Episode 3

“Who Has the Biggest Obsession?”

 

I did not know what to do at this point, but my intended quarry was coming and going in the area with total impunity and I was not even able to do anything about it.

On the other hand, the younger sister was apparently pretty determined to hear my true thoughts and 'help' me in ways I can only imagine (but won't).

I was messing up some in training and even my students, knowing the whole story of my aims to capture this mystery rogue and make a name for myself were worried I was losing my mind.

Little did they know I really didn't have that much in the way of sanity to begin with, or I would have never set out on such a fool hardy mission in the first place.

Sanity and I have never gotten along well, we tend to keep at arm's length on most subjects, so when I saw the focused, forlorn and resolute look in the younger sister's eyes, I knew she was likely to soon be joining me...that is, in parting company with the trait.

She was eating less, she was spilling things, and most of all, every time she could, she was asking me to tell her about it all.

“There's nothing more to this!” I insisted over the evening meal, “I plan to capture Kim Wa Jin and become famous for it!” I slurped down some noodles and then added, “Its as simple as that. End of story.”

“But why?” she insisted.

“To get famous!” I felt exasperated that she seemed not to comprehend this, it seemed to me anybody should know that the way to fame, was to defeat somebody already famous.

“There are other ways to be famous.” she offered.

“Name one.” I challenged, as the rest of the family sat quietly listening to us go on like lunatics.

“Well,” she looked around seeking an answer in her mind, “like creating a grand city right here in the middle of this desert for instance!”

Even the parents regarded this askance.

“I hear that there is a lot of interest in far lands to the west for the silk of south east,” she suggested, “why not hire out our young people to protect traders, and open up a better, more fitting stable and an inn here to give them a desirable place to rest, and perhaps even build a wall around the city to give them some sense of protection so they need not camp out in the open at night?”

“Why sure!” I replied mockingly, “I'll just carve a hundred thousand huge blocks of stone out of the desert floor here and build a huge wall!” then took a swig of wine, “Will that do?”

“Why its splendid!” she breathed as if stricken by some kind of vision of a god or goddess.

The rest of them were glancing nervously at one another now.

“Next you'll want me to dam up the river here so we have a massive lake and we'll begin raising field crops like down in the south, right?”

“You get the idea!” she breathed in a soft, yet extremely excited tone, “Now you get the idea!”

I scratched my head, “Won't work.” I said flatly.

“Huh?” her eyes went wide and slack, seeing as I had just totally backed out of it all without so much as a maybe.

“There's no way there will ever be enough commerce along this trail on our lifetime to support such a grand scheme.”

Hesitantly, the older sister raised her hand and said, “Ummm...” glancing at the younger sister, “Can we hold off on this conversation for the rest of the evening please?”

“I'm sorry,” the younger sister said, “I just get so...”

The older sister held up her hand in a shushing motion, “We'll talk about this later.”

The younger sister, now very glumly collapsed in on herself and said, “Oh okay.” and finally ate a few bites while I got a chance to slurp down my portion, thank the mother for the meal and head for my room so I could ponder my situation in peace.

Ep 3, Chapter 2

I thought I would think about chasing Kim Wa Jin, but you know what?

I was not twenty long breaths into the quiet of the evening before I was sitting there trying to imagine how hard it would be to cut and raise blocks out of the desert floor!

On top of that, the next thing I knew, I was busy making a materials list!

Then, I was thinking about how much it was going to cost, how many people would be using it, how much water a lake would catch in the spring melt, and even where would be the best runoff area for such a lake.

Before morning, I had pulled up some charcoal and parchment and had written down some crude figures.

Being born the daughter of a horse trader had somehow gotten me so experienced with things like estimating costs, positioning orders, timing deliveries, especially of things like foals where the timing would mean the life or death of the foal and possible the mare, I was just unable to stop myself!

“Damn!” I whispered to myself.

“What is it?” came softly through the door.

“What are you doing leaning against this door again?” I asked in exasperation.

“Just being here for you.”

“Pahhh...” I hissed, “Get some sleep.”

“You're not sleeping.”

“That's because...” I sighed, shook my head and placed my face in the palms of my charcoal dust covered hands, “all this stuff you got me thinking about won't let go of me and let me sleep!”

“If you are worried,” she responded, “I can not sleep either.”

“I'm not worried,” I insisted in aggravation, “my mind if just racing is all.”

“You seem tense.”

“I'm always tense.” I defied her subtle suggestion.

“I could-”

“Could go to bed.” I cut her off, “Seriously.”

“Yes Yu.” I heard her robes ruffling as she got up reluctantly and shuffled off to the other room with her older sister.

I shook my head, “Kids these days.”

Ep 3, Chapter 3

In the morning just as the sky was getting light, I got dressed in my recent gift of training silks, which were cool, comfortable and very easy to move about in.

I put on the light, form fitting shoes as well, and I stepped out into the relatively cool morning air.

As I was walking about the village, I was reflexively glancing at every structure, at the lay of the land, and as I hopped down into the cool air of the pit, I realized that it was really not that hard to carve this pit, and that if one were to use this type carving, they could very easily level the land and make it very smooth at the same time, which would be appealing to people who liked well made buildings.

I hopped back out and I walked down to the river and looked at the dry wash where the meltwater would come up out of the sand for a part of the year and then recede back into the sand for the rest of the year, and it occurred to me that the only thing this area really needed to be lush and prosperous was a way to keep the water here all year.

The sand its self, of course was a problem, because it was just too porous.

One could even dig into the hard sand stone here, and water would flow out of it.

One could never simply make a dam of sand stone because it would never hold the water.

One had to have something to stop the water from flowing right through it, or the whole idea was a waste.

As I walked south to the point where the most people trekked across the wash, I noticed that there was a bit of moisture here, because some of the other forms of dirt and detritus had been trampled into the sand and gravel which had washed down from upstream, creating a little pool.

The water was totally rancid and undrinkable, but it gave me a clue as to how one would make the sandstone hold water.

I walked to the doctor's shop where the assistant was already opening up the door and asked for a small crucible of pitch.

“Why would you want such a treatment?” he asked quizzically.

“I have an idea I need to try.” I did not explain my idea.

“We have many kinds, depending on what you suffer from.” reaching up gesturing at a shelf.

“Just...” I tried to keep control of my temper, knowing he was just trying to be helpful, “plain...black...you know...” I shrugged, “Pitch.”

“Huh...” he looked up and down the rows of little pots on the various shelves, reading them all, “I...don't...see...any.” he turned with a lost and disappointed expression through his little round spectacles.

“Does the master mix his own?” I asked.

“Oh yes, he does.” the young man was proud of the master and beamed proudly as he confirmed this while slipping his hands through his sleeves.

“So....perhaps uh....its in the back?” I leaned, eyebrows raised, to peer through the rear entrance.”

He took on a startled, then embarrassed expression, then chuckled in his embarrassment and said, “Oh why sure! Sure!” and he scurried off back to look.

In a short while, he came back with a crucible of plain black pitch and placed it on the counter.

“How much do I owe you?” I asked.

“Oh...” he chuckled, “No...nothing.”

“I don't want to be a freeloader.” I declared cautiously.

“Pitch, alone,” he said, both chuckling and explaining, “is so cheap, I could get a hundred jin barrel for two thousand coppers!”

I was taken aback by this and blinked in amazement at this.

“You never knew?” he asked.

“I've never had any need for pitch before,” I pondered, “outside of treating insect bites in the mountains, and scrapes,” shrugging, “it has always been scented and medicated.”

“Oh.” he took on a very thoughtful expression, “if you would like to know more about the pitch,” he suggested, “the Zhanahing tribe will be coming through in another six weeks,” he looked on a wall calendar, “They are pitch masters who live in the juniper woods to the far south.”

“Please try to remind me of this when the time draws near please?”

“Oh!” he smiled warmly, “Most certainly!”

“Good then!” I picked up the crucible, “I shall be about my business,” I smiled, “and if this works,” lifting the small crucible for emphasis, “I shall be intent on obtaining more!”

Ep 3, Chapter 4

I carved out two sandstone bowls, using a small iron rod.

One I lined on the inside with pitch, and one I lined on the outside with pitch.

I set them out to dry in the heat for three days, making sure not to impulsively reach out and touch them while they were sticky.

In time they would dry considerably but also they would pick up a fine layer of dust which would make their surfaces easier to handle.

At the end of each day's training I would go out and look, and the younger one, Rachel, or 'Rasha'...something like that...would come and follow behind with an almost reverential observation of everything I was doing.

It was annoying but by now I knew there was nothing in my position I could do about it.

On the evening of the third day, the bowls both seemed to be dry to the touch, hard and smooth, with a fine coating of powdery dust on the surfaces which were coated in pitch, making them easy to handle when dry.

I took these into the stable, out of the sun, and I put them on a bare spot on one shelf out of the way of any heavy use for them to rest in the relative cool of the stable for another two days.

I explained that night what I had done in detail to the stablemaster, whose peculiar name I was finally getting accustomed to saying.

Moshe seemed not in the least bit surprised by this and recounted some very ancient legend of a man with a name similar to his, with the 'oh' vowel in it, who had built a giant boat out here in this very desert, or perhaps one very similar to it, my memory on that part was kinda fuzzy.

All the same the tale went that he made this boat out of some kind of wood I am not sure I have heard of before, and covered this whole boat in pitch, and the whole world was covered by a deadly flood.

So the tale ends that only eight people in this huge boat, along with some animals, of which I am not sure the names, survived, landing on a mountain which was back the way of the traders of the west.

“So they floated a huge boat for a year on a rough body of water with just this pitch?” I asked.

“So is the legend,” Moshe replied, “I have the scrolls that tell the story but it is not in a language from here, so it is hard for me to re-tell without much patient interpreting.”

“That's fine,” I waved it off lightly, “at least I have some historical backing to my whole mad idea...” then I sighed, “I just can't figure out why I'm trying it,” I looked around as if some invisible person might stand up and offer an answer, “it seems like some kind of insane obsession, and not something a warrior like myself should be doing.”

“Its the right thing to do,” the younger daughter Rachel insisted, “it is what this time needs to have.”

The older sister, Miriam, or 'Miri' for short, chimed in, “You won't regret doing this.”

I guess my eyes bugged out or half ways rolled as I said searchingly, “I don't even know what I'm doing!”

Ep 3, Chapter 5

I took the next step and filled the bowls with water, along with a common pottery type bowl, and covered all three of them with pottery lids to reduce the losses from the wind, as well as to keep out additional dust which might mess up the test.

This was now being recorded by Miriam, the older sister, who seemed to have a penchant for writing things down.

She came with and measured the water as it was poured, making sure that the bowls got the exact same amount of water, she measured the depth of the water in each bowl at the start of the experiment, and came with me to measure it each day after practice.

Diligently writing this down, we collectively began making a record of how well the material worked against a known substance.

Tiny jewels of water finally pierced the externally pitched bowl on the ninth day, just barely large enough to even be seen.

We wrote this down as well.

In all, water remained in the bowl with the inner pitch coating longest, that we could measure, but Rachel pointed out that we could not measure the water which was inside the spaces in the sand stone, so we could not be sure how much water remained in it, even though it went down sooner.

On the other hand, the earthen ware bowl did not drop perceptibly at all.

“Too bad one can not cover it in a baked clay tile.” I mused.

“That's it!” Rachel exclaimed.

“Tile?” I asked askance.

“Yes!” her eyes were bright, “Tiles!” she took the notebook from Miriam and carefully drew a lot of lines, and before long, she had a very well understood image of a row of very large blocks, with many smaller, uniform square tiles, bonded, using the pitch, to the surfaces of the blocks.

“See,” she pointed out, “not only do you have the advantage of both of the tiles and the pitch together,” she gestured with her finger, “but also you have a smooth hard face which will not readily be carved by the hard winds before the walls are completed or even after they are completed!”

“Hmmm.” I murmured, holding my chin, “this is very interesting.”

Ep 3, Chapter 6

As I explained all of these little points to the village council, they all pondered, murmured, scratched their heads and said, in essence, 'Well, it looks interesting...' but never said yes or no.

“Well,” I sighed at the end of the evening as we returned to the house, “at least they didn't say 'no'...”

“They are just afraid because its an expensive undertaking and they don't know where the money would come from.

“Well at first,” Moshe said, “the increased crops would raise the village's prosperity even if we never succeeded at drawing in business from travelers.”

“This is true,” I agreed, “even if we take this all in steps, we will be able to improve as we go.

“How would you manage the progression?” Moshe asked.

“I can make one tier of water level at a time as I go up.” I replied, “Its slow, but it allows me to begin using it before it is completed and allows it to pay for its self as it goes up.”

“How would you keep the face of the sandstone clean?” Hi Ye, the mother asked.

“I can apply pitch to the entire face of the wall right away.” I replied.

“Won't that raise the water to the top?” she asked.

“Not really,” I countered, “as long as you have a drain some place where you can control the height of the water, after each flooding pass, you let the water drain to below your working level and you will be able to resume applying tiles when you have the money to.

“Also,” Miriam chimed in, “since the water is going to be used for farming,” she pointed with her chopsticks, “its going to be used down between floodings anyhow.”

“Okay.” Hi Ye conceded, satisfied.

“How long will it take to pay for the tiles?” Moshe asked.

“I'm not a farmer, I don't know.” I responded.

“There are farmers in your village who know though.” he pointed out.

“I think, if you understood that letter Moshe,” I countered, “that's not my village any more.”

Ep 3, Chapter 7

I took a larger block of sandstone about waist high and carefully carved it out until it was only a hand width thick and then carefully lined it with pitch, noting to the best as I could, just how far the pitch would cover in a brush , how many brush it took for the size of the container, and we tried to determine how many brush per dip into the crucible.

This was not very accurate, and Moshe came out and started telling me all about 'mathematics' and how the key was to measure off the 'square area' and some other things, then add it all together to make my estimate.

After looking at all of the numbers, he suggested we get a long line and walk the distances then write these numbers and he would do the 'math' part for us.

So I and the sisters went forth with a long string of silk, carefully marking off distances on it with ink so we had something to count and determined some possible land marks where it would probably make the best location for the actual dam, and we took a bunch of measurements.

This was tedious work, but then many of the students joined in to help which made it more enjoyable.

When we had all of these numbers written down, we gave them to Moshe who then proceeded to use his abacus and in moments had a number.

“Five hundred barrels of pitch.” he declared.

“Wow!” I blurted out, “That's a lot of money!”

“That's a lot of water you'd be holding back too.” he countered, “It would be well worth it.

“But how can we get that kind of money without impoverishing the entire village?” Miriam asked.

Hi Ye offered quietly, “A bounty perhaps?”

Ep 3, Chapter 8

“How can I go collect a bounty if I'm overseeing this project?”

“I can handle that for you.” Moshe offered, “I'm very good with math and I know a lot of people who can get supplies.”

“But how will you manage to pay the students?” I asked.

“This village is all in on this Yu,” he countered, “your contribution to our safety, health and well-being has been more than we could have hoped for.”

“I don't feel like I have done anything but play around here to this point.” I mumbled.

“You've inspired everybody in this village.” Hi Ye insisted, “Even grumpy old Mrs. Wen admitted that you are doing good for this community, and she hates everything and everybody that was not born here.”

“Your leadership has really set things in motion.” Moshe said, “Pek Ting is investing in more iron on the speculation that he will be making digging tools and plowshares because he seems how much potential this has.”

“Wow.” I shuddered nervously, “No pressure here, huh?”

“We know you'll do the right thing.” Rachel offered, laying her hand on my arm, “This whole village was dying a slow death before you came, and would likely not be here in another ten years if not for your intervention.”

“Huh.” I resisted, “But all I did was to just fall off a horse!”

“Fate,” Miriam stared at me about as seriously as I had ever seen a person stare at another, “has a strange way of dealing out our destines.”

Ep 3, Chapter 9

I still really didn't know what to do, say or think at this time, however.

Sure, it was an easy thing to say, and at one point, I would have told you it was an easy thing to do too!

But catching notorious criminals did not just happen every day, and that is for a reason!

First of all, they are cunning.

That whole back tracking trick, that had taken me by surprise.

Second of all, they are crafty!

That whole spitting fire out all over me and such, that really messed up my hair!

And third of all, they are sneaky!

I have not seen that bandit except when he wants to be seen and then, only for as long as he wants people to see him!

So right there, you have a whole lot of problems if you intend to just run out and catch him!

I packed up some dried rations and filled up my water skins, made sure to check the edge of my guandao, and set off heading the last known direction of the infamous Kim Wa Jin.

Ep 3, Chapter 10

I was heading east, going the way that all of the best reports could determine, even though it was assumed that this kind of crafty person could show up in any town from the wrong side of town and leave the same fashion, circling back around to their original intended direction and nobody would be the wiser.

What I went by was the time when people saw him.

If he were heading west, the reports would be fresher from my starting point than as I went east.

The reports were heading east ahead of me now by three weeks.

This meant that as long as they were always ahead of me, then he was still ahead of me.

I could possibly determine how close I was, if people had accurate information, based on how many days ahead he was, according to when they said they saw him.

Of course again, what if he had decoys?

What if he had subordinates who were just going around pretending to be him in the first place?

Could I even be sure I ever saw him?

Which one was the real Kim Wa Jin?

How many might there be out there?

Were there people willing to risk their lives to protect this fugitive?

Was he secretly a local hero?

What kind of person was it that I was in the process of trying to bring in (alive preferably) who bore such a lofty price on his head?

I did not really get much intelligence about the man from the people I met, it seemed that they only saw him in passing and for the most part, they were not able to tell me if he had doppelgangers or not.

I went along the southern rim of the desert where an occasional artesian spring would surface here and there randomly as ice was melting from up in the mountains.

On my eleventh day of travel, at one of the shorter lived ones, I finally got a solid sign I was on the trail.

I picked up the peculiar scent of perfume.

I took to the bushes and sure enough, there was spoor and some of the delicate paper which had been used, apparently, to clean the body after relieving one's self.

I had never before seen this, seeing as many people used a reusable cloth, some people used leaves when out in the wilderness, some used a stick, I heard that some people used their hand, which I find disgusting, and some don't even bother, which is so unbearable I can't imagine a person not even caring.

This time I left the paper right where I found it but I could tell it was not extremely long since my target had deposited it here.

I knew I was on the right trail so I mounted up after my mare had her fill of water and headed on in an easterly trek.