In a small puddle, two creatures cleaned themselves on opposite sides. On one side a human scrubbing his feet with the water, every few minutes he"d bend down to smell his feet before scrubbing again. On the other side, a rabbit with a horn cleaned mud from its fur.From time to time they would make eye contact and have a staring contest with each other. In these exchanges Zhao Wei would always lose as the smell would always cause his eyes to tear up.
After 30 minutes of constant scrubbing, Zhao Wei suddenly threw down the cloth he was using to scrub.
"[email protected]&?#! What do you eat!? How come no matter how hard I scrub it never comes off!?" Zhao Wei pointed at it.
In retaliation it held it"s paw up at Zhao Wei. "Chi Chi Chi, Chi Chi Chi...", it started scolding, pointing at it"s body parts where it had lost clumps of fur.
"Well you started it!!"
"Chi Chi Chi Chi CHII!!" Apparently, they"ve had this argument a few times before causing the rabbit to lose its cool.
"I did no such thing, I just thought I saw something moving in the can and was startled into throwing it."
The rabbit"s mouth gaped at the shamelessness of the human. If it had a mouth it"d say "$&!%#, you"re arguing with a rabbit, a frickin rabbit!!"
"And I don"t think I can call you you all the time, so I have to find a name." Zhao Wei said, looking superior.
"Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi."
"Unless you didn"t catch it! I don"t speak rabbit!! How am I supposed to know how to say your name!?"
"ChiiChiChiii," It squeaked while pointing at itself.
"ChiChiChi?" Zhao Wei tried to imitate.
It shook its head. "ChiiChiChiii."
"ChiiiChiiiChiii?"
"CHIICHICHIII!!" It snapped.
"Screw this!, I don"t speak rabbit and you"re scolding me!?"
" Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi Chi"
"I"ll have you know I did well in school, the teachers just didn"t like how smart I was and knocked my grades down." Although Zhao Wei sounded confident, he couldn"t look straight at the rabbit.
"That"s it, from now on I will call you Panda, maybe you"d calm down a little."
"Chi Chi Chi Chi!?"
"Well with that black eye you look like a panda anyway." Zhao Wei said as he walked away laughing.
While he walked he did not feel the evil intent approaching him.
Under the cliff, the animals that were spooked gathered again. But they were destined not to gather here as a human scream rang out this time causing them to disperse in all directions again.
Half way through the morning Zhao Wei was training on the hill. He couldn"t go down again today so he waited to recover fully before attempting to again. The high heat beat against his body, making him sweat by the buckets every minute he trained under it. With every training, he exerted himself as much as he possibly could before he fell out of strength, charging when he was recovering his breathe. He could probably be in a movie training montage if not for his swollen left eye.
Despite taking a beating, whenever the rabbit came by he still called it by the name panda. Even it was astonished by the human"s perseverance at making fun of it.
If Zhao Wei was honest, he"d actually enjoyed having the rabbit around. Although he"d pushed himself, he was still within the first stages of affecting the changes in his world, it"s presence was a little comforting to him.
Additionally Zhao Wei got a little practice everytime it tried to beat him. After everytime they fought, Zhao Wei would get a little bit better and last a little bit longer. Sometimes he would even be able to dodge a one or two hits.
By the 20th beating or so, it no longer beat Zhao Wei because of the name, it had become interested by the human"s progress. After some time, Panda even needed to put in some effort as it could no longer just rush forward while Zhao Wei would wait for it.
What it couldn"t comprehend was that despite being beaten blue and black, the human still continued to challenge it, even provoking it purposely just so he could fight with it. Additionally, after every match he would pick himself up after a few seconds and start training again.
After a particularly harsh match. Zhao Wei didn"t stop to recuperate instead he stood up and shouted, "*! You must definitely have panda blood in you, else how would your hits be so heavy."
Panda was baited by this and rushed him thinking he was still weak from their last match. When it was about to reach him however, a familiar blue light shone from under it. On an instant it"s lower body had been wrapped like a dumpling.
It took a toll on Zhao Wei when he needed to charge the trap, so he never used it unless he was sure he would catch it. He wrapped it in cloth and prepared to dish out his revenge[1]. As he was prepared to do so he focused on its horn.
Through their spars it hadn"t used it"s horn, else after several spars there wouldn"t have been meat left on his bones. Turning around he looked at a specific pile he brought up the day before. Panda turned its head as well to look at what Zhao Wei was looking, a shiver suddenly went down its spine.
What it saw was a pile of sticks Zhao Wei had collected the day before. Of course in the new world with trees the size of scysc.r.a.pers, the sticks that fell were one and half arms thick and were at least as tall as a man.
He"d tried to make them into something by carving with his knife, but to no avail.
Like the tree, the sticks were tough as iron, all Zhao Wei could do was shave an inch of its outer layer after an hour of effort.
But looking at its horn, Zhao Wei had an idea. Yesterday when they had their first fight, this same horn had actually pierced the tree bark. Although speed played a role, it still meant the horn was sharp and tough enough to match the tree, while his knife had a few chips in it just making a mark. If he rushed a tree with the knife it"d probably bend first before he could even make a dent.
He walked over to Panda and held it to his head level, smiling very nicely.
But to Panda it might as well have signaled its doom.