Emery

Once we had worked out the deal for Tulo, it was late afternoon and we were about ready to return home. We had told the girls that we couldn't stay in the city for dinner with the piglets, so they knew that there wouldn't be any more stops on the way out of the city with the small animals in tow.

We were able to get two small bamboo and wood cages for the piglets, which would make it easier for Avuri and I to transport the animals up the mountainside. While their weight wasn't much of an issue, if we had put all four in a single carrier, their shifting could have been a problem, so keeping it two per carrier seemed smarter.

Once we had the carriers in hand, I also applied a thin layer of metal to the outside bottom of each with my Qi. If anything bad happened, I would be able to levitate the carriers in a pinch. I didn't think we would need our hands, given our path up and down the mountain remained fairly safe these days, but better safe than sorry.

Avuri grabbed the newest Wind and Vine news scroll on our way out of the city, and we put the hustle and bustle of the city behind us.

The trip back up the side of the mountain was slower, given our new companions. The piglets didn't cause any trouble, but it was much more difficult to carry the girls and the piglets while maintaining our speed, simply because we only had two pairs of hands.

There were several stretches of path where we opted to put the girls down and let them walk with us. While the upper parts of the peak closer to the Basin were treacherous and icy - not to mention the dangerous beasts that lived there - the lower half of the mountain was rather scenic. It could still be dangerous, but most of the beasts living on the lower portion were kept at bay by our Domain. They could sense we were too strong for them, and they stayed away.

While the sun wasn't setting yet, the light filtering through the evergreen trees on the mountainside was still quite the sight. The Flowing Dragon Peak, as the water and ice aspected Peak, was practically in an eternal winter at the top. The effect of the thick ice and water Qi lessened significantly as you got closer to the base of the mountain, but it still affected the plant life that thrived on it.

Evergreen trees were by far the most common. The ground was covered in cold-resistant ivies that grew along the ground in sprawling vines. Thorny bushes were also common, with thick, shiny leaves that ended in brutal spikes. Still, there was a harsh beauty to it all. Even more so in the actual winter months when even the base of the mountain was snow-covered.

We took advantage of the paths and game trails that tracked around the lower bits of the mountain, walking together wherever we could. But it didn't take too long before we started to see a dusting of snow on the trees, and then on the ground.

Once we could hear the telltale sound of the snow crunching under foot, we took a short break to get the girls bundled up in slightly thicker clothing from our storage rings. Avuri would do her best to keep the cold away from all of us, but she had to take extra care to keep the piglets warm - so we took precautions for ourselves.

Avuri and I each took a carrier in one hand and a girl in our other arm as we sped the rest of the way up the mountain. All in all, we arrived at the Basin a bit before sun down, but after dinner time.

Once we got inside the environmental Array and felt everything warm up, we angled toward the barn. We wouldn't necessarily be able to do too much with the piglets before we needed to eat dinner, we could at least show them where they would be living.

Once we let the piglets out into a slightly smaller pasture we had sectioned off for them while they were still small, Cierra and Stena took over and showed them around. Avuri had moistened bits of the ground to make large puddles of mud, and we put out a low trough of food that the farmer had suggested.

Then, Avuri and I leaned back against the fence to watch the girls lead the four little piglets around their new home.

It wasn't long, however, before Avuri pulled out the news scroll from Wind and Vine to look it over.

"Emery. Look."

I could feel the nervousness wafting off her as I leaned over to look.

Right at the top of the scroll, there was another listed disappearance that looked awkwardly similar to the last two. A small group of travelers; parents, young boy. Vanished, leaving no trace.

The Bladed Highlands were certainly dangerous, despite how beautiful they were. The land was a wide open grassland that led along the western side of the Amber Valley. It was flat with a slight decline leading away from the Valley. The Highlands got their name from the tall grass that grew there, which had viciously sharp edges capable of causing small cuts if someone walked through the grass haphazardly.

"The beasts that live in the Highlands are dangerous, but they don't spirit away caravans." Avuri sent.

"No, they don't." I agreed. "They leave blood. And lots of it."

"And broken caravans." Avuri stared at the scroll, reading over the bland reporting of the disappearance. "There's nothing useful in here at all."

"I don't know how they would get anything useful, Ri. It's just families that aren't reaching their destinations." I pointed at a particular sentence on the scroll and repeated it to her through our bond.

"The family in question did not arrive at Resin as planned. While no one knows what has happened, teams have been deployed to inspect the roads near the cliff's edge for weakened sections of ground or signs of tumbles."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"What are the chances that three families have fallen over the cliff's edge almost exactly a month apart each time?" Avuri muttered through our bond.

"Basically zero. Unless there actually is a problem with the road somewhere, I suppose. A sinkhole or something." I sent.

"When is Vale returning?" Avuri turned to look over her shoulder, up at the sky through an empty patch in the tree coverage.

"Soon, I hope." I said. "He's definitely been gone long enough at this point that I expect him back any day now."

I turned back to watch the girls playing with the piglets, who were getting acquainted with one of the mud pits. Cierra and Stena's clothing was equally as done for, already covered in mud that was bound to leave deep stains.

Just another set of clothing for the ever growing 'outdoor play' pile.

"I hope so. I want to get started on this one. I don't like it."

"If this isn't the work of a demonic sect, I would be shocked. It's too regular to be a coincidence, and it's too clean to be a beast of some kind." I swapped back to using our link so the girls wouldn't overhear. The last thing we needed was the two of them getting any ideas or feelings about it.

We were already planning to go on a trip without them - we didn't need to leave them terrified we wouldn't come back. Stena in particular still seemed to have issues when demonic sects were brought up.

"We'll take care of it, then." Avuri rolled the scroll back up and slid it into the little bamboo tube that was used as storage for it.

"We will." I agreed. Our feelings of determination mingled in our bond, reinforcing one another. "Once we know our girls are safe, we will…hunt."

Avuri nodded resolutely.

We remained in the small pasture for a little while longer, until the sun went down. When the last bit of natural light faded, I pushed myself off the fence.

"Alright, you two. It's officially dark now, and we haven't eaten dinner. Time to go inside."

Stena and Cierra both popped their heads up from the ground where they had literally cuddled into the mud with the piglets. The six of them had been happily laying in a heap inside at least several inches of mud.

Both girls were caked with it. Their hair was sticking up, solidified into spikes going every which way, and their faces were equally coated in mud.

Their smiles, though, shone so brightly through the muck that I couldn't find a single complaint to issue. They were so happy to be, quite literally, rolling around in the mud with the new animals that I almost felt bad calling them in for dinner.

"You heard Mom, let's go." Avuri called, most of the seriousness from earlier gone and replaced by familial warmth. I could still feel her perseverance and dedication flowing under the surface, but it had been left to simmer for now, just like mine.

"What do we do with the piglets?" Cierra asked as stood, looking down at her new friends. "Do we have somewhere for them to sleep?"

"We do. Let's lead them back into the barn and show them, okay?"

"Ok."

The four of us coaxed the little animals to follow us back toward the barn. The smaller pasture we had put them in had an animal sized door that led into the barn. It could be closed and latched, which it would be tonight. It wouldn't be common for the weather to get cold enough that we would need to be sure the animals would be inside, but keeping the door closed would stop them from wandering too much while they acclimated to their new space.

I was quite proud of the area we had set up for them. Each of the piglets had their own bed of hay to lay on with some wool blankets because we spoiled out animals. Each bed was big enough for probably two full sized pigs to sleep on, and I had honestly expected the four piglets to sleep together on one of the beds for now.

The space itself had a mud pit in one corner for the pigs to be themselves, while the rest of the ground had been covered in hay and other various plant material to keep it from being too hard. There was also a large trough of water as well as a slightly smaller one of food. I could only hope that they would be more than comfortable overnight.

Once I secured the little door to the outside, I took one last look over their pen area and nodded. They had plenty of food, water, mud, and space to move.

"Alright, you two. Let's go eat dinner." Avuri corralled our daughters out of the pig pen while I followed a bit behind. Once we were out, I secured the inside door to the pen too, and we made our way to the house, finally.

"Ri, can you help the girls get their muddy clothing off? And maybe give them a quick spray down, too?" I eyed their mud-caked hair and faces warily.

"Should we go take a bath?" Stena asked, spinning around as she walked to look at me, and then back at Avuri.

"Nope." Avuri and I both said quickly.

"You're both covered in mud." I said.

"We've been covered in mud before." Cierra shrugged.

"Not like this, you haven't." Avuri laughed. "So, when we get to the door, the two of you are gonna take your clothes off and I'm going to spray you down with water until you're at least somewhat presentable."

Stena, who had apparently not realized up until now just how full of mud she was, ran her hand through her hair and found it spiky and matted. She pulled her hand back comically to stare at it and let out a long "Ew."

"Yeah, ew." I chuckled. "Now you three stay out here and get clean while I go start dinner."

Before I even had the door open, Cierra and Stena started trying to get their clothing off. The simple outer robes they had worn most of the day were off and discarded quickly, simply untied and slipped off their shoulders.

When they tried to get their undershirts up and over their heads, though, they both got stuck.

While both girls were waving back and forth, trying to fight their shirts, Avuri and I were fighting not to laugh. Cierra squeaked out a quiet "Help?", while Stena was starting to freak out, her flailing get wilder with a few panicked noises.

I stepped over to help Stena get free while Avuri helped Cierra. After I was able to slowly peel the shirt off the girl, I sighed. Somehow, despite wearing two layers, her entire torso was spotted with mud and dirt. Cierra mirrored her sister, too, completely spotted from head to toe.

"They're all yours." I said, as I collected Cierra's shirt from Avuri. "I'll throw these in the wash."

"We may consider just burning them." Avuri chuckled.

I held up the crusty, mud-laden mess of fabric and sighed. "They're almost as bad as Breakthrough clothes."

"At least these don't smell like putrefied vomit."

"True enough."

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