by Shinn A. H.
“Don’t worry,” he said with mockery, “I still have plenty of time.” He examined the bamboo’s tip before he raised it up. “This will hurt just a bit.”
Kellie tried to pull herself away from him, but could only move a few inches.
Hagos yanked up her sleeve, since nothing could penetrate through her gi, and jabbed the pointy end into her forearm.
Kellie screamed at the top of her lungs, the pain shooting through her whole body. Shutting her eyes tightly, tears formed in the corner of her eyes. She heard Hagos cheer as her head became dizzy; she fell back in the supine position. His reveling grew louder and his voice more majestic.
She thought she was going to pass out from the energy being sucked out of her when a powerful roar interrupted his exultation. Barely able to crack open her eyelids, she saw a figure knock Hagos over. The monkey sprang to his feet, physically heftier and stronger than ever, opposing the mighty, four-legged beast. Mulin had found them.
Enraged, Hagos jumped at his former ally. Mulin readily got out of the way, but the monkey began bouncing all around and off the trees. Trying to focus on her opponent, the feline’s large muscular body twisted up. At the opportune time, Hagos dropped fast and hard on her back, depressing her to the ground, and leapt off. She growled at him as she shook off the blow.
“Aha!” snorted Hagos. “You may have one of the most powerful strikes, but I know your flaws. He bounced all around again, preparing for another attack, when Mulin directed her chi at him, bellowing her heart out. Hagos’s newly reformed body whipped back and smacked against a tree, his mass no match for the tiger’s force.
She cornered him and he cowered back.
“Have you seen yourself?” she asked. “You reek of negative energy,” she said sadly. “You can change this.”
Hagos laughed loudly. “What? Are you trying to save me?” Hooting wildly, he attempted to flee toward the sky, but Mulin swiped him down with her paw.
“You are going to be stopped,” said Mulin. Shooting a glance at Master Zheng, who was semiconscious, she said, “You were meant to protect human lives — not harm them. You betrayed the Oath.”
Kellie dragged her body backward, propping herself up on a stump. Blood was pouring down her arm and she pulled on the bamboo stick gently, but left it in when the attempt caused even more excruciating pain.
“Don’t you get tired of this?” Hagos asked, gesturing at Kellie. “…of training humans time after time. It’s a hapless crusade. You will come to realize this. People are so weak and pathetic, hindered by their feelings and their conscience. They can never be like us. They can never have our pure animal instinct. Survival of the fittest — that is what I live by now.”
“No, I do not,” said Mulin. “Having feelings and a conscience is a privilege. We have them, too.”
“Not me!” Hagos hissed.
“You did once. Remember your love for Xavier?”
Hagos ignored Mulin’s effort to stir his emotion and only looked up. He frowned; the Night of Pass was about to conclude and the window of opportunity to complete the transfer narrowed.
“The humans are why we are here….They are why we exist,” Mulin said, never taking her eyes off him. “The human race is precious.”
Kellie was used to Mulin’s tough exterior and was surprised by her passion for people.
“We are here to teach them, so they can fight for good,” Mulin reminded him.
“I’m done with that. I realized I have powers and knowledge beyond the comprehension of humans, and you should as well. Teaching them was a waste of time. Humans are insignificant creatures, and they call animals savages? They are more savage than animals. I live for myself, now.”
“Don’t do this,” said Mulin, failing miserably to reach him. “You used to be one of us. We can help you.”
“Help me? You and the others tricked me and stole my Emotive Chi…and you gave it to that jejune girl! Don’t think that will go unforgotten.”
Kellie looked at Mulin for a response. The mystical animals gave her Hagos’s chi. This meant they may know something about her past. Could Mulin have an idea who her parents are? She was so engrossed in what they were saying, she barely felt the piercing in her arm.
Mulin hardened and said, “Then we will have to stop you for good.” She sprang at him and gripped his tail, but he escaped. He vanished out of sight and rustled around above. Mulin scampered back and forth, her nose pointed up, trying to spot him.
Kellie saw a flicker in the trees and she squinted her eyes. It was the knife, again in Hagos’s hand, and Mulin’s back was to him. Kellie mustered up the last bit of energy she had left and stood up, screaming to warn her kung fu teacher.
Mulin’s strapping body rotated around at the same time Hagos shot down like a falling star. Everything was happening so fast.
Kellie yanked the bamboo out of her arm and hurled it at her nemesis. The sharp end sliced through his gut and he let out a howl. He let go of the dagger’s handle and it clanked, as it bounced on a bed of pebbles. His feet hit the dirt and his legs collapsed underneath.
Kellie also fell to the ground, the loss of blood making her dizzy.
“Kellie!” a fretful voice shouted at her.
When she looked out, she thought she was envisioning a mirage. Her head was spinning; she assumed to be imagining things.
“Kellie!” he kept yelling, his figure getting closer to her.
When she felt his touch, lifting her up, she realized it was really him. Master Chen was by her side and she knew everything was going to be better.
Hagos cried as he watched his chi leave him. A smoky cloud drifted out of the bamboo and hovered in the air between him and Kellie. His figure began to shrink and shrivel, his cells aging rapidly. Without his Emotive Chi, his perfect body was fading. He tremored, seeing that the Night of Pass was about to end.
Kellie saw that the spectacular energy in the jade, still positioned on the oversized rock, was descending back into the stone. Anguo needed to pass, but it couldn’t because it wasn’t whole.
“Master Chen — did you get the other piece?”
He pulled it out of his jacket and the glow was also diminishing. She pointed to the boulder and he dipped his head, signaling he knew what he had to do. He carefully let go of her arm as she stabilized herself onto her wobbly knees.
Master Chen dashed to what was once a treasured gem that hung around Kellie’s neck, picked it up, and pressed it against Principal Lemore’s lucky find. Anguo’s essence immediately reunited joyfully, whirling around Master Chen. It turned into a fiery, red-orange mist of sparkles, like a fourth of July celebration. It flared toward the heavens and disappeared, in search of its next host.
Hagos didn’t let his eyes off his hovering chi and Mulin didn’t take hers off him. The display only the mystical animals and Kellie could see was almost over; the aura bordering the moon waned and the stars relaxed in their predestined areas.
Kellie had a smile on her face as she let her knees give in. Anguo was whole and back in China, where it should be. She didn’t care anymore what happened next because Master Chen and Mulin were with her. She reached down for the ground, no longer able to bear her weight.
Barely keeping her eyelids from sliding over her green eyes, she saw Hagos wrench the bamboo from his flesh and scramble toward his suspended Emotive Chi. The ball of puff repelled away from him and drew closer to Kellie.
“NO!” screeched Hagos, as the energy Kellie carried around all these years glided in her direction and belted into her being.
It felt like an elephant stomped on her chest and she struggled to suck in air. She thrashed her upper body forward, forcing oxygen into her lungs.
The Night of Pass was over and the dark sky was lit by the stationary celestial bodies. Infuriated, Hagos charged Kellie with the bamboo stick raised over his head. Mulin gripped him with her jaw viciously and flung him like a rag doll into a dense thicket.
Kellie felt warmth spreading f
rom her toes to her scalp. Standing up tall and stretching, feeling as if she was reborn, she heard a faint mutter.
“If I can’t harm her, I’ll harm him.”
Hagos reemerged with a vengeance. He leapt and rebounded between the trees. Mulin kept her head up, keeping track of her enemy, who was once family. Master Chen rushed to Kellie when the vindictive monkey blasted down from above. He headed straight for Master Chen with the stake in his grip, aimed for Master Chen’s back.
“NO!” Kellie screamed. Mulin took a giant leap at Hagos, but was a hair too far. Kellie inhaled deeply while she circled both hands in front of her. She gathered her feelings, all her fears and love, compressed them into a ball, and threw two heel palms, extending her arms as far as she could. Focusing all her chi at Hagos, she released her energy, knocking him back, just stopping what would have been devastating to Master Chen.
The stunned monkey flew over the stream and shot into a tree. The force was so immense, the tree fell over. Other trees toppled like dominos, landing over him.
Kellie ran into Master Chen’s arms and Mulin checked on Master Zheng.
“He’s alive, but badly injured,” Mulin said.
Zurich came flapping down, carrying a brown satchel around his neck. Urgently, he went to Master Zheng and sprinkled water over his entire body. Master Chen helped his fellow brother up, while Kellie’s wounds were also healed from the Healing Fountain’s precious water.
“What about Hagos?” Kellie asked Mulin and Zurich, looking into the direction where his body lay smothered.
“We will take care of him,” said Mulin.
“Looks like I missed something,” said Zurich, taking notice of Kellie’s once crisp white gi he gave her, now layered with mud and blood. A twig stuck out of her collar and leaves were tangled in her hair.
“You did,” said Mulin proudly, winking at Kellie. “The three of you should head back to the monastery. We will deal with Hagos.”
“Mulin…Zurich, I have Hagos’s Emotive Chi — How did this happen? He said his family stole it from him and gave it to me. Why did you give it to me?”
“We once were his family,” Zurich corrected.
“Okay, but why me? Why do I have it?”
“Yes, you do have his chi and we are the ones who gave it to you when you were a baby,” said Mulin.
“You knew me as a baby?” Kellie was frustrated why they have made it so difficult for her to get the truth.
“When Hagos turned sour, we had no choice but to strip him of his gift,” said Zurich. “He still owns his knowledge and skills, but he is without his greatest asset, his Emotive Chi.”
“He lost his privilege to possess it,” said Mulin.
“You see,” Zurich continued, “on the Night of Pass, centuries ago, we and the other four, removed it from him and each held a part of it. It was unnatural and destructive for us to maintain his Emotive Chi. We carried it for hundreds of years, and if we attempted to sustain it much longer, it would have destroyed us.”
The crane slowly blinked, unable to eye Kellie. He seemed saddened and almost remorseful.
“His Emotive Chi is not only very powerful, but the most difficult to control,” said Mulin. Her tail hung low and her gaze, morose. “It was the first time this had ever been executed. We succeeded in the removal, but not in the containment. Having his chi powered by emotion was driving us mad….Then we found you….”
Kellie’s ears were wide open. Master Chen and Master Zheng also stopped in their conversing and listened fixedly.
“You know who I am?”
“No,” she said gently. “We found you…and took a chance. We did not know what one of the seven original chis would do to a human. You were near death and it revived you. We placed you where you would be discovered by Shifu Lau. We knew him to be a decent human, kind to all living creatures.”
“What am I supposed to do with it? With Hagos’s Emotive Chi?” Kellie asked desperately.
“Protect it,” said Zurich. “We have the upmost confidence you will be able to handle it — You have so far. You are very unique.”
“But —”
“You must go,” said Mulin, glancing over at the stir underneath the trees across the stream.
“But, why did it choose me? I saw the energy floating between Hagos and me…and it came back to me?”
With a twinkle in her eye, Mulin said, “That is something none of us can explain.”
Master Zheng cautiously approached the two awe-inspiring animals.
Respectfully, he gave them a kung fu salute, and said humbly, “Words cannot express my gratitude. You saved my life and opened my eyes to a world I only imagined. I was told stories about the mystical animals when I was a little boy, and to be standing in front of them is like a dream come true. Thank you.”
He backed away to where Master Chen was standing and they both gave them a kung fu salute. Mulin and Zurich bowed their heads, returning the respect.
“We will not allow Hagos to torment the monastery anymore,” Zurich assured them. “The Taiping monks will no longer be harmed.”
Kellie, Master Chen, and Master Zheng bade the tiger and crane farewell and trekked back to the monastery without saying much to each other. Having Hagos’s Emotive Chi gnawed at her thoughts, and she suspected the two masters’ minds were consumed with all that they witnessed.
She was mentally exhausted, though physically oozed with vitality, which was owed to the Healing Fountain’s water. Master Zheng as well had a hop in his step and a smile across his face; although he endured much pain and suffering in the hands of a bitter monkey, his experience seemed to have brought him some enlightenment.
Master Chen, on the other hand, appeared as if he hadn’t slept in days.
Kellie was comforted having him there and impressed that he was able to get the other piece of the stone and let Anguo pass just in time. She made a mental note to ask him as soon as the time was appropriate how he managed to get the jade from Principal Lemore.
The three of them exited Shenmi Forest and made their way to Taiping Monastery. The night’s sky was at a calm rest now, bare-looking, but serene. As they neared, the monastery looked more like a battlefield than a house of peace, but recovery was underway. Debris was being swept away and most of the bodies of the fallen monkeys were cleared. There was a level of chaos amid the monks, but also a sense of pride. Although they were scratched, bruised, and battered, smiles were on their faces and some were even whistling. They defended their home and won.
A large group of them were geared up, and Kellie presumed, were going to venture back into the woods to search for Master Zheng, and possibly her, if they noticed she was missing. The disarray prevented anyone from noticing that the three of them were standing there.
Soon enough, someone shouted, “Master Zheng!”
Silence fell as all eyes turned to them. Then a roar erupted and everyone ran to their side.
In Mandarin, voices called out in every direction.
“How did you escape?”
“Are you hurt?”
“It is Master Chen! When did you arrive?”
“What happened to Bao Yu and Master Zheng?”
Everyone reacted with alarm and panic when they saw how Kellie and Master Zheng appeared. Their garments were both covered in blood and muck and though Kellie’s invincible gi was still in one piece, Master Zheng’s robe was reduced to rags. By the state of their clothes, it was hard to assume they weren’t put through the worst, but their bodies were in perfect condition, thanks to the healing water.
Master Zheng raised his hands, indicating that he was well. As he began to speak in Mandarin, everyone settled down.
“I am all right. Kellie and Master Chen came to my rescue” — a few gasps were heard — “and saved me from the monkey.” Looking around the monastery, he said, “All of us have been through much and though traumatic the experience…it was an awakening. Being taken into Shenmi Forest by the monkey opened me to the world
Grand Master Jing knew. He built this place for a reason, and tonight I learned why. I was enlightened by the mysteries and magic of the place” — he glanced at Master Chen and the crowd listening attentively — “and understand why it must be protected. If all of you agree, let us stay and restore our home, and fulfill our duty that Grand Master Jing set out for us to do.”
Silence befell once again, and after a moment of consideration, a loud cheer exploded and voices cried out over the revelry.
“Let us stay!”
“It is our duty!”
“Taiping Monastery is our home!”
“I was assured we will not be harmed again…” Master Zheng said with a pensive smile.
Kellie was elated Taiping Monastery wasn’t going to be abandoned.
The rest of the hours of darkness were devoted to repairing and unpacking. No one slept a wink, including Jake and Jory. They assisted in the cleanup while they profusely asked Kellie questions. They didn’t hide their disapproval of her running off alone into the forest to go after Hagos, but were sorry her disappearance went without action on their part. Jake expressed that he thought she was in another part of the monastery, getting rid of monkeys.
“So Anguo was restored and Hagos lost his chance to get his chi back?” asked Jory, enthralled in her explanation about the near miss of the Night of Pass.
“Yes, Master Chen brought the other stone just in time.”
“And by having Hagos’s Emotive Chi, you have super powers?” asked Jake, seeming both awestruck and envious.
“I wouldn’t say that…” she said humbly. “I felt like I was going to die when it came out of me,” she said darkly. “I don’t understand why it chose to come back to me, though.” Kellie pictured it hovering between her and Hagos again.
“Well, the mystical animals represent good,” said Jory, offering his insight. “Their chi must be a positive force. It chose you over Hagos because he’s evil and it probably sensed your righteousness.”
“Wow!” said Jake. “That was deep, my man.”
“Ahem,” a voice interrupted them.
“Hi, Master Chen,” Jake and Jory said together.