Once she knocked out on his shoulders he held her and pa.s.sed her to Kitsi who took her back to her. Her face seemed lighter like a burden was taken off her shoulder.Zhao Wei himself entered his quarters to rest as some of the warriors were switching for the night watch. He slept heavily this time unlike usual, his senses would normally be on high alert ready to move at any time.
Tonight however he was a goner, maybe it was because he let his heart out or maybe it was because he was less worried about a beast attack because there was a camp of warriors around him.
He hadn"t dealt with people enough after the change to know that more of them became much darker as there was no longer any law.
"Zhao Wei where are you?... Zhao Wei...."
His eyes flickered open, light filtered in through the opening to his quarters. Someone was calling him from outside. The voice harmonious, echoing not only through the room but the back of his mind like a distant memory.
He picked himself up as Panda and Myra were still sleeping. Stepping outside his eyes were blinded by the morning light as he covered them with his hands.
As he gradually adjusted to the brightness, suddenly his eyes went wide. In front of him, that girl was standing over the railing. Black hair cascading down her back, the same shoulders he saw everytime he tried to remember her...
"N.. no... you can"t be here..."
"Zhao Wei?... Is that you?... where are you..."
He moved towards her slowly, he wanted to reach her but it felt like gravity had increased.
Her words became faster, like a recording on fast forward, "Zhao Wei, Zhao Wei, where are you Zhao Wei where are youZhaoWeiwhreareyiuzhauwaiweraru...."
The pitch kept increasing while the words became mashed up, the figures body became spasmodic. Just as his hand almost reached her she spun around, cold slender fingers wrapped around his hand.
His face distorted in fear as he gazed at a featureless face. There was all the grooves where the mouth, nose and eyes should be but it was like it was replaced with skin.
The voice still rang in his head, it was between rasping and groaning, "Zhao Wei... Where are you... you said you"d find me..."
The figure dissolved like a pillar of sand, seeping below the deck and vanishing. And in a moment it was quiet. There was no trace of anything that just happened as if it was a hallucination.
Zhao Wei looked left and right trying to find anything. Suddenly two hands latched on either of his shoulders, nails digging into his flesh. He was frozen stiff as a face emerged from the nothingness next to his head and whispered in his ears "Honey where are you..."
Immediately Zhao Wei woke up in a stupor, his whole body was drenched from head to toe, he could hear the blood pump in his ears. Myra stood a few steps away, body low and growling at him. Outside the entrance someone was knocking and shouting in panic, "Mr. w.a.n.g Zhao Hui! Are you there!?.."
Zhao Wei steadied his breathe, muttering under it, "It"s just a dream, it"s just a dream..."
Picking himself off his mattress he stepped towards the door and opened it to see Kitsi standing right in front, an air of urgency around her.
"Mr Zhao Wei please come with me!" She said grabbing his hand.
She pulled him towards where his vehicle was connected to the back storage, all the warriors had gathered around. As she pulled him past them he could see what was going on.
Three people were caught by Wrap Traps. Judging from their positions two of them tried to attack the connecting bridge had activated the Wrap Trap.
One more had tried to pull them out and tried to push off from the side of the walls and activated another Wrap Trap.
Once this happened the others didn"t want to get close for fear of getting caught as well. They were lucky they didn"t try to get through the door first as they wouldn"t just be caught but at least lose some limbs as Zhao Wei had placed the Bite Traps around that area.
Zhao Wei came and released them and they fell to the ground. What was surprising was that none of the three was part of the group of a.s.sasins.
He turned his eyes towards Kitsi and could immediately tell she took part in this, at the very least she knew what was going on as she kept breaking eye contact. Somebody moved in as the crowd parted to make way.
Eyisha came in. "What"s going on?..." She turned towards Zhao Wei who shifted his head in Kitsi"s direction.
"Kitsi?..." after not receiving an answer she had already figured out what"s going on.
Kitsi knew that it was pretty obvious so she kneeled down and bowed before Zhao Wei, "This was all my idea, I do not expect you to forgive me but I hope that you take your anger out on me alone..."
Zhao Wei was a little surprised by her honest reply to the situation. Few people would admit to what they had done.
As he was thinking Eyisha came over next to Kitsi. Kitsi was sweating as she felt a scolding coming. But as soon as Eyisha reached her, she bent down and kneeled as well, "It was my incompetence that led my aid to consider stealing, if anyone should be punished it should be me."
Suddenly a warrior came behind them and kneeled, "please punish me first."
"And me" another one came over.
"And me"
"And..."
"..."
One by one they all came. Only Zhao Wei felt the situation was weird. "Actually..." he said, they all turned to look up at him. "This is touching and all, but I"m not even sure what"s going on so if someone could just tell me the reason for this I think it would be fine..."
They all stared at him eyes wide open. All of them realized that they jumped into this way too eagerly and hadn"t really told him what was going on.
Eyisha as well remembered that she hadn"t told him anything about the food shortage in their village so she filled him in. It was the most awkward conversation he ever had as the other side was still kneeling.
"Oh... well you could"ve just asked, I was going to ask about going to Drasas anyway to meet your teacher anyway, you could"ve considered it a toll of entry.. Besides there"s only three of us, we don"t need this much food, I only brought it cause it would be a waste if the meat was left behind" It was such a simple answer that it blew everybody"s mind, their eyes were already opened wide, this time it was their mouth"s turn to drop.
Eyisha and Kitsi"s face went flushed, they forgot about yesterday"s conversation about letting him meet Guru.
Then they realized that he"d just given the ok to pa.s.s them the food that would save their village. Suddenly Eyisha bowed again "Thank you so much for your a.s.sistance, please allow us to call you our benefactor from now on."
The others bowed as well, "Thank you benefactor!!"
Zhao Wei couldn"t help but rub his temple, he couldn"t take it anymore, "Can"t any of you react normally!?"