The Fleet-Footed Princess: :5

She had to move, but she had to wait until it moved a little further away. She was sore and still tired despite however long she slept; she needed every advantage she could get and thankfully, she didn't have to wait long.

A few careful breaths later, it started to move away and Meihua took her chance. Pushing herself off the opposite root, she threw herself over the top and landed on her hands and knees. She pushed to her feet to run as it wiped around with a growl.

And nearly tripped over her own feet when she caught sight of the terrible monster.

It was a dog.

Well, she was relatively sure it was a dog. The Inner Palace had not allowed pets beyond the fish in the ponds and the birds they couldn't keep out of the gardens.

It was small, with mated drown fur dotted with leaves and twigs. It had plenty of teeth, which it showed her without hesitation. Along with a low, whining growl that made the hair on her arms stand on end.

"Go away!" She was probably only capable of bravery because of how small it was. Barely the length of her forearm and rising halfway up her shin. Meihua was tall for a woman from Xi. A few inches shy of six feet, she had two inches on her mother when Kang Su wasn't wearing her ridiculous heels.

The tiny dog barked at her in response. Apparently Meihua wasn't tall enough to scare a hellhound. That had to be what it was. Why else would it be all the way out here alone? She'd read stories about the beasts that served the ghost kings and tore apart the poor souls that tried to escape them.

Or hunted down the one's who'd angered the gods.

They were frequently used interchangeable with the Thrall in popular fiction. The rotted beasts that broke free of the Underworld at different points in history and ravaged the world until they were stopped. There were entire volumes of epic poems and fantastical tales of wandering warriors and cultivators taking on the random Thrall that escaped through tears in the veil between worlds.

There were even one or two about great armies who'd joined forces to defeat massive armies of the Thrall that had nearly overrun the world at different times. They claimed to be real, but it had been so long since the last one that few people believed it anymore, but Meihua had carefully collected as many of them as she could. Spending her nights reading the stories of the first Llewellyn Fawr, the wizard Malbec, and the lightning made flesh, Saar Nuri. She'd even devoured the convoluted, contradictory stories about Dafydd the Destroyer. The Defender sent to protect the world who'd tried to destroy it instead.

He was the reason every Defender since had been hunted down and killed before they could reach puberty. There weren't any more now. The last suspected Defender had been killed two hundred years before Meihua had been born, across the land in the great White City.

The King in White had sent announcements across Byd Seren to celebrate the death of the Defender.

The Last Song of Tsu Lin, her favorite epic poem, was the story of the tragic fall of the last Prince of the Tinling Dynasty who had died attempting to defeat Dafydd and was still one of the most popular circulars in the Empire. It had been one of the first books unrelated to her studies that she'd been allowed to read.

Well, not completely unrelated. Whether or not Tsu Lin himself was real, the Tinling Dyansty was famous for its extensive royal families and their violent infighting. The story coincided with the actual end of the Dynasty the same year Dafydd had been defeated and killed by the latter-to-be-revealed tyrant Renault in the lands west of the Spine of the World.

Meihua had always wondered what had made Dafydd so different from the Defenders that came before. How had the oldest spell in existence chosen so wrong?

Why was she thinking about this when there was a tiny hellhound ready to eat her the moment she was too slow.

It snarled at her then and Meihua shrieked and stumbled back. "Why do you have so many teeth? Stay back! Back!"

It practically vibrated across the ground as it snarled and snapped. Tiny little teeth gleaming in the darkness.

She grabbed the nearest weapon, a handful of leaves and dirt, and flung it at the creature. It snapped at her as the debris flew, but when it actually pelted the little thing in the face it whimpered and swiped fruitless at its eyes.

Run! She screamed at herself, elated at her small victory.

But she didn't.

She was free now. She'd been running for two days now, nonstop, but now she didn't. She'd seen the Spine of the World on the distant, distant horizon when she'd crossed the rice fields that morning.

The beast whimpered, shaking its head, futilely trying to dislodge the dirt in its eyes.

She took a cautious step back, but the beast was so small. Whimpering and shaking like a leaf in the wind.

It sounded hurt and it howled when it stumbled and smacked its head on a large root.

Meihua winced, her own head throbbing in sympathy.

The poor thing couldn't see where it was going because of the dirt she'd thrown at it, so really it was hurt fault it smacked its head.

Meihua glanced around, but the shadows gave nothing away.

The beast collapsed and didn't get back up, just whined piteously until Meihua finally couldn't take it anymore and took a cautious step closer.

It stiffed when it heard her step.

She took another and it tried to scuttle backwards, bumping into the root again. Meihua took another step closer, just to wipe the dirt out of its eyes and then she'd run while it was recovering. It was a good plan. The faint smell of ammonia floated up.

"Oh, you poor thing. I didn't mean to-"

She didn't mean to what?

She'd nearly peed herself when it had down up. The only reason she hadn't was because she hadn't had anything to drink since she'd fled the palace and there wasn't anything to pee out!

 The little thing stopped trying to get up. In fact, it seemed to give up on everything, like all its motivation and hunger disappeared in one go and it was left a pile of skin and bones and nothing else.

Its breathing was labored, slow like it took effort just to do that.

Meihua inched closer and reached out, screwing up her courage to tentatively brush her fingers over the little thing's fur.

It let out a terrible moan and quivered under her fingers.

It was in pain, Meihua realized. Surprised at her own ability to recognize its suffering and suddenly sympathetic instead of afraid. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything, Xiasha."

And she didn't. All she had were the robes on her back that were starting to come undone at the edges. Typically, silks of this caliber spent most of their lives in cedar chests or wrapped in wax paper. Either way, they were only worn on a few special occasions.

After a few days of running, Meihua's were ruined beyond saving.

The little thing, Xiasha, whimpered again and clawed at the ground, but failed to move itself at all.

Had she done that much damage? All she'd done was throw a little dirt at it. There was no blood, but Meihua knew her limited experience didn't lend itself to this situation. What if there were injuries she couldn't see? There was no blood she could see. No cuts or scrapes. There was fluid gathered around its eyes, foamy spittle at the edges of its mouth.

There were internal injuries that there was no way to identify from the outside, Meihua had read about them in the war chronicles she'd studied. Injuries from large magical blasts that left no damage on the outside but took their victims unfailingly.

Meihua had never wanted to hurt someone like that. "I'm sorry, Xisha." She took off her outer robe, not that it was worth much at this point, and laid it over the small creature. It could still offer some warmth at least.

With so little moonlight to illuminate it, the ginseng copse was dark, marred with endless shadow and the echoing sounds of the creatures that lived among them.

Xiasha had sounded so big in those shadows, but seeing it now Meihua felt like a bit of a fool.

It probably needed food? Meihua definitely did, now that the danger was passed her stomach was reminding her of that full force. And she'd have to start moving again soon. A mere forest would not stop the cultivators of the Golden Way.

It wouldn't even stop the simple soldiers her parents would send.

They'd simply burn it down.

But Meihua might be able to find a few ginseng berries before then. Typically, the trees sprouted fruit all through autumn, but there were years recorded in the records that they'd held first well into the first weeks of the cold, or even early during the last period of the great heat.

She was too tired, and it was too dark to try and grab anything from the branches, so she felt around on her hands and knees until she found a few clumps of berries that had fallen. She popped one into her mouth and immediate spat it, and the dirt it was covered in, back out.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself as she wiped off the next one on her slightly less dirty underrobe. Without dirt the berries didn't have much flavor, just a slight burst of tartness that faded quickly.

After a few minutes of gathering as many as she could, when she wasn't doubled over from the kind of cramps she got in her stomach when she ate fish or seafood, she figured they were safe enough.

She had to follow the little dog's whimpers to make her way back in the darkness.

"Okay Xiasha, I'm here." She poked it a couple of times to make sure it wasn't going to suddenly spring up and attack her, but it didn't even more this time. She pressed one of the berries to its mouth, shrieking in surprise when a rough, wet tongue swept over her fingers.

Its stubby tail began to wag as it struggled to chew the small berry, but it finally managed and immediately stuck its nose in her hand to find more.

Meihua fed it as many as she could find, swallowing a handful herself, before she finally exhausted the small cove and then had to start making their way further into the forest and farther from the road.

Not that there'd been any traffic in the time she'd been awake.

Ginseng trees were known to grow best in hot humid environments and were most commonly found in the south.

…..

Which meant Meihua had taken a significantly wrong turn somewhere but was a little further from the Jeweled Capitol than she thought.

Positives and negatives, she mused, too exhausted to be upset.

There was no point in waiting for another ride then, she didn't want to head further south to the borderlands Li Jie's family ruled. She had no money, and her robes were of no value. She might be able to sell her jewelry, but it was likely too expensive for any traveler to afford.

She was more likely get robbed than to be able to sell any of it.

The cultivators of the Golden Way had no doubt alerted the other sects throughout Xi and possibly the neighboring kingdoms.

She needed to keep going and find somewhere to change her clothes and maybe hide her jewelry?

And food.

Gods, what she wouldn't give for a thick cut of steak.

Or a roast chicken.

Whole.

She could eat a whole roast chicken at this point, and she wouldn't even care that it wasn't ladylike or polite.

She crawled along, following the fallen berries. The little dog, some strength apparently recovered, followed along.

Meihua's only blessing now was her weak spiritual core. The weaker it was, the harder it was for the cultivators to track her. It had disappointed her terribly as a child. At least it was useful now.

She turned to the little dog, sitting patiently at her side. Xiasha had gotten more than an arm's length away from her since it had started following her. It had oddly blue eyes, dotted with spots of brown, that looked from her hands to her face and back. No doubt hoping for more food, but the berries were getting scarer.

"Guess there's no point in waiting, eh Xiasha?" Its stubby tail wagged madly whenever she talked to it. "I hope you like walking."

The berries hadn't been enough, but they had helped. The hunger pains were slightly less now, though they had seemed to remind her stomach how big it was and how much of it was still empty.

So, they started walking. It took half a day to make their way out of the ginseng copse and if it was that large, it should have been on a map…

Too bad she hadn't thought to grab one on her way out.

Once she found somewhere to sell her jewelry and get clothes and food and then figured out where she was going to go and what she was going to do, she was going to write a book of what not to do when fleeing everything you knew for a better life.

Every once and a while they stumbled on a plant Meihua knew for sure was edible, she had a decent memory and her desire to travel had led to a lot of questions about different plants, all answered by a surprisingly patient head gardener.

Granted, he'd only answered them after Meihua had sworn never to touch his precious plants again. He'd lectured her almost as often as her mother.

"Wonder what he thinks of me now? She muttered and held out a leaf she remembered being good for tea.

Xiasha sniffed it, then curled its lip and turned its head away.

"Really? This is tea," She stuck in Xiasha's face again, but got the same reaction. Studying the leaf, she sighed and then tossed it aside. "Apparently not."

They kept walking. Once or twice, the little thing would disappear into the underbrush and return with a half-rotten piece of fruit. Meihua was hungry enough to eat what she could, ignoring the sickly-sweet taste.

A few times she thought about turning around, but each time that though was followed by the memory of Li Jie and Sui Jiang in one another's arms. Of her mother's disappointed frown and her father's apologetic one as they sentenced her to a marriage of chains.

The realization that she would never be free always stopped her from turning back.

In her more charitable moments, of which there were admittedly few, she told herself she was happy for them. For Li Jie and Sui Jiang, anyway. They could be together now, without having to pretend or hide.

Had their families known of their relationship? Did the guards? Was Meihua the only one who hadn't known?

"Stop." She said it so firmly, she actually stopped walking and Xiasha followed suit. "Stop thinking about them. Stop thinking about what happened." She took a deep breath and marched forward, Xiasha barked in support and followed.

By the time darkness fell, Meihua and the little dog had reached a small clearing divided by a gentle stream. Xiasha scampered to the water and started to drink and Meihua followed suit, though it took her a few tries to figure out the best way to cup her hands to a worthwhile mouthful.

She hadn't realized how thirsty she was until the first swallowed proved to be so painful, like shards of ice in her throat, that she gasped, accidently inhaled more, and fell into the creek trying to get her breath back.

Xiasha barked in alarm and plunged into the water, licking her face as she gasped for air.

After a few moments, she managed to breath normally again and crawled out of the water. Once it was clear she wasn't going to die, Xiasha went back to drinking.

Meihua did the same and drank until her stomach hurt. Then she waited a bit and drank some more and silently berated herself for not thinking of grabbing something to carry water when she'd left the palace.

Something to add to the book she'd write after she did everything else.

She was so wrapped in her thoughts that she didn't notice Xiasha turn to an overgrown patch of vegetation in the trees. The little dog's ears perked up while Meihua was trying to scrub some of the dirt off her face.

She looked up when Xiasha started growling.

The bushes started to shake and Meihua belated realized that the forest had fallen silent and dark. Clouds obscured the sky above.

She tried to shush the dog, "Xiasha, stop! You might get its attention!"

She tried pulling the little dog back, but Xiasha seemed to be putting its entire self into its display of strength and managed to wiggle out of her hands.

"Xiasha! What are you doing?"

A branch broke and Meihua froze. There was something in the bushes.

"Xiasha, let's go." She snatched up the little dog and dashed across the creek. She glanced back to see the bushes shift violently and started to run, following the creek into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing.

It was further from the road Meihua had been trying to follow, but anytime she slowed down she heard something behind them and Xiasha started snarling, so she kept running and soon there was no point in going anyway but forward.

All forests ended eventually; she could figure out where they were once they were safe.

The ginseng trees gave way to evergreens, who's needles could be boiled to make tea but were also sharp enough to cut through the fragile slippers she wore. Her feet, swollen and bruised already, started to bleed as the ground turned hard and flat.

After a while, she couldn't even feel them anymore.

She wasn't sure how far they'd run or for how long. Once Xiahsa had been silent for some time, she slowed and then stopped.

Which turned out to be a mistake. As soon as she stopped moving, the numbness in her feet was replaced with pain.

Throbbing, aching pain and she collapsed in a heap, unable to stand anymore.

"Ow, ow, ow," she set Xisha down to examine her feet. They'd swelled up so much they were busting out of her slippers, but she couldn't take them off, could she? Running around barefoot seemed worse than thin slippers with a bunch of holes.

And she discovered a moment later, her feet were so swollen she couldn't even get them off, anyway.

"Whatever, I'll just take them off when the swelling goes down." She muttered and turned to Xiasha, only to find the dog gone. "Xiasha?"

She looked around, but there was no sign of it. "Xiasha? Where'd you go?" She tried to stand but the moment she put weight on her feet, pain shot up her legs and she collapsed. "Ow, ow, ow."

The exhaustion roared back into existence. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned back against a tree to catch her breath. Where had Xiasha gone?

Her limbs started to feel heavy, she could barely lift her legs to move into a more comfortable position and away from the rock digging into her butt. Suddenly, she was terribly hot and thirsty, sweat soaking her silks.

Why had she run away from the water? She should have followed the creek.

….

But wouldn't an animal do that too?

But she didn't know it was an animal. It could have been a human.

It could, she realized, heart seizing in her chest, have been one of those hunting her. Which meant she couldn't rest, they were too close, she had to start moving.

Expect no amount of thinking at them would make her limbs move.

Night was falling again and the chill returned to the air. A breeze swept through the trees and Meihua shivered.

"Xiasha?" Where had it gone? She needed to keep moving as soon as her energy came back, but she didn't want to leave the little dog behind. What if whatever that was caught it? Or a bigger dog? Its ribs had been sticking out worse than Meihua's. "Xiasha, we need go. Come back!"

Her voice echoed through the trees, but nothing answered. The trees shifted, in the shadows they almost looked like figures moving through the forest.

Could you be so tired you started to dream while you were awake?

Had Meihua fallen asleep and not realized it?

…was she dead?

No, she was just tired. Everything was fine.

She tried calling the little dog again, "Xiasha, come back!"

How far could it have gotten?

The shadows were growing deeper as she watched. What if Xiasha had gotten lost? Maybe it was hiding, waiting for Meihua to come find it? Was it hurt again? In danger?

Meihua look her legs and willed them to move, but she didn't get so much as a twitch.

She fell asleep as she glared at her swollen feet.

~ tbc