v7c33: Beach Episode

A trip to the beach was just what the doctor ordered.

 

Literally. Meimei was very blunt about where we were going today.

 

But first, we had to get there. Most of the beaches near the city were crowded and noisy, especially on this fine day; people were doing laundry, fishing, and generally just living their lives… but we weren’t looking for a crowded beach. We wanted some place quieter.

 

So we got our trusted and reliable friends, the Azure Jade Trading Company, to loan us a boat, so we could take a mosey around the lake.

 

We chose one of the smaller craft instead of the big-ass pleasure barge they had. She was small and swift, but still had some comforts.

 

“Set sail!” Meimei cheered, pointing forwards, one leg braced upon the prow of our small ship.

 

“Se! Saaaaaaa!” Zhuye shouted, his hands raised to the air. He bounced up and down where he was swaddled against Meimei’s back. The scene was so cute I couldn’t help myself. My recording crystal chimed, capturing the moment.

 

“Aye, aye, captain,” Wa Shi declared, speaking normally now that there were less people around. He saluted with a flourish, then dove beneath the waves. The water around us swelled on its own accord, and the wind started blowing.

 

There were certain benefits to knowing a prince of the storms, rivers, and lakes.

 

Our ship slid out of its berth with impossible grace, then leapt into the waves. Meimei shouted with joy and I whooped with her. Zhuye added his voice to the chorus, bees buzzing around him, and Babe stepped up beside us to let out a crooning low. He didn’t normally shout so loud, or really make normal cow noises at all. None of the cows back home did, really; they were a fairly quiet bunch.

 

Zhuye stared at Babe, stunned. Then he turned back to the prow of the ship. “Mooooooo!” he called, and looked back to Babe, his eyes eager.

 

The ox looked quite bashful at the sudden excitement around the noise he made, but he obliged our son, letting rip another long moo. Zhuye clapped his hands excitedly.

 

Maybe the chickens had some competition?

 

“Hey-yo~” A dignified shout came from beside us, and I turned with a bit of surprise. Lady Wu looked incredibly amused, her hands cupped around her mouth. “That is what I heard shouted quite often.”

 

Teacher let out a laugh. “That is what one says when returning from a voyage, my dear. I believe the correct saying is ‘Ridin’ ‘long the Moon!”” he shouted, pitching his voice and making it boom across the water.

 

“That’s the old one. It’s ‘Ridin’ cross the Moon’, that’s popular now, last I heard,” Yanjing said from where he was lying on one of the rather nice couches, a towel over his eyes. The man was currently vegetating for all he was worth, and honestly I didn’t blame him.

 

“Oh, this is so much different than the lakes back home! It’s so big! And the boat feels so solid compared to our canoes!” Meiling bounced up and down like a jiangshi, her eyes sparkling with wonder and excitement. “And the ocean gets even bigger and deeper? I can’t wait! Suyan, Xue Ji, is there anything like this where you’re from?”

 

“No, Mistress,” Suyan said from her own seat, where she was drawing with a bit of charcoal the shore to our right—or rather, starboard? I think? Ship terminology confused me sometimes. “The largest lake in the Howling Fangs is perhaps not even an eighth of the size of this one.”

 

“Neither of us have seen the ocean either. I think we may be the first of the Su clan to see it, and come back and tell the tale… well, ever,” Xue Ji added, starting to look excited. Suyan paused at that bit of information, then a small smile formed on her own face.

 

“Thank you for taking us to see such amazing sights, Master, Mistress,” she said, her voice earnest. I know she had done some drawings of the Ironfields as well. They were simple things, but they captured what she saw beautifully.

 

We lapsed into silence, staring out while our ship zipped along.

 

We would be staying close to the shore today, and I could tell we were riding the bare, ragged edges of Tianlan’s destroyed Dragon Veins.

 

The destruction here was truly terrible.

 

“Metal to water,” Tianlan murmured in the back of my mind, feeling the quiet echoes of a cataclysm that the land itself had nearly forgotten. “Every bit of metal turned into its equivalent mass of water in an instant. Any Spirit metals? The Qi turned to water too. Five times, ten times its mass.”

 

I could see it, in my mind’s eye. The Ironfields, for all their desolation, had nothing on this. I saw a tsunami that would dwarf everything we had videos of, back in the Before. A wall of water radiating outwards like a meteor impact, obliterating everything before it. Consuming it, smashing it, grinding it to dust mercilessly and utterly. An event so violent that it shattered Tianlan’s Dragon Veins worse than anywhere else. Fire, Earth, Wood and Metal had nothing on the destruction Water had caused.

 

“Shennong was right,” I mused. “Water truly is life and death.” And yet, now that we were close to it, now that we were at the edge—the strain I could feel on our connection was nowhere near what I felt, like when I got to the edge near the Howling Fang Mountains. “It’s not a dead zone, though. There’s too much life. And while there is Qi leaking into the lake, it’s not enough to explain the fish stocks the fishermen speak of.”

 

“You’re right,” Tianlan said. “There must be fragments, still there. I think… I think I can feel some.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

 

I could feel it too. The ghost of a whisper.

 

“Something to look for tomorrow, then,” I said at last. “I think I’m going to have to go for one hell of a swim—see how long I can hold my breath for.”

 

“We could also use [Divert the Waters],” Tianlan replied. “Just walk along the bottom, if you have to.”

 

I paused. “That’s a really good idea. Can we make sure we don’t cause any rogue waves or anything?”

 

I could feel Tianlan’s sassy smirk. “Of course! There shall be no waves if I don’t decree any!”

 

Well then. Turns out tomorrow, I would be taking a walk—like a certain bunch of scoundrels from the Caribbean. But less zombie-like.

 

I started humming the theme as we continued onwards. The swelling strings bounded along with the waves.

 

I sent a mental image to Tianlan of her with a pegleg and an eyepatch, Chunky perched on her shoulder like a parrot.

 

Her laughter at the absurd image echoed in my head.

 

“Avast me hearties! The dread pirate Tianlan shall steal all your booty!”

 

“If you want my booty I think you have to fight Meimei for it. That’s her property.”

 

“I don’t need to fight her. We have joint custody!”

 

I snorted, my laughter interrupting my humming. Meimei turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Tianlan and I were just discussing which percentage of my ass you and she own,” I told her with all seriousness.

 

Meimei choked, and then started laughing at the absurdity, before she trailed off and scratched her chin. “I think the math works out. I own fifty percent of your butt, and Tianlan owns fifty percent of your butt; but you own fifty percent of my butt, with Tianlan having the other half. And we both share Tianlan’s butt. Therefore we each have two full cheeks; and a whole ass.”

 

Her logic was utterly impeccable; her wisdom sage and profound.

 

“My darling, you are truly the most intelligent woman to exist,” I declared.

 

I could feel Tianlan nodding, and her own awe at Meiling’s deductions shone through our bond.