“This should do,” he said as he found a pair of robes the same color as his.
“You don’t happen to have a bag or anything, do you?” I asked him. “We will be leaving as soon as we get word from another monastery, and it would be helpful to be able to carry my robes with me.”
“You would like to keep the same robes?” he asked.
“Yes, I would like to keep them.”
“People are going to wonder why you are walking around in these robes without the haircut,” he said, running his hand over his recently shaved head. While they practiced a different path of the Way of the Immortals, all the monks, including their boy leader, still had the same haircut that Lhandon rocked, the fronts and sides bare, with a ponytail at the back. The only difference was the jewel that these monks had tying off their ponytails.
“I’m sure they are,” I told him. “But the haircut isn’t for me.”
“Are you not a practitioner of the Path of the Divine?”
“I don’t know what I am,” I told him with a grin.
“I only ask because it may arouse suspicion.”
“Walking around with a snow lioness and a tropical bird on my shoulder is probably even more suspicious.”
His right eye twitched as he looked me over. “I believe you are right in that regard.”
I took off my belt and placed my sword on the table, followed by the fan and the treasure map Nyima had given us.
I saw the attendant looked to them and back to me. “Did you pick up some new items today?”
“No. This is a fan that I’ve had for a while now, and a note from a friend in Lhasa,” I lied.
“Do you mind if I look at the fan?” he asked again with the nervous twitch at the corner of his eyes.
“I do.”
“Very well,” he said, stepping to the door. “I will wait for you out here. Also, there are shoulder bags in the basket at the back of the room. The monks use them when they go to collect clams. You may take one of those to carry your items.”
“Thanks.”
I finished taking off my robes and put on the lighter set, noticing instantly that the material was soft and cool.
“I’ve got to get out of this monastery,” I said under my breath as I returned my belt to my waist, my sword in its scabbard. I retrieved one of the bags that the attendant had offered me, and placed my robes in it.
The fan and the treasure map that Nyima had given me went in the inside pocket of my robes, where they would stay. I would have to sleep with the items under the futon as well, not at all trusting the monks or the young boy that ran the monastery.
Once I was done dressing, I met the attendant in the hallway, where I was led down a hallway with bamboo floors and yellow walls to the dining area to find Saruul and Roger having a heated discussion.
“It’s not like that,” Roger told her. “You lion people really should come down from the mountains and see for yourself. It’s not what you think.”
“Why come down there when we have everything we need in our village?”
“I don’t know? The same reason you came on this journey,” Roger said, hopping around on the table. “It’s important to experience things and go to new places, otherwise you risk becoming xenophobic assholes.”
“Did you learn that word in bird school?”
“Yes, and I believe it would apply to the people of your village.”
“You were only there a week!”
“And in that time I met a slew of sex-crazed white birds; Nick got beat to hell every night, and then there is the story of your old friend Champa. What’s the deal with that cat clown anyway? Why does he even care what you do?”
“We dated long ago,” she said, not seeing that I’d come into the room.
“There we go!” Roger said, clapping his wings together. “The truth finally comes out. You hear that, Nick?”
“Hey,” I told both of them, Saruul turning to me with surprise on her face.
“It was a long time ago,” she told me.
“I don’t care if you dated him.”
“We were in school; nothing ever happened between us.”
“I really don’t care,” I assured her.
“And he was different back then. He only became like that after he joined the village guard…”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said as I sat at the table.
“So that’s why he was so jealous,” Roger said. “You really should have lit his tail on fire, Nick, that would’ve been hilarious.”
“Roger…” I started to say.
“What? If I was dating some beautiful lioness, and a guy she once dated was coming around puffing his chest out and trying to be a big shot… well, you saw what I can do with a knife. I’m not saying I would murder his furry ass, but I’m not saying that I wouldn’t. I know, I know, there’s the karma angle I have to be wary of, but hear me out here: what is my karmic responsibility if someone accidentally kills themselves, eh? Ever think of that? What if they slip on a banana and fall onto an upward-facing knife?”
“What are you even talking about?” I told him as I shoveled some fruit onto my plate. Saruul filled my glass with coconut water, which went a long way in quenching my thirst. I set my glass down and she filled it up again.
“Nice robes,” she said to me, a soft smile taking shape on her face.
“Not my color, but I agree.”
“I’m just saying: if you are clever enough, and you figure out a way for someone to off themselves without you being liable, where does that put you on the karma spectrum? I know, I’m asking the wrong person. I should be asking Lhandon.”
“Please, don’t ask him that,” I said, smiling at the bird.
“It’s a valid question.”
“Ahem,” said the young monk’s attendant, who now stood at the front of the table with his hands behind his back. “Supper will be served in three hours. We would like for you to join us, and the Golden Jewel has asked to see your weapon again. Until that time, please rest in your room. Hopefully, we will have word by tomorrow afternoon about the Exalted One.”
“Hopefully,” Roger grumbled. “Although I could get used to all the snacks I have in this place. The weird cult stuff? Not so much. But the snacks? I will put up with it if I get snacks.”
“Such a stupid bird,” Saruul said playfully.
“I am the smartest bird you know!”
After refreshments, we retired to our room to find that the space had been cleaned, clean linens folded and stacked on a small end table. It was still warm outside, but the inner room of the monastery was cool enough that I thought about getting under one of the blankets.
Roger stopped antagonizing Saruul, the three of us able to rest until we were called for supper.
As I could have predicted, supper was an elaborate affair, an egregious amount of food placed on the table before us. I tried not to gorge myself, but it was hard with that much food present, and in the end, I definitely ended up going back for seconds and partial thirds.
Migmar ogled my Flaming Thunderbolt again, and after promising to let him see it in the morning, we were asked to retire to our room for the evening.
“Praise the gods,” Roger said once the three of us were alone in our room again. “Maybe that’s how the Path of Possession gets you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked him.
“They give you all this good food, and eventually they lull you into thinking that simply touching an object will give you power. Shoot, I would believe anything right about now, and if you added some chung to the mix, I’d be going into a trance just like the boy monk did back in the courtyard.”
The bird hopped around with his head rolled back as if he were in a trance, Saruul laughing at him.
“It is an abundance of food, but there’s something I don’t like about it,” she finally said, “something that seems a bit odd to me.”
“Yeah?” I asked as we started to arrange the futon.
Saruul fluf
fed one of the pillows and placed it down, then did the same with the other one.
“It is just odd to see people pinned to trees, to know that there’s something terrible happening in the capital of this kingdom, and that the monasteries are being sheltered from it, as if there aren’t terrible things happening outside these walls. It seems very clever of your friend.”
“Yeah, it’s something,” I said.
“No, she’s right,” Roger said. The tropical bird was now lying on his back, his wings on his belly as he stared up at the paper lantern that hung from the ceiling, a candle lit inside. “It’s almost like your pal Hugo has either partnered with religious leaders, or he’s purposefully not going after them so they get behind him. Think about it, Nick. If you had a dash of devil to you, and you took over an unknown kingdom, what would be the best way to control the people? What already controls the people?”
“Religion…”
“Exactly. So you don’t go after the religious people, unless you are trying to bring a new religion. It doesn’t sound like Hugo is trying to bring a new religion, or whatever you guys practice in your world. He’s just trying to, well, I don’t know exactly what he’s trying to do, but my point is, he seems to be going after wealthy people and anyone who disagrees with him, sparing monks and monasteries. It makes sense if you think about it like that.”
“It makes too much sense,” Saruul said as she got down on her pillow. “Will you blow out the candle?”
“Sure,” I said as I brought the paper lantern down from the ceiling and took care of the flame.
I placed it in the corner of the room and slipped my sword, the treasure map, and the Cooling Fan under the futon.
My stomach grumbled, letting me know that I’d eaten too much.
“Sounds like the food is talking,” Roger said, his voice a bit drowsy now. “Before I crash out here, I just want to say that what your friend is doing is devious. If I wasn’t clear earlier. You could just meet with Lhandon, find the reincarnation, and get the hell out of here. But somehow, I don’t think that this is what you plan to do.”
“I don’t know what I plan to do yet,” I finally told him.
Sleep came over me, and it would have been a restful night as well had I not heard my own stomach grumbling. I woke up, and as I blinked my eyes open I caught someone hovering over me.
I pressed back, trying to get an angle to throw my fist out when I noticed that it was the boy monk, who apparently had the ability to float.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him, startled.
Migmar sat in front of me with his legs crossed, about three feet above the ground. He had a crazy smile on his face, his eyes glowing white.
“Don’t even think about it,” I told him, Saruul waking.
She hissed, immediately rolling out of the bed and bringing her claws out, accidentally stepping on Roger’s tail feathers.
Roger squawked, coming awake.
“Seriously!?” Roger shrieked.
“You have something powerful,” the boy monk said. “Would you allow me to see it?”
“You can’t do this,” I told him, still on guard, realizing that from a seated position, it was going to be hard to throw a punch at the young monk.
“I don’t want your items; I merely want to touch them, to feel them,” he said, his words slurring slightly. “I can feel the energy radiating from them, and there are now two, are there not?”
“We can do this in the morning,” I told him.
“I know,” he said, color starting to return to his eyes. “I was just so curious.”
“We can show you in the morning,” Saruul said, relaxing some. “But please, never enter another guest’s room like this again, Golden Jewel. It is inconsiderate and inappropriate.”
“It is my monastery,” he said, a hint of confusion to his voice.
“Hold me back, Nick,” Roger started to say.
“I suppose I should tell you now: we have received word from Ganbold, the capital of our Island Kingdom. Lhandon the Exalted One is at the Temple of Ocean Sky there, and we have sent word back telling him that you will make the journey to the capital starting tomorrow.”
“So Lhandon is okay?” I asked, forgetting the sudden anger I was experiencing at seeing the boy hovering over us.
“Yes,” he said with a nod, “although the letter did not indicate his condition, receiving it tells me that he is okay. Now, do you mind if I see it?”
“I will show you both objects in the morning, before we leave. But not here, not like this. You have to learn to be patient,” I told him firmly. “We appreciate your hospitality, but this is no way to treat a guest.”
A frown started to form on his face.
“I know that you are used to getting your way, but you will be much stronger, more balanced even, if you learn how far your power extends. Does that make sense?”
He lowered to the ground, sulking a bit. “I guess so…”
“Please, get some rest, Golden Jewel,” Saruul said as she led the young monk to the door. “You will be able to see the items before we leave.”
“I… I understand,” he finally said. “Would you like us to arrange a boat?”
“No,” she told him. “We will be going via the jungle.”
The boy monk shrugged. “As you wish.”
He stepped out of the room, leaving all of us a bit riled.
“That little fucker,” Roger said under his breath. “I was just getting to the good part of a dream too, the climactic part, if you get my drift.”
It took the three of us another hour to fall back asleep, and by that time, the morning sun had already started to spread into the room.
So much for a restful night.
Chapter Seven: Welcome to the Jungle
We got out of the city of Anand just about as quickly as we could.
I kept expecting to catch Migmar’s monks following but they never came, and about an hour after we had put some distance between us and the monastery, I relaxed my guard a little. It was hot out, the jungle humid and filled with the sounds of insects and other tropical creatures.
“I think I prefer staying in Dornod over that place,” Roger said at some point.
“Oh, stop it,” Saruul told him.
“What? It’s true. Sure, you could argue that we really didn’t see much of the actual city back there, but still, aside from the ocean breeze and pretty flowers, Dornod just seemed cozier. Did anybody else think that was kind of weird?”
“That what was weird?” I asked him as I caught sight of a blue-faced monkey swinging from limb to limb, the creature suddenly startled by an orange snake with a bright yellow strip down its back.
Luckily, they were high enough in the canopy that I didn’t have to worry about the snake, but it did remind me that I needed to look out for these kinds of predators, that there could be anything lurking in the jungle of the island kingdom.
“If you ask me, I just felt like they wanted us to stay at the monastery, to not really explore. It was sort of like they were keeping us away from the rest of the city. That’s just the vibe I got.”
“They did let us go to the crypt,” Saruul reminded him.
“Oh great, we got to go to a shitty cemetery,” Roger scoffed. “Who wants to go to a cemetery aside from an undertaker?”
“I don’t think they were trying to stop us from exploring the city, but I do think they were watching us closely while we were at the monastery. And the Golden Jewel appearing in our room…” Saruul shook her head. “That could have been very deadly for him.”
“Do you think he was in there the night before?” I asked the snow lioness.
“Ha!” Roger laughed. He was flying for the time being, just a foot or two above our heads.
“I would have smelled him if he was.”
“You didn’t smell him the second time, how do we know that you would have smelled him the first time?” Roger asked.
“How do you know I didn’t?”
“Because you would have done something.”
She shrugged off his remark. “Even if they were a little odd, they did help us locate Lhandon.”
“The Temple of Ocean Sky,” I said, recalling the location they had given us.
“The Temple of Ocean Sky, huh?” Roger repeated. “Have you noticed that a lot of the temples have the name sky in them? Or is it just me?”
“We have only visited one temple,” I reminded him.
“What’s the difference between a temple and a monastery anyway? No one ever answered that one for me.”
“That would be a question for Lhandon,” I said as I switched the bag over my shoulder to the other side.
My brown robes were in the bag, as were a few provisions for our trip. The attendant back at the monastery had said it would take us up to two days to reach Ganbold, and that was only if we followed the “Path of Red” as he called it, which was marked by a tree painted red every hundred feet or so.
“I wonder what Lhandon is doing at the temple anyway,” Roger said. “Do you think he’s just hanging out with the other monks? Or perhaps he’s having a big debate about the various paths. Yeah, that sounds more like him. I hope they don’t feed him as much as these guys back there tried to feed us, otherwise, he may grow even larger. I’d prefer not having to roll him around.”
“Aren’t you ever quiet?” Saruul asked him.
“Birds like to talk a lot; is there a problem with that? Don’t lions like to talk?”
“We mostly try to keep to ourselves, unless we are drunk.”
“Or unless you’re in love,” Roger said in a teasing voice.
And so it went, the three of us heading deeper and deeper into the jungle, occasionally coming across a merchant going in the opposite direction. The merchants were always polite, bowing, and asking us if we would like to see their wares.
The young monk’s attendant had told us that there would be a roadside rest stop about a third of the way into our journey, that we should keep pressing on until we reached it. And to their credit, our hosts had also given us money, enough to rent a room and purchase any supplies we might need from the various rest stops along the way.
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