Chapter Twenty Seven. Lifting of the Veil

Lifting of the Veil

Back in the Scontandia headquarters the Jade fighters were bungling with the white marble. The Scontandia chief had oozed back onto the walls with the other dripping sickness but was observing the Jade females who were frustrated by the invincibility of the little ball.

"Smash it again!," yelled the Jade leader to the one with the large hammer, who had been pounding on the marble to no avail.

"It is impervious to our violence," assured the hammer swinging fighter. This time she had "Dixie," one of the other fighters, hold the white object still.  Her swing landed the hammer head squarely on Dixie's knuckle with the full force of the heavy pounder.

"Ouch," screamed Dixie, pulling back her hand to her chest so she could get a closer  look at the damage. With her automatic reaction to jerk backwards, she lost her footing and tripped over one of the other Jade fighter's legs, who was looking over Dixie's shoulder to view the operation.

Both Dixie and the other fighter fell down and in the ruckus, Dixie landed on top of the other woman and her bleeding finger was shoved deeply into the mouth of the fighter who had fallen underneath her. Quite involuntarily, the other Ninja bit down on Dixie's broken knuckle. This evidently was excruciating for Dixie who wailed in anguish with a high pitched scream.

Both the Jade leader and the fighter holding the hammer covered their ears to shield them from the high pitch screech of Dixie and the hammer went tumbling through the air. It just so happened that the Jade leader was standing exactly in the right position to stop the hammer from hitting the wall because it bludgeoned her exactly between the eyes.

You could almost see little birdies and hear the tinkle of "coo-coo" as the Jade leader staggered and fell backwards onto a nearby pallet loader on wheels. She was unconscious so she didn't realize that she was rolling across the floor headed toward the stack of their weapons.

The crash caused one of the rifles to fire, which in turn guided a bullet to break a beaker of sulfuric acid, intended for further experimentation with the stubborn marble. The sulfuric acid happened to drip off the table onto the leg of the unconscious Jade leader who woke suddenly by the burning activity on her thigh. In a crazed fury, and blinded by the pain, she stumbled onto Dixie and the other fallen fighter. Enough sulfuric acid was on her clothing that it started burning the other two.

Dixie uncontrollably kicked the leader in the groin and jabbed the other fighter in the face with her elbow, which caused a similar chain reaction by the other fighter, who pulled Dixie's hair causing Dixie to trip toward the fourth fighter who had been watching in amazement.

When Dixie's head butted her in her stomach with such overpowering force she vomited, covering the rest of the clandestine beauties with her putrid dark green and yellowish bile, fully transforming the episode into one miraculous comedy.

Derby and Umpa were sipping tea and studying an unrolled map of the Himalayas.

"This is Junpa Village in Quxu County," said Umpa. I received my Red Dragon training in Junpa."

"Did you have a dragon between your legs too?," asked Derby, earnestly.

"We all have a dragon between our legs dear boy," said Umpa smiling. "Some men have learned to control their dragon and others haven't. But this is what I want to explain to you."

"What do you mean all men have a dragon Umpa," asked Derby, looking down toward his lap. "Until you flung that black marble in my mouth I had a very modest Mr. Winkie, thank you very much."

"Yes but the red dragon is not the object but the spirit of the object," explained Umpa. "You see, you're still very controlled by your instincts. Like a small child, you respond to your physical desires," he continued. "Most American's have come to understand a subtle energy in our bodies called "Chi (pronounced Chee)," but there are two other energies in everyone's body, even more subtle and hardly known about in the West. One is Jing, the other Shen. The Red Dragon is the Yang spirit of Jing. It is the human force which has caused the problems of the modern world."

"The problems of the modern world?," asked Derby astounded. "You mean greed, violence, corruption, hatred, bigotry, war, pestilence and ecological collapse? Because these are the problems we have inherited in our world."

"Yes," said Umpa sadly. "All of it. It is rooted in the spirit of the Red Dragon, unfortunately."