Ebony Scales

Joy’s breath was driven out of her when Longwei stiffened his tongue.

“Give me a few minutes,” he said in between kisses. “Even us dragon men need at least that much time to recover.”

*****

Billy was true to his word, arriving back in the village exactly three days after he left. What surprised Joy however, was the line of twenty trucks that followed him, ranging from small two person mini pickups to full sized SUVs. There was even a small panel truck, the type Joy thought of as belonging to U-Haul.

“What’s all this?” Joy asked him, as he waved the driver of the next truck around. The ad-hoc caravan circled, trying to find space on the narrow dirt road to turn around.

“This is both the first part of your help, and the price of helping you.”

“What do you mean?” Longwei said, emerging from inside the temple to shield his eyes from the thrown up dust. “These people are not soldiers.”

“No, they’re Christians,” Billy said, as the engines started to shut down. A motley collection of people, ranging from young couples to what looked like one old man who had to be pushing eighty, emerged from the vehicles. Joy even saw two children, a boy and a girl of about five years old, who looked like twins. “As you know, the central government has been shutting down a lot of churches recently. Well, these people are tired of their persecution just as you are tired of yours. So, when word of what I was doing spread through the Christian community, they got in contact with me.”

“What are they asking for?”

Billy held up his hands for peace and patience. “Hold on, I’m getting to it. These people represent a larger group of about two hundred, who are willing to give up everything they have to join you. Now, most of them are city dwellers, so you’ll have to teach them farming ways and such, but they have a variety of skills otherwise. There’s a teacher, two plumbers, a veterinarian, and even an electrician to go along with your average worker. All of them have skills, and all of them had access to trucks that could help make the journey. What they ask is simple. They help the first group of villagers, the leading element we discussed, load up and go to the village. Now, they don’t know where we’re going, and I told them they won’t find out until we’re closer to there, to protect all of us. But, they want it to be a one way ticket. They join up totally. I explained to them the way the village runs, and they’re cool with that, with one request.”

“Which is?” Longwei grumbled, looking around nervously. There were more and more outsiders getting involved, and Joy could see he wasn’t sure he could trust all of these people. With the Triad coming in just over a week, not trusting people was a double edged sword. The village needed their skills and resources, but one person selling them out would be the death of them all.

“Religious freedom,” Billy said, as if it were obvious. “We don’t care what the villagers believe, and to be honest I don’t understand it all myself. I’m not sure if they are your normal Chinese semi-Confuscian, semi-atheistic, semi-superstitious bunch, or if they actually worship you as some sort of demi-divine leader, or what. I don’t really care, either. I trust Joy, and if she loves you, and is willing to do all that you’ve been up to the past few months, then I trust you, too. All I’m asking is to let these people have their own freedom to worship as they see fit.”