To build a house, more tools than a sword and a few knives are needed. Saws and hammers, ropes and ladders, many things are needed. To obtain these tools, money is needed. We have money but it is too big. Not the small money that would normally be exchanged in small towns and villages. The nearby village is also too small to have all that we need besides the seeds for the vegetable garden. If we are to stay here, someone must go out to make money. Buy food. Buy material and tools.
Decisions are made. Fighter, Gentle Whiskers and Fluttering Bird all go down the mountain. Fighter goes to find work and earn money. Gentle Whiskers takes Fluttering Bird as his nurse to go and find people to heal. Swaying Blossoms stays to help me care for Baby Tofu. I know in reality, she is also here to take care of me but I must pretend I don't know. They all feel better if someone is watching over Baby Tofu and me, while hoping I don't notice how much of a burden I am on them. They would feel distressed if they knew that I felt myself a burden to them and so I pretend. I pretend I don't know and do my best to help in whatever ways I can.
But my health is weak. I am unable to do as much as I would like. Wasn't I fine while we were travelling? Why must I be weak now that we have stopped? Gentle Whiskers says that it is because the stress and pressure built up in my body, and now that it can relax, it is showing how close I was to collapse. It is annoying. It is frustrating. To want to do things but be unable to. To want to help but have to be cared for instead. Only Baby Tofu does not find this troublesome. He enjoys my company.
The others are away for many days. I miss them. I miss their company, talk and laughter.
Swaying Blossoms goes down to the village to buy some seeds and sell some herbs. She is gone for almost the whole day. When she returns, she is smiling. Singing. She has brought a packet of small cakes and a new handkerchief.
"My Lady," Swaying Blossoms blushes at my raised eyebrows. "I forgot the seeds."
"Then these?" I point at the cakes and her new handkerchief which are not as nice as the things in the past but better than the things we have these days.
"A gift," Swaying Blossoms blushes a deeper red.
"Met a man," I observe. "Handsome? Clever? Villager?"
"The village is where he was born," Swaying Blossoms tells me, her eyes shining. Her words come out in a rush. "His parents passed away a few years ago during a long winter when the village ran out of food. He is a xiucai scholar. He has returned to the village because after his parents passed away, he had to work to live and he wanted to marry his childhood sweetheart. But he discovered she is already married with children and so he gave me these presents because he can no longer give them to his childhood friend. He plans to work as a teacher and tutor to any children in the village who have talent - if there are any. If not, he will probably move to the town to find work as a tutor."
"Handsome?"
"Oh, yes," Swaying Blossoms tries to describe the man and I try to draw using a stick in the dirt. She laughs at the result and rubs the picture out. "Not like that! He's not so ugly. I'll go to the village again tomorrow to get the seeds I forgot. I hope you don't mind?"
"Remember the seeds," I tap her forehead and give a small laugh. "Don't forget. Don't come back late. And also, be very, very carefu... umf..."
I am enveloped in an excited hug.
"My Lady, you're the best."
In the morning, I send her off calling, "Seeds! Safety! Come home early!"
When she returns, it is with a large variety of seeds. More seeds than she had the money to buy.
"It was in his parents' storehouse," she explains. "They're a few years old so he doesn't know if the seeds will still grow. My Lady, please don't look at me like that. He has no use for it and we have saved money."
After dinner, she asks me in a tentative whisper, "My Lady, may I go to the village again tomorrow?"
"No," I say. "Dig well. Clear ground. Plant seeds."
"My Lady, pleeeease?"
"No. Not tomorrow. Tomorrow, we work."
The well needs to be dug so that Swaying Blossoms need not travel so far to fetch our daily water. The garden must be prepared and the seeds planted so that we will have at least some food by the first snow. If we can plant the most hardy ones that can survive through a winter, that will be best. Perhaps I will get Swaying Blossoms to go down to the village to discover which vegetable grow best during the cold winter in this area. We need also to get straw to protect the plants and cloth if we can to make new shoes. There are so many things to do.
The next day, we dig as much of the well as we can, making shallow progress. It is at the end of the day when we have dug almost the height of a person that we see the signs of water. Swaying Blossoms swallows her requests to go to the village over the next few days and helps me dig the well a bit at a time. We spread the fresh dug earth over the turned ground where the garden plot will be. The day we succeed in collecting some dirty water from the very bottom, we cheer. Now we need to widen the well and line it with stone. We need to make a cover for the hole so that no one can fall in. For now, we cover the hole with dead branches.
"Go to the village," I tell Swaying Blossoms who stands up so fast in her excitement she almost spills the porridge one morning. "Find out which seeds we can and should plant. Bring the herbs you found yesterday to sell or exchange for a basket or bowl. It will be easier if we have a pot to carry the dirt out of the well. We need more containers to keep water in too but a basket can also carry dirt. See what you can get. Don't take anymore gifts. Don't be an easy target."
It has not been easy to keep her mind on our work. Finding an excuse for her to go to the village is our daily game.