The New Day

The morning didn't treat Lee any better.

The sun shone into his eyes, waking him up from his first full night in a bed in years, and his entire body ached with the strain of walking none stop through the forest. His arms, chest and the rest of his body pained him as well, as he felt as if he had been transformed into a block of lead.

His throat felt as dry and course as sandpaper, and Lee's only consolation was that he had a free pack of food for himself and a free breakfast. Other than that, there wasn't anything that Lee would deem right now as a reason to stand up and face the day.

He wanted to close his eyes and dream a little more of the story of the rabbit tutor who lived on the moon, schooling all its denizens under the principalship of the Goddess of the Moon. The entire school building was made out of cheese, and all they ate up there were mooncakes.

Lee wanted to sink further back into that dream and see whether the talking radish was going to be able to learn how to use the abacus or not, or whether the bearded dragon who acted as the school security guard was going to figure out who was littering in the school pond.

Lee was invested in the story of his dream, and the ending of it had been cruelly snatched away from him.

Nevertheless, Lee slumped his body down onto the inn floor, sliding as if he were a slug to the bathtub that had been left out for him the night before. Deciding that it wasn't worth it, having a bath then, when he would be needing one in the morning, yet was provided with only one free bath, he had decided to simply take one in the morning.

He dressed in the robes that he had left his house in, his familiar, sturdy brown ones that had lasted him years so far, while the ones that Shen gave him were being washed.

Lee almost dreaded to think of the dirt and grime within their layers, considering he had worn them straight for days without changing or washing them, too paranoid that he would be caught by the monster, and then too weary too, the tantalising signs of an upcoming town being too great for his excitement that he simply didn't want to.

It was a miracle that he didn't smell badly at all.

He had to pause at that thought.

He didn't smell badly, and he hadn't been to the bathroom at all since he left his home.

He had been in the forest for days, and not once had he stopped to bathe or relieve himself.

Lee looked down at his hands, his eyes narrowing, and wondered whether his body had been altered or transformed in some way since he had left the house.

He vividly remembered only encountering the Fallen God of War the night after he left, forgoing a full day of those activities, which seemed to be a reasonable enough for the transformation to begin, considering it could only be supernatural in nature.

But why would simply interacting with the Fallen God reduce the number of bodily functions that he had. Lee had t

o admit that the missing ones were the inconvenient ones, but it still made little sense at all.

Did the Fallen God know that Lee was going to be passing through and completing this quest, if so, why didn't he say something when he gave Lee the appropriate background information about his life and death?

Why didn't he ask before he began changing Lee's body?

Why didn't he at least indicate that he was going to do so?

Why did every single God that he met seemed to enjoy either taking something from him, or mutilating his body in some way?

If Lee wasn't feeling so guilty about leaving his mother and sister behind, betraying the laws of filial piety, he wouldn't be doing this.

He wanted to be able to at least enjoy his life on his own, and without any good karma, he wouldn't be able to.

Lee had simply left one life of hell and following orders to another, only this one was him being under the thumb of the Gods and he couldn't run away if he even wanted to. If Lee didn't know that he had pissed off the God of War, then he would be wondering which deity that he had angered.

It wasn't even his fault either. It was his dead, useless father's fault for taking the scroll with him for some shitty reason, all in the way of getting his mother for whatever reason.

No wonder he was so distant whenever Lee had seen him, the man staring into the distance all the time, blocking out all the screaming and crying around him.

Lee could barely remember if his father ever spoke. And if he did, it was certainly never to him.

Lee may never know why his father had done the things that he did.

Why he did those things?