Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Yet, after too much quiet solitude, his clan mates grew restless. And if some of them—namely Xiang—didn’t find some kind of outlet for distraction, they picked fights.
Sadly, Xiao Dan didn’t know what to do for them.
In the time prior to becoming vampires, when people would come to the Sword of the Heavenly Garden sect to study, they’d arrive as children and most would leave in their late teens or early twenties, going out to make their own lives. They’d go out to serve their families or the emperor. They’d join the military or government. Some would go home to take over the family business and marry who they were told to marry.
A handful would stay behind to continue their studies and to teach the next generation of disciples.
If not for Jiang Chong, Xiang would have likely become a general for the emperor and led armies into battle. Chen would have become a crafty minister in the government. Possibly even one of the emperor’s chief advisors. Yichen would have returned home to his father king and sat on the throne in the Wu Kingdom. Junjie would have remained in Luoyang to become a teacher of the disciples, while Mei Lian would have married Cao Zimo according to her family’s wishes. Ming Yu would have remained a servant dutifully caring for the Zhang clan.
Of course, if not for Jiang Chong, they would have all died centuries ago.
Instead, they were all still alive a thousand years later and feeling agitated and edgy. What was he supposed to tell them? Go out into the world and find yourself?
What did they know of this world? Was it safe for them to wander out in all directions?
Maybe he was the problem. He didn’t want them to go.
After everything they’d lost, the lives that had been stolen away so young, Xiao Dan clung to those who remained within the clan, not wanting any of them to come to harm. But that also meant they weren’t living the lives they had. He was holding them back because he couldn’t deal with his own fears.
A sigh tripped from his parted lips as he moved to another tree to search for ripe plums. The rich, sweet scent drifted on a breeze that stirred the leaves and grasses, whispering of warm sunny days long gone from his world.
He missed Huli.
Xiao Dan froze as he reached for a plum and replayed that thought. Huli. The little fox that had stuck so close to him for nearly fifty years had vanished. More than twenty years had passed since he’d seen him. He’d initially thought the huli jing had gone off to live a life of adventure and mischief, but now he wondered if maybe something darker had happened to the creature. Should he have spent more time searching for him?
Despite his frequent visits, Huli was always a wild creature, free to come and go, but the sweet fox spirit had clung to him so. Why would he leave with no warning?
Xiao Dan snorted at his thoughts. No warning? What was the fox supposed to do to warn him he needed to go on a long journey?
Regardless, he missed their nightly ambles through the woods. He missed having Huli curl up in his lap while he talked to him about so many random thoughts in his head that he didn’t dare share with the rest of his clan. Huli alone had been the repository of all his doubts and fears. Maybe Huli had tired of listening to all his whining.
“Zhang-ge!”
Xiao Dan jerked around, searching the dark shadows of the nearby forest for the person who’d called out to him. But the shadows didn’t move, and no one stepped forward. His fist tightened on the handle of the basket, and he stepped away from the tree he’d been inspecting to move into a clearing.
“Who’s there?”
Seconds ticked by, and there was only the breeze and the moon.
As he was turning back to the plum tree, convinced he’d imagined the soft voice, something moved to his left.
“Does Zhang-ge remember me?”
He turned toward the voice, his lips parting to say that he had no memory of a disembodied voice, when the basket slipped from his fingers at the sight of a large fox perched on a fallen log. His heart lodged in his throat.
“Huli?” he choked out.
“Yes! I am your Huli!” The fox bounded across the orchard to Xiao Dan as his knees gave out and he sank to the soft ground.
Huli was alive, and he could talk!
The world was spinning, but it came into sharp focus as that wet tongue swiped across his face again and again. The fox pressed his paws into Xiao Dan’s chest as Huli licked and nuzzled him with a frightening ferocity. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who’d been melancholy. He’d stopped talking and given in to his excited, high-pitched barks and other odd noises.