A/N: I decided one update a week was not up to my normal standard, so I went and wrote this XD.
Saras was exhausted by the time he got back to Kenji's Place. He flopped onto his bed and let sleep take him. Danzaburo sighed. The kit had been kidnapped and locked up, talked face to face with a crime lord, and the second he got 'home' all he could do was sleep. That stunk of low work ethic. He left something under the fox's bed andleft the room and let the fox sleep.
Neither were aware that Saras was to have a third visitor that day.
Lao Pi, aka Master Golden Gibbon the inn carefully. He was a middle-aged gibbon, bent over a cane, wearing old grey robes that were both too big and too decrepit to fit him properly. The gibbon's fur was a dirty brown, save for the usual white and black facial mask his species possessed. He chuckled to himself. Danzaburo has lost his touch, he was much easier to trace this time. Silently he entered Kenji's place, walking past a rat who made his way out.
The world of Saras'' dreams were white, snow covered the land, but cold was not a factor, he was playing with his knives, throwing them into an old oak tree, he felt a paw on his shoulder and turned around. He saw the old bat maid that had been the mother he had never known. "Mama"? Then a fist crashed into his nose and he was awake, something was standing over him, the moonlight of the window revealed a hunched, grey figure, holding him down with a cane, the figure's arm raised to land another blow if needed.
"You're coming with me", the figure said in a gruff voice.
"No thanks", Saras teleported in a flash of green, finding himself on the other side of the room, where he kept his arsenal. He drew his pair of spiked daggers and turned back to the figure. From this new angle Saras could see that his opponent was a gibbon, with dirty brown fur and grey robes, armed with a cane. An old man tried to murder me in my sleep. "Listen grandpa, I think you've had one too many drinks"-
Lao Pi cut straight through the conversation, with a lightning fast jab to the vulpine's belly, before swinging his cane around to deal a stinging blow upon Saras' ears. "Humph, I expected more from you"!
"Is that a fact", Saras retorted, before throwing one of his daggers. It would have taken Lao Pi in the head, had the gibbon not sent it spiralling into the wall with his cane. Saras jabbed with his other dagger, Lao Pi dodged and grabbed him by the forearm, before spinning in a circle and throwing the shapeshifter onto his bed, the impact shattering it's legs, the vulpine's dagger lay on the floor, Golden Gibbon kicked it away, and waited for Saras to get to his feet before continuing to press his offensive. Saras ducked under the cane, but was unable to avoid the palm that slammed into his chest and knocked him back into the wall. Lao Pi pressed the cane around his throat. "I'd recommend you go quietly"!
"Make me"! Saras shifted in a puff of green, his fur turned to scales and his arms morphed into wings as he became a dragon, albeit a small one. Flames burst from his mouth, but Lao Pi spun away from them, before whacking the top of the shapeshifter's head with his cane.
Saras spun around, his sharp tail tip flew into the primate's face, but Golden Gibbon caught it in his paw, before dropping his foot upon the shapeshifter's back, he regretted this when a puff of green later he held onto no tail and his foot was imbedded in a pile of hedgehog spines. Pressing his first advantage Saras spun around, forcing the gibbon to fall onto his side, but thankfully dislodging the primate's foot from the hedgehog's back. Saras transformed again, this time into a mole, and leapt at the ape's face, slamming his palms into the gibbon's ears. Lao Pi pushed away the offending mammal with his cane, before catching the shapeshifter's arm in one paw and spinning it behind his back, he was about to land the finishing blow when he realized how easy it had actually been. He had spent years tracking the Spy of a Thousand Scents, surely he should put up much more of a fight than this.
Saras also had a revelation. The only reason someone would be after him would be to get to Tin Zu, right ?
"I know who you're after. You didn't hear it from me, but he's up on the cliffs, old house quite plain", he winced as Lao Pi's grip tightened around his wrist and pushed it further up."That's all I'm saying". Lao Pi paused. The fox was clearly not Danzaburo, a skilled liar could come up with a better bluff than that. The fox had no reason to tell him the truth, but no reason to lie either, he could check out this place on the cliffs, and if the fox was lying well, it wouldn't be too hard to find him again. The gibbon released him, let him drop to the floor and left.
Saras' head spun dizzily. He figured that if he had been less tired he would have stood a better chance against the gibbon, but then again, for an old man, his strength had been second to none. He rolled onto his belly in an effort to get up. That's when he found the note, someone had left,lying unharmed in front of his nose..
'If you want your bat back you will meet me tomorrow at midnight on top of the Tower of Sacred Flame. Alone'.
Midnight, why is it always midnight, at that point, exhaustion snatched at him and he fell back into his world of white dream.
Footnotes: Lao Pi belongs to Berserker88, essentially he's Danzaburo's hunter.
How many of you noticed that Danzaburo and Lao Pi walked past each other in this chapter ?
I hope you enjoyed and Update soon.