The Chef's Immortal

Chapter Twenty

Morning came and went, and there was yet to be even a hint of sunlight.  Rui Shi tried waking sleeping beauty.  He walked to her head and began licking the side of her face, roughly.  She woke with a start, sitting up to wipe her face over and over, screaming all kinds of obscenities.  This startled Rui Shi, he'd never heard a woman talk like that before.  Well, other than his wife when they were alone.  This goddess has a rotten mouth, he thought.

"Good, you're awake.  It's already past noon and we should have washed that wound of yours at dawn.  Now, princess, are you ready to start your day?"  The guardian lion was amused, but he couldn't let her see that.

"Noon?  The sun's barely out!" she was not convinced.

"Yes, princess, but the sun doesn't come out for days sometimes.  The fog coverage makes it difficult to differentiate between morning and afternoon."

"Dammit, my plan was for us to get underway just after dawn.  Sorry, Rui Shi."

"I'm not in any kind of hurry, princess.  I'm just concerned about your wound.  If it gets infected now, consuming that pill will come to naught.  Hop on, princess.  We'll make our way to the stream.  I have a feeling there'll be a bit more pain today."

"Oh, I believe, I'm..." she was rocked by pain as she tried to stand.  The wound from a rabid hellhound was no simple matter.  She looked at her calf, it was red and swollen, and that was before she even lifted the bandage.  This was a wound inflicted by a demonic beast, a fact she'd forgotten to take into account.  "Thank you, Rui Shi, I'll be needing some help after all."  Rui Shi laid beside her allowing her to reach his back, he was nearly three feet tall even flat on his belly.  Mingzhu reached up and pulled herself atop the large lion, wrapping her arms tightly around his thick neck.

Rui Shi flew her to the bank of the stream and once again lie on his belly so she could easily slide to the ground.  "Here we are."

"Rui Shi, do you have a personal name?" she questioned the guardian lion.  "I know you're a Rui Shi, but what do your close friends call you?"

"I'm a guardian, I don't have time for friends.  I have only ever been called Rui Shi," he explained, confused.  Who would give him a name?

"Then may I give you a name?"

He was stunned, "Um, sure."

"How about Chiang, it means strong?" she asked sitting at the edge of the water.

"I don't like that one, princess."

"Then let me think a moment."  She removed her bandage, rinsing the wound with the cool stream water.  It stung, but she grits her teeth, uses her dagger to drain the black blood, cleans the wound, and thinks.  He needed a good name, he was a majestic creature.  "I've got it!  Xiang Yi, soaring justice.  It's magnificent, no?"

"Soaring justice, now I like that.  Xiang Yi, it is.  And I will call you princess," he announced.

She looked back at the giant beast disapprovingly, "Now I didn't agree to a new name!"

"Nevertheless," he smiled brightly, "you are more beautiful than any princess I've seen.  And you won't allow me to call you goddess, so princess it is!"

"Fair enough, a princess is better than a goddess.  Thank you, Xiang Yi.  Let me fill my flask and we'll return to the cave."

They returned to the cave and she got to work.  She used Shige's antiseptic on her wound and bandaged it.  Then Mingzhu handed a pot to Xiang Yi and asked him to fill it with fresh water for her.  She cooked a small breakfast of a fish Xiang Yi caught while collecting water, strips of marinated lamb meat, fresh cucumber, and rice.  Xiang Yi assured her he already ate his breakfast in the forest.  After she finished her meal, she retrieved Teacher's map from her pouch.  It was scribbled on a piece of parchment paper, complete with colorful hand-drawn art by Teacher.  She asked Xiang Yi to explain the positions of everyone's territory on the map.