The morning came quicker than I had expected it to. Either that or we had been up late searching for a spot to sleep. I did what I could to rub whatever sleep in my eyes remained and gave a yawn, before turning round to face Viper. She wasn't there. I slowly got up and looked round to see if I could spot her as I doubted that she had gone far. Her sleeping mat had been neatly folded, placed and strapped onto her rice bag.
I let out an annoyed yawn. Figures that she's always up and about, but would it ever hurt to tell me where it was she went? Leave a note or something? Still... Better stop complaining and find her.
Not that I had to look too far. I could hear humming from behind me, coming from the waterfall. She must have been collecting water for the remainder of the journey to Jhinzao. I turned round, about ready to help, only to do a complete 360 as well as now blushing badly.
Yeah... turns out she wasn't collecting water as much as she was bathing in it... Within the quick sneak peak that I had saw her, she was standing under the water fall washing herself with a bar of soap she must have brought from the Valley of Peace at some point. Of course, knowing her, it's got some kind of fruity perfume type smell. Still, I could not for the life of me stop thinking about that image. I mean, I know she never wears clothes to begin with, just... well, pretty much how anyone would feel after accidentally seeing their girlfriend in the shower. Kinda wish I could help her out and help wash her body for her a- NO! Bad snake! What the hell me? When did I turn into Mantis?!
I quickly shook my head and banished all previous thoughts from my mind. Maybe I should just distract myself with some breakfast. Speaking of which, what do we still have?
I slithered over to my own bag and took out the first thing that I could grab. An apple. I wasted no time biting into it at once and letting the flavor of the fruit wake me up as I tried to chew it. At least it was enough to get a small smile on my face. Only one small problem presented itself however after I had finished. What to do with the apple core. I doubted that I could just chuck it away into the wilderness for multiple reasons, which meant that I needed to take it with me until I could dispose of it properly.
I just sighed as my mood soured again before wrapping the apple core in some white cloth and then putting it in a small compartment on the side of the rice bag.
"Good to see you're up early for once".
I turned round to see that Viper had rejoined me, smiling as she held a towel with her tail.
"Ha ha ha. How funny". I mocked playfully before turning back around. "So, where were you when I woke up"? I asked, pretending to be oblivious to what I had just seen. Last thing I needed was for her to think of me as some kind of perv.
"I think you know all too well".
What?! How the heck did she notice, I only turned to face her for like a second! Oh I'm in trouble now aren't I? I quickly turned back round, ready to apologise over and over again.
"I uh... erhm... ehe... sorry"...?
Yeah, smooth talking me...
"Don't worry". Viper spoke with an all too calm face. "I know you didn't mean too". She assured me. All I could do was just look away in pure embarrassment, mostly for making an idiot out of myself. However, that did not last as Viper checked her own bag and brought out a map, covering the area from the Jade palace to Jinzhou.
Both she and I went over it in silence, checking for any alternative routes we might need to take, due to bad weather or so forth. What caught my eye however was the large buffalo head symbol which seemed to be about forty miles from our current position... more or less...
"Hey Viper, what is this meant to be"? I had to ask at once. Viper looked to where on the map I was pointing to before frowning.
"That would be where the warrior king Temutai resides". She responded with a bitter tone. Clearly this temutata guy, or whatever his name is, was not a very popular person of the Jade palace.
"So... I take it we're avoiding that place then"...?
Viper nodded.
"Alright then"...
A few minutes of packing our stuff up, and we were back off on the road again.
...
Hey guys, whatsup? Sorry for how long this chapter took, but like I mentioned, uni is getting tougher and I'm having less time to write. This chapter alone was kind of written on a whim, but hopefully it'll prevail.
Also, I have some good news. First off, we reached over 50'000 views for this story a week ago! And even better, it is now officially a year since I begun writing this story! I am stunned at how far this fanfic has gotten, and I want to say thank you to everyone for helping me get so far! Well done everyone ^u^
Finally, as mentioned some time ago, I had planned on writing one of two new stories. One of Yinshen's past and the other of Fu Xi returning to the Valley of Peace. Surprisingly, both stories got the same amount of votes (4 each) And so, as I said, I will write both when I can. I'll start with the Fu Xi one first since it's the shortest, but I dunno when I'll be able to begin writing it. Probably during the Easter holidays ^^ But until then, thanks for reading. Cheerio!