Yun Ren was surprised at how used to going on adventures he was becoming. A couple of years ago, even going to Verdant Hill was a big thing, something that required days of preparations. To travel to Ash Forest, so many Li away, to help out Blaze Bears against mutated cultivating hornets? They had needed but an afternoon. An afternoon to tell his parents and the foxes he would be out doing things, and an afternoon to gather all their gear and supplies. Nezuhua had asked if he needed any help, and for the moment, he didn’t think they did, but he said he would call them if they needed them. His parents, as always, looked just a bit worried, but they relaxed when Yun Ren had seemed calm. He wasn’t entirely calm, of course. Inside, he was fretting, and worrying about the scale of what they had to deal with… but surprisingly, he hadn’t been worried for himself, unlike last time. He had been worried about the villages in the path of the hornets. It felt weird to catch himself thinking that, and then weirder when the reflexive thought that he wasn’t much of a hero also sounded like he was lying to himself. It should have been tense, waiting for the morning, but Yun Ren had found himself oddly calm, as they finalized all their plans. They had dinner, and went to bed at a reasonable hour—or at least he did; Biyu had told him she had one last thing to finish, with that