-4-

Large clouds covers the sky like a blanket with several rays of sunlight escaping through the openings while Milla and Kai is walking down the road to Běifēng, passed the forest. It have been a few days since they left Xīchéng and the only thing they had to eat was the apples Milla bought at the village, "I'm hungry" complains MIlla "Hey, how far are we to Běifēng?"

Kai gives off a sigh "According to this map, we have at least two more days before we get there."

"I don't think I can wait another two days."

"According to this, Běifēng is known for it's several mining facilities and mineral springs."

Milla imagines herself in one of those mineral springs, eating actual food; she hold ons to her stomach while under her fantasy "I still feel these bruises from that stupid robot spider."

"You're not the only one… "

Milla punches Kai on the right arm, the husky mildly feels the strike, "You're not the one who had to be a few feet next to that thing, while you were over there hiding by the trees!" Milla explains in an irritated voice.

"I'm the one with the gun! It's not my fault that I needed a good shot, also you didn't have to be so close to the robot."

Milla tries to keep her patience, It's okay Milla he's only trying to annoy you, she thought making a deep breath, grabbing an apple from her backpack. She looks into the backpack and sees a lack of food "That was the last apple…" she says grimly.

"What do you mean that was the last apple?!" Kai said in an exasperated voice "How many did you buy?"

"I bought like ten or fifteen."

"How many have we've eaten daily?", Kai recalling the past few days.

"Does that even matter? We're out of food!" Milla yelling at the husky out of frustration.

"I blame you for this." Kai responds in a calm, monotonic voice glaring directly at Milla.

"How is this my fault?"

"You eat too much, you hadn't considered our rations nor how long it'll take to reach our destination."

Milla face turns red like a tomato, having mixed feelings of embarrassment and anger, again she makes a large deep breath as she tries to think of a solution. "Then we'll have to hunt and gather." Milla responds.

"You're kidding, right?"

"You're the one with the gun, why can't you just hunt some food for us?"

"You're the hound, why don't you track our food for us?"

Both Milla and Kai give each other a deep stare trying to see which one will go look for food while the other prepares shelter.

Kai walks through the forest holding his sniper rifle in his hands looking for some kind of foul to appear so him and Milla can eat something for dinner, I can't believe I was convinced to do this…, he thinks to himself giving off a bored expression on his face. Dusk was drawing near, and Kai was yet to find any food for the night, the wind begins to blow and the shaking of leaves begin to make him uneasy.

"Hey, I'm okay with hunting for food, but wouldn't it be embarrassing for a girl to hunt for you?"

Kai begins to make a growl, "How could I have been so weak minded, apparently she learned some smooth talking skills from her friends, she's clever… but she's still foolish." he said to himself "I'll get back at her for this!"; a flock of birds flies out of the tree line, the husky making an annoyed face takes aim at the flock of birds and opens fire…

Milla is sitting by the campfire she made as Kai appears with some foul at hand with their feathers already plucked out, she makes a disgusted look to her face, however her hunger was so strong that she immediately takes at least two of the birds and put them over the campfire. The hound tries her best to be patient but her saliva was overflowing behind her mouth like a waterfall as the foul becomes a nice, crispy, golden brown.

"You're alright, when exactly was the last time you had any meat?" asks Kai as he witnesses Milla's anticipation for dinner.

"Uh… a few months" Milla responds while licking her lips.

Kai keeps his face neutral, when the food finally finish cooking both canines carefully grab their food from the campfire trying to avoid getting burned. Milla makes a large smile as she eats her food, Kai simply observes the hound's savage behavior "You're going to choke if you too fast." he says in his iconic monotonic voice.

"Sorry, I just haven't had meat in so long!"

"I guess we should get some shut eye soon."

"OK, lets hope we reach the city by tomorrow."

"You and me alike."

Milla and Kai wakes up after dawn, Milla stretching with just her tanktop and pants on, while Kai starts to put on his jacket and strap his sniper rifle and dual pistols; Milla puts her shirt on over her tanktop and puts on her gloves and anklets; both the husky and hound begins to walk down the road. They notice a sudden incline and off in the distance after eight more hours of walking they see a small plateau at the side of a mountain, on top of the plateau was a medium sized city.

"I think we're finally here." Kai says in anticipation.

Milla responds "So this is Běifēng, how do we even get into the city?"

Both Kai and Milla look around for an entrance and notices a lone tibetan wolf miner.

"Hey, you!" Kai calling out to the wolf.

"Yeah?" the wolf responds.

"How do we get up into that city?"

The wolf makes a small grin "You're new here, aren't you? You need to take a lift to Běifēng."

"Thank You!" Milla says, Kai makes a small nod and both the hound and husky, along with the wolf head over to the lift.

After exiting the lift to the city they notice a large amount of miners, soldiers, and hunters; most of the stores sold mining equipment and weaponry. at the center of town was a large bank in contrast to a town hall, the city was surrounded by concrete walls with several large watchtowers that made the smaller wooden watchtowers at Xīchéng seem ineffective by comparison. Stationed on those watchtowers were several snipers either using rifles, composite bows, or heavy crossbows.

"So this is the Qin Empire's northern most city, Běifēng." Kai says, quite impressed with the city's fortification

"Why is there so many soldiers here?" Milla asks

The wolf that came up the lift with them overhears, "Běifēng was originally a fort when Qin and Shuigang was at war with each other, after Qin's defeat however it became the city of Běifēng for it's large quantities of rare minerals and metals."

"I didn't know Shuigang was at war with Qin."

Kai joins the conversation "To be fair, Qin don't exactly have the best relationship with the three origin kingdoms, especially Shuigang. I can imagine that Qin's political officials are right now taking full advantage of the whole incident two years ago, especially with the situation behind Prince Dail."

"Hey, it wasn't Dail's fault!" Milla scalding Kai in the prince's defense.

"How would you know?"

"I just… I just do" Milla responds giving a depressed face I just do… she thinks to herself.

Kai changes the subject "We're looking for some General, know where he is?"

The wolf makes a serious face "So you're looking for General Glaust?" the wolf explains "Lucky for you I know where he is, the name's Fang."

"Well, isn't that convenient for us, right Milla, Milla?"

Milla is still lost in her thoughts I hope Dail is alright.

"Hello? Avalice to Milla Basset." Kai snapping his fingers in front of Milla's face.

"Huh, oh sorry." Milla responds after being snapped out of her thoughts "Okay, lets go!"

Milla and Kai follows Fang to the outskirts of town passed the northern gate and down a mountain pass, after a half an hour of following the wolf they see a house over by a cliff, when they reach the house it was locked to Fang's surprise "Why is it locked, I guess he went out to the city, I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

"I was wondering what where you were Fang, and I see you brought some guests." The three canines noticing a calm and proud voice

Milla turns her head and to her surprise she sees a Dragon! The man was at least twenty-four, he had a militaristic uniform with dual swords on his back, his hair was medium in size with a ponytail and facial hair, with claws sharp and strong enough to climb the most treacherous of mountains, his right horn was cut clean off.

"My name is General Jin Glaust, what may I do for you?"