Chapter Three
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Man cannot be judged by looks; sea cannot be measured by cups.
Towards the end of 5thCentury, Britain. The Dark Ages.
“Aaachoo!”
This was Ere’s umpteenth sneeze.
He wasn’t a fan of the bodily reaction. As an immortal, he rarely sneezed. Only when his nostrils were tickled just so.
Now, as a frailhuman, not simply a form he took, he couldn’t seem to stop sneezing. It rather felt like he was attempting to blast his innards through his nose and mouth.
And all that disgusting fluid…there was nothing for it. He was either going to trudge about with mucus running out of his nostrils and into his mouth, or he was going to wear it on the sleeve of his tunic.
The latter suffered the indignity of wiping his face clean, and he groaned with misery.
“I’ve always wanted to be human. Thought they’d feel things so much more keenly for the brevity of their time on earth. Mortals are so ordinary, so simple. With pleasures and pains that must feel sharper upon their frail bodies and delicate senses. How I envied them.”
He sniffed and shivered in the cold, unrelenting rain that beat down from a gray, dreary sky.
“I take it all back. Immortality is the bomb! Being human sucks.”
“Count your blessings,” Rui said curtly. “At least you can speak again.”
She muttered what sounded like, “Though I much prefer the frog,” beneath her breath.
But Ere couldn’t be sure. His head felt stuffed with wool, and he was swaying unsteadily on his feet.
One moment the three adventurers were safely and comfortably ensconced in the Celestial Palace where the air was wonderfully fragrant and the temperature was just right. And the next they were deposited in the middle of a deserted dirt road, turned sludge in the icy downpour.
Before Ere had gotten his bearings, four men on horseback galloped by, making them leap out of the way or be trampled under hoof. Stinky mud splashed onto their clothes from the riders’ passing, and Ere would have fallen on his ass if not for Sorin’s quick reflexes, catching him by the arm.
It was all downhill from there.
“How do we even know we’re going in the right direction?” he grouched. “We’ve been walking for miles. There’s nothing in sight but hills, trees, rocks, and more hills.”
“My instincts are never wrong,” Rui said.
“What are you, some sort of truffle dragon? Except you snuff out treasure instead of mushrooms?”
“It is impossible to explain my Gift to you,” she replied haughtily. “Follow me or don’t. I did not request your accompaniment.”
“We have to do this together or the task doesn’t count toward being done,” Ere deduced from whatShifusaid.
“Believe me, I’m no fonder of this situation than you are.”
“If you realize our circumstances cannot be changed, stop complaining about it,” she ground out through her teeth.
“I am merely making conversation on this endlessly long and boring road to nowhere,” he pointed out.
“Else I will be forced to notice things I’d rather not notice. Like the way my clothes chafe in the most inconvenient places. The way mud is oozing into the tops of my boots. The blisters that are likely growing on top of my blisters. And the fact that I haven’t eaten the whole day. How inhospitable of the JE not to even provide some finger sandwiches while we waited.”
She speared him with a speaking glance.
“JE,” he explained, as if she’d asked him to clarify. “You know, Jade Emperor. It’s a mouthful.”