Chapter 92: 91 — A Rat’s Trial

Labby twitched, looking around the empty chamber of expansive darkness, where she stood alone.

“Master?” she called out to the dark, but found no reply coming back.

Growing nervous, Labby walked through the darkness. “Master, where are you? Labby is scared…” she sent once more, but something was blocking her bond to her Master, like an invisible barrier that she couldn’t overcome.

Labby felt her Qi roiling in her core, purple lightning crackling around her. Fear gnawed at her heart, and she felt an increasing anxiety filling her. She was in an unknown place, in darkness and away from her master.

“No, Labby will be courageous. She needs to find Twilight! Labby is the senior sister after all, if she can’t even do this much, then how could Labby call herself the senior sister?” Labby spoke out loud, letting out a quiet squeak of determination.

With her goal set, she looked up ahead in front of her, at the white wispy mist before beginning to make her way ahead. This was a trial of some sort, surely it would have some kind of challenge for her to work at?

A few steps further into the mist, she saw a tall structure of stone rising from the ground. It shimmered with Qi, and Labby stared at it in wonder for a moment before walking closer. Touching a paw she sent a little crackle of lightning to make sure the pedestal wasn’t dangerous. The lightning fizzled out in a moment, but other than that, she saw nothing wrong with the pedestal.

Gathering her courage, she climbed atop the structure, onto a little scroll of stone that lay on top.

Qi gathered around the page, shining in words of gold in front of her eyes.

“Seek the nine pillars. The first of each will light the path ahead”

Labby looked at the words in confusion, before her gaze drifted to the open misty arena behind her, and she walked around the area. The pedestal had told her to seek the nine pillars.

Wandering around aimlessly for a while, Labby soon spotted a pillar rising from the ground. Crackling with lightning, she rushed over to the pillar. Made entirely of stone the pillar jutted out of the ground seeming from nowhere, with little swirls of mist surrounding it. Labby found words engraved on the pillar.

“On New Year's Eve, we are a course at a great banquet. Here we lie painted on a pair of dishes. What are we?”

Labby squakred in confusion at the words. She circled the stone pillar trying to find any plates, but failed to find anything.

“How is Labby supposed to solve this if she can’t even see the plates?” she said out loud, crackling with lightning. A moment later an idea came to her and, she jumped onto the pillar and climbed atop it.

Making her way up, Labby looked down upon the flat rounded top of the pillar and found it strikingly similar to a plate. She saw two fishes painted onto the dish, one black and the other white, with both swimming around one another in a circle.

“...Fish?” she muttered out loud. The pillar shuddered beneath her feet, and with a squeak she jumped down. Qi swirled around the pillar, as the image of a pair of fishes swirling around in circles formed onto it.

Squeaking in satisfaction, she ran off to the next pillar.

“I burn on the ancestral altar. I make everything sweet. What am I?”

Labby read the altar, thinking over it for a moment, before she squealed. “Incense!” The pillar shuddered once more, as an incense was carved onto it.

A little laugh escaped from Labby’s mouth in delight at being able to solve the puzzle, as she rushed to the next one, feeling excited.

“I gallop and gallop and never get anywhere. I have a candle inside me that makes part of me revolve. What am I?”

Labby stared at the pillar for a while, trying to think of an answer. Something that had a candle inside it… “Lantern?” She tried, but the pillar showed no reaction.

“I gallop and gallop and never get anywhere…” Labby said out loud. She knew that horses galloped, but what could gallop but go nowhere, yet have a candle inside of them?

“Running horse Lantern…?” Labby tried once more, and this time, with a crackle, the pillar shuddered, the image of a Lantern with a running horse on it being engraved.

“Oh…” Labby muttered in surprise, before taking her win as she moved to the next. The pillars went by swiftly as Labby took a few minutes to answer each.

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“At New Year, I come out of the sea to get baked into dumplings and pastries. What am I?”

“Shrimp!” Labby exclaimed, at the next pillar.

“Dragons climb my side, steam pours from my mouth, but no one is afraid of me. What am I?”

The question stumped Labby for a while, as she stared at it, trying to think of an answer, before it occurred to her. An answer that made her laugh in delight. “Teapot!”

The pillar shuddered in response, as Labby squealed, crackling with lightning in delight, as she rushed on to the next one.

One by one, the pillars rose, they lit up with Qi, marking engravings as Labby went through each. For a moment, she almost forgot the fear she’d been feeling to be all alone, separated from her master, relishing the joy of solving the puzzle.

As Labby answered the last pillar, a glowing light lit upon the pedestal back at the center. Quickly, she ran back to the pedestal and found golden mist swirling around it. Touching the mist, she felt the Qi in it gathering around her palms before words coalesced once more.

''I am neither food nor drink. I am neither in the house nor in the yard. I am neither on land nor on sea. Yet I am both in the city and in the country. Without me there would be no New Year. What am I?'’

Labby squeaked, reading the words. Neither food nor drink, neither house or yard. Not in land or sea, but in the city and country?

“Squeak?” she said out loud, thinking over the riddle.

Something not food or drink. Not in the house or yard. Not on land or sea, but in the city and country.

Labby stared, stumped at the riddle. Just what could that be? She thought over the words for a moment.

“Neither land or sea… in the sky?” she thought over it. “But what in the sky? In both city and country, and cannot be-” Labby broke off as the realization struck her.

“The moon,” she whispered out loud.

She felt a shudder go through the pedestal, yet the path did not clear in front of her. Labby sat there once more, trying to think over her answer. The moon was neither food nor drink, neither was it in the house or yard. It was not on land or sea, and without it there would be no new year.

She felt her frustration starting to build up as she thought over her answers once more, before an image returned to her. Of the eight moons, and of the path she’d picked. The moon wasn’t one entity, but a fragment of many tied together to a whole. Then which moon was it that started a new year?

“The first moon!” she exclaimed, as the gold mist lit up with Qi. A bright light flashed all around her, as a gate formed of swirling mists rose up in front of her.

Labby crackled once with lightning, before taking a look around the chamber. Upon finding no other good path to walk, she stepped towards the mist, and slowly made her way through.

Torrents of mist flowed around her, as she felt the world spin for a moment. The next moment, Labby stood in a cavern, a serene and beautiful place, with ephemeral flows of Qi. Carvings and wonders of nature arranged in the most beautiful way she’d seen sat all around her, and a shimmering lake brimming with an absurd amount of Qi was in front of her.

She stared at the lake, feeling a strange draw to the body of water. Her lightning crackled around her, as she breathed in the Qi rich air, when with a sudden tremor, something began to rise from the lake.

A flowing figure, massive and covered in scales, rose above the water. Like a giant serpent, but with two antlers and flowing mustaches, it reared its head. The world was a storm around it, the Qi flowing through it like a gushing river that would sweep any and all in her path.

Labby felt her spirit being pushed underneath the presence of the majestic creature she saw in front of her.

A dragon.

On instinct she bowed her head as deep as she could, while giving her respects to the creature. Her heart nearly stopped when its gaze went towards her, and the majestic creature spoke out loud, imparting its eternal wisdom.

“A rat?”

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