THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE DANGEROUS WIND
Chapter 8: Empress Hou Demands
A Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction
by Bill K.
Miraculous Ladybug and all related characters are © 2021 by Zagtoons and are used without permission, but with respect. This story is © 2021 by Bill K.
All dialogue in brackets [ ] is in French. All other dialogue is in Chinese.
Ladybug tried to fight down her nerves as she crouched next to the Miraculous Warriors of this era. A company of soldiers were sweeping the area around the stream where they had taken Kongque. Ladybug estimated that the company numbered nearly one hundred, all rough, remorseless men dressed in leather chest armor and helmets, their gauntlet-covered hands carrying wooden spears with ornate and deadly pointed brass heads. Three of the men were on horseback, commanders of the huge company. They barked out orders from the rear as the soldiers fanned out.
"They will find us," Hei Mao murmured to his comrades. "There are too many of them not to."
"I hate to agree with Hei Mao, but he may be correct," Kongque sighed. Ladybug glanced over at her. The Lucky Charm Bandage had restored a lot of her vigor, but she still worried about moving the woman.
"Can we take so many of them?" Pianzi Huli wondered.
"I will defeat them all myself if it means protecting my dear Piao Chong," Hei Mao boasted.
"Not necessary, Hei Mao. I can protect myself. Our concern must be protecting Kongque," Piao Chong replied.
The army got closer. Three of the soldiers were only five feet away from them. They stared right at the group, but due to Pianzi Huli's illusion, saw only trees and flowers and a clear stream.
"Do you see anything?" the soldier on the right asked his fellow soldiers.
"Flowers. Trees. A stream," snorted the soldier in the middle. "Unless the elements themselves are set to revolt against the Empress, this search is fruitless."
"Does she actually think that the Miraculous Warriors are hiding out here?" the soldier on the left asked.
"That is what her spies told her," the soldier on the right said. "You know she has eyes and ears everywhere. If she believes it, then it is probably fact."
"Well they are not here," the soldier on the left grumbled. "I would think I would know one of the Miraculous Warriors if I saw one - - particularly the fox warrior. She is quite pleasing to the eye."
"She is the one who casts illusions, is she not?" the soldier on the right asked. His fellow soldier nodded. "Be cautious, then. She probably casts a spell to make her look alluring and is in reality an old hag."
Pianzi Huli burned silently as Hei Mao and Piao Chong smothered laughs.
"Hey, where are you going?" the soldier on the right cried when the soldier in the middle started forward.
"I wish to give that delicious looking water in that stream a closer inspection," replied the soldier in the middle.
"An excellent idea," nodded the soldier on the left. "I could benefit from a 'closer examination' of that water myself."
Shrugging, the soldier on the right fell in with his comrades. As they approached, Hei Mao and Ladybug eased out of their path. Kongque tried to move as well. But when she started to rise, a wave of dizziness overcame her. The soldier in the middle ran into her, his thigh striking her shoulder, and nearly pitched forward.
"You did say that the fox warrior could cast illusions?" the soldier in the middle asked. His comrade nodded, perplexed. "Well I just walked into something that is not visible."
His reward was Hei Mao's bo stick striking him across the face. The soldier pitched to the ground, reeling.
"Sorcery!" gasped the soldier on the right.
"HERE! WE FOUND SOMETHING! COME QUICKLY!" the soldier on the left shouted to the rest of the company. Seconds later, one hundred armed men were converging on the concealed Miraculous Warriors.
In a different part of the Chinese countryside, a company of thirty soldiers made their way through the brush and trees, hunting for Po Zhizhe. Among the soldiers was Empress Feng Hou, astride a towering horse and cloaked to shield her from the clutching branches and the open air elements. Four soldiers flanked her mount while the others beat the bush for their quarry.
"You are certain that you are following his trail?" Feng Hou shouted over to the company commander, whose mount she was riding.
"Yes, Divine One!" the commander said quickly. "There is no mistake!"
"There had better not be," Feng Hou warned "I will have this potter who is more than he seems. And I will have this mystic talisman he possesses. And if I am not mistaken, I will have the Miraculous Box as well, for I believe he is the one who is concealing it. I will not lose my chance at them because of the incompetence of you or your soldiers."
"Yes, Divine One!" nodded the commander.
Watching this from atop a tree was Ying e. The man debated his next move. He could remain concealed and the search party would pass him by. Or he could attack from ambush, perhaps capture the Empress and secure the Miraculous that she stole. Each plan had its strengths and drawbacks. If only he had more time to consider things.
"Up there! In the trees!" shouted one of the soldiers, pointing up to Ying e. And his decision was made for him.
"Fly, my butterflies!" Ying e said, his phrase releasing thirty butterflies.
The white butterflies flitted down toward the army, passing one by one into each soldier as they touched him. His hope was to use dissatisfaction with Empress Hou in as many men as he could find it and turn them to his side. Instantly one of the guards flanking Empress Hou's mount turned and jabbed his spear at her. Hou was able to avoid the thrust.
But the mount was spooked and began rearing up. Two of the other soldiers turned on their comrade and speared him to death. In the ranks, several soldiers turned and began fighting with their fellow soldiers, but it was fewer than Ying e had hoped for. The escorts for the Empress grabbed for the reins of the horse, trying to prevent it from bucking its rider. The scene was quickly chaos.
"Pollen!" Empress Hou shouted and Pollen sprang from under her cloak. "Buzz on!"
Transforming into Mifeng Zhanshi, the woman back-flipped effortlessly from the bucking horse and landed gracefully several yards away. Two of the changed soldiers charged her with murder in their eye. The Bee Warrior quickly dispatched them with blows from her top. Then she turned her attention to Ying e.
"Why are you here, Ying e?" she bellowed as she quickly leaped from branch to branch up the face of the tree toward him. "Do you and your band hide in the countryside, plotting against me?"
Ying e leaped away from a lunge by Mifeng Zhanshi. There was barely time to land before he was leaping again to avoid her thrown top. The top clipped off a branch behind him, then returned to its master.
"Are none of your other 'warriors' here to assist you?" the Bee Warrior asked as they leaped from tree branch to tree branch. "Have they abandoned you?"
Ying e glanced down. Eight of the soldiers lay dead below him, killed by their fellow soldiers for the unpardonable sin of opposing the will of the Empress. He knew that he could not depend upon his butterflies to influence those who remained, nor could he influence the Empress herself. The advantage had been lost.
"Or are you connected with the potter I chase?" speculated Mifeng Zhanshi. Ying e avoided another throw of the top. "Perhaps he does possess the Miraculous Box, as I suspect. Perhaps you are this potter, Ying e?"
The supposition unnerved Ying e just enough that he was unable to avoid an attacking leap from Mifeng Zhanshi. She grasped his wrists as her momentum shot her forward. Both combatants were flung off the branch and landed hard on the ground below. Ying e landed on his back and found Mifeng Zhanshi atop him, her hands pinning his to the ground.
"You do not have to oppose me, Ying e!" Mifeng Zhanshi hissed. "Join me! We shall share the Miraculous Box, share its power and rule over all!"
"Will you pardner with me the same way you partnered with Tianshi Wong?" Ying e replied bitterly.
"I know not the name nor the person of whom you speak!" Mifeng Zhanshi spat back.
"She was the woman you murdered for her Miraculous!" Ying e snapped. "She was a good woman, a woman who put the needs of others before her own! I offered her the ability to do more and she gladly accepted!"
"Then she was a fool!" barked Mifeng Zhanshi. "She died for opposing my will! And if you choose to do the same, you will die as well!"
By now six of the soldiers were surrounding them. Each one had a deadly spear pointed at Ying e. Realizing his predicament, Ying e stopped resisting. Mifeng Zhanshi rose to a sitting position and surveyed her prisoner. Locking on the butterfly pin, she reached down to pluck it. Ying e grabbed for her hands, but the tips of two spears pressed against his cheek and neck. Surrendering, he allowed his conqueror to take the pin. Instantly he transformed back to Po Zhizhe.
"As I thought," the transformed Empress nodded. "Now where is the Miraculous Box? And where is that magic talisman that can allow you to disappear in the wink of an eye?"
The prisoner remained silent.
"SPEAK OR DIE!" shouted Mifeng Zhanshi. "Clearly they are hidden! Where? Tell me!"
"Such power is not meant for one such as you," Po Zhizhe said with irritating calm. "If my death prevents you from gaining such power, then let the gods strike me down."
"Bind him!" spat the Bee Warrior as she rose from her prisoner. "Then tether him to my horse! Perhaps you do not fear death, Potter. Perhaps torture will loosen your tongue! But one way or another, I will have what I wish!"
Roughly Po was hauled to his feet and his hands bound behind his back with rough hemp. A leash was run from his bindings to the reins of her horse.
"Pollen, buzz off," Mifeng Zhanshi said and transformed back into Empress Hou. Instantly Pollen hovered by her face.
"Mistress," pleaded the kwami, "please don't do this."
"Silence," Feng Hou replied and extended her cloak. Reluctantly Pollen flew inside and the Empress mounted her horse.
With their hiding place revealed, there was no longer a need to maintain her illusion and Pianzi Huli let it fade. By now, Hei Mao had charged into the main wave of soldiers. Leaping, dodging and attacking with his feet and his bo stick, all with superhuman agility, the Cat Warrior dispatched a dozen opponents before Ladybug and Piao Chong could act. It didn't stop them, though, and each one launched themselves at the soldiers. Using their yo-yos as bolas, as trip wires and as simple bludgeons, the two heroines laid waste to the flanks of the phalanx of soldiers.
"There are too many!" shouted Piao Chong.
"Fall back!" Hei Mao shouted back. "I shall handle them!"
"No, Piao Chong is right!" Ladybug shouted. "We have to try a different approach!"
"You doubt me?" Hei Mao replied. "Let me show you my skill, foreign Ladybug!"
Using his bo stick as a pole vault, Hei Mao vaulted himself into the center of the army. Surprised as much as Ladybug and Piao Chong were, the soldiers turned to the warrior in their midst and found him balanced on one hand.
"Cataclysm!" he shouted, then pushed off of the ground. The earth beneath the feet of most of the soldiers suddenly disintegrated into nothing, sending most of the hundred plummeting into a ten foot crater. Hei Mao reached the apex of his leap, then somersaulted to the edge of the crater, landing with inhuman grace.
"You are always so grandiose," clucked Piao Chong.
"Do not lie. You were impressed, Lady Piao," Hei Mao smirked.
"And do not refer to me as 'Lady Piao'," she fussed.
"Um, I don't think the battle is over yet," Ladybug interjected and pointed. Some of the soldiers were climbing out of the crater and they didn't look happy.
"And I have no second cataclysm," scowled Hei Mao. "Lady Piao, I fear I must defer to you now."
"Perhaps I can summon a lucky . . ." Piao Chong began.
Then they all heard a melodious tune. Turning behind them, the warriors saw Pianzi Huli playing a tune on her flute. As she played, her friends saw the soldiers' eyes grow wide in absolute terror. They backed away, all the while their gaze locked onto something above the warriors. Ladybug looked up, but saw nothing.
At once, the entire company of one hundred soldiers turned and ran, ran for their lives. Those on land ran in terror. Those still in the crater scrambled out frantically, then ran as well in the opposite direction of the Miraculous Warriors. Quickly they were out of sight.
"You conjured up an illusion," Ladybug said, turning back to Pianzi Huli. She was lowering the flute from her lips.
"The biggest, meanest, scariest one hundred foot tall dragon I could possibly conceive of," boasted Pianzi Huli. "It seems to have been effective."
"Excellent, Pianzi Huli!" cheered Piao Chong. "You have once more saved us!"
"I would brave anything for you, Piao Chong," Pianzi Huli smiled. She glanced at Hei Mao. "Especially if it meant that you were not indebted to Hei Mao."
"You wrong me, Pianzi Huli," smirked Hei Mao.
"I fear this will mean we must move from here," Piao Chong concluded. She turned to Ladybug. "Is it still dangerous to move Kongque?"
"I don't think we have a choice," Ladybug answered. "I imagine those soldiers will be back, possibly with reinforcements." She turned to Kongque. "Are you still feeling dizzy?"
"Yes," Kongque admitted reluctantly. "Do not concern yourself for me. I will not put the rest of you in peril. If it is fate that I die . . ."
"No!" Piao Chong said sharply. "We will not sacrifice you!"
"It is a risk we must take," argued Kongque. "I may walk if someone supports me. But we must leave this place. You said as much yourself."
"I will support her, Lady Piao," Hei Mao offered.
Still Piao Chong hesitated.
"Is there another reason you hesitate?" Pianzi Huli asked.
"It is just . . ." she began. "Po Zhizhe will expect us to be here."
"If my actions accidentally exposed Po Zhizhe as well, then he is too smart to link up with us," Hei Mao said. "And if not, he is wise enough to find us. We should not wait for him."
"You are right," Piao Chong grimaced. "And yet . . ."
She felt a hand on her arm and found it belonged to Ladybug.
"It's the right thing to do," she said gently. "We need to keep moving."
"Perhaps we should head back to the city," suggested Kongque. "Perhaps Po Zhizhe awaits us there. And there is no telling what vile things the Empress has done in our absence."
"This is true," scowled Hei Mao.
"Yes," nodded Piao Chong. "We will head back for Liangzhu."
"Then we will need to transform back," Pianzi Huli said as the group started forward. "As such, we will attract unwanted attention."
"No, we cannot transform back," Piao Chong said adamantly. "We cannot reveal ourselves to each other."
"Piao," Pianzi Huli began.
"No. Po Zhizhe warned me when he gave me my Miraculous that I must never reveal myself to anyone."
"He warned us all," Kongque replied. "No doubt he had wisdom supporting such a request, for he is wiser than I. But there are times when rules must be broken to prevent greater calamities. I am in no condition to fight, yet my appearance will draw attack to me. I must enter the city in my other identity. And that will force me to reveal myself to one of you."
"I'll do it," Ladybug volunteered. "Like I said earlier, I won't be around much longer. It's less of a risk if you reveal your identity to me."
At that moment, though, the question was rendered moot. Hei Mao suddenly transformed back. The others stared at him, stunned.
"Prince Bai Hou!" gasped Piao Chong. "Y-You are Hei Mao?"
Continued in Chapter 9