Wandering Eternal: Brothers of War

Time is an Old Friend

Zee and Fa both sprint toward the village with Zee moving as if he were gliding across the ground outrunning Fa like she were standing still. Fa watches him speed forward in awe smiling that she is able to fight with him again. When he arrives at the center of the village he notices there are five men holding spears guarding a carriage that is rocking back and forth with muffled screams coming from it. Shu Ling is laying on the ground in front of the clothes store. He stops to check on Shu making sure she is alive when Fa catches up quickly behind him. He looks up at the men leering with a fiery fierce gaze. He leaps straight forward from kneeling on the ground straight at the carriage bursting through one door and out the other with one hand covered in blood and the other holding Shu’s daughter.

“Are you okay?” He asks her in hushed voice.

“Yes you got here just before he was able to do anything to me,” she cries hugging him. He sets her down and turns around to the sound of wood and steel clashing. He peers through the hole in the carriage and sees Fa fending off two of the men without much effort. He looks at the other two and they both lunge forward at him with their spears directed at his head. He stands there motionless as they near him and start stabbing wildly at him. They both stop after seeing their spears go right through him as if he were an apparition.

“What the hell?”

“Is he even real?” They both shudder turning white. Zee quickly puts two fingers out jabbing them both in the temple with absurd speed. They both fall down incapacitated. Then Zee runs over to Fa and stops both of the men’s spears by grabbing the blades with two fingers.

“Grab your men and leave, if your leader is the one in the carriage then you have a grave to dig. So I would get moving before the body starts to decay,” he says sternly pushing their spears back making the men stagger backwards a few steps. They look at each other and then back at him. They both lunge forward stabbing their spears at him and he catches them both with his hands and snaps both spears in half with a quick twist of his wrists, “if your goal is to die today then please keep fighting but I’m giving you the gift of your life by letting you leave. Do so now and hurry before I change my mind, because you are starting to piss me off,” they turn to each other both white as ghosts and then they run back to the carriage leaving their men on the ground and snap the reins taking off. Zee turns back to Fa, “are you hurt?”

“No I’m fine, but it was amazing watching you work again, it was like watching a fire dance around as it burns,” she says smiling, “is the woman that was in the carriage okay?” She leans to look around Zee and sees her sitting on the ground crying with the other two men laying on the ground.

“Yes, thankfully, we got here right on time. But I’m afraid Shu is wounded and needs help,” he walks over to her lying on the ground. He rolls her over and feels of her entire body, “no broken bones, just a cut on her arm and some bruised ribs,” he lifts her up in his arms, then walks over to the other men lying on the ground, “Fa, if you wouldn’t mind tying these men up on the posts in front of the store and leave a message telling their crimes?” He continues walking around them.

“No problem, they deserve worse but it’s not my place to punish them for their crimes,” she picks up the first man’s arms dragging him over to the front of the store.

“Where is the doctor of the village?” He asks leaning over to Shu’s daughter.

“We don’t really have one, just a medicine man that comes by once a week,” she says trying to stop crying.

“Okay, where do you and your mother live? I need to get her to a bed.”

“Upstairs from the store, mothers room is on the right, mine the left,” she stands up and leads him through the store. Fa grabs the other man then ties them both up on the posts in front of the store. Then she walks back over and grabs their spears tying them to both of the men’s hands. Zee follows the girl upstairs and into Shu’s room where he lays her on the bed and starts taking her clothes off, “hey what are you doing to my mother?” She grabs his hand before he takes her shirt off.

“I need to have access to her wounds and it is much easier to remove all of the clothes so that I can see the whole extent of the wounds. You too will have to undress after I’m finished with her. I promise I’m not going to do anything bad. I saved you, remember?” He says as she lets go of his arm and he continues taking Shu’s clothes off, “if you don’t mind go ahead and take your clothes off and lay down next to your mother,” he turns around to grab some water, “oh and where do you keep your tea leaves?” He asks turning around to look at her only to turn back around after seeing her n***d.

“It’s downstairs, take a right to go in the kitchen and it’s above the rice storage,” she blushes embarrassingly.

He leaves to fetch the tea leaves and water. He returns and sees her laying next to her mother completely n***d, “you can cover yourself if you want. I don’t need to see anything, as a matter of fact I can wear a blindfold if you wish,” he says sitting the water and tea leaves down on the nightstand next to the bed.

“It is okay, after what I just experienced I’m just happy to still be, well you know, and also alive. So thank you,” she whispers quietly with her voice quivering. Zee smiles and nods closing his eyes out of respect. He grabs the tea leaves with his left hand and kneels next to the bed, with his right hand he uses his fingertips to feel across Shu’s body and drops a tea leaf on each bruise then crumples some leaves on the cut. He then takes the water into one hand and puts a small amount on each leaf. He stands up and performs Peace at Zero Equal, a ritual that heals the body in a manner of moving the chi to the tea leaves and letting the body heal itself faster than usual. Then her bruises start disappearing and the cut on her arm closes up.

“That’s amazing,” she rises up, “how did you do that?”

“I’m not sure, it just came to me as I was doing it. Remember, I have memory loss, so how I know things or where I learned them is lost to me. I just let the universe guide me,” he grabs the water and tea leaves walking around the bed to her side of the bed without stumbling and sits them down on the floor. He kneels down with his eyes still closed, “I don’t seem to remember your name, I apologize. Your mother told me but my mind was focused on other things.”

She smiles, “it is okay, I am named after my mother and grandmother. Shu Lan.”

“Right, I remember now. Well, Shu Lan, I’m about to touch your body very gently and it may tickle or feel good or may even hurt. But I swear my touching is innocent and I mean nothing by it okay?” He grabs a handful of tea leaves.

“I’m ready, just be careful around my ribs and hips, I’m very ticklish,” she says blushing. He does the same with her as he did her mother but only finds a couple of bruises. Even still he does the ritual anyways.

“There you go, you and your mother should be just fine now,” he pulls a cover over both of them, “I must go now and rest, I’ve completely exhausted my energy,” he says opening his eyes and struggles to stand up. Shu Lan raises up and grabs Zee’s arm pulling him down to her then she grabs his head and kisses him.

“Thank you,” she kisses him again then she lets him go and lays back down covering herself up. Zee walks downstairs and out of the store closing the door behind him.

“Fa?” He says looking around.

“Yes? I’m just finishing the note to leave on them,” she says waving an arm out from behind one of the men.

“I need you to help me back to the house please,” he says falling to one knee. Fa looks over to him and finishes her note. She runs to him grabbing his arm and puts it around her shoulder helping him stand up then they walk back to the farm house. She opens the door and Si notices that she is carrying Zee. He stands up quickly running up to her and grabs his other arm helping to get him to the bed. They lay him down next to Ezma and he passes out as soon as his head hits the pillow.

“Wow, he must have really been exhausted,” Fa says following Si out of the room.

“I’ll tell you about it in the kitchen,” Si says quietly walking back to the kitchen. Fa looks at Zee again putting her hand on the door then she closes it quietly. Zee rolls over and grabs Ezma pulling her in tight to him without knowing. Ezma wakes quietly to see she is snuggled against him surrounded by his arms. She smiles and falls back to sleep. “How far do you plan to travel?” A female voice speaks up from the seat across from the man on the giant empty plane.

“As far as I need to. I’ve been to every corner of land on this earth. I’ve traveled across every sea, seen all of its ice, all of its green, and all of its deserts. Today we are going where the mountain touches the sky. It was the first place my brother and I fought. It is also where my weapon got its name,” the man says blowing smoke from his cigar. The woman smiles through her silhouette and lays back in her seat. “Weapon? Why do you need a weapon? We have plenty of swords and guns in Germany?” She says propping her feet up on the mans knee.

“This one is special, only I can wield it just the same as my brother is the only who can wield his,” he pushes her legs off and stands up walking to the back of the plane putting on a backpack. He turns a switch and opens a door causing the wind to howl through the plane. He flicks his cigar out and jumps out of the plane.

The sun’s light barely peaks over the horizon and Si opens the door to the room where Zee and Ezma are sleeping. He notices that they are both still asleep but their positions have changed. Zee is sprawled out over the entire bed facing up, and Ezma is curled up on his chest with one arm holding one of his hands and the other with a thumb in her mouth. Si laughs quietly and shuts the door. He walks into the kitchen where Fa and Ching are working together to make breakfast. He walks to the front door and opens it letting a cool wind blow throughout the house.

“Autumn is coming swift this year, close the damned door or you’ll wake our guests,” Ching barks at Si and he closes the door.

“I doubt a thundering storm, an earthquake, and a war drum in their room would wake either of those two. The girl is still young and growing so her body needs plenty of rest. The boy, he is so strange. I could swear I met him him here seventy years ago but then he would be older than me...”

“I first met him almost twenty years ago father and yet he hasn’t aged a day since then. Everything is the same aside from his hair,” Fa interrupts her father.

“You two need to realize he is the wanderer,” Ching says scrambling eggs.

“The wanderer?” Fa and Si say together.

“Ppsshh!” Ching scoffs, “both of you should be ashamed. The man who never ages or dies, wandering from place to place never settling. But everywhere he goes trouble follows, and so does his story. My mother told it to me when I was very young. She explained a man of tall stature with white eyes, black hair with pearl white streaks. He came through the village and slayed two hundred men that were holding our city at ransom threatening to kill everyone who wouldn’t pay them or let them take what they want. You know the mountain grave site up river where they built that cabin? That’s where all of those bodies are buried, we struck a spring while digging and made a pipe leading straight to the center of the village. Then we buried the bodies nearby to hopefully keep the evil spirits away from the village,” she pauses grabbing some fat and tosses it into the skillet and then mixes the eggs while pouring them in, “I was just a small child at the time but my mother always told the story,” she scrapes the eggs off onto a plate and then throws some more fat on the skillet and tosses some rice and thin slices of meat on it.

“Oh yes, I remember hearing some stories about a wandering man now,” Fa says preparing some milk for everyone.

“Well either way he is a good man and strong too. He is welcome here anytime he needs it,” Si says proudly while setting the table.

Zee wakes up to Ezma squeezing his hand tightly. He looks up and notices she is still asleep and assumes she is having a nightmare. He hugs her gently but tightly against his chest trying to comfort her and her grip releases tension. He takes a deep breath and tries to put her down on the bed but wakes her up as he pushes her off his chest. She climbs back on him and hugs him with tears in her eyes.

“Please don’t leave me Zee. I had a dream that we were on a mountain and you had my hand but let me go and I fell. That’s when I woke up,” she hugs him tightly with her arms and legs. He feels the warmth of her body rising greatly. He realizes that when she was holding his hand she was in the dream as well.

“I’m not going to leave you. But we must get up I smell an amazing meal being made. You must change into some traveling clothes as should I. But I will do so after breakfast, you should do it now when I leave the room,” she crawls off of him yawning and stretching. He stands up stretching his arms and legs. He turns around to grab his pipe and tobacco off the table sees Ezma already n***d and quickly closes his eyes, “I said after I leave the room,” he feels around for his tobacco and finally finds it and puts it in his coat chest pocket then turns toward the door and opens his eyes to Ezma blocking the door still n***d. He closes his eyes again and sits down, “what is it? Why are you blocking the door?”

“I want you. You know, like how the adults do when they’re together like we are,” she says walking to him and putting her hand on his cheek. Zee grabs her hand and puts it on the bed beside him then stands up and spins around behind her grabbing the door with his other hand.

“We are not together like that. Yes I care for you. But you are just a young girl, I do not want to hurt you or cause you any pain at all. I want you to keep your innocence for as long as you can,” he lets her go and opens the door swiftly stepping out and closing it behind him. Then he opens his eyes hoping she was not faster than him and is relieved he is standing in the hallway alone. Ezma sits on the bed crying. She did not expect for him to reject her even after she stood completely n***d in front of him throwing herself at him. She thought about what he said and wipes her face clean. She hopes that he meant he wanted her to save herself for marriage and so she stands up smiling.

“He will want to marry me before being with me like that, that’s why. He is such a gentleman,” she whispers to herself, then she picks out a black shirt and some black pants to put on for traveling and also grabs her new blue coat that Shu Lan picked out for her and puts it on and walks out of the room and into the kitchen. She joins the rest of them smiling at her sitting at the table.

“Glad to see you’re both awake, Fa and I both worked very hard on this breakfast as farewell gift to you. Enjoy,” Ching says motioning for everyone to start eating. Everyone digs in quietly eating their fill. Once finished Zee stands up bowing to everyone and thanking them for the meal, then he walks outside and sits in the rocking chair. He fills his pipe and lights it just barely realizing he needs fuel for his lighter and remembers he needs to stop at the shoe vendor before leaving the village.

Ezma finishes eating and leans over to Fa whispering to her, “can I talk to you in private before we leave please?” Fa smiles at her and motions to go into the bedroom. They both stand up and bow to everyone thanking them for the meal then they both walk into the bedroom.

“What is it you want to talk about?” Fa asks quietly taking a seat on the bed. Ezma walks over and sits beside her.

“How do you know when you’re ready to be with someone? Or even old enough to do so?” She asks trying not to raise her voice any. Her face starts to blush and she puts her hands between her legs anxiously.

“Well that’s a tough question to answer. I was only thirteen when I laid with another girl and she was seventeen. We were young and we weren’t in love, we were just horny and attracted to each other,” she says laughing lightly.

“So how do you know when someone is attracted to you and what do you mean by horny?” Ezma looks at her with a completely red face. Fa puts her hand on Ezma’s head and explains to her what a parent would to their child about s*x and attraction.

“But to know when someone wants you the way you want them is to see it in their eyes and actions,” she says finishing her lecture.

“Do you think Zee is attracted to me?” Ezma says with her eyes starting to well up.

“Who Snow Fang? I’m not sure, I haven’t been around the both of you long enough to pay attention. But I’ll tell you this, you will know it if or when he is. He has this way of expressing himself that’s very blunt. I remember when he and Cat were together, you could see it in his eyes that he was into her but she was probably your age at the time so he wouldn’t act upon it,” Fa says, then stands up to leave the room.

“Wait, who is Cat?” Ezma grabs her hand before she can leave.

“She was a Native American thief that was really good at her job. Cassie Mae Striker was her real name and she joined our little band of misfits when she tried to steal Snow Fang by kissing him to cause a distraction. But he wasn’t fooled by her ploy and was quicker than she was. They fought with each other for ten minutes holding onto the sword and it was like watching two professional dancers perform. She had this white hair that was unusual for someone her age but she was a Native American and had dark colored skin. Her eyes were a bright sapphire blue which was also unusual for Native Americans. Her body was like something sculpted by an artist, perfect in almost every way, except for when she took a bath with the rest of us girls. We saw that she was hiding a tail under her clothes and she tied down her hair to hide her ears...”

“So, she was like a cat person?” Ezma’s eyes light up while her imagination runs wild.

“In Japan they have legends of fox spirits that are called Kitsune, and the fox can take the form of a human but they still have fox ears and tails. Some European legends tell of a werewolf that’s half human half wolf but they can’t control the transformation, it had something to do with a full moon. She was like the fox spirits, she could transform into a snow leopard but not all the time. Cat was different yes but none of us treated her any differently for it. We accepted her for who she was because she was our friend and part of our team,” she stops realizing she is living in the past, “I need to stop reopening old wounds, but you have your information. I wish you luck out there, though I doubt you’ll need it with snow Fang by your side,” she smiles and walks away before Ezma can ask any more questions. Ezma raises off the bed even more curious now about everything. Zee still sitting in the rocking chair looks up to see where the sun is.

“It’s beginning of autumn so the sun can be deceiving soon,” Si says joining him.

“Yes I can feel the cool air already settling in. It is nice but that means the days are going to be shorter,” he says rocking back and forth chewing on the tip of the pipe.

“True, I’ve been meaning to ask about your pipe but I know your memory is still hazy,” Si lights his own pipe and rocks back and forth.

“I know that I have had it a long time. And I know it is very special,” Zee says taking it out of his mouth and holding it up. The fire has already died in it and he does not have any fuel for another light.

“Special indeed. I once knew a man who his family for generations had made pipes and he told me once of his great great great grandfather making a pipe for a man that saved his life from falling off a mountain. He said he used the last of the Blackwood in China and engraved it with jade. Made the man a pipe and gave him a bag that was blessed by a white witch so long as he kept tobacco in the bag the pipe would never age,” he laughs, “or so I was told. You know how tales are these days. People will say anything to make a story huh?” They both laugh. Fa walks outside and leans against the house.

“Hey snow fang, the girl calls you Zee, is that your real name or something?” She says picking her teeth with a stick of hay.

“I really do not remember, she called me that when I woke up so I have just went with it. I like your clothes though, are they Japanese?” Zee turns to look at her.

“Yes but they normally wear pants under the kimono, I find it hard to move in the pants so I just wear the shirt a couple of sizes too big and either cut the sleeves off or wear them traditionally,” she says rubbing her arms and leaning off the building.

“So you really are n***d under there huh? I bet it makes for a good distraction when you are fighting men!” Zee says laughing.

“Why don’t we spar and you find out for yourself!” She says walking in front of him with her hand out.

“But I do not want to see you like that, you are a good friend and always have been,” he says waving her off.

“So you’re scared to be beat by a girl? If you remember Black Rhino from Africa, he lost to me in a sparring match and had to buy me drinks for a week. I remember he was so disappointed when he found out I didn’t like men,” she laughs still challenging Zee.

“I will spar with you, but I cannot go all out on you,” he says taking her hand and standing up.

“I wouldn’t want you to, you would kill me before I took my first step. I just want to test my skills, I’ve been training in Japan with their fighting style called Karate,” she says twisting in a fighting stance. Ezma and Ching step outside to join them and see them both in a fighting stance.

“Don’t kill each other please, I want to meet my daughters wife before she dies okay?” Ching barks at them.

“Karate huh? Sounds familiar but my memory is still fuzzy,” Zee takes a deep breath and puts his pipe and tobacco in his chest pocket. Ezma walks over and sits in the empty rocking chair and watches wide eyed. Fa launches forward with a flurry of punches and Zee blocks them all using just his index and middle finger. He holds the storm flap of his coat up off his legs behind his back with his other hand. Fa switches up the punches for a combo of high and mid kicks exposing herself to everyone. Zee gracefully dodges each kick tapping Fa on the inside of her legs and behind her knees with each kick.

“Ha so at least you wear something under there, not so much of a distraction after all, too bad, I bet you could beat any man if you did it that way,” Zee laughs still dodging her kicks.

“I could take them off if you think it would help, but it is getting cooler out lately,” she says trying her best to hit Zee.

“It would not work against me anyways, you know that. If you really want to catch your opponent off guard you should swap between kicks and punches simultaneously instead of using one or the other,” Zee says blocking one of her kicks and throws her into the air. She flips backwards gracefully and lands on the tips of her toes.

“Huh, I normally fight with the pole so I’m not used to hand to hand,” she says regaining her balance. Zee swiftly moves toward her using a combo of punches and kicks, high and low, slow and soft enough for Fa to block but also learn from.

“See what I am doing?” Zee says continuing his flurry, “start with a feign punch and continue with a kick, then do a spinning combo of low to high punches and finish with high to low kicks. It keeps your opponent off guard and off balance, if you are successful you can sweep them and kick them off the ground and finally an uppercut,” he says before showing her, “like so...” he starts his combo by feigning a high punch then raises his leg up through her body then starts to spin from low to high punches, hooks, and elbows. Then he jumps spinning kicking over her head then kneeing across her mid and then sweeping missing her legs then he raises up with another kick that would lift someone off the ground and then he uppercuts right next to her head, “get it?”

She looks at him with fear in her eyes, “if you had hit me during any of that, would you have hurt me?” She asks voice shaking.