The torrential rain poured down on the muddy mountain path, where the wheels rolled over, pressing deep ruts into the ground.
A black steed blew out its breath noisily, stopping before a broken stretch of road, the breath from its nostrils turning into white mist in the air, slowly drifting away.
"Master, there's been a landslide up ahead; the road is blocked, and we can't get across," said a young girl dressed in coarse hemp clothes, seated on the cart frame. She looked towards the tall figure seated in the carriage with a fanatical gleam in her eyes, as if looking upon a deity!
"Damn, what a nuisance," she muttered.
"It's always raining; it's as if it won't give me any face," he grumbled.
Pulling aside the curtain, a tall elder stepped down from the carriage.