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Yang woke up after about an hour of rest, but the only reason Kat knew that was because she heard the sharp gasp of Yang upon returning to the world of the waking. Yang made no move to reveal herself or leave the snake head. Apparently while stubbornly trudging on was fine, once you’d fallen already you were fine to keep quiet and rest. Kat just wished Xiang would either collapse or just accept a bit of help already.

As the day wore on, Xiang’s condition worsened. His speed dropped steadily over time, and Kat wasn’t even sure he noticed. He also started to sway, left and right, left and right. Kat had to stop him running into a tree once and a bush twice. Her continued glares and subtle suggestions for breaks were completely ignored by Xiang. Kat huffed and wanted to mutter, ‘boys’ under her breath but apparently it was ‘cultivators’ instead. “Fuckin morons...” whispered Kat.

When the sun set, Kat made a few not so subtle suggestions that perhaps it was a good idea to set up somewhere and rest. Xiang of course, was in no mood for this suggestion and claimed he would not stop until they reached the outpost. Kat just sighed and kept walking, knowing that unless she wanted to fight him, there was no other way to go about this.

Luckily, as without the sun Xiang seemed to spring back to life. He wasn’t in the best condition, still swaying slightly and nowhere near top speed... but he stopped sweating like he was being slow roasted and his breathing became a lot more steady. Still, his eyes had more purple in them, and a few of the poison drops had popped where they rubbed against things, his other leg, his boots, that one bush. Kat really wasn’t sure if that was good or not. Sure less poison was inside Xiang, or at least less under his skin... but now there was a good deal more on top of it.

Eventually, sometimes around 11pm, Kat was able to see a few lights. There was a single light on the top of a lookout, another bunch of lights attached to a caravan, and a final squat brick building with a few lights on the front. They were still a ways off, but Kat could make them out quite easily considering the dearth of other lights in the vicinity. Kat once again, subtly nudged Xiang about resting, this time with the excuse they might get there fast. Xiang looked so very tempted... but he kept running.

Really he was lucky, if Yang had still been awake, she would have jumped out of the snake, bashed him over the head with her club and then dragged them both back up to the snake head. But she wasn’t awake, and none of that happened of course. It ended up taking them a further 4 hours of travel to reach the outpost.

.....

And that’s all it was, a small outpost. There was a large amount of fenced off area nearby, it was just weak fencing, a couple of posts tied together with a long rope with a few bells attached to it. It was more of an early warning signal then a deterrent. Currently there was only one merchant caravan. It was made up of three wagons a few horses and who knew how many people. There were four tents, so at least four people, but perhaps more.

The squat building was more interesting, but the lights were only on the outside, Kat doubted the owner was actually awake to talk to them. Based on what she could see through the window it looked like a somewhat cramped bar.

Now the watch tower... well... that looked as good as abandoned. It was small, barely a tower with a roof at the top. The ladder was missing two rungs and the rest looked to be rotted out. There was a gap in the floor and Kat was pretty sure the last time somebody had been up there was when it was being built. Still, it was nice to be here. Kat could finally convince Xiang to rest.

She turned to say as much when she found him face first in the dirt, a single step inside the fence line. Kat sighed and moved the snake head off to the side, before carrying Xiang over and dropping him inside. It wouldn’t do for him to be woken by the sun. Kat took a good look around once again before leaning against the outside of the snake, and closed her eyes, falling into meditation. She didn’t want to go to sleep. This time, it was pragmatism that called her to meditate.

With other people so close by she wanted to make sure to be on guard. A bit of meditation meant that she’d see the ripples in her mind should anyone actually come close. It gave her both rest, and the ability to watch out for threats. The best of both worlds really and she was quite happy to make use of it. Lily purred softly once Kat sat down, and dug herself deeper into Kat’s chest so that only her back and tail could be seen. Kat chuckled at the sight, her heart filled with warmth as she closed her eyes.

—

Kat’s vigilance was rewarded because shortly after the sun came up she could feel someone approaching them. Kat stopped her meditation and opened her ears. It seemed to be someone walking normally towards them. They were trying to hide their approach. *Hmm... seems we’ve got a curious customer.* Kat opened her eyes and slowly stood up.

In front of her was a somewhat portly looking man. Not overly so, and Kat wouldn’t count him out of a fight despite his large stomach. His arms were equally large but where his stomach looked to be largely fat, his arms were largely muscle and looked like they could snap tree trunks. His robes were purple lined with gold, a little gaudy but he seemed to be able to sell the look. His boots were well worn though, and while his robes were pristine, his boots told Kat he got around.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to wake you... I was just coming over to have a look at this remarkable specimen, if you don’t mind lass?” said the man with a deep calming voice.

“It’s no issue, just know that my companions are... unwell and using the inside of the mouth as a bit of a resting point. It seems they didn’t take to the swamp,” said Kat.

The man nodded, “Yes yes, nasty business that. If I didn’t have the equipment for it because of a somewhat recent business acquisition I wouldn’t bother with it myself. Barely worth the risk really. Fast it might be, but deadly as well... was it your party that slew the beast?”

*Hmm... do I want to tell him that it was basically just me? No... probably best not to admit that sort of thing.* “Yes well... had to use some unconventional tactics... we weren’t really looking for a fight with it. We’re on a bit of a time crunch and wanted to make our way there as fast as possible. This damned thing attacked us along the way... and well...” Kat finished with a shrug.

The merchant nodded and carefully ran his fingers along the snakes scales. He tapped them a few times before nodding. “Hmm... hopefully this isn’t rude of me to ask... but why carry the head around? What happened to the rest of the body?”

*Hmm... do I want to tell him there’s a lot of money’s worth of snake carcass just in the swamp? Yes. Yes I think I do. It’s pretty visible from the main ‘road’ if you’re following the sticks. It’s not like we can hide it.* “We couldn’t carry it. No space for it in our dimensional storage so we took what we could and left the rest. It’s pretty much on the main road, assuming nothing has eaten it,”

The man’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates. “Marvellous... would you mind terribly if I was to... acquire the remainder?”

“No go ahead, assuming it’s still there,” said Kat.

“Hmm... when did you slay the beast?” asked the merchant.

“Um... let’s see... spent yesterday traveling, the day before that getting out of the swamp... and it was killed fairly early in the morning the day before that... so... depending on how you count it 2 or 3 days?” offered Kat.

“Hmmm... hmm... I’ll have to think of something to offer you for this information. Even if the carcass isn’t intact when I get there... hmm... how big was it would you say?” asked the man.

Kat just shrugged. *I don’t know if they know what a train is... hmm... could I measure it in boats? No... no I don’t know what the standard boat size is...* “Quite large...” Kat looked over at the caravans, “easily larger then your entire convey end to end,”

The man nodded understandingly. “Yes... I’ll need to think of something... hmm...”