The rolled up tapestry made its way to the Large Town of Lu Shan. Once there a special wagon was tasked to bring it to the home of Xi Yang Yang Shan. The driver knocked on the door, and a servant answered. “I’ve got a delivery. It’s some tapestry,” the delivery driver said. The servant brightened. “Oh good! Our master has been waiting for that with great expectation. Please bring it in.”
The driver lifted the long package off the wagon and with steady swaying steps walked towards the door, while the servant held it open. Once through he looked around for a place to set it down, before giving up and putting it on the floor. “Good day.” The servant gave a nod in return, “good day to you, and thank you.” The driver gave a soft, “think nothing of it” and left.
The servant looked at the case and tried to decide if the master wanted to have the tapestry brought to him, or would want to open it himself. Finally, he decided to simply ask his master. Walking up a few flights of stairs brought him to the door of his master’s study. With a light knock he gained the occupant’s attention. “What is it?” The occupant clearly did not enjoy being distracted from his life’s work. “Sir, your tapestry arrived.”
A few noises resounded within, a book being shut, a drawer being closed and locked, and finally the sound of rushed feet hurrying towards the door. The servant wisely stepped out of the way. The door burst open and the occupant lunged out. A man just past middle age looked at the servant fiercely. “Where is it!?” The servant was barely able to say, “the entrance hall” before the man was rushing downstairs.
When the servant rejoined his master, the man stood in front of the crate puzzled as to how he was to open it. “Sir, a moment and I’ll get the proper tool.” The man turned to the servant. “Hurry,” he said, nearly grinding his teeth. The servant moved towards the storage room, running into the other servant, his sister. “Menpu, what’s going on?”
The now named Menpu turned to the other servant, Dier Puren, and said “that tapestry has arrived! And if I don’t get the box open soon, the master will break it open himself!” Menpu sped off. Reaching the storage room, finding a lever and running back only took him a few moments, but the master was actually hopping, “what took you so long?!” Menpu knew the uselessness of trying to explain himself. Once his master got what he wanted he would forget this and Menpu would never hear of it again. So he simply stepped forward with the lever, and opened the box as quickly as he could.
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Finally with the box opened, the tapestry was revealed. Menpu reached in to take hold of one end and Xi Yang grabbed the other end. They lifted the tapestry out and set it on the floor. Menpu, anticipating his master, moved the entrance hall table out of the way, to give his master plenty of floor space.
Xi Yang rolled it out with a shove, and then stepped back to take in the tapestry. “My goodness! The accuracy is amazing!”
Dahe continued his project, determining the number of tapestries, and the scenes they’d portray. He decided to make them about poster size. Otherwise, his spear training was coming along well. His spar with Zao had shown him that he was on the right path.
Time went on as before, a few months passed when there was a knock on his door. Opening his door, he sees a novice on his doorstep. “Yes?” he asks, the novice quickly hands him a letter, backs up a step, bows, and turns and walks away. Dahe’s brow furrowed in confusion, but he decided to ignore the oddness of the messengers lately, and simply read the letter.
Once inside his private sitting room he opened the message. He nodded his head as he read. ‘Hmm, well, I’m glad the man liked it. But he wants to have more images of scaly or slimy animals? Perhaps he’s a herpetologist?’ Dahe got up, and walked out of his house and towards the task office. Once there he put in a task, to help him create another loom, a smaller one, for smaller works. He decided he’d keep his weaving loom for weaving fabrics, and the large loom for the very large tapestries. Once the order was accepted he nodded to the person at the desk and walked in the direction of the forest.
He had seen various animals on his trips through the forest, but he figured he’d get better resolution images by paying attention, and focusing on the reptiles and amphibians he found. His first idea was to check the small pool he had been to before, but he didn’t find any. He simply had no other option than to walk through the forest. As the sun was about to set, he had not found any.
He nearly smacked his forehead, but gripped it instead. ‘Of course, I need to find places where reptiles live normally. Either wet or hot or both. He would have to put this request off until he traveled to other places.
Dissatisfied with himself for having gone out for nothing, he went inside his mental palace. He entered his movie theater, transformed a seat into a lounge chair, and imagined a large bucket of popcorn and a large soda. He then proceeded to watch his favorite comedies while his body gathered energy and grew in strength.