Chapter 47: Chapter 45: Hound Town

Idony awoke dully only because of something hot on her chest. She whined softly, squeezing her eyes shut tightly and curling back into the arms that carried her while scratching at the hot thing. The smell of hay and fur provoked a sense of concern in her sleepy mind. She remembered yelling, strange men coming into the room in the darkness, Li Baobao throwing himself forward and her tossing Baozi out the window to get help.

She remembered throwing herself forward, the taste of blood in her mouth as she bit into the ankle of man who had kicked Li Baobao.

But after that things became fuzzy.

The smell of rot, and of the boy staring down at her.

It had to all be a nightmare but...

The arms felt different from what she was used to. They weren’t the cool unyielding arms of Liu Xie, or the warm and firm ones of Rui Yifu or the soft flubby ones of Li Baobao.

The person carrying her stopped walking, and she felt a hand rest on her chest briefly and suddenly the hot thing was pulled away. Then Idony forced open her eyes to see someone holding the coin Rui Yifu had given her. A tanned hand wrapped its fingers around it, the metal cracking in its grip, releasing small bits of light briefly. Then the coin was dropped to the ground. Idony finally looked up at the person carrying her.

He had a friendly face, short pale hair, and two dog ears atop his head. He fixed her with a pleasant smile.

Idony trusted none of it.

He spoke, although Idony did not understand all the words he said. She did not particularly care either, for despite the ringing in her head and how much her chest was beginning to ache she threw herself out of his arms and onto the ground.

“...Ah.”

Idony crouched down, looking around with wild eyes. All she could see were unfamiliar tall trees, a long dirt path, the stranger, and a great blue sky above with a hot sun beating down upon them all. She bolted in the direction she felt the wind going only to feel a hand grab her by her collar and pull her backwards.

“No, no,” the stranger shook his head.

Idony reached backwards, trying to pull the hand away, “LIU XIE! RUUUIII!!!!” She called out. Where were they? Where was she? She squirmed as the hand continued to pull her backwards.

She relented only for the moment, allowing the dog eared stranger to lift her up into his arms again. He stared down at her in concern, ears low. Idony’s eyes turned to his arm where only fabric covered it and she did the first thing that came to mind.

Idony growled like an animal and bit into his arm as savagely as she could, sinking her small teeth into horrifyingly cold flesh. Idony’s eyes widened as she felt sharp teeth softly close around her neck. Her heart crawled onto her tongue and she released her grip on the arm and instead tried to curl into a little ball. Images of a face full of sharp hungry teeth bubbled violently to the surface while her lungs shuddered in difficulty as she struggled to breathe. Terror wormed in her spine as she shook her head feebly.

The teeth pulled away harmlessly, cold saliva left behind.

“Ah,” again, now distressed. Idony found herself lowered to the ground as the stranger’s hands slowly prying open the little ball she had curled into open, and his worried face looking down at her still. Idony stared up at him before her eyes darted to the wolf-like skull that hung from his waist. Her eyes were beginning to well up.

“LIU XIE!” She yelled again, “RUI! BO!! GEGE!!” She tried to look past the dog eared man, expecting them to emerge from around the trees. She was already imagining the fury puffing on Liu Xie’s face. Or the bemused concern on Rui Yifu’s, or the irritation of Bo or the fear of Li Baobao.

The strange man blinked and finally seemed to realize she was calling out names. He patted his chest, “Lang Lang.”

Idony looked up at him, “Lang Lang?”

“Lang Lang!” He gave her a big smile, exposing teeth like a wolf’s in his mouth. Idony recoiled and placed her hand on the saliva covered back of her neck and his smile shrank a bit. He pointed at her, cocking his head to one side with both ears up.

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Idony shook her head. She wanted Liu Xie, not to talk to this scary cold fleshed stranger regardless of how warm his face was. But he continued to stare insistently at her, smiling, until finally she relented. “Id…. uh…” what was the other name they had started calling her? “Zhu Er.”

Lang Lang frowned a little, before reaching out to take some of her hair in his hand. He looked at it, then raised his other hand to his chin in thought. His ears immediately perked up. “Zhu Er?” He repeated back with a smile. He abruptly lifted her back up and in her confusion she did not fight back. Instead she only stared at him as he eagerly spoke, breaking back into a stride as he cradled her close and spoke very quickly and cheerfully.

Idony shook her head at every sentence he spoke, covering her eyes. Maybe, she thought, if she closed her eyes she would fall asleep and wake up and everything would have just been a bad dream. Why was it that when she finally felt that Liu Xie actually liked her something bad had to happen? Did the gods hate her? First they took her mother and now they took Liu Xie and Rui Yifu and the others away! She sucked in a deep breath and the tears spilled over her little cheeks as she began to cry. With nowhere else to put her head, she shoved it against her captor’s chest and sobbed.

The cold hand of Lang Lang rubbed her back soothingly. He was speaking in a gentle assuring voice. His words, whatever ones she could understand, were lost to her sobs.

The trees around them gave away abruptly to buildings. Idony’s own crying was muffled out by hundreds of voices. “Lang Lang!” They called out. She slowly turned her head around, rubbing her snot and tears off on her sleeve. Sturdy well made buildings lined a wide dirt road that splintered into many smaller paths. The dirt road went straight across, splitting into two around a large white windowless shrine that dozens of strange pale windchimes hung from. People were flocking out of taverns, teashops, bakeries, houses, stores.

They were young and old, men and women, farmers with clothes covered in sweat and mud and clerks with fingers covered in ink. All of them were hale and cheerful, as though greeting a beloved ruler that had been gone for far too long.

Idony screamed at the crush of people, regaining the energy of fifty Idonys to try climbing out of Lang Lang’s arms as people reached for her and spoke hundreds of questions. She could recognize some words, although she was not focusing on them. They were asking where he went, who or what she was. A few stray hands seemed to emerge from the gathering and touch or gently tug at her red hair and she snapped her teeth at them like an aggressive animal, flailing more.

Lang Lang held firmly though, being stronger than fifty Idonys, laughing as he shook his head and spoke appeasingly to the people.

Several tall men and sturdy women began to shout, gesturing and pushing back the rest of the crowd to allow Lang Lang through. But the crowd continued to try reaching him. Finally, a slender beautiful woman suddenly seemed to flow out like smoke from the crowd and immediately started screaming in a loud commanding yet excessively shrill voice at the assembled people. Idony continued her struggle to escape, digging her fingers into the rough fabric and skin to pull herself free. But Lang Lang was unperturbed, walking swiftly through the path that was being made for them to the shrine as people moved to avoid the screaming shrill lady. He paused once to turn back to the parts of the crowd that remained and waved good bye to them.

Idony felt a cold wind run over her as he opened the door of the shrine, looking upwards to the blue sky and the chimes made of bone that cheerily clinked together in the light breeze. Then the door was shut, submerging all in darkness.

She found herself placed on the ground again, a cold wooden floor, and there was a snap of fingers. Pale white light filled the room from a few lanterns that hung above, illuminating a wooden statue of a modestly dressed woman with open arms standing with a large shaggy wolf-faced dog at her side. The pale white light felt strangely familiar, comforting even and she did not know why. The fear in her chest calmed a little in the white glow. Idony turned to see the same shaggy dog at her side instead of Lang Lang.

It stared at her for a moment before it licked her face with its flat cold tongue. Idony reeled, wiping the slobber off her face on her already dirty sleeve, which provided the dog the perfect opening to happily lift her up by the back of her clothes and trot around the statues to a short hall hidden behind them. Idony hung like a dead rabbit, swaying slightly with each step the dog took before it finally set her down inside a small room.

The room held a small wooden bed and some dusty toys left in a corner. On the walls were drawings and half illegible writing in paints and inks. Many featured the dog that sat beside her. Sometimes there were monsters, or children, or strange things that looked like smudged paint smears that had been repeatedly painted over.

The dog sat down beside her and insistently nudged her hand with its head. She tried to ignore it, moving her hand away and turning away. But the dog simply walked around to face her again, nudging her hand.

Idony shook her head, holding her hand upwards instead.

The dog whined softly, then pushed its wet cold nose against the palm of her hand.

Idony moved both her hands behind herself.

The dog whined louder, then went to nudging her face with its head.

She finally gave up, moving her hands back forward to gently rest them on the dog’s head. As her fingers sank into the fur, she found there was no dog but Lang Lang . He stared up at her with gentle eyes, then wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, nuzzling into her hair

Idony hiccupped and began to cry again as Lang Lang held her as a comforting father would hold their scared child.