Several years earlier

Go left by the elephant shaped rock. Then after three li you should see the cave entrance.

"Well those instructions aren't very clear, but who cares when they pay well."

Xuě Lù was pushing his cart full of fuel and minerals up the mountain path. At some point he would have to leave it and walk into the wilderness, but he hoped to meet the buyer before that.

He had received the order through the mail, and it had basically contained three lines.

One to ask for fuel and materials to forge.

One to commit to a, very profitable, payment schedule.

One with instructions of delivery.

Normally Xuě Lù wouldn't have just started to collect everything and go to deliver the order. He had seen scams that had been more believable. But when the next day the promised payment had arrived, it seemed a lot more plausible that it was real.

That was how he found himself travelling a snow covered road in the hope to find his place of destination.

"And that makes three li. Now where is the cave entrance?"

No answer could be heard apart from a crow screaming in the distance.

"Maybe it's behind one of the trees? We're not even close to the edge of the mountain."

After searching for several moments the entrance still ceased to be found and Xuě Lù was getting irritated.

"Easy money they said, it'll be fun they said. I'm not seeing anything funny when I'm resembling an ice statue."

"Although it's extremely entertaining to see you wandering around, I'm getting cold. The entrance is right here, you're just not seeing it."

Xuě Lù whirled around to see who spoke.

A young man was leaning against a tree while twirling a pen between his fingers.

Xuě Lù was certain he hadn't been there just moments before.

"Did you order the fuel and materials?"

"No, but my boss did. Come inside."

The man turned around and disappeared between the trees.

Xuě Lù carefully edged closer till he was standing between the same trees as the other man had been.

"It's an illusion."

The cave entrance was disguised as two trees among thousands of similar ones.

Xuě Lù entered the passage and followed the man deeper into the mountain. The room they ended up in contained a bed, a worktable and a forge.

It didn't look like a place you could comfortably live in.

"You can place the wood and materials next to the forge. If I was informed correctly, you'll bring the same supplies over two weeks, right?"

Xuě Lù nodded his head in confirmation, and after he had left the supplies in their designated place, turned tail and left as fast as he could.

That man wasn't human.

-

Two weeks later Xuě Lù found himself once again on his way with a cart of supplies. Though the reason for his unease was slightly different this time, it was just as well founded.

Mere mortals shouldn't associate with otherworldly beings.

The cultivator in the village was already too much in his opinion, and he had known that woman for most of his life.

At least Xuě Lù knew where he stood with her, what lines not to cross. With this, being, he didn't know.

But they paid well, so here he was, entering the lair of the beast.

"I've got the supplies for you, they're by the entrance."

When a confirming noise from the cave could be heard, did Xuě Lù leave in the same way he had come. He had no wish to meet an early grave, something associating with this being certainly would provide.

-

Months went by like that. Xuě Lù would announce his presence and leave his load near the entrance to be collected. Apart from that first meeting he never laid eyes on the creature living inside. Something he was more than fine with.

Till his curiosity got the best of him.

How dangerous could it be to talk a bit when he delivered the supplies?

So the next time Xuě Lù delivered the supplies he waited for the being to emerge.

"You're still here."

Xuě Lù's hands twitched against his clothes, but he forced himself to nod and open his mouth to speak.

"Yes, it seemed nice to talk a bit."

"So it seems, yes."

While that had been the end of the conversation, it hadn't been the end of all future attempts.

-

"Here it is."

"Thank you.

-

"Bad weather isn't it?"

"Yes, though inside it's quite comfortable. See you in two weeks."

-

"I almost froze to death carrying it up the mountain. How can it ever get this cold!"

"If you want to, you can come inside to warm up."

They looked at each other in surprise. Xuě Lù at being invited in and not feeling a surge of fear, the other at actually inviting the human inside his prison.

"I would like that, thank you."

Xuě Lù followed the man inside and saw that nothing had changed, the interior was still as impersonal as when he had seen it the first time.

"I don't have anything to offer at the moment. But you can sit near the fire to warm up a bit."

Xuě Lù sat down and watched as the man went back to his work table to continue writing in a notebook. In the half an hour that he stayed, the man filled two dozen pages with frantic scribbles.

When he no longer could prolong his departure, did he stand up to leave. The man didn't notice it and Xuě Lù went back to the village, with new questions waiting to be answered.

-

December 16, 2022

[grammar check]