She slowly crept toward the stack of boxes, reeling her hand back, and swung at the center. Boxes flew across the floor, scattering random items everywhere, including a golden brick. As she reeled her hand back, a Speedy Panda uniform shirt was hanging from her arm. After shaking it off, she returned her attention to the fallen stack.
Strange. Was it just her imagination? Maybe the wind blew the can down, but then her ears twitched, picking up whispers.
"Oi, why'd she go and do that for?! We just organized those boxes and still got to label em'!"
"Weren't we supposed to label them like the other day, Jin?"
"We were, but then there was the 'Buy one get one free' coupon for cheese tea we found that was about to expire..."
The girl tried to find the source of the whispers. They seemed close by, but where were they coming from? If her enhanced dragon-like hearing continued in her new form, her other abilities must also have. To test her theory, she closed her eyes, took a short breath, and sniffed the air.
Her nose wrinkled as she picked up an unusual scent she had never smelled before in her lifetime. It was sour and bitter, like rotten fruit mixed with moldy squash thrown into a blender. The engine also had a metallic odor while mixed, creating a putrid smoothie with a pungent aroma.
As she took small steps, she followed the invisible trail, her eyes glued to every detail in her surroundings. Her ears twitched occasionally to keep track of the whispers, which sounded closer. So far, she didn't see any movement or a shadow.
"I hear them, but I don't see them..." she told herself.
Then, the sound of cardboard scraped against the floor. Quickly turning around, her eyes landed on a cutout of the Monkey King. Raising an odd eyebrow, she carefully approached the stand.
"Ha, that wasn't there a few minutes ago."
Indeed, the cutout of the Monkey King appeared out of nowhere. Unbeknownst to her, Yin and Jin were hiding behind that exact cutout. Dripping with sweat and holding their breath, they were close to being found out.
"Is this some paper mache of the Great Sage?, she said in confusion, "Looks pretty poorly made. Flat, tasteless, and a little...what's that word?"
She pondered for a moment, then snapped her fingers.
"Ah! Mediocre! That's it! The Great Sage has made such a name for himself that he has a cheap paper cutout."
She lightly tapped the cutout, but to her surprise-it spoke!
"Thank you for your interest in the Monkey King and the Monkey King branded items."
Taken by surprise, she leaped back into a fighting stance.
"What the!? It speaks-So it's been you the whole time, Sun Wukong! A dummy to try to let down my guard, huh?! Well, you won't get the drop on this dragon!"
She charged forward, lowering her head like a bull charging at a matador. The brothers' pupils grew to the size of saucer plates as she was about to ram the cutout stand they hid behind. Jumping out of the way, the girl smacked right into the cutout and skidded across the floor, hands clenched against the shoulders of the cutout.
"Ha! Not so tough being pinned by me now, is it?" she said as she maintained her hold on the cutout.
"I, Monkey Ki...ng, fully endo...rse this prod...uct or spo...rts...e...vent..."
The recording on the back went dead. Getting off the cutout, she turned it over to find the voice box attached to the back as she stared at it in confusion.
"Wait a minute...It was just a cutout, but I thought it was the Great Sage talking a second ago that I thought it was him," she said, baffled.
"That's probably the voice box. Some cutouts got those, lady," said Jin.
"But now it's busted after you pulverized it - and nearly us, mind you," said Yin.
Those voices. They were the same ones she had heard earlier, and they were getting closer—too close. It was almost as if they were right behind her. The stench was even stronger than it had been earlier. What was she to do?
Whoever these interlopers are, she wouldn't get the drop on that easily. Taking a small breath, she slowly turned around to face whoever was lurking in the shadows.
They were demon twins, to be exact, but she could distinguish one from the other. One had blue hair and silver hair, while the other had orange hair and gold hair. They both had red eyes and wore a black armored collar, cross straps with their respective emblems, and black pants.
The brothers blinked a few times as they got a good look at her before Jin clung to Yin, and they screamed. Startled, the girl also let out a surprised scream. The screaming session lasted a whole minute until both sides calmed down, but not before she stepped back with her hands claw-like towards the demons.
"Alright, just who exactly are you and what are you doing here?!"
"Oi! That's our line, Missy!", protested Jin.
"We should be asking the questions here, like what you're doing in our home?!" exclaimed Yin.
The girl lowered her hands as she gave the brothers a confused look.
"Your...home? This place...is your home?"
"That's correct, and you're currently trespassing in our home, destroying our belongings, and ruining our stolen 'medicore' cutout," Yin pointed out, gesturing toward the boxes and broken cutout.
The girl stared at the scattered boxes to the broken cutout. This run-down building belonged to a couple of demons. They don't seem to take pride in caring for their establishment, let alone leaving their stuff everywhere for somebody to bump into.
"I....apologize for mistreating your belongings," she sheepishly said, "And for breaking your cutout."
"Oh, you're going to be sorry, all right. You're going to pay for what you did," Jin said.
The girl returned to a fighting stance, expecting a confrontation, when Yin suddenly appeared beside her, holding a calculator.
"And by pay, we mean by money, Missy. Do you know how much a cutout runs nowadays? About 184 Yuan.," Yin explained to her as he added up the numbers.
"Wait... money?" She stared at Yin, confused, but took a cautious step back.
He plopped his fists to his side as he glanced at her.
"Exactly. So you might as well pay, and if you're short, give us anything of value."
"I....hate to disappoint you, but...I don't have any money or anything of that matter on me", she answered.
"That's okay. We can always set ya up with a payback plan. Course, we'll have to add interest and a little fee..."
Yin kept using unfamiliar terms like "payback plan," "interest," and "charge fee," leaving the girl's head spinning.
Growing agitated, she barked at Yin to cease his financial calculations.
"Will you please stop for a second?! What you're saying makes no sense! I've never even heard of income taxes... Whatever that is," the girl said as she let out an irritated sigh.
"Who doesn't know what income taxes are?" Jin spoke as he walked over to his brother.
"Listen, I'm sorry if I trespassed in your home and wrecked your stuff, but it's not like I even wanted to be here in the first place...Let alone how I ended up here. By the way, just who are you two?"
The brothers glance at one another, turned around and returned their attention to her with wicked glee in their eyes.
"We're your worst nightmare, Jin!"
"Yin!"
They posed in the most dorkiest manner that looked like a wobbly crane on top of a stone bench.
"The gold and silver demons!" they said in unison.
"Mate, I keep telling you. It's SILVER and Gold.", Yin glanced up at his brother in annoyance.
"It's GOLD and Silver. Gold comes before silver, Yin!", argued his brother.
The two began to dogpile on one another as a fight cloud formed, arguing back and forth about which metal came first. The girl just stood there, stunned at such a humorous performance.
Is this how mortals introduced themselves by using theatrics? Or was it some strange demon custom to perform while introducing themselves?
She waited a few minutes for the brothers to stop arguing, but to no prevail. Shaking her head, she cleared her throat to get their attention just as Jin was about to bite Yin's arm and Yin biting Jin's leg.
"I hate to break up...Whatever you two were arguing with 'silver's cooler than gold' or 'gold is always first while silver is second'-But, I think it's my turn to introduce myself now?"
The two glanced at one another and quickly regained their composure. Brushing the dirt off themselves while Yin cleared his throat.
"Right, right. Sorry about that-sibling spat we get into sometimes."
"Which happens a lot...Still say gold goes first.", he said in a whisper so his brother didn't hear.
"Now then, Miss. Who are you supposed to be and your reason for being in our lair?", questioned Yin.
"Of course."
She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, puffed her chest out, and stood bravely before the demons.
"I am the Yellow Dragon of the Sixiang, Guardian of the Jade Emperor, and ruler of the Center Mansion that resides within the Cosmos.", she proclaimed with gusto.
The brothers looked at one another, cheeks expanding before giving a guffaw. The girl blinked a few times in confusion as to why two demons would dare laugh at her. Was it something she said?
She crossed her arms and gave the brothers an annoyed glare.
"What's so humorous that you find amusing?"
"Ohohhohoho. Nothing, nothing-you just said you were a dragon. A guardian that serves the emperor and lives in some fancy schmancy mansion!", Yin said as he kept laughing.
"With piles of treasure and thousands of servants that wait underhand and claw for you, hahahahaha!" chuckled Jin.
"Actually, it's more like a hundred th-now wait just a minute!," stomping her foot on the ground, taking a step toward the brothers, "Do you truly not believe me!? Do you have any idea who stands before you that you'd dare insult!?"
"Oh, we know who stands before us? A delusional little girl who thinks she's a cosmic dragon."
"If she's a dragon. I bet she'll float in mid-air if we toss her off this stage to see if she's telling the truth," suggested Jin.
"Great idea, Jin! If she floats, she's telling the truth; if she doesn't...Well, that proves our point."
The two brothers devilishly chuckled, claws out as they approached the girl. She took a step back, but didn't lose her composure. If these demons won't believe her word, then she'll have to make them believe the hard way.
Just as Yin and Jin were about to pounce on her, she swiftly stepped to the side, causing the brothers to fall to the ground. Grabbing their opposite horns, to her surprise, she effortlessly rose them up above her head as they wailed about like fish dangling from a fishing line.
Major plus on retaining her dragon strength! Now those demons are gonna be in for a world of hurt.
"Would you settle for a dragon's strength that has lifted you two up like two mangy feathers!?," she said as she gave them a stare that'll give one goosebumps.
"Oowwowoowwo! Wow! Y--yy-ou are strong!"
"Owowoowow! P--Please! W-we-we're sorry! Can you put us down!?", cried Yin.
"I'll put you down if you promise you won't try anything funny?"
"We-we promise!", said Jin.
"Cross our hearts and hope not to die, now please put us down!", said Yin.
She slowly brought the brothers back to their feet, unlocking her grip from their horns. The brothers let out a sigh of relief rubbing their opposite horn.
"I'm sorry I had to be rough, but you were trying to grab me to see if I can float and to answer your question-I can, but I can't do it right now. I'm still figuring this whole 'new body' situation I got going on.", she explained.
"Would that explain why you were walking funny earlier like you were walking through mud," Yin said.
Her cheeks flared up as she turned her head away for a moment.
"Y--yyou saw that?"
"Yep, saw you crawling to the mirror to hoist yourself up.", Jin said.
"Like I said-Still getting used to this body especially walking on two legs when you don't got a second set to help you out.", she said to the brothers.
"When you said you were getting used to this body-what do you mean by that?"
"All I remember is waking up in your home, on a couch in this garment that nearly twisted my legs and when I saw my reflection-I was some kind of human...Well, okay, not human entirely, but almost like you, but...between?"
She tried her best to explain, but what would you call yourself if your neither human nor demon?
"I say between the two.," Yin answered.
"Okay, so from what we got-you woke up and found yourself here in our home. Out of anywhere in anyplace in the known world-you woke up here?", said Jin as he tried to simplify what she told them.
"Yes?....I don't know why I ended up here nor why I have this form, but there has to be a reason....I-I just don't know at the moment. I should of....I mean, I shouldn't even be..."
Before she could finish her sentence, a loud, grumbling growl spoke from inside her. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, her face turning bubblegum pink.
"P-Pardon me...It appears that I am in need of nourishment, " she said as she tried not to meet their gaze.
"Wow, and I thought Jin's stomach growled louder than mine. Well, your stomach sure sounds beastly, that's for sure.", Yin said.
"Indeed it does...the question now is what kind of food can this body take?" she questioned.
What can she eat? Food wasn't a problem back at the palace. Servants prepared an array of exquisite dishes: Roasted chicken the size of a house, mountains of fruit, and the sweetest wine that tickled her insides.
She never had to worry about food until now. What was she to give her new form, and can it stomach what it will receive?
"Leave the food to us, Missy. It just so happens we got some dumplings in the fridge a few days close to retirement," Jin proclaimed.
Yin carefully grasped her arm and led her to the couch. Brushing off the fresh dust, he went up behind her, hands on her shoulders, and slowly plopped her down on the furniture.
"You just take a nice breather while we prep the food. Think of it as a means to make up for being rough on ya," Yin told her with a sheepish grin.
"And I shall accept whatever you and your brother have, but please-don't make a feast of it. Even a small morsel will suffice."
"Welp, dumplings are small and packed with meat, so those will suffice you plenty.", he said before zipping off after his brother as they head toward the kitchen.
She watched the brothers vanish into the kitchen, leaning her head back and gazing at the open ceiling absentmindedly.
This had got to be the weirdest day in all her lifetime: Waking up as a semi-human, meeting two comical, non-threatening brothers, and now dealing with a hungry stomach.
No matter what the brothers will cook for her, she will accept their gift with open jaws.