"Got you; why are you running amok from the main tent? Are you scared?" Lin Pin Zin smirks, playing with his dagger around Lan's neck.
Soon, he realized, Lan's eyes were wet, and her lips trembled.
Am I going too far with the joke? Lin Pin Zin thought. Oh, I forgot, he is a city boy. He is meek.
To remedy the situation, Pin Zin smiled. His white teeth were showing between the lip gaps. He rotated the dagger until the hilt was pointed at Lan.
"Come on, and I'm just kidding, don't cry. If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it a long time ago."
Instead, Lan pushed him away, stiffly running away like a goose, making Pin Zin drop his dagger.
"Why is he so annoying?" Lin Pin Zin picked up his dagger and then was about to give chase.
"Pin Zin, there you are." A dashing man came out of the main tent. He is Pin Zin's father. "Wake up the boy in our tent."
Pin Zin's right palm covered his left chest, bowing slightly towards his father, the Liao tribe's way of saluting. "Dad, he's already awake. That's him running like a moron." Pointing at Lan, who was getting farther away.
"Where is he going? What is he doing?"
"I don't know, and maybe he has diarrhea. Earlier, he wanted to eat boiled grass." Pin Zin held back his laughter, remembering the incident in the tent earlier.
Pin Zin cleared his throat, trying to be serious when he didn't see daddy's smile. His father was so serious about everything.
"He's a guest in our tribe. You have to take care of him," ordered father.
"What?" Lin Pin Zin frowned. "Take care of him? But Dad, I want to play with the others. Just send someone else."
Father didn't change his expression, but his voice became super serious. "You're my son. Go take care of him, or I won't teach you archery anymore."
Lin Pin Zin puffed out his cheeks, looking sideways in embarrassment. He saw Lan, who moved farther and farther toward the gates of the tribe's land.
Pin Zin thought, What happens If Lan leaves alone? Let alone meeting a wolf, and he probably would get injured just from meeting a wild boar!
"Later, I will teach you to be friends with eagles—"
Pin Zin ran without hearing his father. Even if he didn't like that stupid Brat, he couldn't let someone be in danger.
Before chasing Lan, he turned and entered the tent, taking some dried mushrooms, his favorite snack, then took a bow and arrows.
He dashed out of the tribe's land into the pine forest.
Too bad Lan had disappeared from Lin Pin Zin's sight.
It's not challenging to find Lan in winter. Pin Zin just followed his trail on the snow. He muttered, "If it weren't for that damn brat, I wouldn't be coming to this part of the woods."
"Hey, Zin, where are you going?" asked the girl, carrying a wooden bucket filled with dirty clothes.
"Running errands from father." Pin Zin waved, going deeper into the pine forest.
The eastern forest leads to the wild forest. Only a few tribe members venture this way in search of rare flowers and hunt for wolf's skin and honey.
Lin Pin Zin knew a tree with a cross on it was a safe boundary. Beyond this tree was a wild area.
Unfortunately, the damn boy's trail continued heading east. Inevitably he followed the path.
Lan's trail started to get crooked and sparse. Then the trail bends to the right. Then go left. It seems he got lost.
Lin Pin Zin grew even more worried when the trail he followed changed as if Lan was being dragged.
The sound of sobbing came from deep in the forest. Lan leaned against a tree, curled up, crying like a baby.
Lin Pin Zin's anger was swept away. He took a deep breath and approached Lan.
"Hey, kid. You're crying because you got lost, huh? Or because you're hungry?" Lin Pin Zin handed Lan a grilled mushroom. "Here, eat."
Lan immediately devoured the delicious big-headed mushroom as he had never eaten before.
"If you're hungry, say it, don't cry."
"I'm not crying because I'm hungry or lost. I'm crying because someone wants to kill me."
Lin Pin Zin laughed. For him, killing was an everyday thing. He thought Lan was joking, but his laughter sank when he found that Lan wasn't laughing back.
"So, you're crying because you're afraid to die?" asked Pin Zin. "Listen, sooner or later, and every living creature will die. What are you afraid of? If they want to kill you, kill them back!"
"People who want to kill me were my own family. I'm sad. Why would they want to kill me? What did I do wrong? Tell me, should I kill them?"
"You want to kill them?" Pin Zin eats his share of mushrooms.
Lan shook his head. "No!"
"Then die or become stronger so they cannot kill you."
"I'm stronger than you think."
"Oh really? Let me see, can you kill a wolf?"
Lan was restless, but he kept an eye on Lin Pin Zin. "I-I can!"
"Oh yeah? Prove it."
"Yeah! Just you see!"
Pin Zin drowned in profound silence, staring closely at Lan as if he wanted to say something.
Pin Zin was born and raised in the tribe land, a dangerous land where every day was a struggle for survival. In his eyes, a man was valued according to strength. Meanwhile, Lan looks weak, like a deer.
Suddenly, the howls of the wolves roared through the forest. Lin Pin Zin knew what it meant.
"Okay, times up. Let us come back to the tribe's land. Your father must be dead-worried if he finds his spoiled son is missing."
Pin Zin took Lan's hand, but the boy stamped his hand, then took a dagger from Pin Zin. Lan ran towards the sound of the wolf.
"Damn, brat! Where are you going?"
"Proving to you that I'm strong! You will see. I'll bring a wolf corpse to you!"
Lin Pin Zin was petrified. He lived in dangerous areas and was unable to defeat the wolf alone. What could Lan do?
"Damn, brat! Come back here!" Lin Pin Zin shouted, running after Lan deeper into the treacherous forest.
****