Without waiting for a reply, sage Enduring Blossoms led the way to another tree outside the clearing, as she approached the tree its trunk separated from the middle revealing a dark, hollow inside, which she walked through and the monk followed soon after with Gabriel in his arms.

  He stepped out of the tree on the other side in a complete different location. Willow leaves filled the floor under his sandals, the culprit, the huge willow tree they had just stepped out of. There was another monk present as they arrived, his monastery robe colour denoting him as a disciple of the monastery, he had been meditating underneath the great willow tree when they had stepped through.

  “I will see to Eun-jeong's healing, I trust you can handle the rest.” The sage dictated “Take care of the boy, teach him what you can. Origin oak knows his future will need it.” Immediately she finished, she vanished.

  Elder monk Chen sighed, question were going to be asked answers were going to be needed and he didn’t even know when the boy was supposed to awaken ‘first things first’, he thought as he made his way back to his house.

  “brother Chen, you have returned” the monk called out “what is going on?”

  "Tell the elders, we will push up the yearly meet. We will converge in the hall…” monk Chen looked up at the night sky “tomorrow. Don’t worry we will do all this tomorrow.” He finished and continued on his way.

  Monk Chen’s home was a small cottage, built only because of his status as an elder, the initiates and disciples lived in shared dorms.

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  Opening the cottage door with a push, monk Chen skilfully slipped into his house, going past the living area he walked into the only room with a bed in the whole cottage and placed the boy down. Good thing the abbot leader’s aether was sure to take care of the boy’s bodily needs in terms of nourishment and the body didn’t produce waste when relying solely on aether, that solved the problem concerning how long the boy would sleep for but there were other problems, not many would support involving themselves in a war between academies even if their roles were minute.

  Monk Chen made his way out of the house and walked to a raised stone platform just beside his house, his favourite spot for meditation and settled down for the night. As they say tomorrow’s troubles will be dealt with by tomorrow’s monk.

  Gabriel woke up in a rush, the eyes were still fresh in his mind, the green sclera and the slit iris those still scared him. Gabriel with his thoughts still on his latest nightmare sat up on the bed before he stopped and realized he didn’t know what to do next and then he looked, really looked at the room he was in and his face paled ‘he did not go to bed in a room last night’ once that thought struck him, his mind began to conjure up theories, the first one was Samsara had caught them but facts bubbled up against it, for one, there was no way Samsara would provide a comfortable bed, a mirror, a stand and a wardrobe to a prisoner but there were thoughts against those as well, it may be Samsara did not feel the need to waste a jail cell on him as he hardly qualified as a threat to them, just get any old unused room and dump him inside. Granted the room was too clean and well furnished but who is to say they didn’t just prepare it for his arrival and like that he spent the moments staring at the floor board and creating counter arguments for counter arguments.

  Footfalls snapped him out of it and he stood up in a panic, he looked from the foot of the bed to the wardrobe if one of the above would be able to take his frame but then decided to face the guest, somewhere at the back of his mind, he noted that it was still night outside the only window in the room.