When we got to the bottom of the mountain, I groaned loudly and let the wagon drop. Since there were three other wheels it didn’t drop all the way the back corner where the wheel was missing just sagged a little. As I stared at it I wondered for a minute if we could have just pressed on to the other side of the mountain.

  “You don’t carry any extra wheels?”

  I blinked and whirled around and saw Amber and Norimoro standing there. They were standing in front of their smaller horse-drawn cart. Amber seemed to be trying not to laugh, but Norimoro did not look happy.

  “Of course I have an extra wheel, it uh… broke, in the fight,” I explained.

  Even Betsy gave an indignant bellow, and I pointed at her in agreement. “See.”

  Norimoro frowned and shook his head. “Is the road cleared up ahead?”

  I shrugged. “It was, we fought off a group of, uh…”

  “Shunobon, probably.”

  I looked at Amber when she supplied the name of the creatures. She smiled and shrugged.

  “Sure, anyway, we fought a group of them off and they ran away once they realized we weren’t easy prey,” I told them both.

  Norimoro looked at Amber, still frowning. “Kohaku, if we go up, will you be able to fight off anything with your snake?”

  Amber went wide eyed, and she looked at Mr. Hisselhoff. The snake looked back at her and hissed softly. “Um…” Amber said after a moment and Norimoro just gave a sigh.

  “It’s so we can get ahead of Maikeru. Once his wheel is fixed, he will easily catch up. My horses still need a bit of a rest, so we’ll go slow at first,” Norimoro explained.

  Amber looked hesitant, but with the older strict man staring down at her, she finally relented. “Alright, I guess. David should be able to handle some shunobon, I think. He’s more powerful than he looks.”

  The snake nodded its head.

  “Good,” Norimoro said, and then climbed back into his little carriage. Amber followed him in and then he grabbed a stick with a whip on the end and cracked it. He didn’t strike either of the horses, but the noise was enough to get them moving.

  They ran past me and I sighed and looked at Betsy. “Alright then, girl, let’s figure out where to get a wheel and you some of those neat pills.”

  “Mrrr…” She got wide eyed with that bellow.

  I cocked my eyebrow and looked at her. Had she turned into a pill junkie after one dose of the pills that Niku had given her before? No. Couldn’t be. Though I thought back to all the Xianxia and cultivation novels I had listened to and realized all of those guys were not only power junkies but also pretty addicted to their pills.

  “Maybe not the pills,” I said as we both walked down the main road of the town.

  “Mrr,” she gave a disappointed bellow.

  The town looked like it desperately needed an influx of money. Everyone in it seemed depressed and just sort of down. The buildings were run down and old and the ones that had paint on it desperately needed a new coat. This main part of the town reminded me of an old west type of town but with a more Japanese aesthetic. The buildings were close together, and I half expected a duel to break out on the street.

  I found a shop with the door open and big glass windows on either side of it. When I peered inside, it seemed to be a more general store that sold everything a traveler could want. Because Betsy remained strapped to the wagon and, judging by the door’s size, was likely too large to enter, she waited on the street while I went inside.

  “Aye, I can sell ya a couple of wheels, but for the pill, you’ll have to go to the apothecary down the road. It’s not a full alchemist shop, and some people say what they sell is snake oil, so be careful,” the old man explained to me.

  He was hunched over and had the typical old man's crown of hair that was bald in the middle. What hair he had was kept short and close to his skull and was gray. He was clean shaven and walked hunched over a little and dragged his leg behind him.

  I frowned and stood at his counter as I watched him move around the store. It was laid out with a few rows of shelves and some bigger things towards the back of the shop.

  “What’s the difference between an alchemist shop and an apothecary?” I asked with a cocked brow.

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  He turned and looked at me behind his spectacles. “Did you just fall from the stupid tree?”

  “I…” I stared at him.

  He sighed and shook his head. “Pale faced out of towner has a spirit beast and thinks he’s some great cultivator because he can use a bit of aura.”

  The man grunted as he lifted the two large wagon wheels off the back of the wall. “You know, you could help me. I’m an old man and I can barely walk!” He glared at me.

  “Oh, uh… Sorry…” I said and went to the back of the shop with him.

  “You might be an idiot, but you’re strong, aren’t you?” He asked as I took a wheel from him.

  I shrugged.

  He sniffed.

  “The difference is actual people with training, most likely a cultivator run alchemist shops,” he explained as he worked the second wheel off the wall.

  “Oh,” I said, further irritating him.

  He grunted and moved past the irritation. “An apothecary is just some people who may or may not know about alchemy and can make potions. I go to them if I have something small wrong and they usually help me out without too many side effects. I’d be careful if you’re actually looking for legitimate pills or elixirs for cultivation.”

  I nodded my head and took the second wheel from him. “Alright, thank you for the advice.”

  He grunted and nodded and began his slow, arduous process of going back behind his counter. I watched him and was a kind of surprised he didn’t use some kind of cane. His clothing was worn loose and the big pants that everyone wore shimmied and shook, as well as the outer layer of the kimono.

  “It’ll be one jin for the wheels, boy,” he said as he resumed his place behind the counter and his cash box.

  I nodded and reached for my coin purse. Once I set the coin down on the counter with a couple of the copper dous for the extra information as a tip, I left the store.

  “Bad news, girl,” I said when I walked back to Betsy and held a wheel in each hand.

  “Mrr?”

  “I guess we shouldn’t get you any pills here. The town doesn’t have anyone who properly knows how to make the pills we need, and I’d rather not risk anything,” I explained.

  “Mrr,” she bellowed sadly.

  “Yeah,” I said and walked around to the wagon. I stowed the extra wheel under the wagon and clasped it with the iron clasps so it didn’t fall and then grabbed the mallet.

  Betsy stood still as I worked on hammering the wheel onto the wagon and in between whacks I asked her if she’d be alright without it. I could probably reach out with my aura and sense her spirit to tell for myself, but that seemed rude.

  “Mrr,” she said with a nod. I got the impression of her giving me a hand signal like the construction guys do on the side of the road when you’re driving too fast. She just pumped her hoof up and down slowly.

  I nodded and grunted and put the cap on the wheel axle so it didn’t fall off. “Just gotta go slow?”

  I saw her nod from the corner of my eye as I double checked everything. “Well, alright. Hopefully, those two don’t run into any trouble up ahead. I think we scared the goblins off pretty good, so maybe they’re just hiding.”

  Betsy nodded her head, and I walked over and climbed up and sat on my driver’s bench.

  “Alright, this might be annoying,” I said and surveyed where we were. The road was narrow and there definitely wasn’t enough room for the long wagon and Betsy to turn around.

  Betsy bellowed and plodded off down the road. She was smart enough to not try to do a u-turn down the empty road. Instead, she took us up the road and outside of town where the ground that while rocky, was flat enough for us to maneuver around and get headed in the right direction.

  Like Betsy said, we moved slower this time. I was thankful for this because it didn’t feel like I was going to bounce out of my seat. The other reason I was thankful for this was because it wasn’t so hard on the wheels. If we broke two more wheels, I was going to be a little pissy. The old grumpy man didn’t seem like he had any extra wheels.

  This time, the ride up the mountain and to the mountain pass was calm, and we didn’t see any monks that turned out to be demon minions. We rode along while Betsy took her time and tried to steer us around the potholes.

  When we got back to the top where the pass was, Betsy stopped and I looked around to all the bodies we laid out. I whistled low through my teeth. “I guess we fucked ‘em up.”

  “Mrr,” Betsy bellowed approvingly and nodded her head.

  “Man, how did they even get through?” I looked at the bodies. There wasn’t much room for a wagon to go through. I guess the little traveling wagon Norimoro had was quite a bit smaller and more narrow than mine. Or maybe they just ran over the bodies.

  I climbed down off my bench and unclasped Betsy from the yoke that held her to the wagon. “Come on, let’s clean up this mess.”

  She gave a huff and then we cleaned up the bodies. We weren’t really sure what to do with them, so we just piled the bodies behind rocks and out of the way of the road. She picked up the creatures with her horns and carried them over before dropping them and I either dragged the bodies or did the fireman carry to get them hidden and out of the way.

  I didn’t really want to think about what would happen to the bodies. All I knew was that they attacked us and now I had to clean up the mess to be a relatively good person. I couldn’t leave them blocking the pass. Besides that, we were too wide to go around them and I didn’t want to risk breaking another wheel.

  It took us a little less than an hour and then I got Betsy back in her yoke and I was back on the bench. “How you feelin?”

  She nodded and gave a low bellow, and I got the impression she was feeling better. Even though she was working, lifting a single body at a time was a lot easier than carrying a long wagon full of clay. She seemed refreshed and ready to go.

  “Good, but let’s keep it slow till we get off the mountain and meet up with the others. I still don’t want to break a wheel or run you down,” I said.

  Betsy gave a nod and then she plodded off, keeping the slow and steady pace we had set earlier. It took us longer than I had wanted it to and we didn’t catch up to Amber and Norimoro until we reached the village at the bottom of the mountain. A small village named Shanjiao.

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