They walked through the curves of the deep canyon in a lopsided pack, taking refuge from the unrelenting sun in the shadows cast by the overhead rocks. They took turns drinking from their canteen. Beaten Dog's tongue lolled out as he panted to dispel the heat.
The monk seemed to have put the beggar in a dour mood. Sano didn't mind this, as this meant it talked much less. She skipped as they walked and drank in the blessed silence.
The twisting path led down, down, down, then sprouted suddenly into a bridge of old, frayed rope which led back up. Each stepped forward plank by plank, grabbing the rope-holds on either side to balance themselves as the platforms swayed in the wind.
The canyon was filled with the sounds of whistling air, creaking wood, and the bridge's groaning protests under the weight.
Between the sparse planks, Sano caught a glimpse of what lay underneath. The crevasse between the landforms was so deep, so vacuous, that whatever ground lay below then was swallowed up into darkness.
She gulped and turned her gaze back up. Beaten Dog was in front; she shuffled quickly forward to cling to his belt.
They walked and walked for a long time. The beggar limped forward at such a dogged rate it actually managed to outpace them. Sano and Beaten Dog stuck carefully together, moving forward inch by inch.
Slowly, the end of the bridges came into sight. High, high up into the sky they sprawled.
It was an unceremonious stop; four stakes, each as tall as a well-grown bone tree, hammered haphazardly into the dirt. Despite their scale, they visibly strained to keep the weight of the ropes hanging from them.
It was what lay between these four stakes, however, which caught Sano's attention.
First, the backs of two of her companions' heads, the beggar and the monk. Then behind those, a strange, gangly figure with three bulging eyes on eye-stalks. Four long limbs sprouted from its head, each gripping a stake for footholds, and blocked passage forward.
"Further not!" it screeched, in apparent interruption of the monk and beggar's negotiations. "Through Elephant's Pass go not, without permission-words of Elephant himself!"
"Who is Elephant?" asked Sano.
"Great leader he is!" The demon swung to and fro between its footholds like a macaque. "Powerful he is, watchful! Wants not filthy lousesons like you in his town of great value!"
"You're joking," said the beggar.
In response, the demon let out a loud, offended screech. Clearly jokes were not on the table.
The monk clasped their hands politely. "Dearest gate-keeper, we would love to gain permission to walk from your Elephant, but we have not had the fortune to come upon him. Surely there is some way we might progress?"
"Divine Elephant accepts only the finest of gifts!" The gate-keeper pointed at each traveler accusing. "Have brought yun gifts befit his divine beauty?"
The monk tilted their head. "Gifts...?"
"You mean money?" The beggar asked.
"I'm afraid as a student of the Petals, I have divested myself of most items of monetary value..."
"What lens philistine is this!" shrieked the gate-keeper. "Money not! Travelers must bear gifts!"
"Look, gate-freak," interrupted the beggar, "We been traveling a long way. Naught have teeth to spend. We can pay in labor. Do the filth-cleaning jobs yeun want, that one's good at it." It pointed to Beaten Dog.
The gate-keeper screeched. "Wants you not, Elephant does! Especially not a wretched dog-thing like that one! Curses they bring, don't you know? Needs none of that, our Great Elephant!"
The beggar bared its black teeth. "Last time I passed through, t'weren't nothing here. Much less your scrote-eating Great Elephant."
"Methinks yun take back your words twore unto the deep I throw you all!"
"Oh, try me!" cried the beggar, rearing up in indignation and beating its chest.
Letting out an ear-piercing screech, the gate-keeper wrenched two of the stakes up from the earth with unexpectedly massive strength.
The rope bridge heaved, dropping several stomach-churning feet into open air. The party had to cling to the planks to not immediately bowl over, tumbling thousands of feet below into the open void.
"Now, now, be reasonable!!" stammered the monk. "There's no need - for violence!"
"Wipe your rot-names from this world will I!" the gate-keeper screamed. "Dump yon unto the void-wyrm maw!"
Sano scrambled for purchase, for unfortunately she'd landed at the back. It was only her slim frame that allowed her to push herself up, climbing the planks like rungs on a ladder.
In a furious burst of adrenaline she moved so fast she all but launched herself in the air. Filled with nothing but absolute fear for her life, she hurtled screaming towards the cursing gate-keeper, mouth frothing with spittle. So fast did she rocket, she collided with the demon headfirst, forcefully enough to make the ropes shudder.
For a second stretched to eternity, the gate-keeper was suspended in the sky, kept airborne by nothing. Then with a heavy thud it struck the ground, stakes falling limp from its grasp.
Sano remained heavily breathing at the edge of the cliff, shaking like a dog.
"Heavens," said the monk.
"Good job, girlie!" the beggar piped up, voice slightly strained from the effort of not falling. "Struck quick and fierce just like they train you to."
The ropes let out an ominous creak as the stakes shifted in their meager lodgings. The entire bridge dipped further towards the void.
The monk let out a panicked squawk, accidentally kicking Beaten Dog in their haste. "Climb up! Climb up! Everybody move!"
—
By the time each of the party broke the horizon of the cliff, the overhead sun was setting, casting fiery orange light across the canyon.
The beggar chugged their black drink, belched, and with a moment of consideration kicked the unconscious gate-keeper's body off the edge of the cliff.
Sano peered over the side to watch it sail into the abyss, shrinking into an indistinct speck and then nothing.
"Hey fancy robes," the beggar muttered to the monk. "Why didn't you just use your air walking trick back there? Just go right up over that bastard's head."
"Ah, well," the monk replied sheepishly. "I can only do it in bursts. It only really works in areas of a certain density... we're a bit high up for that."
"You know," said the beggar, "I really hate you, I think."
—
The path rolled forward in aimless curves, thankfully leaving behind the cavernous cliffs. The sun was brighter here, but the winds were cooler; they brought an amount of relief to Sano's sun-cracked scales.
Up ahead, there were indeed signs of life. Not that of disparate travelers, but lived-in homes, townhouses. These settlements were many degrees more sturdy than the thatched-skin tents occupied by the nomadic - made largely of clay and mud, they stood against the sky like hills.
The monk read an overhead sign for the younglings: Elephant's Territory.
"The name of this town," they explained. "It is written in Sinner's Tongue."
A harried-looking demon scuttled past. On its back was a massive, oversized pot, scuffed with claw marks and black as coal. It stammered a travelers' greeting before disappearing around a corner.
It seemed the rest of the demonfolk Sano and company crossed were in a similar hurry. Atop or inside various appendages they toted cauldrons, pots, stacked piles of bowls, kettles, mounds of unshaped clay, clenched handfuls of straw, spools of thread, sharp metal implements, thick strings studded with glass beads, and severed locks of hair.
As Sano and the rest stepped forward, barely anyone spared them a second glance.
"Strange," the monk said. "I wonder if there's some sort of occasion?"
"Who cares." The beggar pointed at a nearby building with signs advertising it as a sauna. "You think they accept travel-folk?"
Inside, the sauna was just as bustling, but they at least seemed open for business. Staff with linen aprons around their waists wove back and forth between one another.
At the reception sat a demon girl, no older than Sano herself. Turquoise rings adorned her head-trills. Between her pincers she chewed a writing utensil; her knee bounced anxiously beneath the desk.
"Oh - real customers!" she said as the travelers entered. "It's been a while since someone new has come here. Welcome!"
"What's the fee for a hot bath?" asked the beggar.
The girl smiled nervously and replied, "Apologies, esteemed guests, but we have no red-water [¤ A colloquial term for blood from the oceans which have been boiled, and is thus inert.] at the moment. We're experiencing... a bit of a shortage."
She bowed apologetically. "As compensation, please allow for a visit to the dark-rooms instead! They are just as soothing for a weary traveler. The winds blow through the hollows in the walls and become cool."
"How much will it cost?" The beggar said.
"Cost?" She tilted her head. "Great Elephant does not believe in such things. Here, we trade no teeth or glass. Residents in his service may partake in food and wine and shelter for no cost." She smiled. "That includes guests you know!"
"Hey hey." The beggar's grin showed off all its black teeth. "Good thing we're guests. The most esteemed guests."
It kicked the monk in the shin before they could protest the lie of omission.
The girl led them around a corner and down a long hall. Hollows in the clay walls let air flow through easily and provide a gentle breeze.
Sano and company passed by rooms filled with bustling servants mopping floors, plunging drains, and tending to pits dug in the ground that presumably would have housed baths.
"Our supply should return with the next offering," said the receptionist as they walked. "We've been unlucky this year, but it's our own fault for giving subpar gifts."
They arrived at a series of rooms formed from holes in the clay walls. The interiors were dark; ferns swayed from ceiling-mounted trellises and curled in the breeze. Even from the outside, Sano could feel cool air emanating from within.
"Stay as long as you like," said the receptionist. "I'll check in on you when I'm done with my other tasks."
As they stepped into the darkness, there was an immediate drop in temperature - a rarity in bleachbone territories, even rarer in areas so exposed to the suns. To Sano's surprise, the closer she was to the floor, the cooler the air got. Indeed, the room seemed structured so that guests would lie down on the ground directly.
She immediately sank and pressed her whole body to the cracked clay. For the first time in a long, long while, the sore muscles in her body relaxed and her constant aches dulled. A sense of tranquil calm washed over her.
Her companions clearly felt the same — Beaten Dog curled up and pressed his whole body to the cool ground, the beggar lounged stretched, every vertebrae in its back cracking, and the monk sat in a graceful pose of meditation. Despite their silence, their collective relief settled heavy in the room like steam.
"I could get used to this," said the beggar.
Beaten Dog sighed in agreement.
"At the monastery we do not often indulge in this sort of frivolity," said the monk, "but it is quite different on the road. This is nice."
They frowned. "Though I still don't enjoy the untruths you told to secure us this."
"Ahh, shut up," said the beggar. "If we did everything your goody two shoes way, we'd be turned away at the gate. Probably be plummeting halfway to the abyss by now."
The monk hummed in annoyance. "Well, how do you think the fine people of this town will react when they find out what really happened? You only create new problems for yourself, acting so thoughtless."
The beggar gave them the evil eye. "Well, no one's around to tell them, is there? Yeun angel, can't tell lies without your pretty little head exploding?"
"I am a Petal Monk," they harrumphed. "We should be above such things..."
They lay there then in silence as exhaustion rolled over them. The beggar took five long swigs of black liquor and passed out, snoring loudly.
Sano herself drifted between awareness and the verge of sleep, but was never quite pulled under. She merely drifted in a haze.
"Do they really have no money here?" She asked no one in particular.
"It is uncommon, but it happens," replied the monk.
She hummed. "If we stayed, do you think we could have the food? And wine?"
"Well, we can't stay forever, young one," the monk said gently. "At least not as guests. I have my own responsibilities elsewhere. But... perhaps you could remain."
Sano sat up sharply. "Huh?"
"It wouldn't be a bad place to live, would it? Maybe with your canine friend, if he was amenable? You'd have anything you needed here."
"But I'm not done with my journey," Sano argued.
"The world outside is no place for a spawn to travel, even in a party. There are many terrible beasts, many malicious souls who might wish to harm you." The monk tilted their head. "Don't you think your family would have wanted you to be safe?"
Sano turned onto her side with a huff. "I don't know what my family would want. They're dead. You wouldn't know either."
She shut her eyes and stubbornly stayed in her curled position. In the dark, she heard the monk sigh before resuming their meditation and going silent.
Despite herself, her weary limbs and exhausted mind tugged behind her eyelids until she was overtaken by a deep slumber. She slept soundly and did not dream.