"I am sorry monkey king, I will not be taking in anyone else right now. During this time of constant invasion everyone is restless and if this continues we might face conflicts from within. It's not that I don't see that there are a lot with good potential on this mountain, actually those in the new generation could easily turn this whole forest area into their domain if they worked together and had enough time to grow." Shadow sighed with regret.
"It's not that I do not trust you and your son or fear betrayal, I just do not know others well enough to involve them with my plans and training. There are too many uncertain factors, within this mountain are 3 powerful influences which are the fox, Panther and monkey families. Now there is also another rising influence which has began to creep up and slowly showing its presence more, tell me? Would everyone sit still and allow it? And if so, would the deer family have to submit under one of the three families or simply be forced to their deaths because of fear of them taking over the leaders position?" Shadow's presence became even more fearful as her gaze rested on the monkey king, he even began to avoid eye contact as his back become covered in sweat as he was pieced by the little girls cold gaze as he was being lectured.
"Little girl you sure do think of everything don't you?" The old monkey looked depressed as he hung his head.
"If I did not then how could I stay alive long enough to protect my family? Sure you may be sincere but monkeys are innately playful and crafty by nature so I can not trust your words right away even if you are sincere, even more so for the other families and their children." Shadow continued.
She also gave a few hints as she gave the monkey a stern look after finishing her cultivation and stepping out of the pool shaking her body dry. "The fox family are intelligent and quite cunning, because of their intelligence it would be difficult to pull them to a side unless it had a huge benefit to them without a huge risk while the panther family innately have a ruthless and arrogant nature so trusting them in times like this may be good in peaceful times, if things are getting worse I would be sure to keep a watchful eye on them as they may be dissatisfied with how things are going."
The old monkeys gaze turned serious as he heard this. "What do you mean kid?"
"Let's just imagine, what I have said and include our current situation. Constant invasions, more and more deaths and injured beasts. The other powerful families will begin to feel dissatisfaction towards those in leadership, mainly you and your family for not doing a better job. Then we have those families who come up with an idea of 'I could do a better job if I was in charge.' And then after that begins a possible war within the mountain which will only weaken our current power further. Possibly leading to our ruin at the worst case scenario." Shadow pondered as she spoke, becoming even more serious as she was reaching her conclusion.
"Hey, wait wait wait wait!" The monkey was on the verge of tears as he thought. 'Damn this little girls mind is fearful, even that old fox could not come close to her in terms of ability… And at such a young age too, what a little genius!'
He coughed as he straightened his body, no longer the lazy old monkey as he looked before as his gaze became more intense as it rested on the little white deer. "So do you have a solution?"
A crafty smirk showed on Shadows face as she brushed off his gaze casually. "I do, but I have already given you enough free information, not only do you ask for your son to join me without any real reward for myself but you also wish to gain all of my knowledge too? Where is your sincerity?"
'Damn! This kid isn't easy to deal with at all! Bring back the trouble making little fellow, although she was a little troublesome at times at least I could deal with her… Now I can't even seem to intimidate the brat! Damnit it's like I am facing some kind of old monster.' The old monkey began to seethe with rage inwardly as he listened to the girl lecturing him. "Fine, speak what is it that you want?"
"What I need are resources, any spare beast cores, herbs, weapons or tools you may have collected over the years." She spoke but suddenly stopped as she had a look as if she had come up with a great idea and continued to speak with more force in her voice. "Oh yeah, I remembered something great! Remember all those years ago, I'm sure I kept smelling some good wine in your cave, mind giving me a few flasks full?"
"Sure, a lot of the stuff I have collected is of no use to me right now and my son has no need for it too…. Wait! You little brat! You bring that up now!? You sure are ruthless!" The old monkey started off trying to calmly negotiate but was suddenly hit in his sore spot so began to curse at the girl.
In response she could only laugh as she saw the old monkey grow more agitated. "Well, in the end the decision is yours to make. If you agree meet here tomorrow with the things I asked for."
Finishing up, she began to walk home as her brother and sister looked astonished at her for some time.
Even though they did not say a word they secretly made eye contact with one another as if silently saying. 'You saw that too right?'
The little rabbit was looking especially proudest he thought to himself. 'As expected of the person I chose to follow.'
As he was left watching them get further away and out of sight, the old monkeys figure collapsed as his body trembled. 'Damnit, here I thought I could get some gains from watching those kids current movements given how they had suddenly increased their strength so fast and yet I have had too many surprises today.'
'Ever since I first began building up trust and loyalty after I settled on this mountain over 30 years ago I have never come across such a fearful existence as that girl, not even on my travels before I arrived here.' He began to be very deep in thought as if making a big decision. 'What is most fearful is although I am stronger I felt intimidated by her, a young and inexperienced kid… It was as if she could see through my every thought and intentions no matter how hard I tried to conceal it. Damn I have truly lost!'
'The only way I can gain relations with such a person is if I treat her with sincerity, she is open to trading information for things she needs so she has given me an opening to test if she can trust me and by doing so she is also helping me while doing so.' The old monkey got back up and looked a little more positive as he jumped back into the tree and began to leap from branch to branch on his way back to his cave. 'I guess I can only accept this loss today and put aside my pride, it seems that the new generation will far outshine the old.'
The old monkey returned to his cave and passed by his son sleeping on the nearby tree branch.
As his gaze went towards his monkey wine he immediately was reminded of his feelings of rage when he was teased by the little girl.
His rage turned towards his son who became the target of his bad mood. "Damn brat! What are you doing sleeping in the middle of the day?!"
As the young monkey was still feeling sleepy and had his eyes barely open he felt his body be hit heavily as he was knocked from his tree branch and he heavily hit the floor and screamed in pain. "Which bastard hit me?!"
"You dare talk back to me?!" A brutal rain of punches fell upon his sons body as he wailed in agony.
"What the hell father? Aren't you taking things a bit too far?" The young monkey was very displeased as he was finally released from his fathers assault and could only whine in protest.
"Hahahahahaha! Who cares! Listen son from now on I will be putting you through more stressful training and you aren't allowed to give up otherwise you will get another beating like that one! Got it?" The old monkey stared down the young ape as he made threatening gestures while making punching movements in the air.
'Damnit what the hell has gotten into that old timer?' The young monkey wanted to immediately run away but he feared if he did he would only face more fearful treatment.
"Oh yeah, try and build relations with the deer family children and that white rabbit in the future. If you aren't sincere then don't bother, don't go around provoking them or others during this time too. Right now we cannot afford to make any enemies because of a few rash actions." The old monkey left those word of advice before going deep into his cave.
What followed was sounds of clattering items being thrown into a big pile as he began to take out all the things he had hoarded through his many years.
His son was left shocked, his previous lonely and dejected father seemed to have changed within a day's time to come back full of energy and purpose, and wasn't he just laughing? He had never seen his father laugh since his mother passed away!