Volume Two: Eyes of Hate
Chapter XV
Dancer and Mighty
September 12, 1210
Gods. Why are these nightmares haunt me?
Kai huffed his muzzle, covering his eyes. The night was rough to pass a bedtime after training. Not necessarily problems with delusional attitudes the way Kai reminded of his tortoise brother's Kung Fu training. From this day forward, after he resided well within Shui Palace, but still, with ill mentalities, Kai never got into student relationships as he was the only Master Wing's pupil, like never before. The Great War forced his anger on his and Oogway's low-rank soldiers, and he was born in it instead of exploring harmonies with one another.
The Mighty perched on his bed, his hoof massaging behind his itched neck; sleeping would have made him comfort more while his large chamber was a bit of issue, but the only way to fit Kai's horns, and lie his front body forward with his pillow meeting under his neck. His beloved's necklace, where it hanged beside his candle, dimmed its pale crimson, and light steps with a flickering candle behind the shoji door approached.
From one of his dreams, he knelt against two feet of muddy water where a lake was. His soldiers around him were stiff as if sticks and blades plunged against other parts of their bodies, one by one. Nearly fainted as he held his double sword staff to manage his agitated strength, his mind exposed one thing that he vouched to someone who would (and certainly never again) kill or die for him.
Kai struggled his feet while hurtling on a vast clearing of Huangshan, almost thronged with lifeless soldiers, billowing banners rented, and blades and arrows had plunged against thick grass and soils elsewhere. Fires swelled its burn smokes over the breeze. Before all of this catastrophe, Kai and Oogway proposed their resolution to engage the Fire Clan army; their enemies underestimated their vulnerabilities. One of his eyes detected a spiked shell with a long blade pole, impaled beside the poor being, and Kai bellowed at Oogway.
The Mighty hurtled further and checked over his brother's wound where the pole impelled as he motioned the tortoise's whole body. Oogway's neck and face fastened against the soil, and his scale skin and tissues that revealed wounds, tore. "BROTHER!"
From bones shattered, filled with horrendous screams and arrows storming down his last stand, now escaped into a reality, Kai clenched both hooves in between his eyes. Why is this happening?!
The door slid open, and rainfall stifled among the temple's ceiling. "General?" a silky tone entered as the Mighty turned and sought his Tibetan wolf teacher in a midnight sleeveless vest with a pink lotus flower on her breast. "Are you okay?"
"Damn this nightmare," Kai dragged his hooves away from his dark eyes.
Lotus sauntered to him further before placing her candle beside his. "Yeah, me too."
"What are you doing?"
Lotus's limbs crossed while perching in front of the Mighty. "I am sitting in front of you. The Nine's Dancer sits to anyone who has sleeping issues and difficulties in managing. Nightmares happen to some of us."
Kai brushed his neck behind. "Would you like to experience these violent paths where blood flooded over the battle?"
"I rather not," she revoked. "Besides, neither of the Nine interest in fighting into the war. We are peaceful masters — students, I mean to say, as the Prosper Valley people call us guardians. Masters of Jade Palace have the same unique inclinations to theirs as if the Nine have confidence toward them."
"You are the wolf's puppy?"
Lotus grinned. "Daddy's little girl."
"You seem to have his look," the Mighty rolled his head. "I met a few wolves who knotted their mohawks."
Their discussions passed as the muffling rain continued, and thunder deafened its clap. Spending time with a teacher or a student to Kai's perspective made him satisfied with their respective feelings. This conversation presented his agitation memories of meeting warlords and resting tents. Kai had coincided with his brothers dearly; his peacock ally theorized a pleasant means by growing bonds to each other more than just a solo soldier. Avoiding these battle considerations to aid Kai's focus on his co-master, Lotus mattered zen thoughts she could partake with him, and the Mighty strongly hinted of his closest companion's suggestions.
While the rain had softened drops elsewhere, Lotus's gray lips spread. "Not many giant villagers or warriors tend to have a long mane. Of course, my cookie's villager is one of them, has many locks and knots behind his whole neck. You don't see most of the bulls every day."
"Who is he?"
"Master Gidahn is a dear friend of the Fellowship, the last disciple of Master Flying Rhino. A father of two yaks. They used to come here when there's a holiday, or during new years. The Nine mostly come to their visits in their village, about a four-day hike. Gidahn, Hong, and I brought you in my cookie's room."
"I do not wish to be saved once more. Even then, what else is there ahead of me?"
"Fortune," said Lotus, smiling at the Mighty. "There's more than that I envision of you, Kai. A new chapter that exhibits suffering, and while there's always the sun coming up, healing mends where you journey what is ahead of you."
"A stubborn warlord to be fully remembered as the monument?" Kai raised his left eye, and he shook his head. "Still, I do not convince that should easily change me."
You'll see.
Lotus ambled beside her student's lofty arm. "I'm curious to ask if I may, General. This mane —" Lotus reached for Kai's rough hair, fiddling, "— how did you grow these over your shoulders?"
"Hmm?" he raised his left eye. "They grow when I shattered every soldier's bones."
"They look like girls."
Kai glared to his shoulder at Lotus, who covered her lips while giggling. "For more than five hundred years, I was never called a girl. Are you—?"
"It's a joke, not the best. Unless your gruff voice is like a lady," Lotus snickered.
"I'm not a girl!" Kai turned his cheeks red.
Lotus stopped laughing. "I'm kidding! You know, my partner has some humorist thoughts while he barely thinks of anyone he knows well."
She let her chuckle out as if Kai confusingly squinted at this curiosity wolf, so touchy and legitimate. Perhaps this joke was not that serious if Lotus would have sternly antagonized him. Lotus palmed onto Kai's shoulder after done fiddling his mane. "Have you ever share a sense of humor, making everyone laugh?"
The bull squinted his ocean eyes at her. "I insult and darkly joke for those who battled against me," he said.
"Despite the fact that you do prattle a little, you're quite irony."
By wanting to speak with her student furthermore, the guest room's shoji wall tapped thrice, introducing the goose messenger's calming voice Lotus determined. Pardoned once to Kai, Lotus opened the shoji door. Kong in a midnight blue robe and cotton trousers simpered. "Ah. Spending time with your student, Master Lotus? Master Xing would love to see how you obtain your course to entertain General Kai."
"Oh, yes. I'm keeping my student entertained, alright," the Nine's Dancer agreed, clearing her throat. "Any news particular, Kong?"
"None from your brothers, for now, Master Lotus," the Nine's Messenger answered. Kong dug in his chest pocket, handing Lotus a small parchment of a dark cherry wax, a double-ax emblem. "Another seems private, and only the Nine's Dancer, Leader, and Master read."
"About time. My cookie will read soon as Xing wishes to know of. . . you know who, banished somewhere in the North."
Lotus gently removed the wax as it had pasted for a few days, but gladly the Messenger was cautious enough to wait for the wax to dry itself. She unrolled the small parchment and read fierce handwriting.
To the Nine's important subject:
We share our report that the black bear resides at one of the sanctuary yurts in Mongolia. Her army plus numbers are growing, as Master Chicken and I are aware of their persistences and upcoming battles to prevent sooner or later.
Make sure your thing seals into your heart, Master Xing. The Emperor expects the Mind of Metal later when and if Huoju's Commander comes.
-Master Bear, Huangdi's General
"Okay. The Nine's Dancer shall send this word to the Leader. Around daylight, you'll fly to Gongmen City, Kong."
"We'll do, Master Lotus. Have a good night."
"Good night, Kong," she grinned her teeth and closed the guest's door.
How dangerous was the bear in black to reside in Mongolia and gather more of her new army? Lotus would not level her anxiety once more, but she mentioned another tyrannical aspect: Huoju's Commander could be the next Huoju. China remains to be safe when the bear is in Mongolia. But how long?
Kai stiffened his clearing throat, flickering Lotus's dark blue ears. Lotus put Master Bear's parchment in her bamboo desk and sat back where she was ahead of her mighty student. "Anyway. Does sleeping alone bother you?"
The Mighty clasped his pillow. "Every warrior has nightmares."
"So have I," she admitted as soon as her student lay flat on his bed. "If dreams still rip your heart more, do you need me to sleep beside you?"
Kai gulped. "What?"
"Sleep beside you, I mean," Lotus repeated.
For a moment, the Mighty had bits of perplexity to someone awkward to Lotus fonding her student, speaking with him so generous and admiring. Not so annoyed, however, he heard her throat vibrating. Lotus pressed her lips inward. "Xing sometimes seeks terrible nightmares and sometimes awakes with a panic attack. After Gongmen Battle, fear haunts him," she explained, her index and thumb stifling the jade candle to a dark gray surrounding. "If Xing has terrible dreams, I go to his chamber, embracing him in the bed; his fear dissipates when I curled up to him for a minute. While I slept with him, dreams never occur to his anxiety, and sleeping with someone better recovers well."
"I don't know," Kai crossed his forearms, leveling the pillow under his chin.
"You never know when you need help sleeping," Lotus lay her head on the Mighty's ribcage. "I'm sure you had slept with soldiers you knew, rested beside you before you and your group led into the battle. My peahen momma took care of me, and I did the same to sleep with her. Sleep with me, Kai, and you won't suffer from another."
Just then, Kai's necklace began glinting in deep rose to ghostly blossoms, appearing a soul of his beloved in hanfu robes humming her enchantments, singing. Thus, a gentle rain continued tapping among the Barrack tiles, experiencing the Nine more comfortable while sensing Wugu in their sleep. He liked this again. Kai lowered his heavy eyelids.
He and Lotus no longer sprang their bodies.
September 13, 1210
He had a good dream, slightly better than last time that he faced so many burdens, and throughout the shouts of horrors, the war silenced their screams — rain of arrows whizzed above them. Those who survived, wounds were the ones screeched its burning mauls and cleaves. Kai was one of them, and his brothers were. Instead of any haunting dreams that the Mighty ever witnessed his dear brother's face but soon would forget any, he was in the midst of meadows, brushing soils of green and tan grasses wavered by the western wind. Instead of a bloodshed dream, this one made him ponder once more.
A large figure in a hooded cloak stood on the edge of the rocky cliff. The cape color was a deep green, rented on edges and draped behind the soldier's knees. A mysterious form, which had its stripes of the black and white tail under the billowing cloak, turned the hood's head, unveiling a slight smile on the soldier's face before the chimes of the Prosper Valley woke the Mightiest Warrior.
The yellow sun cast its soft glare on scattered white clouds as the Nine kept practicing their Wing Chun levels at the fighting square. Earlier in the morning, Lotus handed General Bear's parchment to Master Ming; she needed to read crucial situations from Emperor Huangdi's high-rank generals. The Nine's Dancer and Master planned to write to refresh Xing later on after practice hours.
Kai faced the large wooden model, which developed a new design for giants. Its dummy widened both arms on the center, extended one limb below the third arm. Following a couple of beginner's blocks to improve his long-lost strategies of Wing Chun, as the Mighty's old teacher educated him many years before entering the Great War, Kai adapted his combinations on blocking and attacking from Lotus's basic tactics.
He deflected palm block inward and punched forward twice the combo. Sidestepped to the left, bridging one arm and the other, palming blows above the dummy's head. Amidst the stone square next to Kai, the Nine's Heaver balanced his chi sao arms flowing with Wolf Boss's limbs a circle. The Nine's Commander made for his forearms to ward off Bao's wide punches. Left, right, and circle punches. His ninth blow struck hard, but Bao curled half of his lips in a friendly sarcasm.
"Bao, tiny," the gorilla chuckled ahead of Lotus's father. Wolf Boss, being hesitant to reply as he shivered his head, smiled uneasily. His daughter stepped aside.
"Does someone from the Nine is currently the tiny member of the Nine, Bao?" Lotus widened her left eye. "Hong's on your shoulder."
The Nine's Doctor crept her small head on Bao's ear. "Tiny, big boy."
The gorilla tapped his rapid fist on a bare chest. "Bao, tiny! Bao, strong!"
Students but Kai laughed as Hong embarked hurtling on Bao's ribcages, fiddling her small paws toward his underarm. Boisterous enough, the Nine's Heaver cried his joy for more. Wolf Boss, chuckling beside his daughter, adjusted his cotton kimono. "He is something, isn't that right, Lotus?"
"A very special one. The Nine and Prosper Valley villagers love him, Daddy."
"I'm starting to like him," Zhong commented.
Midday soared its clouds blocking the sun's crepuscular rays on a whole Prosper Valley. Master Ming served large portions of rice and stir-fried cabbages to her students at this lunch hour. In the Nine's Dine/Meeting room with a circle shape of voluminous oak table, Kai dug one rice pie and chopped cabbages, munching blends of spicy and fats flavor, giving the Mighty and the Nine spirited Ming's mastery of cooking.
After lunch, Lotus wandered toward the Nine's Second Quarter as the water within the room dribbled, fierce than a sound of heavy rain patting on roof tiles. She entered the Quarter without sneaking right into who in the Gods bathe with thunderous water pouring down. She bore her basket of dirty clothes and some soap bars and glanced at long mane flowing on ripples, and the giant's body straightened, with showers of soap and water draining. Lotus poured a metal basket of water into her clothes and began scrubbing her soap.
Gripping a towel in front, Kai dried his face and mane as he peeped on the wolf, washing her sleeveless vest and gray trousers. Beside her to the left made the beast widen his eyes. It was a large dark green short, well paw-sewn patches on most of the fabric, and green and yellow strip portion waist. He held it with his two fingers. "Puppy. Whose pants is this?"
"Yours. I made it for you," Lotus continued scrubbing a bar of soap on her saturated clothes.
Examined a new pair of shorts that made his head withdraw, Kai snouted his muzzle. "The Mighty declines his new gift."
"Ah, don't be absurd. Regarding your loincloth you wear every day, you need to dress something else rather than be stinky all day," Lotus said as Kai vented his harsh breath. "It's so obnoxious that you do not accept your teacher's gift. You could go fully uncovered without your loincloth or the new pair I gave you if you hate it."
"Hate is a disgusting flavor," Kai hummed.
"How will you like us to sense your sweat and revolting smell on you?"
"Whatever the Maker desires, so every soulless creature stays out of my way for good."
Lotus stretched her lips toward her cheeks. Kay wrapped his towel and searched for a loincloth, where he placed it next to where he was. Murmuring his words, Kai eyed on his shoulder to Lotus, who revealed her teeth so ravishing and innocent. "Where's my loincloth?" the beast demanded.
"I threw it away."
"WHAT?!"
The Mighty towered ahead of her; his towel slipped on his legs, and Kai hastily clenched it under his belly after he yelped. "That is the only fabric to wear!"
"And it was revolting when your loincloth had not washed for more than eight weeks! Are you kidding me? Can you imagine how that smell draws someone away?"
"How about any soldier who has not taken a bath for days?"
"Um. . . No. You have a terrible habit of not washing your care to last a while longer," Lotus's muzzle bent dark hues of midnight blue. She stomped her main foot, stumbling Kai off guard. "Now. My sow teacher has a colleague of hers making many giant fabrics; she will offer you a nice kimono outfit that your favorite color of lime or jade is your type. My daddy said green is healthy, quite sometimes jealous of other hues."
That color of mine has various meanings than what Little Puppy knows.
Kai clenched the front end of his towel. "I'm not going to wear that or this kimono outfit. I cannot accept your gift, and that's final."
Lotus smirked menacingly. "You'll love it."
Lotus departed on toward the stone arena after the Nine's Dancer opened the intricate oak door behind. Waited for her student, who was rather dozy in timidness from the Mightiest Warrior, wearing his new patched pants, Kai inspected these material patterns, so elegant while fiddling half cotton and half silk. How healthy and good was he while he meant the opposite of different meanings?
Kai, loosening his tense muzzle, sighed. "I take it back."
"I told you!" Lotus widened her golden-ring eyes. "With your shorts on, you remind me of my panda colleague."
"Please, don't," Kai shook.
"Ha!"
His new pants were somewhat comfy that he had been used dressing his loincloth, which sewn with some battle clothes, Kai wore many years, even within the Spirit Realm, his other home where no master or friend could ever talk to him. During the ages within his banishment, his battle clothing rented most of his outer layers and made his idea stitch the rest of the good layers, turned to his daily loincloth.
Kai stroked the green and yellow waist stripes when Lotus checked for the Nine's Messenger, watering jasmine plants and lily flowers ahead of him, the aroma of wet earth whirling across the main arena. For a moment, reminding these fragrances from his old home where he lived with his adoptive feline mother, Kai drifted his view on his lupine teacher, whose lips endlessly smile from ear to ear, clasping her paws in front.
"Why do you smile the way you are right now, and most of the time?" he asked.
"Because I smile when I attract for those I know and give their rough day shine from breaking themselves away," Lotus said. "The Nine's Dancer shatters discouragement."
"Ahh. So if you could determine me burst my temper," Kai knelt his knees, bending his body near Lotus's space, "would you shatter my anger management?"
"Based on how will your teacher observe into judgment accordingly, then yes."
"Then may I insist you cease your interest in me once a while?" Kai begged.
Called out by the Nine's Doctor within the Nine's Meeting Room who needed the Nine's Dancer to gather plenty of remedies for Xing's scar to use, Lotus nodded to Hong and appeared her nonchalant posture in front of Kai. "If I'm that rude from your view, then maybe I shouldn't give my gift to you."
Wait, I -
Kai wanted to spare while reaching for her, but Lotus sauntered into the Barrack without stopping. After the door once shut, beside the path toward the Temple/Restaurant, the elder feline in light-cobalt hanfu robes buzzed her throat. "Lotus needs some time of her own," Ming said, clasping her paws within long sleeves. "This usually happens when her thoughts go south."
The former Master of Pain gave a little determination to understanding her logical thoughts on her students. He shook in regret. "The Mighty has no reason to offend her, which you would have known the Jade Slayer, the big conqueror who demands warlords to surrender."
"War was easy than harmony, that you may say," Ming told. For a moment, her stone eyes caught on Kai's new pair of patches, which she recognized her lupine student's talents on part-time stitching layers of garments. Flattening her paws together, Ming simpered. "That's your lovely shorts. My wolf student envies you. You should thank my adoptive granddaughter."
One of the geese servants in a midnight blue robe interrupted. "Master Ming," a female goose apologized. "You gave a guest from Lu Monastery."
Lu Monastery? What has come to my attention right now?
The Nine's Master pardoned the Mighty as she followed the goose messenger Biyu toward the front entry of Shui Palace. At first, Kai carefully sighted her eye wrinkles squint before looking away from him. The world hadn't fill in his anticipations to wonder China at once again, at only being mortal as he should recognize each land. With newer temples and foundations during the Song Dynasty times, Kai never realized what's ahead of him, but numerous monasteries he caught up and captured masters before.
Not knowingly the bull conceived of the wolf being a nice figure in front of her, Lotus glided her eyes toward the front and squared her pupils. Without hesitation, she headed for the Nine's Quarter, shutting the door. Calming her sensation, Ming properly adjusted the neck of her hanfu line before opening the gate that had left it open quite thick enough to see the guest.
A Tibetan red deer in a dark teal robe and brown trousers introduced his husky voice. "Greetings from the Master of Lu Academy, Master Ming."
"Master Le," Ming bowed.
"It's my honor visiting you once more. May I come in?"
Kai left pondering this guest whose head was craning before Ming kept the gate's door close to her space from seeing the former warlord. A soft hiss sound from his left made the bull turn, and Lotus forced her paw gesture, demanding him to enter. "Of course," Ming conceded, spreading both doors.
Once the elder tigress escorted her guest - she did not invite Le in the first place ever since the deer went in Shui Palace without permission - she browsed her surroundings by the time the students remained persistent on combating dummies. Gladly, the bull was nowhere else to be seen, as she noticed a gray figure within the Meeting Room quietly follow Wolf Boss's daughter, entering the Nine's Corridor. While lurking behind the Meeting Room's path in the Barrack, Lotus hushed her student's demand, and Ming cleared her throat. "What can I do for you, Master Le?"
The deer, once distracted by lily flowers and jasmine plants from his eyes, pardoned her. "This private meeting, as I wish to speak, Master Ming, is consequential. I do not mind my appearance insulting to your presence. The Master of Lu Academy wishes to speak to the Nine's Leader."
"I have to inform you that my grandson left a week ago if you insist your curiosity question of yours."
"May I ask, where is Master Xing?"
"He travels to Gongmen City with the Dragon Warrior and their companions, willing to reunite the Nine's Brilliance as the new and current Lord of Gongmen," Ming clarified. "What is the purpose of your request, Master Le?"
"One of my students has been desperate to rematch against your finest student, calling the match unfair," Master Le spoke.
That's their excuse after all this time?
Lotus clenched her teeth. Kai began murmuring his interruption. "Girl?"
"Shh," Lotus hushed her student again. Her father behind her joined beside his daughter as the Nine's Doctor carefully mounted on Lotus's back, craning her head at the stone arena. The Nine's Master offered one of the geese servants to serve tea. She joined her paws ahead of her belly.
"So as the other news, if you have not informed the Nine's report for any future tournaments, Master Le, Master Xing retires fighting in competitions, despite his priorities are vital," Ming elucidated the deer.
Master Le squirmed his half-frown. Somewhat disappointed to demand her further, however, he raised his brown eyes at her. "And what priorities will that be?"
"Under his pledge not to enter any public attendance, the Fire Clan has a bounty on my grandson's head," she clasped behind her back, lifting her paw toward him. "Should I explain to you that the Dragon Warrior has his potential reflection on Xing that he'll be the next hero of all of China?"
"As I have heard rumors, but now the panda's words are confirmed well," Master Le nodded, then wobbled his head in disgust. "Such disappointing to your grandson, but I assure you, Master Ming —"
Ming gestured her paw ahead of him. "His strategy is now crucial than your class's rematch. Neither of your students has their time to participate against the Nine." Just in time, Biyu, the goose servant, bore a large flat plate with a white pot and two teacups of blue mountains. Ming poured her one. "May I ask, how are your disciples?"
Biyu offered the tray to Master Le, but the deer wobbled his hoof. "My apologies. I don't drink peppermint tea, but thanks for the offering, Master Ming. By the way, my students have been treating well. But that's not what I am here for, to share compliments about my students and yours."
"Go on," the feline master provided.
"There's a crucial part of mine, which I should have interpreted one of my issues, months after a tragic Battle of Gongmen," continued Master Le, clasping his hooves ahead of his belly. "Either you or your grandson will do something for me, and we shall restore common treaties to Lu Disciple and the Fellowship."
"Tell me what you know," Ming questioned him.
The Nine's Dancer crossed her limbs while laying her back against the structure within the Nine's Corridor, along with the Nine and Kai pondering of the visitor. Wolf Boss wished to know more about his daughter's disgust, unveiling her a nonchalant glance. "Any idea who is that deer, Lotus?"
Lotus breathed in her muzzle. "I wish to explain, but let me answer this simple, yet you will understand about the deer. He's a mo—"
On top of the gorilla's shoulder, Hong hacked and cleared her throat. "A complicated fellow," the Nine's Doctor complied Wolf Boss with Lotus's help.
Thank you.
The Nine's Heaver grunted his low hum, turning every warrior's face at the ape. "Bao, stupid."
Lotus suppressed her breathy laugh in her mouth. The Corridor's door opened behind Bao; the Nine's Master handed her parchment with a blue wax to the goose messenger, and Lotus no longer suppressed her laugh at once she glanced at Ming. "Send it to the Nine in Gongmen, Kong. Fly careful."
Kong bobbed his head once and soared away. Ming closed the intricate door behind her. "We join in the Nine's Meeting," she met her students' eyes and then Lotus's. "Your brothers will know over there in less than three days."
"What's that all about?" Lotus asked Ming as the Nine, except for Kai behind her, went into the Meeting Room, left with murmurs filling the air.
"Master Le's problem appears to be quite mediocre, Lotus," added Ming, stroking her firm paws. "Someone from Lu Monastery is missing."
Author's Note:
— Just a reminder for this chapter: Gidahn belongs to the writer SheyConYamo.
— Master Le, Wang, and Biyu (one of the Nine's Messengers) are mine. I have like less than 60 OCs (soon to be more), including the three in the Mightiest Warriors Series. Next stop, Gongmen City, this month of June!