EARTHLY DRAGON, SOARING PALM

by Derek Dorris

  The one advantage they had this time was they had divined Tu Ling's escape plan in advance. They had used all their lightness skill to silently approach the trio earlier that night and, as the two men were practicing, they watched her surreptitiously plant a number of small packages in a circle around a small clearing. They didn't know what the packages contained nor did they understand why she was doing it without her companions’ knowledge but they weren't about to waste this opportunity. Not unreasonably, they guessed the packages were designed to disable anyone who stands within them. They watched as she prepared some kind of igniting device and noted where she hid it.

  During their subsequent fight with Quan Ti Luan and Bai Feng, when it was clear they were being bested, the husband and wife siblings put their counter-plan into action. While defending against Bai Feng, Wen Zhu threw her whip out laterally, catching Tu Ling by surprise and rendering the young lady unconscious. Bai Feng's concern for Tu Ling made it easier for Wen Weisheng and Wen Zhu to manoeuvre him and Liao Quan, who he was fighting in unison with, towards the clearing. Wen Weisheng flicked a piece of flint and a ball of fire appeared in his hand. Without wasting a second, he threw the fireball over his right shoulder straight for Tu Ling's ignition device. They didn't know exactly what it would do but their guess that it involved something flammable was right on. On signal, they darted out of the clearing leaving Liao Quan and Bai Feng to absorb the full blast.

  Liao Quan saw what the Heavenly Tailor was doing but in his desperation to save Bai Feng he would be caught too. A loud crack rent the air and both men were blown ten meters from the clearing.

  The Compound

  Despite darting for cover ahead of the explosion, Wen Weisheng and Wen Zhu were also hit by the blast—though not critically. They had not anticipated a blast that big. In truth, Tu Ling had overestimated the amount of gunpowder she needed. Slowly, the siblings struggled to their feet, feeling each other for open wounds or broken bones. Their ears rang sickeningly and Wen Weisheng threw up due to the pain in his head. They didn't even look for Liao Quan and Bai Feng. If we were this badly damaged those two must be in pieces, they thought. No, tonight, we've avenged ourselves against that old maniac and that monumental humiliation he caused us. They hobbled away, back to where they came from.

  Only meters away, Tu Ling was coming round after being knocked out by Wen Zhu. The detonation of her bomb had rocked her to a partially waking state and she stumbled over to the clearing. She had no idea what happened but her blood ran cold when she came upon Liao Quan's gown, crumpled up and lying on the ground. To her growing horror, she found Liao Quan was still in it. She couldn't see Bai Feng.

  “First Brother!” she yelled, reaching to turn him over. The old man's body rolled to reveal Bai Feng's. He was covered in deep cuts and burns but nothing compared to Liao Quan who had used his body to shield Bai Feng. The Old Fool was as blown up as a person could be without losing any limbs. She checked Bai Feng for a pulse and found he was still alive, though seriously injured. She then brought herself to check Liao Quan, resting her head on the blue portion of his beard that covered his chest. She could hear nothing. She sobbed into his chest.

  “Little girl,” she heard eventually. “Don't worry. We old boys breathe slowly. I'm still here for now.”

  Amazingly, he was alive only Tu Ling wasn't sure for how long. She made them both comfortable and poured whatever water she could into their mouths. How to save them? She struggled to make her mind work. We're deep in the mountains, on the far side of Mount Xianshi, far away from any town and they both need serious medical treatment. Remembering a stream they crossed earlier that day, she ran through the darkness to find it. It was only five minutes away. From there, she tracked it downhill until she found what she was looking for. A river. Making her way back, she began collecting what she was going to need. Tree bark stripped from the most suitable trees with her dagger, straight branches that could bear some weight, and plants whose roots could be pulped for burn medicine.

  She got back to the two men well over an hour later and checked on them. Both were still alive. After applying the medicine her father taught her to make, she made rope out of the tree bark, cut the branches to size, and constructed a stretcher. When done, she placed Bai Feng on top and began her first trip. Dragging, slipping, pushing, and willing the stretcher all the way to the river.

  By morning, she had made it. Scratched and grimy, she felt an irresistible urge to plunge into the water and cleanse herself of the thorns and grit but she bore it. She made Bai Feng comfortable and by midday she had returned for Liao Quan. Though physically and mentally exhausted, she immediately bundled the still mumbling Liao Quan onto the stretcher and began her second trip. Falling at almost her first attempt to drag the stretcher, she wept for a few moments before closing her eyes. An hour later, her body felt rejuvenated enough to wake and try again. It was nearly midnight by the time she reached the river bank and though Bai Feng was still breathing, he was much weaker than before. She poured water into his mouth pleading with him to stay with her.

  Within an hour, the stretcher was altered and expanded to become a raft and after a quick meal, she bundled the two men on, tied them securely, and kicked the raft into the water. She was too tired to care about the danger of her plan. There was no choice so why waste time procrastinating. After a few minutes of gentle floating, the raft picked up speed and began shooting down the river. She tied herself down too and even if she could see where they were going, she didn't even think about steering. If they were meant to make it, they would do. If not, they would be smashed to pieces. Looking up at the starlit sky, she felt a strange calm and actually fell into a hazy sort of sleep. An exhausted sleep took over which saw her through the entire night and half the next day, drifting and drifting.

  Tu Ling had grown up in the north of the country. Her father's sect was well known and very powerful. Her village was almost entirely inhabited by members of her family, extended family, and martial family. The only place where she and her cousins could play without the supervision of an older family member was at the river a kilometre away from her village. It was the only time she felt free even if it did come with a natural sense of vulnerability.

  The sound of laughing and splashing had elicited those old conflicted feelings of freedom and anxiety. As her eyes flickered, those feelings swelled. We've made it, she thought—before remembering the rest.

  “Feng'er! First Brother!”

  Surprised the raft was still intact, she untied herself and checked them. Bai Feng seemed better but Liao Quan was certainly weaker. Looking up for the first time, Tu Ling saw the kids whose playing had crept into her dreams. “Hey kids,” she called out, “can you get us some food? I have two injured friends here.”

  The raft had nestled among the reeds of the far bank and, having not noticed it beforehand, the kids were shocked at the sound of her voice. Unmoving, they stood staring at the three bodies strewn across the raft.

  “Didn't you hear me?” Tu Ling shouted a little louder. “We need help!”

  Eventually, the eldest among them ran off only to return moments later with a young lady. The older child had a basket of steamed buns in her hand while the lady carried water and dry clothes. The water was quite shallow at that part of the river so Tu Ling had already pulled the raft over to the other bank. She untied the two men and dragged them ashore one at a time before finally collapsing. The young lady, who couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old, began tending to her wounds and fed her water.

  Waking two days later, Tu Ling found herself in a small house. The same young lady was sitting by her bedside. Tu Ling asked for her friends but instead of speaking, the young lady smiled and pointed out of the room. Tu Ling guessed she was mute. Rising unsteadily to her feet, she stumbled towards the door. The young lady seemed shocked and rushed to help her. As she exited the room, she found a middle aged man and woman carefully tending Bai Feng and Liao Quan.

  “Pleas
e young miss,” the man said without looking at her, “you need to rest. We’ll take care of your companions.”

  “Will they survive?” she asked almost pleading with him to ensure it.

  “The young one will. The old man, however, is very weak and his breathing is strange.”

  Tu Ling wanted to explain the unusual breathing might be down to the fact that he's a great kung fu master but she didn't want to give too much away. In fact, she decided to say as little as possible. She had lived her life by the code of prudence and it had gotten her this far.

  Reaching into her pocket, she took out a jade necklace that had been passed down through the women in her family. It meant a lot to her but—without thinking—she proffered it to the man. “Please senior. Whatever it takes to keep them alive. Whatever medicines you can get.”

  The man waved a kind hand in refusal and turned to her for the first time. For a brief second, he paused as if he recognised her but the glimmer faded as quickly as it arrived. “There's no need for that. We've given him all we can; only time will tell.”

  By that evening, Bai Feng was showing signs of waking for the first time since the explosion. He was understandably delirious while Liao Quan was heading in the opposite direction. The following morning, the young mute girl woke Tu Ling with tears in her eyes. Leading her out to the living room, Tu Ling saw Bai Feng sitting up with the middle aged man beside him. Initially elated to see Bai Feng looking so much better, she soon noticed tears in his eyes too. He was staring at Liao Quan's body. The Old Fool’s breathing had finally stopped. A great master of his age had passed in the night. Bowing to the old man, Tu Ling shared in the room’s tears.

  The next day, she used her necklace to hire three strong men from the village to transport Liao Quan's body to the great Shaolin temple, ninety miles to the north east. She could think of nothing else. She only knew that this man was out of the ordinary in his martial achievements and should be laid to rest by the world’s most revered expert. Infinite Sky was known as a just man who had deep respect for martial ability and, besides, most of the greats respected each other as kindred spirits. He will treat Liao Quan's remains appropriately, she decided.

  For his part, Bai Feng was extraordinarily weak after so many days in a coma. Moreover, he was beside himself with grief at the loss of his friend. Tu Ling stayed by his bedside but let him sleep as much as possible.

  Two days later, disturbing news came to the village. Word had spread locally that three people were being treated for serious wounds somewhere in the area. And now, two extremely powerful masters, one a man, the other a woman were apparently going from village interrogating people on the location of the injured party. Tu Ling didn't need to hear more. She knew who it was and, remembering what Liao Quan said about their relentlessness, she knew they wouldn't give up until they found them.

  By this time, Tu Ling had a good idea of where she was. They had ventured into the Kiu prefecture just north of Mount Xianshi. The realisation came with a painful memory for it was around here that she, under the flag of the Jade Tiger Sect, had had taken part in a massacre of an entire family of warriors. As always, the Jade Tigers were simply hired to do the job and the killing had been random and clinical. From a young age, she had been trained to be emotionless, yet nonetheless, that day had seared itself into her memory.

  Though she had no desire to revisit the scene of the crime, the thought of leaving Bai Feng to fare for himself against those horrible siblings was one she gave no countenance to. He needed a safe place to recuperate and it just so happened the family they wiped out stayed hidden from the Jade Tigers for months on end by establishing a well hidden compound in the rocky hills to the northeast. In fact, it was only thirty-five kilometres from where she and Bai Feng were presently—a heaven-sent solution.

  The area was a maze of sheer rocks with countless twisting paths so she and her master had spent days mapping the terrain in an effort to establish the right search patterns that would inevitably root the family out. Certain that she could locate it again, she packed whatever provisions she could scrounge and secreted Bai Feng and herself out of the village that evening. Leaving whatever money she had left as payment for the family who had taken care of them, she and Bai Feng disappeared.

  * * *

  Bai Feng remembered walking a great distance during the previous night, despite being unsure where they were going or why they were travelling in total darkness. Waking up in a small bamboo-made house, he looked around to see the remnants of a comfortable home. The room was bright and clean and everything within its homely interior told him a family had once lived here. He dragged himself to his feet and explored the next few rooms and from the cleanly swept reed mats to the comfortably placed furniture he got the same feeling.

  Outside the house was a small courtyard which, like the house, was surrounded by high rocks. The yard was clearly used for martial practice. Cloth sacks of sand hung on the walls and there were all sorts of wooden implements for which he could imagine no other purpose than practicing punching and kicking. Actually, once he thought about it, it reminded him of the Earthly Dragon temple. The whole house gave off a martial air without being overtly affiliated with the martial world. There were no banners, sect scrolls, or school identifiers. For all intents and purposes, it was just a home, a home that catered to the study of martial skill. Just as he was wondering what became of the people who lived here, he noticed a neat row of graves outside of the compound. They all seemed to have been prepared around the same time. Something awful must have befallen this family, he thought regretfully.

  Bai Feng's thinking was interrupted by the return of Tu Ling who was carrying two small hares and a basket of freshly picked herbs.

  “Thank you,” said Bai Feng with sincerity. “If it wasn't for you, I'd be most certainly dead by now.”

  Tu Ling seemed a little miffed at being thanked. “What did you expect me to do?” she responded curtly. “Leave you there?”

  Taken aback, Bai Feng just looked at her. Why is she being so cold all of a sudden? Finally he spoke. “No, it's just that nobody could've reasonably expected you to drag two full grown men all the way down that mountain. You really are resourceful... and determined.” Bai Feng smiled at her, praying it was returned.

  By now, Tu Ling had totally discarded her male attire and was dressed as a simple peasant girl. Bai Feng had become increasingly aware of her feminine presence and was being strongly affected by it. However, he had no idea she was this beautiful. For the first time in a long time, he felt self-conscious, desperately wishing to avoid looking silly or weak in front of her. He even found himself worrying about his appearance.

  “Resourceful and determined,” Tu Ling echoed sarcastically. “I've been flattered by men before but never so generously Brother Feng.”

  Since he had begun travelling with her, he felt his normally clear mind repeatedly clouding with wandering imaginings and itinerant bursts of pleasant emotion. It wasn't long before he realised Tu Ling's presence was the source. So long as Liao Quan was within earshot, he was reticent to indulge those feelings. Now he was entirely alone with her, he indulged away. However, her very presence—unfettered and feminine as it now was—caused his words to sorely fail him. “Err, well. I mean. You're… Well… you're amazing.” Bai Feng cringed as the words escaped his mouth.

  Tu Ling, on the other hand, was genuinely touched by his visible discomfort and the warmth returned to her voice. The truth was she had been worried sick at the thought of losing him and was angry with herself and with him for having to experience such feelings. But watching him struggle to express his feelings melted whatever ice was left around her heart. “Let's not talk about it,” she said, finally relenting with a soft frown. “You still have a lot of recovering to do. I'll prepare some food. It's not much but you need to eat.”

  The weeks passed and Bai Feng recovered completely. His grief over Liao Quan took a while to ebb and his recuperation was delayed because of it. Howe
ver, as he was taught to do since he was a child, he eventually changed the way he looked at his grief and, being lucky enough to have learned Liao Quan’s unique style from the great master himself, Bai Feng soon decided that, from now on, the old man would live on in his expression of that art. Eager to perfect his skill to as high a level as possible, he began meditating and practicing kung fu with a determination even he had never experienced. Within days, he found his internal energy wasn't just replenishing, it was deepening considerably. He didn't know it but this was a consequence of his extensive training in the Twenty-Five Lightning Arm Stances. His internal structure was actually being reinforced to act as a base for the Old Fool’s divine style. On the occasions that he and Tu Ling left the compound, he was dismayed to discover he could run vast distances at blinding speed and jump higher than full grown trees without even breaking a sweat. Tu Ling was just happy to see him both healthy and happy again.

  The two grew even closer during these weeks and neither was in a hurry to move on. Bai Feng had learned to be himself around Tu Ling and she enjoyed the way they could now relax in each other’s presence. At night time, they would often sit close to each other and just look up at the sky. On occasions, they even fell asleep in each other's arms. Tu Ling had decided she didn't want to ever part from Bai Feng and he had arrived at the same conclusion. Their compound was spacious and well concealed so they felt comfortable there, safe and content.

  However, every now and then, Bai Feng would see Tu Ling staring at the graves, even crying over them and he wondered if she missed her own family. Soon enough, Tu Ling explained what was on her mind.

  “I'm not exactly the person you think I am,” she began.

  “Ling’er, I don't care who you are or where you come from,” Bai Feng tried to tell her but Tu Ling continued. She assumed Bai Feng knew nothing of the Jade Tiger Sect.