Editing Chapter 1 (section)

==I'm just saying…==

"…why didn't they mention it in the briefing?  I bet they don't even know what would happen."

Zhou Wing put his hand over his pure white eyes.  "Yao Ye, please..."

"Don't tell me you're not curious.  Is it even possible to, you know, get it started in the first place?  And what would the children look like...  Don't you want to know?"

"No.  Ye, I'm not curious, and you're definitely not ready for a serious relationship."

"What!"

The cart bumped down the road at a steady pace.  Every jarring thump made the equipment and supplies in the back of the cart rattle together once more.  Slowly they moved farther to the east, towards the elemental pole of wood.  Zhou Wing was driving, and Yao Ye was sitting next to him to keep him awake, dressed in full gunzosha armor.

She began punctuating her words with thrusts of her finger.  "As if I would ever, you pasty little..."

"Stop, stop!  Please, don't wave those gauntlets around.  Why are you wearing that, anyway?  Do you know how expensive the maintenance is for that chunk of jade?"

"I'm in training!  What's going to happen if we meet a behemoth or an immaculate devil and I don't know how to activate the Integrating... the... well... whatever this button here does?"

In the back of the wagon, seated on a stack of scripture, Selara muttered, "Toruna, why aren't we using your magic to get there?  If I have to listen to another hour of those two then I'm going to be sick."

Wing turned over his shoulder and said, "What, those two?  Wait..."

Toruna was seated on the back of the wagon with her feet tucked neatly beneath her in the lotus position.  She did not answer Selara's question.

"Hey?  I know you can hear me.  By all the host of heaven!"

The various conversations on the cart were interrupted by a piercing scream.  The five amalgams stopped and turned as one to the side of the road.  A child, barely old enough to ride on her own, was standing in a field by the side of the road holding a rake in both hands.  She stared at them, and they stared back.  No one said a word.

Zhou Wing waved a pale hand.  "Hello?"

The child silently dropped her rake and ran across the field.  Away from them.

Shu Zhuang slid off the back of the wagon to the metaled road and dusted himself off.  "Must be a town."  He pulled his pack off the cart and started walking down the embankment.

Yao Ye leaped off the cart to the embankment, took another half jump in her powered armor and landed chest first in the mud.  She spluttered as she leaped upright.  "Ugh, pluh, yuck... you see this Wing!  You see what I mean?"  She desperately tried to scoop the mud out of her open visor, which was already seeping down her neck.

Toruna followed Zhuang across the field towards a cluster of small
houses.  Zhou Wing stood up on the bench.  "Hey, is anyone going to
help me get the cart down there?

No one stopped, or even turned around.  Wing climbed into the back and began rummaging through their supplies.  As he did so, he muttered to himself.  "I'm not really sure that the Master thought this through…"