[B][U]Chiasa wanders the road[/U][/B]

Chiasa walked on sore feet along a road she did not know the destination of, only that it took her father away from the place she'd recently had to flee. For the thousandth time she asked herself why men couldn't control their base natures. They were always either killing each other or giving into their lusts.

Wiping that from her mind Chiasa decided to collect herbs for cooking an medicines so she hid her pack and wandered into the forest. She spent several hours searching the ground and even the trees till she knew she must find a place to feed herself then look for safe shelter for the night.

She eventually returned to a very large Katsura with thick spreading branches and climbed about midway up and made a bed close to the trunk then tied herself to the branch. 

Alone and unprotected this far from any village she was often forced to seek shelter in the branches of a large tree. That night she slept as she always did in fits of exhaustion punctuated by nervous periods of alertness. It was when morning came that she truly slept an didn't wake till an hour before noon some days.

The next day she woke early as she heard a noise that sounded like several men walking nearby. Frozen silent in the tree she prayed they not look up. When the source of her fears drew in sight Chiasa laughed at herself, they were monkeys.

Once the monkeys had passed Chiasa climbed down and headed for the road of the previous day. She set off again and stopped about three hours later when she heard a stream near and went to fill her water gourd. She was quite pleasantly surprised to find the steam had deep pools of still water and seclusion. She stripped and began washing herself in the cold water thankful to be clean once more.