Temple of Truth

Chapter 17

Fatty made the climb way too fast. He had already reached the top, hopeful to get something good from the ruins. Listening to his voice he could hear him a bit disheartened when seing at the pile of rubble. Had he really believed to see an ancient Temple in its former glory?

"Wu Xi, you good?"

"Fine, just a bit beat."

"Yeah, you look like a corpse, slumped against that tree."

"Thank you" he growled at him. Not bothering to even open his eyes. Knowing that Fatty was also exhausted.

"Make it two corpses waiting for Zhang." Fatty sat down anywhere to his right.

"You know he will be up in no time." He said, remembering both of them at the same time that having a break here probably didn't make much sense.

"Then make it three corpses. I doubt he would go on without us."

"Zhang, a corpse? I don't think so. And aren't you afraid that they will snatch all the good stuff away?"

"No, they will be lucky if they can even find a few tone shards, with the temple collapsed like this. The good stuff is inside, so there is no hurry. And even if they where to find something, they probably wouldn't even be able to know what is valuable on the marked."

As if you know about it so much more, Wu Xi didn't say it out loud. He had to constantly answer questions about what was worth about how much.

"And you're right. Then let's say two corpses and a beauty, that will be fine with you, won't it?"

Wu Xi rolled his eyes and was just about to complaint, that Fatty was teasing him again, when he heard Zhang relatively close by.

"I'm not dead yet."

Making both Fatty and Wu Xi burst out in laughter. Zhang had arrived at the perfect timing, of course silent enough that he hadn't heard him. And totally missing the point of the statement.

"Sure, not yet." Wu Xi replied, grinning at him. He had been right, Zhang looked not a bit as exhausted as they were.

After he had his eyes closed for a while, the world looked brighter again. He could see, Zhang approaching him. If he had even a bit more energy, he would have moved, to make himself look well, not like a corpse slumped against a tree, how Fatty had put it.

"I'm not planning to die here." Zhang stated, while sitting down next to him. Then he took his bag and pulled his Water bottle from it.

He passed it to Wu Xi. "Drink."

And Wu Xi accepted it gladly. Happy, to be taken care of by him. The water was already lukewarm, the overall high temperature here was to blame for this. But it was still refreshing non the less.

He was just happy, that it was Zhang who cared for him, right now.

"That's, just selective again." Fatty complained out of nowhere. "I'm here too, you know."

"Wu Xi is skinny already. If he keeps sitting in the sun like this, he will dry up easily." Zhang explained.

Way to spoil the fun, Wu Xi thought. Pulling a face, Zhang couldn't see because he was still looking at Fatty.

It made him want to give the bottle back, and so he did.

"They are probably already building the camp. Let's go over." Wu Xi said scrambling back to his feet. Ignoring the hand Zhang had held up, to help him out. He wasn't that week yet.

He wasn't as brawny as the others, but he could still make it to the next campsite without help.