Early the next day, Jie sat in the courtyard. She watched the sun creep over the horizon and spill the dawn's first rays over the temple, giving it an otherworldly look.

She giggled at the thought. Of course it was otherworldly. It was another world after all!

"Are you ready, kiddo?" Ming asked.

The lightning that crackled over his scales seemed more energetic this morning, but maybe it was just her imagination.

"Yes, please teach me how to fight!" she said.

Jie bowed before the great dragon that had given her so much. She couldn't wait to learn how to fight! She would never let anyone she loved be hurt ever again!

"That's the spirit, kid," Ming said.

He brought out the same, small, golden box as before and flipped open the lid.

"Let's see here... where did I put that thing? Hmm? Nope. That's not it. Oh? I forgot I had that. Ah! Yes! That's the one," he said.

He brought out a scroll and laid it out in front of her.

On the scroll were diagrams depicting the movement of qi through the tunnels in the dantian. It called these tunnels meridians.

From there, it showed how to form this qi outside the body and into a dragon's head that engulfed the figure's fist.

"This," Ming said with pride in his voice, "is the dragonfist technique. It's a very basic martial skill, but it's highly effective even so. It forms a dragon's head out of qi."

"And then what?" Jie asked.

"Then you punch your enemy with it and then... boom! I did say it was basic," Ming said.

"I'm going to help you with this one, but I want you to use the scroll as much as possible, so you get used to learning from them. You'll thank me later when you learn skills I don't know, and you have to rely on the scroll completely," Ming said.

"So you know how to do this martial skill?" Jie asked.

"Of course. It's one of the first skills I learned," he said.

Jie studied the scroll and then paused.

"Hey, wait a minute. How can I read this? Does your world use the same language as mine?" she asked.

"Hmm," Ming said, "No we don't... after we got here, you just started talking in my normal language, and I suppose I forgot about it. But you can read it?"

"Yes, I can read it fine... and wait what? I've been talking a different language this whole time?" she said.

"You only just noticed?" he asked.

She frowned and then thought harder about what she was saying as she said it. As she paid attention to it, the language emerged from her mind.

Where before she'd been doing it entirely subconsciously, and it felt like she was talking as she always did. Now, she could discern the knowledge of this language within her mind. It still felt just as natural to her as her own.

Ming shrugged. "Maybe you picked it up during the travel here," he said.

"How? It isn't like we spoke during that," she said.

"No, but it's possible that some of my knowledge merged with you when I was so closely tied to every fiber of your being. Either that or our mystery helper decided to give you that.

"Or a million other unknowable reasons. Whatever the reason, you know my language. Let's move on. There's lots to do," Ming said.

Jie's head was still spinning like a top, but she pushed those thoughts out of her mind and focused on the scroll once more.

Life had become so damn weird.

She memorized the patterns on the scroll and closed her eyes.

Her awareness entered her dantian like a spiritual version of her physical body. There, she saw the crackling globe of dragon lightning qi.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"So... how do I move it?" she asked.

"You will it. It's part of you. No different from your lungs, your heart, your fingers, and toes... tell it what to do and it shall obey," he said.

Jie focused, bringing to mind everything she'd memorized. She willed her qi to flow through her meridians in the pattern the scroll had shown, and it leaped to obey her.

It raced through her meridians faster than thought, and her fist tingled.

"Heavens," Ming said.

"What?" she asked.

"It's just... I didn't expect you to do it so fast..." he said.

Jie frowned.

Was he just being nice to her and trying to encourage her by saying things like this all the time? It was difficult, but it wasn't that difficult.

She hated being patronized. If he had to constantly lie to make her feel good about herself, then she would just have to try even harder!

She did it again, this time with her eyes open, and watched as her qi collected around her fist.

It crackled and snapped with power and a blue glow surrounded her entire fist.

Jie frowned.

Her dragonfist didn't look anything like the picture. It was supposed to be a dragon's head around her hand. But, hers was just a glove of hazy energy.

She furrowed her brows and strained her will all she could, trying to get it into the shape of a dragon's head, but it just wouldn't do it!

"Very well done. You seem to have the hang of that already," Ming said.

She let the energy dissipate and squeezed her fists until her nails dug into her skin.

"You don't need to do that," Jie said.

"Do what?" Ming asked.

"I know I'm not doing it right. I can see that it looks nothing like the picture," she said.

A traitorous tear ran down her cheek, and she scraped it away with the side of her fist.

"I can do better. I promise I will do better," Jie said.

"What are you talking about?" Ming asked, looking utterly confused.

Jie sniffed, feeling even angrier as she did so that she couldn't control her emotions. "It's supposed to look like a dragon. But, it just won't do it like it does on the scroll!" she said, "But I'll get it! I promise! I'll keep working and I'll--"

There was a thunderous clap, and a stiff wind washed over her.

She looked up to see Ming, his palm smacked against his forehead.

"Of all the... of course it doesn't look like a bloody dragon! You're only at the first star of the first rank! The scroll shows what the technique looks like when a supreme expert performs the skill! That's its highest form!" he roared.

"I'm not messing it up?" Jie asked as she wiped at her eyes.

Ming's expression grew even more puzzled. "No, of course, you aren't. Why would you even think that? You just read the scroll and then executed the technique like it was nothing!" he said.

"Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" she asked with eyes like saucers.

Ming rubbed his temples and let out a heavy sigh. "No! Well... yes! I suppose? Look, most people can't just learn martial skills like they're nothing. Not even simple ones like this one. It takes most disciples a month of training to do what you just did in less than ten minutes," he said.

Jie sniffed. "You're just saying these things to make me feel better," she said.

Ming looked at her like she was mad and then burst into laughter.

She scowled. "What? What's so funny?" she said.

"It's just... I forget you aren't from my world. The only other cultivator you've ever seen is me, right?" Ming said.

She nodded.

"I'm older than the city you lived in when I found you. Do you have any idea how hard and long I've had to work to get where I am? And, I'm gifted! I'm a descendant of The Great Lightning Dragon! I was considered a peerless genius! And, even I needed a full day of training to get as far as you just did with this skill," he said.

"Really?" Jie asked.

"Yes. Really. If any other cultivator saw how much you've progressed in this short time... with the quality of your qi. Then, how quickly you learned the martial skill... they'd cough up a lung! And, when you complained it wasn't good enough, they'd puke up the other lung!" Ming said.

Jie giggled. "You're so silly," she said.

"The thing is, kiddo... I'm not. Even with me as your teacher, your progress is astounding. I think you were born for this world and the life of a cultivator," Ming said.

"But, it isn't enough, is it? You've given me so much... I don't want to fail you. I want you to see that everything you did, and all you sacrificed was worth it," she said.

"So that's what this is about?" Ming said.

He picked her up and set her on his lap. Or where his lap would be if he had one. As it was, she rested on his coiled up body.

"I'm not going to lie, our chances aren't great. They never were. The elders couldn't even stand against Fang Zhuyu's followers, and they were far more powerful than I was even when I was in the god rank. But, I'll tell you this. Out of everyone on your planet, I think you're the best one I could've picked," he said.

Jie smiled and hugged the dragon.

Ming froze and awkwardly patted the little girl's back.

"So you just do your best, and we'll hope for the best, okay? As long as they don't find us, we should have some time to get strong and stop them before they can free Fang Zhuyu," he said.

"Who is this Zhuyu guy anyway?" Jie asked, her face still buried in Ming's scales.

"Who's Fang Zhuyu? That's a big question," Ming said as he stroked her blue hair and smiled.

It was easy for him to forget that she was just a little girl.

Her cultivation speed, the way her mind worked, and the aura she gave off all felt like someone much older than she was.

He wasn't sure how to handle little girls, but then she wasn't an ordinary little girl...

"To explain who Fang Zhuyu is, I have to tell you more about my ancestor Yang Shandian, better known as The Great Lightning Dragon," Ming said.

Jie looked up at him with big, adorable young eyes that melted his heart.

He smiled.

It brought back fond memories of his childhood. Of sitting with his parents and hearing the stories of where he came from and how the world came to be.

Now it was his turn to do that for someone else.