Hello to you dear readers! We meet again today for a new chapter.
First of all say welcome to the newcomers who follow this story : Rinzoro, Sath25, Sugarpop001 and Icedshadows. Once is not customary, but I will take the time to thank all those who do not follow 'officially' this story but who read but write and that in a way and for information the statistic of the month is 724 visitors (200 more than last month thanks to you all)
One of you left me a comment pointing out that I had made mistakes in the characters' genders (especially concerning Tigress and Viper) and I sincerely thank you for pointing it out to me, it's inexcusable of me to have made such a... big mistake and I should have realized it myself. I made the changes and (normally) everything is fixed. And I hope I didn't make the same mistakes in this chapter.
HanMan99: Great chapter! I definitely cracked a wide grin at the coffee part. But I'm really excited about the next chapter.
Answer: Did you know: Coffee does not originate from the Americas (as I thought) but from Africa and more specifically from Ethiopia. And it was only planted in China in 1892 by a French missionary who came from Vietnam, which was a French colony at that time.
My usual thanks to Echoes for all the help and support he gave me.
The rain continued to pound on the ground, the tiny drops of water exploded into many brilliant little droplets under the light of one of the lamps hanging from one of the wooden beams of the house. There was such a stillness, such a rest, that only the occasional flash of lightning broke the silence with its powerful but brief clamor. Suddenly a lightning bolt appeared in front of me, I saw multiple branches forming in the clouds, giving them a bluish tint to their darkness. Darkness... a word that could as well be written demon! I lowered my gaze to the ground, remembering what he had tried to do to Mantis. He was unstable, I had told Viper to listen to me! But she assured me that he would not try anything, that he would be reasonable! Raising my eyes to the dark sky, the sound of thunder suddenly hit my eardrums with a loud, booming roar.
"Master Tigress?" I turned to find that the pig had returned. He was dressed in a green hanfu with the edges of the garment and the belt colored black. His hanfu did not have any particular symbol or decoration, probably because of lack of means. He approached me and put a small piece of furniture on my right in various containers.
"Here you go! I have everything you asked for." He pivoted to my right, and watched me for a moment. He was fiddling with his hooves between them, very clearly hesitating to ask me for something. He swallowed slightly before taking a breath and asked me shyly.
"Is this about the creature?" So the news was already out, news travels fast. I gave him a nod of the head as an answer. I approached the piece of furniture, the pig moved aside to invite me. I grabbed the different containers which were of different colors. All contained food for the creature and for us.
"What kind of animal is this?" I looked back at the pig and realized a shrug.
"I don't know Guo, I'm sorry I can't tell you." I had lied, I already knew who he was and what threat he posed. I placed myself in front of the furniture again and plunged a little more into my reflection. A human... What a strange species, where did they come from? What were their real powers? Were they preparing for war against us? I remembered what he had told me in my nightmare. We will be the advent of your miserable existence. This sentence disturbed me, I didn't understand where exactly, but I was convinced that a message was hidden behind it.
"Do you think it is dangerous? Not that I'm personally worried. But the villagers kept asking me about this creature." My mind and eyesight froze, I couldn't just say yes to him. I would risk a panic in the village. But I simply could not lie to her about this vitally important detail. I had to weigh every word very carefully. Then I looked at him.
"I think he represents some danger." I noticed Guo's body tense with apprehension. "But as it is, he is no longer a danger to anyone, and I will see to it that it stays that way." His body lowered, relaxed and reassured by my words. Turning my head slightly to the left, I watched from the corner of my eye the containers. "How much are you offering me for all this ?" He crossed his hooves between them, and bowed to me.
"For you, it will be free."
"What, no. I can't accept it ! It's way too much." He straightened up, still with his hooves joined between them.
"It's a gift, to thank you for your hard work in protecting the valley from the threats of looters." I looked away to the open door and began to watch the village as it began to fall asleep.
"You know, we are just doing our job. I insist on giving you something in return." Turning my gaze back to Guo, I noticed that he had untied his hooves and was standing straight as a wooden post.
"Okay!" He looked outward, probably thinking of an amicable agreement. After a brief moment, he broke the silence. "I will ask you in exchange to continue to protect me, my family and my village in exchange for the supplies." A smile appeared on my face, this pig was much smarter than he looked, and I had been caught in my own trap. I bowed to him, resigned and accepted his 'proposal'.
"It's okay Guo, I thank you for your generosity and hospitality that you have done towards me." I stood up and placed all the containers in a bag. Once that was accomplished, I turned toward the exit door and began to look out at the horizon. The rain had stopped, the sky was still covered with dark clouds and some lightning appeared in their hearts, still gracing them with a purplish hue. The smell of the air entered my nostrils, it was refreshing and cool. I loved to smell the outside after a rain shower, it was always something that had the ability to relax and somehow comfort me. I stood on the porch of the door, Guo was standing behind me.
"Good luck with the creature! And may Chéngwéi be with you!" I turned my head slightly.
"Thank you Guo, may Chéngwéi be with you!" I stepped onto the wet earth, I felt the mud creep between my paws. It was very unpleasant and I will have to make a more important toilet, as usual. I left the house of the village chief and walked through the countryside with my bag full of food for two more days on my shoulders. Not providing enough food was a rookie mistake, but who knew we would capture this creature alive, and who knew the bridge would collapse as we crossed it? Thunder rumbled in the sky, the clouds gradually began to release their hold on the sky. The storm had done a lot of damage, already well our bridge was unusable, and this village was left with a house without a roof. A horrible thought had suddenly crossed my mind. What if the creature had taken me away from the camp to attack it ? My body stopped dead in its tracks, my chest constricted violently. I had to get back to camp and fast! I started to run as fast as I could, the fresh air blew on my coat. I ran, I jumped to gain a few precious moments. Idiot! What did you think you were doing, leaving with such a dangerous creature? He had provoked and attacked Mantis! I had to get there in time, maybe it wasn't too late! And... and was it too late? Anger rose in me, a rage so intense, so deep, that I temporarily stopped my run. Lowering my gaze to the ground, I breathed in and out slowly. My body remained still, but my mind was buzzing with thoughts, what was I going to do to this creature if it had hurt my family?
"I would kill it! As slowly as possible!" The answer came out of itself with such coldness and insensitivity that it frightened me myself. I was not a murderer, I had rarely shed blood and it was always in self-defense, never out of... hate? Revenge? I placed my paw on my forehead, what should I do then if he had hurt them? I exhaled violently, letting out some of my dark thoughts and negative feelings. Suddenly I realized that I had stopped moving, so I started my rush to the camp even faster. I had to get there in time! I was going to arrive in time! I finally arrived in the forest from this place, I am only about three hundred meters from the camp. I could now smell something burning. As I continued to run, I worked my sense of smell to determine what exactly it was. It was the smell of wet wood, which was being consumed by flames. He had set the camp on fire! I only had a few more yards to go before I returned. Apprehension seized my mind, repeating over and over again.
May they be alive!
I hope that nothing happens to them!
Arriving a few meters away from the camp, I jumped into the air without even taking the time to look inside the camp. I landed in the middle of the camp knocking over objects and other utensils placed on the ground. Monkey jumped in the air in surprise, dropping the teapot he had in his paws. It crashed to the ground, spilling its pieces and a pastel green liquid.
"No ! You are crazy! You want to make me have a heart attack!" Slowly, catching his breath, he placed his paw on his heart and exhaled for a long time. I turned my head to my right, I realized that Crane and Mantis were also present and they were watching me with surprise. I quickly straightened up, resuming my straight and centered posture. I then placed my paws behind my back, gaining a few precious moments on what I was going to tell them. I wasn't going to tell them that I had panicked about losing them. Mantis would be happy to take care of me for the rest of my life. I scratched my throat intensely and said in a flat manner.
"Test of responsiveness and observation of your environment! And you all failed."
"You never stop working, Tigress." Monkey had his voice expressing both a hint of annoyance and also admiration.
"Everyone's safety is my priority. We don't know what this creature is really capable of." My gaze shifted to Mantis "Has he tried anything in my absence?"
"Except that he squats in the tent, Monkey's bed, and that he snores like Po. Otherwise, nothing to report." I huffed, reassured that no other accidents had occurred in my absence. Monkey started to pick up the various pieces of teapot scattered on the muddy ground. Seeing that I was watching him, Monkey stopped for a moment and began to look at me.
"Do you need anything?" Mantis had a wide smile on his lips and said in a sarcastic tone.
"I think Tigress is afraid to go alone to see the naked monkey. "My pupils suddenly narrowed. Scared! Me? I wasn't afraid of that creature! It was the truth, I was not afraid of this creature itself. Yet a fear had been building up in me since we captured it, since my extremely realistic vision of a possible tragic future. I feared it, I did not want to lose my family because of my negligence. I refocused on reality, leaving my dark musings.
"This is nonsense, Mantis!" A hint of awkward aggression found its way into my voice. He quickly calmed me down, making his claws go up and down.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Although, regarding the case of the creature, he will be liquefied with fear when he sees you enter the tent." The fear of the creature was just a facade, an acting game, and I must admit it was tremendously successful. I was sure that he was not afraid of us! But it is true that the fear was nevertheless perceptible in the air. I could feel it, but it was possible that it was done on purpose to destabilize me and attack me once I had become less vigilant.
"It's all an act! He is not afraid of us!" I replied with conviction. Crane walked over to me and pointed to Mantis with the tip of his left wing.
"Tigress, I agree with Mantis on this one. He is terrified of you, just look at how his body reacts just when you talk to him." I raised an eyebrow at his remark. Had they all fallen into his trap? Monkey, Mantis, Viper, and now even Crane thought he was scared. I had to prove them all wrong. I thought hard about what I was going to say to them to prove my point. But before I could come up with an answer, Viper's voice broke the silence.
"And he insisted that someone else pick him up in the early afternoon." Her voice was calm, soft and composed. But, I could perceive a hint of melancholy. I turned my head to the right to see Viper, who had slipped silently toward us.
"Is this true Viper?" I asked with a surprised and curious expression.
"Yes, when I saw Juulyann's reaction the time you entered the tent. I knew right away that he was terrified, scared of us and especially of you." My vision slowly blurred. What if I had made an error in judgment? No! That's impossible, I had seen the vision. It was a threat to China, to the Valley of Peace and to my family! Yet, Viper also knew of my vision, I had told her the first and second. So why did she think this thing was safe? She had assured me that with such wounds, it would not rebel in any way. I turned to her and my eyes met hers.
"If he was so terrified, why did you ask me not to tie him up?" Then reaching out a paw to Mantis "You saw what he tried to do to Mantis. You know what a terrified person can do!" Still having my eyes fixed on hers, I noticed that she lowered her vision to the ground.
"I... I'm sorry Tigress. I didn't think he would react that way to any of us. I thought that if we showed him that we had some 'trust' in him, he would be calm and reasonable. Tying him up was a high risk to me that he would rebel." She closed her eyes. "Forgive me for my carelessness and lack of foresight." I moved closer to her and lowered myself to her level, placed one of my claws under her chin, gently raising her gaze to mine. She thought she was doing the right thing by dealing with this creature in a friendly manner, I couldn't blame her for wanting to be accommodating to this thing.
"It's nothing Viper, anyone can make mistakes, the main thing is that no one got hurt!" A friendly smile of gratitude formed on her smooth face.
"Speak for yourself!" Mantis took loud offense, crossing his claws over his chest in protest. Pointing my claw at him, I continued to reassure Viper with amusement
"Except for Mantis's ego, but that's no big deal." Then turning my sight away from Viper to Mantis. I added sarcastically, "Isn't that Cockroach?" It did not take a second for Mantis to react to my joke.
"You are not going to put yourself there too!" Getting up I crossed my arms on my chest, and I addressed him always with a voice full of humor.
"You want to try a duel with me? It won't be like the other one..." Mantis laughed out loud.
"Yeah, you're clearly a hundred levels above." He turned his head towards the entrance of the tent and added with a hint of astonishment, "He's a really pitiful fighter, I've rarely seen anyone so bad. Even Po was better in his early days than him." Mantis had a point in my vision, he was a remarkable fighter, using my weaknesses to his advantage. Was he hiding his game to catch us off guard when the time came? Or was my vision wrong? This possibility disturbed me deeply because it would mean that we had treated an innocent creature unfairly. Yet many details were wrong, my first vision detailed the attack of this creature ravaging an entire village. And it had indeed happened, although I had never seen its kind before. The second one was stranger, more mystical, something had changed compared to the first one, there was clearly a third force acting and some Chi was clearly visible in its eyes as for Kai. But this Chi was different, it seemed to be very unstable, as if not under control. The interrogation will tell me, if he deigns to answer my questions.
"I will go to him to give him his evening ration." The others nodded in response, I presented to the entrance of the tent and slipped inside. I immediately noticed the body of the creature dozing on Monkey's cot, it was rolled into a ball, gaining maximum space and avoiding having its legs dangling. Lowering my gaze to the ground, I noticed that the small oil lamp was still on. Its light was beginning to flicker, its lack of energy would soon extinguish this fragile life. The more the flame struggled to survive, the more it diminished in size and intensity. Before the flame went out for good, I reached down and pulled a bottle of oil from one of the bags on the side. I fed the lamp just in time not to lose the flame. I put the bottle back in the bag and put my own bag on the floor. I started to look inside, looking for something simple to eat for this thing. I took my eyes off my bag and turned my attention back to him. His big brown eyes looked at me with great attention, this caught me off guard and I quickly stood up on my two legs. His body suddenly tensed and he sank to the bottom of the tent. What did he have in mind? I prepared myself for all eventualities. If he tried anything, I would be ready! I smelled a strong, slightly pungent odor in the air. I raised an eyebrow and a look of disgust appeared on my face, who was he? I saw his face suddenly redden, it was extremely impressive to see such a difference in color between his natural color and now he was as red as a sunset.
"Yes, I know I stink! I promise I'll take a bath. I had some... trouble." I should start my questioning in a sneaky way, trying to get as much as I could at his expense.
"What kind of trouble?" His gaze suddenly faded. After a brief moment of silence, he spoke up.
"You won't understand. I didn't do anything!" I rolled my eyes, I had been told this excuse countless times before. I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him intently.
"Always try." I replied with an air of assurance and confidence. He still hadn't deigned to look at me, I had to admit that it was beginning to annoy me slightly. He didn't answer me a word and preferred to keep silent. This was too much for me, I pointed at him with my claw and I addressed him with anger. "Enough of your comedy! What do you want to do with us? What is the advent of our existence? " His gaze straightened on me, I could see the surprise in his eyes.
"The advent of your existence? What are you talking about, I don't know what you are referring to. You have the wrong person." I growled in anger, he was clearly lying. He knew something. I had to know, but how? That's when an idea crossed my mind. It wasn't anything conventional but if Viper was right and this creature was really afraid of me, then it would work. With a quick movement I placed myself in front of him, his reaction was almost immediate. He tried in vain to back away and found himself blocked by the tent material, his breathing was heavy and he gasped heavily.
"Please don't hurt me!" I placed one of my claws near his face, his eyes fixed on it.
"So answer me. Are you responsible for the attack on Yingzou village?" His eyes left my claw for a moment to focus on me, his eyes opened wide. He stammered a few incomprehensible words, before speaking clearly and audibly.
"No! This... This is not..." I cut off his misleading words and brought my claw even closer to his face.
"Enough of the lies! What have you done with the villagers?" His body shook more and more, he collapsed on his bed, deep sobs escaped from his voice.
"I don't know! Please, get away from me." I rolled my eyes, did he think I was going to fall into his trap.
"Why so much acting, so much false angst? What exactly are you trying to do?"
"Do you really think I'm pretending to be afraid of you? You are a predator and I am prey, that should be enough of a convincing argument for you!" I raised my eyebrow, a predator? Prey? What exactly was he talking about, I had to investigate this further. I retracted my claw and moved my paw away from his face.
"What is this predator and prey thing?" He lifted his head and astonishment made its way onto his features.
"Don't you know? You're a tiger, how can you not know?" he asked me with a voice filled with both emotion and astonishment. I shrugged my shoulders in ignorance, which made him even more confused and uncertain. He focused his eyes on nothing concrete, what could he be thinking? After a brief moment of silence on his part, he turned his gaze to me.
"What are you eating?" A strange question... Why did he want to know what exactly I was eating? Was it something to do with his predator and prey story?
"Tofu, noodles, tea, fruits and some vegetables, why?" I replied with a hint of apprehension. Confusion and amazement lit up her pale face.
"Ve… Vegetables? No meat?" This question surprised me greatly, why was he asking me if I ate meat? Nobody eats meat, it would mean murdering someone and then eating their flesh, I had heard that in the very distant past such things were practiced. But nowadays, it was considered a capital crime.
"Meat? No, of course not, that would be the worst crime someone could commit!" I then remembered an event that I had blocked from my mind, too focused on the visions I had had to worry about what was for me nothing but a detail. "Is that why you said 'don't eat me' the first time we met? Did a tiger or some other 'predator' as you say, hurt you?" His body relaxed slightly, though an extremely strong tension was still present, however.
"No, not personally. I..." He lowered his head to the ground, "I'd rather not talk about it, I assure you, I am innocent of what I am accused of." He walled himself up in silence. I would have to make do with the few things I could get out of him, and I would have to wait until tomorrow to start over. Let's hope he will be a little more cooperative and stop his miserable lies. I stepped back and dipped my paw into the bag that was left on the ground.
"Very well, we will resume our discussion first thing in the morning." I took one of the clay containers out of the bag and placed it on the floor. "If you are hungry, here is your ration."
I grabbed the bag and quickly left the tent. The others were clustered around the fire and a teapot hung over it. Flames licked the underside of the object, and a fine white smoke rose from the heart of the blaze. I moved closer to them and sat next to Crane, who was tending the fire with a small wooden branch. Putting the bag aside, I tried to understand what our prisoner had just told me. Why did he think I was eating meat? Something was wrong, he was definitely not from China, but where was he from then? Beyond the mountains? But this idea was wrong, this was the territory of the Vidame. I didn't know him personally, but according to what I heard, he is a leader, an exemplary chief who takes care of his people and fights looters fiercely. It would be very surprising if such despicable practices were going on there. Then there was the Northern Territory, which was little explored and in the hands of various nomadic tribes. So it would be more likely that he came from there, but how did he cross so much distance? If I wasn't mistaken, the border to the north stopped at about eight hundred kilometers. Can one cross that much distance alone and on foot? After all, there was nothing to indicate that he was traveling alone, he may have had some bad encounters that separated him from his group and seriously injured him. The more I tried to understand, the more questions I had. He was hiding the truth from us and deliberately omitting some major elements. What was he really afraid of if not me? A dark and sinister secret, enough that he was terrified to tell us. So he was guilty, of what? I didn't know, maybe he hadn't attacked the village. I'll make sure I dig deep and hard enough to break him down and make him confess his faults. I was looking forward to tomorrow.
A new chapter that ends today, I hope to have well managed the feelings of my characters without it falling into caricature or preposterous. Tell me your point of view, your ideas and even your advice in the comments, I read them all and answer them all. So about the sentence "May Chéngwéi be with you" it's an invention, I don't think it exists in reality. Chéngwéi literally means 'to become' . It is used as a polite greeting, a bit like 'good luck' or 'peace be with you' or if I want to make a little movie reference 'may the force be with you'. Next week, change of perspective, I think it's time to go and see what the future threats have in store for us, wink, wink. See you next week for new adventures, always further, always higher and always stronger. This was Noxymilien at the end of the transmission.