Jinhai didn't wait for them.
He was already steps ahead.
Sandals scuffed soft against damp stones.
Darin and Elyra traded a look before catching up.
"He's fast for someone who was sulking on a bridge a minute ago," Elura muttered under her breath.
"He wasn't, he was thinking," Darin replied.
"Children tend to space out when they…well, that's what I think," Elyra said.
Jinhai could hear her, but he didn't say anything, and just kept his pace.
The path narrowed past the bridge, hedged in by leaning white-leaf trees whose branches had grown into each other over decades, forming a ceiling that just felt surreal.
The morning light came through in broken pieces here, stuttering across the stones, across Jinhai's shoulders, across the back of his robes, and with each the sound of leaves brushing against the gust of wind made them feel as if it was a path to heaven.
But Darin noticed something. It was just eerily quiet.
"Shouldn't there be more monks around?" he asked.
