I awoke again, this time to the sun. An ape stands perched on a stone above me. I Instantly covered my eyes, a layer of metal coating them.
"Hold on friend, I can see your grievance." the monkey stated with eloquence, spoken inside my mind.
"You are consumed by guilt by what you've done to that cyclops, but there is no need. That is the way of beasts."
I began to speak "Explain to me wh-" again I was interrupted by the damn ape.
"Listen, this is sort of embarrassing…but since you're so persistent. I'll tell you. There aren't many female monkey's in this world. And those fairies were just the perfect size.." it trailed off.
"Look, I didn't mean to drive them mad! I swear! Normally, other beasts just end up breaking free, like you. But you broke free really quickly, there are other forces in your mind, ya know. Nevermind, what were we talking about?"
It interrupted before I even spoke, "Oh yeah!" it said, "I simply showed those fairies and that cyclops a little vision of a sexual encounter with me….and, for some reason, they went insane." he sounded a little hurt.
"They were too pure. I tried to bring them back but the cyclops almost killed me instantly, I could only run as they wandered up north…"
"Give me one good reason to kill you not now, the power of your eyes is very tempting." I inquired threateningly.
"How do you know you're not caught in another illusion still, hahaha…" The monkey appeared to be in complete control.
"Au-ha, are you there? Big Star?" I asked.
"Yes, I am currently trying to create an anti-information wave to counter this monkey's mind reading ability, but still do not look into its eyes."
"What's happening?" The lord of stars didn't even know what was going on.
"Look," it began "I know what your thi…inking?" As au-ha attempted to counter this mind reader, I thought of horrible things. All terrible acts done to this monkey.
It began to shake a little.
I put the pressure of a force field down upon my surroundings, and demanded.
"Give me one of your eyes, and I will not cut you down right here."
"What? You've got to be goddamn kidd.." I blasted a small series of lightning bolts from my new antlers toward the sound, some of them clearly hitting the ape. I still don't dare open my eyes.
It began panting, clearly pretty injured from the strikes. A creature like this is no defense, all tricks. I walked forward, forming a blade of lightning from my fingers.
"Monkey, I will give you no more quarter, give me an eye or your head."
"Fine! Fine…just, let me prepare first."
"No, I will cut out your eye to make sure it's authentic."
I pulled the surroundings near me with a force pull, and rocks, along with a monkey, landed in my hand. I gripped the monkey tightly, certain this time I was in reality.
"Are you prepared, ape? Don't worry, I'll allow you to regrow the eye." I stated as I quickly and elegantly cut the ape's eye out with a single small finger turned into a scalpel.
It screamed and screamed, but I did not feel bad. It was a small punishment to pay for what it had done.
Finally, an eye in my hand, I popped it into my mouth and bit down on it like a grape. This was no beast soul, but the vast majority of this monkey's power was within its eye, as It had the power to effect a beast like the cyclops, it no doubt contained great power.
I felt a massive rush to the head. Like my mind was the earth that now extended to the sky, my mental strength increased many times. Even au-ha made excited noises, as she felt herself gain increased ability as well. I could feel my left eye now appear with a cross-shaped pupil. I finally opened my eyes, to the contorted face of a very pissed off and hurt monkey.
I still had that vial of my blood, and poured a bit of it on him. Very quickly, a blank eye appeared in the place of its socket.
"It'll take a few months to a year to return back to normal, but it should be fine, take this vial."
The monkey took the vial, and looked at me like some terrifying beast. I could tell, now part of the same blood-line, its illusions will have a greatly reduced to no effect on me.
"Well, monkey, that'll do…" I walked off the mountain. This was a fine outcome to me, I had at least given it a bit of punishment, and walked away with some illusion resistance. I felt I could also very subtly influence people, too. But not draw upon endless and maddening illusions like the monkey.
The monkey then grumbled quietly in anger. "Just wait until the young master finds out about this…"
I quickly turned around, and it crawled backwards in fright, its torn out eye already regaining a reddish hue.
"Young master? Of a clan? Tell me everything."
"Goddamn it…" it began mourning. "Just my luck to run into some monster like you…"
"Be grateful I haven't eaten you whole yet."
"Hehe, good point, brother." it said, clasping its hands together. "I am good friends with the young master of the Li clan. They call me his pet, but he saved me once when I was just a tot, and now I'm indebted to him forever."
"Li clan? How does it rank in the east?" I asked.
"Hmmm, well, it doesn't hold up so well in power, it started off as an alchemic tribe that became a clan. We are the weakest in terms of power, but without our alchemy, the east would be economically useless for the most part ."
So, as it is, the clan holds high political power, but weak physical power. They sound perfect.
"I need to join this clan, I will not take no for an answer, this friend of mine needs to join too."
"Ahhh you're in luck, there's a tournament in a month that'll allow outside members to join the clan!"
"That's too long." I was being purposefully unreasonable.
The little monkey clapped its chest, "Ha, fine, let's go meet the young master. He would gladly accept someone of your strength in the clan."
"Wait, first, I need to find someone. Let's go, monkey." I walked off as the monkey sighed and hoped on my shoulder.
We walked back to town. A few stares at the monkey on my shoulder but not many.
"You didn't have to cut out my eye…." the monkey was still complaining.
"Yes, I did. This was the only way to be certain I wouldn't be caught under more illusions."
The monkey made a grunt, but did not say anything to counter.
I went back into the bar, and asked about Dia. He said she stumbled out drunkenly last night. Well, that was the most I could do. Dia was now lost.
"Alright, monkey, lead me to this young master, please." I made a motion forward.
"Stop calling me monkey. My name is Satori."
"Fine, Satori the monkey, let's go to the clan."
"Damn humans…"
As we walk on the road, the monkey asked me tons of questions
"What are you?"
"A chimera."
"What's your name?"
"Barbos?"
"Barbos? What does that mean, where'd it come from…." he continued on and on, and I answered them all patiently. It was like our earlier feud had been forgotten. Upon the road, I saw a woman fighting a small group of men. It was Dia
"Make fun of my antlers again and I'll kill you." she spoke to the men on their knees, shivering. They looked almost frozen burned and stuck with icicles. "Dia!" I called out, she suddenly turned and skipped happily. This woman was scarily Bipolar.
"What happened to you last night?" she sounded a little peeved.
"I found this monkey" I nodded to the small monkey on my shoulder, "But don't ever look in its eyes, trust me." I covered the monkey's eyes.
"Come on, brother, trust me a little." The monkey, Satori, said. I couldn't help but laugh hard.
"Ohh a talking monkey?" Dia was curious and amazed. I'm not sure why though, she was a talking deer when I first met her.
At last, we got to the Li clan, which was very close to the city, just a few dozen miles away. "The guards gave us no trouble, even greeting the monkey as "sati". I noticed the Colors of the robes were red, with the symbol of a black cauldron.
"Yeah, just a little nickname of mine." he stretched cockily, "I'm pretty popular around here."
He led us into the home of the clan's young master, where a beautiful garden lay up front. We went around the back of the house, and a colorful and gorgeous landscape of fauna lit the place up in a cacophony of smell and artistry. Tenderly watering some flowers was a gentle looking and gray-haired old man, who wore the same robes.
"Young master!" Satori called. The old man turned and smiled.
Young?