River Lullaby

Prologue

On a night when the moon was full a blur of red and orange could be seen through the jungle. He was scratched up, his armor missing and his fur in disarray as he stumbled over roots in his rush to get to the beach.

The cry of a child pierced the still, quiet night air.

"Shh, Xiaotian it's alright," Wukong whispers as he sets the basket down and lifts the small cub out of it. He gently bounces him in his arms and patted his tiny back as he spoke.

"It's going to be alright, I need you to be brave," he whispered as his son's cries calmed down. He gently wiped his tears away, he was tiny, much too small to be sent from the mountain but he didn't have a choice, not if Flower Fruit Mountain was going to be erased. It was already bad enough he had been bound to the mountain and couldn't leave. But now they had put Xiaotian in danger and there wasn't an easy out, Macaque had gone on the search for something to free him but he hadn't seen the warrior in months. It was up to him to keep their cub safe.

"In just a few days time your mountain will be wiped from existence," a celestial warrior mocked as they dropped the unfortunate cub they had managed to get a hold of. He lunged forward to catch her, patting startled cub's back before he set her down well out of the reach of the warrior's reach so the cub's mother could grab her and scramble back to the safety of the cave.

They were much too close to the Water Curtain Cave for Wukong to allow them to walk freely about, especially since they had been scaring the monkeys to bait him out. His and Macaque's cub was hidden from the celestial realm there, a secret only they and a few of the older immortal monkeys knew about, and now the few monkeys who had seeked him out for help.

"What are you talking about," he growled, taking a step closer causing the celestial warrior to flinch and take a step back, probably remembering how Wukong had taken care of numerous celestial armies by himself.

"Oh you know, just with how reckless and impulsive you are, the Jade Emperor thought it would be a good idea to get rid of a threat. Why keep such a dangerous weapon if it has the chance of turning against you," they said looking at their nails trying to put on a façade of uncaring but it didn't work as their eyes kept straying to Wukong's still form.

The sage's face was blank and then rage overtook it at being called nothing more than a weapon, like he hadn't redeemed himself.

A growl ripped from his throat as Wukong launched himself at the celestial, he wasn't aiming to kill simply to injure or chase them out. His fangs bared as he tried to snap down the warrior's arm.

The celestial warrior reached up and pulled one of the pins from their hair, twirling it between their fingers as it transformed into a melon hammer and swung it at Wukong with a cruel smile.

The hammer connected as Wukong tried to shift out of the way. It hit hard against his side, pushing him away from his target. He lands roughly on his feet trying to keep his balance and not land on his side from the force of the hit. He made a small grimace as he felt pain lace up his side as he moved, nothing felt broken but bruised bones hurt just as bad as a broken one.

"Huh, getting slow with old age," they mocked.

"No, just warming up," he said with a smile much too wide, showing off his fangs and rushing at them, a lot faster than before, punching them in the chest.

The celestial warrior was sent crashing through the trees, breaking through many of them before they stopped gasping for breath after having their breath knocked out of them. Their weapon long since thrown from their hand as they laid against a tree that now had a sizable dent in its trunk. Managed to catch their breath scrambled to stand up fear painted on their face as they saw Wukong approaching.