Prince Li Fei and the Courageous Quest

The king and queen were sitting in their throne room watching the guards spar with each other.

"Husband, I wish for a child." She whispered to him. "I want someone to carry on our bloodline."

King Pao was not surprised by his wife's request, but he just stared at her blankly. "We have only been married for three years, my Queen," he said calmly. "What is wrong with you? We are young. We have time to think about children."

He got up from his chair and walked over to the balcony and began staring out into the courtyard. The sun was beating down upon the golden rooftops of his kingdom. He could hear his wife whispering to herself and then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see his wife standing behind him, still whispering and then she put her hand down to her stomach.

"You will see, my husband," she replied. "I will bear a child very soon."

The king did not believe her, but he didn't say anything either because he was going back to sit back down in his throne room when suddenly one of the male guards ran over towards him and bent down on one knee.

"Your Highness," he said as sweat dripped off the tip of his nose and landed on the marble floor. "We need your help." The guard looked over at his fellow guards that were sparring with each other with wooden swords while they used real ones. He grabbed one of them by the collar of their tunics and pulled them towards him. "Look at this one!" He yelled pointing at the guard who was now squirming like a worm on hot ground due to being dragged across the floor by another guard. "He's an embarrassment! He's holding us back!"

"But Your Majesty!" The other guard yelled as he pointed back at the first guard who had now stopped struggling and started laughing hysterically while pointing at the other guard who was still being held by the collar by his fellow guard. "I'm doing all I can! This idiot just won't listen! He thinks he knows it all!" He finished as he let go of the first guard who was still laughing hysterically while wiping a tear from his eye with his sleeve and then giving a thumbs up towards everyone else in the room who began clapping at what he said.

The king sighed and stood up from his throne as he walked over to where all these guards were standing around looking quite bored as they watched their colleagues act like fools in front of them. He grabbed both of them by their collars and pulled them apart from each other so that they were facing each other again.

"Shut up! Both of you!" He spat angrily at them as sweat poured from his forehead like water pouring out of a riverbed after a heavy rainstorm which had left everything soaking wet for miles around it including animals and people alike who had now taken shelter inside whatever building they could find or anywhere else that would provide shelter from this sudden onslaught of rain that was so intense it caused entire trees to collapse under its pressure leaving behind nothing but broken pieces scattered across a vast landscape that had once been lush with life just moments before it happened but now lay empty as if nothing had ever existed there in the first place except for this tiny speck of land known as earth where everything else seemed to be dead except for these two guards standing before His Majesty King Pao right now looking rather pathetic despite their large size which made them appear much stronger than they actually were due to their stature which was backed up by their fierce demeanour which only made King Pao even angrier once again causing more sweat to pour out of him like water pouring out of an open tap that couldn't be closed no matter how hard anyone tried which resulted in people getting angry because they couldn't use any water because there wasn't any left so people started fighting over whatever little bit of water was left until eventually there wasn't anything left for anyone including animals, plants or people because there wasn't enough water left for anyone anymore which meant people were forced to travel further away from town and further down into valleys where people believed that there would be less water so they could preserve what little bit they had left in case something similar happened again but unfortunately something did happen again except worse this time because there was no more water left anywhere on earth which meant everyone died including animals, plants or people except for two guards standing before King Pao right now who looked rather pathetic despite their large size which made them appear much stronger than they actually were due to their stature which was backed up by their fierce demeanour which only made King Pao even angrier once again causing more sweat to pour out of him like water pouring out of an open tap that couldn't be closed no matter how hard anyone tried...