Chapter 856

Yang tried and failed to get off the ground a few more times but her strength was nothing compared to Kat’s and she couldn’t exactly get much leverage to offset that particular issue. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. With a bit of effort Yang could use all four of her limbs at once in an attempt to get out from under Kat’s knee. She wasn’t thinking particularly clearly though and the anger was clouding her judgement.

Kat heard the waterlogged steps of Xiang as his boots squished and squashed against the ground as he made his way over. Xiang had pulled his hair off the side and had only cracked one eye open. When he got next to Kat, he said, “Yang. Kat is going to let you up in a moment,” I am? “and I want you to stand up. S L O W L Y and then meditate to try and get that poison out of your system. You will feel much less angry afterwards,” Wait hang on...

Kat glanced at Xiang who gave her a nod before she turned to Yang who still looked pretty angry. Kat raised an eyebrow and Yang grimaced but gave her a nod in return. Kat carefully lifted her weight off of Yang’s chest and stepped backwards. Yang glared at Kat as she stood up before grabbing her weapon once again. Kat pretended not to be watching her in slowed time as Yang slammed it down into the ground creating a small dent and stomping off away from the group. Presumably to meditate.

Yang started to jog eventually, giving up on her excessive stomping, and managed to get a decent way away from the group before sitting down and letting her breathing slow. Kat glanced over at Xiang after this had happened and stage whispered “Ok what are the chances the water is actually poisoned and that it enhances aggression”

Xiang put on an old wise master voice and said, “Ah but what is the true poison? Some mildly irritating plants or the infectious nature of anger itself? One is temporary and easily healed while the other can weigh you down for a lifetime damaging every interaction you have with others,”

“Right... ok... let’s say I agree with that. Is the water poisoned or not? I need to know how careful I should be especially with Lily. I can probably deal with any poison that doesn’t instantly kill me with my regeneration but that isn’t the case for Lily,” explained Kat.

Xiang looked out at the water, seeing the algae blooms as well as the grass and shrubs growing on the edge of the swamp. “Truthfully... I think if there is a poison in the water this far out it’s not a strong one. It’s clearly something that can be easily shaken off... but I imagine it’ll get worse the deeper we go. That tends to be how these kinds of environments operate. The path doesn’t go through the centre of the bog... but it does get much closer. Hopefully it’s not a major issue...”

.....

“Sure. I can accept that... except for the fact I see no path!” said Kat as she gestured grandly towards the swamp.

Xiang pulled out the map, luckily he was using a small special ring and the map was perfectly dry, to check. Xiang frowned as he saw they should be in the right spot, assuming at least they were on the path depicting by the map. Xiang gazed out at the bog for a few moments as he looked for a path of some kind but there really wasn’t anything overly obvious. Certainly no pontoons or brick roads. He took a few steps to the side as he continued to look only to freeze when he noticed it. “I think I found the path. Come stand over here and follow where I’m pointing. You have to see it to understand.”

Kat shrugged and moved over to stand behind Xiang, following his arms... and then it all clicked. He was right. You did have to see it. From this angle you could see a clear marking of wooden sticks. They didn’t look too out of place from the side but when you were standing in the right area you noticed that they lined up perfectly with each other. It was an exceptionally clear marking once you knew what to look for. “I see. So we follow those?”

“I think we should,” said Xiang. “We’ve already managed to get to it... so at least for the swamp we should stick to the marked path. I imagine it’s safer and I hope that it’s faster...”

“Well... if that’s what you want. I’m not the one who needs to wade through the water...” said Kat before walking away.

Xiang looked back at Kat as she made her way over to a small tree that was really more of a bush with delusions of grandeur. Whatever it was before, now it was making an acceptable backrest as Kat breathed out a soft sigh as she tried to catch up with everything that just happened.

*I don’t really know if I should be mad at Yang or not. I can at least understand her anger this time... even if it was poorly directed. The fact that she went straight to attacking Xiang though... and with real force... I don’t know how to feel about that. Was I too easy on her? She’s not some unruly child for me to discipline... but you know... maybe she wasn’t punished as a child.*

[I feel like that’s getting into territory best left alone. Best not try and guess at an angry woman’s childhood. Probably best just to leave it alone. As to if you did the right thing or if you should be mad. Hmm... well I’d say some annoyance is certainly warranted. Maybe it’s not so bad in a world with special healing but we have no healers and wasting medical supplies is a terrible idea.]

[In addition to that. Yang is constantly angry, and this is a reasonable line in the sand to draw. Saying that she can yell and scream all she wants, perhaps even some light physical violence. But Xiang was only saved from having a deep cut in his chest and maybe some broken ribs as well by his leather armour. As it stands, she damaged, permanently I think, Xiang’s equipment.]

[If that becomes a consistent thing on our journey, we’ll need to make detours for more supplies and equipment. I don’t think it’s that far fetched either considering how long we’ll be needing to travel together. I’m just not sure how much we should confront her about it. Which I guess leads to if you were too soft on her.]

[Honestly... hard to say. We aren’t her parents or relatives. One could argue we don’t have any real authority to punish her... except we are currently working in a team to free someone from unlawful confinement. Hmm... is it unlawful? Maybe not but the point was pretty clear I think.]

[Perhaps what we need to do is establish who is in charge of this mission. Xiang seems to sort of be at this point mostly because he has the map. If he properly claims that role, we can say it isn’t our place to punish her. That it’s Xiang’s job and all we can do is recommend he take some sort of action.]

[Though the counter to that is Xiang might be too soft on her considering she saved his life... or that the power difference between the two isn’t sufficient to allow Yang to be punished, especially not in any physical way. Not if Xiang’s the one doing the punishing. I don’t think that should be OUR job either, not if we aren’t in charge because that would just create problems but...]

[I’d say it’s hard, just like you already think. Yang’s behaviour isn’t really acceptable. This was a pretty unique situation, dirt and water and her eyes look horrible now. She’s probably going to be in a decent amount of pain for a while just while her body deals with it all. Even if it’s not poison it’s still dirty water that was in her eyes and throat.]

[Maybe we can consider that punishment enough? I don’t think things will be pleasant for her right at this moment. Though... that might sound like an excuse to just avoid punishment. Hmmm... leadership. I don’t know how we’d designate a leader. Yang would never accept us, and might not accept anyone other than herself. It’d probably become another major fight. Does that mean we have to let it go? Maybe... keep it in mind for the future... but maybe we do have to leave things as they are.]

*I guess so. Thanks for the thoughts Lily they really helped.*

[I was just ranting for a bit Kat. I didn’t say anything that insightful.]

*Perhaps... but I trust your judgement more than my own in this case. I’m too used to dealing with people younger than me that WOULD deserve some form of punishment if they did something like this.*

[Oh Yang certainly deserves some punishment. It’s just not necessarily ours to give, and potentially better to leave it alone.]

*True.* “Very true,” whispered Kat softly.