9 chapter 9

An hour goes by and he is still not home. He has stopped crying and has an expression of fury on his reddened face. He stops for nothing and speaks to no one that may pass him. A few people travel

near Tenlong and race away when they see him and what he is carrying. After a while, people stop

coming towards him as he marches back home solemnly.

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It is getting dark when he sees his backyard and then his house. He gently sets his mother down in the grass of his backyard and he tries to shake out his muscles. Tenlong was stiff after carrying his mother's body for what seem to be hours for him.

He looks over to his favorite climbing tree and his short life flashes before his very eyes.

Tenlong played under this tree while his mother sit in a chair under it, watching him. The young lad begins to fight back the tears that are forcing themselves out of his eyes and down his cheeks.

There was an old tool shed in his backyard in which Tenlong can easily ascertain. He goes in the shed and pulls out a shovel. As he exits the shed, Tenlong decides to bury his mother under her

favorite tree.

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Tenlong had dug a deep uneven grave with a dirt pile at the feet of the grave. He throws the shovel in the pile of dirt that is behind him. He climbs out the grave and walks over to his mother's body. He gently picks her up and sets her in the grave. He finds all the flowers that he can find and puts

it on his mother's chest. The flowers are sitting on the crossed arms of Zizi. Tenlong cries loudly as he begins to shovel dirt upon his fallen mother.

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Finally, Zizi is covered tightly with hundreds of pounds of dirt. Tenlong pats down the dirt with the shovel. He shoves the shovel deep into the ground so that the head of the shovel is buried into the ground at the head of his mother's grave site. He returns to the shed and finds some wire. He walks over to the tree and breaks a long branch of the tree. He ties the tree branch to the shovel handle with the wire in the shape of a cross. Tenlong had also grabbed a knife to engrave the tree next to his mother's grave.

The engravings says,"Here rests my mother, Zizi! I love you so much!"

The lad is so angry that he throws the knife at the tool shed and it grows right through the first

wall of the shed and into the second wall that is inside the building.

Tenlong clinches his fists and raises his head to the sky. He begins to cry out of pain of the loss of his mother. The loudness of the yell can be heard through out the entire village. The people of the village will not exit their houses with such a loud bellowing at night unless there is a call for help. Then and only then will every able body person come to protect those who are in a desperate need of help. This was to keep everybody safe and so that they village would not face some kind of dangerous predator. Bandits sometimes came to torment the villagers at night, so people of the village were leery of traveling at night.

Tenlong begins to speak with a shout," Mother! I love you so much! Why did he have to kill you? Why, must I be separated from you? I miss you so much!"

He cries out as loud as his lungs could handle. The cry causes the entire village to grow afraid.

Tenlong raises a fist to the sky and yells,"Mother! I promise to avenge your death! I will get the monster that has taken you from me! No one will have to suffer as you did! I promise that to you! I love you so much and I will not forget you!"

Tenlong walks away into who knows where. The boy was long gone when the mourning came.

The villagers had looked for Tenlong but to no such luck. The whole village had grieved the loss of Zizi and the disappearance of her son.

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Tenlong has been wandering endlessly for several days with no apparent rhyme or reason in where he was heading. He did not know what to do or where he was to go. He was just grieving his mother's death and was just trying to avoid staying in a spot long enough where he would be forced to think about his mother. He had taken what little money and food that Zizi had put in their buggy. He

had ate all the food that Zizi had taken with them them in less than half a day. He did not realize that

his new found size required so much food to just function normally.

After a couple days of hunger, Tenlong decides to go into one of the villages and find something to eat. The people had always offered goods and services to any well mannered traveler. He had saw this back in his home village so many times before, so Tenlong decides this what that he going to do.

The people of Lowroda were extremely xenophobic of all outsiders but would treat them fair all the same. The villagers hated change as if it was a dangerous poison and often put this frustration on those who represented change and/or uniqueness. The villagers of Lowroda were mostly not hateful people but just fearfully of the unknown. They were a very weak people and they were easily dismayed of attack from foreigners.

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Tenlong made his way into a village that he has never been in before. Every one that is within view stop what they are doing to stare at the large Tenlong and some are even stopped in mid task. A person of seven feet or taller was very rare in the region and his improvised clothes did not help the boy's matter much ether. Tenlong stood out like oil in water. The boy had walked towards the little section of the town where the village's business took place in. Work people of all kinds stop working and stared at the newly formed giant.

Some of the workers start to whisper among themselves as if Tenlong was not even there. The lad picks up that they are talking about him since they were silent before he entered the scene. He does not comprehend that they are treating him different due to his enormous size. The young lad's new size had not completely sunk in his head and Tenlong had not understood to how big he truly was. He was so beloved by his mother and his village that being alienated by others was still befuddling to Tenlong.

What the people did not know that if Tenlong had come in his boy form they would have acted altogether different. The villagers would have welcomed the smaller Tenlong with open arms. All thevillages had the policy of caring for those who were attacked by bandits. This was due to bandits would try to attack all those who were unfortunate to cross their path. Some had believed that the people of the desert, Socanas, were behind all the bandit attacks but it could never proven. The attackers had never left clues to if they were working for others and not just acting out randomly.

Tenlong speaks,"Is there some person that I can get some and clothes from, please?"

There was no response among the villagers since they were ignoring the lad.

Tenlong speaks," Are you all deaf? I know you are able to hear me! I can work for it if you want if my money is not enough to pay for food and clothes!"

There is still no response from the villagers and they were all pretending to be too involved with talking among themselves to pay attention to Tenlong. But the villagers' intentions were all too obvious.

Tenlong yells,"Fine, be that way! I do need not you all!"

As the lad turns away his stomach growls but the lad acts like he was not hungry. Tenlong just shook his head out of disbelief of how he was treated by the villagers. He had always remember to how

he was loved by his village and was still struggling with the different treatment he was receiving all of a sudden. He just did not understand how people can be so hateful.

Tenlong pondered,"Is my new appearance that much different that I shunned this much? I am still the same Tenlong I was before I grew larger! I am no monster that will bite others, like a wild dog!"

Tenlong begin to walk towards the other side of the village.

Tenlong walks some distance away from the business district and he was pelted in the side of with a rock. The second rock is caught by the boy and he prepares to throw it back in the direction of the thrower when he hears a loud scream.

He had stop the throw mid swing when he saw a mother kneeling holding her child protectively.

Tenlong sees a rock in a boy's hand ready to swing again.

He smiles and drops the rock on the ground.

The mother speaks," I am so sorry! My boy just hates people he thinks is a bandit! Please do not hurt him!"

The boy almost gets another throw out, when his mother smacks the rock out of her son's hand.

The boy yells," Do not hurt my mom or I will kill you bandit! I am not afraid of you!"

Tenlong looked at the boy and his mother and saw that their image had changed to himself and his fallen mother Zizi. The boy was not a bad boy but just misunderstood who the overgrown lad was supposed to be. Tenlong can see that he would have done the same as this boy had done.

Tenlong bends over in front of the boy and sticks his chin out.

The giant speaks," I will give you a free shot big guy! Do your worst!"

He then points at his chin while encouraging the boy to strike.