Min Li watched as her friends let out a stream of water towards the tree.

She screwed up her face looking at the scene. The stream of water that flowed towards the tree wasn’t powerful in the least and didn’t look anything like the surge that had come from Fenhua in the grand hall, which hadn’t really looked anything like water at all.

Min Li wasn’t even sure that the stream of water was anywhere close to hitting the shield.

Tragic. I should really make some more powerful friends.

Min Li forced her head to remain still as she realised that she couldn’t even do half of what her friends were doing.

“Just a little closer.”

The three helpers each took a tentative step towards the tree and continued to blast, or rather trickle, water in the direction of the tree.

The water was hardly hitting the bottom of the zone that the shield started working in.

The tree and its shield didn’t seem to respond to the little amount of water that they were throwing half-heartedly at it. More. It needed more.

“A little closer still.”

“Didn’t you say that we wouldn’t have to come any closer?”

Min Li swallowed and decided to ignore the offending question.

“Closer please.”

They looked at her as if she was betraying them, but stepped closer to the tree and carried on spraying in its direction nonetheless.

Booooommmmm

Min Li surveyed the scene. Funny that. It always confused her. Min Li saw leaves blowing through the zone and little insects like butterflies flying through the zone of the shield all the time and never had the shield reacted that strongly to anything.

Min Li stared at her friends on the floor holding their backs and groaning. Oopsie, maybe I have betrayed them.

“Sorry. Let me help you u-”

Min Li’s three friends didn’t even wait for her to finish her statement. Already they had jumped right up.

Oh goody. I had thought that I would have had to really persuade them to try again. Maybe they are cut out for a role like being the chosen one’s chosen friend. They may be more like me than I thought.

Min Li’s friends were getting up alright, but they were heading in the opposite direction.

“You are going the wrong waa.” The end of Min Li’s statement tailed off. She realised that what she thought had been happening was the very opposite of what was happening.

She was nearly as slow witted as Tom. They weren’t trying to go towards her and just had bad senses of direction, but they were heading that way to seek solace somewhere far away from her.

Min Li watched as like turtles, or old men and women, her friends hobbled away barely holding a hand up in goodbye to her.

How disappointing. It was not meant to be. Such a burden is too heavy for a mere normal human to bare. It is reserved for special people set up for great things like me, the chosen one’s faithful friend, to achieve.

Min Li tutted and got to cleaning leaves of the ground starting from further back and getting closer to the place that she thought that the shield probably started.

Cleaning was quite therapeutic if it was done for a long period of time. Min Li was cleaning. Cleaning faster then she thought she would whistling. Whistling softly to herself, when she finally looked up and realised where she was.

She was closer to the tree than she had ever thought that she could get without being repelled back by the shield.

She was nearly completely sure that she was in the zone where the shield usually took effect.

Min Li decided to test out that theory deciding that her best course of action was to move slowly and to continue whistling. She now retracted her earlier thoughts; there was a possibility that talking to the tree did work. But the power tree seemed to speak a different language to the rest of the plants in the world. Her whistling seemed to be of great effect. It had got her this far.

To Min Li’s surprise, she was able to walk into the area that she was certain that the shield worked in using her method.

She was persistent in her whistling to the power tree and didn’t stop until she had cleared the entire garden of all unwelcome fallen leaves. For the first time since she had been at the Eastern palace, she was able to see the area under the power tree completely cleared.

Now she was finished with her task, Min Li took her chances.

Rather than being grateful that she was able to get so close to such a powerful tree, Min Li once again approached the tree. Her goal was to be able to touch it, maybe it would give her the powers she wanted.

She stalked towards the tree whistling happily to herself.

How peculiar, she thought as she got closer to the tree for the second time. What a pleasant benefit of being the chosen one’s chosen friend.

At least now the pompous tree knows it’s place, she smiled. That was correct, she was the fearless defender of the chosen one who had the power to burn down, or rather spray down, the tree at her command.

Min Li tilted her head to the side in thought. If it was true that the tree allowed the chosen one's chosen friend near it then she thought it should also allow the chosen one, Fenhua, near it.

The issue she had with that was, Min Li had heard that the crown prince as well as everyone else in the kingdom had never gotten as close to the tree as she was doing right now.

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And if she was always fated to be the faithful friend of the chosen one, why only now was she able to approach the power tree?

All the times that she had been thrown, pushed, and shoved back from the tree suddenly hit her. Min Li stopped her whistling for a second of silence in remembrance of the pain she had faced for no reason. She quickly resumed her whistling remembering just how much it did hurt. She didn’t want to jinx herself.

Min Li took another second out whilst walking to the tree to stick her tongue out childishly at it. The tree didn’t seem to be all that creative in the punishments that it dished out for approaching it.

Min Li was so close to the tree. She was close enough to achieve her goal of touching it. But for a second there, she was caught up in something else. She was absolutely enthralled by what she was witnessing.

Up close the tree was even more beautiful than it was from afar. Every part of the tree seemed to shine as if it had been polished every day.

The leaves of the tree were perfect in every way. From afar she had thought that the colour of the leaves had been a pure forest green. From close, she realised that she was slightly wrong the leaves of the tree seemed laced with slight threads of silver.

Each leaf seemed knitted by the very best of embroiders. It was so intricate Min Li was sure that no man who hadn’t witnessed it for themselves would ever believe that she had seen what she had seen.

The thick trunk of the tree was beautiful in its own right. From afar it looked stable and strong, from close Min Li could tell that the distance told no lies on that end. The trunk also boasted of its own uniqueness in colour. Whilst the leaves were laced with silver, the brown of the trunk was laced with threads of the purest of gold. Min Li wondered whether it would be possible to turn the tree into jewellery or maybe, if she was very lucky, a beautiful dress could be made with its material. Nothing was impossible.

As if enchanted, without any thought, Min Li’s hand was moving towards the tree. She was reaching and reaching, until like a dream she finally touched it.

Min Li buzzed like she was electrocuted.

That was new.

The tree seemed to be taking it out on her that she had thoughts of producing beautiful garments.

Her hair didn’t move, but by the sensation that zapped through her Min Li had thought that her hair would be standing on its end.

Something about the sensation flowing through Min Li brought a weird feeling to the nape of her neck. It was a painful feeling, but that part of her body didn’t seem to recognise that. It seemed that the nape of her neck wasn’t connected to the rest of her body. It didn’t feel what the rest of her body felt. Because it was quite enjoying the pain that the rest of her body was fighting to get away from.

But no matter how hard she tried to pull away, something in Min Li wasn’t allowing her to remove her hand from the trunk of the tree. At least that was what she thought was happening. Maybe it wasn’t her that was lacking control but the tree. It could have been that the tree was trying to suck her hand in, and it was really her hand that was resisting the pull.

Min Li forgot all her earlier pride and begged the tree through pursed lips, she couldn’t seem to open her mouth. It is me. The chosen’s one chosen friend. Remember me. Sorry, I was too rude. I didn’t remember that you are my senior in age and in power. What was it I said, ‘at least now the pompous tree knows its place’. I am sorry if I offended you. It is not you that is pompous but I. I now know my place.

Fortunately, as the tree was not yielding, it seemed as if something else had heard her prayer.

Min Li’s friends were walking back to the area where she was. It seemed as if they had gotten rid of their aches and pains after all. They weren’t bad friends after all, it turned out that they had set up shop near the area just waiting to get their breath back.

Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to be looking up. Rather, they were laughing with one another about something or another.

Tom looked at Min Li. Finally, Min Li thought.

But then he turned back to the girls and carried on talking.

The man looked back at Min Li and smiled at her enthusiastically like a dumb poodle. Min Li tried to communicate to him through facial expressions that she was in trouble.

She frowned. She pouted. She made her eyes face two different directions. She stuck her tongue out at him. She raised her eyebrows and jilted her chin towards him. She made her eye twitch and raised the corner of her mouth.

But all the man did was frown and then he looked back at the girls and again carry on talking.

Min Li was fed up. Could he not see that her being stuck to the tree wasn’t a normal position for anyone to be in? Min Li was ashamed to say it about someone who may turn out to be her one and only saviour, but it was there that Min Li called Tom every single synonym for dumb under the sun.

It was rather rude. She could never repeat it out loud no matter where she was. Stupid. Silly. The absolute brainless nincompoop. Half-witted, vapid idiot. Daft, pea-brained, pig-ignorant, obtuse imbecile. Move over Kit, she thought, there is someone else way more bovine than you.

If Min Li could talk at that moment the things she would have said. It would have gone something like this. ‘Take him to the dungeons. Feed him to the lions. And most importantly off with his head.’

Luckily Rose looked up and with a small shout, she ran over to the tree with Min Li’s other two friends in tow. Kit seemed rather sheepish that he didn’t understand her cry for help earlier. As he ran, he avoided eye contact as Min Li glared at him.

The two girls ran so fast and hard that they forgot about the shield. They bumped into it and rebounded unto the floor.

Tom, on the other hand, executed a casual effort. He jogged up to the shield, making sure to stop right before he could get rebounded. He was still avoiding eye contact looking sheepish. AS HE SHOULD BE SHEEPISH, the voice in Min Li’s brain shouted out trying it’s best to be heard aloud.

Min Li’s friends were now just observing Min Li. They looked as if they had no clue as to what to do about her predicament.

At least shout, Min Li thought, if you don’t know what to do maybe someone else would.

But Min Li’s three friends looked utterly stuck. At their hesitant glances Min Li knew that she was in a trickier situation than she had originally thought.

She started to feel claustrophobic. Her chest was feeling stuffy. Her head was feeling light.

Panic rose in her chest, and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe.

Then she heard some shouts of alarm.

She looked at her three friends, their mouths certainly weren’t moving. She tried to get a feel for what her mouth was doing, and discovered her mouth was moving but no words seemed to be coming out.

“WHERE’S MIN LI? HAVE YOU SEEN MIN LI?”

Someone was shouting from afar.

It was a voice that Min Li instantly recognised. She had recognised the voice when it was whispering about her and she could recognise the voice even more now that it was shouting about her.

The voice was getting closer and closer.

Then he appeared at the end of the garden. Fenhua looked haggard in the face, and he was holding unto his chest just like Min Li had seen him doing before.

Fenhua spotted Min Li looking like a starfish stuck to a tree and at once he took off in a sprint towards her.

You see that Tom, Min Li thought.

Min Li was utterly tired with the pain, her whole body just wanted it to end.

Fenhua didn’t even need to whistle as he approached her. The shield just let him through without any resistance.

Unlike Min Li, Fenhua didn’t seem the least surprised that he was able to approach the tree. He also didn’t seem the least surprise that Min Li was able to get so close to the tree.

How had he known that she was in trouble?

Min Li’s three friends were still just gawking at the sight. Not one word came out of them from the moment they realised they couldn’t also in the shield till the moment that Fenhua had appeared.

And they wondered why I had tried to improve their friendship ways by sacrificing their butts making them spray the tree.

There was no doubt about it. Fenhua had known Min Li was in trouble when no one had yet found the chance to tell him.

Min Li had thought since she had found out that they were set out to be friends by the prophecy that their emotions were connected. And she had an instant gut feeling that it was occurring through the marks at the nape of their necks.

Just with the proximity of the crown prince to Min Li she felt much better. He had the ability to calm down her anxiety.

Then Fenhua started pulling, trying to separate Min Li from the tree. But Min Li seemed stuck solid, it felt to her as if there was some binding substance between her and the tree. Min Li’s skin was burning at Fenhua trying to pull her off.

Min Li’s body felt light. Her head felt even fainter.

Before she could totally give in to her sleep there was only one thing on Min Li’s mind.

Surprisingly it was not thanks to Fenhua her saviour. Rather what was on her mind was, someone should teach that pompous tree its place.