~~~四~~~

~~~熊和兰花~~~

"E-excuse me?" the nineteen-year-old questioned, tilting her head to the side as she tried to understand what just happened, "What are you doing?"

"Young Lady Cháng, from the word she just used and her current salute, I believe she is from one of the Eastern Tribes," the soft-spoken disciple explained, causing the Young Lady to stand up.

"Ah! Stand up, there's no need to salute especially when you've just been healed!" she fussed while walking over and reaching a hand out to help the other up.

"I thank you for your kindness, Princesa," the taller woman replied, bowing her head once more, "You truly are the one of the Chief's blood."

"Um, I... think you might have me mixed up with someone else," Lánhuā chuckled nervously as she led the stranger to the circle of others, "Do you remember hitting your head before falling into the river?"

"No, my mind is clear," she stated firmly while looking at the down at the woman in blue, "I may not be able to divulge much information right now, but you're the one I was sent to find, I'm sure of it."

"The maiden Cháng Lánhuā," she addressed, not giving any time for anyone to answer as she knelt down once more and held up a wooden box to the ravenette, "The Chief has instructed this Little Bear to deliver this to you and to serve you with my life, so that is what I will do."

The disciples just looked at each other in confusion, the darket narrowing his eyes as the female reluctantly took the box from the woman before ushering her to sit normally and eat with everyone.

"So, Little Bear, you come from one of the Eastern Tribes, right?" Mázhe started as his russet-colored irises focused on the woman that respectfully stood behind his friend to ear her morning meal, "Which one?"

"I come from the Apoy Tribe," she answered with a small nod, "And on behalf of the Chief I would like to thank you for keeping our Princesa safe thus far."

"Why would your tribe personally send someone to guard our Young Lady?" the male disciple questioned while eyeing the foreign female who now wore an extra set of their blue robes, "I don't recall us having close relations."

"I cannot divulge that information," bluntly replied the silver-haired female as she narrowed her eyes at the younger being, "I'm only here to fulfill my orders, not interfere with your clan business."

"You-" "Now, now, let's not get so heated," the ravenette sighed as she took bites of her steamed buns, "She obviously means no harm so just let her travel with us for now."

"Plus, everyone is always going on about how I shouldn't be left by myself so what's wrong with another person joining us?" she continued, though it did little to alleviate the suspicions of her clan members, "If this ends up being a mistake, then I'll take full responsibility for it, but our main focus is getting to Saosu so let's just start heading out if you're all done eating."

Once everything was packed up, the ravenette was helped back into the carriage as their new guest just rode on the back of it, keeping her eyes peeled as they continued down the road.

Unfortunately, the rest of the trip was quite uncomfortable for the nineteen-year-old as she began to feel nauseous in the carriage but said nothing as she just focused on her breathing and tried to ignore it as not to delay their trip.

"Lánhuā, it looks like we're going to get to Saosu a bit early," the driver said after about four hours of travel, noticing that she was much quieter than when they were on the road the previous day, "do you want to take a break for a bit?"

"No... the sooner we get to Saosu, the better," the female replied, trying to keep her voice even despite the spinning in her head, "I can take a longer rest if we get there early."

"Alright, but if it gets to be too much for you, then just say something," he replied while clicking his tongue, "Don't keep it to yourself if you're not feeling well."

The woman only gave a small hum in response before attempting to go back to meditating to take her mind off of the nausea.

It was early afternoon by the time the group reached the small town with the disciples quickly reserving a room in the local inn before hesitantly leaving their Young Lady in the care of the foreigner, not knowing that the darket also intended to stay with her.

"Lánhuā, are you feeling any better?" he asked as both he and the other female looked at the woman on the bed who had her face buried in a pillow.

With a drawn out groan as her only response, the man turned to the dagger wielder, slipping the mask back onto his face before saying, "I'm going out to see if I can get any medicine to help her, so just watch over her for now."

Before he could get too far away from the room he was halted by a hand on his shoulder as the female narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not too familiar with the people of this country, but if my memory serves correct, I believe I've seen your face on a wanted poster before," she whispered, letting her hand fall to her side as he turned back around to face her, "Something about a being thieving delinquent."

She could see the smile in his eyes falter slightly before it came back in full amusement as he said, "You would be correct... Do you intend to do something about it?"

"No, your criminal affairs have nothing to do with me as long as you don't do anything to harm Princesa," Little Bear spoke as she backed off, "And from what I've seen so far, I highly doubt you will."

With a small nod, the rogue cultivator walked down the stairs of the inn and out into the town to find medicine that would help clear the effects of nausea.

Shortly after he left, the Young Lady had fallen asleep, sprawled across the bed with the quilt kicked off to the side so she wouldn't have anything obstructing her much deeper breaths as the tribeswoman stayed with her as a guard.

About an hour after the male had left, the ravenette slowly stirred with a small groan, immediately earning the attention of the other as she asked, "Princesa, do you need anything?"

"Water," she muttered quietly before turning over to loosen her waist band a little bit before turning over on her side.

"I'll get some from the kitchen," the silverette said with a bow, earning a small hum from the female before heading towards the door.

The inn was designed to have three rectangular buildings in the shape of a box surrounding a large courtyard with a tall fence and gate to act as the fourth side.

Due to this, the woman had to descend the stairs that led to the ground before walking past multiple other patrons in the courtyard to reach the kitchens that already had a long line of people waiting to be served.

'Ugh, this is going to take awhile,' she thought with a huff as she stood in line with an obvious frown and her arms crossed over her chest, 'They shouldn't allow this many customers if the service is going to be slow.'

Meanwhile, a figure in black had silently slithered into the room through one of the windows that was left open upon request of the Young Lady to let fresh air circulate through the room.

The clothing they wore covered them from head to toe, a large hood casting a shadow over their face, not allowing it to be seen.

They looked around the plainly decorated room before their gaze landed on something towards the northern end of it.

'So you're the daughter of that worthless Chief I've heard so much about,' they thought while making their way closer to the figure lying in the bed with a light scoff, the female not even stirring from her deep sleep, 'It's surprising that you've managed to survive for this long.'

'No matter,' they continued while taking a flask out of their robes and pouring its contents all around the perimeter of the room, closing all three of the windows as they went around, 'I'll make sure that the job is done properly today.'

After making sure that every exit was sealed with black runes burned into wooden tokens, the figure lit a match and let it fall by the door, igniting the path of liquid that had been placed before disappearing with a cloud of black mist.

On the ground floor, it had taken almost fifteen minutes for the tall woman to get to the front of the line to simply get a jug of water and some cups and it was on her way back to the room that the darket walked in through the front gates.

"Little Bear, what are you doing down here?" he asked while walking over to the taller female that paused as soon as she noticed him.

"Princesa wanted water, so I came down to get some," she replied simply while looking over at the male who had parcels from the local pharmacy, "What took you so long?"

"There was a long line and a lot of the other customers were quite picky people," he sighed while scratching the back of his neck, "It took a lot of effort to get these."

Before another word could be spoken, the pair's attention was drawn by the deafening sound of a woman screaming, "Fire! There's a fire!"

Eyes following to where she was pointing, the two travelers began to panic as they saw black plumes of smoke and the beginnings of small flames licking from underneath the door of the room they had rented.

"Princesa!" "Lánhuā!"

The air in Saosu was active, as it usually was, when Shéng Nijìng entered the small town, traveling about ten minutes ahead of the Shu Clan siblings who stayed back to handle some of the injured first.

At first he paid no attention to the shouts of the people as it was found to be quite normal activity in the markets until he actually heard what they were yelling about.

"There's been a fire at the Duxon Inn!" called a male voice while pointing in the direction of a rising plume of smoke, "A young woman is trapped inside!"

Immediately recognizing the name as the place he was supposed to be meeting Young Lady Cháng, he turned in the direction of the smoke and started running.

By the time he arrived, there were people throwing buckets of water at the growing flames that had spread to other rooms, but his golden irises immediately caught onto a silver-haired woman wearing the dark blue robes of the Shu Clan.

Before she could run up with another bucket of water, the male caught her by the wrist and asked, "What happened? Where's Young Lady Cháng?"

Taking a moment to recognize the male as a cultivator Little Bear said, "My lady is trapped in the room. We've tried everything we could but they're sealed shut by magic."

The Young Master nodded in understanding before flying up to the second floor and unsheathing his sword, surging spiritual energy through the blade before brining it down on the door, unknowingly cutting straight through the rune sealing it shut.

Once the door was out of the way the blaze immediately grew larger with the surge of oxygen that rushed into the room, causing him to back up a few steps but through the flames he could see the form of the the young woman.

She was crouched in the middle of the floor as she had her arms held covering her head and neck while a transparent purple dome protected her from any of the flames that tried to get too close.

"Young Lady Cháng!" called the male in white, squinting his eyes and brining his sleeve over his nose and mouth to filter out as much of the smoke as he could.

'Young Master Shéng?' the ravenette thought with her head hurting even worse than earlier thanks to the addition of smoke and excessive heat that surrounded her as she lifted her head.

The male's eyes widened upon seeing the band of metal that ran across her eyes, but was quickly brought out of it upon hearing her yelp when a piece of the crossbeams fell dangerously close to where she was, causing her to lose her focus as the barrier fell.

'Oh my god!' she thought, immediately curling back up as tightly as she could as she felt her nails dig into her already burned palms, 'I'm really going to die in a fire! This is actually how I die!'

Before she could continue her internal monologue, the woman heard a light whistle, sensing the bright soul of the Young Master move behind her as he scooped her up into his arms.

The next thing she knew, she had felt a quick sensation of falling before hearing multiple loud voices invade which only added to her headache as she remained in the arms of the one who saved her.

Noticing the trembling in her form and that her breathing was still uneven, the male took her off to the a shaded corner of the courtyard far away from the raging flames while blocking her from the view of others.

"Lánhuā!" called Mázhe as he ran up to the female with the silverette, all but shoving her rescuer to the side as he knelt next to her and took her clenched hands in his own.

"Hey, Lánhuā, you need to breathe," he instructed calmy, moving to rub small circles into her back as golden eyes bore holes into his form; however, it seemed the female couldn't hear him as her shaking only got worse until he was left with no choice but to strike two pressure points at the base of her head, rendering her unconscious.

"Little Bear, use the remaining water you have to clean her hands and I'll find her a new veiled hat and some bandages-" the darket started only to be cut off by a blade being aimed at his throat.

"Who are you?" the man in white questioned in his deeper tones as the crimson-eyed woman properly laid the other one down and began cleaning her raw and bloodied hands.

"I feel like I should be asking you that question," the masked male retorted in a mocking tone as he moved the blade to the side and stood up, "You may have saved Lánhuā from the fire, but who knows what intentions you have?"

Just before the slightly taller male could bring his sword forward to attack, the call of a pair of siblings brought their attention to the gates of the inn.

The group had moved to another inn while the fire was being put out, Yaling staying at the younger female's side in the room they had rented as the others were gathered on the first floor to discuss what had happened.

"And how can we trust anything that you two say?" growled Xuefeng slamming his hand down on the table as he glared at the two strangers that sat across from him and the other Young Master.

"A woman from the Eastern Tribes that just shows up, claiming to serve A-Lán under orders of her chief and a shady figure who refuses to show his face," he continued earning little to no reaction from anyone, "It's more than likely that it was you two that were trying to kill her! I should call back the disciples that were meant to escort her here and break their legs for even letting you near her!"

"Hey, you have a right to be suspicious of us, but your disciples were only following the orders of their Young Lady," the darket replied, "She's the one who ordered them to let us accompany her."

"I would still come along even if she hadn't," the woman spoke as she was cleaning one of her daggers, "I will only follow the orders from my Chief and Princesa, otherwise your words mean nothing to me."

Before the noiret could reach over to draw his sword and attack the pair, the familiar form of his elder sister came walking down the stairs with a soft sigh.

"Jiějiě," he addressed as the she walked over to the counter to request some tea, "What happened? How is A-Lán?"

"She's awake and fine save for some minor burns on her palms," the elder sibling explained as she took the tray with the teapot and some cups in both of her hands, "she'll be ready to travel again by tomorrow morning."

"You can all come up to see here if you like, I'm sure she would appreciate it," she continued while turning to start up the stairs again, "Just don't make too much noise and don't overwhelm her with a bunch of questions. She's still trying to process what just happened."

With one more glare sent to the ones that didn't belong to any clan, the Young Master of the Shu Clan turned on his heels and followed up the stairs with the others lagging behind him.

Upon entering the decently sized room, everyone saw the ravenette sitting at the table with her hair down and in a lavender colored hanfu provided by the older female since all of the belongings that weren't on her body went up in flames, her hands wrapped in white bandages to keep the cooling slave directly on her burns.

"Princesa, I'm incompetent, please punish me," the silverette requested as she dropped down to one knee and placed her right hand over her heart with her head hung low, "I shouldn't have left your side for so long."

"Is she kneeling again? Aish, just stand up it wasn't your fault," the female sighed as she gingerly took the cup of tea that the other Young Lady touched to her fingertips.

"You were just doing what I asked you to do, but I do have something to ask you," she continued as the woman stood before taking the box that was given to her that morning out of the pouch at her waist with some difficulty, "What is this?"

"Princesa, that is an elephant amulet made especially by our Chief," she explained, earning many confused looks from anyone else, "I'm sure he would appreciate if you started wearing it."

"Miss Bear, why would your Chief give something like this to our Mei-Mei?" the darkette questioned, standing close by to her sworn sister in case she were to hurt herself with the state of her hands, "She's never even been outside of Fengrao before this, so how could there be an established relationship?"

"I cannot tell you that, but it can be inferred that she came from somewhere before ending up in your home," the older woman replied with no changed in expression as she looked over at the one who asked the question, "And even without leaving Fengrao she already has people who wish for her death."

"How did you know that I would be the person this was supposed to go to?" the nineteen-year-old questioned, drawing the attention back to her, "Did you follow it to me?"

"Yes, but why do you ask?" Little Bear answered with a small nod as the other set her tea cup down and opened the wooden box to reveal a metal pendant in the shape of a hollow elephant's head, "Is there something strange about it?"

"Not necessarily," the ravenette replied as she passed the necklace back to the older female at her side to help her put it on, "It just feels familiar to me is all."

'That, and without it, I wouldn't have even woken up in time to form that barrier,' she internally mused while taking slow breaths, 'I felt its energy pulling me out of my sleep just in time to smell everything burning around me.'

After a few moments, the Young Master in blue let out a gasp before turning to the blind woman to ask, "A-Lán, do you think this has anything to do with your biological family or where you came from?"

"Mei-Mei, was brought to our Shu Estate nineteen years ago by the Mìngyùn River," Yaling explained upon seeing the knitted brows of the dark-haired male, "She was just floating down in a small basket with nothing but a blanket and a small slip of paper that had her name and birth date written on it."

"And the metal?" Nijìng questioned who only observed the youngest as she continued to take slow sips of her tea, careful not to grip the cup too tightly.

"The seal was already placed over her eyes when we found her," the noiret explained as he let out a sigh, "She couldn't train her cultivation because of it and just started learning some small healing spells on her own."

Mázhe couldn't help the small snickers that escaped his form as the male in white said, "She created a barrier in the middle of the room."

The shocked expressions of the Shu siblings almost broke his composure completely as they turned to the nineteen-year-old who was casually sipping on her tea.

"Mei-Mei, how were you able to create a barrier?" the poised woman asked as she looked down at her, "Your cultivation base isn't developed enough to sustain a barrier."

"Are you sure about that?" the rogue cultivator chuckled as he gestured to the seated female with a shrug, "Why don't you take another look at her cultivation base?"

Everyone immediately sent some spiritual energy into their eyes to see that deep within the ravenette's chest was a core of soft purple light that was quite pure.

"How the hell did you manage to do this?" Xuefeng questioned, stopping the energy as he just stared at his long time companion with wide eyes.

"Do what?" she asked in return in an innocent tone, tilting her head to the right with an amused smirk playing on her lips.

"Don't play dumb! Your cultivation base was exactly that of a twelfth ranked disciple!" he explained, earning a chuckle, "How did you manage to cultivate up to the rank of a senior disciple in the span of a week?!"

"Xuefeng, you're getting so worked up over nothing," the younger female mused as she brought her right sleeve up to hide her smile, "I don't even know what you're talking about, I haven't even changed much."

'That's true,' the masked male thought as he watched the other continue to try and extract information from the healer, 'All the potential for growth and power were there, she just learned how to better organize and use it.'

"Oh that reminds me," she said while turning to the foreign woman, "I won't be able to work properly in time with my hands just like this and the salve has done a good job of cooling my hands so can you bring up a bucket of water?"

"Yes, Princesa," she replied, bowing at the hip with her right hand held over her heart before backing out of the room to do as told.

"Eh? What are you going to do with the water?" Xuefeng asked as the male he knew as 'Hēi'an' reached across the table to grab one of the pastries that was set in the middle.

"Well, I can't heal my own hands on my own in their current state since I'd need to be directly touching them together in order to get the energy to flow properly, so I'm just going to stick them in the water and allow it to act as a conductor for the spell," Lánhuā replied as she let the older female do her hair up into its usual style, "It's the easiest and painless way to go about it."

'Water is the universal element of healing. It makes sense,' the stoic male thought as he watched the other four sense, amongst themselves before he narrowed his eyes at the darket, 'But why does he seem so familiar?'

'His looks, his voice, and even his mannerisms,' he continued, watching as the other Young Master stopped the stranger from patting the youngest's head, 'I feel like I've seen them all before... Why?'

Before the bickering of the two males could get out of hand, the door to the room opened to reveal the silverette carrying a wooden basin filled with cool water.

"I have returned, Princesa," she announced, switching to hold the basin at her hip while turning around to close the door.

"Oh! Just put it in front of me please!" the ravenette chirped, standing up and holding her hands out to Yaling to carefully undo the bandages.

"Tell me if anything hurts, okay?" she instructed in a soft tone before unraveling the bandages to reveal the raw flesh beneath, causing the younger female to hiss while the others just frowned.

Carefully feeling where exactly the basin was by using the back parts of her hands which weren't burnt, the nineteen-year-old dipped her hands into the water and allowed her energy to circulate through it with a soft purple glow.

The others continued to watch her work, the energy spreading a cool feeling through her damaged palms and wrists the flesh grew back to as soft and smooth as they were before the fire.

"And done!" the woman chirped, lifting her hands out of the water and flicking off the excess before showing that they were completely healed, "I'll be ready to work as soon as you need me to."

Reminded of why she was even there in the first place, Young Master Shu let out a sigh before saying, "I'm sorry that you had to be called out here, A-Lán."

"We're having a hard time fighting something that we can't even see," he continued, crossing his arms over his chest while he shook his head in disappointment.

"Don't apologize, it isn't your fault," the female retorted as she dried her hands off on a towel that was handed to her, "But to my understanding, there were other sensory types with you originally, so what happened to them?"

"They also had difficulties," Nijìng explained as the tribeswoman took the basin of water back out of the room, "All of them had difficulty locating the demons in the fog."

"I understand," she replied with a nod, "I'll do my best to help locate them then, but please understand that I've never experienced battle even if my cultivation base has matured."

"I know that I'll be protected by all of you, but please also remember that your mission comes first," the woman continued, before she reached over to her right to feel the noriet's hand, "Especially you, don't neglect your own safety just because I'm present."

"I should be the one telling that to you," he scoffed in return as he turned his head away, not making any move to remove her hand from his own, "You may be blind, but at the same time you're also extremely reckless."

"I'm not going to say you're wrong, because you're not, but I'm serious," she spoke, lightly squeezing his hand to emphasize her point, "if it comes down to it, do not put my life over yours, we're all making it back home, promise?"

Looking down at the female he had known all his life, the man's gaze softened as he said, "Fine, I promise, but only if you promise to stay out of trouble."

"I thought that was implied when I said that we all have to live, but okay," she chuckled in return, "I promise as well. I won't cause any trouble beyond what I was brought here to do."

The rest of the day was spent in the room or on the first floor for their dinner as everyone took it as a break from all of the hectic events that had just happened.

When time came for the sun to set, the males left the room to share another one that was right next to theirs and settled down for the night, though things were quite tense in their room.

'Hei'an' never once took off his mask even as he spread his futon on the floor and laid down to go to sleep, leaving the two Young Masters to be even more suspicious of him than they were before.

"Young Master Shéng," whispered the noriet as he let his hair down and set up his own futon far from the male of unknown origin, "Does he seem familiar to you?"

"Yes," the male in white answered simply as he set his sword on the nearby table and made his way over to the only bed in the room.

"Do you remember where from?" The other questioned as his grey eyes narrowed in the direction of the already sleeping male, "He seems dangerous."

Unfortunately, the stoic male only shook his head in response, earning a silent curse from the male in blue who clicked his tongue before laying down to sleep.

When morning came, almost everyone was gathered in the room of the females since the nineteen-year-old couldn't leave without something to hide her whole face.

"Where's Má- Hēi'an?" she questioned while ripping open one of her steamed buns to let some of the heat out as not to burn her mouth.

"I was out buying this," he replied upon entering, placing a new hat on her head as she felt chiffon shift around her, "I thought you might need it."

"You got me a new veil?" the ravenette mused with a large smile as she reached up to feel the familiar texture of woven straw, not noticing the way her protective companion narrowed his eyes up at the masked male, "Thank you so much!"

"Where did you get this?" Little Bear questioned as she watched the younger woman take it off her head so she could eat properly, "I don't remember seeing anything like it in the market."

"Oh it was there alright," the carriage driver replied as he took two buns from the basket in the middle of the table, "I had to go to a few different places to find it, but I found it."

"Thank you for putting in the effort, Mister Hēi'an," the eldest Shu sibling spoke with a soft smile as she gave a small bow to the male, "My Mei-Mei can't afford for others to see her face, so I also thank you for keeping this a secret."

"You as well Miss Bear," she continued while turning to the taller woman who stood off to the side, quietly eating the food that was offered to her.

"I would never do anything that would put Princesa in any danger," was all that she responded with before returning to her meal, earning a small chuckle from three of the other beings in the room.

~~~Fin. Chapter 4~~~