Xiao Xiao - Chapter One

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen – The Typhoon

Xiao Xiao dreamed of a typhoon.

The typhoon roared down the coast, tossing ships and boats as if they were fragile toys, smashing them to the shore, while winds battered the roofs of houses and screamed like the dead let out from Hell.

A large dragon was behind this typhoon and it was reckless in its wrath. Its eyes were as big as the moon, amber as the rising sun, and its mouth filled with fiery light. Its dragon beard was thick and curling like clouds racing across the sky. Its claws swiped houses aside.

There was rage in this dragon’s eyes.

It was searching for something, for someone. Boats, houses, lives and rice fields were nothing to it. Its claws were lashes of rain and its tail a tsunami.

Xiao Xiao knew that the typhoon was coming for her.

~*~

Heavy rain rattled on the palace’s roof. It was unseasonal rain that made tiny streams in the courtyards and flowed into the river that swelled with the rain and the melting snow.

Maids and servants cursed as clothing remained damp. Fires were lit in chambers to keep the rooms dry and warm. The older servants swore, because the cold woke their old wounds and injuries.

Xiao Xiao found herself using words she learned during tuition, barbarian words that seemed fit for this kind of weather and her mood. The dream made her uncomfortable and extremely uneasy. The words helped let out of that sense of impending doom. Mongrel words. Barbarian words that choked her throat and made her vocal chords ache.

“Rather daft,” she muttered darkly. The English words came out like broken glass and made her feel even worse.  Then she switched to her familiar tongue, a mixture of Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese, her mother’s language. She hated the Manchurian language, but didn’t say it in die die’s face, because die die was Manchurian.

To add to the unease, Xiao Xin tripped over the threshold and cut her upper lip, causing no small consternation among the maids. The cut bled profusely for a while, stopping only after Mother deftly cleaned it and dapped a dry clean cloth over it. Xiao Xin was getting more and more adventurous now, since she had discovered that she could toddle.

More worrying was that Ming Zhu had become quiet, almost moody and brooding. Was the dragon princess more a runaway than the protector of her little sister?

Is your father looking for you? Xiao Xiao demanded. Is he? Is he?

Ming Zhu’s reticence confirmed her suspicion and her panic grew.

Tell him! Tell him that you are sorry! Xiao Xiao almost cried now.

The dragon princess remained silent.

Don’t be daft! Xiao Xiao used the English word in her exasperation.

What is that word? Ming Zhu whispered.

That means you are being stupid.

I am not. I have my reasons.

And Ming Zhu settled in her mind, a dragon settling in the silt of the river.

Frustrated, Xiao Xiao kicked a pebble and stormed away.