Differences

Jinhai stared at me as I sat on his table, waving a leg at him. He walked over, glancing at Cass eating one of his apples happily, then at Fu Zhi, who gave him an elegant bow that befuddled the guy.

He then lifted up the paper in front of me and stared at it. We had snuck into his house early in the morning after dealing with a few things.

"I am afraid that for all my brilliance, my abilities with rope are sadly lacking," Fu Zhi said haughtily as she finished tying more of it around my thorax.

"Hey, I'm just glad you turned out to be a pretty decent calligrapher," I said as I looked down at the paper before me. Written there, with insanely clean looking lettering, was a set of words I had dictated to Fu Zhi, who had used her ability with light to precisely burn the words into the paper we'd stolen from the poacher. Like a magnifying glass redirecting sunlight to burn ants. An analogy that, when I explained it, she loved.

"I had never thought to use my abilities in such a manner," Fu Zhi mumbled, stroking a wing over her words.

"Yeah well, stick around, I have all sorts of ideas like that," I chuckled.

"Yes, Master."

"...Okay, what's up with that?" I asked. "Since when do you call me Master?"

Fu Zhi watched as I tested the leather ropes wrapped around me, her voice teasing as she spoke. "Oh? You do not like it? But you are the leader of our sect, are you not? Would you prefer 'Patriarch'?"

"I'd prefer 'Xiaobo'." I said back.

"Oh, how informal! Such an uncouth brute, demanding something like that of a lady like me."

"You making fun of me?"

"It is the prerogative of a jade beauty such as myself to tease the men around them. It is the duty of the men to be confused as to our intentions."

"Am I a jade beauty?" Cass asked, landing next to us.

"You are the most beautiful, Little Sister!" Fu Zhi crowed, wrapping Cass in a winged hug, Cass smiling happily.

Seeing a moth hug a bat is a weird damn experience, let me tell you.

"Okay, w. We should be good. Let's go." I finished testing the ropes. Then I took a step forward. Behind me, the weight of the world tried to drag me back. I forced it to move. Step by step, my wings unfoldeding out to give me more thrust.

Four wagons, now dropped to three after we had left the meat of the animals that had been killed for the forest to devour. On the front wagon, tied up and staring at us with fear, were the poachers.

And just in front of that was me. Tied to the wagons by the ropes they had been using to hold together the meat they had stolen. I presumed they simply pulled the wagons by hand before, since they weren't wealthy enough (or were just cheap) to get donkeys or horses to pull them.

In my case, pulling them while they were tied together was hard. It wasn't just the weight, it was pulling them at speed, for a long distance.

Soon enough, I got up to about the speed of a horse, pulling the three wagons behind me, Fu Zhi and Cass flying above. I kept it up until we reached Jinhai's house.


"At least this explains the guys tied up out there," Jinhai mumbled, putting down the paper. He'd struggled to read it, but made it through. I figured he knew his letters well enough, so I was glad I'd guessed right.

"Poachers in that horrific place," Jinhai whispered. I thought of the beautiful forest with a crystal lake surrounded by flowers. "Who would hunt in the middle of hell?"

"Are you sure he won't squish us?" Fu Zhi asked, glaring at Jinhai as he continued to contemplate. "He is very big. And fat."

Ouch. "Jinhai is cool," I said, watching as he continued to think.

"Hm… I don't know-"

"Oh, right. Moth's like honey, right? Here." Jinhai took something out of a cupboard and placed it before Fu Zhi.

"Do they?" I asked, curious. I turned to look at Fu Zhi. "If you said that, we could ha-"

"Jiiiiiiii…" Fu Zhi stared at the golden liquid before her with avid interest. Her antennaeantenna were pointed directly at it, twitching slowly. I blinked and suddenly she was sipping at the honey, wiggling back and forth happily as she sipped at it.

"Heh. Cute." I said, chuckling. I then focused on Jinhai again as Cass and Fu Zhi focused on their food.

"I'll do my best," Jinhai sighed, patting his chest thoughtfully, an odd character tic I'd noticed about him. "But I'm a peasant. Any letter I send out will take time to reach anyone important. If I spread the word too, it might help, but not a lot of people take ants seriously."

I pointed at one specific word. He scoffed.

"No, not even demonic ones. I'm sure cultivators would, but Xiaobo, not everyone is as cultured, learned, and handsome as me."

"Truly a kingly gentleman!" Fu Zhi agreed behind me through honey.

"If someone does listen, they might be dangerous to you," he continued more seriously. "Spirit beasts are valuable."

I waved a hand, trying to convey that I understood. He sighed, the overweight man looking just a bit like the world had set its weight on his shoulders. "Very well… Si Chou would be proud, you know? The beetle he trained is still upholding his sect's purpose."

Beyond the pang of pain that always followed Si Chou's name, I mostly felt confused again. What the hell was up with the forest? Before I could say anything, Jinhai continued. "I'll have to lie on the letter. Tell them that some student of the sect has been fighting in the forest. Make you suitably weak so that you can explain why you didn't just blow away the entire forest."

I wasn't weak. I was beetle strong enough to lift a boulder, you know how insane that is? I just wasn't an entire ocean's worth of ants strong either. I couldn't simply wave a hand and Kamehameha an entire landscape away. Not yet at least.

As I grumbled to myself about that, Jinhai pulled out a piece of rough looking parchment. "I'll write it up! Don't you worry my beetle friend. We'll have people out to help you in no time at all!"

…I doubted that, for some reason.


Jinhai's Letter and It's Journey

When Jinhai handed his letter to go out, it was sent to the nearest town. But the man meant to send the letter had been killed in a brawl between cultivators the night the letter arrived, so it languished in a bag for two weeks. When someone finally got around to sending it to the next location, he was young and inexperienced, and so ended up sending a host of letters, including Jinhai's, to the wrong town.

The letter would be returned weeks later, with a more experienced man sending it to the correct town. From there, the journey was far smoother, until it reached the Imperial City along with other letters from concerned citizens reaching out about problems within their areas of the Empire.

And just like those letters, it was left in a pile, ignored. Not due to corruption as such. Instead, it was pure laziness. Critical messages came from important people, on important paths, and went directly to important destinations.

Jinhai was a peasant, like any other. His letter was given as much consideration as he was due. So, not much.

Two months later, the letter was opened, by a bored employee of the Empire. He read it once. Still bored, he put it down and looked up the area in question while sipping some tea.

Moments later, dripping hot tea from his spit-take, he ran at full speed.

Two months. A lot can happen in two months.