Chapter 15

Curious Night

For the past three days our little group had spent time recuperating. We awoke the first morning to steaming bowls of the pure-white she wolf's soup in our wings. After downing the contents of the bowls and gulping down water Sariah had brought up from the spring, she had set to work on cleaning our wounds. Genji and Bo-Chen only had a few scrapes and bruises, and burns; the wolves had tortured the poor teens. I had made a solemn vow to myself to never EVER resort to such a heinous crime again in my life. It was just too wrong.

Then Sariah moved on to me and my ruined carcass. There was really nothing besides my poor left side. After cleaning out all of the dirt and grime we had discovered that my shoulder, thank sparks, was not completely broken. It was torn up pretty bad; as in most of the skin and feathers were gone, and in some places we had been able to see the barely cracked bone.

"Sheesh! That looks a bit ugly." Sariah had commented after Genji looked at it and fainted. After setting Bo-Chen to the task of waking him up, she had grabbed a hooked needle, and some thread she had acquired (through secret means, she told us with a wink), and stitched me right up.

Now I was feeling pretty dang good. Sariah had allowed me to flex the muscles and move my wing around a little so the joints didn't get stiff. Although she had told me that I would not be able to fly until weeks end. Even then it would depend on how well the stitches did their job.

Our unexpected savior had turned out to be a very helpful creature. She knew all about medicine and healing; in that respect, Sariah reminded me of the Soothsayer. Her wisdom of which herbs were needed, where, and knowledge of anatomy had come in very handy. Besides that she was a great cook, a wonderful survivalist, and an overall shining presence deep down in those stone catacombs.

There was not a single time on our trek through the winding labyrinth that she was down. Always moving and always lighting the way; that was this slivery canine. It also appeared that she didn't sleep very well because of all her energy. Several nights I had woken up to the sound of her pacing, but tonight I was going to ask her about it.

"Let's see. We have passed these three tunnels and they have all been sealed off. This one here we'll check tomorrow and…" She was mumbling to herself and drawing on the cave floor with a charred stick.

"Sariah? Are you alright?" I had gently laid Bo-Chen's head on her shoulders and stood to talk to the she wolf. The little golden peahen hadn't stirred, but fluffed her feathers and snuggled down again with a sigh.

"Oh Shen!" She jumped when my Steel Talons clicked on the floor. "Yes I'm fine."

"And for some odd reason I don't believe you." I smiled and looked at her map. It looked like a bunch of scribbled lines, and only made my head spin, so I looked back to her white face.

"Why wouldn't you?" She looked at me with glazed over icy blue eyes and a calm smile on her lips. "I've never been able to sleep well. I was born to be a hunter, where I could use all of my energy hunting during the day, and really sleeping at night. A feeling of accomplishment wrapped around my shoulders."

"Hmm. Sounds like the heavens had different plan for you." I stroked my whiskers thoughtfully. "The same has happened to me." I chuckled. Then a spectacular idea hit me like a ton of bricks. The whole cave seemed to get brighter as I turned back to my snowy companion. "I have an offer for you, Sariah."

"Yeah?" She shook her long white fur and stood.

"Would you be willing to come back to Gongmen City with me?" I sat across from her and locked my eyes with hers. She looked surprised.

"Well, I don't know… I've never been a city-type dog…" Sariah hesitated.

"Here's my offer. Lien and I are working on rebuilding our army, as we basically have none right now. We need a general. We need a spark like you, with boundless energy and an iron will to get us started." I explained.

"You have my full attention now." She said eagerly with her soft ears pricked forward and a gleam in her eyes.

"Lien and I would do it ourselves, but there is just so much that we must take care of before we can stop and think about armed forces." I explained.

"Your coronation for one, and your wedding for two." Sariah punched my wing lightly.

"Well yes, but we have to think about the protection of our people before all of that." I was blushing a bit and pushed any tender feelings away from my mind, for the moment, so I didn't break down. "What if an army came over the mountains to invade us right now? We would have no way to protect our people."

"Aww, don't think about that." The huge white she wolf chided. "Thinking dark thoughts only brings bad things." I could feel her trying to change the subject.

"What do you say? Will you be our general?" I asked before she could.

"I don't know. I've lived in these caves for so long… I haven't even seen any creatures, or sunlight for that matter, until now." This would be the only time I had ever seen Sariah seem unsure. Even going through the tunnels she never second guessed her direction, but now she was a touch different.

"I'll let you think it over." I told her and stood. "Just don't forget about it." Then I thought for a moment after she sighed sadly. "I know Lien would love to meet you." I knew my lotus would. Those two would get along so well, I could just see it.

Sariah laughed and lay down. "What?" I asked

"Tell me about her. You've put it off long enough." Sariah teased. She had been incredibly curious about Lien when I had first mentioned her, but I had been a bit timid about talking in detail about my fiancé until now.

I half laughed and smiled. "What do you want to know?" It was a vulnerable question, but I trusted Sariah.

"How did you meet exactly? That's how a good story always starts." She snuggled down and looked up at me sleepily.

"Ha. I remember it like it was yesterday." I sighed and felt my mind take me back in time. "I was a ripe young peacock, about sixteen, when one day my mother told me that she would be going out that afternoon to bring a new maid to the palace. I didn't really care until she told me that she wanted me to be there, when she returned, to meet the new addition to the staff.

"I had purposefully planned on being absent from anyplace near the palace when she returned and went to talk to my friends in the wolf barracks. Lang, a guard-in-training, and I were always sparring and teaching each other all of the things we were being taught in our separate lessons. That day we ended up doing nothing but spar with each other for hours. What we didn't realize was how long we stayed in the garden."

"Uh-oh." Sariah moaned with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Yeah." I laughed nostalgically. "I remember the exact look on Lang's face when my mother called to us. 'Shen! I'm back!' My mothers' strong voice had drifted over the gardens to our ears and we had instantly frozen. I remember I had been in midair, trying out a new maneuver, when the voice hit me. Because of my wings being in their awestruck state, I had ended up face down in the dirt when my mother made her way over to us.

"'Shen? What are you doing?' Her brown eyes had a concerned look in them when I stood and brushed off my robe and feathers. I had tried to explain that I was training, but Lang was long gone. The queen had just laughed at me, but there was a light giggle that came from behind her that really caught my attention.

"'This is the new maid I told you about my son,' I remember my mothers' words and actions so well." I explained trying to show my listener, so she would understand. "She had her tail spread, but when she mentioned the maid she lowered it." I showed the she wolf and she nodded.

"And there, standing behind the curtain of feathers was the most beautiful peahen I had ever seen in my life. I don't remember my beak falling open, but Lien tells me it did. 'This is Lien-Hua. Her father is the late Master He-Lei form the Jade Palace.' After that I heard nothing of what my mother said. Lien seemed to glow as flower petals from the cherry tree we stood under drifted around her sleek frame."

"Wow! You two really had it going since all those years ago. I heard rumors but I never believed it after seeing a village you, well Lord Shen, destroyed." Sariah sat up to comment.

"We really did. But you didn't let me finish." I smiled at her and she stuffed her fluffy tail in her mouth so as to not interrupt me again. I chuckled. "So after my mother smacked my upside the head to get me out of my stupor, Lien introduced herself and bowed to me in the way that maids were supposed to; a deep bow at the waist, so her pretty beak almost touched the ground, right leg pointed forward, the same wing across her chest, and her tail fanned as a showing of respect." I demonstrated again.

"'The pleasure is all mine.' I had replied after taking her wing in mine and kissing it as I would to a regal hen. 'As you know I am Prince Shen, and I guarantee this is not the last we'll be seeing of each other.' I told Lien after snagging a flower from behind me and giving it to her. Then I had mimicked her deep bow as she held it up to her beak and batted her sparkling blue eyes at me.

"Throughout this whole display my mother had beamed as though she knew this was going to happen. Seems the crazy old hen knew what she was doing." I laughed as I looked up to see Sariah's eyes become round, and a childish look came to her face as she raised her paw to gain permission to speak. "Yes?"

"That was beautiful!" She sighed after spitting out the last tufts of her tail.

"Thank you." I looked over my shoulder to see Bo-Chen shivering on the stone floor. "I had better go to sleep now though." I tilted my head to the little hen.

"Right." Sariah winked. "I'm glad you were able to have such a wonderful partner in life." Then she snuggled down into her long fur. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Night." I murmured as I wrapped my wing around Lien's little sister and she stopped shivering.

"Night."

Far above our sleeping friends' heads; a numerous pack of enormous black wolves were making their way over the mountain. Within their black pelts one could see a group of white furred dogs; merely thirty of the former great Snow Pack that ruled this side of the mountains. They were trapped, held prisoner in their own hunting lands buy this group of wolves that claimed they found the long lost alpha female Sariah.

"Why do you believe them?" A young male hissed to the alpha female. "We all know that Sariah is dead."

"Don't speak so. There is always a chance that she survived all of these years, and we need her back." A beta female growled at the impudent male. "Look a Talon and Chase. They are getting too old to defend us anymore." She tilted her head to the battered looking alpha pair. Both were limping and walked with their heads down.

"Exactly why we need to appoint a new leader now! Not wait for a rebel she wolf who probably couldn't help us if she really is still alive." He replied. The beta female growled deep in her throat and the fur on her neck stood on end.

"Our alphas have never steered us wrong! You have no right to speak out in such a way!" She tensed to jump on the stupid pup but a large black paw came out of nowhere and caught her across the face. She yelped and backed into the protection of her pack to lick the wounds.

"I told you all I wanted silence, and I will get silence. Even if I have to kill every one of you to get it." The alpha male of the Black Moon Pack growled to his captives.

"If you want to even touch one of my pack again, you'll go through me." Talon, the Snow Pack's alpha male bristled and growled in the other males' face.

"Talon, your pack is broken." The black male laughed. "The ones that aren't dead are only warring amongst themselves. Soon there will be nothing left of the former Snow Pack and we," He gestured to his pack which had stopped to watch this display, "Will rule these mountains, and the entirety of the Gongmen province."

"You will never be able to take the city. The peacocks have a great army; you cannot compete with them." Talon countered.

"Ah, you naïve little snowflake." The jet black male chuckled. "The peacocks of old had a great army. But since Lord Shen was driven out, and took most of their military with him, they've had none. The city is completely un-protected. Gongmen City is mine for the taking." Talon deflated and stepped back.

"Why? Why would you attack those innocent creatures? They've done nothing to wrong you." Chase stepped up next to her mate to speak.

"No, but their city will make me the most powerful alpha male in all of China. If they must die for me to get what I deserve, then they will die. Gongmen will be mine."

Sorry these past two chapters have been a little slow but the action is about to reach out and grab you. And it's gona be good mind you! XD