Chapter 29: Chapter 27: A Story of the Past

Idony sat in the room, her back against the wall as she watched Baozi chase his tail around. It must have been very entertaining for the pig, since he had been doing it since the adults had all wandered off and left them alone.

Unfortunately Idony did not have a tail to chase, so she sullenly sat instead. The room was plain, the window looked out into a strange abandoned looking courtyard that a murky looking pond laid in, a simple wooden table with one leg shorter than the other three stood in the middle of the room, and there were not even any pictures on the wall. She had entertained herself for a little bit by hitting the table so it would make a funny ‘bonk’ sound against the floor until that lost her attention.

Baozi suddenly stopped, tipping his snout to the air and snorting. Then he looked towards Idony before trotting out the doorway.

Idony got to her feet, “I like your idea, Baozi!” She said, following after her porcine companion. She stepped out into the short corridor where Baozi had gone. The pig had paused in its walk to wait for her and she bent over to pet its little head, the fuzz feeling bristly beneath her fingers.

“Zhu Er?”

Idony’s eyes widened as she felt a hand gently grab her arm. She planted her feet on the ground and pulled back, but the grip was stronger and she turned to see Li Baobao staring down at her with concern. He began pulling her back to the room, and Baozi sheepishly followed after. “You shouldn’t wander out. It’s very dangerous!” Li Baobao warned, “it’s much safer to stay in the room.”

“I wasn’t going anywhere,” Idony lied. She looked around Li Baobao for the familiar sight of the scrappy dog. “Where’s Bo?”

“Uh, he’s, uh,” Li Baobao’s eyes darted around. “Uh. I don’t know the word. But he’s doing something! Yes! He’ll be back soon.” He released her arm and walked towards the table. Idony then watched as Li Baobao’s foot slipped out from under him, his entire body seemed to for a brief second float in the air before he landed on his back with a heavy ‘THUD’. She gasped and grabbed his hand, pulling with all her strength to help the dazed man sit up. Baozi dashed behind him and took a running start, slamming his head into Li Baobao’s back and pressing which just seemed to hurt the poor man more since he sat straight up and scooted away from them both.

“...Does it still hurt?” Idony asked after an odd moment of silence.

“A-ah, not that much. Thank you,” Li Baobao said with an uneven smile. “But there was water on the floor! What sort of place is this, leaving water on the floor where guests can trip in it?”

Idony shrugged, having no way to answer the question.

Li Baobao groaned and got back to his feet, then plopped back down, shaking his head. “Ooof, I can barely get up.”

“Is it because you fell?”

Li Baobao reached down rolling up the cloth around his ankle and leg to reveal swollen bruised looking skin. “No, I think it’s because I walked so much today,” he bemoaned.

She walked over to crouch down beside him, settling like an animal on its haunches. “When I got purple-y skin, mama would get some snow and squeeze it down against it so it wouldn’t hurt, and she’d cover it in a ribbon so it wouldn’t fall off.”

“Oh, would she? Well, unfortunately we don’t have any snow around,” Li Baobao sighed, “also it would probably melt in the warm air here.”

“It was always very cold back home,” Idony noted. “Does it get cold anywhere here?” She gestured vaguely around them. “Your house was hot and sticky!”

“Well, the Southern Kingdom is known to be very warm and humid for a good part of the year! But when winter comes, we’ve gotten snow a few times. I remember once when I was little I found a frozen frog too, that was interesting,” he explained. “But here in the Western Kingdom, a lot of the weather is a bit more dry. When we get to the Silent Mountains though, things will be a lot more cold!”

“What Silent Mountains?”

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“That’s where we have to go through to get to the First Palace,” Li Baobao looked at her in confusion. “Didn’t he tell you this?”

“No, he said we were going to see my mama and that was it,” she picked at a thread sticking out from her sleeve. Baozi trotted over to lay his head down on her lap.

“How did your mother get there?”

“I don’t know, she’s dead,” Idony muttered. “She was always really really sick, but my father kept making her have babies because he wanted a boy and then she died,” she sniffed, her eyes felt watery and she wiped her face on her sleeve, leaving a trail of snot. “But I did what she said! I ran away and waited and then Liu Xie came and said we could see her again so I went with him and now I’m here. And she’s not. Still.” She crossed her arms and held them close to her chest as though to contain the strange flailing beast of anger and bitterness inside.

Li Baobao was quiet for a long while.

She glanced over at him and found he was staring down at her with a pale face. When he realized she was looking back at him he turned away to look at the window. “How about a story?”

“...I like stories!”

“I like stories too!” Li Baobao said, some color had returned to his face. “So how about one that’s about where we’re going?”

“Yes!” Idony was happy for any distraction and one that came in the form of a story was the best kind.

“So once there were not Four Kingdoms with Four Dynasties, but there was one kingdom with many dynasties that connected to each other, when one dynasty ended another took its place. Each one ruled from the First Palace, which was in the center of the world and was below the celestial realm of the Amber Emperor himself. But the Last Dynasty ended with the Last Emperor, who…” Li Baobao scratched his head, “I don’t remember his name. But he had an empress whom he loved very much, but one day she became ill and shortly after passed away. He was very sad, but he got a new uh…-” he paused his story. “We’ll call her a wife. Anyway, this wife was very pretty, very smart, she was musically gifted with both voice and instrument, she could write poetry and paint, the only thing she lacked was a heart.”

Idony was quiet and attentive, resting her chin in her hand.

“Being… uh… married to the Emperor wasn’t enough. She told him that even he had to bow before the will of heaven. But she knew of how to reach the heavens and make armies to fight the gods. So, he listened, because she had turned his heart cold. Every day, thousands of people disappear into the First Palace, and so every day did the Emperor’s army grow with loyal soldiers. A great tower was being built, one that climbed higher than any mountain. Cities became silent, towns empty, and villages disappeared. When the gods finally saw what was going on, they were furious. So they struck down the tower, and created floods and earthquakes to destroy his army. But the land had become so cursed by the Emperor’s actions that the gods had to create the Silent Mountains to contain it, and everyone who survived by hiding were sent in the four cardinal directions and told to begin anew. Now people go beyond the Silent Mountains to cut themselves away from worldly things, or to find lost things, or… maybe to just escape.”

Idony thought on those words and tried to connect them to how her mother was involved. But after a few minutes she grew frustrated. “That was a bad story,” she finally decided. “It didn’t have a very happy ending.”

“Hm, you’re right!” Li Baobao agreed. “When my mother told it to me, I think it was just to warn me against becoming like the Last Emperor. Actually, I have my book-” he reached into his sleeve and pulled out said book. “It’s a collection of the Bridgewater Sage’s wisdom!” He said with a big smile. “It’s really informative!”

“How did it fit in there?” Idony asked, pulling at Li Baobao’s sleeve.

“Ah, there’s some sort of thing done to it,” he explained, moving the fabric inside out so Idony could see the complex strange stitching that boggled her eyes. “Rui Yifu has something similar I think! If you know someone who can do these special stitchings, it makes the sleeves far bigger with uh… I don’t know the word for this either. It involves the Flames though. Rui Yifu could explain it better. But basically I have bottomless sleeves!” He opened up his book, “now let me see. What’s a good section in here…?”

Idony sighed and after looking at Baozi, who seemed to be peacefully sleeping with his head in her lap, she decided to follow his example and lay her own head on Li’s lap. He was still muttering and flipping through pages as she looked towards the window where she saw a shadow pass by. A bird squawked loudly somewhere in the courtyard.

“Oh, here’s a nice one. This part is about frugality in food choices during winter.”

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