Chapter 3
In the twilight, under a sky awash with fiery reds and oranges, the hills around the Xiaolin temple appeared to be the arched spines of great sleeping dragons, their scales purple-black grass undulating in the warm breeze. But Master Fung was interested in only one dragon at present, and he scanned the darkening sky for any sign of him carrying the four Xiaolin Dragons-in-training home to safety. The sun had long ago dipped below the horizon line, the sky darkened to a deep inky blue, when he finally spied a rapidly encroaching speck among the stars that elongated into a serpentine form as it got closer. When Master Fung exited the great hall to greet his returning students and Dojo, he was horrified to discover them all in a state of shock, and Omi suffering under a fit of most uncharacteristic distress.
"Master...Master Fung..." he choked out, almost falling to his knees before Master Fung could stoop with a speed that belied his arthritic knees and catch the young monk by the arm.
"Omi, good heavens, what on earth has happened?" He enquired, worry creasing his brow. Omi merely whimpered and buried his face in the crook of Master Fung's arm, trembling with exhaustion and, perhaps, fear. Wetness quickly seeped through the fabric of Master Fung's robes where Omi's head lay. A quick once over told Master Fung that, including Omi, all monks were present and accounted for, and none of them seemed to be seriously hurt—cuts and bruises here and there which was to be expected—but all were a delicate shade of sickly green, as if violently ill. Kimiko was unnaturally quiet and wracked with violent tremors, her irises utterly swamped with pupil and darting about restlessly; Raimundo seemed to be having difficulty standing without swaying and he was clenching the Amulet of Nezha so tightly in his left fist his knuckles had blanched; Clay had a dead-looking faraway expression that looked quite out of sorts on his young, usually cheerful face. Master Fung paled, fearing the worst.
"What has happened, young ones?"
Dojo, unscathed but visibly shaken by some terrible sight to which Master Fung had yet to become privy, returned to his usual size and crawled up the Temple Master's leg to reach his neck, where he curled up and lay deathly still, damp with sweat and shedding scales like leaves.
"S-spicer...Spicer croaked it," the dragon whispered into Master Fung's ear with an air of one who has failed in upholding his sworn duty to serve and protect. "O-omi...Omi s-saw it all."
Master Fung's eyes widened, but he maintained his calm, comforting countenance as he gently pried Omi from the front of his robe and placed a firm, gentle hand on his shoulder to guide him. He extended his other arm to gather Kimiko, Raimundo and Clay to him and usher them into the temple.
"Inside my young ones. Medicine, a calming draught of tea I think, and sleep. You may tell me everything come morning."
"...Chase was furious," Dojo recounted quietly as he lay quite listlessly on the ground before Master Fung, though he shook every now and then with nerves.
"Because Jack thwarted him in a showdown?"
"I dunno what the kid did. One minute it was him and Kimiko neck and neck, we didn't know who was gonna win, then the next Chase is right there outta nowhere. Seconds later he goes down like a buck shot through the chest and Jack trips over him. Kimmy wins the showdown and then Chase recovers from his fall and all hell breaks loose."
Master Fung considered this and firmly pushed a small saucer of tea mixed with huangjiu in front of Dojo who lapped up some of the liquid with lizard-like flickers of his tongue. The little dragon sighed and appreciated the dull burn of alcohol he'd not sampled for many decades. He wasn't a great drinker, never had been and, despite the occurrences of the day, probably never would be; he'd never much liked the taste. Still, what with all that had happened to the Spicer boy, Dojo figured he owed it to the Goth's memory to drink in his name.
"To Jack Spicer," he murmured, mostly to himself, but Master Fung nodded in affirmation.
Upon treating the young monks' superficial wounds and giving them tea laced with a gentle herbal sedative that guaranteed a dreamless sleep, Master Fung had personally seen them all to bed and had stayed by Omi's side in particular until the little monk's frequent bouts of tears had tapered off and he'd slipped into the blissful oblivion of slumber. Master Fung had then retired to the meditation hall with Dojo slung around his shoulders and began to coax at least some of the story from the depressed dragon.
"What happened then Dojo?"
The dragon's face crumpled, his snout wrinkling as he was forced to relive unpleasant memories.
"Wuya and Bean got the heck outta there. Chase was flipping out big time and it looked like he was gonna reduce the whole place to rubble. I didn't see what happened to Jack next cuz I super-sized and grabbed the kids but I guess he started running. Gods above, what else could he do? He didn't stand a chance, poor kid..."
"No, he didn't." Master Fung agreed sorrowfully. Jack Spicer was, technically, Heylin and therefore the enemy, but the elder monk would never in a thousand years have sentenced him to death at the hands of an angry Chase Young.
"The quarry was come coming down around our ears; I didn't think we had time to mount up and ride out so I had Omi in my teeth, Rai and Clay in my hands, and since I was standing under Kimmy when I super-sized she was on my back. I started on up but then Omi starts yelling that we have to go help Jack, we had to go back or Chase would tear him to shreds...he wouldn't stop yelling..."
The dragon heaved a sigh laden with shame and regret then plunged his snout into the alcohol-spiked tea and inhaled the healthy portion all in one go. He emitted a squeaky hiccup as a single fat teardrop trickled down his scaly face to plink gently on the ground. Master Fung felt compunction for having to dwell on the gruesome subject when all he dearly wanted, for Dojo's sake, was to tuck the little dragon into bed and let him forget the day's tragedies. But when a snake strikes, one does not suck out the poison in increments but all at once, and thus Master Fung had further questions to ask.
"You did not do as Omi wished, did you Dojo?"
"Well, n-no my first priority was to get the kids outta there so I kept goin' up and ignoring Omi even though he was begging me to go back, that we had to help the Spicer kid. But then I felt Omi wasn't squirming no more and I saw he'd wormed his way out of his tunic and dropped back into the quarry and was pelting after Chase and Jack.
"We lost sight of him for a bit and we rose up above the quarry mess and circled around a bit until Rai spotted him with the Falcon's Eye. We got closer and he's just standing there all pale and unmoving on the edge of this huge blocked-in crater thing staring down Chase..." Dojo swallowed a sob and continued in a strangled voice, more tears splashing on the ground to join the first, "Chase is...he's...Oh Gods, he's tearing and hacking and chewing at something against the rock wall and there's blood everywhere and it was horrible, just horrible. Then he senses we're there or something and then he t-turns around and c-comes after us looking a-as if t-to say we w-were next on the m-menu. C-clay lassoed Omi and w-we c-came straight b-back to the...the t-temple."
Dojo lost it then, breaking down and bawling, wringing his tail with his tiny clawed paws. Master Fung hastened to pick him up and administer slow soothing strokes along the length of Dojo's back.
"Did Omi say anything when he was back among the rest of you?"
"N-no, we d-didn't...didn't speak all the w-way h-home. Oh M-master Fung, s'all m-my fault! I p-pretty...pretty much killed the p-poor k-kid. I-if I...If I'd g-gone after him when Omi first said we m-might have b-been able to save S-spicer."
"You were protecting the young monks," Master Fung said resolutely, voice low and reassuring. "You were doing your duty as their guardian—" but he was interrupted by a miserable howl from Dojo, who was now dribbling liberal amounts of snot and tears onto Master Fung's robes, even as he attempted to halt the flow.
"I c-coulda kept a b-better grip on O-omi! I sh-shoulda known that...t-that he'd get free and g-go after Ch-chase! Now he's s-seen Spicer t-torn apart b-before his eyes and he's gonna b-be screwed up f-for life! I've r-ruined his innocence, Fung! H-how can I e-ever make up f-for th-that?"
"Innocence plays in the backyard of ignorance," quoted Master Fung quietly, never faltering in his steady petting of Dojo's scales. "Though perhaps it was by a cruel and untimely fashion that Omi had his innocence taken, it was inevitable; it had to happen eventually or else he could never grow and learn as one must when they age."
The little dragon's sobs gradually tapered off and he was silent but for shuddering breaths and a smattering of hiccups; it seemed he was over the worst of his outward display of grief and regret.
"I say this now and I'll say it as many times as I need to, Dojo, what happened today was not your fault. You did your duty looking after the young ones out in the field, keeping them out of harm's way when they could have been crushed by rock-fall, and afterwards you returned them safely to the temple. I cannot ask of you anymore than that, Dojo."
Dojo sniffled once and nodded weakly, showing he understood, and then slumped, limply, in Master Fung's arms. With a single sad sigh, the elder monk stood to depart for his sleeping quarters; he would first put Dojo to bed with water and painkillers at his bedside to treat the dragon's hangover when he awoke, and then he'd go and put himself to bed for a few hours rest. After all, come morning, he had several more snake bites from which poison needed to be extracted.
Fave moment in the series ever? When Master Fung's eyes bug out upon hearing the Heylin Seed is alive and wreaking havoc. Dear God, I almost cracked a rib. Anyhoo, Fung makes a great therapist and I love him in all his wisely, wrinkly glory. If I ever get a desk calendar, Imma name it after him.
INTERNEEEEEETZ...I'm not addicted, I swear. I just have a few dependency issues. –shifty eyes-