It had been one week since the failed raid at the mountain. Today would be the first night Ed and Adel would be spending in the complete house. The house which had been completed much faster than the expected with the help of 20 able bodied men.
On the topic of these men, their living conditions had changed a lot from the first ever morning in the peak, which they called the Sibling’s kingdom amongst themselves. Currently everyone other than Lao Qing, and a lucky guy were living in tents for 3 people. They got three sumptuous meals a day and were able to communicate with their family once a day. They were made to work hard but essentially their life here wasn’t so bad. They had freedom to talk about anything they wanted whenever they wanted.
Even though they were essentially in a labor camp their captors here treated them many times better than their bosses and superiors in the city.
Amongst the laborers Lao Qing got the best treatment. Not simply because Edward liked him but because he worked the hardest, but most importantly he simply saw them as humans. It wasn’t easy for him at first but after seeing the siblings interact with each other he couldn’t help but feel that they were simply young adults that tried their best to live on their own.
They never did anything to threaten anyone. To him it became clear that whoever sent him on the raid mission was in the wrong. They had simply luckily gained something and were trying to figure it out as they went.
It was on the lunch break that Lao Qing, instead of doing the usual chatting and eating with his fellow laborers, he ate as quickly as he could and got up from his seat. They where seating near the beginning of the path down and the house was a few hundred meters to the north.
Lao Qing made sure the siblings noticed him as he didn’t want them to feel threatened and raised his hands while yelling, as he walked. “I want to talk to you!!”
Ed and Adel looked up from their table and looked at Lao Qing who was walking towards them. They looked at each other, not really sure what was going on, both shrugged and got up to meet him.
“This may be bewildering but…. Mr. Edward and Ms. Adel… please take me in.“ Lao Qing solemnly said as he bowed down, 90 degrees in front of them.
“…. Uhm… What about your family? Job? And what exactly do you want to do here?”
“I….-“ lao Qing tried to put his thoughts into words.
“Listen here… My brother thinks you are a man of character but that doesn’t change the fact that you threatened his life. Not yet is my answer. I hope you understand.”
Lao Qing didn’t take any time to get what Adel was trying to say. It was true that there was no trust between them. It wasn’t just the possibility of him betraying them and returning to his job now armed with their knowledge as well as fact that they simply didn’t know him enough to let him live close to them.
Thus Lao Qing bowed once again and left, sitting back down on his chair an resuming conversation with his fellow policemen. He had left Ed and Adel with the words, “I will not disappoint!”
Suddenly though a flock of birds flew up from their trees. With them the forest in that area exploded in sounds as many animals, insects and birds became restless. The area where this was happening was straight ahead from where Ed and Adel where standing, opposite of the house, and basically to the right of the workers.
It was a steep incline and generally nothing came out of that part since most animals didn’t bother to climb it, and even if they did they didn’t really want to get close to humans and the constant hammering and general noise coming from the building had scared animals off.
Ed knew that something bad was happening though. Not many things could be possible, so his mind went to the worst.
HE walked forward in caution as his heart started beating faster. Adrenaline started rising. It all reached a peak when the foliage on the edge started moving. When a big grey-black, with a hint of something else, wolf staggered forward Ed felt a weird mixture of emotions. Fear at the 1 and something meter tall predator growling at him and relief at the fact that it wasn’t a bear.
It walked forward slowly as it looked at Ed in the eyes. It growled and showed its teeth. Its ears pointed up and back as it arched its back upwards. Trying to appear as big as possible.
‘Wait…. Isn’t that what an animal does when feeling threatened?’ Ed though suddenly to himself and he noticed clearly that there were some peculiarities with the wolf. Blood, dark red blood was dripping down from its thick fur.
Edward then understood that the wolf had somehow been injured. He looked at it in eyes with a much different look this time. What had to be done wouldn’t change though, Edward arched his back down and entered a stance similar to the wolf.
Even though he needed to be focused on it for some reason he felt that it wouldn’t charge first. This gave him the tie to focus on how to beat it. Edward had managed to discover in the one week since the raid that his own fire didn’t directly hurt him. If a tree started burning though and he placed his hand there he would get burned.
Armed with that knowledge though Edward had formed many different ideas in his mind. There was no better chance to try them.
Edward put strength in his left leg and pushed. He launched himself forward, breaking off into a sprint. The wolf growled loudly as its opponent fearlessly charged ahead. Putting all the strength it had left it charged towards him.
As they were about to meet with its originally agile body it sidestepped to the side and sent its claws at the enemy’s legs.
Edward jumped diagonally upwards and over the claws as he rolled in the ground with his back, turning around and facing the wolf now much closer. It growled in pain from exerting its wounds when, as it was close enough, it dashed forward with one push from its legs. A gaping maw suddenly appeared in front of the crouched down Edward.
Truth be told Edward was anxious from the moment he laid eyes upon the wolf. But once the wolf jumped at him and its breath reached his face the training he had done he past week to make his muscles remember this attack kicked in.
He placed his arms behind him and slid on the ground with his legs passing below the wolfs head. Right at that moment both of his heels dug into the ground and stopping him.
Normally one wouldn’t have the propulsion needed to do any damage from that position. Right as the wolf was about to bite down, Edward smiled as he knew he had succeeded.
A small candle like flame came into existence below his right heels. That incredibly small flame, that looked as if it was coming out of his leg, grew in a span of milliseconds. The ground around it was charred immediately as the heat almost melted the dirt.
In a deafening thunder, it was all over. Edwards Legs flew up and laned with devastating force on the wolfs stomach. With a pained whimper the wolf flew to the air.
It peaked at 20 meters high as it started falling down, right on top of where Edward had been. It hit the ground and fainted, the combination of the kick, the fall and the wounds it had had before the fight had been enough to nearly kill it.
Instead of killing it though Edward picked the wolf up and went at the back side of his house where he took out first-aid kits in an effort to heal it.
“You didn’t tell me you could to that Ed.” Adel came over and said, harrumphing and turning her face to the side at the same time.
“Ah…. Sorry. I wanted to surprise you.” Ed said while scratching the back of his head.
“Hahaha! Not that it matters! Here, look!” Adel said as she crouched down close to the wolf and closing her eyes to concentrate. A green ball of energy gathered in her hands before spreading out and surrounding the wolf. The plants, mostly grass, where the Qi touched started growing and changing as small pink flowers appeared on top of the grass.
The growing grass went under the wolf and picked her up as it grew to surround it. A lot of the flowers going and hiding the wounds from the environment. At that point Adel let her hands, that where moving around to help her control, fall to the ground as she swayed to the side and fell onto Ed. Her breath growing faint and rugged as complete exhaustion tool her over.
At the same time her control fell all of the grass stopped moving around and most shrunk or withered as the wolf touched the ground yet again, though this time all of her open wounds had numerous little pink flowers covering them.
“Sis! Wow! You improved so much!” Ed said in utter amazement at what he had just seen his sister pull off.
“You’re exaggerating…. compared to you I am…. This drained after one move…” Adel struggled to say in between deep breaths.
“How did you come to the idea of healing?”
“You aren’t the only person on earth to ever play games or read fantasy Ed.” She said after having taken some time to gather herself, enough to retort at least.
Edward hadn’t really known that his sister ever played any games, but if he could she could as well so he dropped the matter and picked her up to place her on her bed. She had exerted herself in order to do what she did and needed some sleep.
After letting her sleep in her bed Edward went out and decided it was time to end the laborer’s extended break and get to work. Adel wouldn’t wake up now that she fell asleep and so it wouldn’t cause any issues. Not to mention that the house, now that it was nearly finished turned out to be really big.
It essentially was a Japanese villa, but it had many modern arts. One example would be the house that worked as a second floor but was barely connected to the main house and would be used as a library/office area, it is built upon wooden support and is connected via a small wooden staircase to the main building, creating the image that it is floating. The house had many bathrooms, a sauna along with many newly added extensions that were underway, almost finished, like a garden type cultivation room for Adel and furnace type cultivation room for Ed.
If the pace was kept up they could finish by nightfall but when the wolf woke up Ed would have everyone take a break so he can short things out. Delaying the completion for one more day but Edward knew that it wasn’t delaying anything since their base here would be forever extending as they needed more things as well as because they allowed more people to stay.
