Chapter 20

The hunt for the stones slowed down now that they had run through the supplies they had brought with them. They were in no danger of starving; they were all country children who knew how to forage food in the forests around their homes.

They dedicated a few hours every morning to finding food for the day to follow. Tan preferred to contribute the eggs and fish, as he liked fishing and could easily locate and raid the nests of the birds. The other three children contributed berries and other fruits, as well as the mushrooms that grew in the forest which they knew to be safe to eat. They set traps for rabbits and wildfowl and checked them every day.

The time spent foraging cut into their efforts, but they still had plenty of time every day to expand their search. On the eighth day of their adventure, they found another stone at the bottom of a pond. The smoke ritual pointed right towards the center of the pond, and after some discussion Tan, who with his ability to easily enter the sublime state of clarity remained their best searcher, stripped down and searched the bottom of the pond until he found their objective.

That brought them up to three of the five stones they had set out to find, and five days left before they were expected to return home whether they were successful or not.

On the eleventh day, they found another stone in the roots of a massively tall tree. They didn’t have to dig for it, but rather Pao used his earth magic to draw the stone out. He felt a little guilty, it was clear that the tree had been benefiting from the spirituality radiating out from the stone, which is how it had grown to its current size. However, he justified the decision to remove it on the fact that the tree had had thirty years of such an advantage and didn’t really need it any longer.

It was on the thirteenth and final day of their adventure that they encountered another adversary. Early in the morning, while Tan was fishing and the other children were checking their traps and snares, Ko returned to their camp first to find a monkey rummaging through their belongings. She cried out and attacked the monkey using her magic, dumping out a waterskin, turning the water into ice shards and launching them at the beast.

The monkey screeched and launched itself into the trees with preternatural ease. It scampered away through the tree tops, a stone pouch dangling from its neck.

It had stolen the first stone that they had found, the one with the wind spirit. And, unfortunately, they couldn’t simpy use the smoke ritual to track it down, as it remained in the pouch that blocked it from that ritual.

Instead, the children were forced to spread out and spend the day searching for a monkey in the forest. However, with the mischevious beast still around, they realized that they couldn’t simply continue to leave ther camp undefended, so they drew lots and Won was selected to remain behind and protect from another theft.

They spread out and spent hours searching. Pao quickly found a monkey, but not the monkey that had robbed them, and the monkey that he’d captured was very annoyed at being captured, tied up, and dragged back to camp. When he tracked down Ko and she informed him that he hadn’t captured the culrpit after all, he reluctantly released the monkey, which bit him before running off. Fortunately his skin was too thick for the regular animal to pierce his skin with its teeth.

Tan, with his ability to soar above the treetops, proved to have the most luck in searching for the thief, and late in the afternoon he found the beast’s nest in the treetops.

Along with more spiritual stones, he realized when he dropped into the top of the tree and looked around. The one inside the sealing satchel was there, as were four others that he recognized the nature of immediately when he entered the sublime state of clarity.

Grinning at the haul, he scooped them all into a bag and flew off.

Only to be attacked in the air by a flying monkey.

He cursed, using words that he had heard his father using and been told by his mother never to repeat. Of course the beast that collected spirit stones would be a spirit beast.

“You robbed us first!” he shouted at the monkey as they fought, exchanging blows in the air as they flew past each other. “Turnabout is fair play!”

The monkey screeched at him in anger, lashing at him with clawed hands and poorly formed spiritual techniques.

Tan proved to be much stronger, however. The beast was perhaps at the fourth stage of the initiate’s realm, while Tan was in the seventh stage. The boy, however, had only ever fought other children, where the monkey was a monkey and fought like one who could fly.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

The fight lasted for twenty minutes, with the two combatants exchanging blows. Tan got multiple scratches on his arms and face, but none that tore through his clothes, which had been provided for him by his loving and powerful parents and gave far more protection than he was aware of.

“If you don’t leave me alone, I am going to get serious!” Tan threatened the monkey once he was tired of the fight and wanted it to be over.

The monkey screeched at him in return.

So Tan tapped into his power, pulling more and more Qi from the air until his strength reached the height of the seventh stage of the initiate’s realm. He hadn’t really been taking the fight seriously before, and had been a little embarassed to be fighting the animal in the first place. But now that he was serious he would --

The monkey flew away, leaving him alone.

Tan stared after it for a moment, then shrugged. He flew back to the camp, showing his haul to Won. The other boy celebrated with him, preparing a feast for the other children to enjoy when they returned from the search with the majority their scavenged food.

They set a watch for the first time that night to keep the monkey from coming back, and they set off home first thing in the morning.

They noticed that they were being followed midway through their journey. The monkey was pursuing them, presumably to recover the stolen stones, but it was easily chased off. It remained afraid of Tan, and all he had to do was fly in its direction and it took off through the trees.

Only to come back a second, third, and fourth time.

While Tan could have easily outrun it, the other children were not as fast as him, and so he remained behind to protect them. There were no direct conflicts with the monkey, it just followed them from a distance, so there wasn’t anything that they could really do about it. Except maybe tell the Shens about the monkey when they returned and see if the adult cultivators could chase it off.

So they decided that was what they would do.

They had wandered even further from the farm during their search for the stones, and so it took them the entire day to return, arriving late in the evening just before dark. Fortunately, the life-saving charms that the children had given them also alerted the adults to their location, as well as giving them general information about their wellbeing, so the adults had a meal and a bath ready for the children, who promptly took part in both activities before falling asleep in their bed.

They of course told the Shens about the monkey as soon as they could, and were assured that it wouldn’t be a problem. After the children had fallen asleep, the adults turned to each other.

“Do you want to deal with our uninvited guest or shall I?” Tren asked his wife.

“If you deal with it the poor thing will be traumatized,” Wensho answered. “I will have a little talk with it and --”

At that moment the wards on the spirit stone shed went off, and the couple exchanged amused glances.

“Aside from providing our son with a learning experience it hasn’t caused any harm,” Wensho continued. “I’ll have a talk with it. Maybe even make it an offering. Having a spirit monkey around watching over the farm wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen to us.”

“You’re right,” Tren agreed. He took a sip of the wine and went to the bedroom to await his wife.

Wensho closed her eyes and called upon her power, quickly tracking the blood inside the spirit monkey to its source. She surged through the distance between them and caught the monkey by its tale before it even realized that it was there. It had been washing itself in the stream, trying to get the red curse off of its hands and other parts.

“Hello there, little thief,” she said the the monkey, willing it to understand her. “You have been caught red handed twice now. What ever are we to do with you?”

The monkey screached at her, but she clamped it down with a surge of her power. It tried to flee, but her grip on its tail was strong.

“I’m not planning on hurting you, little one. I’m actually grateful for the lessons that you gave my son in vigilance and combat,” she assured the monkey.

It seemed to calm down when it realized that it wasn’t about to be smote by a power so beyond itself that it defied its comprehension. It began making hooting noises filled with Qi and intent, and she understood it.

“You stole from them first, did you not?” she asked.

It hooted again, and she nodded.

“Tough. If they had found your stash and raided it first, then yes I would consider returning your prizes to you. But you stole from them first, and you tried to raid our own stash when you found it instead of negotiating with us. Stealing from thieves is not a crime in my book,” she told the monkey, which sagged its shoulders comically.

“However, if you’re willing to earn them back with honest labor,” she told the monkey, “We might negotiate a fee for your protection of my children and our farm. What would you say to this?”

The monkey was silent for a moment, then made a few hooting noises. She smiled and pulled a small spirit stone with a weak air spirit inside it and handed it to the monkey. “This is a down payment. We will pay you one spirit stone for every two years that you watch over us. Do you accept?”

The monkey hooted briefly, then flew into the trees in the distance.

The woman smiled.

Three spirit beasts looking over one little farm. However did her family get so lucky?