MOONLIGHT NINJA

MOONLIGHT NINJA CHAPTER 15

Chapter 15

The grimness of the night had been manifested in the darkness of the starless sky. The strong gust of the wind had seemingly intensified despite the  receding leaves on the forest trees.

Yan Mei Ling snuggled deeper into the cotton cloth she had draped herself into. She felt the chill biting into her sensitive skin like sharp needles. She sat near the crackling fire, silently watching the other men who were talking to each other. 

Winter had not came yet but the coldness that was creeping into her did not only form a melancholic ice around her body but to her restless heart as well.

She thought at first that she could stand being away from her from the ones that she loved but she was mistaken. The homesickness that endlessly plagued her was utter torture. 

How is her father? How is Lei Shuang? What about Yeng and the villagers, have they had been faring well? Have she made the right decision of joining the imperial army?

She could not stop but ask herself with those questions several times as the feeling of loneliness continuously tugged at her. She felt like a small pebble on the beach thrown into the waves of uncertainty.

"The Hsien clan ought to die!" Someone exclaimed angrily as he added another wood to the dwindling fire.

"Certainly, they are the harbingers of evil," another one agreed. "Why, Lord Hsien Mao Dong resembled the Tiangou himself and his armies are the móguǐ; they ought to rot in deepest chasm of Di Yu!"

"They do not have any mercy. Unluckily, the Si Xiong had seemed to be with them for they had captured several villages."

"They are all wicked móguǐ!"

Yan Mei Ling just stayed where she was. She diverted her loneliness by listening to the men who were cursing and damning the Hsien clan. Although she longed for companionship, she felt utterly out of place among the imperial army soldiers.

"Hey, boy!" Someone called Yan Mei Ling's attention.

"Yes?" Yan Mei Ling answered timidly.

"How is it that you are silent there? Won't you join us?"

"We heard that you are the ninja boy. Is that true?" another chimed in.

"We heard your family died along with the people in your village."

'Insufferable men! Why can't they just leave me be.'

"I do not wish to talk," Yan Mei Ling answered rigidly and she stood to walk away from the nosy men.

"Oh, boy, does it hurt?" Someone mocked. "Isn't what we, adults, are talking too much for you? Our apologies, we have failed to forget that you are a still a boy. Poor baby."

The other men in the camp started laughing at Yan Mei Ling. As she listened to their jeering laughs, she remembered the people who had doubted her ability as a warrior. Each insulting word they threw at her had only served to make her strive to win each fight. She had disproven their doubts until the championship.

She curbed her fists together in anger. The ropes of her patience were straining to break.

Kick them! Make them eat their words! You are the ninja boy - they would not dare!

Before she lose her temper and gave in to the urge of wiping the arrogant jeers of the nosy men in the camp, Jinzhou Lu Wang Wei rushed and said, "Cease your nonsense chattering, men. You proclaimed yourself adults but then you are behaving like toddlers. You would have set yourselves as good examples to our young charge but then you started prattling like senseless hens. Now, shall I answer your unanswered question? This boy you are teasing is indeed the ninja boy; and all of you, very well, know how skillful a fighter he is."