Chapter 4: Interlude One: Monkey See, Monkey Help
!(Sun-Zhankun)[https://imgur.com/ZFlXg7q]
"Jeez, why would I name myself something like Sun Zhankun? I mean, it's unique and probably fits my lore, but maybe it's too unique and unmemorable! Why not choose something like Josh? At least then people couldn't get it wrong if they spread rumors about me. 'Did you hear about that monkey man, Josh? What a strange simple name, I hear he's an otherworlder' And such. But nooooo, I chose Sun Zhankun. 'Did you hear about that monkey man, sun, uhhhh, Sun hanky? Well, whatever his name is. Who cares about a person with a dumb name like that, ha ha ha' Damn it!" Sun "Josh" Zhankun started slapping his face with both hands in a fit of regret. He was already quite a ways away from the church he was summoned in and began to reflect upon his decisions thus far while traveling.
"I don't even know what I'm supposed to do! Aren't I supposed to have quests or something? Argh! Maybe if I played nice instead of being a badass I could've worked with the church. I probably wouldn't be alone right now I was nice! I don't even know where I'm going! Ahhhhhh!" He yelled up into the skies. He braced himself into a squat and then unleashed a huge force into his legs. This force propelled a jump hundreds of meters into the air and didn't harm him physically at all. "Let's see, I can see the church I came from over there… ah! A village? That's so far!" He began to descend from the air. Only to realize, he didn't know how to land. "Wait, ah, AH, AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Thump.
His body hit the floor and made an interesting looking crater.
"Hmm? That wathn't thoo bad" He spoke into the dirt.
He's been speaking to himself for quite a while now since he's been traveling alone. There's nothing else for him to do.
"I guess I really do have a super body… But I have no where to use it!!! Ahhh I should've at least gotten information! From that pope guy, sir, fraaaa, freee, fruuuu, damn it! I can't remember his name. Or his stupid church! All because I chose to name myself something unique and had to remember my own name!" Alas, gaining a new powerful body doesn't mean his mind is different from when he left his last world. He fell to his knees in frustration. He was about to cry when he suddenly remembered. "Rivelakia! The kingdom! I know the kingdom's name!" He stood up proudly, but then realized that he didn't have anyone to ask and then slumped over while walking towards the village he saw. If he put his all into it, he probably could run over to the village in no time, but he had no motivation for it.
"Gods, if you're out there, give me a sign or something." He closed his eyes and prayed whilst in his stride. Suddenly, due to his enhanced hearing, he heard a cry for help in the distance. It sounded bad, but not far enough that he couldn't reach it in time. He instantly bolted into a sprint, leaving behind huge dust clouds and craters due to his explosive energy. He was super focused on the voice that he blew past a forest.
It wasn't long until he reached the caller. It was a pair of teenage siblings, both beat and bruised. They weren't human, they had a scaly tail and wings, but other than that looked fairly human. They were dressed in clothes that looked like they were made in a forest using only forest materials. There were a dozen or so men surrounding the pair, fully armoured and brandishing their deadly weapons. The sister stood in front of her brother, bleeding from the mouth, but had a strong sense of grit.
"Stop it! Or I-I'll kill you all!" She weeped with no true backing to his words.
"Ah? Heh heh heh. These are dragonkin? I thought they were supposed to be tough!!"
"Yeah, the only thing they can do is take a beating!" One of them said as he kicked the kid to the floor.
"You can't even fight to protect your sibling? Pathetic! You're lucky you're worth more alive!" The disgusting man laughed. This didn't deter the young dragonkin girl, as she stood up and spit blood into the offender's face. "You little shit!" He backhand slapped the girl back onto the ground. "You're worth a lot dead too! Plus it's the boy who's worth real money!"
"Y-you! You, won't get away!" She stood back up, but her stance was incredibly fragile.
"You're not giving up huh? Well, dead it is then! MEN! ATTACK!"
"NOOOOOOOO!!" The young dragonkin boy yelled.
The dozen or so men all held their weapons up high all ready to stab into the young woman.
Suddenly, there was a crash between them and the girl and a large dirt cloud covered the field.
"This is your chance, Nasha run!" The young dragonkin boy yelled to his sister.
"I can't leave you here Abel!" Nasha responded to him crying.
"My oh my. It seems that there was an unpleasant situation going on here." The dirt cloud started to settle. In the center of it was the apeling otherworlder. "That's no way to treat kids now is it?"
The men started to regain their composure after being surprised and caught off guard from the hero's landing.
"Oh? One guy? Against all of us?" The crowd of men bolstered in laughter. "You got guts, monkey man, I'll even tell the other guys about you if you give us your name?"
"Ha, my name? It's Sun Zhankun! And you'll be lucky if you can remember it after this!"
"You're going to take us on? Idiot! I was going to let you live, but since you disrespected us, attack!"
"NO! Zhankun, get out of here! We're not worth it!" Abel screamed to him.
Huh? Maybe this name suits me better than I thought.
One of the men charged at Sun Zhankun and swung his club full force at him.
"NOOOO!" The siblings pleaded.
Too fast to comprehend, Sun Zhankun deflected and broke the club with just one finger. "Oh? Is this your strength? Even 100 men this strong wouldn't stand a chance." He chuckled, then flicked the attacker away. The body flew and tumbled 10 or so meters.
"WHAT? You think that's intimidating? That guy was the weak. How do you think you'd handle all of us you lucky punk!" They all began to charge the hero.
"No… way…" Abel muttered out, barely holding on to his consciousness. Nasha ran towards Abel to protect him.
It wasn't even a battle. The fighting began and ended in the span of 10 seconds. Sun Zhankun didn't even draw his own weapon. One after the other, although they seemed to all think they were attacking simultaneously, were all attacking at various intervals that were easily perceived by Zhankun's superior perception. He deflected and broke many weapons with one finger, and flicked the bodies away before another weapon even had a chance at making contact. The last attacker was the one who yelled the most about their power. Yet, he was the slowest to attack, or perhaps too scared to attack first. Zhankun didn't flick him away after deflecting his attack. Instead he pushed him over just with the air of intimidation.
The man fell backwards and tried to crawl away in fear. His armored legging began to leak.
"Pathetic."
"Please, don't kill us! It's just a job, I swear! We needed money for our families! I'll do anything! Kill the rest of them, just let me live!" His pleading could use some work. He was not exactly a good person , yet Zhankun couldn't just kill a man. He slowly walked towards the man and then bent over him when the man couldn't back up anymore.
His face was inches away from the man, who was crying and drooling snot everywhere.
"Hmmmmm. Remember-"
The man's pathetic face turned into an evil grin, as he threw sand into Zhankun's face with one hand and used the other to grab a dagger from behind him and swung it into Zhankun's throat. He felt the knife hit flesh and let out a maniacal laugh. When the dust cleared, it was revealed that the knife only hit Zhankun's finger. Then, he grabbed the knife with his finger and thumb and broke it in half. The man's face quickly reverted back into a pitiful feeble face.
"-my name. Sun… Zhankun."
"S-s-s-sun Zhankun! I'll remember it!"
"Good. Congratulations, you made me use more than one finger. Here's your reward." Sun Zhankun slowly started to stand back up and then suddenly jerked his head forward, headbutting the man into unconsciousness. "Ah jeez, hopefully he lives from that. I barely put any force into that hit."
"Th-thank you!" Nasha yelled at Sun Zhankun! "How can we repay you?!"
"Oh, you guys? You don't have much do you?"
"N-no.." Nasha was the only one conscious.
"Then, how about you come with me? As companions?"
Her eyes lit up in surprise and happiness. "Really?! We'll go! You're not going to sell us right?"
"After all that work just to save you? No way. Come on, do you need to be carried?"
"Mmmm-mmm! I can walk. But my brother here, I think he does."
"No problem!" He leisurely walks over to the siblings and throws her brother over his shoulder. "Oh yeah, what are your names? And what's your deal?"
"I'm Nasha and you're holding my brother Abel. We're dragonkin." A really rare race of sentient beings that are constantly hunted for slave work, breeding, food, and a lot more terrible things. "We live in the forest, but we were seen by these humans recently and they sent these people after us." Nasha was a pretty looking girl. She was shorter than Sun Zhankun, but not by much, since he isn't that tall to begin with. Her hair was a light pink, unlike anything he had seen before. It was long and would seem to be very flowy, but was braided into a long thick braid complimented by flowers. Her eyes were a deep red, but they were kind and not violent looking at all. Her tail was slender and her wings small. They were both scaly, with hot pink color. Her brother Abel was the same height as her. He was as rugged as a teenager could be described, but under that ruggedness was a handsome young man. His hair was green and very shaggy. His tail was thick and strong, but his wings were the same size as Nasha's. They were a dark green, more akin to the color of scales of lizards.
"Dragonkin? Aren't you guys supposed to be strong?"
"I believe so yes, but we're only teenagers "
Sun Zhankun himself wasn't that much older than a teen, though he couldn't let them know that.
"Alright, well, do you at least know where we are? Or perhaps where Rivelakia is?"
"Mmmmmmmm, nope! Heh heh…" She smiled embarrassingly at him.
"Oh well, we'll have to go to a village then. Don't worry, I won't let you two out of my sight!"
"Okay! I'll put my trust into you!" She then clung onto his arm.
He didn't have much interaction with women in his past life, so this sensation was very new to him. So was all the fighting, but this specific one made him feel fuzzy inside. He tried to ignore it as much as possible though.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! I'm back to square one in terms of what to do. At least I saved two people, but wait, now I have to take care of two people! Ah! And I cemented my name as Sun Zhankun! That could've been my chance to become Josh, but no, I had to be badass and use my first name. At least I was pretty cool. I'm not wishing that I killed that guy, but it would be cool if he forgot my name, then I could be Josh. Ah frick, that church guy still knows me. Maybe he forgot? I forgot his name and it seemed pretty memorable. Whatever, now I have dragonkin to look after. Who would've thought that I would have two super attractive companions so short after being summoned! Now it doesn't matter that I have almost no charisma whatsoever. Well, they do need actual clothes though. Perhaps things that would hide their dragon extremities. I'll worry about it later, when I can do something about it.
And so, the trio, rather the duo with the third on Sun Zhankun's shoulder, walked towards what he believed was the direction of a village.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
principleshark
principleshark I remember really enjoying writing the inner dialogue of Zhankun. It just felt so real to me and emotions that I would feel in this situation. I also had art commissioned for my dragonkin kids, but it never came to fruition unfortunately. There's still quite a bit of commissioned work coming up though!
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