Volume Four: Snow and Fire

Chapter V

Long Days

June 7, 1211

This palace was his home now, and the yak, once known as the former Supreme Warlord of all China, who saved the whole country from the evil specter, lived happily to experience what he had been missing after all the wasted years of insanity and hatred in the isolation of the Spirit Realm. He found his soul purpose after dissipating the creature to a thousand crumbles; by the time the giant lived with his teacher's temple - the Shui Palace - Kai believed he could change his way rather than live in the past. And the giant was no stranger to living in the small town village as Chen Xing's disciple and a farmer.

In his early days before he entered the war, his adoptive mother, Chen Wing - Chen Ming and Chen Xing's ancestor - was the closest being he ever had a parent of his own. She sought compassion, resilience, and determination in her mighty student. Chen Wing was not only the Wing Chun warrior who passed the generations of her ancestor - Mui Tan Huang, the survivor of Qing Temple - to continue the legacy, but she was also the farmer herself. After being self-taught, Chen Wing educated her loving son on how to harvest sort of vegetables and feed the seeds with water across the vineyard. The start of a farming daily was bitter, but in the end, Kai loved what he could do to help Chen Wing.

From the eastern terrain's tower mountains of Guangxi, the crepuscular lights of the morning bathed with tan cheese, stroking the emerald trees beyond the reach and the near. The tower bell at the southern ridge rang with low buzzes, and the Nine of Prosper Valley opened their chamber doors. All students, including him and their wolf pupil, Wolf Boss, stood outside and followed their leader towards the Dining Room.

After serving their breakfast meals, which came with steamed rice dumplings and cold water, Kai and Wolf Boss began warming up their physical strengths, pumping their muscles when performing push-ups, more than a hundred and above, until their flesh screamed itself in pain. Kai was not bothered at all, but his teammate, Wolf Boss, burst out his rough chuckles as warm sweat drenched his blue-gray fur under his neck and armpits; the sensation of the wolf's muscles burning in his core triggered further, improving his limb's strengths. His old age depended on his, as the two soldiers regarded the young burn their cores faster than the old.

Bathing in the pool with turns of two members each cleansed out their sweat and lessened the heat's tension, washing themselves with cold water. The cold relieved the muscles as they highly suggested to aid their physical bodies. The Nine's Master, Chen Ming, was an expert in nursing most of her clients as a low-class physician. Dressing in their burlaps and the females in their underpants and torso wraps, the Nine of Prosper Valley met the old feline master outside the Fighting Square. Her billowing hanfu robe in saturated cobalt ao and faded silver skirt under the fabric showed her pride and admiration ahead of her students. Master Chen Ming, buzzing her throat clearance, attended her bold voice to the Nine.

"This Summer, my students, the air floods with the dragon's breaths, and we are sensing the fire from the scorching sun," the old feline said. "Sunzi. Lotus. Escort your students to the lake waterfall. You all have trained well in my presence, and it is time for you all to enjoy the break this weekend."

Kai could see his teacher and the giant ape nudging their fists as Xing motioned his gestures ahead of Bao. "Bao, swim?"

The gorilla tapped his chest and swirled his hands to a gliding stroke. "Bao, swim."

"Alright, buddy," the tiger simpered. "You need some lessons with Fanshe. Let's get going!"

Kai wore his loincloth with a green belt as he began to stroll with Wolf Boss across the northern ridges from Lady Xia's cabin to the uneven hills of bamboo forest, following the Nine. From his perspective, during the war days, the soldiers required their baths during the long days when their stenches and sweat dominated their bodies. Kai was one, and so did his tortoise brother, Oogway. The last time he used to bathe with him was at the time they made their long recovery from a terrible battle they lost. The Generals were in the sacred village where Panda Monks treated them well with their needs before the warlords could depart and return to their battle stations. But that never happened after all. Despite long recoveries that had occurred to progress in healing their strengths, Oogway and Kai were the first immersed under the river lake, and neither of them spoke of their losses or regarded questioning the following strategies to maintain the priorities into winning another battle.

The war was over in the end; neither side won, but the tragedies surged the floods with fires, bloodshed, and losses imprinted to all the survivors and legends.

Almost arriving at the fun place, Kai and Zhong glanced at the wolf Lotus nudging her paw at her feline brother before licking at his cheek, influencing Chen Xing to nudge his claw back at her. Her potent shove made him almost trip to one side, had him gasping and attempting to chase her on fours, laughing as Lotus sprinted. The rush of water showering nearby hammered the lake with powerful forces, and before their eyes was the majestic sighting from the Nine's experience.

The lake waterfall was where Kai fell with his emerald knives linked with metal chains.

Chen Xing delivered his spring with a thunderous roar above Lotus and took his long dive with a clean incline. Lotus heightened her howl at the nearest bank and plunged, and all three members, Hong, Fanshe, and Bao, waded into the nearest ground before the deep. Kai and Zhong were the last ones on the water around their belly height before showering themselves at the fall. From both perspectives, reflecting the water had one and the other imagined what it was like to be soothed.

Unlike his time serving with his peacock brother — his former leader, Wolf Boss had joined his fellow brothers in the snowy mountain areas, immersing himself in the hot spring. The one in charge of most of the wolves living in the ice palace who recovered themselves from Shen's abomination was Master Wolf. A snow canine, the friend of Mali the Soothsayer and Grandmaster Oogway's colleague, reached out to the injured wolf who nearly died of losing all his blood in Gongmen City; by day and most of the weekends, the elder wolf inspected Zhong's critical wounds as Mali and the twin wolves changed his bandage wraps, depended on Zhong's severity wounds on daily usage. After more than three months of rehabilitation, fighting off his wounds for his dear life, Zhong thought about one that his destiny served his purpose, regarding the voice from the Universe that reminded him of his second chance to live for: his daughter, Lotus.

Experienced bathing in the hot spring was vivid to Wolf Boss; warm heals immersed his lungs as his blood flow circulated over his body, reducing his pain while the hot water recovered his wounds — the best rehab Zhong could ever feel with his wolf brothers and sisters.

The giant, washing his long mane under the summer rain, dug in his thoughts that struck in his heart, remembering most of the memories of him and whoever encouraged him. At eight years old, Chen Wing invited her yak son to the nearest lake as she discovered what he initially feared: water. Never thought that ripples were a blessing to listen to, Kai regarded his mother's wisdom to enhance his strength. Overcoming the fear of the unknown is the key to defeating your apprehension. After dipping in the water, Young Kai was supported by his mother's arms when swimming together. With attempts to swim back and forth for about nine laps alone, Kai conquered his fear. Kai alone could tread water for half an hour, and with such improvements from his strengths, he could go beyond more than an hour and more, building his muscles.

After giving his three weeks off after his twentieth battle, Kai returned to his old home with his bovine mate, Wugu, and their comrades Oogway, the leopard Zhanshe, and the peacock Lord Li Han. The yak rarely spent time being a father with his loving children, his firstborn Zhankai, and his adoptive tiger son, Dakai. The boys looked after their grandmother while their bovine parents served in the war, fighting off tyrants and assailers in various battles. Knowing Wugu craved for her mate to educate their sons for Chen Wing's wish, Kai put his effort into entertaining Dakai and Zhankai, and every second of his way of bonding was worth loving them. Returning to the lake where his adoptive mother taught him, Kai threw his sons in the water before plunging himself in with them.

Neither of his sons was afraid of the water, and Kai, teaching them to tread water and motion forward with front crawls, rewarded the boys with pride for Dakai and Zhankai overcoming their fears and learning to survive.

Down to the depths, cast with a thousand light cracks beneath the ripples, floating under with his flowy mane, Kai opened his eyes and grinned, thinking of his happy times in the past. Before his sight was his amber necklace hovering ahead, the light of rose-pink pulsations radiating as the form itself in a billowing hanfu was his wife, dancing with her husband.

Returning to the surface with his long gasp for air, Kai hovered his breaststroke before he saw the gorilla attempting his backstrokes with the cobra Fanshe and the bunny Hong near the water bank. Observing the other when turning to the fall was his teacher showering under the water. He followed the tiger's gaze to Kai's right and contemplated what the yak recalled about Xing's grandmother, mentioning her grandson's desperation and the compelling needs of his father. With a familiar conversation with his dear brother Oogway in the Spirit Realm, the tortoise granted his brother to share his acquaintance with Chen Xing after his discovery.

Under the heavenly showers, Chen Xing washed off his arms while surveying his healed cuts, and wolf barks of exhilaration heightened close, drawing the tiger's sight where his sister circled with her father on fours at the bank.

"Oh, I'm gonna get you!" Wolf Boss laughed, springing his paws with delight. "Here comes your daddy!"

"Ah!" Lotus giggled before Zhong tackled her with swiftness. With casual wrestling, Lotus guffawed, her father storming his head towards her belly and bursting his raspberry air, her love belly triggering her happy cries.

"That tickles, Daddy!"

Wolf Boss simpered and tendered himself to free his daughter. "In all my heart, I want you to know that I love you, Lotus. I always love you," he admitted, palming his paws over hers. "I never forget your face when I was away. I thought of one thing that strengthened me more, even when I became stubborn and hurt. Would you like to know how I kept myself going, thinking of someone special who gives me a second chance?"

Me, Lotus stretched ger grin with glee.

"You, my daughter," Wolf Boss said. "I always wanted to have a family to be together. And here we both are, reunited in one piece. I want you to remember that I deserve to be with my only daughter, and you deserve to be so loved by your daddy. You, Xing, and the Nine. I am here with you."

"I love you, Dad," Lotus hugged him.

Wolf Boss embraced back to her. "I love you too, Lotus."

The waterfall deafened the tiger's ears as he could not hear their words but sighted him. For his longing moment, Chen Xing yearned for a parent he always wanted after his father's demise in their old village. His heart went wrenching; seeing his sister hugging Zhong brought the tiger to shut his eyes from his tears escaping. Hearing the ripples rushing caught him off guard as he wept his tears off, and farther away from him was the yak's sharp horns immersing, not realizing that the tiger was being watched. Instead of his thoughts merging to jealousy for his attention, Xing dove and washed away his agony mind, feeding the surroundings with dull water slams and quiet streams.

On the night, swarmed the horizon with a twilight haze of dark blue streams with a million sparkles, Chen Xing had been scrutinizing a scroll from the light-azure shell he brought out from his chamber. For now, he was into Li Han's rare premonitions of witnessing his visions. A few victims like Xing and those who survived the black bear's void water could see the mysterious scenery pieces into confusion regarding which parts of the illusions were authentic. The tiger had given his thoughts about his paintings, which he initially conversed with his grandmother's old companion Gidahn, who mentioned his mother's grandmother about the name of the illusion sightseeings - the Ascendant Vortex.

Each soul sighted one scene and another towards the endless misery and suffering, dragging most of the victims towards insanity. Neither was insane, but those around them undeniably regarded harder to convince what visions meant. As Chen Xing met a victim, the boar bandit was traumatized to repeating his words; a thought of confusion before discovering two words, Xing saw the emerald quill from the porcupine zombie and the mirror ball from the middle of the cold desert with a frozen lake, inside the Mongolian yurt.

Lim saw those things — Quill and ball. He was not crazy. I hope Niu and I are not.

The tiger had his private conversation with his bovine brother, who he and his father, Master Storming Ox, were the black bear's victims. After training at the Tower of Holy Flames's courtyard, Niu painted all five paintings, which he rarely saw in random episodes, without notifying his father or his reptile uncle, Master Croc. Neither the Nine nor Masters of Gongmen knew about Niu's conditions except Xing. The only solution for the giant's son not to continue his path of strange occurrences to sensing the oddity of those illusions, Niu submitted his paintings to Chen Xing, his trusted friend, and brother, to put those in the archives here within the Shui Palace, hidden inside Chen Xing's chamber.

Beside the Dining Room's door knocked thrice with a friendly presence, and the one-eyed wolf in his dark silver top with black burlap trousers entered, inviting the stretch of his grin.

"Hey," Chen Xing simpered, his digit nudging his glasses.

"How's my big guy doing?" Wolf Boss tapped his fist on the tiger's upper right shoulder.

"Nothing much. I'm quite bored, so I started reading a scroll."

"So I see," the wolf determined, drumming his rich throat as he approached closer and caught reading Li Han's haunted writing strokes. "What do you know of this volume, Xing?"

"It's complicated," the tiger answered with his honest tone. "There was the reason the peacock lord had illusions in the first place. However, the inception of his minor episode remains lost and unknown. Lord Li Han studied what he contemplated with a few clients who saw what they saw."

"Like what?" Zhong asked, quite determined but concerned.

"Visions," Xing answered.

At first, the Wolf Boss usually regarded curiosity when his daughter mentioned the tiger's odd sensation - the dizziness episode that had Xing triggered his mind into forcing himself to paint the scenery and a subject, similar to remembering a few bits of the dream sequence before the rest could fade away.

"This question might be strange for me to say, at least," Chen Xing spoke, adjusting the volume scroll. "Does anyone you know ever catch a glimpse of those hallucinations?"

The wolf's soft grunt under his throat answered. "Not that I know of, Xing," Zhong shook. "Lotus and your grandmother spoke to me about you, the way you must decipher those... whatever you saw those things."

"So far, I haven't deciphered anything at all," Xing said. "The trails were thin — nothing for me to crack some answers. But I remember one - maybe two."

"You have been studying too hard, boy," Wolf Boss figured. "Have you been resting well for the past few weeks?"

"I may have, but my sleeping schedule is edgy."

"Try not to continue pushing your limits to yourself, Xing," Zhong advised. "As I see you getting a little agitated, at least you can study another time rather than staying up late."

"Yikes," the tiger checked his surroundings and discovered the night overwhelmed with faded creaks and grasshopper wheezes buzzing across the Shui Palace and the Fighting Square. "All of you guys went to bed?"

"Everybody else."

The tiger's harsh throat quivered to comprehension. "Okay. I'm just about to finish the volume, about two rolls before I can go to bed."

"Hmm. I had seen plenty of my soldiers who did their night watch about every hour before the others volunteered to look after the pack," Wolf Boss embarked, sitting next to the tiger. "Most had trouble resting; their efforts that recruits and experienced fighters would not want to force their time on staying awake. But yes, every three hours, one wolf took turns at night when a few of us patrolled into the forest."

Zhong had his eye resting his glance on Xing. "It's when I was in Shen's army."

Chen Xing comprehended the wolf's words well and continued leveling his sight on him as Zhong spoke more. "Your eyes looked like one of my twin soldiers, who was the one who stayed up for more than five days," Wolf Boss said. "Every day, neither of us appeared in the dark, but the other soldier was stubborn, forcing his act to keep his duty at night without rest. Then guess what happened."

"He crashed himself," the tiger answered.

"Yeah," Zhong crossed his paws. "As I said, you would not want to force your time to stay awake. Don't be that guy I knew who refused to sleep."

Buzzing his throat for consideration, Xing thought of his schedule more than ever. "Anyway. You often do your studies in the evenings?" Wolf Boss asked.

"Not always," Xing replied. "Unless there's something crucial from Nana or odd sensations from my drawings to reveal, I would have."

"Okay," Wolf Boss patted the tiger's back. "You have a good night, son. Don't sleep too late."

"Okay, Baba. Good night."

Seeing the smile from his wolf dad progressed the tiger's acceptance as Xing could see how he wanted one to bring his attention, developing the idea of learning the father's ways.

Two rolls to go — Let's see how close I can finish reading it.

The tiger's sense drifted toward nothingness, but later, he bent his head against his forearms, which supported him for comfort. He knew this day was longer than other responsibilities to handle by his time in kung fu, the village, and his students. Chen Xing could not remember how long he stayed in the Nine's Meeting Room for hours, reading into Li Han's last scroll to discern the following cause and effect by preventing another illusion. Every inch of his muscles refused to move once midnight came.

Amid his subconsciousness, his body drifted across the sea of violet and pink horizon, floating behind the ripples. A fancy dream, perhaps, but Xing had never been so peaceful in his sleep that he faced so many dreams that haunted him for quite his dear life. He was brave enough to forget what he saw most of the disturbances. The only worst ones were the fires that cloaked him, the fires flickering with his parents' screams, and the fires that seared his scar in Gongmen City.

When sinking under the ripples, something stiff fiddled the tiger's back and the other bore behind his legs. His body soared into warm surroundings, meeting rough furs and silky strands. In the trance, before his eyes, were the faded pulsations of rose and light blue hovering close to him. Behind his skull met a soft silk cushion, reminding him he was a small child cradled in one's arm. Near the boy was his brother's peahen mother, wrapping her hanfu dress around her adoptive son, stroking him. Most of his body engulfed something warmer than the previous sensation; the feeling of soft, heavy, and relaxing ruled over the tiger. Xing had curved his torso on silky waves of light pink, the hums of his mother's rich voice singing with her children. He wrapped his paws over Lady Xia's and brushed his cheek on her chest.

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you too, son," Xia embraced her whole neck on Xing's head.

The following sense on the tiger's chest was a large pat, echoing tinges to a light jade that whispered to him, blessing the tiger. In Xing's chamber, Kai could hear the tiger's soft growls, but not intimidating during his sleep. His chuffs drumming from Xing's throat were enchanted, and Kai untied his voluminous green cloak, spreading it on Xing. The yak patted his chest, grinning.

"Good night, Little Kitten."

Kai circled his resting area and lay his stomach on the bed forward, his bulk arms supporting the pillow under his head. Wugu's song of zen blessing within the corridor chambers dominated the whole, thriving well.

The Nine was in peace, and no nightmares ambushed their sleep.

Author's Note:

— The character name "Gidahn" belongs to the writer SheyConYamo (ArtInclined). Her OCs may not appear throughout Book II anytime soon, which I had labeled The Trinity's structure for a few years, involving their cameo appearances. For now, Shey's characters are uncertain to appear for now.

— Moving on to the next, because bring another tissue with you! Unfortunately, this will not be Shifu's farewell from Chen Ming's perspective, but one character of mine nears his arrival.