Right now I don't feel anything else but shame
If this chapter sucks, please don't flame
...
I'll try to write something better for the next chapters.^^" Anyway, thank you for the reviews!
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Chapter 4: The End of the Guides
"AHHHHH!!!!!!!", the demons screamed in panic while running frenetically for the forest not even paying attention to what they were doing anymore. The guide ran furiously after them and the old witch still thought all this was very fun. She shook her head and turned to go away, disappearing in the shades.
Then the ex-guide realized she should kill them one by one. And obviously she would start with the youngest and defenseless ones. She immediately located Shendu and Xiao Fung, who were coincidentally running to out the forest. The woman smirked evilly in victory, now she could kill two demons with only one knife blow.
"AHHHH!!!!"!, Shendu screamed running from one side, getting out of the forest.
"BWAAAAHHH!!!!!!", Xiao came crying from the other side, running into the fire demons. They bumped into each other and fell to the ground. "Ow, my head...", Xiao murmured rubbing his forehead and Shendu rose to sit and glared at his older brother.
"You idiot, why don't you look where you're going???"
"HAA!", a voice shouted and they flinched, looking slowly at the direction where it came from. They froze as they saw the guide with a knife in her hand, ready to slash them. The duo barely had time to run away, she approached and grabbed Shendu by his neck.
"You will be the first to die!", she said aiming the knife at his face and the dragon tried to break free, but this woman was incredibly strong when angry. And because he was still a child, he couldn't breathe fire or use any type of magic to defend himself.
When the woman was about to kill him, she felt a pain in her left leg that made her scream and let him go. Shendu looked at her to see what was going on and saw Xiao Fung biting her leg.
"Hey, that's my leg! Get out, get out!", she demanded shaking her leg and hopping forward. Her screams attracted the rest of the demons' attention and they gathered where the trio was. As soon as they arrived, most of them widened their eyes, but Bai Tsa just smiled.
"Go, Xiao!", she cheered and then they noted the woman was unintentionally hopping toward a cliff.
"Xiao, look out!", Tso Lan alerted.
"Let her go now!", Tchang Zu ordered.
"You little pest! Get out!", the woman shouted and finally the little demon decided to let her go. He gave a slight jump back and landed softly on his feet. The guide, on the other side, lost her balance and fell in the cliff... three meters high, and ended up inside a barrel that was being taken by a cart pulled by a donkey. All the demons ran to the edge of the cliff and looked at down.
"Ooh!", the man in the cart said so that the donkey stopped and he looked at back. "I think it's going to rain...", the man murmured to himself and the woman suddenly stood up inside the barrel, drawing a deep breath and then sobbing. "Aiyaaa! What's that???"
"You- hic! idiots...!", the woman yelled swaying back and forth and leaned on the rim of the barrel.
"Hmm... Humans have a very good taste!", Xiao Fung said licking the blood in his lips and smiling pleased.
"Thank you, though I personally prefer pink styles...", she said visibly beside herself.
"She fell in a sake barrel...", Tso Lan said glancing at Tchang Zu, who smiled.
"Hey, you!", he yelled to the man in the cart, who glanced at his left and right before pointing at himself with a confused expression.
"Who? Me?"
Tchang nodded.
"Take that woman to far away as fast as possible!"
"No way.", the man replied shaking his head. "This woman dove in the sake. Now I have to return to the villa near here and get more."
"Come one, don't you know that now is very common in China to serve sake along with a woman? The men love it!", Bai Tsa said smiling slyly and the man's eye twinkled.
"Really? Why didn't you say that before?" He left as fast as he could with his old cart and Xiao made a bored face.
"Are you sure we cannot eat her?"
"Notch eater? hic! Who is- hic! notch eater??? Grrrr, you- hic! will pay, you- hic! damn demons!", the woman shouted completely drunk and the demons sighed in relieve while observing the cart disappearing in the horizon. They couldn't believe they had finally gotten rid of that crazy exterminator!
However, Tso Lan frowned in worry. Those guides were two of their parents' favorite slaves, mainly the man, who had already served the family for a long while. Their parents probably wouldn't be very happy when they knew the two were dead because of the demons. The moon demon turned to face his siblings and looked at Tchang Zu.
"Our parents will not like to know about what happened.", he stated with a warning tone and Tchang nodded.
"That's why we'll lie if we are asked about it."
"But lie to our parents? Is that really a good idea?", Dai Gui asked and Bai shrugged.
"What's the problem? They'll never find out the truth anyway."
"Yes, but-"
"Enough! Listen to me!", Tchang interrupted. "ALL of you have to promise you'll never tell anyone what really happened here! Clear???"
"But...", the earth demon tried again and his oldest brother's eyes glowed red.
"Shut up, you moron!!!", he shouted punching Dai Gui, who ended up losing his balance and falling on Shendu.
"Dai, are you ok?", Bai Tsa asked kneeling down, but he had passed out.
"Look what you did, Tchang... Now someone has to carry him.", Po Kong said.
"True, then carry him.", the thunder demon ordered and Po sighed rolling her eyes. She lifted her unconscious brother, freeing Shendu, who was sprawled in the ground.
"Hehe! Shendu looks like an okonomiyaki.", Xiao Fung remarked amused and Po stared at the dragon, widening her eyes and salivating.
"Hmm... Okonomiyaki...", she murmured.
"Not now, Po.", Bai said slapping her face in order to make her sister come around.
"Stop fooling around, we have to go back home!", Tchang reminded beginning to walk away and the demons followed him, except Shendu.
"Hey, could someone carry me too?", he asked weakly, making a huge effort to get up. The group stopped and turned to look at him.
"No!", the oldest one answered sharply.
"But I was just crushed by Dai Gui, how do you expect that I-"
"Manage it! If you can't walk, you can stay here."
"But what about our mother?", Po reminded and the others flinched.
"Well, then someone there carries him.", Tchang decided and they glanced at each other.
"Don't count on me.", Bai Tsa said quickly, crossing her arms and looking away.
"I'm already carrying Dai."
"Xiao, take your brother.", Tso ordered.
"What?! ME???"
"Yes, you." The group continued walking away and the wind demon tried to lift Shendu, but he was very heavy for little Xiao, who barely took three steps forward and lost his balance toward the ravine – the same before considered a cliff.
"Hurry! We won't wait for you, you know!", Bai yelled from a distance already and the two youngest demons could just groan in pain and mutter some curses.
The demons smiled pleased as they caught sight of their father's palace. When they were about to continue, Bai Tsa stopped and crossed her arms deep in thought. Her siblings also stopped and looked at her.
"What?", Po Kong asked.
"I don't know why, but I feel like we are forgetting something very important..."
Shendu frowned in annoyance and snorted.
"Ah, not now! Let's go back to the palace already! After everything we went through, tiring trips, boring guide, maniac exterminator, ghosts, freak witch-"
"It's that!", Bai Tsa interrupted.
"That what?"
"I knew we were forgetting something very important! That strange witch knows what we did to the guides and we forgot to get rid of her too!"
Shendu sighed in frustration and Tchang Zu's eyes glowed red.
"Grrr, and only now you remember??? Let's go back there right now and-"
"Go back to where?", a voice asked calmly behind them and they yelped in surprise almost having a heart attack.
"F-F-F-F-FATHER?!"
"Welcome back, my children!"
The demons bowed and forced themselves to smile. Only Tso Lan, as usual, looked calm. Looked...
"It's good to be back.", the oldest ones managed to say and their father – a black demons with some golden plots and stripes, with a dangerous appearance even when he was on a good mood, and who looked like a slight mix of all his children physical characteristics, though he resembled Dai Gui or even Tchang Zu the most – nodded.
"How good to know that, because you've just said you wanted to go back."
"Uh? Oh, no... We weren't going back there..."
"Then where were you going?"
His children gasped and gulped, then began to stutter at the same time trying to come up with a good excuse. Their father raised a brow and they were finally silent. Dai Gui was the first to speak.
"I have to say the truth... Actually-"
"Shut up!!!", Tchang shouted charging at his younger brother.
"What happened?", their father asked and Po shrugged.
"You know those two..."
He nodded and then remembered something.
"Where are the guides that traveled with you?"
This time the demons turned pale and out of words. Even Tchang Zu stopped attacking Dai Gui. Tso Lan coughed quietly and elbowed Po Kong, who flinched and tried to look calm as well. The she smiled nervously.
"They were captured."
"Captured? But the woman was an excellent exterminator!"
"She broke a nail!", Bai Tsa replied and the others nodded quickly.
"And the Hunos captured the two guides.", Xiao Fung added.
"And why didn't you help them?"
"We didn't know that. We were busy buying an artifact in a shop.", Shendu answered.
"A man came in and said that a couple had been taken by the Hunos.", Po Kong continued.
"Then we threw the artifact away and went after them, but the Hunos had already gone away. We tried to follow their traces and we ended up arriving at the Perdition Forest. We decided to investigate there and found nothing. Then we came back here and only now we remembered the forgotten artifact and the captured guides.", Tchang Zu finished and their father still took some while to process all that information.
"Damn Hunos!! Let's kill them all!!!!!!"
Some demons shook their heads, others covered their faces with one hand sighing heavily.
"Come on, children! Death to the Hunos!! Nobody takes away our family's slaves and goes unpunished!!!"
"WAAAAHHHHH!!!!! What did we do wrong????", the Hunos screamed desperately while being massacred by the demons. Suddenly, Po Kong stopped and was thoughtful. Some of her siblings also stopped and she turned to look at them.
"Wait... Don't the Hunos live at the north of China and the Perdition Forest is in the south?", she asked in confusion and they glanced at each other.
"Who cares? The important is that he believed us!"
To be continued...
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I really hope that "Huno" is the right word for that people who lived in Siberia... You know, those who attacked China in "Mulan"! XDD
Culture Note: Okonomiyaki is a type of Japanese pancake.