Book 1 Chapter 5: A journey to the mountains of the far islands

Chapter 5: A journey to the mountains of the far islands.

Minutes after they had left the black and gold building, the young boy and old man had already arrived at the village of the younger.

"Alright kiddo…go grab your parents" The old man looked around the little village with a soft sigh. Truly, this was a secluded and peaceful place. The trees were lavish and full of life, not many were cleared out inbetween the houses that people dwelled in, it was a village that one with nature in the most aesthetic of ways.

The old man didn't hear the running off he had expected and looked to find Z pressing his hand against a tree as he hurled his guts out.

"Oh…my bad…" The old man had erected a barrier around them as he carried Z, but forgot he was still just a child without foundation.

Z waved his free hand, before slowly making his way off to a house completely constructed from bamboo. It was just two stories, but from first glance a lot of effort and skill had gone into using the bamboo itself to make a sturdy but beautiful home.

"Mom! Dad!" Z yelled out.

A tall man, lengthy but well built tilted his head up the sudden shout but soon moved like the wind around the house.

"Kiddo! Come give dad a hug! How did it go? Any progress? Hey babe come on out our sons back!" The man leapt forward and picked up Z before swinging him around.

"I missed you dad" A smile blossomed on Z's face in a flash as he tightly hugged his dad.

The old man watching in the distance smiled at this affection, he had no child, and longed for such a thing as this.

A beautiful woman, as naturally beautiful as the trees surrounding the house came forward from the front door. A gorgeous smile came forth from her lips as she skipped down the front steps and ran up to hug the son and father pair.

"Ohhh…you made your mom worry being gone for so long, back so fast? Aw look at you, you need to stay clean" She was already wiping away at his face, causing Z's dad to laugh.

"Mom…stop…hey…I have someone I want you both to meet!" Z tried his best to move around. The two stopped what they were doing, and looked around before their gazes stopped on an old man walking towards them with a smile on his face.

"Greetings! Are you an instructor? Our kid must have done well to make you walk this far, care to stay for dinner?"

The old man waved his hand, "Oh my…such love…sadly I cannot stay, in fact I wish to take your child away with me to train at a school. He won't be back for some time, I am sorry to trouble you…"

The woman gazed at him for a while at then looked at Z "Oh hunny…Hello senior my name is Jade Zhu, this is my husband and Zephyrs father Mu Zhu…it is a welcome surprise to meet you" Her tone was respectful, but also carried a certain 'please don't take my child' air to it.

Mu looked at his wife and sighed, "Please…come in, ill brew some tea for us and we can talk all about this…"

The old man nodded and strode forward to pat Z on the shoulder, before following the trio into their house.

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After a long discussion Mu and Jade had long become silent as they listened to the old man. The more the old man spoke, the more they realized that keeping Z in this small village would be negative to him as a person with such great potential.

The second that the old man had said 'Bamboo spirit' they had both looked at each other and knew what was to come. In their family, this spirit was rare to gain access to and in fact the both of them weren't born with it.

"Uh sir…we have something to leave him with before he goes, please give us a little while." Mu patted his son on the shoulder with a sigh. Jade didn't speak, but she was already hugging his other shoulder tightly.

"You die…mommy will resurrect you and beat you to death got it" Jade whispered into Z's ear causing him to shiver, he nodded profusely. His mom was never a serious person, but she seemed to mean it when she said it.

Mu left for a while to some unknown place, and came back with striding steps.

"Kiddo…you've never seen this, and sir I never mentioned it…but far…far back, we came from a quite respectable clan where almost all of them had spirits of different trees…with ours…the Zhu clan being a small part of it in population but a large bit in reputation…my father told me these things, and now Z I tell you it. As the first to have a spirit matching our last names in so long…I give you this, something our clan was known for back in the day."

Mu held a large disk looking thing covered in an old dirt coated cloth. It seemingly having been buried securely somewhere for quite a long time.

He pulled back the cloth to reveal a pitch black shield. It had a man made circular indent right in the middle of it, making up its edges were over 10 connected trapezoidal corners like that of a snapping turtle. One of the trapezoidal edges wasn't like the others. Unlike the others that followed the curve up towards the main body of the shield, this one was more a trapezoidal prism that stuck out from the rest. Within the hollow of this prism was a cylindrical looking pipe.

Mu flipped it over to reveal an arm guard that was placed where the indent on the other side came down through. The cylindrical pipe lead straight to one side of where the arm would slip into. The pipe was imbedded in smooth metal that folded over it like a wave so as to not obstruct the arm.

"I'd assume…that if you summon your spirit, it would go from your hand through the pipe and out…that's the only guess I ever had when my dad showed me…didn't get to see it long, if it proves useful to you…use it kiddo" Mu handed it to Z.

Z held it in his hands and was surprised to find it was extremely light. This was even more amazing in context, because the shield was 2 feet across.

The old mans eyes widened, and a mysterious glow flickered across his pupils before vanishing a second later. 'My oh my…this kid truly is a lucky one…ill explain it to him later.'

Mu and Jade kissed and hugged Z until he couldn't bare it any longer. He truly didn't want to leave either, but he knew his parents would be safe here. On the other hand, his parents knew he had to leave but didn't want him to because of the danger he might face. This was mutually a natural thing to occur.

The old man gave them the time they needed, he wasn't in a rush anyway. In fact, he was hesitant to not just stay another night after having had tasted the bamboo shoot soup that Jade made.

He let out a soft sigh and stood up before walking over to the door. Mu and Jade looked over to him and back down to Z. Jade nodded to him, and Mu ruffled his hair "Stay safe kiddo…"

"I know dad…" Z smiled, but his eyes were reluctant.

"Honey…give him the bamboo we found" Jade spoke up suddenly.

Mu raised an eyebrow, and then his mouth opened a bit "Oh yeah! That's a good gift" Mu and Jade ran off real quick and soon appeared with a piece of bamboo in hand.

It was silver in color, with a metallic sheen to it. It was exceptionally beautiful in every way, even the old man raised a brow "Is that silver essence grown through a bamboo?" Mu gave him an approving nod, "Why yes it is…very rare too, found this guy during the time Z was gone…to think id part with it so quickly. It reached maturity already, countless years are sitting in my hands right now…"

Mu truly loved bamboo, as he made everything with it. Jade loved bamboo for the fact of all the uses it had. To have such a thing in their arms, both were unwilling to part with it. However, as a final gift to their son they must!

"It naturally is hollow within like a cylinder unlike natural bamboo...unbelievably strong, and also extremely light. This one grew to maturity at 2 feet long…that's well over 20,000 years per foot…if I hadn't been exploring a natural cave after we fell a large tree over a patch of earth it never would've been discovered…may it serve you well for anything son." Mu handed it to Z, and like the shield it was light as a feather. It was hard to imagine it was made from silver essence growing into the shape of bamboo.

"I love you dad" Z hugged them both deeply, they hugged him back for a good long while until Mu picked him up and handed him over to the old man "Leave…or my wife will never detach from his ankle until you cut it off…" He smiled and motioned with his eyes as Jade began to slowly and sneakily move forward.

The old man smiled, "Ill die before he ever does…I give you this promise as I do all my students."

Mu nodded and closed the door with reluctance.

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*WhooOOSH*

The two floated down from the air landing on the ground, hours had passed and 1,000's of miles had already been crossed. The old man was wary of Z upchucking again, and so took this moment to take a break and let him eat.

"Don't worry kiddo…we won't fly like this the whole time, we are going to a flying ship to meet with any other potential recruits before going off to the islands of the west!"

Z gave him curious wide eyes "Islands of the far west?"

"Yes…the islands of the far west. Our school is on an intermediate island hidden in the sea, and it is there you shall train with very few others…we do not accept a lot of students, just certain types. As our last students had just…retired, we are looking for new students to start a period of training with."

"Oh wow…"

"Yup…so since your done eating" The old man touched his shoulder as Z scrambled to hold tightly to his father's shield and the silver essence bamboo.

*WhooOOSH*

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"Blehh…" Z hurled onto the ground for the final time, it wasn't as bad as the first but certainly wasn't much better.

"Sorry kiddo…eh." The old man rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle.

"Its okay I might as well get used to it now" Z sat down hard onto the ground.

"Luckily for you, in one last short trip we shall be there…don't have to go forward, just up" With a point with his wrinkly finger, Z's head spun up to look at the sky.

An enormous floating ship hovered in the sky several thousands of feet up. It was the largest man made thing Z had ever seen before and just from this angle it looked to be over 500 feet long.

This might not seem like a lot, but in context to a floating sideways 50 story building it was massive.

"Come on…one last one, it'll be quick." The old man waited a second while Z picked himself up from the ground and gave him a nod.

*WhooOOSH*

With a light tap of the foot the old man carried Z up in one massive leap. Clouds whizzed by as the terrain below grew small in a split second. This jolt would've been substantial if it wasn't for the fact in a split second Z had already felt he touched cold metal below his feet.

He held his gut, but because of the miraculous things around him he didn't dare hurl. The old man gave him a nod of approval and then disappeared leaving Z alone on a wide platform sticking out from the flying ship.

"Eh?" Z looked around and found the old man had disappeared, without anywhere here to look for him Z stepped forwards and down a set of steps before disappearing into the ship as well.

"Hey!" A young voice shouted out from down a long silver corridor lined with circular windows.

Z whipped his head to the left and met eyes with a boy about his age waving his arm.

"Hey?" Z waved back after putting the silver bamboo stick under his arm that was holding the shield.

The two walked towards each other and after several seconds met and clasped hands.

"My name is Z…spirit of the bamboo, and trainee towards the spear and sword…I think…I don't know yet…"

The boy nodded with curious eyes "That's…quite interesting actually…you must have a shifting spirit, I assume it isn't this silver essence bamboo you're holding because you would've just summoned it away…and not the shield either because of the fact it isn't made of bamboo…it would seem your spirit can shift between long and what a third? But you haven't mastered creating a blade…so that's why it's a guess…hmm…"

"Wow…you are really smart…" Z's mouth opened wide a bit as he looked the boy up and down.

"I was born this intelligent…my family has exceedingly strict requirements on knowledge…thus, I am predisposed to a wide variety of knowledge and curriculum."

"i…uh…see…" Z rubbed the back of his head.

"It's okay…we'll learn together, at that point a straightforward conversation will be quite easy. My magic is that of creating pages, strange I know but in fact it makes sense when you account for my family lineage…" A thin sheet of paper appeared in his hands as if to prove what he said.

He pulled out a thin rod with a crystal attached at the end, it glowed with resplendent light and with it he began to write on the page and draw. After he finished, he handed the page to Z.

"Wow…that's so useful." Z looked at every word on the page, he didn't understand the complex drawing but it was still interesting to look at.

"Right? Anything I write down, or draw gets stored in my memory after I disperse the page…it also has many other functions such as…" The boy took the paper and began to fold it. After a while a little frog appeared in his hands which he tossed to the ground. With a thought it began to hop around them in a circle.

"I can give it life…" He muttered with a smile.

Z picked the frog up and studied it, while the boy continued to smile and waved his hand dispersing the frog into the air.

"You can call me Brother 4, as…sigh" The boy pulled out a pair of glasses and slid then up his nose with a gleam.

"I am the 4th chosen…and have 4 eyes…as the other 3 say." He didn't chuckle, just smiled.

"Well…I don't see it as that, but as you are the forth brother…I shall indeed call you 4th bro. My name is Zephyr Zhu, and yes my last name also means bamboo…sigh…Xu…Zhu…guess 5 fits me too"

"Now THAT is kinda funny" 4th Chuckled.

"Hey hey…I didn't laugh at the glass thing come on." The boy waved his hands around him and nodded, "Come…lets go have you meet the other 3"

Z nodded and followed him down a multitude of weaving hallways, stairs, ladders, and walk ways. 4th bro never acted lost at all, and seemed to be quite familiar with the whole ship.

"I know what you want to ask and yes…I have been here a long while, the ship has travelled quite a bit around and just happen to pass between the two contents here in the middle to reach the west islands and thus we made a stop…I am originally from the eastern far continent"

Z shuddered, "The…wow that's far as hell!"

The boy nodded, "The world is a vast place Z…a vast place. I was the first to travel on this ship seeking great children across the world, we picked up another from my continent, and then 2 more across the islands of the east ocean…now, we picked you up. That's 5 people…I don't know if we shall grab or find more, but I do know there are several other ships out there finding others as well…depends on luck I guess?" The boy talked as he walked forward without missing a beat.

After over 5 minutes of walking and moving the two stopped in front of a wide door on the top most level of the ship.