Tear A Path 242 Looking Down

He remembered the bodies, walking away trying to suppress the turmoil in his heart. He didn't remember how long or how far he traveled, just that when he met that ape king, something inside him was rearing to be let out. The clash of his fist against it's and the beginning of this pain.

Somehow, he was still alive, and somehow, he was now in a world of white.

His body shot up into a sitting position, frantically turning his head here and there until it stopped at what he was looking for.

There she was, sitting at the bottom of a tree across from him. Somehow in this world of white, her whole being glistened as if the rays of the sun was gently embracing her skin. She watched him intently, with that warm gaze that seemed to almost envelop his every being.

His mouth stayed agape as he let out a tired breath, the two brows scrunching together solemnly as he watched her. He had just these fleeting moments to look at her and even if he were to forget after leaving, he wanted to take in as much as he could before the world took this light away from him.

She giggled at the sight of his face, blus.h.i.+ng a little from his gaze, "What are you doing?" She pushed his face away shyly. Even when he didn't know who exactly she was, this felt like something natural to him. Right here, right now, everything was right in the world.

To Zhao Wei this was one of the most beautiful and most heart breaking moments he'd ever felt. Every time she moved, spoke or just simply... breathed, it was like the ocean filling his heart, but the next moment he knew he'd have to leave, that ocean began to drown him in it.

"I'm sorry." Zhao Wei spoke.

"Why are you apologizing?" She gracefully closed in and knelt by his side.

"Everything out there is changing me and I'm afraid..."

"You will always be you regardless of anything." She cut him off, her two dainty hands holding either side of his face, the chilling touch of her fingers, the warmth within her palms seemed to linger and intertwine with his own body's temperature.

All at once, his vision began to blur, his throat began to burn as his eyes began to glisten from the tears that were welling up from the inside. She s.h.i.+fted her body as she sat on the roots of the tree, giving just a little s.p.a.ce as she looked at him expectantly.

A powerful body trudged forward meekly. He'd grown bigger since he'd been in this world, or at the very least more muscular. Seeing the big man trying to fold himself into the small spot next to her like a cat almost made her laugh so hard, if only his teary eyes didn't glare at her.

Her arm reached up to cradle his head, pulling it towards her shoulder. And for a while, his eyes could close, without the fear of them never opening again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next time he opened his eyes he was back in the world again. Just definitely not where he was before. His whole body was wrapped up in some kind of leafy coc.o.o.n. He tried to struggle and kick, but it was basically like hitting rubber, all his attacks were absorbed by the soft material, not even a sound came out of it.

There was a sort of burning sensation going through his body, and another that felt like worms were squirming all over his body. He was oblivious to what was going on right now and he really couldn't see what was going on inside his body, but unbeknownst to him, his muscles and bones were recuperating continuously.

He was quite lucky to be asleep for most of the process, but that very luck was about to run out. Once the pain died out, the very coc.o.o.n that was holding him inside opened voluntarily.

But he was definitely not prepared by what was outside as he was suddenly sky diving down from an immeasurable height into what he could only describe as a ma.s.s army of apes and monkeys. Around him several other coc.o.o.ns were similarly opening up and dropping all kinds of primates into the fray down there.

Once his mind had enough time to process the information, he realized that if he didn't do something right now, he might end up dead upon landing. Having no equipment with him right now, he was hard pressed to do the same things he did with Guru before as he tried to throw punch after punch to create enough air pressure to slow his fall.

Feeling a glare on his left, he turned his head to see a similarly falling baboon. The problem was that this baboon was definitely looking down on him, it's facial expression was disdain, disgust and worst of all a little hint of sympathy, almost as if it were looking at an idiot.

Getting miffed about the other side's expression, he finally asked. "What!?"

The baboon continued to look at him like an idiot as it swiped it's hand in the air which came back with some hanging vines which dangled from the opened coc.o.o.ns. Pointing at the vine in it's hand, it gave another expression that said, "And you wonder why I think you're an idiot."

This definitely infuriated Zhao Wei even more, but he had no arguments to refute right now, so he just quietly descended down.

As he arrived at the bottom, he turned to the baboon who was descending next to him to thank him for the a.s.sistance. But before he could say anything, the other side had already began to hug his torso.

And just as his mind was about to leap into some delusional conclusion, the baboon jumped of his body while it's two upper arms were still holding on and sent a flurry of punches with it's feet towards his face, chest and abdomen. In a matter of less than 10 seconds, Zhao Wei was on the ground with internal injuries and broken bones as his consciousness began to fade.