Little Mo

The young beast first took the lead of its own accord after their pursuers blocked the way downstream.

There were only two obvious routes out of Mist Valley. One followed the stream over level ground, but the black-armored men's torches had already appeared there. The other crossed a sheer cliff, where only one main rope remained of an old rope bridge. Leien's shield was cracked, Kelin was carrying the map and evidence, Ailina lacked tools, and Helian Yuan couldn't exert force with his right arm. None of the four was suited to taking a young beast with an injured leg across a rope bridge.

Their pursuers evidently knew it too.

They didn't rush in. Instead, they rang ordinary copper bells outside the stream passage and gradually sent their scent beasts into the valley. There were no iron whistles or long notes from the hemp grass. That meant they had adjusted their approach: since Helian Yuan knew the old tools, they would use the simplest means, men and beasts, to narrow the space.

Leien looked toward the cliff. "I'll cross first and pull the rope."

"Your shield's broken. You'll be shot by a crossbow halfway across," Kelin said.

Ailina examined the young beast's hind leg. "It can't be suspended from a rope."

Helian Yuan didn't decide immediately. He saw the young beast get up and sniff toward the western wall of Mist Valley for a long time. It looked like an unbroken stone wall, but a very thin wisp of moisture was flowing out from its base.

The young beast dragged its injured leg over and scraped away a patch of wet moss with a forepaw. Half a natural cave entrance appeared behind it.

It wasn't a path meant for people. The opening was only waist-high, and the inside was covered in animal fur and old claw marks. The young beast had probably entered the valley this way, while the recovery team, burdened with chain nets and scent beasts, had kept its attention on the obvious routes.

"Does it go through?" Leien asked.

The young beast didn't answer in human speech. It only crawled two steps inside, then looked back at Helian Yuan.

Tiger Shadow crouched low on the ground, facing the opening.

"It does," Helian Yuan said.

The tunnel was narrow, so the spear had to be taken apart. Ailina unscrewed the iron sleeve again and handed the front and rear sections to Helian Yuan and Leien respectively. Kelin crawled first, the young beast went in the middle, Ailina protected its injured leg, Leien backed along as rear guard, and Helian Yuan entered last.

Their pursuers soon discovered that the moss had been disturbed.

A crossbow bolt shot into the opening, grazed Helian Yuan's left arm, and embedded itself in the stone wall. The black-armored leader didn't send everyone squeezing inside. He sent only two small, thin guards in pursuit while dispatching others around to block the far end of the tunnel.

That meant the other side might have an old map too.

There was no room to turn around in the tunnel. Helian Yuan could only crawl backward, using the half spear to block the first pursuer's blade. The man kept pressing forward, trying to pin him in the narrow passage. Helian Yuan couldn't use his right arm, and the angle at which he could hold the spear in his left hand was limited. Every block sent his back crashing against the rock overhead.

Ahead, Kelin suddenly shouted, "The exit's on a cliff!"

The far end of the tunnel opened below the old rope bridge. Outside was a single projecting stone ledge. They could climb up to the bridgehead, but below lay a deep valley. If the recovery team reached the bridgehead ahead of them, the four would be trapped on the ledge between them.

Ailina lifted the young beast out first. Once it landed on the ledge, it didn't run toward the bridgehead. Instead, it bit a dangling old rope and pulled it to the side.

A second rock ledge lay hidden behind the old rope.

The two ledges were nearly a zhang apart, too far for a person to jump easily, but the young beast could cross along a sloping ridge of rock. The ridge was hidden by mist and couldn't be seen from the bridgehead.

"It knows this place," Kelin said.

"It escaped once before," Ailina replied.

Leien stepped out of the opening first and used his broken shield to block the bolts fired from the bridgehead. The first pierced the shield; the second shattered its face completely. He didn't throw it away. Instead, he wedged the remains into a crack in the rock above the opening, making a temporary barrier.

"Go!"

Kelin swung across to the second ledge on the old rope. Ailina carried the young beast to the start of the rock ridge, but didn't carry it across. She let go, allowing it to judge for itself whether its injured leg could bear the weight.

The young beast took one tentative step. Its hind leg buckled, and it nearly slipped off. Helian Yuan reached out of the tunnel with his left hand and supported its belly.

Ailina reached out too, but instead of picking it back up, she looped a strip of cloth around its chest. "It walks, we hold on. Don't decide where it puts its feet."

The three of them kept hold of the cloth while the young beast inched across the rock ridge.

The pursuers in the tunnel were already closing in. Helian Yuan held his spear crosswise to block a blade one last time, and the iron sleeve cracked under the strain in the narrow space. The front half of the shaft was pressed into the stone wall by the blade and could no longer easily be pulled free.

The seven-day spear had lasted less than four days.

Without hesitation, he twisted the cracked iron sleeve apart and withdrew from the opening with the rear half of the shaft. A pursuer poked his head out after him, and Leien immediately kicked the wedged shield loose. The shield and broken stones crashed into the tunnel together, temporarily blocking the exit.

Others were coming around from the other side of the bridgehead too.

The black-armored leader stood on the old rope bridge, with only a single main rope beneath his feet. He hadn't brought a net. He held a crossbow, aiming first at the young beast, then shifting it toward Helian Yuan.

"Leave number seven."

At the words "number seven," the young beast flattened its ears and visibly trembled.

Helian Yuan stepped in front of it. "That isn't its name."

The black-armored leader sneered. "A blank space in the register doesn't mean it doesn't belong somewhere."

"If it's blank, it's not yours to fill in."

The crossbow bolt flew.

Leien shoved Kelin aside, and the bolt grazed his shoulder. Ailina looped the old rope around a projection of rock and secured it with the remaining tool pegs, preparing for everyone to descend from the second ledge. But the black-armored leader advanced swiftly along the main rope, his balance and speed far beyond those of an ordinary warrior.

Helian Yuan had only half a spear shaft, with no spearhead.

He didn't charge to meet him. Instead, he watched how the main rope bore the man's weight. With each step the black-armored leader took, the rope sank and sprang back. On his third step, he put his weight on his left foot, preparing to use the rebound to leap onto the ledge.

Helian Yuan struck the collar at his waist with the half spear shaft.

Without the green piece, the sound was dull.

But when the young beast heard the collar, it suddenly let out a piercing tiger roar at the rope bridge. It was no longer the low growl of fear. It drove out all the fear of being locked up, hunted, and called number seven in a single breath.

Tiger Shadow rose at Helian Yuan's feet at the same moment.

The black-armored leader was in midair, and to his eyes, two tigers seemed to pounce at him at once. He didn't know which was real, and his movements faltered for the briefest instant.

Helian Yuan thrust the half spear shaft between the main rope and the stone ring and pressed down with all the strength in his left hand.

The main rope slipped out of its groove.

The black-armored leader didn't fall into the deep valley. He caught another trailing length of rope in time, his body slamming hard against the cliff face. But the rope bridge had completely lost its support, and the pursuers at the bridgehead could no longer approach.

Helian Yuan was also struck in the chest by the rebounding rope and fell backward. Ailina grabbed his belt, while Leien gripped her shoulder with his uninjured hand. All three nearly slipped off the ledge together.

Kelin had already lowered the old rope. "Don't stand around counting who saved whom. Move!"

The four descended from the second ledge. The young beast walked at the front, stopping at every fork to sniff the air before choosing a direction free of hemp grass and human scent. It wasn't loot being carried along. For the first time, it had truly changed the entire group's escape route.

It wasn't until late that night that the pursuers' copper bells could no longer be heard at all.

They stopped in a cave filled with the vapor of a hot spring. Leien had been hit beside the shoulder, though luckily it was only a graze; Helian Yuan had a fresh rope mark across his chest; Ailina had only a small hammer and pliers left among her tools; and one corner of Kelin's map had gotten wet. The young beast lay at the cave entrance, still on guard and unwilling to come all the way over to the fire.

Kelin took out a blank wooden tag. "We have to record it somehow."

The young beast immediately bared its teeth at the tag.

Ailina turned it over, blank side down. "Don't use that to record it."

"Then what do we call it?" Leien asked.

The cave fell quiet for a while.

Helian Yuan looked at the young beast's black-gray fur. Firelight fell across its back. It wasn't pure black, but more like the varying shades of ink spreading through water. It had no connection to Old Mo either. He couldn't impose the remnant soul's name on a new life just because their colors were similar.

"Little Mo," he said.

The young beast raised its head.

"It's only a name," Helian Yuan added. "If it doesn't answer, forget it."

Ailina laughed. "You name a beast, and you ask whether it agrees first?"

"It just chose our route for us."

The young beast didn't respond to the name, but it slowly walked over and touched its nose to the half spear shaft Helian Yuan had placed on the ground. Then it went around the blank wooden tag and lay down on the side without a number.

Kelin wrote two small characters at the edge of his map: Little Mo.

No number, no filing, and no "name to be added after live return."

That same night, the temporary group also discussed its terms anew.

Leien would handle the front, but had the right to refuse meaningless holding actions; Kelin would keep the evidence, but wouldn't sacrifice living people for paper; Ailina would repair weapons and pick locks, and the costs of all high-risk plans had to be disclosed in advance; Helian Yuan would provide leads on the Recovery Society and tigers, but couldn't assume his goal was everyone else's.

Anyone could leave at the next safe place.

There were no oaths, and no one owed anyone else a life.

Thus, after a blank tag was turned over, the first group of the second volume was formed.

Outside the cave, a gray lamp lit up on a distant ridge.

The black-armored leader hadn't caught up, but he had sent new information back.

The tag thief from Sunken Bone Slope had entered the deeper hunting grounds.

He now had three more people at his side, as well as an ink-striped tiger cub that was no longer called number seven.