Hello puddings and good-things! I am back with another ChuNi fan fiction, this time in fairytale-version; a story which had been conceived from a selected few poems you may (or may not) already be familiar with from my collection, Their Beautiful World. But enough of my jibber-jabber. I suppose you are here to read the story, and not this tedious author's note. So with that said!... I will finally scoot and allow you to read in peace.
Nonononono; wait, I almost forgotten the warnings!
1) This story contains themes that not everybody may enjoy. Specifically, LGBT support. So please do not feel the need to slink through the story if you are not comfortable with the topic, otay? We can always find you something else to read~
2) Microsoft word says 13217 words! So this story probably won't be the best thing to read if you're after something light.
3) Although I can't imagine why you'd want to re-read it in another place, this story was first published in my new portal on a new, warm world I had uncovered a few days ago: Deviant Art! At |h|t|t|p|:|/|/|p|l|u|m|e|r|i|a|-|h|i|.|d|e|v|i|a|n|t|a|r|t|.|c|o|m|/|a|r|t|/|T|h|e|-|M|a|i|d|e|n|-|B|l|u|e|-|a|n|d|-|t|h|e|-|K|n|i|g|h|t|-|i|n|-|R|e|d|-|P|A|R|T|-|1|-|5|0|5|5|1|5|2|9|9|. If you haven't already, I sincerely encourage you to join in the community. It's loads fun, the people are all so nice and there's a ship tonne of things you can do!
Otay; you can read now. Go on; go on~ :)
The Maiden Blue and the Knight in Red
˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙.˙
Once upon a time, in a time before yours and mine, there lived in the land of the Rising Sun an empress named Amaterasu. Empress Amaterasu was a mother to all of her subjects and ruled with a just hand. Kind, fair and humble, she was adored and venerated by all in the land of the Rising Sun.
Nevertheless, Empress Amaterasu was greatly burdened. This was because her babe, the child-prince whom the people of the country dearly refer to as Kiku, was unlike anything she would have ever imagined him to be. Kiku took after his mother significantly in that he was dainty, soft-spoken and fair. But this was what kept the distressed empress tossing and turning every night. Kiku took after her too much.
In the fact that Kiku was a very, VERY effeminate boy. With hair as lustrous as ink, ivory, silk skin, gentle fawn-eyes and a build as slender as the stem of the flower which he is named after, it is only too easy to mistaken the boy for a pretty little girl if one stood twenty feet away and glanced from anywhere but between his thighs.
"It worries me so", the empress poured her misery to her advisor one morning.
Beyond the rim of the pagoda's slanted roof, little Kiku could be seen toddling after a butterfly. His ringing laughter tinkled like bells throughout the garden.
At the sound of it, the empress shook her head in disdain. "I'm afraid that Kiku shall be ridiculed by the other boys; I'm afraid that no one will want to take his hand in marriage. He is too girly, and it is an err that cannot be corrected by any number of bowl-cuts or blue robes I give him. I don't know what I shall do!"
"Give him some time, your divine excellency. Perhaps when he matures, the princess—I mean, prince, will come to adjust his persona to the gender he possesses", her advisor offered.
"Are you sure, o' to-san?"
"I am no clairvoyant, your divine excellency. But there is no guaranteeing that it will not work", the veteran assured.
"Then in that case", said Empress Amaterasu, "I shall heed your advice and let Father Time resolve my predicament."
And so, Empress Amaterasu waited and waited, keeping a keen vigil to Kiku all the while. Sure enough, like a chrysanthemum in the vernal season, the time arrived when Kiku had blossomed into his adolescent years most splendidly. The boy became all the more tender, his senses became closer aligned to justice and his etiquette refined and befitting to that of a monarch. Kiku showed promise as a leader-in-the-making.
However, with a beautiful spirit came a beautiful visage to boot. Instead of taking on the masculinity the empress would have loved to see, Kiku became all the more feminine as the days stretched further behind his blue robes. The sable of his hair became all the more lustrous, his skin the more paler and succulent, the deep ebony of his eyes delicious and the slimness permanent and tapered into elegant perfection. Soon enough, Kiku's perfume-scented name began circling around the country depicting him as a soft-spoken, kind-hearted beauty, and by the time the boy-gone-wrong turned the ripe age of twenty-one, not a day drawled by when Kiku did not have suitors rapping at the palace doors; similarly, not a night went adrift when that same suitor did not grope about the courtyard, blaring their instruments most horribly in an ear-splitting rendition of a serenade. The empress did not approve of it in the least, and it made her want to tear out her glossy hair on one occasion too many.
"What shall I do now!" The fuming empress paced around and around the pagoda. "He's the talk of every teahouse and while the men do not condescend him any longer, they wet themselves over him every night! I'm tired of being kept awake to the dawn by some violin-maestro-gone-wrong (the empress briefly considered issuing a decree that all suitors tempering instruments at night in the courtyard shall be sentenced to a flogging, but quickly dismissed it, as it would go against all reason to punish a boy for being in love. And besides, will laws stand in the way of their unrequited devotion for her son?), and I'm tired of summoning the guards to fling them out every night! Most of all, I'm tired of worrying that Kiku will find no home willing to love a silly little poof as their child's spouse! And do you know what they all call him now? They call him the 'maiden blue: diurnal luminescence renown through the empress' reign'! Oh, what am I to do now, o' to-san?"
For once, the advisor was at lost for words. But the advisor was an honest veteran, and it would go against his virtues to slip any red herring out of the sky to his dear empress. Thus, after admitting to Empress Amaterasu of his lack of information and promising that he would do his best to configure more, the advisor slipped on his overcoat and took to the cities and towns. There, he began to ask everyone he came across if they had any remedy to offer for a boy's feminineness. But everyone he passed either admitted that such knowledge were not in their disposal, or immediately discerned him as the empress' advisor and begged him to persuade Empress Amaterasu to relent Kiku instead (to which the advisor blatantly refused).
Eventually the advisor arrived at the door to an inn. Slipping his clogs off and performing the customary bow of courtesy, the advisor came up to the innkeeper: a humble old man whose striking feature was the green cap which adorned his crown.
"Pardon me, honourable sire", said the advisor, "but I have an inquiry which I hope you may hold the answer to, as my scavenges in doing so hath proven unsuccessful 'till my unprecedented meeting with you."
"Certainly", the jolly-faced innkeeper obliged. Boiling his best yellow, he offered a cup to the advisor and they sat down at a table to talk.
Thus, the veteran continued: "I am a servant to a mistress who possesses a son, and the boy is without a doubt beautiful."
"Beautiful as in dashing?" The innkeeper inquired.
"Oh no, honourable sire. The boy is beautiful as in… Beautiful", the advisor sighed. "As beautiful as a dame."
"My, my. And what of this beautiful boy?"
The advisor proceeded to recount with woe the tale of Empress Amaterasu's plight: of how she is constantly plagued with worries that her charge will never find love, and never find a spouse deserving and fit to take him in. All this the innkeeper digested with great intent, and when the advisor came to the conclusion of his tale, the old man stroked his beard and nodded.
"I see your predicament now", he said. Then he looked up, his face enshrouded by enigma, and murmured: "but before that, may you be so kind as to answer a small question for me?"
"Of course, honourable sire", was the advisor's reply.
"Is your mistress, by any chance", the innkeeper deadpanned, "the fabled Empress Amaterasu; fair and just ruler of our land?"
The advisor was struck by a feeling of mortification.
"Do not feel threatened, good fellow", the innkeeper laughed; and when he did, his wise eyes twinkled. "For I have no love-struck son pining for Prince Kiku's hand in marriage. Nevertheless, I think I've discerned the problem now: the empress wishes to alter the prince's effete personality because she fears that he will find no spouse willing to accept him. Did I understand you correctly, good fellow?"
"Indeed", the advisor confirmed, relaxing at the innkeeper's promise.
After a long pause, the innkeeper raised a finger, as if he had came to a verdict on something. "Then in that case, I have the solution to your problems."
The advisor clasped his hands gleefully. "And may I hear it, honourable sire?" He implored.
"Of course", said the innkeeper, leaning close to the advisor. "Now, you must listen carefully to all I say:
"The only way to cure the empress' distress is to dress up the boy in as feminine a manner as possible."
Without a doubt was the advisor taken aback at this befuddling remedy. "But are you not mistaken, honourable sire!" He squeaked. "The prince is already effeminate as he is. The empress my mistress wishes for him not to excel in this, but to adopt masculinity! Would not dressing him in as feminine a manner as possible deprive us from our preliminary course, by encouraging his feminine side to develop?"
"My good sire", the innkeeper waved away, "I have lived for eighty-two years. Would I not know what is best for the boy? Do you doubt the fact that I have seen many things in the many years I have trotted this ancient earth?"
The advisor scratched his bald forehead, brooding over the innkeeper's revelation. "I suppose not", the advisor concluded. "I apologize deeply for having doubted your veteran wisdom, honourable sire."
"Apologize not, for it is indeed a perturbing solution", the innkeeper relented kindly. "But I promise you that it'll work to everyone's advantage in the end. Just do as I say and tell the empress to dress the boy in elegant robes of silk, pin his hair with flowers, and bestow upon his limbs a shawl for demure appeal. Dust him with powder and paint his lips, and let the whole world see his feminine beauty increased by ten-folds!"
"And that will solve our predicaments?" The advisor hooted.
"Certainly!" The innkeeper promised.
Thus, thanking the innkeeper profusely for his novel advice, the advisor hastened back to the palace to convey his new discoveries to his mistress.
"You want me to WHAT!" The empress shrieked. "And who informed you of this, o' to-san? Be it swindler, cheat or one of my son's crafty suitors? For I am highly positive that it is one of his suitors just looking for something new to ogle."
"Oh no, your divine excellency!" The advisor shook his hands desperately. "I acquired it from a humble old innkeeper. He has lived to see the earth for eighty-two years, and is without a doubt a wise veteran, older than myself!"
The empress immediately softened, reassured by the antiquity and the wisdom eminent of the innkeeper her advisor had spoken of. It was also due to the fact that in the Land of the Rising Sun, innkeepers were highly esteemed in the social hierarchy, for they were recognized as amiable figures who provided a home and hospitality for those who lack any thereof.
Thus, the empress set about clamouring for her best tailors and deviously-skilled ladies in waiting. Finally, summoning her bewildered son, these experts were immediately put to work perking him up and doing his toilette in the most feminine manner possible.
All the while the innkeeper's advice was heeded word for word. An ornate chrysanthemum comb was pinned to his hair, his old robes of cotton were replaced by those of cornflower-blue silk and a matching shawl was woven to endow upon his slim shoulders. Next, his visage was dusted with a fine gossamer of powder; his lips painted cherry-crimson.
By the time the beauticians had came to the perquisite of their work, Kiku looked positively darling that even the empress, who used to frown at her child's every girlish antics, couldn't help but feel pride flutter her heart as Kiku was made to spin before her eyes.
Now, some time after Kiku's grandiose makeover, something groundbreaking had occurred at the bays of the country. An evening witnessed a tempest hurling into the beaches the strangest contraption anyone has ever seen: an elongated wooden boat the size of a whopper whale, on which perched a tattered sail of crimson tarpaulin. But what was the strangest, most groundbreaking prospect about the incident was that the contraption held men. These men, too, were unlike anything the befuddled natives had ever witnessed. They clad copper-plated suits, wore capes that were of an ostentatious vermillion colour and spoke in a gibberish the people could not understand.
Fearing that they were an omen of bad luck, the foreigners were herded, shackled and brought before Empress Amaterasu that very night.
"Calm down, my subjects!" Forgetting her toilette, Empress Amaterasu flew out of her palace in the brink of the chaos. "What has happened so that you are all out of bed this late?"
"We've found something, your divine excellency!" One citizen cried.
"They arrived on a queer log and wear capes of crimson, your divine excellency!" Another hollered.
"What must we do with them, your divine excellency!" A third wailed.
"First we must all calm ourselves down. We will achieve nothing if we squirm and bicker amongst ourselves", the empress repeated her plea.
Albeit reluctant, the people saw no good in rebelling against Empress Amaterasu's judgement and shuffled wordlessly to make way for their sovereign. One by one men fell away until the group of foreigners could be seen, and the empress could be seen by them.
"And why are they chained together?" She inquired.
"Because the gods might have sent them to us as a premonition, your divine excellency!"
But the kind empress shook her head. "They don't seem like they mean any harm. Please, someone release them and bring one forward so that I may question him."
The mob proved to be even more perturbed towards this latter plea. They glanced to each other with uncertainty in their expressions, murmuring and jabbing at the foreigners in a manner which displeased the empress.
"Please release them this instant!" She repeated sternly.
A woman clad in green robes finally came forward to undo the chains. When each man was free and her job was done, she plucked one of the men from amongst his company and shoved him towards the empress, hissing a threat into his ear before merging back into the sea of citizens.
"And are you their leader, good fellow?" The empress crooned.
The lad that'd been hauled before her appeared younger than the rest of his comrades; a fine specimen indeed, well into his twenties, with handsome features, brilliant amber eyes and long ebony hair. He flinched at being spoken to, then hastily blabbered a response in his mother tongue.
"You do not understand me, good fellow?" Empress Amaterasu gestured.
Picking up the empress' signal, the fellow shook his head.
With an understanding nod, Empress Amaterasu beckoned the boy to follow as she kneeled. Then, sliding a pin from her headpiece, the empress wordlessly began sketching in the soil at her feet. Foreigner and native-folk alike churned around them, inquisitive as to what the empress was doing. The young fellow stared intently.
When the empress had finished her work, a sketch of men with one in the lead brandishing a lantern—the insignia of a leader—could be seen in the soil. Empress Amaterasu gestured to the leader, then pointed at the fellow and said: "you?"
Grinning widely, the lad noddled his head.
And in that manner, with the pin, the soil and the fellow's own fingers, the empress acquaint herself with the foreigner-lad. She learned in that night that his name was Wang Yao, and that he and his company derived from a kingdom dubbed the Land of the Imperial Dragon. Yao was the son of a general native to that kingdom, and he and his men had been ushered into the seas simply for the purpose of exploration and trade.
But by the time they had decided to hightail it back home with bounties of treasure, they were passing the strait between their two kingdoms when a ferocious sea-serpent had attacked out of the blue, whipping up the tempest which had brought them all here (miraculously intact) and demolished their "galleon" beyond repair.
Meanwhile, awoken and unable to return to rest due to the pandemonium, Kiku had slipped out of his chambers and was stowing behind a cedar in the gardens overlooking the courtyard. It was then that he caught sight of the dashing leader-of-the-foreigners, whom at the time had still been immersed in graphic-script with his mother. And by sweet, decrepit coincidence, it was also then that Yao, while waiting for the empress to finish her latest sketch, had taken a brief moment to absorb the view of the palace grounds and had caught sight of the prince behind the shrub. Their eyes met for a fleeting moment, and the two young men found it impossible in their own rights to break contact soon enough; for Yao, much like a gazillion young fellows preceding him, was in a mere few seconds struck dumb by Kiku's beauty. And the Maiden Blue: diurnal luminescence renown throughout the empress' reign, was for the first time in his life infatuated by the prepossessing sight of a male specimen. But as his companions began demanding to know why he seemed to be taking such an interest upon the empress' cedar, Yao had to shudder away his loopy grin and turn heads back to the business at hand. Kiku, too, had to sink back into the shadows of the cedar upon fearing discovery.
But every chance he got, Yao would steal a hopeful glance back to the cedar. And recognizing opportunity, Kiku would smile at him meekly from behind the bristles of a branch. The overjoyed lad would then return the gesture wholeheartedly, be startled back to earth by his comrades, and this saccharine game of ping pong would reiterate itself for another round. Ah—the coquettish plays of love. Yao and Kiku reveled within it; this elusive jewel which neither had ever chanced to experience before that fateful night (which just between you and I, the reader and your faithful narrator, simply makes for added sugar to see two virgin hearts in love for the first time, ain't it not?).
As for the empress, her kind soul could not resist feeling an overwhelming sense of sympathy for the souls stranded upon her land. Now with the support of her people, she promised that the Land of the Rising Sun will do all that they can to assist the men. Natives will be dispatched to lend a hand in reconstructing another galleon, supplies will be offered with joy and in any abundance required, and the fellows will each be treated with utmost hospitality until they are ready to venture back to their kingdom. Struck by gratitude, Yao (after urging the rest of his baffled company to do the same) got down to his knees and kowtowed before the empress and her children, spluttering profuse promises that the good deed of the Land of the Rising Sun would be repaid.
In this manner, the foreigners came to make the Land of the Rising Sun their second home. While the natives were at first still wary of their presence, gradually the rift between the two kingdom-dwellers simmered down. It wasn't long before the foreigners found themselves being treated like kin, and they themselves able to succumb to the urge to treat the native-folk the same way.
The dwellers of the Land of the Rising Sun, too, were rewarded for their amiability with benefits to reap on their own accord. While they provided graciously for the foreigners in the material sense, the foreigners were more than glad to rear the natives with knowledge and science brought from their homeland. This was because the Land of the Imperial Dragon was not only renown for their affluence and excellence in trade, but were also one of the brightest minds of their time, tinkering human ingenuity untouched by any other civilizations before—the Land of the Rising Sun included.
Thus, the most prominent boon these men could grant the Land of the Rising Sun came to light in their voluntary services to the kingdom. With their superior knowledge, these men would take it in turns to migrate throughout the three islands of the country, spreading with them invaluable preaching. Blueprints for technological goodies were outlined for the natives to ogle and manipulate to their advantage ("like sorcery!" The gleeful Empress would often appraise), able men and women were bestowed lessons on literature and calligraphy, and children were given the basic primary tutoring known to the Land of the Imperial Dragon, rearing these bright young minds on lessons such as mathematics and social etiquette.
And when the gentlemen were not preaching and educating, the roots of their experience compelled them to perform military services for the empress as well, quelling civil unrest in the most harmonious ways and brawling against criminals and terrorists.
It was in this way that the foreigners came to be known as the Knights in Red, dubbed for their unending valour and the vermillion capes they clad whilst in service.
And as promised, the Land of the Rising Sun pitched in with the slow but headway process of constructing another vessel. Almost every morning other than the ones reserved for resting knights and native-folk saw a long parade of carts shambling to the bay, each loaded to the brim with wood, tarps and commodities for the labourers. Last but not least, the boundaries of hospitality surpassed the inns which were gladly relinquished as a temporary quarter for the knights. For the men were frequently invited to banquets and meals, established the closest of bonds with a couple of natives and even participated jubilantly in the national ceremonies, such as the religious festivities and the seasonal traditions. Some of the knights who came with no wife awaiting them home even found themselves at the brink of falling in love.
One of these men—as you shall know soon—being young Wang Yao himself.
After the evening when he had first made ends meet with the empress, the knight could not shake the ever-present image of the damsel he had seen by the cedar that night. Thus, when he was not busy performing services for the people and pitching in on constructions, Yao splurged every second of free time he had excavating more about his obsession. And so it is that one pleasant aestival noon, while strolling through the boulevards of the capital Yao came across a peddler-boy.
"Good afternoon, your honour", the peddler-boy straightened his green overcoat and bowed in reverence.
"To you as well, my good fellow", Yao smiled as he returned the gesture.
"Is your honour up to anything this fine aestival noon?"
"By chance, none at all, for I am simply strolling about this magnificent country of yours", Yao admitted. "And why do you ask, if I may inquire?"
"Nothing requiring the service of a poniard, your honour", the peddler-boy assured. "It is just that you seem lost; perhaps, if I am correct, you might be looking for something?"
The young knight started at the peddler-boy's truth. But the peddler-boy did not seem like a vindictive sort, and Yao had indeed hoped secretly that he would stumble across the damsel of his dreams in his afternoon excursion. Thus he implored the peddler-boy to park his wheelbarrow for a while and spare him a few minutes, and confided to the peddler-boy of his guarded desires.
"Ah! I suspected it for a second, but dismissed it for fear that your honour might be angry at me for assuming such a thing", said the peddler-boy.
"Nonsense, my good fellow, for it goes against all reason to punish an innocent lad for asking", Yao guaranteed.
"You are indeed a man of valour, your honour", the peddler-boy appraised. "Now, tell me more about this damsel who has snagged your heart's desire. What is she like, your honour?"
"I had not glimpsed her properly", Yao conceded, "for it was in the brink of the night when she first captivated my lust. She had also been safely concealed from the public in the cusps of a cedar. But as she turned to leave as I did, the moonlight shone upon my damsel's back and left me with pieces of her lingering mirage: sable hair as lustrous as ink, ivory skin that is succulent in their softness and limbs as slender as the stem of a dainty flower. And the way she smiled at me behind that cedar with her gentle fawn-eyes—no panorama nor technological wonder back home can ever compare!" He sighed the wistful breath of a fellow in love. "She is unlike anything I have ever seen."
"To make a man of valour such as yourself so incandescent with love must make her a rather remarkable specimen indeed", the peddler-boy concurred. "And if I may not hinder your honour, I wish to be of help."
"How so, my good fellow?"
"Upon digesting your description of this fair maiden, I may know of who she is and where to find her", the peddler-boy offered.
Yao's amber eyes sparkled like a kindled bonfire in the autumn festival. "Oh, do tell!" He pleaded. "It would mean the world to me if you do."
Thus, the peddler-boy confided to Yao, with much detail and precaution, the identity of a maiden similar to his description. "She is very popular throughout this country as a soft-spoken, kind-hearted beauty", the peddler-boy confessed. "Men from the three islands would come rapping at her door for her hand in courtship every night before her mother isolated her from the publicity, for fear that such commotions would disrupt social rest in this capital."
"And has she ever fallen for any of her suitors before?" Yao frowned.
"Never before!" The peddler-boy assured him. "Her heart is still fresh and virgin to the clutches of love as yours is, your honour."
"That is a relief to hear", Yao breathed easy once more. "But you claim, my good fellow, that her mother had isolated her from the publicity?"
"Indeed, your honour."
"So does that not mean that I am doomed to never find her ever again?" He wailed.
"But allow me to bring you some comfort with another snippet of information, your honour!" The peddler-boy spluttered. Then, lowering his voice so that Yao had to strain his ears against the drawl of pedestrians, he whispered: "but you must tell no one of this, for it is a secret the gnarled hands of publicity must never know."
"You have my word, good sire", Yao pledged.
"Very well then", said the peddler-boy. "Now, for my daily route runs past her abode, I know that she loves to spend the dawn and the dusk wandering the palace gardens. There, she can often be found sailing through the chrysanthemum patches, admiring the boughs of an ancient cherry tree, reading under the cedar where you had probably laid eyes upon her, or entertaining herself within a pagoda surrounded by a moat of the purest water, where carps frolic like gemstones and lotus flowers blossom in abundance."
"Ah! Although I have not met her since that night, my damsel sounds like an absolute dream already.
"But wait for a moment, my good fellow", as a bleary thought dawned upon the young knight, who blenched with confusion. "You say that my damsel loves to wander the palace gardens?"
"Yes, your honour."
"But how could that be?" He hissed. "After all, while the empress is kind and receiving to those who require her aid, the premises of the palace is not open to the public beyond the holiday seasons. Thus my maiden must be of royal blood?"
"Indeed, your honour."
"And she cannot be the empress, for the empress had been in one place and she the cedar when I had first glanced upon her", Yao mused aloud. "So she must be a member of the royal household. Could she be one of her ladies in waiting?"
"The ladies do not venture into the gardens in the dawn nor the dusk. The dawn sees them still in the maid chambers, asleep until the rooster beckons them forth. The dusk sees them preparing for bed, recuperating for the long day ahead", said the peddler-boy.
"Then pray tell, my good fellow, does the empress have children?"
"Ah, and now we are getting somewhere, your honour", the peddler-boy deported himself with a flair of enigma.
"So my maiden is the princess of this country!"
At this, the peddler-boy went pale, fiddling with the hem of his overcoat.
"But why are you no longer speaking, my good fellow?" The knight inquired. "My maiden is the princess of this country, is she not?"
"She's definitely a monarch fit to rule the Land of the Rising Sun, in character and in bloodline", the peddler-boy gulped. "But now I must reveal to you, your honour, something that may come as somewhat of a shock."
"I will digest it, I swear my good sire. Tell me."
By this time, the knight could discern droplets of sweat, large as marbles, cascading down the peddler-boy's neck.
"Your maiden is no commoner, ordinary damsel of exquisite beauty or lady in waiting, nor is she a princess.
"But he", the peddler-boy emphasized, not daring to meet the visage of the young knight, "is a prince. His divine excellency Prince Kiku, to be exact. The fabled Maiden Blue: diurnal luminescence renown throughout the empress' reign. Eliminating this, all of my revelations to you are words of truth, your honour. For since a young age, the prince is renown throughout this country for his tender heart; even more so for his exquisite beauty, which draws to him suitor after suitor for nights and days on end until the empress, his mother, could no longer risk social discord. Thus, his divine excellency Prince Kiku was barred from the face of his civilization, and wanders the palace gardens from the brink of the dawn to the cusps of the dusk to this very day.
"In this manner, do you still wish to pursue your damsel, your honour?"
The peddler-boy forced himself to crane his neck towards Yao. He saw that the young knight was hunched over his perch, eyes squinted in deep brooding as the amber swirled a murky russet.
Nevertheless, the next time the young knight glanced up from his lap he was a picture of absolute ecstasy, garnished with flaming cheeks and a dashing grin.
"How fickle my heart would be if I answered no, my good fellow", he beamed. "How dastardly my ability to love if I abandoned this jewel I covet, the Prince Kiku, for a matter as trivial as his gender. If I can love him in assuming that he is a beautiful young lady, I can love him just as much in knowing that he is a beautiful young lad. And now that I know where I may find my damsel-to-be, these feelings are infernal in the melting crevice of my ribs!... I shall not sleep tonight if I do not meet him in person this dusk."
Thanking the peddler-boy profusely for his wisdom, the Knight in Red departed in a flurry of crimson feelings, all evoked by the thought of finally being able to meet his long-desired damsel at last.
But before we proceed with today's tale of mischief and magic, it should be noted that while the Knight in Red Wang Yao was a man of valour and virtues, he is a man of valour and virtues with the dome of a mule. Common sense does not rub on him very well; for he is a man governed by the heart on his sleeve, and thus is predominated by his emotions.
And so it was this culprit which prompted him, no second thought administered, to scale the palace walls with his bare hands.
By the time Yao had clambered into the garden, the dusk had been perfectly preserved above his head. The setting sun was framed a fiery saffron against the blushing ether: a spectacular mess of pinks and purples, upon which clouds of marigold frolic and tumble. To the intoxicated lad, it appeared as if the heavens had painted it specifically for their occasion.
It is no surprise that my dreamy damsel-to-be loves to wander under such a sky, the knight mused.
Thus he began his search. Groping around the garden, he came across the pagoda the peddler-boy had described, with its fine vermillion infrastructure and its pristine pond, brilliantly-scaled carps of carmine and gold and the lotus flowers that bowed to one another as he ambled past. But Prince Kiku was nowhere to be seen, and so the knight decided to continue.
Seconds later he appeared at the chrysanthemum gardens, but his long-coveted Maiden Blue was still nowhere to be found. The boughs of the ancient cherry tree yielded similar results. Disheartened and aggravated at not being able to find the prince, the Knight in Red was about to make the dreary journey back to the inn to try for another day when he remembered the cedar.
"But of course!" He gasped. "If my dear damsel-to-be remembers me, and I pray that he does, then he must be waiting in the place where we had last set eyes upon each other. Why had it not occurred to me earlier? He must be waiting for me there!"
So the Knight in Red, whilst bearing in mind that he must move with stealth so as not to be caught, flew past the boughs of the ancient cherry tree; past the chrysanthemum garden; past the pagoda with its pond and carp and lotus flowers, where he ran down a cobblestone promenade 'till the gilded roof of the palace loomed into view—and finally, the bristly tips of the cedar shrubs.
Pressing himself flat against a nearby boulder, the Knight in Red sought to soothe his nerves. His fingertips fondled the rims of his hideout, bracing its grip as he cautiously—steadily—without opening his eyes, for fear that the damsel may have forgotten him after all—hoisted his line of vision out of hiding.
And sure enough,
As Yao cracked an eye open,
Then another, as his first eye was struck dumb once more by love…
There was the Maiden Blue, as pristine and prepossessing as the night he had first set his eyes and swollen heart upon him. Yao mentally checked the mirages he recalled of his damsel: sable, lustrous hair, pale and succulent skin, slender limbs and fawn eyes. And now that he was posed in the brink of the dying beams of the sun, the rest of his beauty was absolutely undeniable: delicately pointed nose, bee-stung lips, the olive shape of his eyes, a chrysanthemum tucked dearly into his bangs and cornflower-blue robes that flared in the aestival gust, reminding Yao of the tails possessed by the male goldfish native to his motherland.
But contrary to the picture bestowed upon him by the peddler-boy, the damsel was not entranced in manuscript nor scroll. Instead, the boy had pressed himself against the trunk of the cedar like a swindler, peeping out of his dwelling every once in a while. It dawned upon Yao that his predictions had been right all along: his damsel had been waiting for him for as long as he had been vying for an opportunity to meet him once again.
And since he had the opportunity to do so now, the Knight in Red was in no way inclined to dismiss it.
Giddy so that his feet seemed to barely touch the grass underfoot, the Knight in Red Wang Yao slipped behind the Maiden Blue and tapped him lightly on the shoulder. This elicited a yelp from the latter, who spun around with frenzied chocolate eyes.
Frenzied chocolate eyes that softened into a look of joyful disbelief as it swept the knight from head to toe.
"Could it be?" He gasped. "Could it be you, the lad whom I saw that eve from behind the cusps of this cedar shrub? The Knight in Red Wang Yao; heart-captor from across the seas?"
"I don't know about 'heart-captor' per se, but", Yao grinned, holding his hands out to accentuate the fact that: "Here I am now. And here you are with me once more; the sole reason why I smuggled into these gardens."
"You smuggled into the palace and ran all the way here just to find me?" the damsel swooned.
"W-was that wrong of me to do so?"
"Ask me not if it is wrong or otherwise. But I personally find it touching", A fine dust of pink blossomed upon Kiku's cheeks. The sight of it made Yao's heart soar 'till he could barely breath. "When I first saw you that night, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I knew I had to see you again, but I am rather stuck here, see, and I am wary of upsetting my mother. I had never experienced anything quite like… This", the knight and the damsel shared a round of tender laughter. "I was at lost as to what one must do when one covets for another so badly. Thus, not knowing how to act upon my feelings and devoid of too many appealing options anyway, I opted to wait here from the dawn to the dusk, in hopes that I may just stumble upon you once more."
"It was the same with me", Yao conceded. "Though I am a man raised in the military principles of my home, the night I saw you presented these feelings as a formidable opponent I didn't know how to counter. I fell into its subjugation in the whim of a flog—but didn't know how to react upon them, and thus the only beacon I had to you was the knowledge that I had to see you once more. I had spent all of my available time scouring the city, in hopes that coincidence may draw me to you once again. If I had not had the fortune of coming across one of your amiable people, whom by chance knew of your whereabouts, then I hate to imagine another day spent pining for you."
"Is that so?" Kiku's smile was as gentle as it was saccharinely pleasant. "Then I apologize, dear knight, for not coming to you sooner."
"The fault lies in me as well for the wild goose chase we had to compensate before our meeting today", the knight assured. "And please—call me Yao."
"And call me by my name as well."
"If that is what you wish… Kiku", Yao smiled in sync as the name drifted off of his tongue. "It is a beautiful name indeed. Would you mind telling me what it means?"
'"Kiku' is the flower insignia of the Land of the Rising Sun." Slipping his fingers into his bangs, Kiku unpinned the flower from his hair and tucked it into the warm hands of the knight. "I am named after it; the chrysanthemum."
Yao stared long and hard at the delicate golden pin he now cradled in his gauntlet. "How poetically splendid", he mused, causing Kiku to shy bashfully from the warmth of his eyes. "It is a name which suits you very well."
"Thank you, Yao. And I am intrigued as well, to know what meaning may lie behind yours?"
"Yao", Yao obliged happily, "means bright and shining."
"Ah. You are bright and shining, you know", he murmured just loud enough for the lad to perceive; loud enough to elicit a somersault of his love-scented heart.
"Everything about you is bright and shining. Eyes, smile, person and all", the boy appraised with sincerity. "The name was made for you, Yao."
"You do have a way with words, don't you?" Yao chuckled softly.
But Kiku shook his head with a modesty that Yao found endearing. "I know nothing more than the way of the seasons and brush", he sighed. "It is in times like this when it overwhelms me how naïve I am to the world; I don't even know if I'll love you properly, Yao. Love you as you deserve to be loved, and love you like everyone else."
"Well! In that case."
Steading his breath, the knight reached out a hand to fondle the soft skin of the prince's cheek. Then, maneuvering the other gauntlet, he tucked the chrysanthemum firmly in place.
"That makes the two of us", Yao grinned.
And as the sun plunged an inch deeper into the horizon with the crisp scent of cedar, that day saw the bud of something magnificent blossoming in the hearts of the Maiden Blue and the Knight in Red. Something that cannot be hackled so easily by rift nor resentment; blade nor blame.
But unfortunately, from this flower, too, stemmed the thorn for a predicament that shall be apparent as this story rambles into passages anew.
A month limped by before Kiku and Yao could adapt firmly into the writhing and tickling tendencies of love. And by the time the grass had withered into a dirty brown, and the cedar had become alive with livid hues of scarlet and amber, the couple had made headway from the bumbling, fluttering state which had plagued them for a first time. Tremendous feats like speaking to one another in mild comfort without the presence of butterflies, laying in each other's arms under the boughs of their cedar without silent revels of heat and back cramps (this especially applied to the prince, whom was the cause of them having to rise on one occasion when Yao's bicep had "dug painfully" into his rachis), caressing and informal confidant licenses were attained at long last. The couple had never felt more blissful all their lives.
Nevertheless, behind every white lily presides a black shadow. And in Kiku's and Yao's case, that shadow became known one silent autumnal noon. The couple had been sprawled in lax embrace amidst the leaves littering the roots of their dear cedar when Kiku, shifting to glance into the eyes of his beloved, had brought up a peculiar question:
"Have you confided to anyone of our relationship, Yao?"
Yao blinked in apparent surprise. "No", he answered. "But why do you ask, Kiku?"
"Can you please promise me that you shall not slip to anyone what we share, Yao?"
Without a doubt was the Knight in Red now utterly baffled—and slightly perturbed, to tell an honest story. "But why so, Kiku? Are you afraid that you will be hindered by threat if the nation knows we are together? For I know that you were once plagued by a country of suitors, and I understand that they shall resent me for stealing your heart whilst they had failed to do so. But I promise you that I will discern nothing of their growls and whips. I shall also ensure that they do not so much as lay a dirty word upon your shoulders; no man can stab you through the heart nor the flesh with me around."
"It's not that at all, Yao! I am not afraid of getting hurt… I am just afraid of hurting someone."
"And who may that be?"
"My mother." Unable to bear the anxiety, Kiku shot up into sitting position and began fiddling with his shawl.
His hands were gently pried off of the cloth by Yao to claim as his own. "Talk to me", he fondled the prince's palm with a thumb.
"My… Mother", as the lad sighed, his breath shuddered with a hurt that caused Yao to frown, "does not like me as I am now."
"But what do you mean? Who can ever hate you, love? You are beautiful in and out of your skin."
"That's exactly what she doesn't like", Kiku drooped. "The part about me being pretty out of my skin, I mean. I don't think she knows that I am conscious of it, but she hates it that I look so girly all the time. She's always trying to silently get me to be more masculine." He prodded his gown. "This whole getup is another one of her schemes."
"Honestly?" Yao snickered. "I respect your mother and her decisions, but I don't think dressing you up as a woman is going to help you get those masculinity points she's after."
"I thought so too", the Maiden Blue couldn't resist the urge to giggle in sync. "But because I rather liked the sound of it, I wasn't going to complain when she tried."
"You shrewd thing!"
"But I'm dead serious about not speaking of this to anyone, Yao", he reverted back to his solemn tonality. "For if word of this circles back to my mother, it'll break her heart to know that I have a male lover. She'll think that I'm reverting into a total woman then."
"But you're not, Kiku. I'm a man and while you don't look like one", Kiku thwacked him playfully on the shoulder, a gesture which was reciprocated by a brief spurt of laughter on Yao's behalf, "you're a man too. We're both men who are in love with each other, and there's nothing wrong with that, isn't there? What I mean to say is that just because you're a man dating a man, that doesn't change you into a woman."
"But my mother doesn't think that way, Yao!" His beloved wailed. "She'll think she'd let me smuggle myself through metamorphosis or something along those lines! She'll never forgive herself; believe me, for I've dwelled under a roof with her for twenty-two years!
"Please. I-If you truly love me, then please let this just be between the two of us", he implored. "At least until I can figure out a way to tell my mother, keep this under tight lips for me, alright?"
The Knight in Red was rendered speechless. But this was not due to any urges whatsoever to boast his dear lover to the world, for no such overbearingness could exist within the chasms of Yao's gilded heart.
Instead, it was a sorrow that came with being informed of Kiku's mental plight. It was only that day that he learned the prince felt himself detested for his own identity—and of all people, by the very woman who had conceived him. Surely Yao could make a compromise with his sense of justice if he were in love with a swindler, a cheat or a burglar, but this was the Maiden Blue to be concerned; a soft-spoken, just force of goodwill. What did it matter that he was a feminine man or a masculine man? His dearest was beautiful in every way, and it was a shame to Yao that he had to keep stalling in the shadows for fear of prosecution and hatred.
But he hated to see Kiku so distressed. And as much as it made his guts bawl with a sense of unjust, he'd hate to carve a rift between the empress and her son as well. So while reluctantly, Yao agreed to harness their bond sub rosa, just until Kiku felt they were ready to break their shell and confess to his mother.
However, no sooner had this conflict been tucked into a safe hiatus did another problem arise. After a year of hush-hush romance, Yao trudged down to the bay one morn to lend a hand in constructions, only to find him being ushered away gleefully by one of his men.
"But if we do not proceed with constructions as soon as possible, the galleon will never be finished!" Yao protested, albeit now a part of him secretly yearned that a new tempest would sweep this vessel away, buying him another year to spend with Kiku.
"Do hear me out, leader!" The man spluttered. "The galleon does not require our services any longer."
"If you are implying that we can swim back home, then I grant you my full consent", Yao remarked dryly.
"LEADER YAO, THE GALLEON IS DONE!"
"The galleon is what!" Kiku yelped the following dawn.
"I didn't know either, for while they had concluded constructions I was helping the farmers with their aqueducts", Yao sighed. "But it's all finished."
"And", Kiku stalled a few seconds to compose himself behind his hand. But even when his arm fell limply to his side, his voice was tearful as he whispered, "when are you due to depart?"
"The following week, I'm afraid", Yao himself was feeling somewhat lachrymose.
"And will you return to the Land of the Rising Sun someday?"
"Definitely, Kiku! If not for anyone else, I'll definitely return to see you", Yao promised.
"But when may that be?"
"I don't know", Yao conceded. "I'm sorry, but I do not know."
The rest of the day had been spent by the couple in teary agony, the words "I shall miss you terribly", "I need you", "I don't want you to leave" and "I don't want to leave either" reiterated so many times so as to make the throat coarse. For how can two specimens who have dyed one another's life with such redness take an unprecedented farewell lightly?
Yao found out the difficult way as a week of grief blurred past, and the morning of his departure saw him late by an hour after a couple of minutes too many spent in Kiku's teary embrace. By the time he had safely latched himself within the privacy of his cabin, the Knight in Red immediately reverted back to his business of profuse sobbing, and would have continued well into the hour of the swine if he had not been disrupted by a knock on his door, in a time that was fortunately as early as the hour of the rooster.
But it was the strangest knock he had ever heard indeed! Not at all the "THUMP!-THUMP!" Yao would have expected of his cajoling comrades, but instead a "tap-tap!" that was so soft, Yao had nearly missed it the second time it enticed his aural senses. The Knight in Red suspected that they had rats on their vessel, and drying his tears, was about to go hunting for rodents went a familiar voice lisped:
"Yao? Yao, answer me if this is your cabin."
"KIKU!" And striving to containing himself, scrambled to the door to undo the latch. "Kiku! Is that really you?"
"Yes, Yao. But I'm going to have to implore you to pick up the pace. I've been nearly caught several times, and my nerves are fit to burst."
Sure enough, as Yao flung the door open with a byzantine grin etched into his face, there in the lambent light of the lanterns stood his lover.
"Kiku!" He gasped in unmasked delight. But as the true nature of circumstances finally washed over Yao, the lad proceeded to hiss: "what are you doing here!" as he tugged Kiku into the cabin, sealing the door firmly behind him as he did so.
"I couldn't bear the notion of not being able to see you, be it for a day or ten years, so I slipped into the galleon unnoticed and hid amidst the cargo until I was sure I knew where you were", Kiku admitted with a carefree innocence that was both admirable and vexing to Yao in such a scenario.
"So you ran away!" He hooted.
"I had no choice", Kiku defended, "for my mother would never have given me the permission to go."
"But what would your mother say—not to mention do—when she finds out that her prince has vanished into thin air!"
Neither Yao nor Kiku had anymore time to bicker as a deafening roar rattled the very foundations of the vessel. It was unlike anything the prince had ever heard in all of his life: deep and husky like that of a tiger's, and yet possessed the quality of a screeching bat. The noise was proceeded by a dash of light that stabbed into the porthole, illuminating the fear in Kiku's visage; the grim sense of familiarity in Yao's. Beyond the cabin, indigo waves lapped the sides of the galleon as a howling maelstrom picked up speed. The couple could hear the spleen of thunder; the banter of rain as it drummed the main deck.
Yao had barely snagged his shivering damsel into his arms when a gargantuan force rammed against the galleon, causing the mighty vessel to keel over on the verge of tipping completely on its side. As the couple were lobbed helter-skelter across the cabin, Kiku screamed as an elongated body slithered past the porthole.
"What is that, Yao!" He wailed.
"Believe me!" Yao's screams were matched by the feral shriek of something supernatural. "You don't want to know!"
Meanwhile, back at the Land of the Rising Sun, the palace of Empress Amaterasu boasted a picture of utter chaos.
Guards, ladies in waiting and a handful of commoner volunteers flew this way and that in a wild search for the missing prince. Hollered commands and curses filled each chamber; resonated through every corner of the palace gardens. Amidst it all, the crestfallen empress could be found weeping at the foot of her throne, her faithful advisor kneeling at her to provision futile comfort.
"Oh, where could my son be! Where could my poor Kiku be where I cannot find him!" She sobbed.
"Calm down, your divine excellency. Perhaps if we wait, he shall come back to us", the advisor spoke softly. "It is not the first time the prince had disappeared."
"But he has never vanish from me for a whole day without any notice! Oh, woe is my poor little Kiku. Could it be that one of your suitors had gone mad with raving desire and kidnapped you at last?"
Just as the doleful empress spoke of this, a nightingale swooped in through a crack in the sliding door, bearing in its talons a green pamphlet. Upon seeing the messenger bird, the empress, baffled beyond words, raised her hands with uncertainty towards the avian.
Sure enough, the nightingale saw her and plunked its cargo upon her hands. Then it swerved around in a flurry of sepia wings and was gone altogether.
The empress allowed her sight to falter to the pamphlet, which bore a letter that read in fine, elegant strokes:
"My esteemed mother,
Do not weep longer and do not seek me out any further. For I have embarked upon a galleon with the Knights in Red, to pursue my lover the knight Wang Yao. I hope you can understand and not grief for me.
- Kiku."
The empress stared at her son's name in mortification. Then, she howled into her fingers the tears of a heartbroken mother: at the resentment she was feeling for herself in trusting the Knights in Red. At the cold contempt she now harboured towards the knight Wang Yao. And most of all, grim concern towards her runaway babe Kiku.
As soon as she had ceased her weeping, the empress ushered her apprehensive ladies in waiting away and the civilians were sent home. Then, with a hard bitterness encrusting her voice, she asked her advisor: "did the knights bestow upon us the knowledge to build another galleon?"
"The knights had taught us all they had known", the advisor answered, knowing where this was going but afraid to oppose his mistress. "Our natives had even taken to building their own galleons. Five or six of them are currently bobbing stagnantly upon the pier, waiting to be used."
"Then in that case, please inform the guards to gather before my presence immediately", the empress declared with ice. "Also do not forgot to tell them to dispatch men to prepare the galleons and board provisions. For we are about to pay a visit to the Land of the Imperial Dragon, in order to retrieve what is mine."
The Knight in Red Wang Yao scrambled upon the top deck, shouldering with him his Maiden Blue (for any military man of the sea with a lick of common sense would know the dangers of leaving men under deck in the eye of a storm). There, the couple were met by the monstrous head of a sea-serpent, with fiery yellow eyes and brilliant green scales. It loomed as tall as the empress' cedar so that for a moment, Yao feared what the full length of its coiling body may be.
His men were already wielding weapons, some the bow and arrow while others blades and spears, and were busy attempting to frighten the serpent into capitulation. One of his men flung his spear to the beast. The tip only succeeded in grazing the serpent lightly on its neck, but made the monster howl and thrash nonetheless. Yao watched with dread and lament as the poor man was tossed into air by a flick of the serpent's tail, where the monster swallowed the lad completely in one bite.
Another man broke ranks with his comrades and staggered to Yao. "It is the same serpent which had attacked us before!" he informed his leader—then faltered slightly at the sight of the damsel quivering behind him. "And who may this fair lady be, and what is she doing on our galleon?"
"It is a long story", Yao dismissed. With a yelp, Kiku was thrust further behind him, away from the bachelor's lecherous stare. "But never mind that. Now our prominent initiatives lie in quelling the serpent!
"Stay here and no matter what happens to me, do not move anywhere", he said to his lover. "I'll see what I can do about this."
With that said, the lovers parted with a chaste kiss. Brandishing his poniard into the maelstrom, Yao charged towards the hull of the galleon and began swinging vigorously at the beast. It bucked at the sight of the blade, then reared its head and relinquished a mighty roar. Then it dipped its head swiftly towards the knight, its fangs dripping with a dark poison.
But fearing for what would become of his dame if he perished, Yao scuffled gallantly for his life. He aimed the oblong of his blade towards the serpent, lobbed it with precision and struck the beast square between its eyes, his bloodied dagger completely sheathed within its dark flesh.
Now, what Yao is unaware of was that he had assaulted a vital point of the serpent. He stared at the beast with praying eyes, pinned on his back between the floor and the serpent's snout, as its saffron pupils dilated. Finally, with a howl of anguish, the beast gave a violent shudder and collapsed upon the knight. It squished him, but did not killing him.
But to see the serpent's head descend upon his beloved must have told a completely different story to Kiku. Shrieking his knight's name (and eliciting the surprise of his comrades), the dame skittered across the damp floorboards with nothing but a slender fist as a weapon.
Just as the galleon buckled precariously under the weight of the serpent's corpse, giving way for its carcass to slide into the depths of the ocean. And Kiku, still running, was hurtled into the air and overboard with it. Yao only had the time to scream and sidle onto his feet as Kiku's legs disappeared over the hull of the vessel.
In the meantime, the galleon on which presided anxious Empress Amaterasu had grappled its way into the eye of the storm. Spotting a distressed vessel in the nigh, the galleon was quickly made to approach. However, just as her eye in the sky remarked "I see him! I see the prince!", the empress was just in time to witness her son plummet into the sea. The poor woman immediately began to shriek wildly, tears falling in rivers down her delicate face.
"My son has been taken from me! My son has been taken from me!"
"No, your divine excellency; LOOK!"
And look she did. And what could she chance to see but a tiny blur that, if the tears welling in her eyes did not deceive her, resembled the Knight in Red Wang Yao. The blur was stripping itself of its armour and cape. And with a cord tied around his waist, the knight plunged into the sea after Kiku, vanishing under the crest of the waves and the dying shrieks of thunder.
The empress, on the verge of her seat, waited.
The comrades on board the vessel of the Knight in Red waited, their grip on the cord as clenched as ever, so concrete was their faith on their leader.
Amidst the waiting, with the sea-daemon now dead, the ocean had begun its shift back from calamity. The sky cleared to make way for a celestial panorama of stars. The gargantuan waves simmered down into ripples. The howl of the wind died into a docile whisper. Till at last it seemed as if the maelstrom was nothing but a distant nightmare.
Waited and waited this somber company did,
'Till at last, a patch of ocean churned and gave way to two figures: the triumphant (if not exhausted) grin of the Knight in Red, and in his arms the Maiden Blue, shivering and clinging onto the knight's undershirt for dear life, but otherwise soundly content.
Overjoyed, the men onboard the galleon whooped and lauded the safety of their leader and his dame. The two were hauled back aboard the main deck in close to no time, ensuing around them this jubilant caterwaul.
Nevertheless, it died into something like mortification as Empress Amaterasu's galleon could be seen approaching out of the mist. To recognize his mother's chrysanthemum insignia had the prince especially tense, the Knight in Red no different, for he was torn between having to hand Kiku back to his mother or stow him in the cabin to avoid discovery. Circumstances only became all the more stifling as it was apparent that the queen wished to descend upon their ship.
And descend she did, walking—rather comically—with prim apparel across the plank and onto the main deck of the Knight in Red.
"Your divine excellency", Yao broke the stifling silence.
He was quickly made to fall quiet as the empress raised a hand. "I have seen it everything", she said.
"Please do not punish them, mother", her son pleaded, shrugging Yao's arms away as he bowed before his parent. "Yao and his men had nothing to with anything. It was I who had fled on my own accord…"
"I know, my child", the empress' voice shuddered and quivered as she spoke. Kiku saw tears glistening at the slits of his mother's eyes, and it pained him. "I received your letter."
"What?"
The empress returned her son's look of surprise. "The letter, Kiku", she repeated with urgency. "The letter you dispatched to me by way of a nightingale's talons. It was written on a piece of green pamphlet; how did you not know?"
"But I did not send you any letter, mother", Kiku insisted.
"But I have it right here!" The empress dug into her sleeve. But sure enough, there was no pamphlet presiding within it. Her other sleeve yielded the same revelation. "It must have slipped out when I was not watching.
"But that does not excuse you from running away from me, Kiku!", She returned her attention to her babe, who had hung his head with shame. "You could have gotten terribly hurt, and I could have lost you! You are naïve to horrors plaguing this word, my child. Why—just look at that sea serpent!"
"To draw our attention momentarily away from my sermon, your divine excellency", the bachelor who had first realized Kiku stepped forward. "But I believe that our second encounter with this serpent was no coincidence."
"Your 'second' encounter, my good fellow?" She started.
"Indeed, your divine excellency", the bachelor nodded. "I know of this, for I had also been the one to document our first encounters with him. This serpent had the same yellow iris; the same green scales. He was the same one who had attacked our ship for the first time. Now—my forefathers and I had wandered the oceans for so long to have acquired the knowledge that while sea serpents such as these are not rare, to be attacked by the same serpent twice would be a marvelous coincidence indeed. Not to mention that serpents of his pigment are extremely elusive to come by.
"Thus, I hold the firm belief that this serpent is the work of sorcery", the bachelor finished. "And while I shall not be hasty about pointing fingers, I was wondering if you knew something about green sorcerers, your divine excellency, for I hold a hunch that this serpent is native to your lands."
"But I do not, my good fellow!" The empress gasped. "Nevertheless, if all that you say is true, then this is an eminent threat for my people, yours, and any in the foreseeable future who may decide to take the route between our countries."
"Perhaps", another man, short and spectacled, stepped forward, "this sorcerer is also the woman who had first found us."
"That is blasphemy, my boy!" the bachelor quipped.
"But not so", the man defended. "My father was an astrologist who passed on his hobbies to me. Thus, by simply discerning the moon above our head, I knew that it had been midnight when we happened upon the queen's country. Now, I implore of you to think, comrades: what sound-minded specimen, be him male nor female, would be sallying into the brink of the eve for no apparent cause? The woman who screeched at us that night was no ordinary mortal. I say that she is the sorcerer who herded us into the Land of the Rising Sun as a serpent, then morphed herself into a lady in a failed attempt to doom us under the hands of the empress. She was wearing green that day too, is she not?
"Do you suppose that woman was the sorcerer, your divine excellency?" The lad implored. "You have seen her before; she was the one who undid our chains for you that evening."
"And perhaps", now it was Yao's turn to speak. The company turned to him with intrigue, "the sorcerer is not only the lady and the serpent, but also the peddler-boy I had chanced upon the afternoon before I snuck into the palace for Kiku."
"You snuck into my palace!"
"F-for good intentions, your divine excellency", Yao chuckled nervously. The empress shook her head with disdain, but decided to allow the matter to slide. Yao had saved his son from the brink of a watery death, after all.
"You met a peddler-boy before our second meeting, Yao?" Kiku prompted.
"I did", he confirmed. "He was the one who had informed me of your whereabouts."
"But how can that be? The palace walls are high", the Maiden Blue refuted. "The only crevices to be found are between the bricks, and even those are so small that one could only glimpse me if one squinted through them."
"Then that means the sorcerer had actually been my rival, and had guised himself as a peddler-boy to challenge me!" Yao wailed in his emotional conundrum.
"Or", the spectacled lad stopped him, "the sorcerer could have still been plotting our demise, and simply lured you to fall for the dame so that we may be punished by his mother."
"And if the sorcerer truly possesses the ability to morph from a serpent to a woman to a peddler-boy, then that would validate our corroborations so far", the bachelor agreed.
"And since they are all distinguishable for their green colour, that would mean that the letter I found was him in the guise of a pamphlet as well, and explains the reason why it was not in my disposal after the Knight in Red Wang Yao had vanquished the serpent", the empress finished.
The whole time this intriguing discussion had occurred, Empress Amaterasu's advisor was hovering behind her in deep thought. So deep was his thought that he had blended rather considerably into the background, and no one noticed him until the empress said: "what do you think about our corroborations so far, o' to-san?"
The advisor craned his eyes, grey and worn and wise with his age of seventy-three, to his mistress. Then to his young master, the master's lover and his company. Then he said:
"I think you are wrong."
"This old man is a bumbling fool!" The bachelor chortled. "He dares to provoke our sound conclusion when he has none to offer himself!"
"Watch your tongue, young lad!" The advisor threatened. "I am not finished with my statement. While I do agree with a couple of points that have been brought up, I think you are in the wrong in one focal aspect. The sorcerer is no evil warlock."
"Then why would he try to plot our demise in the hands of the empress!" The spectacled lad challenged.
"Let my advisor speak before we jump to our own conclusions", the empress sighed. "Go on o' to-san. What have you to say to us?"
"I do not think the sorcerer is the villain in our story, for I have met him before anyone one of you have." His company goggled him in surprise. "I believe he was the innkeeper I had met once upon a time. The innkeeper, too, had clad a green cap. He was the one who had told me his divine excellency the prince had to be dressed like a woman."
"He is a prince!" The bachelor and spectacled lad, both of who had been ogling Kiku in turns when Yao's back was turned to them, made their surprise known. Kiku hid his face into Yao's bicep and chuckled.
"Yes, now stop interrupting me! Anyways, he had given me that solution with a promise that it would solve all of our problems. When I had left his inn that day, I thought he meant that it would be the key to ushering masculinity into the prince's personality. But after the events of this evening", the advisor's wrinkled smile was a gesture of gratitude, "I finally understood what he meant."
"Tell us, honourable sire", Yao encouraged.
"The sorcerer, then appearing to me under the guise of a humble innkeeper, must have given me those imperatives not to usher the boy into a stereotypical state of manhood, but to nurture his already-feminine identity into the furthest and purest it could be. Through my stories, he must have discerned that the boy was feminine by birth. He must have known that it was what the boy truly was, and thus wanted to nurture and support the growth of his true-self without blatantly opposing his mother's wishes. It was in this way that the sorcerer solved Kiku's problems."
Kiku, who had been listening to all this in silence, broke into a teary smile. The sight of it made Yao grin in sync.
"But then", proceeded the advisor, "there lies the preliminary problem of my mistress' burden. I had told the innkeeper that Empress Amaterasu's plight was that she wishes to alter the prince's effete personality because she fears that he will find no spouse willing to accept him."
"That was my problem. Nothing else but that", the empress conceded.
Her son looked to her with baffled eyes. "But I thought you simply hated me for being girly", he breathed.
"Nonsense, my dear! The only reason why I didn't like it that you were feminine was because I was afraid you would end up with no one to love. Then when those idiots came blaring their instruments, that fear changed into being afraid that you would end up with someone that only loved you for your beauty." The empress' smile was soft and sincere. "What made you think that I hated you simply for being girly?"
"Y-you always showed it", Kiku shed his first tear behind a hand, so overwhelming was the revelation that what he'd believe about his mother for twenty-two years had been a misunderstanding. "That's the only reason why I made Yao promise not to tell anyone. I was afraid I'd hurt you if you found out I had a man."
"For what reason, you silly child?" On the verge of tears herself, the empress offered her arms to her child. Kiku could only stare at it until he felt a small nudge on his back. He looked up, in time to see Yao nod.
It was the only encouragement Kiku needed.
For the next second saw the prince fly into his mother's embrace, sobbing his insecurities away into the crook of her shawl. Empress Amaterasu squeezed him back happily. "I see that I was narrow-minded now. I thought that by altering your identity, I'd solve all of your problems: you'd earn a good spouse and I could go happy, knowing that you were loved", the ghost of a tear sidled down the empress' cheeks. "It never occurred to me for even a second that I could be hurting us so horribly by believing it, to the point where a sorcerer had to be summoned to help us.
"I apologize, my son. Of course you can be girly if you want. And of course I will not loathe you for loving a man, for it would go against all reason to punish a boy for being in love", she smiled at Yao, who grinned bashfully in reply. " What does it matter that you are a feminine man or a masculine man? A feminine man is what you truly are, and what you truly are is beautiful in every way.
"But above all else, you are my son, and I know how to love you properly now", she pledged.
"As I was saying", the advisor cleared his throat, rubbed the tears from his eyes and proceeded with his sermon. "What was once the empress' problem still remained. Discerning this, the sorcerer was truly an open-minded and fair man. He did not jump into a direct answer, nor did he decide to stick to either the empress' or her son's side of the cold war. Instead, he decided to allow his divine excellency the prince's personality to bloom without prejudice, morphed into a serpent and brought to the shores of the Land of the Rising Sun a vessel full of potent spouses for the prince. Afterward the sorcerer morphed into the woman bearing the key to their chains, so that he may inspect each candidate in close proximities and pick out the best one for the prince: a lad who could accept him for what he truly was, and love him for not only the beauty beyond his skin, but also the beauty that laid deep down. By chance, the sorcerer's gaze settled upon you, honourable sire", he nodded to the Knight in Red Wang Yao, whose cheeks flushed with pride as he glanced with loving eyes to Kiku. "In this way, the problem was nearly solved. After he lured the two of you together as the peddler-boy, the sorcerer felt that all he had to do was wait until the relationship came out of the blue, to earn the foreseeable consent of the empress and have the honourable sire and the prince wed.
"But what he had failed to comprehend, for even sorcerers can forget, was that the pandemic with the galleon was one that could not last forever. Knowing this when all had been said and done, he morphed back into a serpent to try and revert the knights back to the shore. However, he realized that he could not win, for one of the passengers had now been intoxicated by the powers vested in love; the sorcerer knew all too well the extent of love's prowess. Thus, he reverted back into a pamphlet to urge my mistress to bring Yao and Kiku back upon the Land of the Rising Sun.
"So can you not see?" The advisor finished. "The sorcerer is no villain, but a blessing to us all. He was simply a good man intent on keeping his word to me and serving his empress."
"And I had killed him with my own hands!" Yao wailed.
"But you did so without the knowledge of what he truly was. It was all an accident, Yao; there's no one to blame", Kiku tried to sooth his beloved.
"It's true, honourable sire", nodded the advisor. "There is nothing left for us to do. The sorcerer had served us well and had ended his life by walking into a futile scenario, and now he is doing good even as a dead man, provisioning himself as a feast to the fishes.
"There is nothing left for us to do but to remember and venerate his name forevermore, and proceed with our lives carrying with us the wisdom he had preached whilst he lived."
After that, all was well and peaceful once more to the Knights in Red and the Land of the Rising Sun. The empress, having learned how to love her son properly, patched up with Kiku all they had lost in their twenty-two years of grim misunderstanding. The first step to this, of course, was granting Yao and Kiku her blessings; the couple were wed as husbands in a jubilant ceremony three years later, and the Land of the Rising Sun accepted their future rulers with much rejoicing and glee (even though Kiku's suitors had moped about it for a whole month after, such is to be expected from heartbroken men).
With the approval of the emperor reigning the Land of the Imperial Dragon, the Knights in Red made the Land of the Rising Sun their permanent abode and continued to perform the services they had committed themselves to before. And when he was not busy tending to Kiku, his new obligations as prince or as head of the Knights in Red, the party would be joined by Yao as well.
The only difference between the cavalry then and the cavalry now was that they subconsciously played another good deed: that is, the blossoming of concrete diplomatic ties between the Land of the Imperial Dragon and the Rising Sun. Upon hearing proses of amiable souls, natural splendours and profuse resources from the knights, the Land of the Rising Sun soon saw the arrival of tourists from their neighbouring kingdom; come a few years, and a considerable dollop of those tourists even became permanent residents. One aestival noon even saw the emperor as an esteemed visitor, and he and Yao's father (who had visited on many instances before) were welcomed with reverence and warmth by Empress Amaterasu. Natives from the Land of the Rising Sun, too, began flocking on galleons to witness and establish a permanent abode in the Land of the Imperial Dragon. In this manner, it came to no one as a wonder that the Land of the Imperial Dragon and the Rising Sun quickly became intimate friends.
As for the humble advisor, he, Yao, Kiku and Empress Amaterasu pitched together the effort and time to erect two shrines in the sorcerer's honour: one overlooking the pier where the knights were first seen and another standing where his inn had disappeared. While the first shrine had been demolished in a typhoon, the second shrine can still be seen to this day.
And... Cut! Now that wasn't so bad, wasn't it?
Setting aside my growth as a first-person-narrator, I had actually felt rather comfortable while I was writing this one. Perhaps it was because I had been reading a collection of fairytales and fables before I began writing; similarly, it was also those fairytales which had inspired me to write something fantasy-like for Yao and Kiku. Y'know. For a change in the air and schnoodle. I think I'm still a little gloomy from finishing Divine Retribution.
As always, please feel free to favourite and review; don't hesitate to tell me what you think about this story either through the reviews section or PM's, otay? For as I have said on Deviant Art , the audience's opinion is an invaluable and crucial possession to every writer. I need to hear your voices!
Wishing everyone warmth, warmth, warmth.
-Plumeria-hi