"Wukong! As your Mistress, I command you! Let him go!". Frantically, Trip ran her fingers over her metal bracer, and then, as blue words appeared on it, quickly said "Pacify! --", but it was too late.

With a quick punch, Wukong caved Mr. Drop-and-Roll's face inwards, killing him instantly.

Slowly, Wukong lowered the body down, then dropped it to the ground. With slow and stiff movements, as if he was on autopilot, he walked into the large tent.

"WUKONG!" shouted Trip. Just as she had taken a step towards the large tent, White Dragon moved in front of her.

"Miss Tang, I believe it would be better if we left Wukong alone for now. Pursuing the matter any further would not be beneficial. Neither to him, nor to us."

"Why didn't he listen to me?"

"I doubt that he even realised you were there. Based on my observations, I believe that he was trapped in some sort of flashback. For now let us allow him some time to himself. I believe that his natural resilience will assert itself soon. For now, I would like to draw your attention to a function of this horse body of mine."

With an almost-inaudible hum, the sides of White Dragon's middle opened, much like how one would pull the side of a saddlebag towards oneself in order to widen the opening.

"Besides my belly, I have additional space along my flanks, under your saddlebags. I believe it would be advantageous to modify your saddlebags to take advantage of this hidden space."

Trip looked sceptical, as she said, "It doesn't look very big. Just for small valuables?"

"Worry not, Miss Tang." The smile was evident in White Dragon's voice, as he proudly proclaimed, "It is bigger on the inside."

***

Time passed, as Trip modified her saddlebags to have a secret opening through which she could reach into White Dragon's storage compartments. She then transferred half of whatever coin she had, as well as half her cache of ammunition, into the space.

Next, she took out three objects from her saddlebags, two of which were sleek black boxes, each about the size of a pair of large boots. The third object looked like a crude rectangular cube of hammered metal, with openings on each side that were the size of the two black boxes.

With practised movements, she quickly fit the two black boxes into the sides of the crude metal cube. Then, she opened a lid at the top of one of the black boxes. Into it, she put metal bolts, metal arrowheads, and gunpowder cartridges that she had scavenged from the bounty hunters earlier.

After completing that, she carelessly threw the entire device into the fire.

White Dragon, who had been intently observing the entire process, moved closer to the fire. Blue beams shot out from his eyes and scanned the device that looked completely unaffected, despite being in the middle of a large campfire.

"How ingenious! Miss Tang, did you engineer this marvellous method of combining those artefacts?"

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Trip looked at the device in the flames, and for an instant, a tiny, fond smile flashed across her face. Then, it was gone.

"No, it was my brother who made the ammo converter. He got the idea after mom gave me this reloader." said Trip, as she lightly laid her fingers on the rectangular metal device on on her belt that she had used to reload her revolver earlier.

As though reminded of something, she strode quickly to retrieve the large black metal crossbow and a thin coil of metal wire, and started replacing the crossbow string.

"May I inquire about that crossbow, Miss Tang? I find the construction and accessories rather... unique."

"It's called the Simo. It belonged to dad... he never stopped reworking and modifying it."

"The... Simo?"

"Dad told me that Simo was a hero from ancient times who had the power to cause death to anyone within his sight, no matter the distance. He would scan the battlefield with an eyeglass, and just... kill any high value targets he could spot. And, he only ever used his power to defend his home and his people."

By this time, Trip had finished taking care of her crossbow. As though embarrassed of her sudden bout of talkativeness, she jumped to her feet, put away her crossbow, and started stripping down to her undies, completely ignoring White Dragon. As for White Dragon, he quickly moved to face the fire, focusing all his attention on the ammo converter in the flames.

When she was halfway through taking off the jacket underneath her duster, Wukong silently ran out of the tent he had been in, and with a mighty leap, reached a sturdy branch high up on one of the tallest trees around the campsite. He settled down on the branch, facing away from the fire, and there he sat, silent and still as a statue, except for his tail that was coiling and uncoiling without pause, and his ears that twitched at every sound.

When Trip was clad only in a pair of shorts and a shirt, she started the first of many sets of callisthenics. An hour later, drenched in sweat, she moved on to vigorous weighted exercises, using a variety of things in the camp. Her heavy metal crossbow, her pack, some rocks she selected and cleaned off. This went on for another hour, before she wiped herself with a clean rag, then collapsed to her knees.

As she panted while kneeling, she sat back on her heels, put her hands on her thighs, and closed her eyes. At first, her back was bowed, but she eventually straightened up. As her breathing slowed, orange twinkles of light began to gather around her. At first, there were only a few, then more, until it looked like there was a sprinkle of fireflies around her. A soft orange glow began to emanate from her. Gradually, the orange glow and twinkles lightened into yellow, then white... then the lights disappeared.

Opening her eyes, Trip hopped to her feet, looking as fresh as the morning dew. After gnawing on some dried rations, she leaned against her backpack, facing away from the fire, and went to sleep.

***

"I feel it! I FEEL it! YEAHHHH!"

As the sun rose up the next morning, Wukong stood at the very top of the same tree he had chosen the night before, greeting the morning in a very enthusiastic manner.

At first, Trip thought it was a trick of the light, but as the morning light intensified, the effect became more obvious. Wukong's fur was turning gold at the tips, and a faint golden glow around him was expanding, as it gradually grew brighter.

"Oooooooohhhhhh YEAH!"

By then, the light had taken the shape of a transparent golden globe, with Wukong at its center. Eventually, the glow dimmed, until it disappeared completely.

Revealing Wukong, who was standing atop the tree with his arms akimbo, grinning widely, as though the previous night had never happened. The tips of his fur had turned a deep, rich gold, giving him a strange black-and-gold pattern all over. With a flex of his knees, he jumped off the tree, somersaulted through the air, and landed in front of Trip.

Kneeling on one knee, hands clasped in a fist palm salute, Wukong said, "Mistress, I'm ready! Let's go get this Crimson Bull!"

As she observed his still-grinning expression, Trip noticed that even his eyes had turned the same shade of deep, rich gold. With her mind occupied with the difference in Wukong's behavior, all she could do was stare at him.

Still in the same position, Wukong began to look uncomfortable, and started to fidget.

"Mistress...?"

-- Chapter 9, End --