On the morning of their departure, just after dawn had fully broken, Mr. Popo appeared at the entrance to Kame House. He arrived as quietly as he had last time; almost as soon as the sunlight touched the threshold, he was already standing outside, as though he had been waiting nearby since before daybreak. He carried nothing and stood beneath the porch as he had before.
Lin Chen was already prepared. A cloth bundle containing his clothes rested on his shoulder, while he carried the wooden box, tied shut with a strip of cloth, in one hand. The stone fragment inside gave off a steady, faint warmth through the wooden walls. Standing at the door, he took one last look at Kame House's yard. The fruit platter on the stone table had been put away, and several martial arts uniforms hung from the clothesline beneath the eaves, swaying gently in the morning breeze. Then he followed Mr. Popo down the path toward the foot of the mountain.
Mr. Popo did not walk quickly, and his strides were not large, but Lin Chen noticed that the frequency and rhythm of his steps remained steady. After they passed through a sparse grove, large patches of exposed rock began appearing beside the road, their surfaces covered in pale gray lichen. Mr. Popo stopped before a larger boulder and pressed a hand against an inconspicuous depression on its side. The rock showed no obvious reaction, but the air around ten paces ahead suddenly began to blur, as if the scenery were being viewed through heated glass.
"Let's go." Mr. Popo stepped into the blurred area as he spoke. Lin Chen followed behind him and felt his body pass through a cool barrier. The ground beneath his feet seemed not to shift during the crossing,