14:
When Heng woke, Mother was nowhere to be found. Jing Jing squeaked as he rolled over on top of her. The pug scrambled out from beneath the boy, snorted and nipped his nose. He pushed her away.
"Don't want to play." Heng rubbed his eyes.
He was used to it by now. Mother never stayed for long. She was busier than even Father. Cool and smooth, she carried the scent of wet leaves and metal.
Heng yawned and put on his slippers. His caretakers always made a point to insist that it was important to be properly dressed. With bare feet he could catch a chill or worse, with bare feet he'd look like an uneducated farmboy.
He let Jing Jing out in the courtyard and shuffled off down the halls. If he ate breakfast, then he wouldn't have any room for candies, so Heng set off in search of some of the older women who would dote on him when father wasn't looking.
The boy headed down a long corridor, crab-walking past the servants that hurried about their duties. They knew better than to try and redirect Heng once he had a plan congealed in his head so long as he wasn't causing serious trouble.
If he kept walking, he'd reach the corridor that he wasn't supposed to head down without father. Something about it being confusing and that he'd understand when he was older.
Heng stuck out his tongue. Old people always thought he was young, but that was just because they were old. He nodded his head and dashed back to the courtyard.
"Jing Jing!"
Jing Jing looked up from a flower bush she'd been nibbling on. The pug promptly rolled onto her back.
Heng ran over and plopped down next to her. "We're going to have fun." He scratched her tummy. "You've never been to Father's balcony, have you? Come on, I'll show you."
The boy hopped to his feet and when Jing Jing seemed content to stay on her back, Heng stamped his foot. The pug blinked.
"I said come on!"
Jing Jing yipped and rolled upright. She scrambled over to Heng's sandals and tried to chew on his toe.
Heng jerked his foot back. "No! You got to come with me." He shuffled out of the courtyard backwards, Jing Jing followed, lured by the boy's big toe.
Boy and dog hurried off down the corridors together. When Jing Jing got distracted by a vase, Heng lifted her into his arms and hauled her along.
The corridor he wasn't supposed to walk down alone was poorly lit. Heng snorted. "Only cowards and babies are afraid of the dark."
Jing Jing snuffled and started to bark.
"Quiet!" Heng said. "You're going to get us in trouble."
Jing Jing struggled in his arms and Heng hugged her to his chest. The boy continued down the hall. When he reached the platform, he shut the door and set the dog down.
"This is an adventure," he said. "Do you know where we're going?"
Jing Jing sniffed at the door and started to whine.
"Don't be a baby, Jing Jing," Heng said. "We just need to go all the way to the top.
Heng took to fidgeting, while Jing Jing sighed nervously.
When the door opened, they most definitely were not at the top like Heng had wanted. The boy scowled. "It's broken!"
Jing Jing yipped and scrambled off the platform.
"Jing Jing!" Heng bolted after his dog.
He raced down the strange corridor of metal, the repetitive sound of his sandals slamming into the ground entrancing the boy. The air was warmer the further Heng continued on down the corridor, thicker, the dense odor of oil pervaded his nostrils. When he found her in the room at the end of the hallway, Jing Jing looked perfectly content on the foot of the crazy man.
"Jing Jing!" Heng scowled.
Jing Jing blinked innocently and rolled onto her back.
"What? Back so soon?" the crazy man drawled. "Regretfully, I don't have your reimbursement ready as of yet, as I hadn't expected you to return so immediately."
Heng's lips moved in a silent repetition of the crazy man's words and the boy frowned. "You're weird."
"Yes, yes, we've established this." The crazy man waved a dismissive hand. "Now, just what is it that you're doing down here?"
Heng looked at him like he was an idiot. "Because I want to."
"Oh yes, that explains so much." The crazy man's nose twitched. "And you feel you have a right to question my mental faculties? Have you come down here to help me? To blow things up? Maybe both?"
"Blow things up?" Heng blinked and plopped down next to Jing Jing.
"Why, yes," the crazy man replied. "Yes, of course. Nothing makes a statement quite like a fiery explosion."
"Huh?"
The crazy man held up a single finger to silence Heng. Heng stuck out his tongue. The crazy man walked over towards the table and selected a medium sized cask. In a display of bravado, he presented the cask for Heng to look at briefly before the crazy man hoisted it against the wall.
When the room stopped shaking, Heng giggled and shrieked. Jing Jing barked at the noise and ran off.
"Earth meets sky." The crazy man nodded.
"Do it again!" Heng jumped up and down.
The crazy man frowned. "I can't," he said. "That was only a minor concussion for demonstrations. Everything else I have would blow up the lab. Not good at all."
"Do it!" Heng demanded.
"Not today." The crazy man gave Heng a curious smile.
"I'll tell Father." Heng's lower lip jutted out.
"Tell him what?" the crazy man asked. "That I refused to destroy a wing of his home after you skulked in here without permission?"
Heng blinked. "I wanted to come here. I can't get in trouble."
"So I suppose you won't mind me sending for your father at all, will you?" the crazy man asked.
"No!" Heng stomped his feet. "No, no, no! Don't do it!"
"Well, I can't possibly get any work done while you're here," the crazy man murmured. "You should run along."
"I won't do it!"
The crazy man cocked his head to one side and sighed. "Your dog left."
"Jing Jing?" Heng frowned and his eyes darted over the room. "Jing Jing!"
"I take it no one's ever discussed an indoor voice with you, have they?" the crazy man muttered. "Oh my."
"Jing Jing!" the boy shouted and took off in a mad dash.
Heng twisted his sandal, fell, scowled at the ground and began again. He scrambled on, screaming for his dog, red faced and agitated.
Jing Jing was waiting on the platform, her tongue lolling and stub of a tail wagging. She seemed completely oblivious to the frown Heng wore.
"Jing Jing!" he said. "Don't run off. Stupid."
Jing Jing snorted and flopped onto her side.
"We're going to go to the balcony now," Heng said. "Because I said so."
Jing Jing yipped as Heng went to the platform's controls. He ignored her. The pug sighed and hopped to her feet. While the boy was focused on the controls, Jing Jing trotted off the platform.
"Jing Jing!" The door slammed shut in Heng's face. "No, go back. Want Jing Jing!"
He shrieked as the platform started to spiral downward. "Balcony, now." Heng glowered and pounded his hands against the door. "Now!"
The door opened.
Heng stuck his tongue out at the door and took a step out. He definitely was not on his father's balcony. Heng turned and headed back to the platform. "Find Jing Jing." He pounded the controls.
Despite any hemming and hawing on Heng's part, the platform wouldn't move again. So after jumping up and down and taking a moment to scowl, the boy left to explore his new surroundings.
The hallways smelled coppery, like Mother. Vegetation cracked through the stone of the floor, crawled up and began to devour the walls. Heng sniffed at it. It didn't look like it would taste good, so he moved on.
Past scrolls he couldn't read, past decorations he knew he wasn't supposed to touch. The stone of the wall was cold to his fingers and he couldn't decide if the door before him gleamed with magic or just slime. So he slapped it with his hands.
Didn't feel like magic. Didn't feel like slime. The door opened.
"Hello?" Heng called out. "Jing Jing? Father? It's me, Heng."
There was no answer, but Heng would swear that the wind whispered him name.
"Hello?" He shuffled through the door. "It's me! Where are you hiding? I'll beat you up if you don't come out and play with me."
In the dim torchlight that lined the space, an enormous shape could be made out. The stone floor stopped and dirt continued in its place. Heng tripped and rolled down a slight slope.
The boy pushed himself up from his knees and started for the large blue mass. Close enough to see the thousands of scales the size of this thumbnail, Heng realized he wasn't alone.
"Hey!" he said. "You shouldn't be here, I'll tell Father."
Back still facing Heng, the woman chuckled. Mother's voice, but her armor was missing. Mother always wore her armor.
"Mother?" Heng cocked his head to one side. "What are you doing here? Can we play?"
"You should not have come here, Heng." She turned around.
And Heng began to cry.