Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

It was cold under the forest leaves tonight, but he did not feel it, blood pumping so hard as it was. His fur wrapped feet beat against the leaf strewn dirt, bounced from the sturdy sides of millennial trees and sprung from the greener branches of smaller shrubs. Up above the moon's light filtered down through the canopy. It was no match for the sun's glorious rays, but Rixiong it was more than enough to see by. He was going to eat well tonight, the tender flesh of rabbit was a fine hunter's treat!

Bounding off of a broad trunk, his feet crashed down ahead of the darting beast, snapping brush and scattering leaves. Dust and dirt sprayed as the rabbit skidded to a halt before the darting bone tip of his spear. He felt impact, bracing his feet as the sharp tip met resistance and punched into the hide with the beast's own momentum.

…Then jerked to the side as the spear was nearly torn from his hands and the air screamed past his ear, ripping strands of hair free. A furry paw half half the size of his head struck the tree trunk behind him with the crack of splitting wood and splintering bark. His hunt bounded off from the impact as he had done, bouncing over his head to land in the crackling leaves and face him with glinting crimson eyes as Rixiong spun on his heel to face him.

The rabbit, half as tall as he at the shoulder, twitched his nose and straightened his ears, beating a threatening thump against the forest floor with his hind foot.

Rixiong grinned broadly and raised his bloodied spear tip. Someone would sup well tonight. Such was the way of the forest.

The rabbit's leap kicked up a gust that sent the leaves dancing all around them, and Rixiong's low slung charge whipped them further, as they clashed under the pale moon above.

Rixiong sank to one knee, gasping for breath as his foe at last twitched and grew still. It had been a fine battle, a fine fight, and a fine hunt. His spear and the arms that held it trembled, where he had at last positioned it to catch a leaping charge, the butt now buried in the ground as the rabbit hung on its bowing tip, hot blood coursing down the shaft of the spear. Glinting red eyes were dull now in death.

He grunted as he wrenched his spear's butt from the earth and laid the corpse down among the falling leaves. He clasped his fists together, as Mother had told him a human ought, and murmured his respect.

"This Rixiong thanks you for the hunt, for your blood and your life, that my belly may be full, and I may grow strong. Rest well with the Dusk, honored prey."

He let the silence remain for a beat and then raised his head, cracking his neck as he rose to his feet. Now to dress the kill and return to Mother's court. He would…

"You've grown skilled for a little squalling ape," a gruff voice made his ears twitch, and he glanced up to see Hujian the fox, his sometimes teacher and mother's eyes.

Hujian's fur was a dull red brown, fading to white at the three tips of his curling tails. The fox regarded him with a single yellow eye, glowing in the dark, the other a scarred and empty socket. He perched on the high branch of a tree, no larger than a mortal fox, though Rixiong knew this was no more than a passing fancy. Hujian was a master of shapes, and so the only one who had been able to teach him how a human body should move and exercise.

"Ah you saw then, instructor!" He called back. "My most potent hunt yet."

"It was," Hujian replied curtly. "You fought well, even if your form is still not solid enough, that stance of yours nearly broke, I saw your foot slide. Do not rest on your success."

"Yes, instructor!" Rixiong agreed cheerily. The old fox was impressed! Only a single reprimand? Unheard of.

The fox scoffed. "Gather that. We are going."

"Should I not dress the…"

"I will speed our travel, and take care of it. The Grand Matron has had a vision. She requires you before her."

"Mother does?" Rixiong wondered, immediately he knelt and hefted the heavy corpse onto his shoulders. This must be important then. ""Then let's be off!"

Hujian let out a grumbling sigh and leapt onto the forest path, the night mist swirling as distance bent and stretched before Rixiong's eyes.

Mothers court, his home lay in the moss growl courtyard of ancient stones which had once been a grand human structure. Little of it remained now besides the worn stones under the dirt, a stone column here leaning and bound by vines, supported by neighboring trees, the stumps of a delicate stone footbridge stretching over the stream. And up where Mother held court, a raised stage that still held a worn pool of crystal clear waters that blazed with the reflection of the light in the sky. At its bottom was a stone carving, half black and half white, with full moon and the noonday sun embedded in their opposites, the sun in the dark and the moon in the light.

Many beasts scurried and flew and circled among the stones, the smaller scattering before his feet respectfully and the larger shuffling aside in respect for Hujian, padding ahead of him. Up on the stage, Mother waited.

When Mother stood, her great shaggy head rose above the treetops, but even slumped and lounging before the pool, she was a mountain of pale brown fur and muscle, fur worked through with woven beads of bone, thick ropes jangling with prayer tablets wound around her neck and body. Her great head rose from her paws as he mounted the steps to stand before her.

The great bear, Grand Matron of the Eastern Zenith Court, his mother snuffled, great jaws working, his hair was blown by the hot gust of her breath.

But he laughed with joy as she gently butted her head against his chest, and returned the gesture himself, sinking into the warm soft fur.

"My child," Mother's voice was a comforting rumble, vibrating deep in his bones and the stones under his feet. "I see your hunt was successful."

"It was, Mother," he said proudly.

"And I brought him promptly, as the cub did not hurt himself," Hujian sniffed. "Allow me to take this…"

The weight of his kill left his shoulders as a breeze fluttered past his hair, and the faintest thump sounded, Hujian landed behind him, the rabbit in his jaws, the fox now the size of a full grown elk. "Grand Matron."

"Thank you, my eyes," the bear rumbled. Mother rose onto her haunches, looking down at him with solemn eyes. "Rixiong, I will hear your tale later, but there are other words we must speak now."

He nodded, solemn himself. Mother did not often receive visions outside of the festival days. "I understand, I am ready to hear the words of destiny."

"The time has come for you to return to the lands of men."

He stared blankly.

"Those years ago, the nights of fire and pain, which itched at the edge of the great wood, when I found you swaddled among the roots growing through the shrine, bound in prayers of protection have run their course. My child, you have grown strong, grown well, but you are human and must learn to live as humans do."

"But Hujian has taught me to speak and move and cultivate as a man. He is a very good teacher, for all that he grumps," Rixiong protested.

"Hujian is a very good liar, and an excellent fox, but he is not human no matter what skin he wears," Mother replied patiently. A paw larger than his whole body rose, and carefully brushed his head. "My child, this day would always come. You knew this."

"I did, but not so soon. There is so much more for me to do here," Rixiong said, lowering his head. He had only recently fully mastered his energy, learning how to flow the trickle sunlight his small body could contain into bone and muscle, allowing him to finally hunt the true beasts of the wood and walk on his own two feet.

Or at least without Hujian or one of the others making it obvious they were watching!

But he did know, from his youngest days he had known. Mother had said one day he would return to the land of men, to claim his own place in the world and find his own Way. "Why now?" He asked.

"The days are right, and the seasons have turned. The deathly gardeners now walk the countryside, seeking the scattered seeds of Father's wisdom, to bring to their gardens," Mother intoned. "It is in these gardens that your destiny lies, though I cannot see it."

He tucked his head low, gazing at the symbol at the bottom of the pond, the tajitu, Hujian had said it was called. He had spent many hours contemplating the ruins scattered among the woods, the graven images of horned men and women in procession. His head bore no horns, but Mother had always told him they were kin. The people of the forest, who had once lived and worshiped the sun together with beasts, though the last of them had vanished before Mother's five times ancestor was a cub.

He had at times peered at the little villages which dotted the borders of the wood, gone to gather their offerings with Mothers servants and retainers. He had been excited and confused by what he saw among them, but now, he could not help the anxiety that bloomed in his chest.

"Then I will make you proud Mother, for all you have given me!" he said, raising his head, puffing out his chest. He could see many eyes on him, friends and kin and petty rivals and acquaintances, every person he had ever known in his life.

He was going to be leaving them all behind.

He let out an 'OOF' as mothers paw curled around his back and clasped him tight, sinking him deep into her warm fur.

"I know you shall, my child."

Song Rui compulsively straightened the front of his robes as he strode down the ancient road which carved this section of the Luo country in twain, the only major road which passed through this heavily wooded and rural corner of their land on the border with the Diao. The divinations of the Ministry had been particularly vague on this particular subject. It was suspected that the potent spirit court in the region was at fault. And so he had been sent to check local conditions and ensure that there was no false reading or brewing threat of beasts.

He had already walked unseen among the sleepy little villages which sprinkled these lands. Which was pleasant enough, it was always a pleasure to see imperial subjects prospering, even if their local customs were sometimes strange and a bit inefficient.

However no talented child appeared under his eyes. He was growing more worried this might be a false alarm, if so they would have to forward the matter to the Ministry of Spiritual Affairs. Still there were a few villages left in the south….

There was something ahead, like a hill had chosen to sit astride the road. A potent beastly qi.

Song Rui stopped in his path, peering ahead grimly, if it was just now at the edge of his senses, then it was still distant. With a breath, he flared his own self, his shadow stretched across far behind him, his mask became a thing of glinting black moonlight, in his hands the quill and the book of magistrate. He was an official of the celestial bureaucracy, and no lawful spirit, no matter how mighty, should bar his path on an imperial road.

The earth rumbled. Acknowledgement and petition.

The presence and the agent let their qi slip back away. He stared ahead in thought and confusion. Strange, but unlikely to be a trap, no spirit in the Empire would not know the consequence of slaying him here.

So he strode ahead, brow creased in curiosity.

And soon, he came upon a bear, and a boy.

"Agent of the Dragon. I present you a seed for your Garden, the subject of your search. Care for him well."

A voice like the low rumble of thunder shook him to the bone.

The boy, an unkempt solidly built young fellow in the first realm, wrapped in rough furs and pelts like a barbarian clapped his fists together and approximated a polite bow. "Please take care of me!"

"What," Song Rui said, for lack of anything better.