Chapter 1- Young Cranes in Flight

“Where does the true self reside? In your body? But you grow and change all the time. Are you a different person every time you trim your nails? Not in a meaningful sense. Your thoughts, then. Mind should be the essence of self, should it not? But you change your thoughts too. What is truly ‘you’ is what is unchangeable. The Pre-Heaven soul, the perfect thought given form before becoming crooked and lost in this mortal-”

“Senior Starcaller, I don’t care if your Pre-Heaven soul craves it, if you keep drinking wood spirits you will go blind. You are already going blind. You will go blind more, then die. And I will be disappointed my efforts went to waste. So please, if not for your own sake, then for the sake of your remarkably patient doctor-in-training, stop drinking turpentine.”

“NEVER!”

“Give me the bottle, old man!”

“Get your thieving hands off me, you quack! Unfilial! No respect for elders! How dare you steal your granddaddy’s medicine!”

“You are too damn smelly to be my Grandad. Sis’ Liren, lend me a hand!”

“And touch him? Hell no.”

“Ahah! Escape!”

“Like hell you are!”

“The rope moves like it’s alive! Alive!”

“That’s just the turpentine talking. OH WHOOPS IT FELL. Clumsy me, I’ve just gone and set it on fire. Oh well, what a pity. Actually, it reeks. It genuinely is a pity. Daoist Starcaller, for the love of all that doesn’t make my head ache, couldn’t you just be an ordinary alcoholic?”

“And waste money? Frugality is the second of the supreme virtues, Little Doctor Tian, which you would think some people would know. Drink stealing, good booze destroying people. They should know that.”

“Remind me why I’m keeping you alive again?”

“Because you are a soft touch.” Hong refused to stand up from the nice grassy patch she was lying on. The Agate River rushed on smoothly behind her. The air was fresh and sweet. The birds sang in the trees, the bees hummed in the little blue and white flowers as they swayed with the soft wind. She had a wide straw hat covering her head. Her shoes were off. All was well with the world.

“Not helpful.”

“Not at all, no. Hey Senior, how many-”

“Six. You have six pebbles in your pocket. One of which is actually split in half from when you put five pebbles in your pocket originally.” Daoist Starcaller promptly answered, stopping his efforts to get around Tian and stomp out the immolation of his precious “medicine.”

“I’m just going to say it. You being a real diviner is freaky. It’s not right.” Hong muttered, then pulled a small jar of wine out of her storage ring. With a gentle toss, she threw it in the direction of Starcaller’s voice. He snagged it out of the air with the speed of a striking viper, pierced the waxed paper top with an iron-hard finger, and took a long sniff.

“Water? You pay your debts with water?”

“It’s the roughest rot-gut they sell on Sharprock Pier! Even the bargemen only drink it on a bet.”

“Nonsense. You were just cheated. It’s water I- RUN! A MONSTER BIRD!” He pointed at the white winged crane coming in for a landing in the shallows next to the riverbank.

“For the last time, that’s a Snow Grace Crane!” Tian buried his face in his hands. He felt like the old diviner was screwing with him, but given the ancient wreck’s taste for self medication with home made remedies, he could actually be crazy.

“Its face… is peeled!”

“HER face just looks like that naturally. Don’t be rude.” Hong scolded from under her hat.

“Rude? Is acknowledging the plain truth rude? Have the youth of today fallen so far, become so soft-”

“Right, yes, great. Thank you for not dying yet again, Senior. Lets just put you back on your boat now…” Tian picked up the smelly daoist and started carrying him towards the riverside. He had shot up a whole two inches in the last four months, which he reckoned must have helped with the lifting and carrying enormously.

“Brigands! Hooligans!”

“Hear that, Sister Liren? You are seen and appreciated for who you are.”

“I am so happy. Safe journeys, Senior Drunk.”

“Don’t eat the third bun, Violent Girl.”

“Third? Three in a row? Third one in a basket? What do you mean the third bun?” Hong suddenly sat up, her hat flying off.

“Oh no, lack of strong medicine has turned me deaf, bye, see you next time, maybe!” The old diviner polled his little boat away with alarming speed, slipping like an eel into the river current.

“Old Bum, drag your ass back here!”

“Oh, the boatman’s life, sweet and wet as a little green fishy!” Starcaller’s warbling song quickly shot down the river, moving faster than a swallow in flight.

“Crane, get him!” Hong roared, red hair blazing through the black. The crane struck swift as a summer sunbeam. With a single brilliant move, she stabbed out, the rushing river hiding the ripples of her move. Returning to the surface with a silvery fish. Which she ate.

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“Not helpful.” She muttered.

“Not at all, no.” Tian agreed. “Well, just never eat a bun ever again, and you are sure to be safe. Unless he was screwing with you. Or it’s a self fulfilling prophecy.”