Chapter 4: Rui (part 4 of 5)

  As I had suspected, Silver Crane's estate extended far beyond the buildings that encircled the main courtyard. As we stepped through the iron gates, I was first greeted by a grove of low-lying palms. A few steps further in, the view cleared out into a vast expanse of other natural elements. Pockets of trees and bush, clearings of dirt and grass, hills and troughs, and even some water features. The borders of the property were too far to discern from where we had entered. Surely, this had to be the largest, most expensive garden in all of Temasek.

  My other senses were also in for a treat. Birds chirping, insects buzzing, the distinct smell of animal droppings mixed with soil and leaves. Living in a crowded area of Jurong, it was rare for me to be so close to nature, and I took it all in eagerly, droppings and all. I had to remind myself that later today, I'd be stepping out onto the entire city's backyard.

  "About time you showed up!"

  A gruff voice rang out along with a figure approaching us as we emerged onto the first clearing. He was a stocky, potbellied Huaxian who now glared at Prisha with watery eyes as he stifled a yawn.

  "Robbo," Prisha addressed the man mildly, "sorry to have kept you waiting, but we've got to get a move on. Are you ready for us?"

  "You've got a lot of nerve," the man called Robbo snarled, and I was surprised to see the open disdain he showed toward Prisha. Was he her superior? He certainly didn't have the look of a grizzled adventurer, though I was learning more and more that looks in this business could be deceiving. "Taking your sweet time then telling me to hurry up. I should still be in bed!"

  "Yes, well," Prisha was a picture of coolness, unperturbed by Robbo's aggression in the slightest, "we thank you for doing your job. Did you have any other grievances you wanted to air?"

  Robbo's cheeks grew slightly red, and I gained a better understanding of the dynamic between the two of them. Sure enough, the anger had already left him as he grumbled. "Well, what will it be, then? Haven't got all day."

  "Running through a basic patrol formation. Standard pack of Jungle-hounds should suffice."

  There it was again. Jungle-hounds seemed to be a prevailing theme in my recent life. But what could Prisha mean by it in this context? With no explanation forthcoming, I pictured in my head a pack of dogs that had somehow been trained to emulate Jungle-hound behaviour. Across from us, Robbo grunted his assent. "Give me three minutes' head start. I'll set them up in Section 1-B. And don't you go too hard on them, you hear? The blockheads from the last group nearly—"

  "We know, Robbo, get going already," Boonie cut in loudly, causing Robbo to slunk off toward a wooded area ahead of us, muttering under his breath. In my imagination, the pack of dogs were now being harried by armed adventurers, and I instantly felt sorry for them—and sorry for Robbo, assuming he was their caretaker.

  Around me, members of the party had already started their respective preparations. A small pavilion stood on one side of the clearing, and within it was a row of racks displaying what looked to be wooden mock-ups of various weapons. Prisha had picked out a spear and was feeling its weight; the blade on the end was blunt and also made of wood, clearly not designed for poking any holes. Zahir had brought his own longbow, but was now filling his quiver with arrows with blunted tips. I was intrigued to see that Darsik had picked out a pair of flat circular objects with much of their centres hollowed out. I realized that they were mock-ups of chakrams, which I recalled to be a kind of throwing weapon.

  Boonie hadn't gone into the pavilion with the others. The variety of wooden staffs on display remained untouched. Instead, he unslung a cloth bag from his shoulder and pulled out a greyish metallic object. At first glance, it looked to be some sort of cylinder. Its polished surface gleamed in the sunlight and made it difficult to see details on the object. Then Boonie performed a flicking motion with the hand that held the object, and the next moment, it unfurled into two separate cylinders connected by a chain. The surprises today just kept coming. It turned out that Boonie, the sneering slouching Daoshi, was a nunchaku user. Despite my less-than-pleasant feelings toward the man, I found myself brimming with curiosity to see Boonie in action.

  "Rui," a familiar voice called and I turned to find Lucy beside me, holding out a hand. In it were two small objects that looked like tightly-packed cotton balls. "You better put these on."

  "What are they?" I took the objects and examined them. They had the consistency of unfermented dough and were slightly pliable.

  "They're ear plugs. Stick them in your ears and make sure they're snug."

  I looked up to find that Lucy already had these so-called ear plugs sitting in both ears. Several of the party members were also fiddling with their ears as we spoke. I followed suit, and as I managed to fit them in, I noticed that the sound around me had become muffled. I smiled at Lucy. "Interesting, but what do we need these for?"

  As I heard my own voice come through, I realized with delight that these ear plugs achieved much the same effect as sticking my fingers in my ears as a child whenever Michael's lectures had become particularly grating. I was instantly in love, and made a mental note to ask for some more when we came back from the quest. These would be great for those evening and night shifts at the hospital where the emergency horn might blast at any moment.

  "You'll see," Lucy's dampened voice said in reply. "With Boonie in the party, things get very loud."

  "What are we doing exactly? We're not going to hurt those dogs, are we?"

  "Dogs? What are you talking about?" Lucy frowned. "We're doing a walkthrough of a Malady encounter. Don't worry. Just stick with me like we talked about and you'll be fine."

  I nodded, though I didn't know what exactly I should have been worried about. Wasn't this just a training exercise?

  It occurred to me then that this was the first time all morning that Lucy and I had a chance to actually talk. We had barely even greeted each other. Lucy seemed to have sensed the moment as well, and it was she who started the conversation. "Hey, are you alright?"

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  "Me? Yeah, yeah, fine. You?"

  "I mean are you feeling alright about going through with this? Sounds like things got a bit tense earlier when I wasn't there."

  "Yeah, I mean, it's normal to feel a bit tense, isn't it? It's my first time going outside the city, after all."

  "I know. It's just..." Lucy looked down at the ground, frown deepening and showing none of her usual cheer and confidence. It seemed that my exchange with Boonie might have had a bigger effect on her than I had anticipated. Strangely enough, it had somehow fallen to me to lift Lucy's spirits before the big quest.

  "Hey, I do trust you," I said, patting her on the shoulder. "And I trust Prisha. I guess I trust Boonie, too. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous but if anything, I feel better than ever about this whole thing."

  As I spoke these words, it became clear to me that I believed them. Despite its rocky start and rude awakenings, my time with this group of adventurers managed to assure me that I was in good hands. Granted, this feeling was based on not much more than first impressions, but at least in this, I could see parallels with my own line of work. Most patients came into the hospital knowing nothing about their doctors, yet an unspoken agreement compelled them to entrust their lives with us. So far, I'd seen nothing from the Silver Crane adventurers to suggest that my trust might be misplaced.

  Our already brief chat was cut short as Prisha instructed the group to form up. I followed Lucy as we settled into the formation we had discussed earlier. We then started making our way toward the wooded area that Robbo had disappeared into, walking at a brisk pace.

  Boonie led the group, and it was a few steps in before I noticed that he was no longer slouching. He walked taller with his back straight, the nunchaku held up in his right hand. The loose end of the nunchaku was tucked firmly between his arm and ribs. Prisha kept pace a few steps behind and to the left, longspear in hand. Occasionally, she would pivot in position and check on the rest of the group. Darsik was a few steps behind again but also much farther out to the right of the formation. Lucy tucked inside, keeping in line with him. I followed close behind her, putting me nearly dead centre of the diamond. I couldn't see Zahir most of the time, but that was because he was a few yards away, almost directly behind my position.

  No one spoke, and I didn't need to be told that I should follow suit. As we entered the wooded area, Boonie's pace became more deliberate, and the rest of the formation adjusted to keep the shape. This patch of woods were mostly made up of taller trees that packed tightly. The canopy let in fewer light, and the air around us felt cooler. As the only person who didn't know what Robbo actually had in store for us, I felt my anxiety grow with every step forward.

  Boonie suddenly came to a stop, his head turning slightly to the right. Prisha stopped immediately after and held up a fist. I didn't need Lucy's example to know that this meant for the rest of us to stop too. As I watched, Boonie seemed to stare intently toward a patch of underbrush. After a few seconds, he held up three fingers with his left hand.

  At the same time, I felt movement to the left of me and noticed that Zahir had stepped forward and was also giving hand signals to Prisha. Then, at Prisha's beckoning, Darsik moved up into a pocket of space roughly in the middle between me and Boonie. Zahir then moved across to take up the vacant space on the right.

  I jumped when I suddenly felt a hand on my arm, but of course it was just Lucy getting my attention. She wordlessly pointed to herself, reminding me that I should stay focused on her. Soon after, I found out what Robbo had been busy preparing.

  From the underbrush emerged a large four-legged creature, spraying leaves and branches. It had the approximate shape and proportions of a mastiff, yet it was at least the size of a full-grown ox. Its dark grey fur grew in strange patterns, seemingly only covering its head, neck and legs. Then I saw that the rest of its body was covered in leather armour; the fur was only visible in the naked parts. A leather muzzle had also been fitted over where its snout should have been. Just above the muzzle, shining yellow eyes stared out toward us. The creature's guttural growl was audible past my ear plugs and amply menacing.

  I understood then that when Prisha said 'Jungle-hounds', she was not using an euphemism. Moments later, two more Jungle-hounds—similarly muzzled and clad in leather—streamed out and flanked the first one. Before I even had the time to be frightened out of my wits, the fighting began, then finished. From my perspective, everything seemed to happen at once and was over in a flash.

  To start things off, Boonie cupped his left hand to the side of his mouth and... screamed.

  "YEEEEEEEEOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!"

  Even with the ear plugs firmly in place, the primal sound threatened to split my eardrums, and I couldn't help but wince. Once again, I felt that familiar tingling in my temples, this time far more pronounced and spreading to the rest of my skull. When I opened my eyes, several things had changed around me.

  Boonie had now lowered and widened his stance and was flicking his nunchaku to and fro with blinding speed, seemingly beating his own back then the air in front of him repeatedly. With each flick, a sharp metallic clang rang out. The overall effect was a deeply unsettling, high-pitched ringing that made me wish I was listening to the emergency horn in the Radiology office instead.

  Two of the Jungle-hounds made beelines toward Boonie as he continued to ring the bell. The third broke off from its pack and rushed toward... me? No, it was aligned with Zahir a few steps to the right of me, but I felt my blood run cold all the same. Zahir had already readied his bow but had not strung an arrow. Darsik pivoted toward this third Jungle-hound, chakrams readied in both hands.

  The left side of the formation was also getting busy. Prisha strode forward, joining Boonie by his left side and pointing her spear toward the charging Maladies. Crucially, I caught sight of Lucy shuffling across to occupy the space just vacated by Prisha, and I scrambled to follow. The formation had rearranged itself roughly into a triangle: Boonie and Prisha at the peak and facing down two charging Jungle-hounds, Darsik and Zahir in the right corner teaming up on the third Jungle-hound, and Lucy and I in the relative security of the left corner.

  Over the clangor of Boonie's Aurum-imbued nunchaku, I managed to hear a loud slap and turned toward the right side. I saw Darsik in mid-throw, legs spread wide and upper body twisted wildly. His left hand swung up in a wide arc and the chakram zoomed through the air in a blur, hitting the Jungle-hound on its side. There was that loud slap again, and the Malady staggered before stamping its forelegs to regain footing. This was all the opening Zahir required to loose two arrows in quick succession—I didn't even see them being strung. The arrows hit the Malady on each shoulder with force. The Jungle=hound lost its footing again and toppled to the ground with a muffled whimper.

  Then a sharp whistle blared through the air. My head snapped back to the front of the party, where I saw that the sound had come from Prisha, biting down on her thumb and middle finger. Boonie's ringing had stopped. Both he and Prisha stood with their weapons held out, but the Jungle-hounds in front of them were both sprawled on the ground, struggling to get up. I didn't catch what had happened on this front, but the vanguard had evidently made short work of their quarries as well.

  Following Prisha's whistle, all three Jungle-hounds shot up off the ground and flew back several yards. Only then did I realize that they all had chains attached to their collars. I looked in the direction where they were pulled and saw that Robbo had reappeared and were holding the chains in place, two tied around his right forearm and the other in his left hand. His muscles bulged through his tunic with the effort yet his face looked untroubled, calmly eyeing the Jungle-hounds as they eventually stopped pulling against the chains and turned around, trotting over to the potbellied Beastmaster. Once the chains were slack and the Maladies fell in around him, Robbo turned around and walked away without so much as a glance in our direction. The Jungle-hounds followed him like a pack of obedient, ox-sized retrievers, occasionally sniffing and huffing. Robbo paid them no mind, almost as if he weren't a fleshy being walking among man-killing beasts.

  "That went pretty well," Prisha declared with nary an uneven breath. "Good read, Lucy, the position you picked out was ideal. And I see our guest has also performed his part admirably. Did you have any questions, Rui?"

  So many. I had so many questions. My legs felt weak and I became aware that my heart was going a mile a minute. I shook my head no.