The Dragon King and The Ming Dynasty

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. They came with the start of a new dynasty, and the betrayal of a friend who had become the brother I had lost.

My back was stiff each bone in my spine moved with a stab as I stood up for the first time all day. As I wiggled my toes the sludge swam in between, which sent cool shivers up my legs. I rolled my spine as I leaned backward with my hands on the base of my back. The sun felt as if spring had just melted away the cold of winter, even as my skin tingled with it’s warmth.

Slurp plop. The sound of rice plants ripping their roots from the mud and the splash as they were rinsed in the shallow water, is the pitter patter of the rain that brings comfort in the sorrows of night. The sluggish steps raced along the wind spun me from the rays of the sun, my fingers tightened around the wood that bit into my palm.

My head spun over my shoulder to the left, my eyebrows, and lips a line. As the blue tunic scampered along the edges of my vision, I huffed out a breath through my nose. Dijia. Where did he think he was going?

He pulled his legs out of the muck so high that his knees bent as if forming a square. His focus was set. Yet the sludge grabbed hold of his foot as firm as a grown man’s hand. Shaking my head at his eagerness I followed his gaze. Along a bridge stood Fang Ai. ‘Well that explains his silly grin’ I thought. Her hair pulled to cause two loops each on either side of a big bun. Her white face and small red lips she truly was beautiful. Her red tunic licked the wood of the bridge, her slippers hidden and emerged in the rhythm of the workers around me.

More carefully I pulled my feet up only enough to move forward I caught up with my brother far sooner than he would have been able to reach Fang Ai. Clamping my hand on his shoulder he stopped. Yet he did not freeze his muscles rippled under my touch. His shoulders pulled back. His stance caused my hand to raise as he stood taller before me. Still, he did not let his eyes waver from the beauty before him.

“You know you cannot.” I whispered, as I watched his teeth clench and his lips pucker as his nose scrunched. His eyes narrowed to be almost invisible. The tension in his shoulders increased. Still, he slumped as his breath released in a forced huff.

Just than she turned toward him. I saw the slightest hint of a smile and a blush before she ducked her head. Instantly his posture was that of a pole running up his back. Light entered into his face. He sent her a smile when she glanced over her shoulder. Her glide over the ground did not hesitate, as she entered the path leading to the forest bellow the rice fields.

Suddenly my hand fell as Dijia began more cautiously, making better time. I grabbed hold of him again and simply shock my head. Not that he bothered to look. “You will not stop me.” He whispered. His voice rough and low. No hand came yet, I stumbled back, my air punched out of me.

…………………….

“Jaujing!” Taizu, called as his sandals skidded along the damp grass, down the hill. Hid robs twisted and flew behind him appearing as if he was a phoenix with orange wings, and bald head. I had met him only once before years ago when he first roamed the countryside. His face no longer held the gaunt look of a starving child. That day he had come with news of a war with the Mongolian rulers. “Come, it is imperative that you see this!” His eyes wide, darted around, only once landing on me. His chest heaved visibly. His gaze darted over his shoulder with his lips pursed three times before his path turned toward us. I turned to Dijia as he looked at me with raised eyebrows, his eyes as big as an almond. Tauzi’s steps didn’t hesitate at the edges of the fields. He continued to fly until he had reached us in the center of the field, only slightly slowed. As he reached my mud-soaked hands, he didn’t even bother to allow me time to shake them off, only pulled me along side him out of the mud.

“Where are you going?” my brother’s voice pierced the wind that rushed around my ear. For a moment I had forgotten what my brother had been planning. It seemed that for a moment he did as well. Good. If I could convince him to come with me, he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

“Not now Dijia. Go back to the muddy fields.” Taizu called over his shoulder with lowered brows, even with his eyes still focused up the slop. His mouth in a firm line, he flickered his gaze at each of us. Without another word he left.

Dijia followed Taizu with his eyes, his fist clenched, and eyes narrowed to daggers as he pierced him with a glare. His lips slightly puckered, and his eyes hid under his brows.

“You can come with if you want.” I said.

Slowly he shook his head. “I won’t follow you like a lost puppy.” His back hunched as his shoulders appeared as if they each were weighed down by a rock brick. “I have work to do.” His voice nearly didn’t carry over the wind back to me. I watched as his feet sunk under the shallow water into the mud. Still weighed down his hands moved in gagged motions as he ripped the roots of the plants out of the mud. He didn’t move his attention from the plants as he tied them and started on the next set.

The ringing of a whistle pierced the air. I swung my gaze towards the sound to find Taizu with two fingers in his mouth. With his hidden eyes pined to me. The grass tried to hold onto the mud that surrounded my feet as a cocoon as I ran. Splotches feel off in random, causing me balance to waver and my run to be more of a stagger. Once I was with in a few steps he turned and speed before me.

Even as a young orphan child he had never moved in such anticipation over the boulders and short cliffs.

I however was not as egger. The rocks beneath my feet stuck and stabbed into the withered flesh. The branches rolled, only by sending my arms out in a whirlwind did I keep from falling off the edges.

Dirt flew from his feet dusting my face, causing the gritty texture to coat down my throat even as I swallowed. I grabbed hold of a brush with silky leaves that pilled away, my arm fell as my opposite should screamed in protest even as my feet dangled. One hand on one welcome pine tree jutting from the rock before us held me in place even as my chest crushed against it my knees found small surfaces to push my way back up to the hold bellow the bush.

“What would happen if Taizu had allowed Dijia to join us in this mad dash. I might have killed him.” The though wrapped around my stomach and squeezed leaving me shaken and a little lightheaded.

Slicing pain pierced my hips, and my knees popped with a burning sensation that rippled through my thighs. The normal sensation after transplanting the rice amplified from a whisper into a blood curdling scream. My lungs screamed for breath. My heart thundered, and my lips turned up as we reached the rise of the slope after twenty minutes.

My thighs bellowed with strained, lifting myself up the last of the boulders my smile fell. I turned in a circle yet all I could see was trees. “What did you want to show me?” The only sound from him was his grunts as he pulled himself up on a branch of a gingko tree above my head. The branches twisted and turned against itself. It’s hold reaching over the space of 3 huts. The thickest of branches where closest to the trunk, which swerved as if frozen in a dance.

Following up the same tree I pulled myself up using only my arms, causing my biceps to shake in the strain. A silent wince escaped my lips in a huff as the piercing of flesh burned my palm. Pausing against the tree with my feet braced together on the limb, I looked at the red skin under the thick soothing layer of mud. Half dried and half scraped away. Two sharp brown strips stuck out from my swelling hands.

“What are you doing? Come on.” He whispered in my ear causing the ringing to join with the rush in my head. He started tugging at my shirt causing me to lean too far to the left and losing my balance. My stomach plummeted as I groped for a branch. His hold than saved me from crashing 5 meters down to the hard earth. He lowered me down to the branch I had been on before. Looking up I found him with his eyes wide and finally focused on me. Only it was with lifted brows over a gaping mouth and the flush face pined against the branch he laid on with his legs on either side.

After a heartbeat, my mind registered that I was no longer falling. A moment later my heart finally slowed to match the rhythm of a war drum. Turning he shook his head as he reached up. Rejoining in the climb I followed until our heads lifted through the top of the tree’s scattered leaves. Over 30 meters in the air. Lifting my weight, the last few branches my hand felt as if a hive of bees swarm and then stung my hand. Closing my eyes, I let my lungs fill with air and soak in the sun. Until the light was no longer visible through my eyelids.

The air was hot and often had stollen my breath today, yet when my eyes caught sight of the Himalayan Mountains my blood turned to ice and my heart stopped pounding, giving a shiver of a beat.

For my eyes beheld swirling streams of color bouncing up and down. Gold over green under red and white. They blocked out the sun as higher they flew their heads and tails tying nots in each other only to be free and come racing toward us.

Dragons scattered the sky and the ground and covered a good half of the mountain closest to us, all the way to the peaks. We could see no snow even in patches between them. Only black rock laid bare for the first time in history.

My eyes burned with the effort of keeping them open in the wind caused by their flight. My long hair was pulled from its bun and whipped around my head, smacking my face and left my cheeks stinging. I reached up to push my hair away when the tree waved and bent in the onslaught. Burning and shacking my legs couldn’t hold me on my thin perch. I crashed into branches that snapped under my weight all the way to the ground landing in a heap. My vision blurred. My chest refused to raise. Bells rang in my ears drowning out the beat of the wings. As I focused on the movement above it was smooth as Taizu swung from branch to branch as if he were an orange monkey.

Normally he would have laughed as I coughed, desperately forcing my lungs to move and gain breath. Yet today he was silent. My ribs felt crushed and stabbed through by the branches rather than my back and legs that bled from the fall. Crushed were the branches that laid beneath me, as they pierced my tonic and stabbed into my back and legs. Each movement caused greater pain. Still once he was on the ground he grabbed under my arms and yanked me to my feet. A screech above brought the image of the dragons into my sight and all the pain seemed to disappear in our desperation to run and desperation to see more.

“This couldn’t be real.” I thought as we climb down to the top of one of the cliffs, still covered in foliage on the west side of the mountain. There we laid on our stomachs as we braced ourselves for the dragons to come. My back ridged and even my thigs were full of tension. I still had to force each breath I took.

My ears rang with greater intensity and far in the distance I heard a scream, my chest tightened until my throat stung and burn with the acid that came. Only then did I realize that the scream had originated with me and copied by Taizu.

Bellow the trees and into the valley we saw the waters of the end of the Pearl River rise and fall as if the land itself was staggering for breath. The fish jumped in and out rising past the height of a man in air.

Above us the Golden snub nose monkeys constant chatter had gone still and silent. Swinging in time with the trees as if one breath. The little ones held close to their chest.

The earth continued its breath and the waters swelled. Faster it got and faster the pounding my head grew. My shins that had burned on the way up now felt as if they were surrounded by ice. The piercing pain of the wood inside my skin intensified until it was numb. Everywhere I bleed felt only wet. My chest moved in rhythm as I stumbled over each breath. A glance at Taizu to discover his breath matched mine. His eyes even wider than before and his lips turned down in a deep frown even as they moved as if in speech. His eyebrows raised and his skin pinched between them. Yet his eyes never meet mine. Too focused on the scene bellow.

I am not sure if it was us or the earth that shock as we watched the small river fill the entire valley floor. The Monkeys above were silent as they grasped one branch than another rather than fly between. Others ran on their back legs higher up the hill, twisting between the trees and bushes Never stepping on a single twig.

As the water reached the base of the hill it steadily filled. One tree covered and then the first of the cliffs. We staggered to our feet as we realized our danger. Our cloths caught and ripped on the bushes around us. The sound of each tear whispered greater fear into my bones leaking to my muscles the tension of the beating of a hummingbird.

Stumbling after them and following the sounds of many birds’ wings as they flew between the trees low to the ground. Flashes of blue, red and brown raced along he bases of the trees. The water licked our feet and raised to our ankles in half a second. With a mighty roar the water stopped and fell back down a few dozen steps. Splashing echoed from every direction.

The ground opened up to the flood waters and instantly was mud. My feet slipped from underneath me and I grabbed a bush and slid with it, no roots holding in the mud. I dropped the silky leaves even as my hands clawed. Desperately digging my nails in deeper only to slid on my stomach. Hitting a wet rock below I straddled and tensed every muscle, knuckles turned white and then purple with white dots, causing them to burn with the swelling even as the blood in my vein slowed and instantly turned to the river in the winter. Sluggish and slow. Hidden between the trees I let out the breath I couldn’t seem to hold on to and staggered in another. Every part of me throbbed with the sound of the splashing that seemed to echo against the Himalayans. The water rose more than a meter with the splash.

A thump to my right drew my spinning vision to Taizu reaching out both arms grabbing anything that passed by his hands. His eyes grew to the size of the moon as he caught hold of the tree next to my rock. A lifted brow gave me his answer even before he shook his head to my silent question “What is happening?” His robes were in tatters around his arm, legs and even his waist showed some reddened skin. What was left was more brown than orange and sparkled with crimson. His sandals had disappeared, and he kept spitting out reddish dirt. With his arms reddening as he hugged the tree he staggered to his feet. After three failed attempts he pulled himself onto the lowest thick branch and hugged it with his legs and arms holding on with every muscle growing in front of my eyes as his blood pumped with the tension.

One of the monkeys held a tiny one desperately and cooed into its ear as it swung lightly in the tree near his head. Yet the monkey’s eyes never looked at it’s bundle or us. It faced towards the water through the branches and curled it’s nose. She must have seen something we couldn’t for she jumped down without so much as a sound that could be heard over the thunder in my head. She backed up around a few twists of the trees than she ran to meet the rest of her family. Never changing the point of her focus.

A soft whimper caused me to peer at Taizu. Yet his blank face and dark eyes spoke nothing of sorrow only trepidation. In the hollow less than a meter above his head was a red panda nest. The mother huddling her young close just as the mother monkey had. Backed up as far as she could her eyes focused upon the entrance to her home. She bared her teeth at me yet never made a sound.

A loud crash, followed by scrapping of branches and twigs was accompanied by the shaking of the ground around us. This sent even the insects on a dash to higher land. My knuckles went white with my hold as my legs squeezed and bruised with the many incisions that was sure to be made with every twitch of movement. One of the leaves stuck in my hair moved in front of my eyes. I shook my head a few times to dislodge it, when movement caught my eye.

A scale as big as my leg attached to many others on a giant tail was all that could be seen through the trees. Yet the roar of the water was a whisper in caparison to the sound of this dragon. My eyes flew shut with piercing stinging and burning pain as the sun glinted off as if I had tried to look directly into the sun. Even with my eyes closed the light was bright through my eyelids. I had blotches of color bounce around my vision for several heart beats.

My muscles pulled on each other tearing me apart with a quiver with my ever lapsing strength. I was about to give in and let go when the scrape of the rocks on the scales bounced along the trees. I yanked my head around, my attention was held to the other side of our patch of trees. This caused every muscle to tense beyond endurance.

Through the trees I could see a head of green and blue. My breathe disappeared. My eyes so wide I felt the skin around them tear, causing a sting of a hundred paper cuts.

The face pried through on my side even as I heard the intake of breath of my friend, as the rustling near him increased and then stopped. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the golden dragon looking at Taizu even as the blue dragon stared at me.

With a huff of breath that felt like a heat wave in the intensity of midafternoon sun at harvest time, my focus was arrested upon the head that loomed bigger than me. Those black eyes told a story that I couldn’t read. I shock under its fierce gaze. I lost some of the strain in my shoulders and back with the tickle of its breath. Although I did not relax.

Its eyes were narrowed and curved, angled up at the back. Black and unwavering. It’s focus seemed to be held directly on me. Long whiskers swayed in the wind that flared from it’s steaming nostrils. The spikey mane flowed down it’s back. The azure scales matched of the lake bellow. It would be invisible under the water. This unreasonable claim surround me as it stared. Yet my focus was on the sharp teeth and claws. Its horns branched and held strength that even the trees had to obey.

After all, even the Emperor obeys the reign of the dragons.

At the roar of the golden dragon, I held my hands over my ears. Yet it did nothing to block out the sound as it rippled through my entire body. Breathless I matched the dragon’s stare, even as I swayed in a tiny circle, even after latching onto the rock once more.

“Please.” I pleaded in my head, although I had no idea to whom I was directing it. Maybe the dragon that stood before me. His head turned down to see me more squarely.

Silence reigned for a time that could never be measured. For although the sun had not changed position in the sky it felt as if it had been days. The dragons did not leave or take a step only stood and watched. I didn’t move even a flinch. For to do so would mean death. Of that I was certain.

My muscles gave out and I slid falling to the water below. My vision went black with pressure behind my eyes. The whisper of a sound reached through my blanketed tears and roaring in my ears. The wind whipped my tears away as everything rushed behind me. My hair started pulling out of my head. The thought that “at least I am still alive” rush through, until my stomach was below the rest of me as my direction swapped and I flew upward. Falling towards the sky was as gentle as if death was a candy. My momentum took me towards the sun while my insides crashed into my feet dragging me down, and once again I was falling.

My back smacked against what felt to be a brick wall. My breath completely gone. My lungs burned and something was stabbed into my left leg. I laid in a sticky wetness that grew as I laid pulling my head up to try to convince myself to take in air. Immediately my head spun, and I felt as if the earth and myself were in war and circling in opposite directions. My arm twisted painfully behind me, my weight caused tension and ripping in that shoulder that left me unsure of its connection.

Then the earth below me lifted and curled around me. “Jaujing? Jaujing!” Over and over the cry called, through a fog. Quiet and loud a whisper and a shout, it echoed and was only silence. I couldn’t comprehend anything. Darkness fell. “They are dead. All dead, and it’s all my fault… except Dijia is dead, and that is Taizu’s fault. He is going to pay.” Rippled through my thoughts and maybe out my mouth. Only a sliver of light could be seen. Blue and green shining sparks hit my eyes before everything truly did go dark. Light, sound, pain, breathe, and even myself all lost in the darkness, in the oblivion.