Chapter 16: The End of Training, Signs of Trouble 153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSbTGtFiuy
2 Months had passed and Mai, Tar and the other male villagers including Ge and Lee had finished their training, many of the lady villagers had not seen some of the men for a considerable amount of time, others of the men periodically went down and up the hill to consult with the women on news of their training. Now, it was finally over and Zar gave a sigh of relief.
“That was harder than I thought it would be...” He thought to himself. Tar seeing his brother trying to catch a break used the opportunity to test his newfound abilities, and zapped Zar with a little electric shock.
“OUCH! Cheeky bugger!”
“Ha, incredible... It really works!”
“Don’t get any ideas Brother Tar, I best not see you playing around with these abilities in a childish manner.”
“Do I look childish to you?”
“Come to think of it Tar, now that you ask, yes, your entire demeanour has become immensely youthful.”
“Indeed, in-fact, the first thing I noticed in the ripples of our local lake was that I had become far more youthful and fairer looking than I usually am. Mai is over the moon with her transformation and the men are all suddenly pandering to her newfound beauty, but I have a hunch she only has eyes for you...”
“Who, Mai? Me? Ha, you sure are funny Brother Tar.”
“Mhm, anyway Zar, what are your plans now?”
“Yes, there is a pressing issue I must discuss with you in private, but for now, we are going to charge the plants that were planted by our sisters, let us do that first so we have food to put in the cellar by the end of the next 7 days.”
“Very well.” replied Tar earnestly, and with that, Tar, Zar and many others who were standing around chatting idly begun walking down the hills together to the northern farm where the bulk of the crops were growing.
“Now Greater Men and Greater Mai, remember, only at less than 1% flow rate, otherwise you will destroy the crops cells!” With their orders, they went off, Lee remaining ever sceptical and Ge attempting to comfort his barrage of questions. “I think Lee is still a little disorientated by all of this.” Zar said quietly to Tar laughing to himself.
“Yes, haha, he is.” replied Tar as he wondered off in search of crops to imbue. Zar observed, the fruits of his labour before him, he felt as though the power his village was growing.
At Zar’s peripheral, came sounds of footsteps running, Zar looked toward the direction of the footsteps and saw a concerned face approaching him, it was a Greater Lady, specifically the one who had spoken to the young Guard several times over the last months. The Greater Lady eventually reached Zar, took a few breaths and begun.
“Grand Elder Zar, I should have you know I have learnt of some concerning things of our future; may we speak in private.” Zar thought privately that she had somehow discovered the plan of the Lions and Serpents sect but braced himself with patience hoping it was not the case, he had not planned to break the news yet - instead, he was only planning on telling Tar who was currently busy with the crops.
“Alright Greater Sister, let us go to somewhere more private and discuss that which does not sit well with your heart.” After finding a spot on the hills under an old but dead tree, they begun speaking at the view of the many villagers who were attending to the crops in the North Field.
“I had spoken with that young Guard over the many months during which you were training our Men and Greater Mai. He warned me of something, something rather concerning.”
“Before you continue Sister, I must ask that you did not disclose the events of our sect to this young Ploughing Sect Guard, did you?”
“No, no! I kept my mouth closed shut, only being very cryptic with my wording, he with great certainty, knows absolutely nothing!”
“Good, good, continue Sister, I am listening.”
“Well, he first said that he was positioned at our North Gate right by our largest field to observe the activities of our village. He taught me that the order came from his Sect Leader, Grand Elder Peat.” Zar nodding along listening deeply, “well, there was a time where the young Guard and his periodically visiting elder Guard stopped appearing, I wondered why for it was typical to see them at the same time we awake in the early hours of the morning, but for several days they did not turn up. Suddenly, the young Guard did, but his face was not the usual ‘bored out of his mind’ look, instead, it was a look of concern, I asked of his woes, and he replied:
“Fair Sister of another sect, I am sorry to say this but our Sect Leader Grand Elder Peat is planning a ‘visitation’ of your sect, hopefully you catch what I mean by visitation – because it will hardly be a visitation, he ordered all the information I have about your sect out of my me, and if I lied the elder Guard would notify his excellency and I would be stripped of my position. I told Grand Elder Peat of my observations and he had a gluttonous curious look upon his face. I tell you this as a warning, expect trouble, he not only has an appetite for food, but he also has an appetite for coin, women, land and control. I have a strong instinct that he aims to take over your land and have your women as his concubines that horrible specimen.”
Zar’s face was a picture of focused concern and slight anger, not toward the sister, but toward the distant future, he begun formulating a reply, “thank you Dearest Sister, with this information we can at-least be prepared, when did this intel arrive? When did the young Guard notify you of this dilemma?”
“Only 2 days ago Grand Elder, I had thought of notifying you instantly, but I figured it best to not disturb your training, I was going to notify you today anyway, but it turns out you were all coming down, I felt a sigh of relief... I... I do not want to become anyone-”
“Worry not Dearest Sister, you will not be bound by anyone without your consent, we men will deal with this gluttonous old Peat when he arrives, I am sure there is a way to drive him back home. For now, I must prepare for the evening meeting in context to this sudden news, considering this information is 2 days old, Peat may nearly have finished planning their small invasion, hopefully not...”
Greater Sister left and also left Zar with a lot on his mind, he decided to not bother telling Tar of the issues of the far future and instead focused on the issues of the present future.
Time passed.
“You may wonder why i have called you all here today, in many ways it is about time I congratulate you all on your hard work, our village looks far, far better than it ever has. To the north we have an array of crops growing in our largest field, to the East is our lake and the gate at-which we had our first successful mission, to the South is the Greater and Grand housing residence, and to the West is where we were once invaded by that terrible Powerhouse sect. All regions of our reasonable size of land have undergone dramatic improvements.
I thank you all for your hard work, as you are all well aware, beyond the East, North and West of our province - a significant amount of land is owned by our neighbours, the ploughing sect, the Southern land as you know gradually becomes mountainous so is not owned by anyone. The Ploughing Sect have not bothered with us for they considered us weak and a sect that would eventually die out soon, but recent news has reached the Ploughing Sect, news of our triumph, of the rise of our own Sect. Large Brick houses, flourishing crops – stronger looking people, all such informations have fallen on the ears of a certain individual of the Ploughing Sect who wishes to inspect our village, however, it is predicted that this ’inspection’ may be an attempt to steal treasures and women of our Sect.” Many gasps were heard as Zargaith reeled off the news to his brothers and sisters who had been called for an urgent evening meeting. Zargiath continued.
“Indeed, this is shocking, but i believe strongly that we will have the advantage. The invaders Sect Leader is known as Peat, ‘Grand Elder Peat’ to be exact, he apparently is a large old man who has a nasty appetite for more than just food. My plan is the following, firstly, we will hide the women – for the next few days only men are allowed to tend to the fields. This will include you Sister Mai, for you Dearest Mai will need to protect the undefended in case one of their men slips through our defence. During your sheltering, I request ye Sisters do any works that can only be done indoors, quite frankly, we need new sets of clothes, the old-ragged cloth we wear today are no good – perhaps this is a good opportunity for such a thing. 153Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwGaddiYIPT
Whilst the sisters of our sect are sheltered, the brothers of our village will stand guard at the west, east and northern gates awaiting the arrival of the Ploughing Sect, when you see anything, you must send a loud whistle, we will gather and prepare ourselves in a formation we will practice and prepare for an inevitable battle of words and potentially might. Allow only Me and Tar to do the talking, especially you Lee...” Lee’s face grew confused and ambient chuckles emitted from many directions which lifted the spirits of everyone, “once we have dealt with this situation, everything can go back to normal, I am through.”
A respectful and steady clap grew in loudness and then settled in quietness, people begun talking, chatting and eventually separated – understanding the plan in full and hoping that it would all be over before it started.
“Troubles already beginning, eh?” Pondered Tar aloud as Tar, Zar, Pam and Lam begun walking to their residency high up the southern hill.
“Yep, and all too soon! Things were going so well, too well perhaps, time flew past - I have hardly noticed.” Replied Pam, Lam nodding quietly for she would usually nod quietly.
Zar intervened, “well... Eventually something was bound to happen. I did not want to mention it during the meeting, but Tar, tell all the men to not display their abilities unless it is absolutely necessary, and if they do, tell them to ensure that whoever bears witness is either silenced or brought to me when I am not busy with Peat.”
“Understood, we must take insane precaution, the last thing we would want is people knowing that we, the Giaths, still hold the sacred knowledge of Qi, even if it is in its simplest of forms.” Replied Tar.
“Indeed, this would only cause incredible trouble and increase our infamousness.” Replied Lam, Zar this time nodding along.
The morning rays would soon rise...
End of Chapter 16.
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