Three Wars and a Goddess

An Enigma

Qing Qiu

For a week, Bai Qian continued to visit Zhe Yan daily, staying all day until her mother sent her home to take care of her brother in the evenings.  Bai Zhen had yet to visit, and this was mainly due to the fact that he was very close friends with Die Feng and Ling Yu who was Mo Yuans Ninth Disciple.

The last thing he wanted to do was embarrass them both with his tears.  The younger Disciples looked up to him and this was in large part because Die Feng had filled their young minds with grandeur, reverence and elegance when it came to the Fox Clan, so to turn up drunk, red eyed, puffy cheeked and at times incoherent, he would not only embarrass Die Feng, but the entire Fox Clan, Qing Qiu and Zhe Yan.

But after a week of listening to her brothers drunken babbling and childish refusal to go and see for himself that the man was healing,  Bai Qian lost her temper.  He had literally drowned himself in wine and this just wasn't like Bai Zhen.  If anything, he was the adult of the two and it was always him that came down hard on her drinking.  

Initially she had given him back the years of indulgent pampering that she herself received from him and all in a week.  She sat and held his hand, rubbed his back compassionately, listened to how much he loved Zhe Yan, and even suffered through his insane insistence that she hear about their more intimate love.  And though grateful that he left out the details, he really didn't leave much to the imagination.  But she loved him dearly, so she allowed him to say anything and everything in the hope that he would eventually get it all out of his system then jump on a cloud and go visit.

But after a whole week of it, she not only threw a barrier around the wine cellar effectively ending the drinking, she then threw a large bucket of water all over his head.

Watching him splutter and squawk like a drenched parrot, she couldn't help but giggle at the irony.  If Zhe Yan was there, he would have been laughing manically at her.   Bai Qian, the drunken Goddess of the Peach Tree Woods had just sealed the wine cellar closed because she deemed his drinking to be excessive and harmful.  

Shaking her head at him, she lowered the pail to the low table and waited until he had calmed down enough to look at her.  He looked so pathetic that she also felt like slapping him, instead she sat down at the table opposite until he was ready to hear her speak.  Her actions may have been a little harsh, but it worked.  Not only was he more than aware of his surrounding,  but his anger was back, which meant he had sobered up quickly.

"Zhen Zhen.  I have sat with you for over a week and allowed you to pour your heart out.  I have heard things that will never be unheard, and seen you in a state that these eyes hope to never see again.  I listened and watched you drown yourself in sorrow because I thought you needed a little time.  But you are in mourning for a man who is not dead.  He is healing and very much in the world of the living." she said softly as she watched him magically dry himself off.

"Mother and I are exhausted,  Mo Yuan has a very dangerous enemy to contend with and his Disciples are needed for another battle that is brewing.  We need you to help us.  I cannot keep travelling back and forth to Kunlun Mountain, and Mother is using her own energy to assist both Zhe Yan and Mo Yuan, so I am only going to say this once."

"Either sober up and get your butt onto Kunlun Mountain, or I will have no choice but to summon Bai Yi.." she said as gently as she could, but with every ounce of conviction in her body.

Instantly his head snapped up to stare wide eyed at her.  

"You wouldn't dare......" he whispered looking even more pathetic.  He was just as scared of their older brother as she was.  If he was there now, a pail of water dumped on his head would pale in comparison to what he would do if he saw the state he had managed to get himself into.  Bai Yi had no compassion when it came to weakness, even less when it came to his family.  The Fox Clan were respected because their father was one of the few highly respected Gods of the old world and no son of his could be seen wallowing in self pity.