Bronze Magic - Son of the tree of creation

An unforseen Companion

There hadn't been much time, not enough to grab something decent to eat before they already had to drive to the station. Loading all the gear into the train took some time. Of course, Wu Xie and Pan Zi wouldn't show their faces there.

This wasn't about helping or not helping. It was about the chaos that uncle three had caused, and that they still didn't know for sure who or what the police was tracking. So, they tried to keep their distance as much as possible.

Now Wu Xie and Pan Zi were walking around the vicinity of the train station. Pan Zi had already bought their tickets, of course they had a special place where they ought to be during the train ride. Wu Xie hadn't paid too much attention. He was sure Pan Zi was able to handle it without any problem. He would just move about a bit.

Trying to keep his bones from acing, his back really felt bad at the moment. When it had been time to get out of the car Wu Xie had barely been able to stand up, without anyone else noticing his pain. He only hoped that it was because of the long time he had spent sitting, not because of the - only recently healed injuries.

After the hurt subsided – it only took a bit of moving around and stretching – it turned into an irritating itch across his hole back. At that point Wu Xie was sure that the cause weren't only his past injuries.

Wu Xie told Pan Zi that he felt like his joints where going to rust, if he wasn't able to move around before boarding the train. His company, who understood the feeling, experiencing it at least partwise himself, agreed to stay outside and only enter the train at almost the last minute.

Wu Xie finally to a deep breath, a break even if it would only last a few minutes. The air of the city was not nearly as fresh as the one of the hinterland. And their next destination was also already fixed – Changbai mountain.

But then again, he couldn't shake the feeling that his questions once again wouldn't be answered. Instead, it felt like a huge hurdle that had to be crossed. Well, it was a mountain – a huge one, what did he expect. He could only hope that his injuries had healed enough to withstand that burden.

But first things first, he was famished. And before he could be even close to tackling that mountain of a task he really needed to eat something – that was at least close to a proper meal. The last month he had to deal with hospital food, the nest days if not even weeks he had to survive on canned meat and crackers again. So, he really wanted to get something good between his teeth.

Wu Xie and Pan Zi went into the train station hall – scouring for food stalls. After a while they found a place that sold take away noodles. A form of comfort food you still could call decent and didn't make too much of a mess when eaten.

Wu Xie hoped that he didn't look too overly happy, when he finally got his food container, and they found a nice, not too crowded place to eat them. While standing of course, they had yet another train ride, starting in about twenty minutes as of that moment.

They at least wouldn't have to hurry too much after finishing their meal. It was just then, when Wu Xie finally started to feel full, and was thinking about closing the container and eating the rest of the noodles later, when he noticed him.

What was Lao Yang doing here, standing inside a doorway? Sure he had written, that they might see each other again, but only if he needed his help. Which he didn't do at the moment. But it was a good opportunity – Wu Xie had questions.

Questions, Changbai mountain surely wouldn't answer and that had a lot to do with that bronze tree – and Lao Yang and his letter.

When the man looked at him and gave him a slight nod, Wu Xie knew he had been seen and that the other party also seemed to want to meet. Because of that, he was sure that he wasn't running away from him when he disappeared behind the door he had been standing in.