Chapter 4 : Frenemies

Monica

The rage which had enveloped me a moment before, washed away immediately when the sound of my sister's plea for the situation to end rang through my ears. For a moment, the lightning in my open palm continued to crackle and spark as I slowly turned to look at Monique to only be faced with guilt.

Monique lay helpless on the cobblestone, one of her hands held tenderly against her neck and the other was bleeding heavily from a gash on her wrist. Tears were rolling down her cheeks and her crimson red eyes were staring at me in horror. Her pony tail had fallen apart and her long, raven black hair was strewn everywhere and disheveled.

I realized that my breathing had turned ragged, my heart rate was through the roof and I was drenched in sweat and blood. A warm stream of liquid on my lower face which told me that my nose was broken and I could feel the bruises forming. My Luna dress was smothered with dirt, dust, as well as glove on my outstretched hand had slightly burned from the lightning. Glancing down, I realized that my braid had unraveled leaving my messy hair to hang free. A streak of pain shot through my head a memory flashed before me:

The wind and sand as well as scorching heat. The deafening screeches and roars. And seeing my sister helpless and bleeding on the ground in tears.

In front of me was the helpless body of a person who attacked my sister: dirty, scratched, and covered in blood. A little ways away was his brother in a similar state, laying on the ground motionless, leaving me the only one actually standing.

"Just stop..." She whispered again and placed her forehead against the ground. Monique's body was visibly shaking as tears began to wrack her body.

Letting out a shaky breath, I glanced back down at the man in front of me who was staring back up at me with blood red eyes and a snarl on his face. His dark skin glistened with sweat and blood as he snarled at me menacingly, or at least tried. Had he not looked like a scared baby lycan pup who had been on it's first failed hunt, he maybe would have scared me. After seeing his poor skills with a weapon and average strength, nothing about him seemed intimidating in the current moment. The only thing that surprised me was his sudden burst of speed which caught me in the first place, but he couldn't use that speed when he was on the ground bleeding profusely. With a sigh, I used my knee to push myself to my feet and stood up straight and assessed the situation in front of me and shook my head. It was a borderline homicide scene with a person in black and a bloody dagger standing over three collapsed bodies. Pulling my mask back over my lower face, I closed my eyes and sighed.

"What is going on here?" A deep voice asked as the light which was illuminating the alley was covered by the silhouette of a very large man. Squinting my eyes, I realized I was looking at the aged face of Captain Dochun of the Bamboo Guard. I was immediately at attention and placing my right fist into my left palm in front of me, I bowed respectively.

But I refused to speak to him. No matter how high a rank he was, I vowed to never speak a word outside of Heaven's Reach and I had just broken that vow multiple times in the past few minutes.

"I will ask again," He said, "What is going on here? And who are you?"

Standing up straight, I pulled my mask down and outstretching my hand, I summoned a small purple flower which glowed in the dim lighting with a magical energy. Bringing my palm up to my face, I took a deep breath and blew the flower all the way over to him, the magical lotus gracefully floated over to the Captain and he caught it with care. Staring at it after a moment, he nodded and the lotus disappeared into an explosion of purple sparkles. I put my mask back over my mouth.

"What is another student of Hongmoon doing here?" He asked and shook his head quickly, "Wait hold on! Answer my question!"

Shaking my head, I took a ragged breath and motioned towards my sister who had pushed herself to her knees and was staring at the Captain.

"You!" He said loudly, "Where have you been? I asked for you to wait around for thirty minutes! Not two hours!"

Monique flinched away from him.

Squinting my eyes, I took a step towards him and placed my right hand on the handle of my dagger, warning the Captain to not do anything to scare my sister and thankfully he understood the message. Even from where I was standing, I could see the trace of fear in his dark eyes as he realized what it would mean to anger a student of Hongmoon alone, especially an assassin. He stood silent for about a minute before clearing his throat, "Well would you like to answer my question, Assassin?"

"I was attacked!"

Both the Captain and myself looked down at Monique who had finally spoken up, "I was attacked by those two and the assassin saved me!" She pointed towards the brothers who had finally begun to stir and get up. Thankfully, Monique had remembered to never address me by my name whenever we were away from our home and had stuck to calling me, "Assassin".

Looking past us, Dochun looked at the brothers, and immediately his eyes shot wide open, before he rushed down the alley, past Monique then up to me. A little too quickly for my liking.

"Simye?" He bent down and shook the man's shoulders, "Are you alright?"

Simye coughed and smiled weakly back up at the Captain, "I could be better."

"What about you, Sorye?"

"Kinda bleeding to death! What the hell do you think!?" Sorye yelled back in pain.

"What were you two thinking?" Dochun asked as he started to infuse his chi into Simye, who was already looking much better from the treatment. After a few moments, Dochun left Simye's side when he was able to properly hold himself up, and moved to Sorye who then received similar treatment.

"Well, Sorye here thought it was a good idea to mug that girl on the ground." Simye said lowly as he sat up against a wall, "I told him to stop, he didn't, then we were attacked by that bitch!"

Squinting my eyes, I reached behind me and extracted a shuriken from a small pouch at my waist and was prepared to throw it, but he shied away.

"Well Simye. Sorye." Dochun began as he sat Sorye up and placed him against the wall next to his brother, "I have good and bad news to tell you two."

"Am I dying?" Sorye asked.

"Do I get a change of clothes?" Simye asked right after.

Shaking his head, Dochun began to walk over to Monique. Holding out my hand, I shot him an icy glare which made him stop as I moved over to my sister.

Nobody was going to touch her.

Except me.

"Well..." The Captain wearily glanced at me, "Meet your new family."

All at once, our jaws dropped as we stared wide eyed at the Captain who had begun to laugh uproariously.

"Y-you can't be serious." Monique gasped as I infused her with my own chi, healing her much more than the brothers against the wall.

"Yeah I agree with the harlot ," Simye added, "There's no way that this is," He glared at the two of us, "The students of Hongmoon."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Monique demanded. I quieted my sister with a quick glare before turning back at the Captain. We both locked eyes and for a moment, it felt as if time stopped as we seemed to share a silent conversation between ourselves. Judging by his slight facial shifts as my stares changed, he seemed to understand that I wasn't very comfortable with knowing that my sister's attackers were going to be living with us from now on.

He nodded, "I understand it will be awkward, but the Master's wishes are final." Looking between the brothers and sisters, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "You all should get going back to Heavens Reach."

"Now hold on just a minute-" Monique tried to interject, but I silenced her once more.

I understood that she of all people had the complete right to be against what was happening and I planned on talking to her when we were back home, but until then, we needed to do as the master asked. I felt sympathy fill me when I saw how scared my sister looked and I took a deep breath, before exhaling it shakily.

Turning back to the Captain, I bowed respectively and began to walk over the two brothers, one foot after the other in a calm manner. A small smirk grew under my mask when I saw them squirm uncomfortably from where they sat as I approached. Stooping down, I held up my hands trying to show I came in peace.

Simye glared at me while Sorye looked away.

Shaking my head, I slowly reached out with my hands open. I sighed again when neither of them took up my offer.

"If you want to go to your new home, you'll have to hold on to her hands." Monique said behind me.

After a moment, the two brothers cautiously reached out and took hold of a hand each. Closing my eyes, I began to feel my body grow a million times lighter and the sudden gust of wind around me as well as the satisfying screams of the two men clutching tightly to my hands told me that we'd be arriving at Heaven's Reach shortly.