MEET ME ON THE BATTLEFIELD

CHAPTER 3 - LAUGHTER

  YuLin squatted down and extended his hand to the black snake half buried in his sheets.

  The black snake slithered out and stared at YuLin with beady slit eyes, It scales shimmering in the dimmed light of the day, black, yet with highlights of red and blue.

  "XiaoTian, how cheeky of you to have slithered into my tent, what if someone discovered you?" YuLin said in a lowered voice as the snake, the length of his whole arm and the width of two fingers, slithered towards him and entwined its body around Yulin's extended hand. "It must be cold for you out there, make sure you snuggle up to XiaoQi at night." YuLin stroked the snakes tilting head as XiaoTian made sorrowful eyes at YuLin. "You can't sleep with me, if someone were to come in and find you in full size, I'm afraid they'd call the whole army on you."

  XiaoQin slithered up YuLin's arm and hisses at Yulin's cheeks, giving him little kisses. "Hehe, you're such a sticky one, now go, I'll come to play with you lot later." YuLin walked out of the tent, glancing around to make sure no one was watching him before lowering himself to the ground and letting XiaoTian reluctantly slither into the undergrowth and away to the forest up ahead. YuLin smiled before skipping back to his tent to see what he now owned.

  Foot soldiers basic, metallic armour, bedroll and sheets, three sets of clothing, one pair of shoes and a canteen for water. YuLin dropped onto his bedroll and let out a little squeal of happiness at the number of things he now owned. It wasn't much but for YuLin, a wanderer who often slept and survived in the wilds, this was VIP treatment.

  After his bout of rolling on the ground, messing up his still slightly damp hair, his stomach growled. YuLin sat up and rubbed his stomach. "Time for my first free meal of the day!" He chuckled to himself before slipping on his shoes and leaving the tent.

  The sun had sunken below the horizon leaving only the residue of its light. YuLin watched the masses of soldiers that walked in the same direction like ants and followed, remembering XingGe's words.

  The chatter of the crowd grew louder and louder as soldiers bantered and exchanged stories, none noticing the man whose face was half covered with overgrown fringe. YuLin smiled at the little stories he heard and flowed with the crowd.

  Soon enough, they reached the centre of camp, a great expanse free of tents but littered with big cauldrons manned by up to two soldiers wearing makeshift aprons in charge of distributing food. YuLin slipped into a queue and waited silently rocking on the balls of his feet. When it was his turn he threw the soldier-cook a wide smile, the soldier frowned taking in the weird appearance of this man before dropping a ladle full of greyish sludge into a wooden bowl and handing it to him.

  "Many thanks, brother!" YuLin took the bowl in two hands and bowed before hopping away, earning the stares of everyone within hearing distance.

  "Is that boy OK? Did he just say thanks for the food?"

  "He calls this sludge food?"

  "Aiya must be his first camp meal, ten copper pieces that he will spit out the porridge immediately."

  "Fifteen copper pieces that he throws the bowl to the floor."

  "Hey, this sounds fun, twenty coppers that he'll throw up."

  All the soldiers in line including the cook fixed their eyes on the newbie, awaiting his reaction. However, they did not expect his reaction.

  "Wahhhh, this porridge is divine!" YuLin moaned as he disregarded his spoon and brought the bowl up to his open mouth and tipping it back, devouring it as if it were golden rice. He kept tilting and tilting as if more porridge would enter his mouth but instead he fell off the log he was sitting on and hit his head. "Ah!"