"C'mon, buddy! I need these stones to build a very important thing!"

Nun refused to move off of his rock pile. The insolent monkey stuck his tongue out at me, stretching out as far as his thin limbs could go.

I growled at him, but he was unbothered, staring up at me dispassionately.

"You're breaking your contract, you know! You're supposed to provide resources so you can build this stuff!"

The Stone-Shaper Monkey harrumphed and turned his head away.

Why the heck was he allowed to ignore my orders like this? I'd wasted valuable time trying to convince this darn monkey to give up his rocks and just refused to listen. This was totally violating the contract but nooo. Nun wouldn't move and I couldn't force him to.

But maybe force wasn't the way to go. And neither was begging. No, the only way to get this beast to do what I wanted was to be a nuisance. A little trick I picked up from my days of babysitting: when threatening, begging, or anything else doesn't work, your last choice of getting a three-year-old to eat her vegetables is to become a pest. I hadn't quite mastered the art, but I knew enough to bother my simian partner.

Crouching down, I poked Nun's stomach, directly on the stone patch growing around his belly button. He swatted my hand away but it came back, this time with a second finger. The monkey grumbled and turned on its back. I tugged at his tail. When he tried to yank it away, I wrapped my hand around the tip and tugged a little harder.

He leaped up with a muted screech. I let go, startled at this uncanny display of aggression. But then the little monster jumped on me.

He tackled me, throwing us both back against the ground. Then he set off to pounding at my chest, screeching all the while. I grabbed at his arms, yelling in defiance as I tried to pull him off. He slipped out of my grip with ease and flung out his legs so his feet pressed against my arms, pinning them down.

"What is wrong with you?" I yelled, trying to get my arms out from under his monkey feet.

Nun only responded with another screech before raising his hands toward the sky. Yellow energy collected in his palms, forming two brightly colored globes on his finger joints and palms. I watched, fascinated, as the globes flattened and rapidly spread against his skin, encasing his entire hands in the yellow-hued substance.

Wait. Wasn't one of his abilities something like...[Whole Hand Earth Slap]? Oh, my gosh! Was Nun trying to kill me?

I yanked my arms free from his feet grip and grabbed his wrists before he could slap me to death. He struggled fiercely against me; I wouldn't have long before he managed to overpower me. I needed to stop him, and fast.

"Hey!" I said, forcing every bit of fear out of my voice. He froze, the battle-frenzy in his big brown eyes fading somewhat. "Not. Cool."

At my stern tone, he sheepishly released the gathered energy back to wherever it came from inside of him - cultivators were weeeeird - and dropped his arms. I pushed him gently off of my chest and sat up. Ah, wait, no, let's lie back down.

I laid straight with a groan, pressing one arm against my chest. Nun may be small, but those fists of his did a number on my body. Luckily, nothing felt broken but I'd definitely be bruised.

My stomach growled, reminding me yet again I hadn't had anything to eat lately. Just great.

The monkey scampered away before plopping his butt between me and the stone pile. I sighed.

I gave up, unwilling to fight with him any longer. "Fine," I griped.  "Keep your rocks. I'll just find a-"

Nun screeched at me, throwing up his hands as if to say, Have it your way, then! He scooted around until his back was facing me. I couldn't see what he was doing but I could see the pale golden hue coming from in front of him, similar to the one that had appeared on his hands.

Intrigued, I asked, "What are you doing?"

He hissed at me to shut up, so I kept quiet and waited for him to finish. The mysterious process took a long and boring twenty minutes before the yellow light went out and Nun slumped against whatever he'd been working on. Grunting and groaning, I slowly got to my feet and stumbled over to him.

It was getting so dark I could hardly see it. I nudged his body off of the new construct with my foot and the unconscious monkey flopped onto the ground. I grinned, but not at the sight of the fast asleep simian - although that was pretty funny too. No, I got an even better sight in the remnants of the fading light.

⌈Large stone x1 acquired!⌋