I often remembered the creekside pavilion at dusk, drunk and unaware of the way home. When the revelry ended, I returned by boat at night and mistakenly entered the depths of lotus blossoms. Row, row, startling a sandbank full of gulls and herons into flight.
Time passed quickly. By the time the clouds had cleared and the rain had stopped, it was already deep into the night.
The two lay on the Beast Hide, gazing at the stars overhead. Though summer nights in the mountains were still quite cool, it was nothing to either of them given their physiques.
Gin wiped away her sweat and rested her head against Su Ming's chest in the fading glow of the campfire. Listening to his heartbeat, she closed her eyes and caught her breath.
"You really are..."
"Shh. Do you hear something?"
The hand stroking Gin's smooth back stopped. Su Ming opened his eyes and sat up. It was not that he had heard anything—Strangle had.
Something was approaching through the sky.
Gin was tired, but she still pulled up a corner of the Beast Hide blanket to cover her chest and looked skyward. "Yes, I hear it too. It sounds like a plane?"
"Get dressed and go home. There shouldn't be any flight routes here, and there's no reason for a plane to be flying this low." Su Ming patted her butt as black-and-yellow armor instantly covered his body, its red eyepieces lighting up the night.
"Alright. I'll go home and watch the house. Be careful." Gin grabbed the dress beside her and slipped it on, picked up her weapon, and even planned to carry off the leftover bear.
No point wasting it, after all.
Before she could leave, however, a burning airplane suddenly emerged from beyond a distant mountaintop.
It looked