The Warrior And The Pacifist

Tracked

Cold wind slapped Tamura in the face with such an intensity it burned. His body recoiling with every movement of the Shirshu as it ran across a narrow snow covered passage deep in the Taihua mountain range that was just wide enough and thick enough to support both him and the beast. As the Shirshu charged across the passage Tamura turned his head left, his eyes watering. All it took was one wrong step, one slip and both he and the Shirshu would be going over the side into a drop off that would most definitely kill them both.

In the dead of night with only the moon to provide light, there wasn't much to see over that drop off, the only point of observation being some many miles away. Below that horizon hundreds of lights burned from the city of Ba Sing Se, like a beacon for a ship lost in a black ocean with not even the stars to guide it.

To think all this time he and Leki had been running from one end of the country to the other, picking up only pieces of clues that were akin to scraps; the Oracles had been held up within spyglass distance of Ba Sing Se. He wondered if when he and Leki first began this journey had an Oracle been perched in the very spot that Tamura occupied now, watching them as they had approached the city all those months ago.

At least Tamura believed they were held up here somewhere, after all it had been the Shirshu leading not him. And Shirshus rarely if ever got lost when tracking, so long as they had a strong scent to latch on to all a rider would have to do is not fall off the saddle. But the closer in elevation they got, and the colder the temperature became, the more the Shirshu had to stop, taking in longer whiffs of Leki's staff to find he trail again.

He felt a jolt as the Shirshu let out a rasping groan, stumbling as it hit a patch of rather loose snow that hadn't had a chance to settle yet. Both it, he, and the snow beginning to go over the side of the revine. Tamura cursed aloud as he pulled back and right on the reins trying to regain control of the Shirshu and guide it as close to the cliff wall beside them as he could before she got to close to the already immediate drop. "Come on girl, don't quit now!" He said through gritted teeth, fighting a sense of disorienting vertigo as piles of snow fell off into the darkness below them.

Breath taking seconds past as the Shirshu dug her claws into the stone and began scraping at it, finding her center of balance and pulling hard as what was left of the loose snow went over.

Tamura stared off into the darkness, taking a moment to catch his breath before patting the Shirshu on the neck gently. "G-good girl." He force out patting her on the side, watching as the steam from his breath was carried on the wind.

Beside him, next to that very drop that almost claimed him, Baliph, re-dressed in her layers of Si Wong clothing complete with head wrap in an attempt to keep warm, pulled Pungsan close. His fur having bits of frost clinging to it from a recent snow fall from hours prior, jingling like soft bells. "Are you alright?!" Baliph shouted.

"I-I think so." Tamura replied. "The snow is getting thicker the higher we go!"

"Arin wanted me to tell you that he doesn't know how much higher the Bison can go, Wangdek says we're already pushing the limits enough as it is."

Tamura looked behind him, then up into the sky were dozens of Bison shaped shadows hovered some distance above him, each letting out low humming groans. He then looked to Baliph. "What do you think?"

"You already know what I think, we go as far as we have to. With or without the others."

Tamura then looked to Pungsan. "What about you, think you've got a few more miles in you?" Pungsan groaned immediately, a loud whaling sound with more enthusiasm than he had shown since Leki was taken. Tamura supposed that was his answer.

Suddenly echoing somewhere in the distance Tamura heard another groaning sound, but this time it didn't come from the sky bison. It was a deep sound that caused the very ground itself to rumble. Somewhere in the darkness behind him the sound of rocks falling could be heard. This was a sound Tamura had heard before...the whale like groan of Hevio. A sound he would never forget no matter how hard he tried.