Niku and I sat on the driver’s bench and looked down at the caravan master, Peter. The short plump was currently yelling at me. The other two cultivators were standing behind him and looked disinterested in the entire ordeal. Using his anime-sized war hammer to stay upright, the short, bald, bulky man watched. He seemed like he was going to say something, but every time he was about to, the taller, thinner one with the two swords on his sides stopped him.

  “Where do you think you’ve been?! We needed you here, and you were gallivanting and drinking!” Peter yelled.

  I had already explained that we stopped at an inn once nightfall came so we could fulfill my obligations to Niku’s teacher. Though, of course, I left out the part where we not only shared a room but also the bed.

  “Wait,” William said and stopped Peter from the next tirade he was about to launch into. The caravan master and I both looked over at the blonde, spiky - haired, Irish-sounding man.

  “There wasn’t an inn between here and the sect. Where the hell did ya find one? How the hell fast is that ox?” He pointed at Betsy and frowned.

  I smirked, and Betsy gave an indignant huff. She worked her jaw for a moment before she spat out. “Very.”

  That made everyone stop and stare at Betsy. She just huffed loudly out of her nose and went back to staring at Peter. Eventually, they all looked back up at me.

  “Look, I don’t know what you’re so upset about. The guy did what he was supposed to do. There was the beginning of an attack, and he stopped it,” the bald guy, Silas? Spoke finally for the first time. It sounded like it hurt him just to talk.

  I looked down at him and furrowed my brow. “Are you alright? Niku here might help.”

  Niku perked up in her seat and seemed to pay attention for the first time. She started to rustle through her pack. “What’s the problem? I’m sure I have something I can give you, depending on your advancement, oh right, uh…”

  She remembered who he was and stopped rummaging around to look at him. “I still might have something.”

  Silas gave a heavy sigh and ignored Niku and just answered my question. “No, I’m not.”

  Before anyone could say anything else, he turned and walked away. He pulled his hammer behind him, and the head of the weapon floated slightly above the ground as he left. William crossed his arms and watched the other cultivator leave before he turned back to Peter and me.

  “The man is right. Maikeru or whatever his name is, is fine. He ended up saving the day. Back off him. Get this buncha merchants and shit together. Everyone is up anyway, might as well get goin’,” William said with more than a little scolding towards Peter. Then he turned and walked away in the same direction Silas had gone.

  Peter looked affronted, and he looked like he was going to argue and chase after the cultivator. He took a moment and then huffed in frustration before he looked back up at me. The mortal seemed to remember that I was a cultivator too, so he just glared for another moment before he looked at Betsy, who was just eating some grass. After a long moment, he let out a frustrated, choked scream and then stormed off.

  I snorted and looked over at Niku. “You don’t have anything that guy could use?”

  Niku raised her eyebrows and looked at me. “Maybe? It’d take my master to really make something that would benefit him, though. He’s almost at the end of his path. He’s practically an immortal.”

  She had explained how powerful he was before, so I just nodded along. The guy didn’t seem that powerful? Though, I suppose he did seem to be injured, so that might be stopping him from really showing off. I shrugged finally and climbed down from the wagon to help people get ready to roll.

  Peter was off yelling at people and, honestly, being kind of dick. It seemed like he was still mad at me and taking it out on everyone else. I tried to talk to the guy, but every time I walked towards him, he just huffed and stomped away.

  William and Silas seemed to keep to themselves. Locked away in their own wagon and I kind of wondered what they were doing. When I tried to listen in, I just heard cackling flames. I frowned and stood outside their wagon and stared at it with my hands on my hips. One of them must have been a fire cultivator. William, if I had to guess. Silas seemed too melancholy to be fire.

  Within no time, the caravan had unfurled from the round defensive position they had set themselves in the night before, and we were trekking through the desert. Silas and William were towards the front of the caravan in their wagon, and Niku, me, and Betsy held the rear.

  “Why was everyone so scared to come through here?” I asked Niku as we rode along. She leaned back on the bench, looking through manuals and taking notes on things as I just watched around as Betsy pulled us in the line. She seemed upset she had to go so slow.

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  The sun was getting high in the sky as we rode, and I was pretty glad it was autumn. I couldn’t have imagined how hot it would have been if it had been summer. As it was, I was a little warm in my robe, but I left it on because I just knew that if I took it off, I’d get cold. Niku, since she was smaller, was bundled up in her robe as she worked through her notes.

  Niku looked up from her work with a wry smirk. “Well, I think you took care of the dangers this morning.”

  “The illusionist sect or cult or whatever?”

  Niku nodded without looking up.

  “They didn’t seem that bad,” I said.

  Niku looked up from her books and stared at me.

  “What?”

  Her eyebrows went high. “Your hand?”

  I shrugged. “That was my own fault for trying to grab a sword. I still don’t know why I did that.”

  “How is it?”

  I shrugged. “It’ll be fine. Between your help and my awesome cultivator body, I’ll be good as new in no time. Speaking of, when are we going to get me an element?”

  This made her look up once more. “Well, if you want wind, it’ll be better on a windy day when the aura is stronger. I’m not sure it’ll matter since you’re so…”

  She paused, and she looked at me like she was struggling to figure out the word to use.

  I snorted. “You’re gonna say weird!”

  She held up her hand that was holding her pencil and waved her hand from side to side. “Kind of? I mean, it’s definitely weird that you’ve gotten to be so powerful without an element. Although I suppose if you came from a-”

  My hand went to her mouth quickly, and I pushed a finger gently to her lips. “Shhh. Those other two might be listening, or might hear, or whatever. I don’t know.”

  Her eyes went wide, and she eventually nodded, and I pulled my finger away.

  “Well, not weird. Just very unconventional, but I suppose it makes sense,” she finally said when my hand was away from her mouth.

  I nodded along. “Yeah. I still don’t really know how or why. Why any of us….” I didn’t say the obvious ‘how we got here’ but I was assuming Niku could follow along.

  “When I met that skeleton god, he said something about his brother doing it, but he shouldn’t be able to.”

  Niku nodded. “Yeah. Kentaro was apparently in disguise as a sumo coach and went crazy at the end of a juniors tournament.”

  “Yeah, I heard. I’m pretty sure that’s why and how I got here, but I don’t know…. It’s just so weird.”

  “Well, anyway. We’ll wait for a windy day just to make sure. The desert is known for its winds, so I’m sure we’ll be able to do it before we get to the capital,” Niku said with a firm and confident nod.

  I grinned happily and even gave a small woot. “Hear that, Lightning Hooves, you won’t be the only one who can fuck shit up soon.”

  Betsy fully stopped pulling the wagon and turned her large head back at me. She stared me right in the eye and exhaled from her nose. I could feel a bit of… was that anger?

  “Ah, come on, girl. Don’t be angry. Didn’t like the nickname?”

  Niku looked up again and stared between us, looking a little worried. “Uh.”

  Betsy finally rolled her eyes and shook her head and turned back around to pull us once more.

  “Come on, we both know I’ll never be able to fuck people up as good as you. You’re Betsy the lightning ox. I’m just some chump who might use the wind,” I said to placate her.

  She nodded her head, and I could feel that it did what I wanted. I meant what I had said too. There was no way I’d be as dangerous as she was with her lightning. Though, I did think about the manual in my bunk ‘The Wandering Dragon.’ That was from a guy who was very dangerous and used an ancient family sword style. I shook the thought away; that wasn’t my bag. My goal wasn’t to be a dangerous cultivator. I just wanted to do my job.

  The days after that were calm and quiet. It seemed I scared the cults into not attacking our convoy again because although I felt their presence lurking on the other side of the mountains,travels, they never really showed themselves.

  In the front of the caravan during their travels William mostly left Silas alone. Though the damaged cultivator was starting to come around to believing Will about the Beggars. The fact that the man claimed Kio was one was helping his cause. Kio was an old friend of his, and she did seem to know much more than a regular person, even a cultivator should.

  A group of cultivating spies, though? Silas wasn’t sure. Why would they parade themselves around as beggars? When he asked William this, William said there was only one actual beggar. Apparently, the man was blind? How the hell was a cultivator blind? Seems like the first thing a person would do when they got enough power was give themselves a way to see.

  Silas thought that over.

  “He sees the aura,” Silas said when he figured it out.

  “Aye,” Will said and leaned back on his bench. “The man is an incredible fighter. Uses this sword designed as a cane, weird, wild shit, man.”

  “There're others as well, including a man who, well, isn’t at all a beggar. He’s kind of our unofficial leader. I’m not even sure he’s a cultivator. He just kinda farms and teaches the blind guy about things in the world,” William said and shrugged.

  Silas looked at William incredulously. “What?”

  William shrugged. “I dunno mate. The man is someone I’ve met once or twice. I’ve never gotten any spiritual power from him, but he seems to know a lot. I just do my bit and don’t ask questions.”

  Silas sighed and leaned back once more and closed his eyes. This was going to be a long journey.

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