Chapter Eighteen: Thinking of Earlier Times
To Crane, the room around him remained formless as his vision was still denied by heavy, tired eyelids. He was somewhat conscious at last, but to what degree, he was still unsure. The first thing the bird had noticed was the unusual sensation of resting on his back - this was not the way he naturally slept, but he found it to be comfortable, nonetheless. This was due in no small capacity to the cushioned surface he was lain upon, its form possessing a certain luxury that he had been denied for far too long.
The bird began to slowly awaken his outer senses, feeling his limbs begin to twitch and animate, and tactile sensation returned outward to the furthest points of his wingtips. His head propped up by what must have been a pillow of some sort, the area he now found himself in was cool, but not freezing; it also must have been very dimly lit, as even now, his eyes were fully content to stay closed. Crane was in a battle against his own fatigued body, for as it sensed no immediate danger, it continued to stay at rest; the weeks spent in the Mongolian wilderness had certainly taken its toll on him.
After a while, he began to register sounds - the creaking of wood, the muffled patter of rain outside, and voices... there were voices as well, but far too distant to make out.
There was an outburst of distant thunder, and this finally compelled the bird to awake with a start. The room was small, just spacious enough for the bed he'd been laid upon, a wash basin in the corner, and a pedestal where a magnificent weapon was perched. The insufficient candlelight in the area caused the wide metal head of the guandao spear to reflect the incandescence, becoming a mirror of the flickering flames. Looking down from the weapon, which had copper decorations infused into its long wooden shaft, Crane noticed that his right wing was stretched out to its full length on one side of the bed; the bandage of Tigress' robes which had once been tightly wrapped around it were now gone. The feathers at this part now looked discolored and sickly, but he was pleasantly surprised to find the dull throb of pain that had been ever-present over the past weeks was no longer there.
As he began to nudge his wing about, gently testing the limits of his newfound comfort, a commotion outside the room caused Crane's attention to snap towards the darkened wood door opposite himself.
"Why have you taken one of the outlanders into your quarters?" demanded the familiar gruff voice of the large leopard that accompanied the masters into Khanbaliq.
"That is none of your business." was the response from a golden cat Crane had never expected to see again.
Mei Ling...
The avian tried his best to recall what had happened the night before, but his mind was foggy, and his memory eluded him.
"Don't play me for a fool - you know this one, don't you?!"
There was a pause. Crane's eyes widened when hearing the accusation.
"Yes... yes I do."
Another pause, longer than before.
"No - I can't believe this..." the male said.
"I have said nothing of that matter!" Her voice had sounded different; hesitant, but desperate all the same.
"Ah, but you have told me everything." The wooden floor outside the room creaked with a shift of weight, indicating Mei Ling's visitor was taking his leave.
In this moment, the events of the night before finally came back to the avian; he had been so ready to confront her, to ask all of his questions, but then... everything had turned to blackness.
Mei Ling pushed open the door to the room, and found herself looking directly at Crane, their eyes meeting immediately.
"You're awake..." she stated, her spirit sinking when realizing that the bird had just overheard the previous conversation in its entirety.
At first Crane wasn't able to summon any words, just staring at the golden cat for several seconds. Seeing her in a similar disposition, however, caused him to break the stalemate of silence.
"Why are you here?" the bird said, immediately recalcitrant at his sudden forcefulness.
Mei seemed to gather herself for a brief moment, and at last moved forward, closing the distance between the doorway and the bed Crane was laying upon. Sitting on the side with the bird's outstretched right wing, she diverted her eyes down to her paws. The avian master wondered what thoughts rushed through the cat's mind, as the way she ran her digits over her paw pads back and forth made her unease all too apparent. As they were now rather close, hearing the subtle sound of her breathing calmed him; she felt real again, not just a far-off ideal in his mind that was perpetually moving out of reach as he flew against the wind.
"The leopard that you arrived at the Khan's palace with..."
"He's your father, isn't he?"
Mei Ling was saddened, but not surprised in the slightest; Crane - or Lu Xian as she truly knew him - had always been extremely perceptive. Just as it had for her father, her silence gave Crane all the answers he needed.
"His name is Ganbataar, the highest-ranking commoner in the Mongol realm, personal bodyguard and adviser to the Khan himself."
Feeling confident in his right aileron at last, the bird slowly retracted the outstretched wing towards his body; Mei's brown tail subconsciously moved up onto the bed and filled the vacant space. She still wasn't entirely focused on Crane, and he elected not to prod her with questions as aggressively.
"He certainly seems loyal to his cause..." he started innocently enough; but something he had said bothered her right away.
"Hmph." The corner of her mouth curled upwards in disgust. "Loyalty. It is my father's greatest strength; but also his most grievous sin."
The words apparently carried meaning far beyond the astute perception of the bird master. Mei looked just as desolate as she'd been all those years ago when he'd last seen her, as if the passage of time had changed nothing not all.
"If you were to ask Gan, he'd tell you I'm here in Khanbaliq because of that same devotion."
Crane finally pulled himself up off of the bed and stood upright in front of where the cat was seated.
"And are you?" he asked, increasingly feeling that he was conversing with a stranger.
Mei Ling shook her head, still looking downwards. Crane could no longer suppress his confused irritation.
"Why did you never tell me of any of this? I thought I knew you, Mei."
The golden cat held a pained grimace of shame, and uncomfortable silence enveloped the room once more.
"My true name is Kokejin." she said at last, every word requiring seemingly great effort. "But that is a name - and a life - I had forgotten when I was a student at Lee Da. The duties dictated by my parentage were never ones I planned to fulfill."
The more she tried to explain, the less sense anything made to Crane.
"But why abandon all that you know? China is the ancient enemy of your people!"
"It was because of you, Xian." She looked up to face him. "When I saw you use your potential to fulfill your dream, I realized that I could be whatever I wanted... that my fate was my own. There were so many things about you that I came to admire - to love, even."
Now Crane was the one to look away, thinking of earlier, simpler times; Mei was only thinking of regrets. She should have told him - she knew that now. But could she truly be blamed – hoping, in her youth, for the past to bleed away to nothingness?
"But how naive I was then." she said in a weak tone, standing up. "I found that what I truly wanted... acted against all that you had worked so hard to achieve."
"I- I had just hoped you'd have come to see me again..." Crane mumbled, disconsolate. The immense weight of the years of loneliness threatened to crush him.
Mei Ling had always been able to see Crane in a way others could not, and knew how to console him. Moving closer to the bird, she gently placed a paw under his beak and lifted it upwards to look into his tired russet eyes.
"You became Master Crane - everything you ever wanted; I can't force you to throw it all away."
Their sudden closeness made Mei feel something she had not intended, and realizing this, she abruptly removed her paw and backed away.
"I'm... I'm doing it right now!"
"Doing what?" Crane demanded, suddenly robbed of a feeling he'd missed for so long.
"We shouldn't have met here! I-"
In an instant, Crane moved forward, wrapping the cat in the secure, protective embrace of his wings. Leaning his neck in towards the utterly stunned feline, he began to whisper into her ear.
"I have missed you... more than you can imagine."
Her form, initially frozen in shock, loosened when hearing this, and she began to reciprocate the action. They tried to heal what time itself had neglected.
Left, right.
Left, right.
A stiff breeze; starlight and misted rain. The constant thumping of orange-striped paws against wood.
I thought I was beyond this...
High atop a temple in the center of Khanbaliq, Tigress stood parallel to the thick redwood flagpole that rose up from the roof of the building - punching into it without respite. The recent events of their mission surged through her mind, prompting outbursts of rage that came in waves. Her actions were unacceptable - fully unfitting of a warrior of her caliber. And what was that worth? What was all her raw strength and ability worth if she could still be such a fool? Her strikes started to come at the post even harder, and the tiger began to speculate what others might think of her compromised state. Po... The Five... her master. When thinking of Shifu, Tigress struck the wood with her mightiest punch yet, and there was a feint cracking sound that rippled all the way to the top of the pole.
Failure... so much failure! I need to-
"It appears that you are one that favors actions over words." a voice behind the striped cat observed.
Tigress turned about to discover that the same leopardess who had recognized Crane in the throne room earlier had joined her on the temple rooftop. Not seeing her as a threat, the tiger only registered the snow leopard's presence for a short moment, before turning back to abuse her improvised wooden target some more. The spotted cat was amused by this, and circled around to the other side of the flagpole to face her striped counterpart. Her face, clearly defined in the darkness of deep night by her luminous purple eyes, was now a matter of inches from where Tigress was punching mercilessly. Regardless, the leopardess didn't flinch in the slightest as she observed with smug interest.
"What troubles you?"
Her voice had sounded toneless, removed.
"The past." the tiger answered simply between strikes, doing her best to appear unimpressed with the leopardess' sudden appearance.
The purple-eyed cat smiled to herself, but did not bare her teeth as she paced closer to the edge of the roof, overlooking the few lights that remained in the city below. An orange haze that rose up from the opposite end of town denoted the square where the army of snow leopards was camped within the walls. The air was clearer atop the high spires of the temple, and the leopardess took in a deep breath of the ozone brought on by the night rains before she spoke again.
"There is no present or future - only the past, happening over and over again."
This caused Tigress to stop punching; it was an odd proverb, one she'd never heard before.
"Where did you hear this saying?"
"We used to have a Buddhist monk here in Khanbaliq - would go on all the time about how 'life is suffering' and all that."
Tigress was starting to grow uneasy about the other cat - the leopardess was acting far too comfortable around her.
"Do... do you think he was right in saying these things?" the tiger asked hesitantly.
The spotted cat chuckled a little as she looked over the roof's edge, the droplets of mist starting to settle into her fur.
"I wouldn't know - I lopped his head off before he'd explained such subtleties."
Tigress looked over the leopardess again, much more carefully this time. Certain features that she had ignored before were now highlighted - a larger frame, sharper claws, a tail that became striped towards the tip.
"Who are you?"
Clearly this particular inquiry was what the spotted cat had been waiting for, as her tail twitched, revealing a vindicating pleasure.
"One might say that I am a princess - a princess who fancies herself a warrior, and wishes she were a prince." She turned to Tigress, offering an open paw pad. "Name's Yuelen."
Tigress didn't trust the paw before her, so she refrained from taking it into her own. Yuelen's face looked disappointed, but far from surprised as she drew her arm back; she took her own chance to carefully look over her feline counterpart.
"Mmm... yes. It appears that the far more interesting question is: who are you?"
There it was: that question again.
Tigress initially wanted to answer accurately and briefly as she usually did, but such intention became caught in her throat. She remembered the last time she'd given someone her name, and suspected Yuelen would exhibit a similar response to her brother.
But who am I, really? Why take pride in an empty name?
Yuelen watched as the tiger's silence drew on, and noticed the orange paws begin to form tightly-balled fists. The leopardess smiled - the striped cat was making herself easy to read, her inner turmoil clear as day.
Tigress was commanding herself to push down the emotions, to maintain the discipline she'd cultivated from years of mental training. It was a losing battle. With a quick growl, she flipped around and unleashed her fury back into the foot-thick base of the wooden pole, cleaving it apart with a thunderous strike; the shattered chips of wood flew out in all directions and fell along with the drops of rain to the streets below.
As Gan paced his way through the halls of the royal palace complex, he was deathly silent; his mind was elsewhere.
I can't believe this... my daughter and a bird!
He resisted the urge to punch a hole through one of the plaster walls.
Just think of what the children will look like - feathered abominations! What a disgrace!
Like most traditionalist Mongols, Gan had been raised to despise the notion of felines being with avians or any other 'lesser' species; such relations were seen as being against the natural order of things.
His temper was beginning to flare out of control, and he forced himself to rein in his state of mind, as he was nearing his destination; his queen had summoned him.
Gan found the Khatun of Mongolia studying the width of a long-embroidered tapestry that ran the length of her entire chamber.
The two guards posted at the entryway moved aside, and he stepped through into the queen's lavishly furnished quarters.
This was far from the first time the snow leopard had noticed the large work of art in the room, but he had never paid it much mind, let alone studied its features in the way his queen so often did. Commissioned months before as an honorary work to the military exploits of the Mongol Khanate, the subject matter was direct and forceful. Intricately sewn into the cloth were dozens of Mongol warriors in battle formations; some were on all fours circling the enemy, while others stood upright, loosing their numerous arrows. In the distance, a foreign tenshu was being reduced to rubble under a hail of siege projectiles, the victorious nomads taking no prisoners. Befitting a shameless propaganda piece, the various enemies of the nomadic tribes - the Chinese, Rus, and Turks - were depicted as soulless demons, eyes red and fangs bared. Most of these foes littered the ground, full of arrows. Khasar Khan himself stood in the very center with his retainers, uncontested masters of the battlefield.
Off to the right side of the tapestry, two expert weavers were still working diligently at their craft, the Khatun overseeing their every stitch. She had since noticed the arrival of her husband's adviser, and began to speak while still watching the work being done.
"I wonder now what history will say of such violence."
Gan usually didn't have the patience for such inquiries, but he indulged the Khatun's curiosity nonetheless, carefully eyeing over the tapestry in a timely manner.
"Conflict breeds conflict, and no culture can ever be immune to the allure of war." the leopard answered at last.
Nadya's expression brightened briefly. "Gan, I fear age has cultivated far too much stoicism in you..."
Out of respect, the snow leopard did not answer the Siberian tiger with a retort. Instead, he ran his paw over his wounded shoulder that had been recently pierced by a dagger.
Finally stepping down from her artistic oversight, the queen stood to face the snow leopard for a respite of sorts.
"If my husband does not make war, he has no peace. While Khasar has proven himself capable time and again, I worry about my son's ability to do the same."
Gan was in the unique position of being personally close to both the Khan and Khatun, a trait that tended to keep oneself alive amidst the bloodbath of court politics. Between Nadya's words, the aged leopard had seen an important truth.
Ah, so this is why I'm here.
"You think the kid won't be up to the task?"
"A son is certainly doomed to fail if his own father will not confide in him, wouldn't you agree?"
Obviously, Gan had no intention of taking a side between the two rulers, regardless of the fact that he personally agreed with the Khatun's concerns.
"Whether I agree or not, it is not my place to say, my lady." he answered, trying to satiate her with a humble bow.
But she clearly wasn't having any of his patronizing behavior.
"Nonsense, you're just as close - if not closer - to my husband than me. He respects your opinion."
"Telling another man how to raise his son tends to destroy such respect." he started, carefully glancing over Nadya's face to ensure he hadn't gone too far. "You truly wish me to do this?"
The look in her eyes - almost begging - said yes.
Gan exhaled.
"Alright... I'll-"
He didn't get to finish, as the large orange paw of the Khatun shot up to grasp his shoulder. Her eyes were not on Gan, but instead the entryway behind him.
A burst of adrenaline surged through the old snow leopard.
"What?" he whispered.
"Aren't our palace guards supposed to wear masks..."
The individual hairs of Gan's fur began to stand on his neck as he slowly turned back to the two guards in the chamber entryway; they indeed weren't wearing the official masks of the Kheshig guards, only darkened cloth that covered their faces.
"Identify yourselves!" the old warrior commanded, naturally moving his paws to where his sabers usually rested, only to discover he was unarmed.
The two 'guards' took a silent glance at each other, then back to the tiger and leopard in the room. They drew their sabers without further hesitation.
"Assassins!" one of the weavers screamed as both servants tried to make a run for the room's only exit. It was a futile effort, as the two undercover killers dispatched them almost effortlessly in quick, calculated strikes.
Needing to protect his queen and without a weapon, Gan quickly assessed the situation and kicked over the nearest table, which absorbed several throwing knives that the assassins had launched at them with unnatural speed.
"Shit!" he exclaimed, seeing the blades penetrate the thin wood of the table, one of them almost puncturing his nose.
The leopard was thinking again, but an easy way out of their predicament eluded him. Looking over at Nadya, he saw that she was tearing off the lower parts of her dress that would restrict her movement, slashing the cloth cleanly with her claws. She seemed to have a plan of her own.
"Take one of them to your side, I'll take one to mine." she said with surprising calm in her tone.
His soldier instincts kicked in, and Gan took his orders without question. The leopard and tiger leapt out from behind the improvised cover simultaneously and headed for opposite sides of the chamber. As they each dodged various projectiles from the two assailants, both adopted the rudimentary strategy of throwing whatever they could get their paws on at their enemy. For Gan, it was several wooden chairs that broke apart as the nearest assassin sliced into them; for Nadya, it was a large marble pedestal of tremendous weight which she launched at her attacker with ease. Caught unprepared for such a feat of strength, the intruder jumped aside of it, dropping their weapons in the process.
Taking advantage, the female tiger leapt forward at her smaller foe, kicking away a shorter blade the shrouded figure had drawn. Across the room, Gan's attacker had unveiled a chained weapon that they shot outward; the projectile wrapped itself around the snow leopard's forearm, pulling him towards his foe. Initially Gan's claws burrowed into the wooden floor, but the force of the assassin pulling on the chain soon dragged him to his knees. The leopard turned himself around just in time to push against the blade now being pressed against his throat, desperately trying to prevent it from cutting across. Glancing to the side, he watched as Nadya threw the other assassin – now unconscious – through the adjacent wall.
Just as Gan was about to give in to the determined attacker, one of the two assassin's own weapons came flying across the chamber and perforated through the skull of the one pinning the snow leopard. A serrated saber blade now projected forth through the open mouth of the assassin, and as they dropped lifelessly to the ground, Gan had an unobstructed view of the one who'd thrown the weapon with such precision.
"Reminiscent of the old days, eh?" the old veteran mused, wiping some of the blood splatter from his facial fur.
"Quite."
Nadya moved across the room to be closer to Gan.
"Funny." She nudged the body of the assassin aside with her foot. "Last I checked, you were supposed to be the bodyguard in this situation."
Laughing, they smiled at one another, and their eyes lingered together for a bit too long.
Author's Notes:
- Ok... wow! So sorry about this ridiculously overdue update! Thank goodness summer is here, and a big thank you to my readers who are still putting up with this update schedule!
- Much has changed since my last update, but the most impactful thing has been me becoming very active on Discord; I've made a lot of new friends on this platform and I owe many of them my thanks for making this next update a reality
- I owe my fellow FFN author Gsmith1030 a lot of gratitude in particular for their help with this chapter; be sure to check out their story: Journey of A Warrior
- So you probably noticed Po was absent for this chapter; don't worry, this chapter and the one following it take place on the same day, and I promise he'll feature more prominently next time!
- The opening scene between Crane and Mei Ling definitely gave me the most trouble (cause I suuuuuck at romance), but I did my best to expand upon a relationship between two people that only gets mere seconds of screen time in the canon; I truly hope you enjoyed the result ;)
- I've continued the theme of parallelism from the movies here, namely the nature of Crane's hug and Tigress going back to punching things... I simply cannot resist doing this!
- Once again, thanks to all of you have stuck around for this update - your support is what makes this all so enjoyable! Until next time!