Learning To Live As A Cultivator

Somewhere in the middle is a realm known as Xulaphrey, which itself is made up of two large continents, one considered to be where the sun rises and one considered to be where the sun sets.  These are naturally known as East and West Xulaphrey.  In the north of East Xulaphrey stretches a large mountainous range and in the eastern region of this range there is an influential and powerful organisation.  It is named the Ascending Mountain Inst.i.tute and is a place of education and at this moment, it is preparing to wind down operations for Winter Break.

One Xulaphreyan year is made up of 500 days and four seasons.  Winter is naturally one of these seasons and although the north of Xulaphrey cannot be said to be worse than temperate of climate, does not mean that in the mountains that they won"t feel the cold and suffer bouts of deep snow.  Actually approaching was the time when the snows in certain parts would settle so much as to reach the base of a man"s spine, thus it was a good time to close the school and send the students to their respective homes.

As it happened, not all students could or had homes that they could return to.  For some the distance was just too far.  The school would only be closed for six tenday weeks, what was the point?  And others, home was the school.  Most of these students would therefore stay at school, usually in either the outer alchemist school, due to its sheltered location in between two large mountains and not too high from the mountain ranges foot or in the outer beast taming school, in its forest basin.  Plus, herbs and beasts still needed to be taken care of, so it was natural to retain some students to complete these tasks.

One such student, who originally had no intention of leaving the school, rolled out of his warm covers and placed two feet upon wooden plank floors.  He reached over onto the stool beside the bed, groped around upon its surface until his hand found what it was he wanted and this he carefully placed upon his face to sit upon his small nose.  Two, large black eyes suddenly became focused as the lenses before them cleared away the mistiness of poor vision. 
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The youth, who was no more than nineteen years of age, yawned broadly, before rubbing his waist slightly as he rose to his feet and moved towards a small table on which was a comb, a copper mirror, a jug of cold water and a large bowl and cloth.  Pouring the water in the bowl, he wet the cloth and lifted his gla.s.ses to wash his face and away the remnants of sleep.  He sighed heavily as his mind now noted an unpleasant sensation of stickiness, but he was feeling too weary to heat up a bath.  So, after tossing aside his sleeping robes, he wiped himself over, shivering beneath the coolness of the wet cloth.

"Anyone would think that you wished to seduce this Lord once more," a deep toned voice emanated from the large bed and Leon glanced over his shoulder towards the speaker.  Lying in his bed, which happened to be built from st.u.r.dy wood and easily could accommodate two, and brushing back the heavy curtains with one slender hand, was a man.  With lazy, phoenix eyes his vision swept over Leon"s pale form and the cloak of yin yang hair hiding much of the jade white skin from his l.u.s.tful view.

Leon blushed and shook his head in denial.  Any more of that type of exercise and he would break!  Just when had they finally fallen into sleep last night anyway?  "Would you l-like some t-tea?"  Leon asked as he rushed to wrap himself in his inner robes, his small stutter adding to the image of a tiny rabbit trembling before a ravenous wolf.

Said wolf smirked and gave a small sound of agreement.  He followed his rabbit out of their bedroom and into the main room of their courtyard home.

Some months ago, Leon had impressed the Headmaster of the school with his ingenuity when it came to making pills and unusual talent of creating magical wooden charms.  He naturally wanted to create a connection with the youth, giving him all of the resources he required to continue his research in return for some of his findings.  Part of the agreement was Leon"s wish to continue to be low-key and so the Headmaster had not moved him from the tiny hut some distance from the main accommodations of the outer alchemist school, but he had improved their living s.p.a.ce.

Now the small hut that Leon had called home for so long had become solely his s.p.a.ce for his alchemy practice and experiments, with just the roof and narrow beams replaced as they had not been in good condition.  The shed outside the hut had been torn down and using this s.p.a.ce and much more, a building in the shape of a shallow "u" had appeared and divided into a few rooms.  The main room and the bedroom stretched from corner to corner, the former more than twice the size of the latter and of the two wings, one held a storage room and a bath house, the other a light sun room, filled with currently empty pots and shelves.  All the rooms, with the exception of the bedroom were accessible from the courtyard, which had been paved and decorated with pots of common herbs.

Leon padded with now socked feet across the rug covered floorboards and to the iron stove at the other end.  This was an improved version of the original, which still resided in the hut beside the house.  For the most part, it did not seem to be much different, however, it was far less crude in design and more scroll work had been added.  These things were something the young blacksmith had taken upon himself to create, Leon would have been content with a replica of the original.  He did like the fact that there was an additional plate upon the top where he could keep things warm.  He placed the teapot here while it stewed Jin Li"s current favoured Medicinal tea blend and proceeded to cook rice for porridge.

Jin Li"s eye"s suddenly narrowed and he moved towards the front door, ensuring it was locked.  The edges of his lips curved as he glanced out of the small window beside the door then satisfied, he sat and made himself comfortable upon the cushioned stool beside the wooden table. Not long after came the sound of metal jiggling as someone tried to open the door from the outside. Meeting failure, numerous thumping knocks proceeded to hammer upon the door.

"Jin Li! Leon! Are you guys not up yet!? Come on! You promised!"

Leon sighed and glanced over his shoulder at his contented partner, who had no intention of moving from the stool. "We d-did p-p-promise," Leon coaxed him.

"Tch."