Wishing she had pom poms, Mimi waves her hands enthusiastically as she watches her sisters learn to kick ass. It was near the end of the lesson, and she could tell the children were getting tired.
"Whooo! Go cubs!" she shouts from the sidelines.
The grass is still saturated with dew, but she doesn't care. The kids were running drills. Smacking at wooden targets that to her crudely resembled a possible ghost, guest, or temple dog.
"Why do you call them cubs?"
Mimi jumps, having not noticed the clan leader sneak up on her from behind.
"If you haven't seen them pout like little puppies, you soon will clan leader," Mimi adjusts her skirts, making sure her fox tails were securely hidden.
"Is that so?" he asks, and Mimi can't help liking this teasing side of the clan leader.
"What else would it be clan leader?" she looks up at him, grinning mischievously.
He sits down beside her, "How are you feeling today?"
"I am well," Mimi watches Chen take off a bit of a target with her fist.
He raises an eyebrow at her until Mimi says, "Still sore, but I do feel good."
"I thought. Since you are here and obviously have some background in fighting styles, I was wondering if you could maybe help with a demonstration," Lan Xichen holds his hand out to her, and she hesitantly accepts.
"What do you need help with?" Mimi asks, curious despite herself.
"Could you help me do an introduction to elemental magic? Most spirits operate in this method, and I believe it would be beneficial if the children can see how to combat it successfully in the field," Lan Xichen smiles at her hopefully.
Well, you have come to the right person, Mimi thinks, her tails flicking behind her, eager to show off.
"Alright, what would you like to see?" Mimi asks, taking off her camisole.
"I am curious about the properties of your fire. It resides in your spiritual device?" the clan leader looks down at her claws in fascination.
"It's a family trick," Mimi grins, "You may see Chen and Dumplin displaying it bit by bit."
His eyebrows rise as he looks over his shoulder at her sisters. The girls were smacking at the target with more ferocity than the boys.
"Will you show me?" he asks.
Mimi summons a ball of foxfire and holds it in her hands before him. The green fire moves toward the clan leader with eagerness. Showing off a little, she summons a couple more balls of fire and allows them to float around him.
"Fascinating," he looks to her for permission before touching the flames.
The flames tickle his fingers and playfully lurches up to his arm. To his credit, the clan leader does not flinch as green fire coquettishly moves towards his face.
"Perhaps we could practice and do a demo sometime this week?" he suggests, and Mimi finds herself nodding.
"That sounds good," Mimi watches the nervousness disappear from the clan leader's face.
The foxfire disappears as Lord Qiren moves towards the cultivation fields. His eyes approvingly drift between the couple.
"Do not let me interrupt," Lord Qiren nods at the children, "I was merely curious to see the progress of our new disciples."
Mimi raises an eyebrow at the word 'disciple' but does not comment.
"The young Shen's are doing quite well."
One of the targets is thrown back several feet behind the clan leader, and eyes widening, Lord Qiren looks behind his nephew to see Chen high fiving Lan Jingyi as she trots to the back of the line.
"Indeed," Lord Qiren turns to Lady Shen as she summons back the target for the children to continue practicing on.
"I am incredibly pleased with their progress," Mimi beams as the kids wave at her from across the field, "I am glad they are making friends here."
"Normally, we prefer the girls and boys to be trained separately," Lord Qiren says gruffly, "but we have so few disciples here it wouldn't be efficient."
"I have just asked the Lady Shen to help with a demo of elemental of magic, and she has agreed," Lan Xichen brags to his uncle.
The former clan leader looks over his nephew appraisingly, "This is an excellent opportunity. I heard of the outcome of the duel and would not have thought it possible if the words were not directly from my nephews."
Mimi peeks over at the clan leader, whose ears were looking a little red.
"I will do my best to assist the Gusu clan in any way I can, Lord Qiren," Mimi says, and Lan Xichen steps closer to her.
Lord Qiren nods approvingly and walks away towards the offices.
Feeling a tug on her skirts, Mimi looks down and sees Dumplin grinning at her, "Hey cub, did you have fun?"
"Did you see it? Chen hit the target so hard it flew back!"
"I did," Mimi crouches down and hugs her sister to her, "You guys are getting so strong! I am so proud of you both!"
"How did you get the earth to move to imprison Master Wei?" Mimi looks over to see Lan Sizhui staring at her eagerly.
"How did you put him in a cage of fire?" Lan Jingyi asks, pressing her from the other side.
Chen suddenly flashes in front of Mimi and puts her hands out, "Hey, this is my eldest sister, get your own!"
Mimi places a hand on her sister's shoulder, "Cub, be nice. They are just asking questions," but she plants a kiss on the top of her head.
"Perhaps I should give a short demonstration?" Mimi looks over at the clan leader for permission, and he nods.
Taking off her shoes and socks. Mimi steps to the middle of the field and stretches her arms over her head. She realizes the clan leader has followed her.
"Would you like a volunteer, or should I fetch Master Wei?" he teases.
"You will do just fine," Mimi smirks before turning to the children and brandishing her claws.
"Now, what I am about to show you is not something I can necessarily teach. This spiritual item that I wear allows me to use elemental magic and gives me more strength than average. So, don't be disappointed if you try to do something, and it does not work."
"Haven't you said that most magic is about intent?" Dumplin asks.
"Very good, cub," Mimi praises, ruffling Dumplin's hair with her claws.
"I'm sure as your clan leader has taught you that performing magic of any cultivation, there must be a source of intent that must be drawn upon to form a barrier, attack, protect, or any numerous things you can do. Let us start with Lan Sizhui's question. Now, this was a combination of creating sigils and elemental magic."
Mimi raises her skirts to display her bare feet.
"This is quite effective for ladies with long skirts who can hide what they are doing," Mimi snorts. "But, and Chen and Dumplin already know this, if you are in a situation where you cannot use your hands for any number of reasons, sometimes thinking outside the box can be a matter of life and death. Since it took me quite a while to learn magic with my claws, I also learned how to make sigils with my feet."
"You made the sigils with your feet?" Lan Sizhui makes a delighted sound that is echoed by Lan Jingyi.
Grinning like a small child that has just shared an incredibly juicy secret, Mimi peeks over at the clan leader, who appeared to be fighting his own laughter with great restraint.
"I am going to show you in slow motion, and then I will do a full demonstration."
Pushing back on her heels and allowing a couple of her tails to support her, Mimi uses her toes to trace the sigils slowly simultaneously in the ground but does not apply her magic yet. She also does not use her tails to trace the sigils as she had done with Master Wei.
"Now, here it is at full speed," Mimi watches the children's faces as her toes quickly trace the sigils over and over into the ground at a rapid pace.
Mimi drops her skirts and faces the clan leader, "Alright, now if you watch the ground beneath the clan leader. You will see the rift in the ground will look like the sigils I just traced in front of you."
Striking without warning, the clan leader is sucked into the ground to his knees. Mimi trots over and pulls him out with a Cheshire cat grin on her face.
"I am glad you decided not to pull me all the way in," Lan Xichen says, incredibly serene for someone who had just been dragged into the ground by someone using only her toes.
"How was that?" Mimi chuckles softly.
The clan leader let out a round of chuckles that seem to stun the young cultivators, "I can't believe you defeated a well-known dark cultivator with your toes."
She shrugs cheekily and turns back to the children, "So, regarding Lan Jingyi's question. How did I cage Master Wei?"
"This is a little bit trickier to understand," Mimi raises her hand and summons a ball of foxfire.
"When I imprisoned Master Wei and destroyed all of his ghosts, I combined two elements," Mimi looks at the confused expressions of the young cultivators and the clan leader.
"Why don't I demonstrate."
Reaching above her head, Mimi stands on her tiptoes and "grabs" the air. Utilizing her upper arm strength from years of aerial performing and practice, Mimi pulls herself up until she is floating nearly a foot off the ground. Due to her skirts' length, she kicks her feet out to demonstrate that she is no longer touching the ground. Trying to show off a little for the clan leader, Mimi does a slow flip in the air before resuming her original position.
"I am utilizing the element of air to keep myself afloat, but let there be no mistake that I am weightless. This is a power struggle between my body and the earth trying to pull me down," Mimi drops to the ground with a soft thud, and the young cultivators applaud.
"Cub," Mimi beckons to Chen, "can I have your assistance for a moment?"
Chen excitedly joins her sister, standing beside her.
"By now, most of you already know that I can summon fire with my claws. But actually, this is a trick that the Shen clan has cultivated over the years. Fire is in our bloodline, you could say. Cub if you will," Mimi steps to the side and ruffles Dumplin's hair.
With a look of concentration, Chen summons a ball of foxfire within the palm of her hand. Lan Xichen sucks in a breath.
"Can you make it a little bit larger cub?" Mimi asks, stepping closer, already casting a protection barrier around the group.
Opening her hands a little more, Chen increases the size of the fire within her palms. The young cultivators gawk.
"Alright, cub, hold it," Mimi watches with pride as Chen backs away from the foxfire, holding it aloft with her mind.
"So now I am going to combine the two elements of air and fire," Mimi adjusts her pose and grabs at the air with her claws, siphoning the air through the center of the foxfire, making it grow in size until it resembles a miniature cyclone. Mimi then adds her own foxfire, bending it to create a small duplicate of the cage she had put Master Wei in.
Mimi gradually extinguishes the air and nods to Chen, who collapses her foxfire.
"Do you have any more questions?" Mimi asks.
Mimi and her sisters' wave at the young cultivators as they leave the cultivation field. Dumplin and Chen chase each other around the area in a strange game of tag.
"You do realize that the young ones will never leave you alone now," the clan leader follows her gaze and smiles as Chen tackles Dumplin to the ground.
"Why do you say that?" Mimi stretches her legs out on the grass.
"Curiosity," the clan leader sits next to her.
"They are very sweet," Mimi thinks of the flowers Lan Sizhui had given her on their first day.
"I did not realize that you were serious when you said the fire was an inherited quality," the clan leader winces as Chen summons a large ball of fire and throws it at her sister.
Shrugging, Mimi hollers, "Chen, if you burn anything, you will be responsible for fixing it!"
"Sorry, Mimi," Chen shouts back, and the fire disappears.
"She can control it really well now," Mimi brags, "or else I would have mentioned it as a warning and given you a bucket of water and a ladle."
Wincing at the idea of following around a flaming child with a water bucket, the clan leader chuckles, "What of the youngest Shen?"
"I don't know," Mimi says thoughtfully, "Sometimes it skips a generation. But if I am teaching Chen, I always make sure that Dumplin absorbs the same information. It is still good to be knowledgeable."
Lan Xichen nods, "That is very true. The world is not contained to Cloud Recesses."