Chapter 859: You’re Not You When You’re Tired


    Yang whirled around and pointed... well... not towards Kat. It was clear she was trying, but her mind just wasn’t up for it right now. She was pointing over Xiang’s head in almost the exact opposite direction to Kat. “Nopedy nope nope. I’m not tired, I need... need... ummu... hmm... SHNOW. I gotta find the snow! No wait that’s not right... wait... Snowy? Sister? Yes! Blood sister find! TRECK! THE MOON SHALL NOT DEFEAT ME”


    Yeah... she’spletely out of it. I don’t know how she’s managed to stay on her feet so long. Honestly the fact she hasn’t just toppled over it probably worth celebrating. It was quite clear Yang was out of it almostpletely at this point. Xiang sighed, or maybe it was a yawn, hard to tell really, but after whatever it was Xiang tried to argue towards continuing their journey. “See, we can keep going. No problem at all. Defeated that tree in a single strike I did. Yup. No problems I see here,”


    Of course, that wasn’t particrly convincing. No person in their right mind would say they ‘defeated a tree’ when they in fact ran face first into it. Perhaps if the tree could fight back at all Kat would have been more willing to overlook that answer. Maybe even if there were a few vines that dropped down or something. “Xiang. You are both clearly tired and speaking nonsense. It is time for you both to sleep,”


    “You cannot take me alive!” shouted Xiang at the same time as Yang said, “I will not go quietly into the sleep!”


    Kat pped a hand over her face. *I wish Lily was awake enough to help me with this. I mean... how do I convince two cultivators that they can sleep? Clearly they aren’t in their right minds... and maybe a little poisoned. Hmm... yeah I didn’t consider that at first... but what if they were stumbling around because of poison instead of justck of sleep? That... could be bad either way.*


    Xiang and Yang were standing back-to-back, weapons drawn and pointed off towards nothing. They were both waving their weapons around wildly. Perhaps in their current state they thought it was threatening or something. Kat couldn’t help but sigh again. *I really don’t want to fight you guys. Especially when you’re not really doing anything wrong. Let’s see if I can make this as simple as possible. Trantion power don’t stop me now.*


    “Danger. Everywhere. You both. Mind. Unstable. Lack of Sleep. Need sleep. Please sleep,” said Kat very slowly hoping it would get through to the pair.


    .....


    Sadly for Kat they didn’t hear her. Both managed to fall forward slightly as they fell asleep part of the way through Kat’s exnation. When they stumbled forward, tripping slightly on the mud from their shifting centre of mass it woke them up enough to straighten up. Sadly. That was also a bad idea. They were standing back-to-back when they fell and straightening uppletely meant their heads smacked into each other.


    Now, since they were already rather wound up andpletely out of it. Both took each took this as an attack against their person instead of remembering where they were and the likelihood of it being an ident. They whipped around in perfect sink and club shed against sword. Xiang’s sword would have lost in normal circumstances... these were not normal circumstances. What instead happened was the vibrations travelled down the pair’s wrists causing them both to drop their weapons then just... stare confused and their respective hands instead of picking up their downed weapons.


    Kat shook her head and carefully made her way off to the side while the two sleep deprived idiots continued to stare at their hands as if the world had just turned grey. Kat mentally praised her Subus skin as she pulled the weapons out of the muck. She also thanked her luck that it wasn’t so deep. It did take a bit of shifting to make sure Lily’s nose was still buried and she wasn’t moved too much but it wasn’t impossible.


    Once Kat had both weapons she situated herself between the confused pair and said, “Now. I have your weapons, and you need sleep. I will return them in the morning if you both rest,”


    Kat was not prepared for the dual yell of “Thief!” and “RAPE!”


    Yang and Kat turned in sync, to Xiang, confusion written across their faces as they just stared. Xiang noticed the attention, something of a surprise actually, and asked. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”


    “Shang... ass you ok?” asked Yang.


    Kat decided that needed tranting for the sleep deprived teen, “Xiang, are you ok?”


    Xiang frowned and nced at Kat’s hand, “No... no I... I’m missing something... what was it again?”


    Kat felt her eyes twitching. *Must. Resist. Urge. Must not attack idiots. Do not smack them on the back of the head. This is not a cartoon. That causes concussions. Do not intentionally cause concussions in your allies even if it would get them to something approximating sleep.* “You both need rest. Sleep. I can’t think of a third word for it... but you NEED it,” said Kat firmly.


    Xiang seemed to actually register this for a second. He frowned a bit, and looked up to the sky. Nodded. And then let himself fall back down. Kat red at her hands, one with a sword and one with a club, preventing her from quickly stopping Xiang’s fall. She could throw them perhaps but that wasn’t safe either. She didn’t want to just drop them in case Yang or Xiang fell on them in their daze. Kat decided to just curse internally as Xiang copsed into the mud.


    He didn’t even seem to mind though. He was on his side, and wriggled around a bit before starting to gather mud. Kat watched in an almost horrid fascination as he pulled in enough to get above the water level and use as a sort of makeshift pillow. Xiangid his head down with a loud st. A few moments passed where Kat was almost willing to just leave things before Xiang breathed in through his nose.


    See, the mud was VERY soft and while it was piled high enough to leave then water it hadn’t beenpacted in the slightest. So when the full weight of Xiang’s head had smacked into it... a huge chunk of it just copsed along with him letting his head sink deeply into the mound. He was apparently cognisant enough to know not to breath in through his mouth. His nose was almost in the clear... but ‘almost’ only matter with horseshoes and hand grenades.


    Xiang spluttered and moved up, trying both to breath in and breath out as he scratched at his face to try and remove the mud. Of course his hands had MORE MUD on them. Kat decided enough was enough. She stabbed the club into the mud head first and the sword hilt first before she shifted her outfit. She unwrapped her sash and then moved it up so that it sort of held Lily against her chest. It wasn’t he most secure thing and too much movement would ruin it but Kat knew she needed both hands.


    “Xiang, calm down. I’ll deal with this,” said Kat carefully. As Xiang started to panic. Kat frowned and decided to use an old trick she’d been neglecting. Calm exploded out from her in a wave and smacked into Yang and Xiang. She hadn’t quite meant for it to be that powerful or thatrge an area.


    Yand dropped instantly and Kat had to move to catch her. Xiang fell as well, so her tail whipped out and let his midsection bend around it. He wasn’t that heavy for her tail so it was fine. Kat carefully manoeuvred Yang so that she was leaning up against the tree and mostly out of the water. It didn’t lookfortable, but Yang’s risk of drowning was much lower than Xiang’s was currently so she called it a win.


    Kat grimaced at the water as she scooped it up and sshed it over Xiang’s face. The mud was clinging somewhat but she was able to pick most of it off. Part of her mind screamed at her to just use some demonic fire to freeze it all solid then crack the ice a bit. It’d slide off. Surely? Kat ignored that voice of course. Mostly because she wasn’t confident enough in her ability to mark Xiang as ‘not a target’. She hadn’t tested just how fondly she had to think of a person to avoid freezing them solid.


    This meant it was a long process. The mud didn’t like to stick to Kat’s hands so she was forever shifting it around and leaving bits and pieces behind. So, more water was applied. Xiang would sometimes breath during this and splutter afterwards so it wasn’t ideal. Yet he slept. He was just that tired. It took Kat a good half an hour of solid, careful work for Xiang to be mostly mud free.


    Kat called it good and leaned him against the base of the broken tree near Yang. *Hopefully this is good enough...*