The sun shone brightly across the blue sky. It was already in the afternoon. Ryan was sweating profusely, not because of the weather, but because of what was in front of him. It was a chameleon.
Now, normally there's nothing about chameleons that would cause people to sweat. This one, however, was over six feet tall with a horn on its head, and two curled-up tails. Its color changed twice, from green-ish to yellow and from yellow to brown.
"RUN!" shouted Gonin as he turned on his heels, or rather, sandals, and ran. Everyone turned to their heels and ran with Ryan being faster than everyone else. The problem was that he was running in a random direction. When he eventually stopped, the others were nowhere to be found. The chameleon was gone as well. He scratched his head, thinking that maybe he had run a little too fast.
He turned back, trying to retrace his steps. After walking for a few minutes, he stopped and scratched his head. He was lost! Looking sideways, he tried to envision where he had come from. It didn't work. Not even in the slightest.
Ryan sighed, before taking out the one thing that the 'new generation' always relied on to do anything, his phone. The phone had an almost flat battery, and by virtue of his location, no internet network! Things couldn't be worse, right?
ROOOOAAARRRRRR.
The was a loud roar, which sounded as if whatever had issued it was right next to him! He started sweating again and this time, it was out of fear. To calm his nerves, he reminded himself that he was a martial arts cultivator. He reminded himself that his body was physically tough and he was fast. Very fast. However, for some reason, whenever a person tries to feint courage, the mind always works against that person. Ryan's mind played recent images. Images of a piece of paper causing him to bleed. As if to make matters worse, his mind also played an audio note, recorded from Abbot Heavencloud.
'You're not as strong as you think you are, child', he could hear the voice of the middle-aged monk playing in his head.
If before he had been afraid, now he was truly teriffied. He was all alone, with no Myra to save him if things went south. Or north. He tried to assure himself, 'I can do this! I can do this! I can--'
ROOOOAAARRRRRR.
This time the roar grew more intense, and it appeared closer. He began running in a random direction, without paying any notice to his surroundings. He ran into something, and as he fumbled to get up, there was a slight snarl, followed by two loud growls.
He looked up, and what he saw almost gave him a heart attack. There in front of him, was a four-foot tiger. If that were all, it would have been better. However, this tiger had two heads, two tails, and two large tusks jutting from each of its two mouths. One of the mouths opened and gave a loud roar that caused a gust of wind to blow in Ryan's face!
"Uh-oh, I can't do this!" he declared, aloud as he stood up and turned back.
He tried to launch the Roc chasing the wind, but he failed. He was too nervous to focus. The tiger started chasing him, as he ran in a flurry, stumbling and getting up. That was when he heard a voice playing in his head.
'FOCUS! Remove all distractions and FOCUS!' declared the voice.
That was when Ryan realized it. His father was with him. His father was telling him to focus. He closed his eyes, and in the next moment, they became very clear. He had made his resolve. Moments after, he succeeded in launching the movement technique, and he appeared 20 meters away from the tiger.
A mixture of shock and confusion appeared on the beast's two faces. However, it turned to where he was and started running in that direction.
"This should be fun", said Ryan, as he grinned. He launched the movement technique again, appearing 20 meters away from where he had been, and this time he appeared behind the tiger. The beast screeched to a halt, and turned to go after him again. Before the tiger arrived, Ryan had vanished again, appearing behind it!
The beast was now getting angry. Or maybe hungry? Whatever the case was, taunting it only made it worse. Its eyes grew red, and as it roared, it swiped in the air, as if it wanted to scratch him. Red claw marks made of ki flew at great speed towards Ryan.
Swoooooossshhh!
Ryan subconsciously launched his movement technique, vanishing out of harm's way. The tree behind him was lacerated by the claw marks!
"Hey that was dangerous! What the hell was that? That thing is really trying to eat me! I better get out of here", he declared, as he launched the movement technique again.
While Ryan was having the time of his life (definitely the worst), elsewhere, Gonin and Cora were walking along, as if they were in their backyard.
"Where do you think Ryan might have gone to?" asked Cora.
"I do not know. His movement technique got the better of him, and now I am sure he is lost", replied the young monk.
"It's your fault! You should've sealed the darn chameleon before telling everyone to run! Why did you even tell us to run?" she yelled.
"..." Gonin could not offer a retort.
"Where are we going to find him?" she asked.
"I have a tracking talisman, just one of it. Using it right now might--"
"Just use it! His life might be in danger!" she yelled.
"But--"
"Just use the darn talisman, will you!" she shouted, interrupting him.
"Okay, okay. You have changed a lot, you know", replied Gonin.
"That doesn't matter. I don't want a certain someone to have my head when something that can be prevented goes wrong. Anyways, something about the old nursery rhyme is bothering me. Did the Sacred Abbot say something about it recently?"
Gonin took out a white paper talisman which was rectangular, and written on it was the character for SEEK with black ink. He performed an incantation gesture, and the talisman burst into a colorful flame. Gradually, the smoke converged forming an arrow while the flame dissipated. The arrow hovered in the air, slightly above Gonin's hands and it pointed to the left.
"There, let us go in that direction", said Gonin, moving in the direction of the arrow.
"Are you going to ignore my question?"
"Look, I am very sure the Sacred Teacher knows what is going to happen, as everything is pre-ordained by the heavens. There are a myriad of things that none of us understand. One of these things is the future", he replied. The arrow changed direction, and he followed it. "This way", he said.
"You did not answer my question!" said Cora.
"What is bothering you about the rhyme, then?" asked Gonin, with a light sigh.
"'Defy the heavens, and the cloud shall fall. Heal the immortal, and the house shall fall.' What does the 'house' here mean? And what does it mean 'the cloud shall fall'?"
"I wish I knew. We can always ask the Sacred Teacher when we get back", replied Gonin.
"So much for the path of enlightenment!" scoffed Cora.
"You realize that our enlightenment is not of the path of pleasures and distracting things of this world, right?"
"I know. But at least you should have a clue of what it means", she replied.
The arrow changed directions again, and the duo followed along. They kept walking silently, with Gonin walking ahead and Cora following behind.
"I miss using my own talismans", complained Cora.
"You heard what the Sacred Teacher said. Patience is a virtue yo--"
"There's a lot of things he said, but none of them make sense right now! Anyway, give me the Flame talisman", she demanded, interrupting him.
"Why?"
"So that if we are attacked we won't lose track of Ryan's direction", she replied.
"I see your point. Here you go then. Do you even remember how to use them?" asked Gonin as he handed over a bright red talisman, with orange markings at the edges. They had the symbol for FLAME written in clear, orange ink.
"Of course I do! What do you think I was doing all this time?"
"Indulging in world--"
Before he finished answering, there was a whoosh sound, and a small gust of wind blew past them. The arrow turned, following the direction the wind had blown in.
"Stop! Ryan!" shouted Cora.
As she was rushing towards the direction of the arrow, there was a loud roar behind them. The two-tailed, two-headed tiger arrived at the spot where Gonin was standing, looking confused.
"That movement technique of his is incredible. There's no way we can catch up with it", complained Cora, running towards the direction of the arrow.
"We have more to worry about than catching up to Ryan right now, do you not agree?" asked Gonin.
The tiger started moving towards them slowly. Its four eyes were still red and they contained a glint of exhaustion. It snarled, and then charged forth!
Ryan stopped about a distance away. "I could've sworn I heard a voice. Anyways, I don't have the pleasure to just walk around aimlessly. I almost died! That thing could catch up any minute now. Oh well, th--"
Before he finished his monologue, there was a screeching sound in front of him. Something he wasn't expecting showed up. He began to edge backwards again.
"He seems to have stopped moving, let us run! We might catch up before he starts running around again!" ordered Gonin, ignoring the fact that there was a four foot, dual headed, two-tailed tiger behind him.
"I hope you have more sealing talismans!" yelled Cora, as she ran in front.
"I only have four remaining. We have already used two. We have to stop being careless!"
"We could die if we don't use them!"
Gonin remained quiet, offering no retort. He knew she was right. The problem was that if they ran out of sealing talismans, they would be in grave danger. It wasn't that the other talismans he had weren't powerful enough. Quite the contrary, they were too powerful. Being too powerful meant too destructive, and he was afraid they'd attract some unwanted company, four or five tails or even more!
The tiger was now angrier than before. All the running around made it even hungrier. Looking at its prey in front but not being able to catch it caused the beast to lose it. The tiger repeated the same thing it had done before, scratching the air. The same thing happened again. The red claws made of ki resulted again, and this time Gonin was caught unaware. They flew at a fast speed towards the young monk, as if following a preset trajectory.
He tried to dodge out of the way, but he was too slow. The claws scratched his back, creating deep lacerations that caused him to bleed profusely. Cora watched in horror as this happened. Gonin fell face first, and the smoke arrow in his hand dissipated.
Things were going wrong. Very wrong. Cora remembered she was holding the Flame talisman. As she was preparing to activate it, the tiger gave a loud roar, and then pounced on them. She held out the talisman, but as she was starting the incantation gesture...
WHOOOOOOOOSSHHH! BANG! BANG! THUD!