Coughing Lion Hidden Dragon
by F4 girl
A young Chinese girl sits quietly in her room. Her mother calls, "Nataku! It time to go!"
Nataku is leaving her home today to live with her husband faraway. She wonders what her husband looks like. Her parents arranged her marriage when she was six years old and she has never meet her husband before.
After looking at her room for one last time, Nataku jumps out of the window. Her mother watches with disapproval glance as she lands at the front yard of her house.
"Remember you're going to live in your husband's house. You can't jump around doing martial art anymore." Nataku's mother says.
"I like martial art." The young girl replies.
"That's not something a wife should do. No husband will like a wife who bounce around like a monkey." Her mom is angrier now.
Nataku doesn't want to argue with her mother; so she just close her eyes and drifts off to dreamland.
^__^ ^__^ ^__^ ^__^ ^__^
Loud hollering of men wakes Nataku up. She peeks out the window of her carriage and sees a group of men practicing for the New Year lion dance and dragon dance.
Lion dance and dragon dance are very important traditions in Chinese New Year. Most people think of them as performances and shows; but they really are competitions for different martial art orderliness. Organizations send out their homemade lion and dragon models with martial artists inside to fight for the prize money.
Nataku's eyes widen as she sees a magnificent-looking gold lion jumps up in air. 10 people attack the lion at the same time but it shows no fear; it stands confidently and counterattacks with amazing speed and power. Soon all the attackers fall to the ground while the gold lion revives it true identity.
The martial artist inside the gold lion is actually a young Chinese boy. He senses Nataku watching him and looks to her direction. Nataku jumps back and hides behind the window.
Her mother says with a harsher tone than before, "For the last time, stop jumping around and behave like a lady. You're going to make your family looks bad. Do you want to shame me and your father?"
^__^ ^__^ ^__^ ^__^ o__o
The carriage stops and Nataku follows her mother into a huge mansion. An old man standing in the middle of the main hall says to the girl, "welcome to the family, young one. Your husband will be here soon."
The young boy inside the gold lion walks in. Nataku shouts, "it's you!"
The old man frowns and Nataku mothers scorns, "Nataku! Don't speak unless your husband tells you to!"
"I need permission from him to speak?" Nataku says. She is frustrated by her mother constant tuition on how to be a proper wife.
The elder joins Nataku's mother in disciplining the young girl and corrects her harshly, "You can't talk like that in front of him! He's your husband!"
"Maybe I don't want a husband!" Nataku shouts to the elder. She has looses her last bit of patient. Ever since she was 3 years old everyone has been teaching her how to be a silent submissive puppet to her husband, and she can't take it anymore.
Everyone in the mansion is shocked with Nataku's outburst. No Chinese girls dare to act that way in her husband's household.
"Don't do martial art! Don't talk! Don't move! Don't breathe! I'm not a puppet! I want to speak and run and bounce if I want to!" Nataku continues.
"Then you can go home. We have no use for a unwomanly fiend like you." The elder says madly. The men in the house look at her as if she is a monster; her mother stands there mortified and doesn't know what to do.
The young husband says, "Elder, there is no need for such vicious language. My parents chose her to be my bride, and we will honor the decision they made for me."
The elder nods, "yes, master Cheung."
Nataku's mother bows in relief, "thank you for being so kind to my ill-manner daughter, master Cheung."
"There is nothing erroneous in her manner. I understand her frustrations." Wufei says. Nataku feels her heart pounds when she notices how handsome her young husband's features are.
The young master says to his bride, "My lady, feel free to speak out, run fast and bounces as high as you want in here. This is your house now."
Nataku beams, "thank you!"
"Elder, please show the lady around the mansion. I need to go check on the water supplies construction. I should be back before dinner." The boy leaves.
^__^ ^__^ ^__^ ^__^ ^__^
The elder shows Nataku around the huge mansion. The place is so elegant Nataku feels like she is walking in the Forbidden Palace. When they finish the tour it's evening already.
The elder takes Nataku to the dinning hall for dinner. She feels a little disappointed when she learns that the young master isn't going to join her for supper. He has a lot of thing to take care of.
After dinner, all the women and girls work to prepare for the Chinese New Year feast. A woman calls, "I need some vegetables from the store room!"
Nataku sees all the other women are busy to go and she offers, "Why don't I go to get the vegetables?"
The new bride heads for the storeroom. She walks pass the training hall and sees the young master's gold lion hanging there; it shimmers so brilliantly that Nataku can't help but want to touch it.
She walks inside the hall and reaches for the gold lion. The elder screams at her from outside the door, "Stop!"
Nataku jumps away from the lion and falls to the floor. The other men shout, "is the lion head is alright? The girl didn't touch it, did she?"
Nataku sits on the floor. The elder scorns at her, "you should be in the kitchen cooking! What are you doing here? Female aren't allow to touch the lion! It's bad luck! You'll jinx the lion and make us loose!"
"Is anything the matter, elder?" the young master comes in.
TBC…
Thanks for reading. Wufei is very out of character ^__^;;; when I first wrote this fic, I tried to make the couple in character, but it didn't work out the way I hoped, so I changed the story and make Wufei OOC . I hope you don't mind. Please keep reading and thanks again.
If you want to see more details about lion dancing martial art competition, watch Jet Li's movie 'Once Upon A Time In China 3'. It's a very cool story and it got quite a bit of lion dance martial art fights. ^.^