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Mei sat leaning against the cliff face and gulped down her water before trying to recover her breath. She had been sparring with Macaque all morning and they had finally stopped for a break. Today’s training was hand to hand combat but with a focus on using her dragon abilities to enhance her strength.
Her dragon abilities had come on leaps and bounds since she’d finally bit the bullet and talked to her parents about it. Her mother had since taken a keen interest in her training, putting aside time every Saturday morning for them to train together.
The time spent together mostly consisted of family history and breathing exercises but honestly it was probably the best quality time she’d ever had with her mother. It was like she had been waiting for the moment for Mei to express an interest in her heritage.
Which felt pretty unfair, because Mei had always been interested in being a kick butt dragon, but up until recently her parents had tried to make being a dragon out to be the most boring thing in the world. It was all about rules and image and propriety, and it was just the worst!
But despite still being a little bit bitter with her parents, overall, she was happy to be spending time with her mother, especially when that time was spent unlocking the full potential of her abilities.
What had become apparent very quickly however was that dragon abilities were inseparable from the breath. If she wanted to tap into and control her abilities, she needed to have total mastery of her breathing. Which meant lots of sitting as her mother guided her through breathing exercises.
She would never admit it, but she was grateful that Macaque had insisted on mindfulness as part of her training regime. It had largely taken the form of martial art and weapon forms, which is probably the only reason she had initially gone along with it – at least she could then apply what she learned to actual fighting.
However, as frustrating as it could still be at times, she couldn’t deny that moving through forms had helped sharpen her focus and improved her patience which she absolutely needed to get through the breathing exercises. She had thought Macaque was a strict teacher, but he was nothing compared to her mother.
When the results were being able to breathe fire and punch holes through mountains though? Well, she could deal with just about any level of boredom or frustration that came with training with her mother.
So far, she had gotten pretty good with the breath control required to enhance her strength, but it was much easier to punch through a brick wall when you could take a moment beforehand to breathe and your target wasn’t trying to dodge or attack you.
And the bad guys weren’t going to just stand there and let her hit them so thus today’s training exercise with Macaque. She was probably successful using her enhanced strength in combat about a quarter of the time, which while an improvement on none of the time, showed she still had plenty to work on. The only way to improve was to keep practicing and thankfully she had numerous friends "willing to volunteer" as moving targets.
She would have liked to dedicate more of her training time with Macaque to improving her dragon abilities, but he wouldn’t allow it. In fact, the only time she had dared suggest that she was getting so good at everything else, that she could afford to cut back on her other training and focus more on this; Macaque had put her through such hellish drills that she actually cried herself to sleep when she went to bed that night.
She’d received the message loud and clear – she still had a long way to go with all of her training. And while she had cursed Macaque out for days afterwards, she had gained a new appreciation for his normal teaching style. It was perfectly tailored to her level – challenging enough that she was never bored but not so difficult that she would be put off.
She of course was never going to tell him this but, infuriatingly she was sure she didn’t need to, the smug asshole probably knew.
So, no extra dragon training on Macaque’s time.
Which wasn’t actually that big a deal except for the fact, as previously mentioned, he was an unreasonably good teacher. She and MK had tried to figure it out, since as far as they both knew he’d never trained anyone else but to be fair that didn’t say much. There was loads they didn’t know about Macaque – maybe he did have significant experience as a teacher but despite the fact he was currently training her, she just couldn’t see it.
She couldn’t help but grin as she remembered that four new sources of Macaque lore had recently returned to Flower Fruit Mountain. It had only been two days since she and the others had first met Ma, Liu, Ba and Beng and she couldn’t wait to get to know them better.
She would have gone with MK today to FFM today to do just that but regardless of their connection to Macaque, she very much doubted he would let her off skipping a lesson for it.
Although she had been surprised training was still on at all. You’d think after a dramatic reunion with your long-lost friends that you’d want to at least spend a couple of days catching up or processing how you felt about it.
She had of course tried to ask Macaque how he was feeling about the whole thing this morning, but he’d made it clear that it was not up for discussion, and he would be ignoring all further questions on the matter.
Deep down she knew he likely would have been so tight-lipped about it no matter what, but after she had harshly, but very fairly, given him a lecture a few months ago about trauma dumping on MK, she was pretty sure he’d taken the tact not to share any information about himself unless it was absolutely necessary.
Not to say he was a hundred percent successful on that. There were still little clues she could look out for, and she could occasionally get him to share little titbits if she was clever about how she went about asking.
She was interrupted from her musing by Macaque sitting close by, his back also to the cliffside, as he too recovered from their morning spar. While he wasn’t as winded as her, she had kept him on his toes, he after all absolutely did not want to be hit with the full force of her dragon punch.
Mind still on her mysterious teacher and the few scraps of information she had gleaned from her first meeting with Ma and the others she started up a conversation with a grin, “Soooooo… I have a question for you.”
Macaque rolled his eyes to the heavens before responding, “Don’t you always? What is it this time?”
Undeterred, she leaned forward and explained, “Well, the other day, me and the guys met the monkey squad for the first time and Beng said something pretty interesting.”
His face had gone carefully blank at the mention of the other monkeys but apart from that he waited for her to continue.
Still grinning, she continued, “Mentioned something about how the Six-Eared Macaque doesn’t have six ears at all! And that it was just a quirky name his master gave him.”
Macaque snorted, a bemused if not exasperated expression on his face, “That’s what this is about? If I knew you were going to be so hung up on my master, I would have never told you about her.”
She didn’t believe that for a second because of all the personal questions Mei liked to try and chance her luck with every once in a while, questions about his master were always met with more amusement than irritation.
She could admit to herself that she was absolutely dying to know more about her. So far all she really knew was that she had been a grumpy, owl demon that Macaque had travelled with as a child during the warring states period.
She was so curious in fact, she’d actually been motivated to do some independent study. She’d had no luck finding information on who his master might have been but she had learned a decent amount about the warring states period, which admittedly, some of it had made for some grim reading. She imagined a young Macaque just trying to survive and honestly it made her pretty sympathetic.
Not sympathetic enough not to call him out or get frustrated at his sometimes garbage attitude but she could sort of get why he was the way he was at times. If she’d grown up surrounded by war wherever she went she’d probably be pretty jaded and closed off too.
Her studies did allow her to put together some ideas and theories for Macaque’s master – she liked to float these by him and try to gauge from his response if she’d managed to stumble across anything close to reality. So far, she mostly just received huffs of laughter and shakes of his head but he never seemed offended at her stories.
And if she was being totally honest, making Macaque laugh or y’know express any positive emotion was sort of a big deal to her. It felt amazing to have him genuinely laugh at a joke she’d told. So even if she wasn’t any closer to answers, it still felt like it had all been worthwhile.
Back to the topic at hand however, she felt the need to defend herself, “Hey! You can’t tell me about your mysterious, demon master and not expect me to want to know more! If you didn’t see this coming, then that’s on you! Now c’mon! I want to know why she called you the Six-Eared Macaque!”
Macaque downplayed her excitement, “It’s really not that exciting a story. Hardly worth the time it would take to tell it to you.”
She was willing to play this game, “Well then make it interesting, Mr. Shadow Play! C’mon, in case you forgot I never actually got the chance to see your show last time, so you owe me one now!”
He seemed to consider this but ultimately, he couldn’t seem to resist the opportunity to go all theatre kid on her so with a flourish and a put up on air he stood and opened a shadow portal beneath her. She was moved so she now sat facing the wall she had been sitting against and she couldn’t help but pat her hands excitedly against her legs as the shadows moved to form a stage on the wall.
Macaque stood to the side with a grin before he started to speak, “Now, tell me, have you ever heard the old saying, “fă bù chuán liù ĕr”?”
She hadn’t and while she technically understood the words, she wasn’t a hundred percent sure what it meant, “Don’t share knowledge with the sixth ear…?”
She watched as the shadows moved on their stage, to take the form of two monks sitting amongst the tree talking, while a suspiciously familiar looking monkey demon poked his head out from one of the trees.
She snapped her fingers, and explained triumphantly, “Keep an eye out for creeps when you’re talking to your bestie!”
The sound of disappointment that left Macaque sounded like it came deep from his soul, and he looked at her with slight disgust, “You know, language is an art.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, “Language is just to get a point across. No need to make it unnecessarily complicated or indirect – maybe give it a try sometime.” She looked at him pointedly.
He looked like he was sincerely regretting ever taking her on as a student as he brought a hand to his face. With a sigh, he clearly decided that this was not a fight he was willing to have with her, “Lack of eloquence aside, that is the basic premise. It’s a warning to teachers, to be aware of who else may be listening. The reasoning going that a third party may not be ready to receive such instruction, will only get half a story or misunderstand the intended teaching and go on to do something harmful as a result.”
She nodded, “That’s what I said!” She grinned at the resulting sour look.
Falling back into the role of story teller, he gestured to his stage as the images rearranged themselves to show a tall, owl demon being followed by what could only be a young Macaque as they walked along a road. She couldn’t help but gasp slightly, stars in her eyes, as she whispered, “Baby Macaque…!”
For his dignity, he ignored her, “Our story follows the Master and her Student as they travel across China. The Master and Student had travelled for some time together when they came across a mystical forest. Where the trees around its border grew so thick that none could enter.”
The shadows shifted so that the Master and Student were stood in front of a towering and impenetrable forest.
“The only way to enter the forest was to pass through a stone gateway that required a promise from the individual.”
The forest shifted until there was a stone archway that was surrounded tightly by trees, unrecognisable characters were carved along it and the space beneath it seemed to glow.
“The Master knew exactly what she needed to say to pass through the gateway.”
The Master kneeled down, the Student some distance behind her, as she whispered something and then stood and walked through. The Student tried to follow after her but was stopped by an invisible wall. He brought both hands up as he tried to push through, a look of distress on his face.
“The Student, with his sensitive ear, had overheard his Master’s whisper but despite his efforts to repeat what she had said, the gateway would not let him through.”
The scene changed so that the gateway stood between the Master and Student. The Master had walked some distance away but turned back to see her Student’s distress. She returned to the gateway and crouched down to talk to her Student through the gate.
“Kneeling down to her Student, she told him to repeat after her, “I, the Six-Eared Macaque, swear to do no harm while I travel through this forest. I accept the punishment should I break this oath.”
The Master stood away from the gateway as the Student walked through to join her. The Master nodded and started to walk deeper into the forest, the Student excitedly running after her.
“The Student had never had a name of his own before and while he was excited to finally have one, he did not understand why his master had chosen something so odd.
So he asked her and without stopping she explained, “You have a sensitive ear. And you have an insatiable hunger for knowledge. The smallest detail sparks within you a desire to know more. You have proven time and time again that no obstacle will deter you from gathering knowledge, especially not something as trivial as someone simply does not want you to know. Fă bù chuán liù ĕr. You are the Sixth Ear that is to be feared.”
The Student was delighted with this explanation. His Master had bestowed upon him a wonderful name.”
The Student smiled widely as he continued to follow behind a lightly smiling Master. The scene changed once more to show the two sitting in a clearing.
“The Student hours later was still overjoyed with his new name but his Master saw fit to warn him, “You should not be so joyous. You have been cursed, not blessed. Understand that with every name or title that you earn, you become known to the world, to be known to the world is to invite suffering. Keep your name close, do not share it freely, unless you wish to suffer the consequences.”
The Student thought upon this and admitted guiltily to his Master that he had heard her whisper her name at the gateway to the forest.
The Master responded, “I am aware. Those ears of yours miss little. Keep my name secret from the world and I will return the same kindness.”
The Student readily agreed, happy to keep his Master’s name close to his heart, safe from the dangers of being known.”
The Student bowed his head in reverence to his Master before the shadow curtains drew closed on the scene.
Macaque waved a hand towards the shadows, “And thus ends the story of how the Student got his name.”
He looked a little melancholy as he dismissed the shadows but turned to Mei and bowed shortly before standing, “Please hold your applause. There will be no encore. Please leave the theatre in a calm and orderly manner.”
Mei had been enraptured by the whole show, but she had many, many critiques! In particular, “That’s how it ends!? What a terrible ending! Why would you tell a kid that!?”
Macaque’s eye twitched before he sighed, crossed his arms, and leaned against the wall, “No answer I give you will be satisfying. Let’s chalk it up to it was a different time, hm?”
There’s no way he thought that would be enough to stop her. She was about to launch into a rant about how his master was a coward and totally was part of the reason he was all messed up like he was when she made herself pause.
She took a breath and thought it through a little.
First of all, this happened thousands of years ago – it was a bit redundant to argue about something from so long ago. This was also someone that had clearly been important to Macaque, if someone harshly slandered someone that she loved, even if they totally deserved it, she wouldn’t be happy about it.
She also didn’t have anywhere near the whole picture. Sure, she thought his master’s opinions on being known were cowardly but maybe there was more to it than that – maybe she had some sort of bounty on her head or maybe she was on the run from a dangerous enemy. That wouldn’t quite explain why Macaque should never share his name but then he obviously in the end hadn’t listened to her.
So, with a calmer head, she tried again, “I guess, you didn’t take her advice in the end, huh?”
For just the briefest moment, there was a look of shame on his face before he recovered and shrugged, “Things change. Just because something was a good idea at the time, doesn’t mean it’s still a good idea now.”
She got the feeling there was a lot more to it than that, but she was also now realising just how much he had shared with her. She suddenly felt the need to tread carefully in case he decided that showing her this had been a mistake. Ugh, balancing what she wanted to say with what she thought she should say was more difficult than it had any right to be.
Macaque seemed to realise her struggle, “Out with it, kid. Hesitation isn’t a good look on you.”
Deciding to go for it, she asked, “Why did you show me this? Like, I’m really glad you did! But it seems a bit… out of character, I guess?”
Macaque huffed, “You want an honest answer? The five biggest blabber mouths are all currently residing on Flower Fruit Mountain. I may as well at least try and get some of my stories told the way I want them.”
She wasn’t sure she totally bought into that but she wasn’t given much time to question it as he pushed himself away from the wall, “Anyway, that’s been more than a long enough break. Let’s get back to it.”
He started walking back to the level clearing they had been training on earlier. Mei couldn’t resist standing up and calling out to him, “Wait!” He stopped and looked over his shoulder.
She faltered slightly, “I just…” She rubbed at her arm, “I can’t say I fully get it or that I don’t disagree with some parts, but it was also nice, y’know? I… I liked hearing you tell a story that was sort of happy…”
He smiled slightly before he faced forward and waved for her to follow, “Well, maybe when you finally master your dragon punch you’ll be able to convince me to tell you another one.”
Emboldened, she chased after him, “I’m going to hold you to that!”