This tale begins in a location unknown to many, an unexpected place, if you will.
At the precipice of the Flower Fruit Mountain, sat an egg made of stone, it was born from heaven and earth themselves.
At the break of dawn on a brittle autumn morning, a crack appeared on the egg, then another, and another. Throughout the early morning as the sun rose, the egg was covered with cracks until not a single inch of the stone was left untouched. The egg sat in perfectly pieced shamble until a small wind hit it, and it burst open.
Out emerged a little monkey, which chirped and cooed at the new world it'd been brought into, examining the landscape before it.
It did not take long for the scrap of fur to begin walking, first on all fours, then on its two hind feet. It then used those feet to climb down to the base of the mountain during the afternoon, reaching the bottom just before the moon rose.
This was the great Sun Wukong, or as some people know now, the Monkey King.
It was a short minute before the simian found a group of monkeys by the base of the peak from which he'd been born a mere few hours ago.
The other monkeys welcomed the newcomer instantly. A monkey who took him in as his mother dubbed him 'Sun' as he had risen with the sun, while the stone monkey's siblings suggested the surname 'Wukong'.
Thus, the stone monkey was named 'Sun Wukong'.
Days of living with the monkeys turned to weeks.
And weeks to months.
And months to years.
And years to a whole decade. Rendering Sun Wukong the age of ten.
In this decade of his life, he'd contributed much to the tribe of monkeys, protecting them and governing them.
He'd worked his way up in the ranks, soon becoming second in command. He'd matured awfully quick, and was more humanoid than anything, being bipedal with a more human-like build, in contrast to his simian companions.
One day, Sun Wukong is patrolling the outer-forest around the mountain alone when he catches the sound of shuffling behind himself.
The stone monkey, willing to protect his tribe from whatever may reside behind him, turns, holding a spear straight ahead. Though, nothing seems to be there.
That is, until Sun Wukong looked down, spotting a shadow that belonged to nothing in particular, just a dark spot on the grass.
The sub-chief stared at the dark spot in confusion, he slowly stepped on the spot, but nothing happened. Wukong sat down in front of the spot, it didn't move whatsoever, it was simply a shadow belonging to no object. Yet it fascinated the stone monkey before it. So much so, he sat there for a month, just staring at it. It hardly even moved.
Wukong had sat for so long, moss had begun to grow at the tip of his tail. But one day, the staring came to an end as the shadow moved away from Wukong, snapping the stone monkey out of his trance.
The shadow moved again, and again, then it suddenly grew in size and the upper half of a simian popped out, holding themselves out of the shadow with their arms.
The simian seemed to be a bit younger than Wukong, each side of his head was bejeweled with three colorful ears, all six of them twitched in curiosity at the stone monkey above him.
"Who are you?"
Sun Wukong inquired, leaning forward a bit.
The six-eared monkey before him hoisted himself out of the shadow completely, sitting on the ground in front of Wukong.
"I am the Six Eared Macaque!"
The shadow monkey looked up at Wukong with round eyes. There was a long silence between them before Sun Wukong opened his mouth to say something, but the 'Six Eared Macaque' spoke up.
"Well, shouldn't you tell me your name?"
Wukong was shocked by this question. Never once had somebody broken the silence before him, let alone interrupted him.
"Well- I am Sun Wukong, sub-chief of the West Monkey tribe."
"Aren't you a bit young to be in charge of a tribe?"
"Hah! Young? Aren't you young to know shadow magic?"
"I was born from the shadows, of course I know shadow magic."
"Ah, curious. Born from the shadows?"
"Certainly."
The Six Eared Macaque stood up, crossing his arms. Despite being seemingly younger, he was much taller than Sun Wukong.
"How old are you, 'Sun Wukong'?"
"I'll be eleven by the break of dawn next monday. How old are you, Six Eared Macaque?"
"I'm eight years of age, nine by the nightfall of next tuesday."
"So, we share a birth-week?"
"I suppose we do..!"
"What a coincidence!"
"A coincidence indeed."
Wukong smiled, putting a hand on Macaque's shoulder.
The two simians spoke for a long while of their pasts and of their journeys. Soon enough, Wukong invited Macaque to join his tribe. Shockingly, the Six-eared Macaque accepted the offer and joined Wukong's tribe.
That very night, Wukong had a strange dream, he stood in knee-deep water, which stretched out endlessly in every direction. The only thing keeping the dream from being shrouded in darkness was the moon and the stars overhead. Wukong waded through the water until a Star Spirit appeared behind him and tapped the little monkey on the shoulder. Wukong jumped in surprise, but when he turned to see the spirit, he bowed deeply.
"Ah, no need for all of that, little one."
"I feel there is a need. You're from the celestial realm, yes?"
"Why of course."
Wukong prostrated himself, his hands clasped together behind his back.
"Well, for what reason have you come to my dreams?"
"I have a prophecy for you."
The little monkey raised a brow at that statement.
"Oh? And what would that be?"
"You and two other prophets, in time, will defeat the true agent of terror, when the time is right."
"Seems simple enough, who are the others?"
"You met one today; The Six-Eared Macaque, birthed from the shadow and wind. The other has yet to be born. Your job is to protect Macaque until adulthood, or else the prophecy will not be fulfilled and the world will end. I will return when you find the third prophet."
Wukong nodded, dipping his head.
"I promise to protect Macaque and the third prophet until they reach adulthood. But.. What about after they reach adulthood?"
"Fate will handle them from there."
The Star Spirit began to fade, until Wukong was the only one who remained, he simply stood in the water until he awakened.
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"I see we're off to a lovely start! But I believe we should end the story off here for now, alright kid?"
"Awh.. But I wanna know what happens next!!"
"Well you'll just have to wait till tommorow when I come back to the shop."
"Fine.."
"See you soon."
"Yeah, see you."
YOU ARE READING
The Third Prophet
Fanfiction"Everybody had a sort of 'hero' growing up. Somebody to look up to. Somebody you wanted to be like. But even when that hero's meant to care for you. To protect you. To be there in your darkest hour.. Will divine obligation be enough for him to actua...
