Chapter 2

Arriving back at the inn, Tammi flashes a signal to the other Hei Guer sect members in the area around them. The sign that she gives them is the “All is good” sign as they enter the Twisted Oak. Upon receiving this signal all but one of her brothers and sisters depart, leaving a single watcher across the street.

Inside the inn, Brandon leads the rest of them to the room. Once inside, Brandon takes a moment and sets up the sound canceling shell so they can speak without being overheard. The only hint that anything is happening is the look of concentration that appears on Brandon’s face for a moment.

Over the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, Tammi tells them everything that she knows about Heavy Handed Huan. This includes how he pays off the constables, how he is seeking to get revenge on Tracy and Brandon, and his use of the Hei Guer sect to assist in his criminal activities.

Looking at Tammi, Tracy asks, “Just how connected and dangerous is he? Does he have any real backing, or is he more of a solitary criminal?”

“Well, he pays the local Tong for permission to do business. Otherwise, they would remove him. He is a loner, and he doesn’t like to share what he earns. He only employs us when he has no other choice and pays a minimal amount. We don’t like working with him, but we’re scared of him. He has a reputation that is well deserved, but he flees from those with actual power or strength,” she tells them.

“So, a typical bully,” Brandon says as he looks at Tracy.

“Seems like,” is her response.

“Tammi, is there anything we can do to help you and the others? What would you suggest,” asks Tracy.

“Coin is not the best way, as it can be taken from us. If you were to give me a platinum, like you started to, then I would be as good as dead. If you want to help, I would suggest food and clothing; those would be a huge help. Nothing expensive, as that would stand out. Used or cheap clothing would be well received, as would blankets,” she tells them.

“Okay, we can do that. How many of you are there?”

“We are many, but I cannot give a firm number, Miss Tracy,” Tammi says.

“Alright, how about you stay here for the night and tomorrow you show us where we can find some blankets that would be acceptable. Then you can get your sect to come pick them up. One hundred blankets should be a good start, right?”

“That would be truly wonderful, Miss Tracy,” the young girl tells them with a bright smile.

Returning the smile, Tracy says, “It’s decided then.”

That evening, they make sure to get Tammi fed and cleaned before they go to sleep. Brandon, using his mana manipulation skills, puts up shields on the door and windows to prevent unwanted intruders. This takes a bit of mana, but it will recover in a few short minutes, so he isn’t concerned. After all, their safety is more important. Especially in view of Heavy Handed Huan looking to get even with them.

While Brandon is taking care of security, Tracy cleans all of their clothes. Mostly it this consists of killing lice and other vermin in Tammi’s clothes. Then she makes sure the entire room was free of such vermin. This always helps her sleep better.

The night passes without any problems, and they all enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep with pleasant dreams. They wake up in the morning feeling well-rested.

For Tammi, this is akin to a dream. She’s dined on the best freshly made food that she has ever had the opportunity to enjoy. Her clothes are cleaner than she can ever recall them being, she doesn’t have the constant feeling of being itchy, and the luxury of the bed is like sleeping on a cloud.

When they go to the dining room, they pay an extra silver for Tammi to eat with them. The person serving them isn’t too happy about it. However, since they are paying customers there is nothing more to be said about the issue. Though he does tend to give them disapproving looks, which makes Tammi uncomfortable. These undesired looks end when Tracy directs an invisible shaft of battle intent at him while looking right into his eyes. When he realizes that the young woman is so powerful, he desists and alerts the others not to make trouble for them. As long as they pay, it is all good.

After they finish eating breakfast, Tammi leads them to a merchant who specializes in used goods. While there, they buy up his entire stock of blankets, which amounts to 103 blankets at 5 silver each, for a grand total of 5 gold and 15 silver. They also purchase a storage ring that can hold them all, for another 5 gold, and hand it all over to Tammi to take to where they stay. This is to fulfill their promise and to test Tammi.

Rather than personally delivering the ring with the blankets, she hands it over to another of the Hei Guer sect members, who is conveniently loitering nearby. This young person runs off to deliver the blankets with orders to return the ring to Tammi immediately afterward.

It isn’t twenty minutes later when the ragamuffin returns the ring. At this point, they are at a street food vendor, and the person is making them an order for 10 liters of fried rice with chicken and vegetables mixed in. This goes into the ring along with 50 inexpensive bowls and spoons. Again, this is sent back to the others for them to enjoy.

When the child that has been doing the running and delivering of these items returns again, it is an hour later. This is understandable as he has taken the time to enjoy some of the fried rice, as well. It isn’t often that they eat so well in a single day.

In this way, Tracy and Brandon are drawing Tammi and the other members of the Hei Guer sect to them as friendly associates who will treat them well.

After the food, they are done for the day with gifts for the children of the sect. Though they have a favorable view of Brandon and Tracy, they continue to follow the couple, the hounds, and Tammi around as they have been instructed to. After all, they still fear Heavy Handed Huan and what he would do to them if they failed to follow his instructions. This is entirely fine by Tracy and Brandon. They are actually looking forward to coming face to face with him again and making him regret ever considering doing harm to them, or the Hei Guer sect members.

Each morning, Brandon and Tracy take out a few hours to train in their combat arts. They do this inside an inner courtyard, set aside for this purpose at the inn. Tammi soon draws their attention when they become aware of the way she is following their movements.

Though the girl has no experience with the martial arts, she is picking up the movements and flow with surprising ease and celerity. This leads to Tracy teaching Tammi the basics to see how well she does with actual training. After a week of this, Tracy is sure that Tammi would be better off with a proper Shifu and tells Brandon so, and he wholeheartedly agrees.

Tracy asks, “Tammi, would you like to learn martial arts, properly?”

“I would love to, Miss Tracy, but I’ve never had the chance before now. No one will take a beggar as a student. None of the Hei Guer can afford such a luxury,” she says.

“And, if we paid for you to study, would you do so?”

“Oh, yes, Miss Tracy! I would devote myself to learning and becoming strong like you!”

“Good. Then we will have to see about making that happen,” says Tracy.

In her heart, Tammi is joyous, but at the same time, she cannot help but wonder why Brandon and Tracy would be so willing to spend money on an orphan. This is not how the world she knows works. These two are strange beyond compare.

A day later, they are speaking with a talented, young Master who is in need of money and students. After some haggling, they agree on a price for training Tammi for a year. This will include room and board, though she will have to do chores as well as part of the agreement.

To this end, they agree to pay young Master Xi Yauming 100 platinum per month. But, they make it clear that should any misfortune fall upon the girl, that they would take action against him. He sputters about being threatened and how he wouldn’t even touch a scamp like her, other than being paid to train her when he finds himself lifted up in the air by an invisible hand around his neck that slowly tightens its grip until he cannot breathe.

When he is put back down, he apologizes to them and swears on his life that he will not allow anything to happen to her in his dojo and home. This is good enough for them, and they leave Tammi in his care.

Fortunately, this did not happen in Tammi’s presence. If it had, Master Xi would have been truly humiliated and lost face. What difficulties he might have visited upon her after that, who could tell? A Shifu has a lot of power within his dojo when it comes to training his students.

Tammi is torn at this point. Her life has been turned upside down and inside out. Yet, it is in a good way. The only family she has known now has patrons of a sort. And, they are helping the sect by providing better clothes and giving them blankets and food. Part of her misses her place with the Hei Guer sect, but this new opportunity is too good to pass up. It is because of these feelings that her expression is so complex.

Master Xi, noticing her state of mind, calls her over and has her go change into her new uniform to begin training. Once she is ready, he begins instruction for the next six hours, with breaks for water, bathroom, and food. When the day’s training is done, Tammi is worn out and ready to fall over from fatigue. In spite of this, she is happier than she can remember being. When they finish eating dinner, she cleans the dishes and puts them away. Then she helps Master Xi by sweeping the dojo. After that, she is shown to her personal space, where she will be sleeping each night. It is a typical pallet of straw and a nice warm blanket (that Tracy provided for her). As she sleeps, Tammi dreams of becoming an outstanding martial artist and an adventurer, someone Brandon and Tracy will be proud of.

It doesn’t take long for Heavy Handed Huan to discover that the best of the Hei Guer sect has gone missing. What infuriates him the most is that none of the brats seem to know where she is or what happened to her. No matter how much he threatens them, they don’t have an answer for him.

What he does learn is that the young man and woman who caused him to lose face have a daily routine that takes them outside the city gates. This is precisely the opportunity that he is looking for. With his knowledge of the local area, he can set up an ambush to crush them, outside the walls, where the city’s law cannot protect them. Killing within the walls is not a consideration as it would be a death sentence. No one has gotten away with murder within these walls in all its known history.

Each day, after breakfast and their personal training period, Tracy and Brandon head outside the walls to hunt various beasts and to collect items of value to sell. They do this because they need to earn more platinum because the prices here are incredibly high. They need to become stronger through experiencing life and death struggles, which they encounter daily outside the city, the engagements are often quite biased in their favor due to their skills and strengths. And, finally, they are seeking a place similar to their nest back at the Riverside Outpost. Surely, there is something nearby; they can feel a trace of it. Finding it is proving to be a challenge.

Their knowledge of the surrounding area out to 100 kilometers from the city walls grows with each passing day. Their familiarity with the local flora and fauna is also increasing day by day. Brandon can now successfully pursue a number of the local creatures by their tracks, scent, and droppings. They’ve also learned how to listen to the sounds around them to give them clues to possible predators and prey.

Tracy has taken an interest in learning herbology and alchemy. To this end, each day, she makes sure to gather the best herbs and medicinal plants that she can find. She then uses these plants as payment in exchange for learning alchemy and herbology from a respected alchemist who is willing to teach her part-time. If it were not for the fact that she comprehends in two hours what most students learn in a week, he wouldn’t have agreed, no matter the payment. As it is, he doesn’t skimp on what he teaches her and allows her access to many books most of his students don’t get to see or use until they have been studying for three years or more.

In Brandon’s case, he has become interested in the art of Talismans. Finding a teacher willing to take him on was even more difficult than it was for Tracy. This is due to the amount of time it takes to learn to hold one’s entire body steady while moving the brush with deft and confident movements of the wrist. To this end, he paid the teacher to give him some exercises with the understanding that he would be able to pass a test based on these exercises within one month.

Each evening, Brandon takes an hour and focuses entirely on the exercises. At first, it is difficult, because writing in English, especially in script, is done mostly with the fingers. Unlearning his old ways takes two weeks. Once he overcomes this first hurdle, the basic strokes come to him with ease. At least he thinks so.

On the day he returns to be tested, the old man berates him for clumsiness and being heavy-handed. In spite of this, he agrees to take Brandon on and for two hours five days a week. This entirely changes their schedules, but not enough to prevent them from going out daily to hunt and gather for a few hours. At this point, Brandon and Tracy are in training ten hours a week and paying twice what others do for the same amount of time. The big difference is that they learn ten times faster than the best students under their teachers’ mentoring.

Each week, on their day off from their own classes, Brandon and Tracy spend the day with Tammi. They actively keep track of her progress, and the time that they spend with her allows them to better gauge what she has learned and if she needs anything extra. During these days, they take Tammi out hunting. Then they treat her to a special meal of her choosing. They have, in all but the legal sense, adopted the waif, and she feels blessed by their attention and help. Tammi is driven like a devil is chasing her by her desire to show them she is worthy of their attention, care, and support.

Like a sliver that gets stuck under the skin, Heavy Handed Huan makes his presence known again. He’s an annoying prick.

A few kilometers outside of the city’s walls, along the path that Brandon and Tracy take each day, and a couple of months since they last saw him, Huan has hired a few toughs to set up an ambush. He has promised these unprincipled scum 10% of the wealth the couple carry, which he has assured them is over ten-thousand platinum. One-thousand platinum for killing two people without any kind of backing is a good reward. It will be as easy as crushing an ant under their boots, or so they believe. There’s a saying, “A bird dies for food, while a man dies for money.” When one is so focused on gaining wealth, they often forget to look out for the dangers.

Brandon and Tracy have always been aware of Huan’s presence outside the city walls as he shadowed them and made plans to ambush them. The very fact that he is not shadowing them this day is enough for them to determine that this is the day he will make his attempt. If Huan had any idea that they have been fully aware of his every move, he might have given up on this idea of an ambush. Then again, he lost so much face that day that he must do something to redeem himself. And, there is that matter of men dying for money.

As things stand, Brandon and Tracy are approaching the ambush as if they are unaware of the presence of Huan and his thugs. A significant piece of Huan’s ambush is to take out the hounds, Tracer and Bounder, so they cannot assist in the upcoming battle.

What Huan has failed to understand is that Bounder and Tracer are highly intelligent and in telepathic communication with their humans. Thus, it is a surprise to the men hiding with the nets when the hounds stealthily attack them from behind. Their screams signal the start of Tracy and Brandon’s counter-attack, which is actually more of a frontal assault.