Secrets of the Golden Sea

Finding a friend

Finally, it felt like days of flying. But he knew it was only a couple of hours. The dragon landed down in the grass, looking towards the forest. The trees were too thick for to walk through in his dragon form. So, he shifted. Jingshen walked towards the forest, using his human glamour.

Shan Ji de still didn't know he was a dragon. He thinks? He only met her once, and she was a weirdo. But she was pretty cool. And also pretty weird. He continued to move forward, moving plants out of his path.

"Wait, how am I going to find her?" Jingshen whispers out loud, facepalming at his own stupidity. He wipes his face and groans loudly, stopping suddenly and sitting down from sheer confusion.

He didn't even know how powerful Ji de was. So why was he looking for her? For all he knows, she could be as strong as the others. Or she could be as powerful as the other celestial primates.

Cupping his hands together, Jingshen began to scream. "Ji de, Shan Ji de!" He hollers out. "Ji de I need your help!"

It was probably rude of him to ask for help from someone he had only met once before. He slams his fist against the nearest tree and sighs loudly. "Come on!" He growls. "I can't have come here for nothing..."
"Oh wow, you came all this way just to see little ol' me?" An overly frivolous voice said.

Jingshen turned around and saw her. Long black hair that turns into a soothing orange, blue gleaming eyes, and one of the kindest faces he's ever seen. The kindest face would be Mk or Sandy.

"Yes," Jingshen quickly said, grabbing her by the shoulders. "And it's very important that I speak to you-"

Ji de quickly gets away from his hold and giggles at him, covering her mouth with a hand. "What could be so important? Mmmhhh, going to tell me a secret or something?"

He took a step back, looking at her incredulously. "What do you mean?" Jingshen asks slowly.

She scratched her chin thoughtfully, an inquisitive look on her face as she did. "Oh, well you know. I wanna know more about you! Especially why a Prince would want to keep his status hidden!" Ji de said cheerfully.

He froze up before shaking his head. At this point he should just expect these things. How did she even know? He just doesn't care anymore, why was he still hiding? Jingshen only hid because of Sun Wukong and Ao Guang. But now he just didn't have to.

"How do you know that?" He said, tilting his head curiously.

"Well, it's quite easy when you have these pesky golden eyes!" Ji de exclaimed, hopping up onto one a tree. "You're strong since you're a Prince, but us stone monkeys? It's not that hard to see through glamours!"

"Oh, so mystic monkey powers. Got it." He said sarcastically.

"Yep, that's exactly it! And also the fact I like to visit the arcade now and then!" Ji de sits down on a branch of the tree, giggling.

"So, you've known for how long?" He inquires, raising a brow.

"Oh you know, for a while. That clone disaster started by Mk was hilarious, you got to admit."

Jingshen shakes his head and groans. "No. That was—wait, I've never seen you in the Anti-Gravity arcade before. Do you put on a glamor or something?" 

"No, you're just incredibly blind! Oh my gods Jingshen, the amount of times I have been to the arcade and you never noticed!" Ji de says quickly, giving him a big toothy grin. "I've just been hiding my tail, and that's all! I even spoke to you that one time and you didn't notice!"

Jingshen's eyes widened as he looked at her skeptically. "I think that's a lie." He rolled his eyes.

"Nope! I was just there, usually I would be playing some of those arcade games! But hey, remember that one time Mei and Mk wreaked havoc upon the arcade? I managed to escape due to my epic powers, but you were kind of strung up."

"Okay, so you're telling the truth..." Jingshen says slowly.

"Of course I am! Honestly, I'm offended you think I'd lie to you." She gasps dramatically, sliding off of the tree branch she was on and plummeted to the ground. "I thought a Prince would have better manners."

Jingshen snorted when she said that. In his opinion, royalty rarely had manners. When he first met Redson, it was during a fight. "I have the best manners actually."

"Oh no doubt, no doubt." She smirks, tilting her head.

"I also want to know why you came to visit me all alone. Usually Mk and Mei would hang out and say hi now and then. But you usually just... keep to yourself."

"Oh." Jingshen scratches his neck nervously and sighs.

"I guess I just never had the courage to talk to you? I just like to talk to the snakes and swim in the ponds. I guess it never crossed my mind to say hi."

"I am deeply saddened by this." Ji de exclaims. "Next time you're in my part of the forest, I will just say hi." The stone monkey murmurs happily, winking at him. Jingshen just rolled his eyes at the gesture. "So, why did you come here, truly? And don't you dare say you wanted to see me. Because those shouts were very concerning just for a mere chat!"

"Well, do you know about the Lady Bone Demon?" Jingshen asks, flicking his tail back and forth.

"Nope, doesn't ring any bells."

"White Bone Spirit?"

"Don't know that name either, but I'm guessing someone's being evil?" Ji de states, raising a brow at him.

"She's very evil, she plans to recreate the whole word into her own image! My friends and I are trying to find the three rings of samadhi fire so we can defeat her!" He quickly explains, rushing through the whole story.

"And you need me, I take it?" She asks calmly.

"Well it would be greatly appreciated!" Jingshen said nervously.

"Alright then, where are we heading?" She asks as she stretches.

"I actually have no clue." He says slowly, bringing his hands together. "They could already have the second ring by now! And if my memory serves me well. Then the third ring will be in a mountain?"

"That's so helpful, Jingshen! What a master at instructions." Ji de responds sarcastically. "So we check every mountain or something?"

"Well, I know the region it's in... so I could just turn us into lightning and bring us there rather quickly."
"Wait Jingshen, you can turn into lightning?" The stone monkey quickly asks.

The Prince shrugs with a small smile. "If I can turn Mei into water, then I can probably turn you into lightning!"

"I know I'm kinda immortal, but will there be any lasting effects?" Ji de asks nervously, her blue eyes darting towards the sky.

"No, I think..." The dragon said slowly.

"Well, Mr Snake Whispering Dragon. How does this exactly work?"

Jingshen quickly stretched, doing some warmups before grabbing her arm. "Well, to do this once I have to at least have a good nights sleep since this uses a lot of my energy. To do it more than once... well now that's going to be a bit tricky!"

"What do you mean—Jingshen, how much time have you slept?" She asks in a hurry.

"Oh like, twelve hours that one time?" Jingshen mutters slowly, a thoughtful expression plain on his face as he did. "We should be good!" He exclaims, sparks beginning to shoot out of him.

"Wait hold on now!" Ji de couldn't speak about any concerns as now Jingshen was just a little glowing boy. Pure lightning right there! She watched in horror as lightning clung to her arm. It felt weird, like her body was beginning to fall asleep.

She gets out one scream before she can't see anymore. The last thing she saw was lightning shooting into the sky.

Word count - 1374

This is the last chapter that I have completed. See you guys next summer or something lmao!