Getting Home

Dorje transformed and jumped inside, several precise kicks and Pema was free, but he did not go for the rings, magical connection or not, he preferred Pema alive and well. Dorje jumped on the rooftop, called for his power and created a portal.

"Wait, go down there, you can still get the rings." Pema whispered..

"No, they are just rings, they are not worth of risking your life." He replied and shook his head.

"But they are magical, they bound us together, I want them because of you." She whispered. They did not profess their love for each other, especially not in a romantic way, they were simply thrown together by fate.

"It is not the rings that bind us, jewels don't do that, it is our love that keeps us together." He replied and held her gently overwhelmed by what she just said, it wasn't just because they got to fight the same fights, she wanted to be with him.

In the meantime, a European couple got to the roof by a hatch door determined th chase away the two monks who kept crossing their paths. Dorje took Pema and jumped through the portal. Oliver and Therese followed through.

The sun did not set yet when they arrived on the high plains, the portal lead them to the valley just below the temple. The familiar surroundings made them both feel relieved and somehow lighter, they were back home.

"I did not dare to take us all the way to the cave." Dorje spoke, still transformed. "I don't have too much experiences using this power and I would rather walk a little." He admitted while he observed the surroundings with a huge smile on his face.

"They followed us." Pema warned and Dorje had to grab her and run away in quick and long jumps because Oliver and Therese were going after them. "What else do they want from us." Pema wondered while she looked back at the other couple.

"What kind of a devil are you?" Therese screamed at Dorje who was transformed in a horse themed hero and leaped away from them in long jumps from one rock to another as he wanted to reach the safety of the cliffs.

"I don't know, but I'm getting it." Oliver ran for an attack, he had his sabre as well as his pistol and he knew that Therese had a small dagger and a ladies pistol. The cold weapons were probably more useful and he was far more skilful with the sabre, at least in practise.

"Why are we going after them, again?" Therese asked while she stumbled over rocks in the shoes that were meant for fine salons. She would have been much faster if she wasn't dressed up for dinner.

"They would have never left us alone, I had to chase them away." Oliver muttered between breaths while he ran and pulled Therese along. "but now I want to know who is that monster who took that monk away ans what kind of power is that."

"Don't you think we chased them away sufficiently." Therese noted and motioned with her hand around them. She stopped and turned around more and more amazed by the place they just stumbled into. "Where are we?" She added in awe.

"I don't know." Oliver admitted while he admired the high mountain peaks he could see in the distance. "Definitely not the harbour city we just left." He looked around once more. "We have to fetch those two to bring us back. We have a dinner to go to."

Dorje knew his transformation was going to wear off, he had little time left, so he grabbed Pema and ran towards the cliff where he climbed as far as he could and found a safe place to detransform without being seen from the valley.

Pema had a few scratched and bruises and Dorje insisted to carry her up on the path all the way to the temple. They entered and greeted their fellow monks, they talked about what happened and dressed her wounds.

"You are right, you do not need the rings, you have that special connection even without the rings on your hands." Tenzin spoke gently. "We should let them keep the rings, they would need them on their way back, because we are not giving them the ride that took them here."

There was a glint of mischief in the old man's eyes while he stroked his beard and explained his logic. He listened to the tale of opium and the evils that people committed just to get their next fix. The old man had seen enough not to be particularly surprised.

"Take this tea, it shall clean you of any residual effects. You will take this tea each day until you start to feel better, but you can continue in the future." Dolma advised quietly. "You were too young and too inexperienced for such a mission."

"We trained you in the ways of magic, but you have no training in the ways of men." Tenzin added. "You do not know how to deal with liars and cheaters, with people who would steal or kill, who would trick you any way they know just to have what they want."

Two young monks had their dinner with the rest of the group that lived in the temple and then they were sent off to rest. The security of the temple and the support they received from the elders made them feel better more than any herbal remedy could.

Later that evening, a European couple asked for shelter in the temple. They were ready to pay silver and gold for shelter and a warm meal. They noticed how the monks were all wearing the same robes as the two they took the rings from so they hid the rings.

They tried to ask questions, but the other monks did not understand them, or pretended not to, so they never learned anything about the way they reached that high plain and the temple. Monks already knew their story from Dorje and Pema and were not asking for more.

The next day, Olver and Therese realized that the only way to reach back to the harbour they started from was by land and were sent off to find local nomads and purchase more food and perhaps a horse or a yak from them to continue their journey.

"It will take them at least a month to reach that city again, they can board a ship once they reach the river." Tenzin explained to the two young monks. "But it will be a long and treacherous journey and it should teach them a lesson.

"We should tell the world about this place and what happened to us. Just imagine what a sensation that would be." Therese spoke while they walked over the high plains and looked for a path that would take them to the large city about a week of walk away.

"We shall do no such thing." Oliver retorted. He fiddled with his ring and stared at his new wife. "Nobody would believe us and if we insist that it is true, they would commit us as crazy." He sighed. She nodded that she understood. "This is going to be our little secret."

That evening they sought and found shelter with a family of nomads. In exchange for a few coins they got soup and blankets. The next morning they traded some more and got food, shoes, clothes and a horse to carry their stuff over the plains.

Oliver was worried, the funds they had were scarce, both of them had a bag ov coins aimed to sustain their life in the harbour city, but now they had to purchase many things including their means of transport, and people were reluctant to trade necessities they needed themselves.

Therese insisted on writing everything down in a notebook she always carried with her, she was determined to sketch the scenery and note each place they went through, she tried to draw it like a map to the lost treasure, or in this case, a temple hidden in the mountains.

Oliver offered his services as a salesman to purchase things from the nomads he could sell at a market in the larger city where they were going to. It was difficult to get the trust of the people since they barely spoke a few common words, but the silver coins did their job.

By the time they reached the big city, called Lhasa, their faces got dark from walking in the sun on the high plains, their European clothes and shoes were long wrapped up in a parcel and replaced by local, warmer clothing.

They hoped to purchase a spot in a carriage to travel further, they imagined their hardships were now over and after seven days of walking and seven nights of sleeping on hard rocks while wrapped in warm and fuzzy wool blankets they reached civilisation.

But this was something rather different than the civilisation they were used to. It was a large city, but there were no trains leading to it, there was no wide river that would allow ships to travel and they could hardly find any means of transport than the one they used to get there.

The trading they did on the market had more value in the lessons they learned than in the money they earned. Oliver made sure to note all the particularities and gestures used while negotiating a trade in hope that this would earn him back a position in a trading company.

Oliver clutched onto his bag that held the documents and reviewed his plans from time to time. The newly gained knowledge encouraged him to develop it further as well as propose to branch into Tibet that had yet to see the power of his trading company.

Therese kept questioning him about everything he could remember on the two monks and what happened with them. She insisted there was some magic involved, that those flying mice they saw might be real and that the monsters they saw were somehow related to the two monks.

He never encouraged his wife to dwell on those beings, in his opinion, they should have focused on returning back to the civilisation, back to the harbour they arrived from and the lives they used to live.

"I can't go back to the life I used to live and I do not want to." Therese stated. "Besides, I'm a married woman now." She smiled. "I have decided to have a new life with you." She reminded him. "For whatever that is."

"But I don't own a house for you to live in while I travel for work." Oliver replied sheepishly. He really did not think this through before he proposed to the girl and she was not asking too many questions about his wealth since she wished to get away from her father.

"I do not want to be stuck in a house my whole life and bear children like my mother while my father travelled and returned home only to arrange a marriage for one of his daughters because it was a part of a business deal." Therese pouted.

"Isn't that what any woman wants when she gets married?" Oliver frowned. The idea that did not need to have a house for his family to stay permanently looked appealing to the young man, especially since he had no means to sustain one.

"Not the one you married." She teased. He smiled at her gently. Then they wrote a letter, together, to his company, and proposed to set a business outpost somewhere there, deep in the continent, and proposed him as the one to lead it.

They sent the letter through means that travelled sligltly faster than them. They purchased one more horse and a small tent and travelled lightly but quickly over the high plains until they found a river where they could finally board a ship.

But Therese never forgot about the magic and wrote in details about the beauty of the landscapes there and she sketched a few in her diary. She might have been even slightly disappointed that they stopped the trekking and now she was able to change back to her European clothes.

They were both spoiled brats used to the comforts of homes that were not particularly rich, but sufficiently wealthy. But they were also young and adventurous so they got used to their new life of travel rather quickly.

If only they had more money in coins, life would have been easier, they could have afforded more, a more comfortable bed, their own heated room, a carriage or a servant, but each time Therese even thought of complaining, she remembered what was the alternative.

Oliver was focused on learning the trade on the way and made sure to note each and every oddity he encountered, including a few that mentioned magic and supernatural beings, not that he intended to admit that he now believed that, it was just a story he heard from the locals if anyone asked.

Months have passed and the two young adults returned to the same harbour city. They found her father there, at the same place where they left him, the man still did not conclude a single trading deal and spent the nights consuming the same stuff he was selling.