Several days passed since the incident with the old man and the shogi match, and very little had happened. The two travelers exchanged words only when necessary, and even then they didn't say much. It felt strange to Aidan, not talking, but Xiaotong seemed to need some time to come to terms with having to go to this "Land of the Red Curse". Whatever this place was, it had to be frightening. Quite possibly a great deal more frightening than even than the previous obstacles they had seen. It took a lot of guts to face something like that for one's spouse. He just had to respect her for coming to terms with that.

Still, he couldn't help but fantasize sometimes about her not coming to terms with danger, about her deciding to stay with him. That way, they could continue with their easy conversations, with their wandering exploration of the land. She could keep giving him those looks that told him he'd said a word wrong, and maybe, just maybe, he could finally make her smile. He'd fantasized about that last one for a long while. To see her fiery eyes ablaze with happiness or humor must be the grandest thing in the universe, he sometimes thought.

The road was long and smooth, and the day clear. They could see everything for miles around, and where they saw everything, they saw nothing but a small dot in the distance. It took a long while for Aidan to even notice it, he was so lost in reverie, but he noticed it nonetheless. Xiaotong seemed to notice it too.

"So," he began. "Who do you think it is? Friend or foe? Ally or enemy?"

She said nothing.

"A big rock, perhaps?"

She gave him an irritated look. He silenced himself. The dot in the distance grew, and grew, and grew until it was a man. This time, it was definitely a man. The person before them was large. No, not large. Enormous. The man stood more than a foot larger than Aidan, and was double the size of Xiaotong. A hulking creature of muscle he was, with a huge, black beard and a sword at his hip. To top it all off, the man was unmistakably drunk. He swayed on and off the path, a huge bottle dangling aimlessly from his fingers.

Aidan and Xiaotong kept to the center of the path, pointedly ignoring the enormous man as they passed him by. Or at least, they tried to. The man took and uncalculated step and tripped, right into Aidan, who was sent hurtling to the ground at a startling velocity. The man kept his balance, but only just.

"Hey! Watch where you're goin' you filthy foreigner!" The man growled slovenly, taking a swig from the bottle which presumably had some sort of alcohol in it. Aidan pushed himself off the ground with his walking stick.

"Apologies, good troll. I didn't mean to," he said, rubbing the back of his head. The man's face went beet red.

"What did you call me, you stinking pig?!"

Aidan mentally reviewed himself. He let out a nervous laugh. "I meant to say, 'sir', not 'troll'. Sorry, I'm not the best speaker of your language-"

Without warning, a huge fist came out of nowhere and slammed itself into Aidan's gut. He wheezed and fell backward, crashing once more to the unforgiving earth. He hunched in a fetal position on the ground, clutching at his gut. It was one hell of a shot, one that knocked his breath from him and hurt like hell.

"Tch, pathetic," said the man, taking a draft from the bottle. He brought up a foot, and Aidan closed his eyes in preparation for the blow... but nothing came. Instead, he heard the cold, clear, sober voice of Xiaotong.

"Don't. Touch. Him," she ordered the man. His eyes snapped open, and the scene he saw above him nearly broke his heart. The giant stood, swaying slightly and very, very angry, and facing off against him was the tiny, red form of Xiaotong.

"What do you think you are doing, wench?!"

"Stopping a very ugly brute from murdering an innocent man. Go, before you do something you'll regret."

The giant drew back his fist.

"Get down!" Aidan yelled, grabbing a fistfull of Xiaotong's robes and yanking her to the earth. The giant's fist narrowly missed her head and he staggered forward, thrown off balance. Aidan rolled for dear life, clutching Xiaotong and barely having time to snatch his walking stick before the giant fell with a THUD, right where he and Xiaotong had been mere moments before.

"Run," Aidan ordered Xiaotong. The giant was getting up. "Run!"

The giant was up and so were the two travelers, Xiaotong running as fast as possible in the opposite direction, Aidan holding his ground against the beast.

"Stop now, or someone's going to get hurt," Aidan warned.

The giant drew his sword and swung it in a wild arc at Aidan. He ducked under it. The giant swung again, and again, and again, and again and each time Aidan dodged, the giant became angrier and his swings became wilder and more forceful. The giant advanced, while Aidan retreated. Swing. Swing. Swing.

The giant stabbed forward at Aidan's face, but Aidan knocked aside the blow with his walking stick. The giant replied with another frenzied slash and Aidan's throat, which Aidan stopped with his walking stick. He could feel the impact shudder up his arm as metal sunk into wood. Thankfully, the stick was sturdy enough even to take this sort of abuse. Aidan saw uncertainty in the giant's eyes, which quickly turned to anger. The giant wrenched his sword free and swung upward with the force of a bull, and this time, he struck gold. Aidan's clothes ripped and tore along with a long section of flesh on his thigh, and he grunted. The giant smirked.

He swung the sword down on Aidan's head, but once more, Aidan smacked aside the blow with his walking stick, but instead of pulling back his sword for another swing, the giant's arm stuck in place. Aidan had grabbed his wrist in a bruising grip. He dropped his walking stick, and delivered an almighty blow to the giant's chin. This time it was the giant on the ground, writhing in pain.

"You can stop now," said Aidan, wheezing a bit from the pain in his leg and his ribs. The giant got back up. "This is a stupid fight."

The giant raised his sword, but before he could even think about bringing it down Aidan punched him squarely in the nose. The giant wailed as blood spewed from his nostrils, and Aidan took the opportunity to kick brutally at the side of his opponent's knee. There was the resounding CRACK! of breaking bone and the horrible shriek of the defeated giant, and all was calm and quiet again, save for the sobbing of the giant.

"You should have stopped when I told you to."

Aidan heard a long, low, whistle from behind him, turned, and saw Feng.

"What are you doing here?" asked Aidan tiredly.

"Oh, you know. I just came to check out the action." Feng kneeled at the giant's side and took a look at his mangled leg. "Rather impressive."

"I don't think it's particularly impressive," said Aidan. "I don't care much for hurting people."

"You've done it before then, I'm guessing," said Feng.

"Yes, many times. But that doesn't mean I like it."

"Hmm...truly Aidan, warrior of peace-mongering, you are impressive." Feng said. "Oh yes, there was another reason I came here. Take a lock of hair from your opponent."

Aidan frowned. "Why?"

"It'll come in handy later, I promise."

Aidan sighed, but did as Feng asked and cut off a lock of the giant's hair with his sword. Feng vanished, and Aidan went limping after Xiaotong.