Niu De awoke to bangs on his door. “Feng! Feng, are you in there!?” De recognized the voice. He just wondered why Feng’s father thought Feng was at De’s house. De, in an effort to be a good friend, avoided Feng and Liu for the past week. He saw the love in the air and didn’t want to get in the way of it. But, if Feng’s father was looking for Feng, something must have happened. De got up and opened the door. As soon as he did, Qin Hu ran in, the father of his best friend.
“Feng! Feng! Are you here!?” Hu called, completely ignoring De.
“He’s not. I haven’t seen him in a week.” De said.
Hu’s fists tightened and worry covered his face. “Where did you go, boy?”
“What’s going on down there?” A gruff voice echoed upstairs. It seemed the commotion woke De’s father. His voice was deeper than the ocean and louder than a hundred screaming roosters.
“Sorry to disturb you, Wei. But my son has gone missing.” Hu said.
De’s father walked down the stairs; his footsteps sounded like a tumbling boulder. “Your son?” De’s father said. He was a big man, a trait De inherited, his head nearly reached the ceiling. Which always made De wonder, why didn’t he just make the house they lived in bigger? He had oiled black hair that rolled down his shoulders and curled at the ends like a classy girl’s frilled dress. His eyes were brown and surrounded by laugh lines. A man of booming laughter, De’s ears always hurt after a good joke made its way to his father. His chest was broad, and his back looked like a boulder’s big brother. An enemy to all doorways. A man that imposed himself wherever he went, whether he meant to or not.
De shared many of his father’s looks. The same size, maybe a tad smaller, if he was being honest. That didn’t make him any less strong, no, it did. His strength paled to the “mighty Niu Wei”. De had Black hair, just shorter and buzzed, and Brown eyes. He looked like a mini, less intimidating version of his father, well he was his son, so that was to be expected. De wished he looked a little more like his mother, maybe he would attract more girls then. He missed her.
“Yes, he’s been missing since last night. I ran over here to see if he was staying with De.” Hu said.
“Was Feng here last night, De?” De’s father said.
“No, like I said earlier, I haven’t seen Feng for over a week. Did you check Liu’s house? That’s the only other place he could be.” De said.
“I haven’t, I was going to check there next. But that boy better have not stayed there, they’re not even married yet and Shan… well...” Hu said. Zhao Shan, Liu’s father, had a ferocious temper, especially when it came to his daughter.
“Come, let us go to Shan’s house. I will try to mediate as best as I can if Feng did indeed spend the night there.” De’s father said. The great calm ox, De’s father could withstand anything. Whenever an argument broke in the village, his father made sure to end it. No man or woman wanted to upset the giant Niu Wei.
“I’ll come too. I’m worried about Feng.” De said. He hoped his friend had not done anything stupid. Feng was in love with Liu, De knew this, but his friend needed to take things slowly, that is if he didn’t want to get clawed to death by Zhao Shan.
Hu, De, and De’s father walked down the dirt path towards Zhao Shan’s home. De’s nerves jumped and flied. He prayed for his friend and hoped his friend had not done anything as stupid as spending the night at Liu’s house. Shan’s house, like all the other houses in Hilltop Village, was made of wood and thatch. He had a small pig pen, and a little chicken coop. Liu usually took care of the animals while Shan ran the inn. From what De could remember Liu telling him, her father rarely came home, he stayed at the inn. But he made sure to see his daughter every day, that wasn’t hard when she worked there too. Still, he made sure to walk her home every night and make her a warm dinner, he also made sure to stop by the house every morning to wake his lazy daughter up, at least that’s what Liu told De, she excluded the lazy part. But everyone knew it, Zhao Liu was a lazy woman.
De’s father knocked on the wooden door. No answer. Maybe Shan hadn’t come home to wake his daughter yet? Or maybe he took Feng to the woods and chopped his head off. De’s father knocked on the door again, this time a voice answered.
“Liu!? Liu, is that you!? Where have you been!? I’ve been worried sick!?” Shan’s voice cried out.
“No, it is me, Wei.”
“Wei? What are you doing here, have you seen my daughter!?” The man sounded desperate. De’s stomach turned. What the hell did those two idiots do? He thought to himself.
A troubled expression crossed De’s father’s face. “We’re looking for Fe-” Hu began to say before De’s father silenced him. De agreed with his father’s decision, things needed to be delt with delicately.
“I haven’t seen your daughter. Come out here, Shan. We need to talk.” De’s father said.
“Talk about what? I have to find my daughter, Wei! I don’t have the time to talk!”
“Come out, that’s why we need to talk. We can help find your daughter.” De’s father said.
A moment later, the door swung open, and a wild-eyed man stood in the center. His eyes glowed yellow like Liu’s and his red hair was cropped short. A face filled with worry and danger. De saw this look on Hu Shan many times, the man’s record of public bouts of anger were not small. But, when the red tiger roared, better steer clear. Shan’s chest, shoulders, and back looked like they could explode anytime out of his shirt. His arms were thicker than De’s head, and the village children called De melon head. Shan was a spring of muscled danger in a small frame.
“You know where my daughter is, Wei?” Shan didn’t seem to notice Hu or De. That was probably for the best, De thought. Involving Hu would complicate things.
De’s father exhaled sharply. An explosion danced on the horizon. “Feng has gone missing too, with the both of them gone… Well, they’re young.” De’s father said. De didn’t think Feng or Liu had it in them to take things that far yet. If anything, the pair probably just fell asleep after adventuring.
“Feng’s gone too, and you tell me they might be somewhere… somewhere doing…” Shan said.
“Calm down, Shan. Don’t jump to any conclusions. We still don’t know what’s going on.” De’s father’s hands swung up and tried to placate the tiger. “Let’s take things slowly and find them, okay? Anger isn’t going to help here.”
Shan waited a long minute before he spoke again. “Fine. I need to find Liu first.” The man seemed calmed, but De knew the truth, a monster was still on the prowl.
Hu spoke. “Shan, I’m sorry.” Feng’s father had no reason to apologize. Knowing Liu and Feng, she probably dragged him into some ridiculous situation, rather than the other way around. But Hu apologizing made De want to punch the man. His stupid mouth was going to ruin the peace.
“Shut up, Hu. I’ll deal with you later. Transform already, we’ll cover more ground on a dragon’s back.” Shan said. Luckily, Shan kept his promise to De’s father. No raging tiger, yet.
“Step back.” Hu said. Everyone did. But De noticed Shan only took a little step back. The little ball of muscle crossed his arms and stood still, focused, and angry.
In a poof, a giant red dragon appeared. Its scales reflected the sun’s light and whiskers as long as De was tall flickered in the wind. A dark black beard and mane, eyes that shone like an entrapped thunderstorm. Hu’s form stretched all the way back to the main road and seemed as thick as wide as the road too.
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“Let’s go.” De’s father said. De and Shan nodded their heads and the three climbed onto Hu’s back. As soon as they got on, the dragon rose. De missed riding on the back of a dragon. The air rushing through his hair, the sights he saw, the freedom, he missed it all. The sacrifices a friend makes for another friend in love. But hopefully, Feng and Liu were fine, knowing them, they would be. Still, a sense of anxiety bubbled in his stomach.
The group searched for hours. They found no trace of Feng or Liu. De’s bubbling stomach of anxiety rose to a boil. They looked all around the village, the only places not checked yet were the Hare Plains and Misty Mountains. Hu flew there now; his pace had begun quickening for every minute his son was lost. Shan’s composure, or his lack of it, made the air thick. The air around the tiger man blazed. Everybody grew more afraid the longer the search went.
Green fields began, and distant mountains neared. A few seconds after the group entered the Hare Plains, Hu’s and Shan’s heads shot up. They smelled something. De let out a sigh of relief. They were on the right path, a bit closer to finding his friends.
“Found them?” De’s father asked.
“Their scent, it’s faint.” Hu said.
“Where is the scent leading us?” De’s father said.
“Towards the mountains.” Shan said.
“We’re going to find them there?” De said.
“We’ll find out.” De’s father said.
The scent led the crew to the edge of the mist of the Misty Mountains, then it ended. Hu plunged into it and De lost his sense of direction; everything became grey. The air cooled and De shivered. He wrapped himself up in his arms to keep his heat in, it didn’t work, it just made him look pathetic. De’s father and Shan sat, unbothered by the little chill. De felt ashamed, the old men were showing him up. He unwrapped himself, sat straight, and pretended he wasn’t cold. Even if he wanted to curl up and cry inside.
De and the trio of fathers traveled in silence. Every once in a while, he saw Shan perk his head up and sniff the air, only to come back down and shake his head. De’s heart feared for his friends. Cold minutes passed, no Feng, no Liu, only more worry. Things changed when an opening in the mist appeared. A starry sky stared at De. A starry sky? They arrived at the Misty Mountains at late noon, impossible, it couldn’t be night already, De thought to himself. No way they traveled for that long? Everybody called him slow, but De knew the difference between hours and minutes.
“It’s strange. What’s going on here? Night? There’s no way?” De’s father said.
“Doesn’t matter. Hu, charge through. We’ve already lost their scent, the only way towards Liu is forward.” Shan said. The man looked like he was on the edge of crying, screaming, and murdering.
The dragon charged through the hole. In a second the misty air became a starry night sky.
“Smell them?” De’s father asked. Shan’s face showed the answer, anger, defeat, and loss. Bile rose up De’s chest. He scanned his surroundings for anything, any clue to where his friends had gone, nothing.
“Liu, where have you gone?” Shan said. His voice cracked, and a sense of hollowness echoed off of it.
“Shan, we can’t give up. I’m not going home without my boy.” Hu said.
“Your boy!? Your son might have gotten my daughter killed! And I swear, when I find him, I’ll make sure to repay the favor.” Shan said. Red Ki boiled around him.
“Don’t say anything that could get you killed, Shan.” Hu said. Blue Ki rolled off him and sat like a thunderstorm.
“Stop. You two killing each other won’t save Feng or Liu.” De’s father said.
Shan’s face tightened but he stopped. The red Ki boiling around him died, the temperature around the group cooled, and De’s heart began to beat again.
“Where are we?” De said. He looked down and a shadowed forest greeted him.
“I don’t know. We’re going to have to find a town or city.” De’s father said.
“Lights. Towards the North. You see them, bastard?” Shan said.
“Yeah, I’m heading there now.” Hu said.
Lights? De looked around and squinted his eyes. He found absolutely nothing. Still, it was good that Hu and Shan were still speaking, no matter how tense it seemed, better than them killing each other.
Hu flew off into the direction of the “light”, and De made himself comfortable. He lost himself in his worried thoughts, and the stars. He worried about his friends, and a bit about himself. He was in an unknown area, and a homicidal tiger stood a few feet away from him. But eventually, he fell asleep.
De awoke, of course he would, when somebody shook him as violently as they did at the moment. His brain rattled and his organs slushed. The person waking him sure did a good job of making De hate them, but only one person would wake him up this way. De’s eyes fluttered open, and his eyes met his father’s.
“Good, you’re awake.” De’s father said.
“Yeah, I’m awake.” Waking every morning to a giant man shaking your body like a dirty rag was never pleasant. No matter how much De’s father did it, De never got used to it. De looked around himself and found wooden huts like his own. He guessed the “light” did lead somewhere.
“We’re staying the night here. Shan found an inn for us to stay at.” De’s father said.
“Okay, let’s go. I’m tired.” De said.
De’s father nodded. “Shan, lead the way.”
The tiger man sat a few feet away from De. His arms were crossed, and he looked deep in thought. “Let’s get going.” He said.
“Hu, wake up.” De’s father slapped the back of the dragon they stayed on.
“Huh, Shan’s back? Okay, Let’s go.” Hu said. De’s father’s methods of waking people up would get his father killed one day, maybe by De’s own hands.
De, his father, and Shan climbed off the red dragon and Hu transformed back to a bald man. Shan led the group to a bigger wooden shack than the ones De saw earlier. It looked just like Shan’s own inn, maybe a bit more beat up. Before they entered, De’s father pulled De aside.
“De, you’re going to share a room with Hu tonight.” De’s father said.
“Can’t we just all get our own rooms?” De liked space when he slept, a whole room full of space.
“No, I need you to keep an eye on him. We can’t have Shan and Hu killing each other.”
“I thought they worked everything out?”
“Anger isn’t that easy to bury. I’m sure everything will be fine, but just keep an eye on him.”
“Do I need to stay up the whole night?”
“You slept good enough earlier, right?” De’s father smiled. “But no, don’t worry about it. I’ll be up. I just hope you being there might make Hu or Shan think twice before they do something stupid.”
“Are you going to share Shan’s room?” De asked.
“I will. He’s the rasher one. But like I said earlier, I don’t think anything will happen.” De’s father clapped De on the back.
“Ow!” De rubbed his back. It burned.
“Ha, still weak, De. You’re going to have to get stronger before I hand over the farm to you.”
“I don’t want the farm anyway.”
“Good, good, a man should want to build his own things.”
“Whatever. I’m tired.” De said.
De’s father nodded, and they returned to Shan and Hu.
“You don’t have to worry, Wei. I’m not going to do anything stupid.” Shan said.
“Oh, I forgot about your hearing. You tiger folk… I need to keep my mouth shut around you, don’t I?” De’s father laughed.
“Dad, shut up. You’re too loud. You’re going to wake the village up.”
“Sorry, sorry, shall we go inside? The day’s journey is starting to wear on me.” De’s father said.
“Did you talk to the inn keeper, Shan?” Hu said.
Shan waited for a few moments before speaking, very dangerous moments. “Yes.”
“Since you’re not rushing off now, I guess the innkeeper hasn’t seen Feng or Liu.” Hu said.
“Shut up. Let’s go to sleep.” Shan walked into the inn. De and the rest of the crew followed him. Inside the inn, the walls were painted orange from the candlelight and a big, pot-bellied man stood behind a wooden bar.
“These the friends you were talking about before?” The man said.
“Yes.” Shan said.
“Alright, two rooms, and each room with two beds, right?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Follow me.”
The innkeeper showed De and the crew to their rooms and left. De dropped on a bed and started his journey to sleep. But before he did, Hu spoke to him.
“How are you holding up?” Hu said.
“Tired and worried.” De said.
“Me too, boy. Me too.”
“Do we have a plan for tomorrow? Do we have a plan to find Liu and Feng?”
“For tomorrow, we’re asking around, figuring out where we are, but I assume Shan already has a general idea. He must’ve talked to the innkeeper. For Feng and Liu… I only hope they got transported to the same place as us.”
“Transported, huh? It’s strange, did you know about it, Hu? The Misty Mountains and its transport business I mean.”
“No, I did not, De. Me, your father, and Shan used to play behind the mists when we were young. This has never happened, at least as far as I know. It’s strange, there’s strange Ki at work.”
De nodded his head. “I’m sure Feng and Liu are fine. They’re strong, they can defend themselves until we find them.” De didn’t know if he was trying to cheer up Feng’s father or himself. Maybe it was both.
“You don’t know the world yet, De. It’s a cruel and vicious… no, I can’t think like that. You’re right, I’m sure they’re fine.” Hu didn’t sound like he believed it, but there was nothing De or he could do. “Now, let’s go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow.”
“Alright, goodnight, Hu.”
“Goodnight, De.” And De drifted off to sleep.
Darkness. “Where the hell am I? Is this a dream?” De looked around and saw nothing. Then he looked down, his fingers and body were there, except they glowed. “Okay, that’s strange. Hello! Is anyone here!?”
“I’ve been waiting for you.” A voice rumbled from the dark. It strangely reminded De of his father’s. It carried the same weight, no, the voice he heard now was heavier.
“What are you? A demon!?” De said.
“A demon?” The deep voice laughed. “No, I am not a demon. It isn’t time for you to know me yet. Just know I’ll be keeping my eye on you, little bull.” Little? Sure, De’s muscles weren’t as big as his father’s yet, but he was still strong, and one of the tallest in the village. The crazy thing in the dark didn’t know what it was talking about.
“Well, knock it off. I don’t want your eyes on me.”
“An arrogant, bull. Yes, that’s how you should be, strong, fearless, and undaunted. You’ll do well.”
“Do well for what? Hey, answer me!”
“You’ll know in time, little bull.” The voice faded and De was left alone in his dreamscape.
“What was that? Nothing good.” De said.
The next morning, De woke up to screaming roosters, the usual. He got up and started his morning routine, wash his face, and start up a bath. The only thing was, everything was in the wrong spot, or the thing didn’t exist. Right, I’m not home, De thought to himself.
“Up, boy? Good, let’s meet with your father and Shan.” Hu sat on his bed, and it looked like he was in deep thought before speaking to De.
“Let’s go.” De said. A moment later, they met up with De’s father and Shan at the bar in the inn. The fat innkeeper was there too, he was probably a part of the pig clan. He was a massive man, a pair of glasses sat on his face that looked like it was about to be consumed by his fat. He had three chins, a jolly smile, and an all-around affable air around him. De felt like he could trust the man.
“Inn keep, do you have a map?” De’s father said.
“Sure do, let me go take a look in the back.”
The group waited in silence until the inn keeper returned. “Found it.” He held a beat-up piece of yellow scrolled up paper and unrolled it on the table.
“You said this village was called Qin Ning last night, right?” Shan said.
“Yep, named after our founder.”
“Where is it on the map?” Shan said.
“Oh, our fair village is much too small to be seen on a grand map of the empire.”
“I know that. Where is the general area of the village on the map.” Shan said.
“You don’t know? I thought you and your group had been traveling the roads. Don’t tell me you got lost.”
“Something like that, now answer my question.” Shan said.
“Okay… well, our little village is somewhere around here.” The inn keep pointed at the left side of the map, pictures of trees and a grand mountain were there. Left side? That was the west side of a map, right? De thought to himself. Directions, academics, they never really stuck to De. He believed himself to be a more practical man. What did a great farmer need of directions anyway? All he needed was a hoe and a plot of land. But now, in the search of his friends, it looked like it would be very important.
“Shit.” Hu said.
“Shit indeed.” De’s father said.
“What’s wrong?” De asked.
“Hilltop Village is on the other fucking side of the empire, that’s what’s wrong.” Shan said.
“Oh.” De said. It looked like they were a far ways away from home. Hopefully, they would be near Feng and Liu at least.