A month had passed since Xing Lei, Fleet Spear and Alustriea had left Ulak, exchanging horses whenever their current mount tired they made good time as they turned northward following along the foot hills of a low mountain range. Unlike the trip from the tribes home these days had seen far more trouble. To Alustriea it had seemed like the world had gone mad, beasts of greater size and ferocity had been appearing across the landscape, several villages they had encountered had been wiped out, or inhabited by large beasts. In some cases Xing Lei had lead them in round about paths avoiding the monsters, at others the crazy little kobold had charged in with his spear.
Near as she could tell, he was collecting something specific from the beasts not just testing himself or their little group against the creatures. She had to admit, despite the dangers it had been profitable, she'd gained a few levels, more than enough to satisfy her ceremony and not return in failure, though the death of her party meant it wasn't a complete success. Sighing to herself she watched as Xing Lei cuddled with Fleet Spear, that crazy kobold had been sure to find a small cave each night to rest in, even bringing the nervous horses inside like he knew what the night would bring.
Sighing to herself she poked at the fire and let her worries mount, unaware of the kobold on her mind watching her. Fleet Spear had dozed off, it had been a truly long adventure for her, according to what she had told him, she was ready to evolve but was holding back. With all this riding and fighting, there really wasn't a good place to allow her evolution. They had discussed her options and for her it would seem a great change was in order, like Xing Lei, her options had been between a winged kobold or a Blackscale lizard folk. Considering wings would be hard to deal with out here they agreed to having her pick the latter when they reached some place secure, but she was stressing.
The closer they got to the human kingdom, the more they realized this wild land was being reclaimed by the beasts. Just the week prior they had seen a gang of the panther folk riding hard to the north, Xing Lei had smiled when he saw a pride of great felines with fiery manes and tail tufts chasing them. Like Alustriea, she worried about her mate. Ever since Turk sent him on that job to find some ruins, the world had seemed to change. Xing Lei had smiled it off, pointing out that they had grown stronger so why should they worry? But worry she did! This wasn't normal! Animals did not normally display elemental traits, it was like the primordial elemental planes had cross threaded with their world unleashing hordes of monsters.
Xing Lei stroked his mates back as she rested in his arms, he could feel Alustriea watching him, but he smiled it off. They suspected the truth but feared to ask, and unless they asked he was more than willing to indulge the sin of omission and let them fret. It wasn't that he didn't care about them, he felt some concern for his earliest companions after all but he was a cultivator. Every last one of them eventually out grew mortal chains, dooming these mortal kingdoms to a violent tribulation was par for the course. The strong would adapt, survive. The rest... well... he climbed a mountain of corpses to achieve his happiness the first time, this second time would be no different.
His choice hadn't been wrong either, he'd gained a few more levels which he once again poured into his physique, and his skills were polishing up nicely. Once they got away from this backwater region which was swiftly being reclaimed by monstrous beasts he should be able to find an alchemist that sold the herbs he needed to continue their body tempering. After that was spirit cultivating, it would feel good to be able to practice his true abilities again. Relying on a weak mortal body was somewhat novel but was getting old quick, being stuck at body tempering rank three for months insulted his pride.
Looking to Alustriea he flashed a reassuring smile, it would either be tomorrow or the day after they'd reach the border of the human kingdom. She had warned them that these humans were a rather rough lot, their small kingdom was sandwiched between these wildlands to the south, the great elven forests to the north and west, while to the east was a wasteland, formerly another human kingdom of mages but in some age past some genius blew up the area. The only thing that existed there now were undead.
The presence of spirits had intrigued him but his interest waned a bit when he learned most undead were not sentient and rather than a kingdom of spirits it was predominantly skeletons and zombies, two basic shambling corpses with no real sense of self. That was not to say there was no intelligent life there, rather no one had seen the mad mage king in decades, apparently whatever the experiment did had transformed the guy into what she called an 'arch lich', the way she described it sounded more like some demented artifact spirit than a magical corpse.
Turning in Xing Lei looked forward to getting back amongst humans, while his brief stay in the wild lands had been a good cradle, he needed to walk more than crawl. He just hoped the human kingdom wasn't as barbaric as these goblin kin, if they were still living in mud huts or some such he'd have to divert attention to finding the plants he required himself. As he rested, the night gave way to the dawn, the trio moved around preparing what Alustriea called Morningfast while he and Fleet Spear hunted up some fresh eggs. Their day would start earlier than normal, as both Xing Lei and Alustriea were eager to leave this kingdom behind, Fleet Spear however looked south with worry, could their home survive this trial? She wasn't so sure, though Xing Lei scoffed at that worry, a true dragon in the area? Those rank one beasts wouldn't come within a hundred miles of a heavenly beast.
With the sun fast rising the trio mounted up and continued their trek across the uneven plains, the tall grasses were soon giving way to more scrub foliage as the road turned towards a distant mountain range. The panther folks desperate ride that way made more sense now as Xing Lei could see a large wall between two of the closer peaks, such was likely where the border could be crossed and armed guards would help to keep animals away. Even at this distance Xing Lei could see dark specs raining from the upper edge onto the ground below, if it wasn't beast activity then the humans were forcefully repelling border crossers.
Riding closer they were treated to a killing field, bodies of goblin kin and beast alike littered the approach to the walls gatehouse, Xing Lei even spotted the bodies of the panther folk with bodies of the Firemane Lions amongst their fallen horses. At several places Xing Lei stopped to harvest a stinking corpse before moving with the others to the looming gate. Unfortunately the gate was shut, a guardsman glanced down at them and shouted, "Turn away vagabonds! The border of the great kingdom of Ironhand is closed due to an emergency."
Alustriea stepped forward looking towards the the guard, a delicate hand lifted and a whitish green sigil appeared above her palm, the flowing ruin seemed to pulse with the beating of the elf's heart flaring brightly to be seen, "I am Alustriea of House Illtalian, special envoy of the Elven Empire of The Silvertrees, due to my status as special envoy to the Kingdom of Ironhand I hereby demand this gate be opened!"
Alustriea blushed hotly as her title was announced, an emerald eye peeking at the two beside her. While Fleet Spear's confused look was no surprise, her common was still weak even with both Alustriea and Lei teaching her, it was Xing Lei's casual bored look that shocked her. It reminded her of one of her departed friends, the woman had just been told of her elven royal standing yet her friend stood there, picking her nose with a finger and had looked at Alustriea like anyone else, 'So you're some elven princess? Big deal! To us you're a novice mage, stay back don't cause trouble and we'll see this job complete all too soon.'
Smiling a bit wistfully her gaze focused as they heard the guards arguing, back and forth two voices complained before with a rattle the gate began to ascend. Breathing a sigh of relief Alustriea kicked her mount forward as Xing Lei and Fleet Spear followed, as they were about to cross through a pair of heavy halberds crossed the gap between their horse and Alustriea's. "Ehhh, the knife ear big wig can come on in, but you beastly bunch scram on back to yer shit holes."
Xing Lei looked between the guardsmen and sighed, he almost missed this occurence, guards dictating who could and could not enter based on status. They truly were back in a human kingdom. Ignoring the scowls Xing Lei did a practiced move, reaching into the front of his armor and pulling forth a hide bag that jingled of coin. Giving it a shake as if considering the amount he chuckled, "Here's my travel tax to you find guardsmen for doing a superb job of protecting your kingdoms borders from true riff raff. May we continue?" Dropping the bag at the feet of the guardsman who spoke it had pulled open spilling several handfuls of silver coins across the ground.
Both men stared greedily at the dropped coins that represented years of wages to them, coughing they pulled back their weapons, "Glad you understand traveller, may you have a safe journey."
Chuckling Xing Lei urged his horse forward to join a stunned looking Alustriea, shaking his head as this was not the time to discuss matters he motioned her to lead on, the day was fast waning and for a change he hoped to make use of an inn rather than the outdoors. He had nothing against camping, but at his core he was a proper human, he'd rather a comfortable bed over a bed roll at any chance!
Riding deeper past the gate Alustriea pulled up beside the kobolds and glanced at Lei, he turned to her speaking in elvish, "You wish to know how I knew I could bribe the guards or bet against Ottar?"
Alustriea flushed but nodded her head, this amazing kobold was so unlike anything she ever met, he knew things as if he were an Oracle, could speak a vast array of tongues and despite just being a kobold won fights against beasts that made most trained soldiers quiver. Of course she wanted to know his secrets.
Xing Lei sighed reaching down to hold Fleet Spears arms wrapped around his waist, "When we stop and Fleet Spear begins her evolution we'll talk. Just be prepared to learn truths you likely are not ready for."
Blinking she watched him ride ahead again, her eyes following his motions, What truths? About himself or why the world was suddenly turning on the sentient race kingdoms? She bit her lip and growled quietly to herself, that kobold was so very frustrating! Exhaling she kicked the flanks of her horse to catch up and asked quietly, "Will this truth hurt me and Fleet Spear?"
Xing Lei looked ahead and nodded slowly, "Truely it depends on how open your mind is Alustriea, for Fleet, I've long expected her to return to the tribe when our paths diverge at your home. She prefers the tribe life, with her evolution she'll have the strength to make it back."
"But you won't be with her?"
Xing Lei shook his head, "My path is forward. Always forward. To look back is to stumble on a road that brooks no mistakes. So I shall love her as best and for as long as I can, but if she heads back, she does so without me. Such is fate's will."
"Fate? You believe in such a thing Xing Lei?"
Xing Lei nodded simply but said no more spurring his horse faster, like the rest of his tale the truth of the universe was a secret she was not prepared for, few mortal minds could grasp the scope of what cultivators would come to know and experience. Hugging Fleet Spears arms around his waist more tightly, he could not say at this time he held no regrets, but despite them. Despite the heart demon he may cultivate continuing these mortal relationships, he would enjoy them for while he could.