Editing Chapter 2 (section)

==The town was quiet...== 

...though larger than the first they had encountered, two weeks ago.  Almost two dozen houses made of sod were organized in three circles along the hillside.  There was a single well in the lowest circle, and a set of stables ranging nearby.  By the stables there was even a low building with the look of a smithy.  The grass was empty, and the horses whinnied from their pens.

Selara stepped into the first ring and turned around.  “There were only five cairns... do you think the rest abandoned this town?”

“Not without their horses.  But look here.”  Zhou Wing indicated one of the nearby doorways.  “They’ve tarred this door... there may be a few of the sick left here.  Zhuang must have been right.”

Wing pushed open the door, but as he was unused to the armor’s assistance he nearly burst it off of its hinges.  It slammed into the inside wall.  For a moment he had to step back, as the stench from within was nearly overwhelming, even through the filtration unit.  He coughed as tears came to his eyes.

The interior of the sod house was now lit by slanting rays of the afternoon sun, revealing whorls and drifts of dust in the air.  A bare table say on the right side of the entry way, and to the left a pair of beds lined the wall.  One of them seemed to be occupied.  Wing rushed in as Selara shouted after him, “Wing, be careful!  We should report back.”

Pulling back the blankets, he shuddered as he saw the form revealed beneath.  The fever-wracked face of a woman, perhaps in her thirties, was faintly visible in the dim light.  A black rash spread across the lower half of her face, almost masking it entirely.  Wing turned the back of one poorly polished gauntlet to the woman’s face, silently cursing Ye for mistreating the equipment.  A faint fog soon covered the surface.

“She is alive.  Quickly, we need lots of hot water and my herbal pack.  See if they have a wise man of their own. I’ll need help.”  He turned to Selara, who still stood outside.  “Go!  This is why we are here.  Go!”

She turned to leave, stumbling over her own feet, when she noticed that another door was now cracked open.  A single eye peered out at her.  Selara raised one hand and shouted, “You!  Is there a healer in this village?”

A reedy voice responded, “Are you from Lookshy?”

“Damn it, we’re here under the authority of the Chosen of the Sun, bearers of the Mandate of Heaven.  Now answer me quickly, before I tear down every building here with my amazing kung fu!”

The door opened a fraction more, and an old woman with gray, braided hair kowtowed once to her from within.  “Don’t hurt us, mighty warriors!  Can’t you see that the disease spirit has already done enough?”

Selara’s silver eye slitted, and her tongue involuntarily flicked against the inside of her visor.  “Where is this spirit?”

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