Chapter Three


Frost stood at the end of the small staircase, unsure of what to do next. While she wanted to get out of the village before LiXue had a chance to follow her, she certainly didn't want to risk getting lost again in the catacombs. Not to mention the fact she had no traveling gear, no food, and she was still freezing. If she marched out of the village now, while the temperature was dropping, she'd probably end up dying somewhere out in the cold.

Min was staring up at the rapidly darkening sky thoughtful, tapping one slender finger on his pointed chin. The moon was rising rapidly opposite the pink and purple sunset, and the first stars were starting to appear in escort. He turned to her and said, "We will leave tomorrow morning, I suppose. LiXue will want to leave now, but it's too dark to do any traveling now."

"What should I do in the meantime?" Frost asked, watching the villagers close their shutters and batten down their homes for the night. Likely they would be lighting fires and snuggling down with some warm food to ward away the intense cold creeping in with the darkness. "This doesn't look like a place with a hot nightlife."

"You can come with me, if you want. But I don't exactly live in a mansion," answered Min, shrugging.

"It can't be any worse than standing out here." Actually, it sounded a lot better than standing around in the middle of a shuttered village.

"I wouldn't count on it," But Min pointed in the direction of his home and led the way through the rapidly emptying streets. Only those wearing the lighter garb still roamed the streets, probably on night guard duty. What they were guarding against, she had no idea.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Frost asked out of curiosity. "Where in Earthrealm was your mother from?"

Min seemed surprised to be asked, but answered immediately. "China originally, although she was living in Canada before she came to this village."

"Were you born here?" It was a little curious to find another Earthrealm native. She wasn't sure what realm she was in, actually, but felt a little silly asking. Maybe Min would let it slip if she kept him talking.

"Yes, my mother was pregnant with me when she waddled her way into the village," Min said, then added: "That was probably the only reason she wasn't killed. I'm still surprised LiXue didn't stab you on the spot."

"Oh, Frost said, immediately feeling bad for bringing up a touchy subject. "She's the one who taught you to speak English?"

"Yes, also Chinese and Japanese. But they haven't exactly come in very handy. It's not like there are droves of tourists stopping by the outer reaches of Outworld." Min spoke wistfully. He probably would have enjoyed practicing his language skills.

She had to snicker at the mental image of a typical middle class tourist family facing down a group of tribal warriors. "No, you don't seem to get a lot of visitors."

"No we don't, and the guards usually run off those that do show up. I'm the only one in the village that speaks anything besides Dan."

"Dan?"

"It's their word for the tribe and language. The best I can translate it to is 'us'." Min sounded disgusted at the idea.

"That's a little self-important, don't you think?" Frost asked, though she did know of a few cultures in Earthrealm that did the same.

"It gets better, if you aren't dan, then you are han. They don't even have a word for anything besides the tribal lands, it's all just 'han.'"

"You keeping using 'they', like you're not part of the tribe." Frost had noticed it before, and he was still doing it.

"Oh, I'm definitely 'han'. That much was made clear to my mother and I from the beginning. If I wasn't occasionally needed for translating, I'm sure I would have been run off into the snow the minute I could fend for myself." The bitterness nearly dripped from Min's words.

"Isn't that lovely…" Frost said, regretting lodging her foot firmly in her mouth for the second time in minutes. They turned towards one of the most dilapidated buildings in the village. Saying it wasn't a mansion was a gross understatement, she wasn't even sure if one could call it a house. It was situated on the very edge of the village, and all the homes in the vicinity looked ready to tumble down.

Apparently they had come to the ghetto part of the village.

The door wasn't locked, but Min quickly explained that he hadn't anything worth stealing. Min must have seen her look of disgust as he pushed open the door and stepped into the cramped room, because he said, "There are actually advantages to living out here."

She couldn't imagine what they could possibly be as she looked around the tiny space. There was almost no furniture, just a low, uneven table with some sort of leather cushion, and a small bedstead half hidden by a patched curtain printed with a geometric pattern. A collection of dishes and utensils were stacked on a plank of wood hammered into the wall. The floor was dominated by a shallow pit, filled with ash and kindling. The only welcoming thing about the place was the pile of scrolls almost completely covering the table, threatening to roll off onto the dirt floor.

Min crossed his home and drew a piece of flint down from the shelf and set about lighting a fire as he spoke. "For one thing, most of us out here aren't deaf."

"Living in the center of town makes you deaf?" Frost asked, arching one eyebrow. It sounded like the places in America where they built towns over nuclear waste dumps and the children born there all had stumps for arms or some equally disturbing deformity.

"No, but those living in the center of town are obsessed with status and bloodlines. They've been marrying into each others' families for a bit too long." Min smiled. "You could say that their marriage choices have been shrinking."

"Ah, gotcha."

"Their gene pool used to be a lot bigger from what I understand. There was some sort of huge civil war before I arrived here. No one wants to talk about it though, but I get the feeling the tombs have something to do with it." He looked thoughtful again, and nearly burnt himself as the fire finally took to the kindling.

"That reminds me, why is it called the 'Honorable Traitor's' Hall? That's a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it?" Frost asked, remembering the name from the conversations earlier that day.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. No one will talk about it, and there's nothing written about it in any of the scrolls I've seen." Min frowned. "It is an odd thing to call burial grounds though."

"So they're covering whatever it is up. Or at least they want to pretend it didn't happen." Frost said, sure that there was something larger behind the name.

Min shrugged. "I don't know, but they don't like anyone asking about it. Tea?" He held up a small pot, and Frost's stomach answered for her, growling loudly. "Perhaps something more filling then?" he asked with a grin.

"God yes!" Her mouth started watering at just the thought of getting something to eat. "I don't know when I ate last."

"Well, LiXue isn't known for being the most gracious of hostesses in any circumstance," Min said with the air of a gossip.

"Why doesn't that surprise me? I'd be more impressed if you told me she had lots of friends and admirers," Frost could be as catty as the best of them if she let herself go. She couldn't think of a single reason to hold herself back concerning the diminutive warriors.

"Oh, but she does," Min said, with a conspiratory air about him. "But word is she's ignored all of them. A few less conservative tribe members think she's not interested in any of the men calling on her at all."

"Really? Is there another implication that I'm missing, or am I right to assume you mean she won't be marrying anyone and popping out crotch droppings anytime soon?" Frost grinned evilly.

"She spends all her time in training with the weapons master from what I hear. Even the other female guards go home to their families sometimes. LiXue won't even leave the barracks for holidays," Min informed her with a thinly disguised smile. He didn't seem to have any lost love for the warrior either.

"Well, that's the kind of person I want to travel with," Frost said sarcastically. I just love wandering around with crazy women."

"LiXue's been farther out of the village than anyone else. Sadly, she is the best person to travel with. I haven't even been inside the catacombs," Min replied crestfallen. He started water to boil on the fire. "There aren't even any maps of anything-I mean, anything-in the village."

"So what you're telling me is no one really knows where the hell we are or where we're going?"

"Actually, I know we're somewhere in the northwestern area of Outworld, and the portal to Earthrealm is somewhere in the southeast, providing portals don't move. I honestly wouldn't know much about the portability of those things," Min said. "That's how things were when my mother wandered here, and I'd like to think that's how they remained."

He walked to the shelf again and rummaged about in the various ceramic pieces until he found a small container. "Unfortunately, this won't be the best tasting thing you've ever eaten," he commented as he dumped a handful of what looked like some form of grain in the now boiling water and stirred vigorously. The water clouded up immediately, a brownish color rising to the surface in swirls and whorls.

"I've probably had worse," Frost replied. "I could eat a brick right now if I thought I could digest it."

"It would probably taste better," Min sniffed the contents of the pot and grimaced. "I've been eating this for almost 28 years and I still haven't gotten used to it."

"What is it?" Frost asked, leaning over the fire and catching a whiff. It smelt like a cross between damp earth and burnt toast.

"A form of dried moss," Min then laughed as he caught sight of thehorrified look on her face. "You eat what you can when you live like this." He gestured towards the small space his belongings occupied.

"I've done stranger things, I'm sure, and I'll probably do worse," she tried to be tactful, but it was hard.

"How about eating moss with someone who's name you don't even know?" Min replied.

"But I know your…oh," Frost smiled despite herself, but it faded quickly. "I'm…I'm Frost…"

"You don't sound so sure of yourself," Min observed, sprinkling dried meat in the concoction boiling over the fire.

At least the meat started overpowering the dirt smell.

"I don't even know if I'm still Frost anymore…" she mumbled to herself. Maybe Frost had died when she ripped the medallion off of Sub-Zero's chest. She could barely even produce her namesake anymore. She looked up to see Min watching her intently and tried to shake herself out of it.

"Tell me more about the tribe," she demanded, abruptly, to change the subject. It wasn't much of a change, but it would have to do.

"Well, what do you want to know?" Min stirred the stew absentmindedly as he spoke.

"Tell me about the creepy old people in the big hall." Frost shuddered when she remembered them. They looked like something that belonged in a horror movie, like the Cryptkeeper's long lost family.

"Those would be the elders, and assuming what people are whispering is true, they are well over a century and a half old, and Wu is over two hundred years old." Min didn't look convinced.

"Wu?"

"The old crone giving out orders. I think she might have been alive when whatever happened, happened. I can never find her when I want to ask her about it."

"She's in charge of the village?" She looked like they would keel over and die at any minute…hardly the kind of person she would want to run her village.

"Any important decisions, yes. Wei usually takes care of the day-to-day administration." He stopped and looked down at his work. "I think it's ready now." He scooped up a glob with the spoon and it dripped in sticky clumps that made Frost's stomach twist just looking at it.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for it," she said weakly. "It looks like the oatmeal my grandma used to make me eat."

"Funny, my mother used to say the same thing," Min was regarding it in similar disgust. "The sad part is everyone ends up eating this in the middle of the cold season. There just isn't much edible around here."

Frost watched him play with the sticky goo, unsure of whether to ask the question still burning in her brain. He had never come out and said it, but… "Min…what happened to your mother?"

He stopped fiddling with the spoon and watched her sadly for a moment. "I don't know," he said softly. "She never came home one day about fifteen years ago." A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed before he continued. "She had been poking around the catacombs, which is frowned upon even for the dan."

"You think she found out something she shouldn't have?" Frost asked.

"I just don't know…but yes, I think she might have been eliminated by the tribe."

She didn't press the issue any further, just eyed their supper with a look of uncertainty, while Min watched her with a hint of amusement. "Maybe I can hold my nose…"