He leads you to the tiny kitchen, where he sets the venison to grill over a low, slow flame alongside a pot of porridge.  To tide all of you over, he serves bowls of the latter and makes small talk until the scent of cooking meat is enough to distract you.  Cutting a part of it away and offering it to Hei, he cubes the rest and adds it to the pot to continue cooking.<br/><br/>"You know the forest better than any," he says to Mai soberly.  "You know the stories of what lives higher on the mountain." He pauses.  "They have been coming down from on high, moving away from the summit.  Something is happening, and these brave young bucks have neither the cunning nor the courage to explore."<br/><br/>He casts a tight, wry smile at Ling.<br/><br/>"Someone taught their patron greater discretion a while back, I understand.  The lesson seems to have been taken too far in the wrong direction."<br/><br/><em>Mai, what lives on the mountain?  Are the stories mostly true, or mostly exaggerated?</em>