14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGTpxSmuN7D
The circumcision period lasted one more month.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4IbHpRmyWu
During that time, the shipwrecked crew and the Watchers shared more than food and shelter. They shared knowledge. Chinese knowledge met with African Coastal knowledge, they interchanged , merged and even discovered flaws in their technology that would push them forward.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFbY67sryjZ
Every morning at low tide, when the sea pulled back from the beach, the Watchers taught the Chinese their wrestling technique. It was a style built on speed and power – quick steps, sudden grabs, throws that slammed an enemy to the sand before he could anchor his feet. The general watched closely. He saw how the tall men used their long limbs to hook and trip, how they shifted their weight at the last moment. Deep down he knew if he was to get such a tackle from a man that huge he wasn’t surviving it in any way.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6VXcdEANgo
The Chinese taught in return. Martial arts forms. Breathing techniques. The Watchers learned quickly. Their large, powerful bodies delivered strikes that cracked the air. The general was impressed. He imagined invading China with that army, he felt unstoppable, then he felt stupid, the he ditched that crazy idea. No amount of martial arts would stop a cannon ball, well unless you were Liang Wei
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0OLYNxQ7DJ
They also taught softer skills. How to make shoes with fur soles for quiet walking, unlike the hard leather sandals the Watchers had worn for generations. The Watchers showed them how to weave palm fronds into waterproof baskets. How to smoke fish so it would last for months.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dwWuRVhsq
They did not go into the sea. Not once. The ban held.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt9tDQNWJmn
But on the beach, above the high tide line, they trained and talked and grew comfortable with each other. The general had learned a few words in arabic and in swahili and didn’t have to rely on sign language and master Chen’s translation every now and then.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFuHFfscyN
***
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs8bacDimb0
The morning the circumcision period ended, General Feng Jian woke before dawn.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpk2PIJ1iU
His heart pounded. His hands trembled. He dressed quickly, strapped on his sword, and walked toward the door of his hut.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgf74e1sEL
Two guards were posted outside. They saw the look on his face and stepped forward to slow him.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTR1lW4ZJg1
"General, the elder said—"
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwijGV7WKfw
He slipped past them. Fast. Too fast for them to catch. He was on his heels.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpi3kUDk6a
He walked through the village, past the sleeping huts, past the cold cooking fires, to the elder's dwelling.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHtPNTdHHg6
The elder's hut was the largest in the village – a great round structure reinforced with one hundred and twenty‑two long poles. Each pole had been added by a previous elder, a tradition stretching back generations.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ZPet5nrFq
The general knocked softly on the wooden frame.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mt1A4R4sX
"Elder Mwamba."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn6D85isUFN
No answer. He knocked again.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2tAZkBotO6
"Elder. It is I, General Feng."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlda9MieKi1
A rustle inside. Then the elder's voice, thick with sleep. "Ah. The impatient one."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqBey7DXq3
The general smiled. He didn’t understand what the elder said entirely but he knew it was something out of humorous distress.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk8oKS2E78o
The elder opened the door. He wore a wrap around his waist and a tired smile on his face. Behind him, the general could see three women rising from sleeping mats – the elder's wives.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBO94Q7puCz
"Come in," the elder said. "Eat first. Then we go."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwOagHqXQfX
The general sat on a woven mat. The first wife placed a bowl of porridge before him. The second wife brought flatbread – chapatti, as the Watchers called it. The third wife, a young woman in her twenties, poured tea thick milk tea that he wondered how it arrived to the country and was much similar to Chinese tea, but this was not the time for questions, he had a master to rescue. His first real search and rescue mission at sea.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NaseMSct3
The general ate quickly. Too quickly.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlwfK8vbaoN
The third wife frowned. "Master General, if you chew that fast, the flatbread will choke you."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKXb4tdPzaw
The first wife nodded. "She is right. Slow down."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqpiaErVM9l
The elder waved a hand. "Let him be. He has waited a month. Let him have his joy."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFV5aHwXyLV
The second wife smiled. "Just be careful not to choke on such a happy day, it would be a shame because women gossip alot and this scene will spread through the village in mere hours, you will be laughed at." She laughed uproariously.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpKZbUYsSdp
The general slowed down. Slightly. He finished his breakfast, thanked the wives, and stood. They did not like how a grow man bowed to them, in their culture only women and children bowed and not just to anyone, they only bowed to authority such as their husbands, fathers, warriors and the Elder. Nevertheless they said nothing, he was fair skinned and the fair skinned man was a strange concept to them, a concept they hadn’t quite conceptualized yet.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Eeq1EnA9W
"Ready," he said.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp72ZiJeusC
The elder laughed. "I can see that."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt7UpfI37da
***
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRjrhlvBfxE
They gathered at the water's edge.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGIxYvEtwKy
Two Chinese guards. Seven Watchers, including Jabari, the young warrior who spoke Arabic. And the elder himself, who insisted on coming. He wanted to see this immortal able to drift at sea for a month. The immortal who fought a storm.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡysb1RQ5fvT
The canoes were already in the water – three of them, long and narrow, carved from single trees. The general helped carry the last canoe from the storage hut. He loaded supplies: dried fish, water gourds, ropes, a torch wrapped in oiled cloth.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAOB8l66DTR
No one spoke much. The morning was quiet. The sea was calm.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWov4pnxgS
The elder stepped into the first canoe. The general followed. The others spread between the three boats.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdvUa0JldzG
"Beyond the reef," the elder said. "That is where we go."
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLaYpYfGs6
The general picked up a paddle.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPnXrW9uHGG
"Beyond the reef," he echoed.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKYT4YuGJL8
They pushed off from the sand.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6iH4GjMeuI
The canoes glided over the shallows. The sun rose behind them, turning the water gold. The reef lay ahead – a dark line of coral, then deeper blue beyond.
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ39RzAf22bM
No one looked back.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR6ZbPZ4y5i
→ Request update
and then Add to home screen.