-"... in a small village in China, a young practitioner fled her home when it was attacked by the Jade Court." Mai's hands shook while pouring the tea.
When the Merlin departed, escorted by Warden Morgan, my exhaustion got the better of me and I dropped on the floor. Somehow I awoke in my bed, with Shoes curled around my head. She is the comfiest of pillows, but don't let her know that.
My adoptive mom, my master, and teacher was spreading peanut butter over some toasts for me.
-"...She ran to the next village. She tried to warn them of the impending danger, but who would hear her? A week later, the Jade Court took that village. And the young woman fled again."
She grabbed my hands and placed a warm cup on them. Yet she didn't let go.
-"For the better part of a year, she only ran. She was malnourished, with only rags to stave off the cold. Until she arrived at this village, where an old man was tending the field. She went unconscious to awaken in a clean bed."
Her cloudy eyes become misty.
-"After she almost ate a pig by herself, he asked where was her family. She repeated the same old warning, bringing the same old news. But this time, she was heard."
I sipped the cup with my left while with my fingers I traced small circles over her hand.
-"When she completed the tale, he urged to reach the other villagers and sound the alarm. When both reached the road late at night, they saw reflections across the rice fields. Jade reflections."
At this, she gripped my hand like a lifeline.
-"He handed her his purse and his jacket. GO! RUN! I didn't think, just bolted. A roar pierced the night and I looked back."
She used her other hand to stave off the well of tears running down her aged face.
-"They were upon him as a swarm of jade locusts. I was scared. To my eternal shame, I didn't stop by the village and kept on running."
She let go of my hand and cupped my face among her wrinkled fingers.
-"When I attained mastery of my craft, when I no longer feared the Jade Death, I still carried that shame. When I adopted a scared child who feared for his life, I thanked heaven and earth for the opportunity to pay my debts."
She let a rueful smile.
-"Never in my four hundred years alive, would I have imagined that my son, my kind and gentle son, would be the vessel for my greatest shame."
She kissed my temple and bowed to me.
-"Forgive me, Ink that Crouches."
A smell of incense filled the room and light poured from the empty scroll in my nightstand. When I opened it, it was no longer bare.
the crouching tiger teaches