the sand for the night. The gale winds blew and they knew that a sandstorm was on the verge of
being conjured up. In the desert, the lack of vegetation caused severe temperature fluctuations
between night and day. The intolerable cold of the night was only exacerbated by the winds that
continued to blow in their faces.
As Kay was about to settle into his blanket in the sand, he heard a shrieking noise and saw a
shimmering light in the distance. Firmly grasping the handle of his knife, Kay slowly started to
inch closer to the light. His hands were trembling and his heart quaking with fear, for he knew
that the source of the light could be bandits who scourged the desert for merchants and other
stranded travellers. Minute by minute, the light intensified and the shrieking noise became more
blaring as Kay approached. Inching a few meters closer, he discovered that the source of light
was an imperial Chinese camp. A camp full of Chinese hunter soldiers no doubt, he speculated,
specifically hired to catch the Kirin.
Dozens of soldiers merrily danced around the fire, singing songs of chimeras and of their
hometowns, while indulging themselves in endless amounts of liquor. Kay knew that eliminating
these soldiers would be disposing of quite large number of competitors, all in search of the bounty.
Perhaps these soldiers had already captured the Kirin and were celebrating their own success?
This thought itself propelled Kay to run back to his brothers and inform them of what he saw.
As fast as his legs could carry him, Kay scurried to his sand burrow, stumbling and tumbling
over the dunes of sand. Waking his brothers up, Kay was greeted by profanities and what they
believed to be a well-deserved punch in the face. However, after Kay relayed what he saw back at
the camp, his brothers came to their senses and decided that for the sake of their mission, these
Chinese soldiers had to be eliminated.
“Well, how are we going to do this?” Kay asked with uncertainty. “Sure they may be drunk
out of their minds, but the thing is that as trained mercenaries, they are the best soldiers that
roam the land.”
“Killing them in hand to hand combat is something impossible for us to do, especially
considering that we are much fewer in numbers. What if we just waited for them to go to sleep,
and before the night ends, we burned their tents?” Ming suggested.
“That would attract way too much attention from other people who may come around this
area. Besides, we are basically glorified poachers, not mass murderers. We already have warrants
for our arrest in enough places in the world. What I am suggesting is that we just kidnap the
leader and interrogate him about what he knows. That way, no blood will be spilt and there will be
fewer risks involved,” Wang responded.
Of course Wang’s idea was not a method to eliminate the Chinese. However, having as much
information as the Imperial Chinese army did, would be just as valuable to the brothers. Rather
than eliminate the competition, they would simply increase their chances of being the first to
capture the Kirin.
It was a few minutes before midnight. The brothers had planned to identify the leader of
the camp. Then, they would be able to assault him within his tent and kidnap him using some
anesthesia that was composed of herbs. To the brothers’ delight, as they were scanning through
the sprawl of several tents, they easily noticed the leader’s tent for it was the most decorated
* * *
