20 Hey Stranger

Immediately the walking dead turned to ash, Titan didn't have the time to process what had happened. She began to run again but didn't run far before a strong arm drew her from the side and covered her mouth. Her survival instincts immediately came to the surface as she use her elbow to hit the strange person by his side. He instantly groaned in pain and let go of her.

"Why are you using so much force? I'm trying to help you here." the stranger said with a wronged expression. Now Titan got a clear view of who it was but sadly she didn't know who this person was and she knew better than to trust just anyone. Not after what John Wade did to her clan guards.

She moved far away from the stranger with an expression of "what do you want?"

"Look, I only want to help okay. You might not know me but believe me when I say I know who you are and I'm just here to help. I saw a man kill another helpless man just now and if you keep going in this direction, you'll surely bump into him." he said pointing towards the direction in which she was going. After she faced the walking dead, she did not know her location and didn't realize when she began to run backwards.

"But if you go through that way, you'll get to a village." he pointed to another direction. He then picked up his woven hat and a fishing basket and began to walk towards the village direction. After he had walked a distance, he spoke out.

"In the end, the choice is yours. I can't possibly drag you. That's not my style." he mumbled the last sentence in a low voice. He looked like an apprentice in his early twenties.

Not that Titan had another choice so she began to follow behind him.

"You'll have to keep your pace up if you want to make it to the village before nightfall."

Titan found her legs walking faster and in no time she caught up with him. Throughout their journey, she didn't say anything and neither did he. After a while, they got to a crowded market.

The stranger walked through the crowd and entered into a small, old cottage without sparing her a glance. She stared at the cottage unwilling to enter. It looked so spooky and weird.

Amongst all the houses in this village, this was the only house that was so small and gave off a spooky vibe. As she contemplated going in, she saw a group of drunk men approaching her. She didn't need coaxing to run into the spooky house as her subconscious mind was enough for that.

The interior of the small cottage gave a different vibe; totally contrasting the external view. The cottage was warm and was not over decorated in fact it looked like an abandoned house. It had a monocoloured look and very few furniture. The curtains were brown coloured complimenting the wooden arm chairs. The floor was made of wood and soon, Titan felt like she would soon turn brown as well. There was a fire place which was lit making the entire cottage warm.

Titan looked around the cottage and wondered where the strange man disappeared to. She had been lost in the monocoloured view in front of her that she did not realize she was all alone in this empty looking house. Was this another trap? She wondered.

A strange yet familiar voice called out her name, "Titan?"

### Its been five days since the Shaolin temple was attacked. Master Shi De and all the other monks have not been themselves ever since that day. Zagan locked himself up in his room with no intentions of opening up, master Shi De was in the temple day and night and non of his disciples dared to disturb him clearly, he had activated something that took up a lot of his strength and he needed time to recuperate his mental state and body.

The other disciples spent this five days rebuilding and carrying out their daily training. Zagan had no idea what happened to Lu Feng. For all the knew, he was probably dead and the thought of that broke his heart. That was the very first person he saw when he got to the Shaolin temple.

At noon , there came a knock on Zagan's door. After knocking twice, the door slowly opened. Master Shi De peeped through the opened door and saw the young man curled up in his blanket covering his entire body.

"You know if you remain like this, you'll eventually die of starvation."

Still no response. Master Shi De finally walked into the room and stood by the bed.

"Why are you beating yourself up so much? You saved us you know?"

Still, there was no response from Zagan. The master had no idea what to do anymore. He then walked to the bed side and said what he came for exactly.

"You know, you have a lot of good in you and there is a story behind your amulet. Would you like to hear it?"

He tilted his head sideways with his brow raised and waited for a reaction then finally, he got one.

Zagan slowly removed the blanket which was over his head and peeped out. His lips were chapped, his eye bag darkened and his face pale. His eyes looked swollen like that of a child who had been crying for days and his body had lost volume.

Master Shi De sighed. This young man has obviously over done it this time. He didn't scold him for being so reckless with his life instead, he patted him on the head and walked towards the door.

"Take a bath, eat something and meet me at the temple top." With that, he left Zagan's room.

Lazily, he stood up from bed and went towards the bathroom which was at the end of the hallway. Walking that distance felt like walking for years. After he took his bath, the wore a black silk clothing and went to the temple top.

At the top of the temple, water flowed from within a mountain to the top of the roof. Apparently that was the source of the water. The rooftop was leveled horizontally with no loops and one could barely see anything beneath because the clouds covered top part of the mountain. The seen at the top of the mountain was mesmerizing but Zagan barely noticed all these.

He squinted his eyes and wondered why the master had asked him to come up here. He could barely see anything. What was the point? What exactly did he have to tell him that warranted him coming to the rooftop? They could have just discussed in one of the rooms. Meanwhile, a table was set with meal for one. Then he said, "I will say nothing until you start eating. Zagan stared at the food lazily, then sat down and began to slowly eat. Only then did the master continued:

"Do you know that according to an old tale, this was the temple where the ancient gods lived? Then came a voice from behind Zagan. He abruptly turned to look at master Shi De. He narrowed his eyes but couldn't get a clear picture because of the cloud.