"That I keep noticing." Jiang suddenly turned around. "Although I have to bring you back home now." 

"Really?" 

"Yes, we are getting guests." Suddenly there stood no longer a boy behind her but a dragon, growling at the entrance leaning down slightly toward her. The gesture was unmistakable. Get up. She climbed up on his back and grabbed the spikes carefully, leaning in close and then using her spirit ability to tie her arms and body to Jiang. 

He noticed and huffed, agreeing that now there was no need for her to fall off anytime soon. 

"I mean no harm." Someone said. Jiang growled and hissed when the middle-aged spirit master she had seen before came forward. "I am only curious. Can you tell him that, Girl?" 

Tang Yin knew she was meant the second the word Girl fell and rose up slightly from her position. "I don't know." She answered him. "Tell him yourself." 

"Mhh. We have met before, and I highly doubt he likes me." 

"He is a spirit beast. You are obviously a spiritual master. So it's no surprise he doesn't like you." She answered him, and he shot her a wry smile taking down his hands. 

"Well, that is quite true. But, even more so, I wonder why there is a spirit master on his back." 

"Maybe I am a spirit Beast too?" She answered him and shrugged her shoulders. 

"You are a spirit master. I can feel your fluctuating spirit power, little beast. Truly I have no intention to harm you; I am curious, that is all. In my entire years, I have never seen a mismatched pair like you two; it makes this old man curious." 

Now that she could believe. They made a weird sight. "Well, pity you then." She answered him. "So we would be leaving. If you'd be so kind to let us pass?"

He stepped aside for them to pass him, and Jiang growled. Slowly the spirit master went to the edge of the cave and stood in a corner. "You can't mean to have me jump that down now, do you?" 

Jiang shrugged his dragonic shoulders, and the man signed. Suddenly a giant green cobra appeared, and Jiang walked beside him and eyed him suspiciously. 

"What, I have no wings?" He said under Jiangs grumpy look staring at Tang Yin, who still wore the flower crown and had both of her legs fixed on Jiang while gripping a spike with undisguised fascination. 

"I count to three, and we start simultaneously." Tang Yin said, suspecting none of them wanted to go first, in fear the other may assault them on the other side of the waterfall.

The two gave her an identical look, and she shrugged her shoulders. "We can be standing here like gladiators for the rest of the night or show a smidge of trust." 

Then dragon and human gave each other a dark look before giving her a solemn nod. 

"One, Two...Three." she closed her eyes and pressed closer to Jiangs back as they passed to the waterfall catching the sight of a green snake moving at the same time. Outside, Jiang hissed, and the giant snake remained where they were while they made their way up into the clouds.  

Tang Yin glanced back curiously as the snake and spirit master disappeared into the distance.

"He is a curious one." She muttered and unbound her legs. Then, letting them dangle freely, they flew back in silence until human habitation appeared underneath them, and the sun slowly rose on the horizon as Jiang brought her back to where they had started. Yawning, Tang Yin hugged him. 

"Thank you, Jiang." She was stubbed in return, and he shifted to his human form. 

"Nothin' to thank me for. Can I stay here? Flying around in daylight isn't exactly comfy?" 

"You planned that, didn't you?" She asked between two yawns and ended up with a smiling Jiang. "Sure you can; Ning Feng, Bro, and Xiao Wu will be plenty surprised to see you." 

"They will survive," Jiang said, and the two returned to the hotel, chatting. Ber brother was already waiting at the door, tapping his foot impatiently, when she waved at him and earned a very dark look. Someone was a tad angry. He stormed toward her, stopping in his tracks when seeing a waving Jiang putting one and two together before he relaxed. 

"Next time, tell me when you are leaving." He scolded her lightly, and she shrugged her shoulders. "I was plenty safe with Jiang, and you were out with Xiao Wu; I didn't expect to return this late either." 

"You maybe not." he gave Jiang the darkest Tang San, you-would-be-dead-if-looks-could-kill look and then turned around when Ning Feng came and gave first Tang Yin a tight hug expressing her worry and then Jiang a light one as a greeting. 

"We have to head off for that weird school." Xiao Wu reminded them, and Jiang looked at them, slightly surprised. 

"I thought you go to Nuoding Literary department?" 

"A new one. Humans change schools in between Jiang." Tang Yin explained. "It's like graduating from tens of years spirit beast to hundreds of years spirit beast." 

"Oh, that makes sense." He muttered. 

"Mhh." Ning Feng hummed and pointed in a direction. "T-That way." 

She stuttered, and the others followed along. Halfway, Xiao Wu complained that her feet hurt, and Tang San carried her on his back.