31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRH0HZ7fmrE
The circumcision period lasted one more month.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHeeBMGoOC
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJnYzPDP5uq
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOwXC1zbTR9
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
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtdngadPWpS
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwusnpUrIwo
They did not go into the sea. Not once. The ban held.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXzXJ9aOdqA
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozH1FJ33aL
***
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDQmiYtYXRn
The morning the circumcision period ended, General Feng Jian woke before dawn.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Nc854OhlC
His heart pounded. His hands trembled. He dressed quickly, strapped on his sword, and walked toward the door of his hut.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡphcrU2PmeY
Two guards were posted outside. They saw the look on his face and stepped forward to slow him.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ04DpQpsGLe
"General, the elder said—"
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvHhtxGbcfE
He slipped past them. Fast. Too fast for them to catch. He was on his heels.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHYlH46e3ak
He walked through the village, past the sleeping huts, past the cold cooking fires, to the elder's dwelling.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsI9ScXFyiO
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡslSNZILpuJ
The general knocked softly on the wooden frame.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZAZR6PjJIl
"Elder Mwamba."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Jxii7dwlw
No answer. He knocked again.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnFbA2NTj4l
"Elder. It is I, General Feng."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqvxTbTRAqm
A rustle inside. Then the elder's voice, thick with sleep. "Ah. The impatient one."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ350k2lRGtt
The general smiled. He didn’t understand what the elder said entirely but he knew it was something out of humorous distress.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTwGr1aFg6
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDwKVHaw6Ct
"Come in," the elder said. "Eat first. Then we go."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwQMmoARzTU
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYH3vnENuXe
The general ate quickly. Too quickly.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkrZBu1T2Y
The third wife frowned. "Master General, if you chew that fast, the flatbread will choke you."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbrSrpDrZT
The first wife nodded. "She is right. Slow down."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMbPevlECG9
The elder waved a hand. "Let him be. He has waited a month. Let him have his joy."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ03q5702Ovo
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQrIpIrTYVy
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDEcwhDZZAN
"Ready," he said.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3qN4dQ7kyX
The elder laughed. "I can see that."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlAynh4xWOc
***
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8yGvNMK5D5
They gathered at the water's edge.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuUNC0sW8rB
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHSACf1rjn
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzNQPgYkE2v
No one spoke much. The morning was quiet. The sea was calm.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGiAP9mGlMC
The elder stepped into the first canoe. The general followed. The others spread between the three boats.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIXb6ptV9eU
"Beyond the reef," the elder said. "That is where we go."
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8cYTKzP5aE
The general picked up a paddle.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKh3RdMZhS
"Beyond the reef," he echoed.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl0Nil4JdCb
They pushed off from the sand.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdiHLbNJF7i
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.
31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxrfhZxFtA
No one looked back.31Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5b5GI2qBZI
and then Add to home screen.