As we laughed, Wai Mi then noticed the Turtle Ball in my hand, and said, "If you are gathering the last two Turtle Balls, you must be going to see the Dragon Prince or heading to Hamakala Temple."
Monkey King suddenly stopped laughing to look at Wai Mi. "Hamakala Temple? That's where the last one is? No thanks!"
Wai Mi sighed as he turned to face the rest of us. "Young pirates, you could not have chosen a less reliable guide than Monkey King. His heart is good, but it is a wild heart. Go and speak to the Dragon Prince. You have gathered three Turtle Balls already, and I suspect he will surrender his gladly. The last I heard, he dwells within the Temple of the West Wind. You can reach it through the Paths of Penance."
"Thank you, Wai Mi." I said, bowing slightly. The others followed me back to the Santo Oro, where we began sailing west for the Paths of Penance, and an hour later, we dropped anchor at the pier, which led up to the icy paths of purgatory, or so it seemed.
Bundled up in my old short blue jacket, since I had given my coat to a villager of the Ashen Roads, I joined the others in walking up the snowy paths to the Temple of the West Wind. As we walked, my mind drifted off, and I began reminiscing.
My mother was the responsible parent in our family, and she taught me many of the things a member of the landed gentry should know, like art and literature. I can still remember her soft smile and sparkling blue eyes as she told me bedtime stories, where virtues of a rich gentleman went hand in hand with the adventures of a pirate captain.
"And as the pirate swung his cutlass, the captain met it with his sword in a clash of steel, determined to win the heart of his lady." I heard Mom's voice in the distance, and I heard a five-year old me pipe up, "And the captain beat the pirate by stabbing his - Stop, that tickles!
As the giggles faded away, I thought about my father, who was the fun parent. Ever since I could hold one, he had taught me how to use a sword, and we used to go skylarking up in the rigging of the Providence whenever it was moored, playing tag a hundred feet up in the air.
He even took me to a brothel once on Skull Island, back when it was still a colony of Marleybone. I can still remember a five-year old me sipping juice from a straw on a comfy couch, surrounded by courtesans while my father went to do his business. Mother was not pleased.
It took a moment to realize that the crunching sounds of the others' footsteps in the snow had stopped, and I looked up to see that we faced a Dragon with white scales, dressed in black robes with red hems. "Greetings, strange voyagers. A 'hello' to Monkey King, your companion. What brings you to the Temple of the West Wind?"