My Little Shifu

A Neigh for a Peach

Smiling softly to herself, Bai Qian awoke the next morning to a light summer rain.  It was the kind that lingered for a few minutes before the sun forced it from the sky and a dome of blue erupted overhead sending shimmers of colours across the grove as the sun hit every single water drop in the branches and of course, with it came the added fragrance that rain always left in its wake.

For some reason, the peaches were always at their sweetest after a summer rain and having yet to sample the new harvest, a thought for her next lesson began to take shape.  Unlike Mo Yuan, she did not really prepare anything, their lessons to date were based solely on how he arrived and his smile the day before irked her enough to bring him down to size.  She might not have heard what was said between him and those Goddesses, but his infuriating ego was still grating on her nerves when she finally slung her legs over the edge of the bed in search of her slippers.

Not bothering to dress herself seeing as Zhe Yan would be gone for some time, she padded through the hut half naked in search of food.  He rarely kept anything in the hut, but feeling hungry and with time to kill before Mo Yuan arrived, she was soon seating herself at Zhe Yans study desk with his bowl of seeds and nuts while her mind dwelt on their previous lesson.

Initially, she had thought to have a little fun with this High God, though more to see if he could figure out who she was seeing as Zhe Yan had been sent running to her brother after yet another argument over his wine which he was still refusing her.  And in retaliation, she informed him that Zhen Zhen was entertertaining a special friend, and with the right amount of innuendo in her tone, the jealousy immediately erupted and he fled the Grove in a blaze of roaring angry fire.

In fact, it worked out perfectly, because she had felt Mo Yuans arrival at the hut along with the disappointment in finding it empty, so she knew he was going to ask Zhe Yan who she was, but it was far more fun being a Shifu to the War God as an annonymous nobody, especially when he thought she was a mere child with a big mouth.  And she knew for a fact, that if Zhe Yan was there, he would thrash her backside until it turned blue before kicking her back to the den, so getting rid of the phoenix was a definite advantage.

Only the more arrogance that Mo Yuan arrived with, the more she felt a need to crack that ice face and bring out the man she knew was hiding behind the facade.  Though she wasn't immune to his reputation, she knew well enough that he could be conniving and at times, damned ruthless which was one reason why she didn't bother to prepare any lessons for him, because she knew he could read faces well enough.  He would know by her expressions what was planned before he even sat down,  instead she read him and based the lesson solely on his mood.

Though surprisingly, he had been very accomodating, which was totally unexpected, especially after the way she had witnessed his mannerless treatment of those other Goddesses and there were many times when she thought he would throw her out in the same manner, only he seemed to be enjoying her unconventional teaching methods, as if he actually found pleasure in them and she came to that conclusion based on all twenty smiles he had given her the day before.  There had been a healthy dose of excitement in every one of those smiles, and for much of the lesson she too had felt the same exitement.

She had also felt the curiosity rise when she increased her sword skills.  To date, she had only ever sparred with Zhen Zhen and her father who had both taught her everything they knew, and being largely unknown to the rest of the world, she could see his mind working furiously to figure out her identity.  Had she been trained by her father alone, he would have known immediately that she was a Nine Tailed Fox and the Fox Kings daughter, because Mo Yuan had grown up with her father, but because Zhen Zhens unique fighting style was incorportated into her fathers lessons, her own fighting style was unique and unknown until now.