Being a Mercenery

"Cough, cough," a figure was huddled under at least four quilts on a upper bunk bed. Beside the person, Han Yuefeng used a wet towel to continuously mop her forehead. Feng Chusan's face was pale white, and her lips were parched. She appeared to be having feverish dreams, and kept mumbling incoherently and shaking convulsively. Han Yuefeng appeared strained herself, and after a while removed the towel from Feng Chusan's head, and climbed down from the bed. She traipsed across the room to Meng Yue's bed.

"Big Sister! I'm afraid Sister Chusan can't take it any longer! We have to find medicine for her!"

"Go ahead," Meng Yue said unfeelingly.

"I can't -- I don't know where to go!" Han Yuefeng was on the verge of tears. She wrung her hands.

"Neither do I," Meng Yue snapped.

Su Hanlin climbed down from her own bunk. She came to stand by Han Yuefeng and held her shoulders, then glanced and Meng Yue and spoke to her.

"If you know you can't lead us and help us when we need help, then quit being Big Sister!"

Meng Yue looked up quickly. Her eyes turned red with rage.

"How dare you!"

"Why not?" Su Hanlin retorted, her eyes sharp, "you aren't doing what you're supposed to do! Someone is sick, and you sit here uncaring,"

"Was I the one who asked her to get ahead of herself and walk into the Glacier Cave?" Meng Yue snorted, "why should I care? Yuefeng seems to be doing that already,"

"Yes, it's because she was the one who ventured into the Glacier Cave and received the tutor's praise that you're mad at her!" Su Hanlin shouted, "you're mean, Meng Yue!"

Meng Yue jumped down from her bed and slapped Su Hanlin. Her hand hit Han Yuefeng as well. The other girls looked on with apprehension. After pushing Han Yuefeng out of harm's way, Su Hanlin retaliated Meng Yue's assault. The two started cat-fighting.

"Stop it, stop!" Han Yuefeng tried to intervene, but another girl pulled her back. Su Hanlin pushed Meng Yue away hard, and she stumbled back and fell.

"Who wants to have me as their Big Sister!" Su Hanlin cried out, as she stood over Meng Yue and held her down.

"I!" A couple of girls immediately responded. Meng Yue's eyes popped, disbelief spreading across her face and she propelled Su Hanlin back and stood up quickly.

"You-- you guys-- are staging a coup?"

"Yes!" Su Hanlin and her supporters answered without fear, "we won't have you if you won't take care of us!" Su Hanlin added.

"There can only be one Big Sister in the hatchery at a time!" Meng Yue screeched, "and that is the girl who has stayed the longest! That's the law!"

"That's what you think," Su Hanlin sneered.

"The tutors won't recognise you!"

"I don't care. All I want to do is take care of everyone till I am selected," Su Hanlin turned around, "I'll start by getting medicine for Feng Chusan. Or should she die?"

"No!" Her supporters answered.

"It's just a fever-- she won't die! That's not a good reason for your insubordination!" Meng Yue was furious.

Su Hanlin ignored her. She scanned the girls on her side. Fourteen! That was almost a third of the population of the hatchery! Soon, other girls would join them when they noticed how those under her flourished.

"Come," she beckoned to the girls, and led them to her bunk. Her own bunkmate, Min Haofei, had not supported her, so Su Hanlin glared at her and chased her off temporarily, replacing her with another girl. She then turned around and addressed her people.

"Meng Yue's crazy. We all know that. So never mind her from now on. We're not eating or working with the rest again. We'll cook our own meals and clean our own restroom ourselves. Don't be afraid of the tutors. They don't have to know anything. I'm going to go out tonight and find medicine for Chusan. While I'm gone, Gu Liwei is my assistant,"

Gu Yuwei, a tall strong bulky looking girl who most of the hatchlings feared, nodded. She had just been brought in three days before, but had formed a fast friendship with Su Hanlin. Gu Yuwei reminded most of the girls of their instructor Ning Fulan, and even some gossiped that there might be a relation between them, for as yet, Ning Fulan had not landed a single stroke of whip on the girl. Or maybe it was still too early to say that.

"Where are you going to get medicine from, Sister Hanlin?" Han Yuefeng asked. Su Hanlin leaned in and lowered her voice.

"I'm going to enter the main Si Lak,"

The girls gasped.

"It's out of bounds-- how are you even going to get there, you don't know the way!" One of them said.

"I do," Su Hanlin smirked, "that day Tutor Qifei took us to the Lingwu Summit to cultivate, I ventured to the edge of the cliff and saw the whole camp and town in the valley,"

"Can-- can I accompany you, Sister Hanlin!" a girl said at once. She wanted to see the real Si Si Lak Mercenaries camp for herself too!

"No-- I'll have to go alone. So that if I get into trouble, it'll be me alone that'll be punished,"

"Sister Hanlin, you're noble!"

"Yes-- to think you'd put yourself on the line for that Feng Chusan!"

"She doesn't deserve it!"

Su Hanlin frowned deeply at these comments. The girls shut up at once.

"Feng Chusan wasn't the absolute best darling when she arrived here; not like Yuefeng at least; but she's getting better. I'm doing this for Yuefeng anyway,"

"Hmm, Yuefeng is the best."

"Alright Sister Hanlin, you can rest easy. We'll take care of her till you get back,"

"Be safe!"

"Be careful!"

Su Hanlin emerged from within the huddle of heads and pulled on a black cloak. Meng Yue watched her with scorn. She was still incensed, and had decided to complain about her to the first tutor that walked in the following morning.

*

Su Hanlin climbed down from the last jutting rock with difficulty. She was glad she had prepared for this, otherwise she would have met her certain doom several times already. She could see lights in the distance, and buildings. She knew she had to get to the Medicine Guild, but that would prove, she was starting to see, a tough hurdle. From the summit of Mt. Lingwu, all the houses and buildings had seemed close together. However now, she noticed that they were very far apart, with complex corridors, courtyards, pavilions and pathways linking them all. The Si Lak Mercenaries camp was like a very huge palace, taking into consideration the outlay and plan. Su Hanlin, from where she was at the foot of the Lingwu mountain, seemed to be at the outskirts of this palace, with about a mile's distance from there to the nearest wall.

After the wall was a building. And after that building was a courtyard. And after that courtyard was another wall.

But she was a cultivator. Su Hanlin activated her light body skill and with a running leap arrived at the first wall within a few minutes. She clambered up it without any scruples and from there leaped onto the roof of the first building. She glanced at the houses within the courtyard and by the light of a burning torch in a bracket on the outside of one of them she could read the overhead plaque: Jingding Hall.

She leapt from roof to roof, running soundlessly along the tiles and scouting whether she had happened to come to the main area of the camp, where she surmised a big institution like the Medicine Hall would be located. She had passed a number of training arenas, and was certain these places were the schools of some less known squads, for they were small.

After a while she reduced her speed, for she had come to areas where there were sentries. She jumped down into a deserted backyard, took off her black cloak, and stored it in her conscious. Then, making her face as innocent as possible, she walked out of the backyard and into the open towards the sentries.

"Who goes there?" One of them stopped and shone the torch he held in his hand in her direction. Su Hanlin did not flinch.

"I'm going to the Medicine Hall-- could you tell me the way?" She asked rather calmly as if this was a normal request. The guard's eyes dilated and became hazy.

"Oh? Yes," his mouth opened of its own accord, "go towards that way," he pointed at the road in front of the building he was guarding, "and follow it till you come to the main street. You'll see the Alchemist's Guild. The Medicine Hall is behind it. Be careful of Guardian Yi Hei,"

Su Hanlin nodded and concealed herself immediately he finished talking. The guard's eyes came back into focus. He stared around, and scratched his head in confution.

"Why did I stop?"

Su Hanlin was already at least five roofs away. She followed the road the guard had mentioned with her eyes until she came to a wide space which appeared like a central courtyard of the camp, or the outside of an emperor's throne room. She glanced at the buildings surrounding this place: East Hall, much further back; Qingding Pavillion; Weapon's Guild; ah ha, Alchemist's Guild.

She had a hard time scaling these buildings' walls. Eventually, quite spent, she made it to the front of the Medicine Hall. Again she took off her cloak. She wondered who this Guardian Yi Hei was and whether she would encounter him. Just as she walked forward and attempted to climb the steps leading up to the Medicine Hall, a repelling shield matrix activated and almost knocked her down.

"Pass?" A voice breathed next to her ear. She jumped about two feet away, startled. There wasn't anyone there.

"I need medicine," she wondered if her befuddling mind skill would work on this invisible person.

"Which squad or guild are you from?"

"The Riding Squad," was the first that came to mind. She was feeling slightly anxious now. What was the point of making it this far if she wasn't even going to enter?

"Please, my friend is dying," she murmured.

"What type of medicine do you want?" The voice asked.

"Fever medicine,"

"Fever?" The voice started laughing. The cackles grated on her ears, and she put her hands over them.

"Please, hurry," she interrupted. The cackling stopped.

The blue hue surrounding the Hall that had repelled her back suddenly disappeared. Su Hanlin rose up from where she lay. She took tentative steps towards the stairs. She placed her feet on the first one gingerly.

"I thought you were in a hurry," the voice sounded by her ear again, and she ran up the dozen steps and came to the huge wooden double doors of the Medicine Hall. She reached out a nervous hand and pushed it open. The interior of the hall was quite dark, poorly lit. She stepped into what looked like a high roofed domelike room, long and wide. There was a long table at one side, and doors on the other.

"Ha!" Someone shouted behind her. Su Hanlin froze and turned back slowly. A thin man in a white robe, looking like a ghost, was what she saw. He had a wide smile on his face. His eyes were bulging and red.

"Since when have I seen a hatchling with such courage," the man cackled. Su Hanlin knew her hair had given her away. She did not know what to say.

"Hmm," he suddenly approached, and she shrank back. He stopped, and stretched out a brown paper packet in his hand.

"Fever medicine," he smiled.

"Thank you," Su Hanlin breathed, and gingerly took the packet without making contact with him.

"Ha," he scoffed, "you're my disciple now,"

Su Hanlin looked up quickly.

"Pardon?"

"I said you are now my disciple," the man crossed his arms, "deaf?"

"No-- but, I'm not good with herbs or medicine," she responded. She did not want to be his disciple at all. He was too scary.

"Who cares? You'll learn." He turned around, "you'll remain in the hatchery though, until I decide to come get you; what's your name?"

"I do not wish to join the Medicine Hall," Su Hanlin said firmly.

The man turned around.

"Why?"

"I just don't like medicine," she replied. He snorted. With a snap of his finger, a ball of smoke went up around him, and then it dispersed. Standing where the scary ghost man had stood was a refined looking young gentleman with almond shaped eyes, flawless skin and toned body shape, wearing a combat attire of purple, scarlet and black.

"My name is Yi Hei; I just wanted to have some fun scaring you earlier. This is how I really look," he said with a teasing smile. Su Hanlin was stumped. She-- she still didn't want to learn medicine, no matter how handsome he was!

"Hurry and give your friend the medicine; here's a teleportation token to the hatcheries," he handed out a silver tally. Su Hanlin took it. It activated immediately. She caught a glimpse of Yi Hei waving at her before landing heavily in the hatchery backyard.