章 35: Chapter 34 - [Tapestry of Stars]
Silver Pine Village wasn't a very large settlement, so it disappeared behind Shao after just a few minutes. He frowned as he realized that he had no idea when Shen Jian would return to Shigong Temple. Considering what the older cultivator said to Yang Guanyu, he would have to get back to the temple within the next two months.
Using the iron staff as a walking stick, Shao walked until the sun disappeared below the horizon. In the silence of his journey, his only accompaniment was his own troubled mind. Every time he closed his eyes, images of blood flashed through his mind. He hoped the thoughts would subside with time, but he had heard stories of soldiers who never truly forgot the terrible atrocities committed by power-hungry cultivators.
When Shao stopped and made camp that night, he placed his bag on the ground in the center of a clearing near the road and sat on the cool, dry grass. It was not so cold that a fire would be necessary, so Shao merely laid down to sleep without any further preparation.
Shao looked up at the cloudless sky and bore witness to a beautiful tapestry of stars. This far from civilization and without any nearby fires to limit visibility, the stars glittered like a chest filled with a thousand miniscule gemstones. The sight alone nearly drove Shao to tears. Suddenly, a strange thought entered Shao's mind: the Yang Chu family would never be able to experience such beauty ever again. He felt like an idiot as tears welled up in his eyes once again.
Shao angrily wiped the tears away from his eyes, refusing to be overtaken by such a pointless fit of sentimentality. As his hand fell back down to the ground, it lightly struck something hard and brittle. Wondering what he had just accidentally touched, he lifted the small palm-sized object and held it just in front of his eyes. In the dim starlight, he saw that the object he held in his hand was a small white seashell.
It was strange to find a seashell this far inland, Shao though. Perhaps someone had brought the seashell from the coast and dropped it when he made camp. Having grown up in a coastal village, Shao was no stranger to seashells. Finding this one seashell so far from home filled him with a strange, aching nostalgia.
Unbidden, a memory from his early childhood played in Shao's mind. On the white beaches near Bluecrest Village, Chu Haoyu and Chu Peijing walked beside him. Neither of them could have been more than eight years old. The bright sun shone overhead, and the azure sea gently rocked in the periphery.
"Lin Shao, look!" Chu Peijing shouted, holding something up for Shao to see. When he looked, he saw a perfectly smooth seashell glinting in the sun.
"There's a crab, look out!" Chu Haoyu shouted with his finger pointed at the shell.
With a shocked gasp, Chu Peijing dropped the shell to the ground, and Chu Haoyu began laughing maniacally. Realizing the trick, Chu Peijing glared at her brother and began lightly smacking Chu Haoyu's shoulder.
Lin Shao stifled a giggle before he reached down and picked the seashell out of the sand. He looked down at the shell.
Shao enjoyed brushing his fingers against the shell's smooth edges. In the starlight, it was hard to make out the seashell's color. Shao blinked as he realized that the flashback was over, and he was once again lying in a clearing far from home. It may have been a quirk of memory, but the shell Shao held in his hand at that moment seemed identical to the one he held on the beach all those years ago.
Though he couldn't determine the source of the feeling, Shao felt a need to hold on to that strange little seashell. It reminded him of home, and he knew that he would want a reminder of Bluecrest Village in the coming months.
Shao placed the shell in his pocket and closed his eyes. The previous night, he had spent nearly an hour struggling to sleep. That night, however, he drifted off to sleep within seconds.
As the sky above changed from purple to bright orange, Shao awoke the next day. He yawned and stretched out three of his limbs. The bandages on his face were starting to itch, so he gingerly removed them. He lightly pressed a finger against the cut and found that it had stopped bleeding. His cut still felt vulnerable when he touched it, but he could tell that he no longer needed to wear the bandages on his face.
Happy that the bandages would no longer block his sight, Shao sat down and ate a breakfast of dried meat. After a few minutes, rustling leaves off to one side of the camp told him that he was being watched by a wild animal.
Not particularly concerned by the newcomer, Shao lazily turned his head in the direction of the sound and stared at the foliage without pausing his meal. The hidden animal could be a bear or tiger, and he wouldn't be in any danger. Shao's only concern was that the animal could be a venomous snake, and he would have to kill the snake before its envenomed fangs could pierce his skin.
Slowly, with the gait of a predator, the creature left its concealment in the foliage and entered the light of the clearing. The creature moved with the lithe grace of a panther but without the impressive size. Standing at one side of the clearing was a small black cat.
Shao had never seen a cat before, but he knew that some of the farmers kept them as pets to keep unwanted pests away from their crops. Images of rat-infested lodgings flashed through Shao's mind, and he figured it would be a good idea to get a partner that could protect him against rats while he slept.
"Hey, little guy," Shao said to the cat in a high voice. He held a small piece of dried meat out to the cat. "Do you want some?"
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