Shi gave his head a shake — his jaw flapping made a ridiculous sound that amused his company. ‘Phew! That was good.’
‘More?’ she invited, whereby Dan covered his cup with his hand.
‘I need my wits about me,’ he graciously declined.
‘I think I shall take my time with this one.’ Shi indicated he would like a refill, welcoming the distraction.
‘You were saying, Shifu?’ Dan had been waiting to hear this tale for a long time, and feared they would be interrupted.
‘It was the year of the fire tiger.’ She poured tea for Shi and then herself. ‘And long before I had the connection to my higher self that I do now, you understand?’ She aimed the statement at Dan, who nodded to confirm he followed.
‘I don’t understand.’ Shi was disheartened to be lost already.
‘It is not important that you do,’ the Great Mother assured him, and Shi was happy again. ‘I was trekking deep in the pathless regions of Qiang, toward the source of the three great western rivers.’
‘That is where I hail from.’
‘I am not surprised,’ Yi Wu awarded, ‘for it has been one of the stomping grounds of the sons of the sky and their forefathers since prehistoric times.’
Dan was very interested to hear this and immediately aspired to travel there himself, and explore the region.
‘It was my aim to find the fabled sea of stars,’ Yi Wu continued, ‘that is said to lie north of the principal chain of mountains, but I never made it to my destination.’ She didn’t appear to regret not attaining her goal too much. ‘There was a terrible blizzard, and I sought shelter in a cave where I was stunned to encounter a young woman giving birth. She appeared to have been attacked by a wild animal, and as a healer, I was eager to assist her, for the child was crowning and in hurry to be born.’
‘Hudan?’ Dan guessed, as she had to do everything immediately.
‘It was,’ she grinned to confirm. ‘Yet no sooner had the mother swathed the child to warm it, than she was urging me to take her away and come back later. As I departed to search for alternative shelter, I turned back to note the woman removing her clothes, despite the freezing temperatures. I thought her trying to harm herself and so made a move to caution her … that’s when I saw her transform … I turned and ran for my life!’
Shi had a chuckle at her fear. ‘It was brave of you to go back,’ he awarded.
Yi Wu smiled at his praise. ‘I had made a promise,’ she concurred, appearing more sombre. ‘I regret that I did not get my courage up a little faster. By the time I returned, their mother was dead and the runt of the litter, the only male, had frozen to death on the ice.’
Even Dan winced at the visual image, so Shi was certainly distressed.
‘Huxin had pulled herself in between her mother’s forearms, off the cold ground and was sucking for her life.’
Shi smiled at the tale of his love’s deliverance.
‘Taiji was their mother’s,’ Yi Wu explained, ‘and I taught myself how to wield the staff, and then taught Hudan when she was old enough.’
‘Hence your quest to find the sea of stars was abandoned?’ Dan concluded for his Shifu.
‘It was Tian who sent me on that pilgrimage, but I like to think Hudan and Huxin were the true reason I was compelled to take that path. I think if I had known the real reason I was being so compelled, I might not have been so keen. Raising the pair of them, so very different from each other, was challenging to say the very least.’
‘So Hudan and Huxin would have had a brother?’ Shi mourned for them.
‘I have never told them,’ Yi Wu confessed. ‘But when Fen came along and they became so attached, I felt that soul had come back around to them.’
Dan felt himself getting sentimental, and he sniffled back the emotion. ‘I should like to write that tale.’
‘I have beaten you to it, but you are welcome to record it for mass consumption if you so desire,’ the Great Mother allowed.
‘Did their mother say anything about where she was from?’ Shi asked, curious.
‘We did not exactly speak the same language?’ Yi Wu explained, ‘although I did ask, and the only reply I got was, Dropa.’
‘Dropa? I’ve never heard of it,’ Shi exclaimed, shaking his head, ‘but once I am residing in the region and the cubs are older, we shall explore.’
‘That sounds a splendid plan,’ she conceded, as the doors from the entrance hall were heard to part.
When Shi saw it was Hudan he ran to hear the news.
‘It’s twins!’ she announced.
‘Twins!’ he conveyed back to the Great Mother and Dan, before turning back to Hudan. ‘Of what variety?’
‘A boy and girl.’
‘One of each!’ Shi clapped his hands together. ‘But what variety?’
‘Oh,’ Hudan realised his meaning. ‘Cubs.’
‘Splendid! May I see them?’ he requested.
‘Of course!’ As Hudan moved to lead him, Shi was already whipping his shirt off. ‘Shi, this is a cloister of maidens. You might want to wait until you get indoors to transform.’
‘Sorry.’ He pulled his shirt half on to accompany her. ‘I am not really thinking straight.’
In the wake of his brother’s excited exit, Dan looked back to his companion. ‘Shifu, I need to speak with you about Ji Song.’
‘I know your concerns,’ she told him, ‘but the prince’s time among the Wu will come in due course.’
‘He is one of us then?’ Dan was hoping there had been some mistake.
‘I’m afraid so,’ she said, causing Dan to wonder if his aversion to the prince was far more obvious than he’d imagined.
‘Do we have a history, outside of our current circumstances?’ Dan queried, suspecting that they did.
‘Work on tapping into your Akashic memory, and you shall be able to answer that for yourself.’ Yi Wu obviously thought this would motivate him, and she was right — it would.
‘Just when I think I have it all figured out, causality kicks me another curve ball,’ Dan grumbled.
‘Then train harder,’ she suggested, ‘and you’ll be kicking goals in no time.’
Huxin had actually birthed three cubs, but one was clearly smaller than its siblings and was entirely white. Unlike the twins, she was not born squirming, and seemed dead until Fen had taken her in hand. Huxin had given the cub one sniff and then completely ignored it. Once Fen had cleaned the third newborn, he tried to place it back with the others to be fed, but it was quickly barged out of the way by both its siblings and its mother.
Hudan and Shi arrived to find the tigress on the floor feeding the twins, and Fen drip-feeding the runt with his finger from a bowl of goat’s milk.
‘There are three?’ Shi began whipping his clothes off the second he was in the room, eager to join his family, and Hudan turned to face the other way.
‘She rejected this one.’ Fen was clearly worried for the tiny ball of white fur sucking on his finger, although it made him smile. ‘Huxin has not returned to human form to tell us why.’
‘I shall find out.’ Shi shifted form to join his pride, and walking around behind his tigress, the tiger collapsed onto the floor and began grooming her around the head. Huxin was very receptive and purred loudly.
Hudan sat by Fen on the bed to admire his little bundle.
‘I am sorry the prince surprised you at Haojing,’ he commented. ‘I was not expecting to interrupt anything.’
‘You did not,’ she insisted. ‘I told you, I had something in my eye.’
Fen gave half a laugh and shook his head. ‘What happened to “love is the addiction of unfulfilled people”?’
Hudan dropped her innocent front and grinned to admit. ‘You were right, and I was … so very wrong.’
Fen, having never won an argument with Hudan before, wanted to grin but was too annoyed. ‘You nearly shamed my duke and the House of Li Shan in front of the next Zhou,’ he said, his voice low. ‘What were you thinking?’
<
br /> Hudan frowned and pouted, unaccustomed to being in trouble or being lectured by her baby brother. ‘You do not have to worry; circumstances dictate that it will not happen again,’ she concluded sadly.
One side of Fen’s mouth almost formed a sympathetic smile as he looked to their sister and her new family. ‘Well, at least love was kind to one of us.’
Hudan bumped heads with her brother, and gave him a hug. He was not really angry with her — she would have felt it in his energy, which was brimming with joy at present. Yet Hudan was angry that her little brother had been forced into a position where he’d been compelled to call her commonsense into question. Even if circumstances did allow such an opportunity again, as it might at the forthcoming wedding, Hudan felt she must not succumb. It had been a mistake to admit her true feelings to Dan and, although the thought pained her like a sucker-punch to the chest, their connection had to be severed.
Once the twins were snoozing in between their father’s paws where they had been licked to sleep, Huxin returned to her human form to get herself cleaned up. She was surprisingly unscathed and undaunted by the event; just a little weary and moving slow.
‘Can I get you something?’ Hudan climbed off the bed to be of assistance, as Huxin pulled on a robe.
‘No, I’m good.’ She looked at Fen, affectionately. ‘Thanks to you, my sweetness.’
‘What would you like me to do with this little girl?’ Fen referred to the runt sleeping down the front of his shirt.
‘She’s not a shifter,’ Huxin told him. ‘There is no human in her, and that makes her a danger to her siblings. Were-tigers and full blood tigers develop at a different rate, so if the twins don’t kill her during the feeding process in the first few months, she will outgrow them in a year and … I can’t run the risk.’
‘You can’t just let her die,’ Fen appealed.
‘I can and I will,’ she told him surely. ‘Thank you again for your assistance. I am going to bathe.’
‘Huxin?’ Fen called her back. ‘May I keep her for you, then? Surely, they will be of equal size sooner or later?’
‘ Your choice!’ Huxin stressed the point and exited the room quietly.
Fen was left utterly bewildered by her attitude and looked to Shi, who shifted back into human form. Hudan did him the service of returning his clothes to his body, and he was stunned to find himself instantly dressed.
‘Many thanks, sister.’ He rose with a smile — both the tiny cubs still asleep in his folded arms.
‘What say you, Shi?’ Fen climbed off the bed to show him his other daughter.
‘I do not have a say,’ Shi said as he eyed her over and smiled fondly.
‘In the tiger world, perhaps,’ Fen argued, ‘but in the human world you are the head of the household.’
‘But the runt is not human,’ Shi replied, frowning, and lowered his voice to share his other concern, ‘and I should rather have Huxin in my household before I attempt to challenge her authority.’
Fen conceded Shi’s predicament, to his own frustration. ‘Well then, I shall take her.’ He sounded deeply disappointed that he seemed to care more about the cub than either of her parents did. He dug the slumbering cub out from his shirt to look at her. ‘I shall name her Ling Hu.’ He rubbed noses with his new charge.
The name meant ‘spirit tiger’ or ‘tiger with inner strength’ and it suited her albino colouring well.
‘That is a fine name,’ Shi agreed. ‘I shall inform Huxin of it when she returns.’
This was a subtle hint to Fen that he should take the spurned cub and go, before Huxin came back, and Fen lost a little of his cheer as he returned the cub inside his shirt.
‘Come, Fen,’ Hudan broke the tense moment, ‘I should see you and brother Dan back to court.’
‘I shall be sure and tell the king your happy news.’ Fen followed Hudan to the door.
‘I am indebted to you, brother Fen,’ Shi spoke up before the healer departed, ‘on many levels, and I thank you with all my heart.’
‘You just gave me your first-born daughter,’ Fen’s voice went hoarse with emotion, ‘I would say we are even.’ He made a hasty retreat ahead of his sister.
‘It is for the best,’ Shi told Hudan, who nodded to assure him she did not question their judgement.
‘Fen Gong was himself abandoned by his parents,’ she explained, ‘and this event has struck a chord, I would say. But he will come to see that events will unfold in accord with heaven for Ling Hu, just as they did for him.’ Hudan followed Fen from the room.
The ominous conversation Hudan knew she must have with Dan before she left his company that evening was looming large in her thoughts as she followed Fen into the courtyard. The notion had dulled the joy around the day’s happy occasion, and Hudan just felt cold and numb.
‘What are you going to do with a tiger at court?’ Dan was saying, as he admired the little cub down the front of his companion’s shirt. ‘Do you have any idea what she could do to our Hall of Records?’
‘Well, I could just move to my property with her,’ Fen teased. ‘I’m sure the queen would have no problem allowing me to leave.’
Dan smiled to concede Fen would get his way. ‘You are quite right, every level of diyu would freeze over before Yi Jiang will part with you.’ Dan looked to Hudan, and must have noted how forced her smile was. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘I am just tired,’ she advised. ‘I should deliver you both back to court, before I do not have the chi to do it.’
Back in Dan’s Hall of Records, Hudan bid goodnight to Fen and his little charge, in the hope that he would leave her to speak with Dan, but her little brother ignored the hint, despite the long awkward silence, and their glares.
‘I shall see you in the morning, Fen,’ Dan prodded further.
‘I would like to see my sister gone before I leave,’ Fen hinted right back. ‘Just in case she gets anything in her eye.’
‘Very well.’ Hudan resented being treated like a child. ‘Zhou Gong.’ She nodded in the duke’s direction and vanished.
‘Happy?’ Dan queried, with more than a little annoyance.
‘Nice try, Hudan,’ Fen grinned, not looking up from stroking his charge, ‘but I know you are still here.’
‘Damn you, Fen.’ Hudan reappeared beside Dan. ‘I can handle this myself.’
‘I think handling is your problem,’ he backed up a few paces. ‘No handling,’ he specified.
‘Yes, I understand. Goodnight,’ she stressed, and Fen finally left.
‘Am I what you are not handling?’ Dan cocked his head, alerted to a change in the emotional weather.
Hudan opened her mouth to answer, but no words were forthcoming, so she merely nodded to confirm.
‘Don’t,’ he appealed, taking a step toward her, and when she took a step away, he was gutted. ‘Please —’
‘The night of the goddess rite, I made the choice to tell you the truth because I didn’t want to hurt you,’ Hudan said, ‘but it was the wrong choice —’
‘No, it wasn’t.’ He made another attempt to approach, but she maintained the distance. ‘You vowed you’d never regret it.’
‘I don’t regret our bliss, Dan,’ Hudan told him, on the verge of tears, ‘only that it has to end.’
‘Why,’ he objected, ‘when even the Great Mother has not forbidden it.’
‘She cannot take away our free will, only we can to do that,’ Hudan stated, ‘or I, if I must do this alone.’
Dan shook his head not wanting to put her in that position, but not wishing to concede the end either. ‘I apologise for earlier, but we can work around this.’
‘The risk is too great,’ she reminded him, desperate to make him see. ‘Zhou Gong will be remembered as the father of civilisation, Dan.’
‘Yi Wu told you that?’ Dan assumed, annoyed by the Great Mother’s tactic.
‘I will not be the one who shames the brightest star in Tian’s sky,’ she insisted and ignored his qu
ery.
‘I don’t care about greatness!’ Dan finally caught Hudan and wanted to hold her, but she held him at bay.
‘That is my entire point.’ she reasoned. ‘History will care, very much.’ She held a hand to his face and regarded him tenderly. ‘Farewell, my friend —’
‘No,’ he implored her not to leave.
‘May Tian speed your destiny. I shall await you at the end.’ She caught her breath as she broke away from him, and with her inner focus already on Li Shan, she was spirited away.
16
THE BIRTH OF JI YU
If Fen had been attracting a lot of female attention before, now that he had a tiger cub he could not keep the ladies of the queen’s court at bay and they would fight over who would mind his charge whilst he tended to the queen.
He was rather grateful for the delightful distraction of Ling Hu in his life. Fen missed his sisters, and Zhou Gong Dan had been a complete misery for weeks!
Even the sight of Fen attempting to teach Ling Hu how to drink milk out of a bowl by himself demonstrating, failed to rouse a smile from the duke.
‘No, dopey,’ Fen remonstrated, lifting the cub out of the bowl it had walked in. ‘We drink it!’ He shoved one of Ling Hu’s paws to her mouth and she began licking the milk off. ‘That’s right.’ Fen sat the cub down next the bowl, whereupon she stuck her paw back in the bowl and proceeded to lick it off again. ‘Well, she’s getting it, kind of.’ He looked at Dan.
‘We have work to do,’ he said, looking back to his drafting.
‘I’m leaving soon for the wedding,’ Fen said, to jolt the lord’s memory.
‘Ah yes, that is today, isn’t it?’ Dan remained focused on his work.
‘You can still change your mind and come,’ Fen stood to appeal. ‘Shi very much wants you there.’
‘Busy.’
‘In that case,’ Fen ventured, ‘would you mind taking care of Ling Hu for me? I’m afraid Huxin might eat her if I take her to the wedding.’
‘Do I look like a wet nurse to you?’ Dan looked at Fen to ask, and the lad reached the end of his tether.
‘It was not my fault she ended what should never have begun,’ Fen decided to get the real issue out in the open.
Dreaming of Zhou Gong Page 43