Voyage With The Pirate King

Prince Rui's palace was a prison embellished with gold and silver and for the past few months they had never settled anywhere they could call home. He crouched down with his gaze focused on one spot on the lake bed. The longer his gaze lingered on that one spot the greater his desire to take a look.

Tormented screams and howls of Mr Skinner echoed in the forest as Rui Yewan walked over to Rui Fei's side. "Dage, he knows nothing. The one thing he is guilty of is providing the route to traffic little girls," said Rui Yewan with his gaze attracted to the same spot on the lake bed.

"Li-er, finish him," he said to Rui Li before jumping down to the lake bed.

Rui Li casually fixed her hair and said, "Sure," with a creepy smile and blood spots on her face. This was one of the ways they let her vent otherwise she would randomly explode without warning if she keeps it bottled up. Years of oppression under the tyranny of her father made her the angriest little girl in the world.

Ru Li finished the job for all those women, girls and boys trafficked by this filthy pig before following after her brothers. Rui Fei and Rui Yewan were standing at the lake bed with Rui Yewan using his seraphic energy to raise the sediments.

A heap of mud rose from the ground like boiling lava. When it reached a one-meter height a large stretch of the sediments began to rise as well revealing the bones of a ten-meter long creature that looked nothing like the creatures on earth.

In its eye socket was a black gemstone reflecting the moonlight. This was the source of the unfamiliar feeling in their hearts. Rui Fei picked it up and carefully examined it before passing it to Rui Yewan.

This might have been the easiest keystone to attain. It's just that these kids with little or no education about Niuq and the Nocru race had no idea that they were in possession of one of the seven keystones that could bring disaster to earth.

***

Ru Li's throat was dry from all that narration. She reached out for the jar on the table to moisten her dry throat when Ru Fei reached out and snatched the jar from her. "Nice try," he said before scanning around for a pitcher of water. Rui Li had grabbed a jar of Captain Ji's wine intentionally but Rui Fei saw through her before she could take a sip.

Ji Yao reached out for the pitcher and poured out some water into a small porcelain cup before placing it before Rui Fei to pass it on to Rui Li. Ji Wen glanced over in Ji Yao's direction wondering when his son had started being considerate. His throat was as dry as the gobi desert but his son didn't even look at him.

"Ahem.... hem ahem....," he cleared his throat loudly with his eyes on Ji Yao who had just put down the pitcher.

Ji Yao raised his head and glared at his father before scolding him, " I told you to lay off the liquor now your throat is bearing the consequences. That's it, no more liquor for you," confiscating the jar on the table.

Ji Wen, "..."

How did his wanting a cup of water resulted in him losing his license to drink after being scolded? It was times like this he asked himself if he was even the parent in this relationship. Thinking he had so much stash lying around his study and bedroom he quit worrying and addressed the elephant in the room.

"This isn't some pretty gemstone that's nice to look at but a precious keystone that can open a gateway between Niuq and our world," he explained but the rich expression on little Miss Rui's face had him feeling a little exasperated.

He grabbed a bowl of peanuts nearby and spilt them on the table making Ji Yao feel irritable. He wanted to gather the cocktail of nuts and put them back in the bowl but he held back with a slightly contorted expression.

'Huh, still not cured,' thought Ji Wen as he noticed his son's peeved expression. So it was only his isolation issues that had improved. Well, at least that was his conclusion. What he didn't know was that he wasn't cured but it was just a matter of who was close to him.

Ji Wen would have noticed the same thing about his wife but he didn't because no one would dare get close to his wife in the past other than him. At the time he assumed it was because his wife wore a terrifying face while surrounded by a 'don't fuck with me aura' all the time. He still didn't know it was a clan thing that his son also inherited.

Ji Wen separated the macadamia nuts from the hazelnuts into two opposite sides. He then untied the black ribbon in his hair and lay it between the two sides of nuts. "Now, the macadamia resembles the people in this world and the hazelnuts are the Nocru race.....," he said but he was cut off by Rui Li.

"Buh, I hate hazelnut. Can the nocru be macadamia," she said with a look of disgust expressing her dislike of hazelnut.

Ji Wen wore a 'what the fuck' expression as he said, "Why does that matter? It's purely for educational purposes and doesn't matter who is which nut."

"Nuh-uh... I can't learn like that. I have a learning disability," she said with a serious expression emphasizing the importance of her words.

Rui Fei, "..."

'You little liar,' he thought looking at his sister. As though she had read his mind she explained herself,

"I have a low attention span, anything that's not colourful and fun I find it hard to understand. I also daydream while learning and have a bad memory so yes, learning disorder," she explained seriously but the more she explained the more her brother silently chastised her internally.

Even Ji Wen was thinking, 'Isn't that what every kid experiences.'

"But with fictional stories, your attention span and memory are perfectly fine, right?" said Rui Fei setting the world's most obvious trap which Rui Li fell right into.

"Yes...wait no, no it applies to everything. Can I change my answer?" she hurriedly explained but couldn't take back her words.

"Ha! Too late, please carry on with the hazelnut and macadamia race," said Rui Fei gesturing to Ji Wen to continue. Never in Ji Wen's life did he think he would argue about nuts with a little girl. He was suddenly glad he had one child otherwise he would go bonkers.

"Macadamia human race and Hazelnut Nocru ra...," he said but Rui Li spoke again,

"I ser... Mmmmm," she said before her mouth was covered by Rui Fei. He smiled at the pirate king urging him to carry on and so he did under Rui Li's deadly stare.. If only looks could kill he would be drinking Meng Po's soup at the bridge of forgetfulness by now.