Chapter 256 Do We Have A Strategy?
Scarlet gasped and came closer, she looked at the girl and shook her head.
"No way." she said and she chuckled. "No way." She repeated.
Old Maddox had been transferred into the body of a beautiful young girl!!! It had to be weird for him.
"What happened to you?" Scarlet asked her.
"What do you mean by what happened?" Maddox asked, completely unbothered by her question. "I am a reaper now, just like you. Isn't it cool?"
"Mmm-hmm." Scarlet put her right hand over her mouth and she nodded. "So cool." she mumbled, and then she laughed for a good five minutes.
Maddox stood there, pouting her lips as she waited for Scarlet to get the laughter out of her system.
"I cannot believe they made you a girl." she said when she calmed down. "I keep picturing you as an old man, the one I met. And yet, seeing you like this_," she raised her hand and moved it up and down over the girl's figure. "It's weird."
"For me too, especially in the beginning. I mean I lived my entire life as a man and suddenly I am a female grim reaper. I keep looking down at my chest and going, woah!!" She looked down at her chest, back and forth from her left breast to the right one.
Scarlet chuckled again, and then she pulled the girl over to one of the swings to sit down and have a brief conversation.
"Tell me, where have you been? And which world are you living on? How are you coping with everything?"
Maddox shrugged and started swinging herself slowly, "It's okay, I guess. I mean I like the not dying part."
"What else?" she pressed.
"I like feeling helpful, gathering souls and keeping the world order perfect is a useful job. More than that, it was the only way to keep in contact with you who promised to help me avenge my family."
"Speaking of families, yours in particular, why didn't you tell me about your sister and niece. I was very surprised when I met them." she said.
"What was the point? I just didn't want them to suffer, you have seen what their injuries are like. Their is nothing left for them in that world anymore. Did you reap their souls?"
"No," she looked over and told him, "I saved them, they received medication and both of them are doing okay, your sister is an angry woman who wants revenge but most of the people on the Sun star that wronged your family are close to death already. I did research on the names mentioned in your journals. Don't worry about them, they are living with my family now and they will be okay."
"Oh, okay." Maddox said. "Thank you."
The swing stopped moving and she stood up, looking ready to move.
But Scarlet on the other hand was surprised, "That's it?" The man in the journals and the man who spent years planning to avenge his family reacted with a simple, 'oh, okay,' to the news that his sister and niece were okay. Was she missing something?
"I was given specific instructions not to attempt anything in relation to my family. Knowing that they are okay is enough for me right now. I trust that you will take care of them, I did give you all of my resources after all. Look, I have to meet my partner to train for the games, but we should communicate on the forum. Oh, please sell more snacks, after a lifetime of feeding on nutrition solutions, I am very eager to eat."
"Don't you have food in your world?" she was curious.
"We do, but cooking techniques are lacking. It's a beautiful world, I will send you pictures sometime."
She waved goodbye as Maddox left and she realized that she had not asked for the girls name.
"I will do that next time." she thought.
She went off as well, heading to the common training area in the hall of guardians. When she opened the door, it led her not to a room but a wide open space. It was a beautiful garden flower garden and the only feature marring the beauty was the high wall which bore a close resemblance to the great wall of devotion in her world.
This wall however was rougher and taller, it went so far up as high as the eyes could see and beyond.
Grim reapers were already climbing up, slowly but with determination.
She felt someone shoving her shoulder slightly and a voice said, "You came."
"Frost." she said.
"Come on, I will climb and you spot. The way the duo challenge is played is one person climbs up and when they can't hold on, they wave a white flag and another one takes over, starting from where the other stopped. One of the biggest challenges is that the pressure increases the higher one climbs. Secondly, the real wall is rougher than this, it's filled with pits and holes so you must be extra careful. And then, there are the flying monkeys, they throw different things at you as climb, mostly rotten or half eaten fruits. The worst are the hallucinations, the higher you climb the worse they get." Frost explained.
She had experienced the hallucinations, it's why the monks said that one needed to be of one mind to climb the wall.
"Do we have a strategy?" she asked him.
"Just keep going, no matter what comes at you, just keep going." he said.
She nodded and followed him, to the wall and their training session started. For three hours, they trained and when both of them were drained, Scarlet returned to her world.
It was ten minutes past five and she was late for the naming and blessing ceremony of the baby.
"Oh crap!" she said, "Mum is not going to let me off easy."
Then, she rushed out of her office and raced past Tion whose had remained in the air because he was about to knock on her door, again.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go." she said.
"I have been knocking on your office door for hours." Tion said, "What have you been doing?"
"Sleeping." she said.
Tion did not justify her answer with a response, he simply followed her into the car and they raced off to the temple.
Scarlet dialed Fey's number and hoped that maybe she too would be running late.
"Sister, where are you?" Fey whispered into the phone.
"On my way, how late am I?" she asked.
"Five minutes, we are starting." Fey answered.
"Okay, try and stall if you can." she told her.
Fifteen minutes later she was at at the temple and she joined the rest of the members of the Su family who were being led in prayer by monk Fion.
Scarlet squeezed herself between Carolyn and Fey, but she did not miss that small glare of disapproval which her mother shot her. 'You are busted,' it said.
She looked up and pretended not to have seen it while Carolyn snickered.
After prayers, they all lit some incense and made some offerings before leaving the temple.
Baby Illa Su was sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face and Mega Su was contented as she watched the baby.
'I was right, a name is a very important thing.' she thought.
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