The person who had turned up in the tree next to Min Li didn’t really interest her in the slightest right now. She had already figured it all out from his voice. It was getting boring. The same prince every time appeared when she was doing anything naughty to tan her hide. The man who had graced her with his presence was her trusty sidekick, well she was meant to be his sidekick, but she that didn’t interest her. She rejected it.

Min Li pretended to not know Fenhua was in the tree with her and stood silent.

“I know you heard me. Why don’t you carry on, let’s see if your insults make the situation that you are in that I previously warned you about any better?” The crown prince said sounding amused.

Min Li was not amused.

He had caught her in a moment of weakness and immaturity, like anyone would be in if they were in a similar situation to her, and she just knew that he was going to use it to tease her.

Min Li turned to Fenhua.

“Why are you not able to rescue me without berating me so?” Min Li said while shaking her head and twisting her neck giving all the attitude she could muster to Fenhua.

“Why are you never able to rescue yourself? You really make me feel like a real prince charming always swooping in to save the day.”

Min Li cocked her head to where she thought Fenhua was and jutted out her head, “Prince charming? Tell that to someone who believes you.”

She felt the prince’s finger slightly raising her chin. She wondered whether she was now face to face with the prince, close enough to have another round of that which should not be spoken of that occurred in the field.

“You believe me.”

Min Li jutted out her neck again but couldn’t argue with fact. Prince Fenhua was her prince charming whether everyone around knew it yet or not.

“How did you even get in here?”

“It was not hard to figure out where you were once I felt your panicked state. What could truly be all that scary within the Eastern palace, where I, the crown prince, reside and when I, the crown prince, am the head of security for the kingdom.”

“Ugh- Are you boasting about yourself?”

“Not any more than you usually boast about your own self.”

“You can open your eyes... Don’t worry I am here now.”

Hesitantly Min Li opened one eye and circled her pupil around taking in all what she could.

The first thing that Min Li realised was that Fenhua was not in front of her. He was more off to the side of her than she had realised.

She had been jutting her head and pecking with her beak arguing with the air in front of her, and Fenhua probably hadn’t really received any of the deadly moves that she had made.

Min Li flushed in embarrassment.

Fenhua laughed in amusement.

Min Li considered whether she could beat him in a fight if fortune was on her side.

There was more space in the tree than Min Li could ever imagine.

There was nothing around her. Inside the tree was empty. All she could see was white.

Up. Down. Left. Right. To the front of her. To the back of her.

Kind of like an empty room. Except this room didn’t have walls and it didn’t have a floor. How Min Li was standing up, she knew not. It was like she was stuck in some sort of abyss.

It was like the opposite of what someone would see if they were trapped in the coffin.

Black, unending black, versus white, unending white; Min Li didn’t know which was worse.

The black informs a person truthfully that they are in a sticky situation. There is no hiding with black. Black is genuine. A real honest colour. It just a shame that the intentions that it is honest about are not too nice. Being honest in its intentions to kill, doesn’t provide much comfort.

The white has the ability to stab someone in the back. It draws a person in with a fake sense of security. And then BAM; they are dead. White contains all the colours in the spectrum, even the angry, blood thirsty, fiery red and it hides all the colours awfully well.

White is the colour that people apparently see when they go to see their maker.

Min Li felt a little sick to her stomach. She had thought herself into a bubble of fear and anxiety.

No way. You are not about to take me. Not I.

Min Li ran to the only thing that she could take comfort in, which was also the only thing she could see. She hugged Fenhua tight burying her head in his chest and not looking up.

Fenhua hugged her back properly just as tight throwing his arms around her.

“I thought you always wanted to be a female warrior, but now you are scared,” Fenhua’s voice rumbled.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Min Li whispered back her reply now completely fearful of the booming voice whose kids she had once insulted. “Can’t you see? This is not a warrior’s battlefield. It is something else completely different. Don’t you know what survival of the fittest is young man?”

“What about propriety that you are always going on about?”

“Screw that. I would rather let go of all propriety and forsake every rule between men and women that the queen than to let go of you right now”

“If you insist... Remember as you said, I am indeed a young man.”

Min Li looked up for a second and saw that Fenhua now had his eyes shut and was biting his lip head tilted upwards. Suddenly, the crown prince was starting to look a bit more like a ravenous wolf who was trying to not give in to his biological urges.

Not that she was completely unwilling to go along with Fenhua but propriety was in her blood; if anyone didn’t know they should have been told she was set to be queen.

Min Li stopped burrowing her head into Fenhua’s chest, but still hugged him as tight as she could.

“It seems that some of the charms of the mark have started to plateau. Our marks are going to go through the next stage soon.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You were able to resist me this time round. If I hadn’t had resisted you all those times,” Fenhua let out a long low whistle, “my mother would have countless of the grandkids she most desired.”

“Who resisted who? Charm of mark what?”

Fenhua just smiled at Min Li.

“Explain yourself prince.”

“I am going to. We are here now, thanks to your troublesome self. You can no longer be protected from the truth.”

“Who is troublesome?”

That was the first part of the sentence that Min Li had decided to focus on.

“You my dear,” Fenhua tapped Min Li’s nose, “are the most troublesome woman that I have ever had the misf- the fortune of meeting.”

He carried on. “You can never leave well enough alone. Do you know how tiresome it has been trying to keep you from yourself?”

Min Li looked down and around at the non-existent floor.

“Has anything fallen out of your pocket?” Min Li asked Fenhua who looked confused.

“Because Fenhua. I don’t know if you have noticed… but you seem to have lost every single one of your marbles.”

Fenhua laughed louder than she had heard him in the last half a decade. Min Li continued to look at the man whilst wondering if a trip to visit monks in the mountains would fix the crown prince’s obvious ailment.

What a shame for the king, the queen and the country. We all had thought we had a good sane heir. Will I have to relinquish my own title as the next queen of Xilin if the man goes mad? Oh, I don’t think that much I can bear.

Fenhua used his index finger to move her face allowing for eye contact again and simply said, “Listen properly or I won’t give you any of the answers you seek.”

Min Li just stared at him with a forced smile not wanting to poke the loony bear.

“You seem to know most of it. You and I, us two, are the chosen one and the chosen one’s helper.” Min Li screwed up her face lightly at hearing the word `helper`. She didn’t like the sound of that, she much preferred ‘chosen friend’ as she had termed it.

Not being privy to her thoughts, Fenhua carried on, “The chosen one is said to have the ability to save the three kingdoms or to destroy them. The chosen one is said to have to go through more trials and tribulations than anyone even the most pitiful person in all the Earth has ever had to go through. People, no matter the kingdom, no matter good or bad fear the chosen one and their helper for the amount of power they will hold.”

"Poor you.” Min Li interjected. She was sad for Fenhua but in the back of her mind she did wonder how it would be to rule the kingdom as the monarch if something happened to the chosen one in front of her.

“Exactly poor me... and poor you.”

Min Li shook her head. Not in sorrow for herself, but in disagreement. What Fenhua just said made it even more abundantly clear to Min Li, this line of work was simply not for her. Surely this big man in front of me doesn’t need a weak, faint woman such as myself to save the world. Fenhua, you are on your own.

“As you can see the prophecy is very dangerous and so I stayed away from you when I realised that everything about you, especially you being without powers, pointed to the prophecy.”

“What does being the chosen one have to do with you staying away from me?”

Fenhua grabbed Min Li’s chin and leaned forwards.

Their lips were so close to touching that Min Li thought that she was about to have a fit, and for good reason.

From the nape of the neck, Min Li felt a sensation that by now she was plenty familiar with. A flow of exhilaration and pleasure swept through her even though their lips had not yet met.

And it turned out, it wasn’t the crown prince’s intention to sully Min Li’s chastity. He pulled away from her without allowing for even a quick connection.

“That. You clearly felt that.”

“Yes, so what,” Min Li said trying to act like her breathing was under control.

Fenhua smirked. Min Li considered whether her stance that she would lose against him in a fight was reliable.

“I can feel your emotions but that is not all the mark does. The more we interacted, the stronger our bond was getting. The prophecy says that the chosen one becomes ready as the bond gets stronger and when there is a strong enough bond between the two, the chosen one can gain access to all their powers.”

Because friendship is the reason why heroes beat their enemies who are much stronger than them and want to tear down the world, Min Li thought sarcastically. What rubbish.

“Apparently, we have interacted enough as we are able to be here.” Fenhua pointed to his surroundings. “This is where the chosen one can gain access to all the powers that are theirs to use but have the danger to destroy them.”

Wow. Who would have known that this tree is actually very useful? Not just a power tree in name, are you now?

Fenhua was sighing seeming unhappy, “I didn’t want this to happen, but now that it has we need to figure out the safest way for both you and I.”

Min Li was not listening. Something had hit her. If she had already helped Fenhua into the tree, surely most of her job was done. She need not fret about the rest.

“So, my job is done.” Min Li smiled proudly.

Fenhua smiled but it seemed a bit like he didn’t believe what he was hearing, “Exactly… Your job is done. You don’t need to do anything else. Don’t think about the rest at all. I am planning to keep you away from anything bad that could occur.”

“How do you know all of this? Isn’t the book of the prophecy lost?”

“Of course, it’s not lost,” Fenhua said, “Rumours can always be spread as deterrence. A civilian is not allowed to have possession of the book of the prophecy in case something goes wrong. The book was split into three, given to the royals of each of the three kingdoms and handed down through generations, and the content is only for the royals of the kingdom that have it. Rumours were spread about how the book of the prophecy was lost to stop sticky fingers, much like yours.”

“Where was it?”

“In my library, top shelf. Hiding in plain sight.”

If only I had climbed one more rung, Min Li thought.

“No one apart from the most treacherous thief,” he looked at her pointedly, “would ever dare to enter.”

“But what if Yilin-”

“Could never happen. It's protected by the most powerful of waterpower.”

“So,” Min Li said sweetly, “now that you know that I am not in danger, promise me that you are not going to leave me to my own devices again and you will never lie to me again.”

“Never again,” Fenhua smiled happily.

“Promise.”

“All I ever want to do is keep my promises to you.”

There was only one issue that the budding pair of lovebirds were forgetting, they happened to be trapped in a tree. Fortunately for a good storyline, someone hadn’t forgotten.