Ch 3: I ain’t your daddy.
Old Dude and I stared at the exploded rock with wide eyes.
He looked at me all smug like and said "I thought you couldn't fight? Be honest! What rank warrior are you? You're atleast at the spirit realm!"
I couldn't say a damn thing. How am I gonna explain that I can't do that again. As I finally opened my mouth to respond Old Dude snorted, then grabbed my shoulder and started flying. Carrying me towards the village as he ranted.
"So what if you can't fly, not everyone has the Soaring Crane Technique, I've only just entered the spirit realm, you're obviously stronger than me. That bastard bandit won't see this coming."
We soon arrived at the "Village", if it can be called that. It looked more like some cheap semi-permanent military encampment. It had a wooden fence with spiked tips circling about 20 huts made of logs and sealed with mud. A stream ran through the center of it all with a couple of bridges here and there to keep people from having to walk in it. A few of the houses had signs of stone bricks being laid and the fence and one section that was all stone and about three meters tall, there were four guys working on laying the stones. There was only one completely stone building and it was two stories tall.
We landed in front of the big house. I was dropped from about two meters up, landing on my ass. Old Dude landed gracefully and started walking towards the stone house yelling "Mingzhi Bei Zhong! Lord Monkey King has sent someone! Come! Come and greet him!"
As I stood up and dusted myself off, another Old guy came waddling out of the house. This guy was so old that he needed a walking stick. Said stick was about as tall as he was, and it was decorated with metal and had carvings on it. He looked about the same as me at that moment, confused as hell and slightly irritated.
He looked me up and down, I swear it was like this Mingzhi guy could look through my soul. Thousand yard stare style. After a moment he looked back at the Old Dude and said with exasperation "Ling Danyou, this boy isn't from here. There is no Qi within him. How could Lord Monkey King have sent him?"
Fuck! Finally! Someone isn't stupid!
"Nonsense! I've seen him destroy a rock from 30 paces! He can take care of the Bandits!"
Old Dude don't listen for shit!
By this point, the rest of the village had gathered and formed a circle around us. I could hear them talking.
"Who's this guy?" "Can he really help us with the bandits? My daughter is getting noticeable" "destroyed a rock from 30 paces? Really?" "Yeah right, Ling Danyou is just making noise again, no one can help us."
I started to feel bad. The village was obviously hard off. I'm not heartless, I just don't think I can help.
"Ling Danyou, the Monkey King can't be trusted. I've told you this before. You probably just hallucinated. We all know how depressed you've been since the Bandit Leader sent that letter." Ol'Mingzhi don't mince words. I like this guy.
Ling Danyou's face started twistin up like he got bit by a horsefly, he looked ready to fly off the handle. But he didn't, he just kinda froze and then looked at me with a bit of worry. Only it wasn't at me.
I felt a tug on my sleeve, so I looked down. My gaze was met by the puppy dog eyes of what looked to be the cutest little girl I've ever seen. Dammit.
She was just staring at me like I was some amazing thing. Then, she glanced at my butt, which was weird.
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain just above my butt!
"Yeeeowch!!" I jumped about three feet in the air. That little shit yanked my tail! Was she trying to pull it off? What the fuck!
I grabbed her under the arms and picked her up to look her in the eye all stern like, except when I made eye contact them puppy dog eyes got me again. I ended up just lookin at her with a raised eye-brow while I tried not to smile. She was smiling though, no problem on her end. Little shit still had my tail in hand.
Fuckin kids.
"My mommy said that my daddy came from outside the village. Are you my daddy?" In her clear little voice, she asked me questions I couldn't answer. I knew I needed to though.
"I'm not your daddy." She looked broken hearted. I was too.
"Qing'er!" A woman called out sharply. Then I saw the owner of the voice rushing over. She took the kid from me. She checked the kid out, then glared at me like a momma bear snarling at someone who touched its cub. "Who are you!?"
I tried to back up a step but stopped cause that little shit still had hold of my tail. Before I could respond, the kid started crying clutching my tail all the tighter.
"Mommy don't yell at Uncle!"
The woman stopped looking angrily at me and looked at her child like moms do when they're scolding. "Qing'er, he's not your uncle. Now let go of his tail, you don't know where it's been."
Qing'er looked upset and then finally let my tail go.
The mother looked at Ling Danyou and I could almost see flames shoot out her eyes. "Is this another one of your 'helpers'?"
Oh boy, he's in for it now! I was excited.
True as I thought she started tearin into him. Pointing, foot stamping, eyebrows pressed together...
The whole way.
She'd just gotten started when I saw Ol'Mingzhi beckon me over to him. I thought the dude was alright so I snuck around the fireworks display of a woman and walked over to him.
"Youngster, I know you're not from here. Let us go inside, I'm sure you have some questions." With that said he turned around and waddled back into the house. I followed.