The Grand Daion Khanate Part 2:

 Yet night was slow to come so Chad and Hikari in this miserable den of rats and mildew had some time to kill and some blood to boil. “What in the Hells did I tell you damn it?! I'm trying to help here but you're pissing me off!” Chad angrily ranted and as he paced around the concrete floors past old garbage and discarded paraphernalia. Hikari just held his sword which still ran rampant with burning desire to taste blood and cultivated energy alike and sat against a wall. “We couldn't have done all that… This outside world has driven these people crazy. The emperor had to die sure, it was this sword that did it after all. But we'd never never… no, no we'd never do anything like that with babies. We'd adopt them out to volunteers, anything else wouldn't be Rightful Cultivation. Ya, ya these people are just insane!” Hikari muttered then shouted to himself, still not fully able to process what actually happened back there. “Listen to me damn it! There's no such thing as a nice rebellion, you need to accept all that happened and then some or else…” Chad responded before he was interrupted by the shouting Hikari. “No it did not! My ancestors were good people who did what needed to be done and the Rightful Rebellion was exactly what it was named!” Hikari shouted over Chad in a rage, the energies of his sword flaring like burning coals before a bellows. “Keep thinking like that and you'll never be able to talk to a single Muryowa out here ever.” Chad hissed before he threw a hand up in frustration and just sat in a different corner of the building. Part of him thought about trying his luck and sneaking off now, going back to his mission in Muryowa proper like nothing ever happened. Though he ultimately decided against it, maybe Hikari just needed time to digest the old news. And time they had as they didn't speak with each other until the sun set well past the western horizon and the infringement of the city's great buildings into the sky. Yet it was like night never truly came in the city, electric lamps on the ends of lights illuminated the city streets as the only slightly smaller hordes of night walking citizens went about their nocturnal musings. Though what was strangest to Hikari as he looked out the window was the fact he couldn't see a single star in the night sky, and that it was a deathly shade of black instead of its usual blue hue. “How cursed must this land be to where you can't see the stars at night?” Hikari asked Chad as the latter stood up and stretched. “Light pollution, the price for being able to see your way is that you lose the stars. Now get up, we can probably sneak out of the city now.” Chad elaborated as he walked towards the door. “But there's still so much light and people out, I know they don't follow Rightful Cultivation but this is just odd.” Hikari responded as he stood up, his sword back in its saya after a few hours without action. “The civilized world never sleeps, not fully anyways. Still if you hide that sword he can walk out of town unbothered and hitch a ride west at a truck stop.” Chad stated as he opened the door. Hikari after the mishap the sword helped cause quietly accepted and stowed his sword away on the inside of his kimono. Just as easily as Chad said the two walked into the illuminated sidewalk and quietly marched their way westwards out of the city. It took hours to walk out of the urban sprawl of the city, its towering gray spires shifting to smaller suburban red brick housing surrounded by extremely tiny grass mini meadows all the while the hum of passing traffic roared by. “We've only been walking a few hours and already we're in another land it seems.” Hikari mentioned as he looked around at the suburban sprawl around him. “Same city, just a different part. Folks live out here to get away from the urban hustle. Notice how quiet it is around here?” Chad explained as they walked. “Ya and they all have little patches of land. Do they all farm their own food here?” Hikari asked, following beside Chad. “Nope, the only thing most people grow here is grass.” Chad answered. “This short stuff you can't eat? What's the point of growing anything then, do they just waste water for looks? Everywhere here is just madness incarnate.” Hikari asked before shrugging at the madness of the unfamiliar around him. Chad just laughed and they continued on through the suburbs, as the first lights of dawn began to shine through the cracks of the eastern skyline Hikari and Chad found themselves on the edge of civilization. On one horizon, the looming shadow of the city sticking out of the earth like obsidian obelisks. On the other side, seas of dry rice fields as far as the eye can see, only interrupted by the occasional steel silo or farmhouse. Upon this precipice between urban and rural of which they stood a colossal truck stop. A whole farm’s worth of land taken up by concrete and asphalt which smothering the ground around a great building that was far wider than it was tall. Though around its perimeter were dozens of plastic and steel henges with rubber hoses sticking out the sides. “Well now what do we do? Are we going to walk across that sea of rice, because I've a feeling it won't be the same as home with people willing to feed you as you go.” Hikari questioned Chad as Chad stuck out his hand balled in a fist except for his thumb sticking up. “No but plenty here are willing to let you hitch a ride instead.” Chad answered as he waited with his thumb out.

It took a while before anyone was willing to pick up the strange pair, at least anyone that was actually heading West. Eventually a truck, a great big truck with huge aggressively treaded rubber wheels, and a massive box on its back that was as long as a house. The massive rig skidded to a stop with an ear piercing screech of its breaks. A bulky heavy set man with tan skin and short black hair but with an excitable smile of bright white teeth would roll down the window. “Where are you two sore thumbs going?” The driver questioned the pair, but most strange was that he questioned the pair in Muryowa as opposed to Daion or any other of a hundred plus languages found in the Grand Daion Khanate. “Heading West all the way to the border and beyond.” Chad responded with a smile also in Muryowa. “Well I'm going West but not all the way to the border, still I can get you the bulk of the way over, hop on in.” The driver responded before Chad climbed the passenger side of the truck and Hikari followed behind him. Chad sat in the passenger seat while Hikari was directed to sit on the bed behind both the seats. Soon the truck lurched forwards with a loud rumble of the engine and this new trio was off Westwards. “The name is Jargal Bataar, and I've been trucking all over since I could reach the petals. What are your names then?” Bataar asked with a self satisfied chuckle as brought the truck up to speed. “I'm Chad and this Hikari, we're travelers trying to make it from one coast to the other.” Chad gave Hikari a subtle elbow to tell him to play along with the lie, and with what happened last time Hikari had no intention of telling the truth. “Sounds like a real adventure, good to see city folk still doing those these days. Too many seem eager to sit and stagnate in one place for too long. They never learn about the outside world and get some kind of weird or crazy. Not us Daion though, nothing we love more than to move and ramble, of course it's in our blood as nomads.” Bataar rambled as he set the truck at steady yet blisteringly fast speed down the great asphalt highway. “I know, when I told people we were gonna make this trip half of them looked at us like we had a hole in our heads.” Chad laughed in response humoring the man, for this wasn't the first time he had to hitch a ride. He knows the game you have to play, entertaining those that chaperone you about so they don't feel like they regret picking you up. “I always make a point to pick up hitchhikers too, damn company always says to not and I always tell them that if they don't like it they can kiss the most calloused part of my ass. I'm their best driver and they know it, that's why they don't have the guts to up and fire me. When I was a lad who just left a life of herding on the steppes behind, I damn near starved out on the steppes by the highway because nobody wanted to give me a ride. I only survived by eating the maggots out of roadkill until I hit the first town, damn that miserable and I ain't gonna let anyone else suffer that same misery.” Bataar retold as he kept a hand on the steering wheel while the other gestured wildly in the air. While Hikari was still getting used to being inside a truck and moving this fast he was somewhat impressed by the man’s story. Of how he refused to listen to uncaring authority figures and help those in need. “How did you learn to speak Muryowa?” Hikari questioned with genuine interest. “Ah and that's my other reason for always picking up hitchhikers, because you never know who you might meet. You see my wife is Muryowa out from the interior, she was the cutest thing I ever saw and still is, but she was out trying to hitchhike from the interior all the way back to the city that we just left. I picked her up and the poor girl barely spoke a word of Daionian, still our souls met and we hit it off. Eventually we rang wedding bells and we both learned a new language. Though I've never heard an accent like yours before, where are you from?” Bataar answered before he asked. Chad in turn shot Hikari a subtle glare which made Hikari think for a moment. “Oh I'm from the city, my family is just extremely traditional.” Hikari blurted out, not used to lying. “Ah I get it, you're rebelling a little yourself too then. Good on ya, adventures are a hell of a thing. There's a reason we nomads managed to conquer so much ya know?” Bataar laughed out, if he did know Hikari was lying he didn't show any signs of caring. Bataar proved to be a great traveling companion and then some, every town they passed he'd have some story of some adventure or mishap he had there. Like how in one small town diner he managed to wallop the leader of a local biker gang flat with one punch, and how he was jumped by the same gang again later in another town and that's why he had such a large scar across his chest. Or how he managed to shake a Keshig road patrol vehicle that wanted to ticket him for speeding by just barely managing to scoot past a herd of sheep being herded across the road by some shepherds. That or more mundane facts, which diners had the best dumplings, which ones made him food sick, or which ones he made it with a waitress before he got married. Everything was laughter and tales of little adventures for hours on end, to where both Hikari and Chad could barely get a word in and yet were both having a blast.

When the western sky began to shine red Bataar would finally pull the truck over at another more modest truck stop and stop at one of the henges of plastic and steel. “You two go in and get us all a table, it's my treat on account of you two being some of the best hikers I've hitched in a good while.” Bataar told the pair as he got out and began filling up the truck. Hikari and Chad agreed and got out, both of them stretching their stiff bodies before going into a humble building made of concrete blocks. The inside was much more homely, a giant circular metal grill dominated the center of the restaurant which had a waist high wall surrounded it, which itself had a bartop around its circumference and several metal and leather stools under that, alongside various booth seating and tables around the interior perimeter of the square building. Chad and Hikari would sit at the first booth they saw open and a few moments later Bataar would swing open the glass door with the casual boldness he exemplified perfectly. While he joyfully yelled out in Daionian most every person at this roadside diner would cheer and lift a glass or yell out his name in return, it seemed he was a real local celebrity. Bataar would joke around and jostle a few other trucker buddies before the waitress gave him a hug and he sat down at the booth with a bench shaking plop. The waitress would say something or other else in Daionian before passing around paper sheets covered in clear plastic with writing Hikari had no way of reading. The waitress would saunter off with a smile at Bataar before Bataar would turn to Hikari and Chad. “You're popular.” Chad remarked as he looked over the menu. “Yep, some folks call me the Highway Khan on account of my exploits. And who am I to say no to the people?” Bataar responded before laughing and slapping his knee. “I'll have a burger and fries, get Hikari here a salad, he doesn't eat meat.” Chad verbalized as he set his menu down. “Of course the Henrikan would go for a burger, you're on an adventure boy, try something new and adventurous. The stir fry noodles here are so good they'd make a fat man weep and a starving man fly.” Bataar heckled Chad in a friendly way. “I've had new and adventurous for months straight, I need me a burger and a black tea or else my teeth might come in straight.” Chad laughed in return with Bataar. The waitress came and Bataar ordered for them all before he'd get up and saunter over to the bartop and laugh around with a couple other truckers until their food arrived. The food came and Bataar’s stir fry and Chad’s burger looked leagues better than Hikari's pitiful salad of sad greens and a few even more sad vegetables. Still he was hungry enough that the food turned out good, as they ate Bataar would talk between slurps of noodles. “Got good news for you two. Word on the grape vine is there's a Vilnipolya Carnival in Khüdriin Baaz, where I'm driving my rig too. If you want to take your chances with them they should be heading West into Vilnipolya sooner rather than later.” Bataar explained happy for the coincidence. “Hells thats great, you've been a real life saver Bataar. Without you it might have taken weeks to get across Daion, now we can cross it in a few days.” Chad elated as finished his burger. “And we get to keep traveling with Bataar too.” Hikari quietly added as he finished the last of his meager salad. “Ahh don't go brown nosing me, you'd probably suffocate under me.” Again Bataar laughed, with a low down joyful and infectious laugh. Between that and his exploits it's little wonder the man was so popular. And so that night after Bataar paid for the meals Hikari and Chad would sleep on the restaurant booths with permission from the owner via Bataar's good word while Bataar himself slept in the bed Hikari sat on all day. Hikari awoke first and would go through his sword forms in the entrance of the restaurant until Chad awoke with the opening of the restaurant for breakfast. Soon Bataar came in and everyone had a fine if not groggy breakfast on Bataar’s dime before they all climbed back into the truck and drove on down the highway again. Yet halfway through the day after more of Bataar’ tales of adventure around the various highway towns the truck would turn off the highway and bring rubber to the dirt of vast great steppe lands around them. With Bataar's good word Hikari hadn't really paid attention to the landscape until now, being that he was forced into it. The whole thing was a lot like the ocean except that instead of the endless blues of the waves and sky it would be a sea of dull green grasses and rolling hills that meet the limitless blue of the eternal sky. The truck began to bounce, shake, and lose only a little speed as Bataar steered his massive rig through the sea of short grass. “You might be wondering why I'm driving off the road. You see Khüdriin Baaz like the name suggests isn't a traditional town, it's a mining camp for nomadic workers.” Bataar elaborated as he expertly steered the steel colossus the trio abided in. “How does a nomadic mining camp even work?” Chad asked as he hung onto the handle of his door for balance. “Oh it's simple, all the equipment is on wheels, once you're done tearing everything you need out of the ground you just take your tents, motorhomes, and motorized equipment and drive on to the next spot your prospector scouted out for you. Those tent towns can be cities all on their own, with stores, herders, bars, and whatever else you might need. There's a reason that carnival is performing for that camp before they leave, it's one of the bigger ones.” Bataar exclaimed as he maneuvered around a steep hill. “How do you grow food?” Hikari asked as he laid on the bed for balance. “They import what they can't get from whatever herders are local or follow them around. This shipment I'm hauling is mostly dry and canned food, plus some parts for something or other I don't remember.” Bataar answered without his usual enthusiasm on account of the more challenging driving. “So nobody there grows any of their own?” Hikari asked baffled in return, he knew many city people didn't grow their own food but if they actually cared they could have. Hikari couldn't understand the concept of living nomadically and not farming at all. “Look around fella, nothing but grass can survive out here plant wise. We Daion have been nomadic since our inception because of it and we've done pretty well for ourselves I'd say.” Bataar answered again before Chad turned and gave Hikari a glare so he doesn't blow their cover. There wasn't too much talk after that, not the mood had soured it was just the Bataar was focused on his off road driving he couldn't afford to ramble on and on like he could on the highway. Chad watched the sea of green velvet fly past the window while Hikari laid and thought about how bizarre and uncultivated this nomadic way of life truly is. In fact it annoyed him somewhat, if this land was truly so harsh and barren that nothing could be farmed on it then why not just leave it to the animals and go live in accordance with Rightful Cultivation somewhere it's actually possible to do so? How have these people lived this way for centuries and not just degraded to beasts? On top of that Bataar was one of the most kind and generous people he's met, especially since he's left Muryowa. None of it made sense to Hikari so he spent the drive wracking his brain over it again and again. This second day of driving was much duller and slower than the first with little of note really happening. By the time the moon crested a hill the truck had come to park in a flat plain and the trio made camp for the night. There Bataar made a little campfire with some firewood he had stored under his bed for just such an occasion. A little bit of gasoline and a light match sent the bundle of dried wood ablaze instantly as the light of the stars shone in the sky like pearls tossed into the ocean. Hikari was relieved to be greeted by their presence again.