The Flying Man

After some time, Lee found that the dryness of his eyes had become unbearable. They burned with the effort of staying open, and his vision had blurred so badly that the only thing he could see was pure darkness.

It ceased to matter whether he could keep his eyes open or not. Everything looked the same. There was little point in keeping his vigil.

His heart had slowed and once more, he was able to live without hearing it thump in his ears, the sound no longer rattling through his brain, keeping it from sleep. He promised himself that he would simply rest his eyes for a single moment. He would count to five out loud with them closed and open them again, once more, when the count was complete, the short break invigorating his senses for another stretch of keeping watch.

Lee fell asleep before counting until the number four, his mouth slurring through the third number as his body shut down with exhaustion.

He didn't want to think about the monster anymore.

When Lee opened his eyes once more, the sun had risen high above, hanging over the forest and shining down on it, happily and with the grace to not shine directly on him. Lee lay down in his tree a little longer, content to listen to the singing birds and the rustling of mice below, relishing in his small world of safety.

He shifted slightly, rearranging his cheek away from the rough tree bark where it laid, only for a lancing pain to shoot through his head, his blood vessels pulsing.

All of Lee's limbs ached suddenly, from his mad dash away from the monster last night, and stomach felt as if it was eating itself, suffering from starvation, neglect and anxiety.

Lee uncurled his stiff limbs, moving his painful joints, to straighten his body out as much as he could, then focussed on moving slowly through the joint exercises that he knew would help loosen his tight and brick hard muscles, dissipating the pain, his limbs twitching as he swung his fingers, calves, and arms about their joints to creak away the pain.

He let himself slide out of the tree like a lazy slug, and onto the forest floor, where it was flat and soft, and slowly laid out all his possession's, keeping his head as still as he could to minimise the effects of his tension and hunger induced headache.

He brought up one hand to massage his temples, using his other hand to help survey his inventory.

Lee separated out the three money pouches off to one side, before laying out his clothing, and his food, lastly placing the scroll in his lap. He abruptly remembered hanging up his boots and trousers onto the tree branch above him, to dry them out, and cursed himself for his poor memory.

He would have to stand up, on his weak wobbly legs, reach up, and fetch them down, with his pounding, mind numbing headache.

Lee pulled himself up, shaking as he let his own too feet support him, and hobbled over to underneath his now dry garments. Lee easily tugged his boots down to the floor, panicking slightly at the thought of them maybe hitting him on the head and increase the pain he was suffering, until the relief that no such thing happened, soothed those worries as if it were a balm unto itself.

Lee's trousers, however, were a different story. He clutched one of the legs, and tugged, watching as the offending piece of clothing caught itself on a small, knobbly protrusion of the branch and refused to fall. He resorted to whipping the fabric away from the branch to dislodge the item, but Lee found himself unlucky as it only tangled the clothing on another branch, opposite the one where his trousers had been drying.

Lee firmly decided to ignore the issue for now, or at least until he found himself well again to climb up the tree and free his trousers.

He sat back down and opened the money pouches that he had been given upon his escape, as well as his own separate savings, spent on nothing the entire time he had been earning for himself. Lee counted up all the copper and bronze pieces that his sister and he had.

He then moved onto Shen's sack, opening it to see that it was full of the bronze and copper pieces that he was promised, completely eclipsing both his sister's and his own money combined. He emptied the sack onto the grass, and counted the pieces as he placed them back where they belonged.

At the bottom of the pile that Shen had gifted him, lay a sole silver piece.

Lee's eyes widened, and he knew, picking it up, that it was probably going to be the most valuable thing that he was ever going to hold. His sister and himself traded solely with copper and the occasional bronze piece, nothing as rich as silver, like Shen, but now, Lee was getting his first and only true glimpse of the wealth of the life that Luo Shen lived.

He felt tears pooling in his eyes, at Shen's generosity, before quickly wiping them away, and placing all his money back into the pouches, trying to diminish the tears to not increase the pain of his headache. Looking at his money, Lee knew that he couldn't possibly afford the luxuries of an inn, and that he would only be able to buy food in the poorest villages, haggling for a bargain, with Shen's lone silver piece and several dozen bronze pieces and copper pieces.

Lee looked over to his food, and was thankful for that brief nostalgia fuelled moment when he took a sack of peanuts, along with the rice. It was the only food that he could eat without the need of a pot to cook his food in.

Lee knew that if he ate the same amount as he usually did, everyday, his peanuts would last him only for several days, hardly enough for survival, while his rice, if available, would last him a few weeks. He needed to scale back his meals, and decided to himself that he would delay his breakfast, to only eat a midday meal and a supper, with the exception of today, where he would skip his midday meal.

That would mean that the peanuts would last him a week or so, while the rice would stretch to last him almost two months, if he didn't indulge too much.

Lee wondered to himself what would happen if he increased the ratio of rice to water, even further, from six to one, to maybe eight to one, or even ten to one. He guessed that the congee would become runnier, but he didn't know whether there would be a larger volume of congee, or if the same satisfaction was still present, if so, he could eek out his rice supplies even further, and survive longer, but Lee knew that such a thing would only be possible if he managed to aquire a pot.

The rushing river, running by Lee made him wonder if he could make himself a pot, from clay. He had never attempted pottery, but was almost certain that he could do it.

Lee divided up the peanuts into the ration, and slowly cracked open their, with his fingers, as he ate them one by one, gazing out to the other side of the river, where the red eyed creature had been the night before.

Lee had heard it slithering behind him, eager to catch up him, probably to eat him. His mind envisioned the beast as a giant snake, taller than him, and wider than his arm span, but a calmer part of himself doubted the fact that he was being chased by a giant snake. There was no hissing, just slithering.

A more paranoid part answered back that the beast was a magical snake, with its glowing eyes and searching, demonic energy reaching towards Lee, before the raven had cawed, breaking the spell of fear, over Lee.

He knew he was safe now, and definitely out of the range of any village search party, having travelled the entirety of the day prior, and then running the entire time it took for the sun to set.

Lee looked over to the scroll he had found under his mother's bedroom, and rolled it out, on the ground, resigning himself to the peaceful moment, and celebrating internally at the moment that he was finally waiting for.

He unfurled the paper, and began reading the title.

"Missive on the Lake of Reincarnation for the War God," he mumbled to himself, his face twisting in confusion.

The gleam of metal registered from the corner of his eye, and he looked over to see a man, flying high above the trees, gaining speed as he moved towards Lee, his face the image of rage, and his hair the colour of blood.