"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Haley screamed he she saw Gwon in his Seng form.
Gwon then turned back into his child form. Haley was now even more confused.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
"Well…..this is Gwon," said Rufus.
After explaining the situation to Haley she couldn't believe what happened.
"Hahahahaha. It seems that being a gang boss wasn't enough for Rufus. He decided to show the middle finger to everyone proving he truly is one of a kind" Edward laughed and placed his hand on Rufus's shoulder.
The situation was unbelievable for them. Rufus had been only around a year among the grey skin in the mountains, but now somehow was just one step away from being declared the leader of all the grey skins.
"Have you ever thought that your actual divine power is to make people adore you and follow you?" Doreen said jokingly.
Rufus just smiled back. He felt embarrassed by all the praises.
"Just calm down. The grey skins mainly see you as a way to oppose Tride and make Tenzin's plan a reality," Amala said to all of them.
Edward, Doreen, and Rufus stopped celebrating. They realized this was true and felt embarrassed being so gitty about it.
"What do you think are Rufus's chances of winning?" Haley asked Amala.
"Don't know. It is still a longshot," said Amala.
"He will win," said Pema who looked at Rufus with confident eyes.
Everyone looked at Pema not knowing why Pema was so confident.
~ ~
It was the night and all of them were sitting in front of the fire in the Dechen tribe's camp outside the city of Lehasa.
Tashi and his tribe also had joined with the Dechen tribe. They explained to him and the rest of them that the Seng was just a small abandoned child. all of them looked at Gwon. It was hard to believe such a shy kid was actually the Seng.
Gwon still felt only comfortable near Rufus and felt shy around everyone else. Many tried to talk with him but he only talked with Rufus or Pema.
Pema in some way felt pity for Gwon. He had himself been in the same situation. Being alone and confused. Being shunned by everyone and not understanding why.
"How did Gwon learn to speak? I heard Pema couldn't speak anything before he was found by Tenzin," Rufus asked in grey skin language.
"Many children are abandoned at different times. Some are abandoned right after birth and some maybe later. They could have learned it before they were abandoned in the wild. He must have then repressed all his memories from that time and because of a stressful and dangerous situation had unearthed his dormant divine power," Tashi explained.
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They all realized how brutal was the child abandoning culture among the grey skins. That had to stop.
Just from looking at Gwon's eyes, you could see that he had gone through a lot. He had gone through many traumatic events, but still many held resentment towards him. Gwon had caused huge havoc when was in his Senf form and many didn't want to forgive Gwon for it.
"Amala can you please talk to them that Gwon really didn't mean to cause chaos?" Rufus asked Amala.
"It is hard. For many years it has caused destruction. It even destroyed villages and has killed many grey skins. It is not easy to forgive after something like that," Amala explained.
Gwon looked very ashamed.
"I am sorry. I don't remember much. Everything is blurry. I remember hearing sometimes voices and I started to get closer to them, but then I felt like I was in danger and then everything went blank like I was taken over by something different. When I somehow regained my consciousness back I just remember that I had an odd and foul taste in my mouth," Gwon explained to Amala.
Gwon didn't want to talk to anyone else before this. Amala also realized that Gwon didn't want to do any of those bad things. He basically had lived off his animal instincts for a long time.
"What is done is done. Gwon was never the problem, he was just the symptom. A symptom of a horrible custom that we had to practice for too long," Amala said trying to take the blame out of Gwon.
Most of the grey skins agreed with Amala's statement. They stopped glaring at him. Gwon showed a rare smile at Amala.
"You should go to sleep now Rufus. The fight will happen early in the morning and you should rest now," said Pema to Rufus.
"Yeah you are probably right," Rufus said and was about to enter one of the tents.
Gwon followed Rufus to the tent. It looked like Rufus had a little brother.
"Hah. Look Haley. You have a little brother now. Ouch…... Why did you hit me, Doreen? I was being funny," Edward said and looked at Doreen.
"And you think my punch meant that I also thought it was funny."
~ ~
The fight between Rufus and Tride was about to start. The fight was held again in the same arena where Tenzin and Tride had fought earlier.
The arena was again full of grey skin from normal tribesmen to tribal leaders. On one side were the grey skins who rooted for Tride. They were the ones who hated the humans almost with the same passion as Tride. The ones who would rather die than make a human the next Raja. They were the ones believing the Dalai was right in being wary of the humans and believed that they all should be killed.
On the other side were all the ones who believed in Tenzin's plan. The ones who believed they had to find a compromise with the humans. To heal the curse of the Dalai that he had placed on his own people.
Rufus walked to the center of the amphitheater. The grey skins who were on Tride's side started to boo and scream slurs towards Rufus. They all hated him and started to throw trash at him.
The ones who wanted Rufus to win didn't cheer him. They didn't defend or anything. They also thought that Rufus was just a vessel for them and he was their safest bet. He was still human and not a grey skin.
When Rufus was in the center of the amphitheater the doors on the other side opened. Tride entered the arena. He looked mad. He stopped marching and looked at the grey skins opposite of him that were in the audience not cheering for him.
"I see that many of you disagree with me, but I will show you that I am your answer. I will walk through the flames of war and carnage. I you would give me the honor of walking with me I promise you all, that we will survive and prosper," Tride said trying to get the grey skins who were against him on his side.
Tride walked right in front of Rufus. Rufus himself was around an average man's height while Tride stood almost two and a half meters tall. He towered over Rufus and looked at him with disgust and hatred.
"I do not know do you understand me, but if you do, I want you to know this. You all deserve to die from the moment you were born," Tride said and glared at Rufus with eyes of fury.
One of the elders stood up. Tride glared at him and the elder looked scared.
"Let the trial BEGIN!" the elder yelled with a scared voice.
Tride immediately formed an armor of iron and metal around him. A thick layer manifested around his skin from his toes to the tip of his head. The soil and earth under Tride gave in under the weight of his metallic armor.
Tride readied a punch. He threw a straight punch as hard as he could at Rufus. The same kind of punch that would send a horse flying through the air with ease.
Rufus dodged it with extremely impressive footwork similar to Pema's martial arts. He rolled with the punch and punched Tride on his shoulder with a spinning back fist. Tride flew through the air on impact and flew against the wall of the amphitheater.
Everyone was in shock. Rufus had just with one punch thrown Tride to the other side of the arena.