A Rude Awakening

So I woke up late last night (early this morning?) to a very frightening scene. My door burst open (and I mean burst) and the very large man from yesterday stood angrily in the doorway. My first reaction was to try to dart past him through the door, but he was too big, and I knew how quick those arms could move. So… I continued to pretend to sleep until he unblocked the doorway.

It worked, and he walked toward me at a creep (which was interesting, considering he busted my door down). Once he was close enough to me that he was no longer blocking the doorway, I sprang up. He was certainly suprised, and I was able to get past him, but as soon as I was out the door he had caught up with me and grabbed me by the back of the neck. I immediately rag-dolled, forcing him to carry me dead-weight, and his grip slipped a little, allowing me to drop the the floor, but before I was able to get up and run he had pinned me face-down to the ground with his giant foot. While he was seeming to contemplate his next move, I slowly started inhaling as much as I could. When he reached down to grab me from under his foot, I quickly exhaled and simultaneously slid myself to the side. He very temporarily lost his balance, but it was enough for me to get out from under his foot. Still on the ground I was able to grab his ankles and use them as a push point for me to slide my belly down body behind him. In the time it took him to turn around I had performed a backward sommersault and was back on my feet again, running for dear dear life.

Once again, however, he caught up with me, though I could tell he was starting to breath very heavy. He grabbed me by the head, and in an attempt to knock me out, or at least stun me, he through me forcefully into the hallway wall. This was what I was hoping for (strangely enough) and I used my years of training to spring off of the wall instead of collide with it, and was back to running down the hallway. He was still chasing me, but this time his speed seemed to have waned enough for me to keep ahead of him.

I saw the stairwell up ahead and was getting prepared to run down them when I heard the large man shout, "You don’t want to go downstairs, boy!" Well, if he said that, he must have some sort of horrible trap waiting, so I instead ran upstairs. As I ran up the stairwell, I looked down the shaft to see that he was now only slowly ascending the stair. I took the moment to finally catch my breath, which was feeling rather sharp. I checked my frame for broken bones, and fortunately I was only bruised all over. I looked back down the stairshaft and saw that he had almost caught up to me, and was starting to catch his second wind. So I started running up the stairs again, and he did too.

As I neared the upper floors I saw a door opening from one of the hallways. Not wanting to be trapped, I sprinted past the door quickly, and only glanced behind me. It was a completely shocked Ren. "Monkey?" He asked. At that moment the large man came up to him and slammed the door in Ren’s face on his way up. I only heard the door reopen and Ren sigh outloud, "Oh, Monkey, what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

Top floor. No way to go but one: the roof. I burst through the (fortunately) unlocked door and found myself in a garden once again. This rooftop seemed to be used for carrots and cabbage primarily. Nowhere to hide. I turned around to see the large man walking at a comfortable pace through the door. He bore a very mischievous smile. "You’re gonna pay for eating my food, little man. Then you’re gonna pay for throwing my food on the ground." His second sentence seemed even more angry than the first, and I couldn’t help but feel a sudden bit of respect for the man. At least he was upset that I had been wasteful. You know, I hardly remembered that I had dropped the tomato on the ground, but apparently he found it upsetting.

He approached me at the ready. This time I wouldn’t be able to dart past him like in the bedroom. Suddenly, from behind him though, Ren jumped on his back. He tried to use the sheath of his sword as a strangle tool, to bring the big man down by choking him, but the big man just grabbed the sheath and wrested it out of one of Ren’s hands, forcing the hand still holding onto the sheath (and the body attached to it) to swing quickly around to the big man’s front. Ren quickly let go of his sheath and stood at the ready with his sword, his body between mine and the large man’s.

The large man squinted his eyes at the small swordsman in front of him and stepped back for a moment to size him up. This gave Ren some time to address some apparent issues with me, while still sizing up the large man.

"Monkey," He said. "I can’t help but notice that this man is angry that you ate his food. I also can’t help but notice that you ran to a place filled with food. Would it be incorrect to assume that this is the food you ate?"

"Well… not the food on this roof," I answered, "but roof-food. Yes."

"I see. so why exactly would you decide to return to the scene of the crime?"

"He told me not to run downstairs."

"I see… Monkey, you are an idiot." Before I could offer a reply the two fighters engaged. Ren used the blade of his sword to keep the big man at bay, while the big man advanced and retreated, looking for a way to put the small swordsman off balance. Finally, the large man made his move and swept low with his long arms, seeking out Ren’s ankle. Ren quickly jumped, and rammed the hilt of his sword downward at the hand. The hand was temporarily pinned to the ground, and an audible crunch could be heard as gravity took over and Ren’s weight added itself to the thrust. The large man yowled, but took adantage of Ren’s now precarious position (balanced completely on the hilt of a sword and making sure not to cut himself at the same time). He reached out with his other hand and grabbed Ren’s skull with his other large hand. He kicked Ren’s fingers at the hilt of his sword causing Ren to flinch and the sword to go flying.

For a brief moment there was silence. I stood there helpless as I watched the large man lift Ren in the air by his head. Ren went limp, knowing his battle was over. On the horizon, the sun began to rise.

The large man glanced at his broken hand and looked back at Ren. "You’re gonna pay for that, rat."

"Monkey, run!" Ren called behind himself to me.

"Please let him go!" I shouted at the large man.

"Let him go? He got inolved, and now he’s going to pay. Just like you’re going to pay."

"But he was just trying to protect me! Please, let him go! I’ll take his place, I won’t struggle!"

"Ha! You want to take his punishment too? Fair enough. Get over here."

"Don’t do it, Monkey. You have no reason to trust this man. Just run."

"But he’ll hurt you. That’s not fair." I walked toward the large man, head down, arms down. He quickly put me in a vicious headlock with the arm of his broken hand.

"Heh. You’re a fool, boy. But I keep my word." The large man dropped Ren politely to the ground. "Get your sword, rat." As Ren retrieved his swo

rd and sheath the large man transferred me to his good hand. "You may waste food, boy, but at least you don’t waste friends. That’s one point in your favor."

"Friendship is my most valuable resource… sir. Which is why violence isn’t going to solve your problem." I said, suddenly energized by a logical path.

"It isn’t? I’m game, use your words."

"Well," I said. "I can tell you love your garden, and you’re very possessive of it. If I were to suddenly disappear, people would wonder."

"Yes, but your friend here is the only other person who’s been up here. I could take care of that problem easily enough."

"I wasn’t the only person to hear your stairway clamour," Ren piped in, "Monkey’s allies would have a lead."

"Yes," I agreed. "Others would come. Even if they didn’t want revenge. The knowledge of a garden like this would bring people by the dozens. You would have no food, and no security. You can’t fight everyone off."

"I agree. You have made my life much more annoying. But if I let you go the same is going to happen anyway, and you still have a price to pay."

"Agreed. And I’m completely willing to pay it. I would just prefer that we do it in a non-violent way."

"You mean like, I let you go and you don’t tell anyone? No dice."

"No, that wouldn’t be full payment. I owe you for a tomato, and also owe you for the offense of wasting a tomato. I propose that I work off that debt. I could help with your garden."

"Hmmm… You’d be willing to work a set amount of time to pay off your tomato?"

"It sure beats getting the debt beat out of me. Plus you’ll have my word that no one else has to know about your garden. If I break my word, you apparently know where I live."

"Fair enough. An exchange of goods for services. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of those around here. Mostly it’s just rough ups and shake downs. Ok, Monkey, we have a deal. You were willing to trust that I would let your friend there go, so I will be willing to trust that you will keep to your word. I think a fair price is that you work a few hours for me every Saturday for the next month. This is not negotiable."

"Great! Thank you very much umm…"

"My name is Cross. Now forget it. I’m happy as a hermit."

And that was the story of my day. It’s kinda funny that the story of my day started and ended before the sun was completely up, but I’ve been so sore that the rest of the day has been spent just nursing my wounds. Normally I would be drinking my glass of water, but right now I’m currently busy holding the cup against a welt. What a day.