain side in search of a quiet place. He hadn't met anyone since leaving the main road, so this trail was probably not used by many, other than the few hunters living up in the mountains.

While following the trail, Bai Hao was observing the surroundings for any wild beasts, you could never be certain that you would be safe in the forest. Hoping to find a nice quiet spot to sit down and concoct he continued on. After some time, he saw the trees give way for a clearing. The clearing itself was approximately 20 meters across with a stream of water coming from the mountains running at one side of the clearing. Green grass grew high and flowers were dotted around here and there. If Bai Hao was a romantic he would have realized that this would be the perfect spot for a picnic with a loved one, however Bai Hao was no romantic and he definitely did not have a loved one. "This place is perfect, it has the mountain stream, so I don't have to go far to find water and it's far removed from anyone so if I won't disturb others" Bai Hao put down his pack and drunk from the mountain stream, the cold water refreshed him, soothing his muscles from the long walk up and felt his energy returning to him.

Sitting down cross-legged the first thing he did was to calm his mind, to concoct medicine you need to be completely focused, one moment of distraction can create disastrous results as Bai Hao had already experienced yesterday. After banning all stray thoughts from his mind, he put down the furnace and started concocting. A little further up the mountain side, a black jaguar was stalking through the forest looking for prey, a shift in the wind brought a new smell to the jaguar. Prey! Moving closer to the source of the smell, the jaguar saw a young boy furiously working around a strange object, the boys back was turned to the jaguar and he was not paying attention to the surroundings. Easy prey the jaguar thought, already feeling confident about his kill the jaguar silently sneaked closer and closer to the human boy, 10 meter, 8 meters, 5 meter, 3 meters, 2 meter…. the muscles in its back legs tensed in preparation and BOOOOOOM! A loud explosion resounded in the clearing, the jaguar jumped back in surprise at the loud sound and fled at full speed afraid of the sound. In the clearing Bai Hao could be found lying on his back in shock, his face completely black and his hair looking quite burned. A little distance away a copper pot sat on the ground miraculously unbroken, black smoke wafting from within.

Another failure, cleaning his pot in the small mountain stream Bai Hao sighed in disappointment. "3 tries 3 failures, this medicine concocting sure isn't as easy as I thought. I still have enough blood grass for 12 attempts."

After a short break he was ready give it another try. Sitting down he focused his thoughts, set aside the disappointments from his failure and started concocting again, cutting the blood grass he took extra care to make sure every slice was the same length before crushing it into a pulp. He carefully placed it in the middle of the pot with his left hand, while his right hand fanned the flames in a peculiar rhythm, a rhythm that didn't come from the recipe but with trial and error he had found that this rhythm kept the flame at an even temperature. Medicinal liquid started seeping out of the herbs and slowly mixing, his right hand slowly started protesting from the exertion of fanning the flames, but he wouldn't allow himself to stop forcing himself through the pain. This was the crucial moment, any distraction at this point would mean another failure. The tried, the sound of the fan through the air with each movement of his hand, and the roaring of the flames formed a strange resonance that slowly put his mind in a trance. His mind magnified the medicinal liquid a thousand times and he could almost see the various interactions between the different energies within the herbs, his hands reacted as on instinct and adjusted the temperature of the flame while keeping to that strange rhythm. He could see the energies within the herbs slowly merging and shedding the negative aspects until only the healing energy was left. Taking out a small glass jar of river clay he got ready to mix it. The most difficult step was done, the only thing left was to mix the clay with the dark pink liquid in the pot so that it could be easily applied onto a wound, a step that was almost impossible to screw up. "It's a success, a success", elated at his success Bai Hao danced around the furnace, a weird grin on his face. In his hand he held a small glass jar filled with a light pink clay that gave off a medical aroma, his first healing salve, a complete success.