The Forest

Meihui rushed up the swirled onyx and emerald stone steps, knees giving out
nearly every step of the way. She probably looked like a madwoman, long black hair
unkempt and flying, robes disarrayed and ripped from carelessy cutting and bumping
sharp corners. Her maidens were shouting her name, "Meihui! Meihui! My lady,
please!" trying to catch up with her. But Meihui ran possessed. She could not stop;
she had to tell her husband.
Meihui knew his itinerary by heart. As the sun ascended, Gui overlooked his
empire from the palace rooftop. He would be alone which is exactly what Meihui
needed.
The guards, clad in the scaly skin uniforms of dragon's hide, the most
impenetrable material within the world, looked most intimidating with their grave
faces and gleaming weapons. But upon seeing their Empress in such a worrisome
state, their countenances broke, taking on concerned and slightly panicked faces.
"Empress Meihui, what is the trouble?" the guard on the left blurted out as
Meihui hurried past them. She needed to see her husband.
The two guards, puzzled by their Empress' behaviour, decided to have one follow
her and the another alert the other guards in the event there was an attack of some
sort to worry about.
Meihui burst through the giant crimson doors with a bang that caught her
hunsband's attention. At first glance, he was overjoyed to see her; being in her
pregnancy, rarely did Meihui accompany him anymore to just enjoy the way the
brilliant sun cast its golden light upon the empire. He missed her delightful aura
and was prepared to tell her just that, until he saw how pale she had gone.
And the blood staining her ivory white silk bed robes near her hips.
Gui's face became ashen too, for he knew what the blood intold.
No words were passed between emperor and empress as they met in the middle of the
rooftop, Gui craddling Meihui, shielding her from reality for just a moment,
rocking back and forth to soothe her blown nerves. When the guard that followed
Meihui to the rooftop came, Gui sent a fierce look his way that held the message:
Leave us. The guard saluted, hastily leaving and shutting the doors, granting the
grieving almost parents a sembalance of privacy.
The sun did not shine as it usually did. There were enormous angry grey clouds
that Gui did not notice before. The clouds heavy with rain began to release cold
droplets with all the impact of lead. The icy rain soaked through Gui and Meihui.
They remained there until Gui gathered his wife in his arms to carry her inside.
The guard that was excused promptly answered the doors sending in a rush of harsh
winds and sheets of rain, along with the Emperor and Empress.
"Is anything the matter, my Emperor?"
Gui shook his head. "No Lei. Tell the Empress' handmaidens to draw a bath, start
a fire, fix a soup that will aid the head and induce sleep, and add more furs to
the royal bed."
"Yes, Emperor." Lei saluted and dashed down the hallways to inform the
handmaidens of the Empress.
Gui knew it would not take the dutiful women long to carry out his wishes, so he
took his time descending the many steps. His wife was a scared child in his arms;
Meihui trembled worse than a leaf in a typhoon. Her face was hidden, buried in
Gui's chest. Even though Gui held her tight, Meihui managed to make herself smaller
in his arms by curling up. Like she was trying to disappear.
Gently easing the door open with his back, Gui slipped inside the royal chambers
heading to the bathroom.
Comprising the majority of the room was an oval tub, about three feet deep and
covered in cream colored petals. Gui was impressed by the multitude of candles
glowing in clusters on every shelf and sections of the floor. The aroma was soft,
exactly what Meihui needed to calm down. Gui placed his wife on the crescent wooden
bench beside the tub, quickly undressing himself, and taking much more careful time
to undress his stunned wife. Her body like a puppet whose strings were severed held
no resistance as he gently removed her soiled clothes and tossed them into a far
corner where the handmaidens were sure to find later.
"Let's get into the tub, Meihui." Gui said, wincing a bit when his voice echoed
in the cavernous room.
He delicately guided Meihui into the warm, soapy water. She was unmoving and
unresponsive as Gui washed her.
The candles were dimming to a flicker, wax in small melted pools when Gui grabbed
the plush towels to dry his wife and himself. Meihui's eyes were droopy as Gui
directed her into the bedroom and in the bed, tucking her in with the thick furs.
She looked so tiny in their giant bed, so crestfallen.
Honestly, Gui did not know how to console his wife on this. Yes, they both lost a
child and felt great grief, but Gui could not even begin to comprehend the
tumultuous emotions storming in Meihui, for the child was developing inside her, a
special bond of creation that only a mother understood.
Grabbing the tray with the soup he requested, Gui spoonfed it to Meihui, who
opened her mouth and swallowed robotically. The giant pillows esconed Meihui as her
posture relaxed and lowered. Soon, she was fast asleep.
Gui massaged the worry line creased in Meihui's procreus with two of his fingers.
He felt drained and tired. He didn't even realize the tears that streamed down his
cheeks.
A tentative knock sounded at the door.
"My Emperor, are you and Empress Meihui alright?" It was one of the handmaidens.
Wiping off his tears, Gui strode to the grand door opening it just slight. The
one who knocked was Jiao, the eldest handmaiden who served Gui's grandmother. With
her was Boqin, the leader of the Wu military.
"My wife just had a miscarriage. Jiao, please gather your best nurses to tend to
my Meihui. Boqin, I want you to handle things for today; I must grieve with my
wife."
Jiao nodded and left to get her nurses. Boqin's shrewd eyes studied Gui,
searching for something -Gui didn't know what- until his hard face softened.
"My Emperor, you knew that this would occur-"
Gui's hand flashed as it raised to stop the general's sentence.
"I do not wish to have this talk, Boqin."
Boqin pouted. "Sir, you will have to tell Empress Meihui sooner or later!"
Gui's temper was moderately fair; it only serves an emperor bad if he was
volatile and hot.
"Boqin," Gui said sharply "what she doesn't know will not harm her."
"But what if she wants to conceive another child? Will you deny her and inform
her of the curse so you two can actually do something about it? Or will you let her
try and torment herself again and again!"
The Emperor's mouth gaped fishlike at his general's bold tone. Gui knew Boqin was
speaking truth, but Gui didn't want Meihui, innocent, tender, compassionate Meihui,
to know of the curse.
"She needs to know, your majesty." pleaded Boqin.
Gui swallowed thickly, once, twice, thrice just for good measure before
answering. "I wish for you, Jiao, and Heng, the head history keeper to be there
with me. Tell Heng to collect all the scrolls of my female relatives' pregnancies,
beginning with Chen Wu. If my wife is to understand this, I need each of you to be
there for your personal accounts. I will call upon the three of you within the next
week."
There was a small smile on Boqin's stonelike face, pleased because the boy heir
he once knew was acting more and more like a man. Saluting, Boqin left to relay the
message to Jiao and Heng.

-------------------------------------

For days, Meihui secluded herself in the bedroom. Half of the time spent in bed,
sleep, trying to evade reality for as long as she could; the other half spent
blankly staring out the window, numbly watching the gardens as they boasted life.
An unexpected and voracious envy descended upon her. She cursed at the rich
greenery daily that had no problem with the creation of life.
Meihui kept the room dark. Her handmaidens and nurses brought small glowing
stones that illuminated their work on Meihui. They arrived through the door fastly
and left just as quickly too as to not let the bright lights of the halls flood in.
So when both doors open, allowing the harsh light to chase away the comforting
darkness Meihui dwelled in, she jumped and crowded herself into a corner.
Four pairs of tentative footsteps entered the room, careful to go slow as to not
frighten Meihui. It is Jiao who spoke first.
"Dear Meihui, come rest on the bed." Jiao shuffled closer to Meihui who minutely
flinched when Jiao places her hands upon Meihui's shoulders to direct her to the
bed. Meihui folded in on herself, meeting the eyes of no one.
Unable to maintain distance, Gui fell to the floor on his knees near Meihui's
bedside. She was looking down as he looked up trying to catch her eyes, and when he
does they're clouded, glossed over like a heavy fog that has stole the radiance and
joy of the old Meihui leaving her a hollow version of herself. Any hesistation
about Gui not telling, was immediately gone. He could not let his beloved
experience this internal torture.
"Meihui, my dear, please show me a sign that you hear and understand us." Gui
whispered.
Meihui's head bobbed once. She was listening.
Exhaling a great sigh, Gui begun.
"Once upon a time.....

Jiangyu and his most trusted company crept soundlessly through the forest, arrows
notched to shoot the deer. The doe was truly magnificent, as if the gods crafted
her specially. She was slender and beyond graceful, moving with an agility that
caused the men to fumble multiple times. Her eyes held an intelligence that Jiangyu
witnessed rarely in humans. It was if she was teasing the entire company - Jiangyu
especially.
Suddenly the doe traipsed into a dense prickly part of the forest. Jiangyu's men
knew the exits around the thicket and he ordered them to guard the exits in the
event the doe escaped through one of them. As for Jiangyu, he plunged inside,
cutting away the closest thorns.
Jiangyu reached a clearing. And there, basking in the direct sunlight was a woman,
scarcely clothed in brown furs accentuating the sensuous curves of her body. Her
hair was thick and fell down to her ankles like a liquid blanket. Her eyes were
sharp, as if they could slice through metal.
Or a man's heart.
She beckoned him with a finger, and helplessly Jiangyu came kneeling before such
wild beauty.
"What would you do for me?" her voice was smoke, caressing into his ears,
enveloping Jiangyu's mind to the point where she was the only thing that mattered
to him in existence.
The shiftress sensed this, seeing as everything this mortal man held dear -his
empire, his reputation, his unborn baby, his wife- paled away until only she was in
his little mind.
"Anything." breathed Jiangyu.
The shiftress chuckled at the weakness of this one mortal.
"I want your lineage." crooned the shiftress. "Every time a woman of the Wu line
will conceive, I want those unborn babies. Won't you give me that?"
"Of course!" cried Jiangyu.
The shiftress laughed hysterically, cackling and high-pitched. Her body morphed
back into an animal; four-legged with giant scarlet hooves as if painted with the
blood of babes. Her body bloated, expanding enormously with shaggy black fur the
color of tar. Spires of twisted horns protruded from her head, wicked and
dangerous. Her eyes, no longer wise, held only bloodlust within those lurid sulphur
yellow orbs. She was monsterous.
Her huge maw fell open, still laughing, revealing rows and rows of wicked teeth
and racid breath. Jiangyu snapped out of his haze at the sight of such a grotesque
beast, stumbling to crawl away.
"You fool!" roared the shiftress. "You just doomed your entire line!"
Jiangyu was horrified; she was right.
"Su...Sur..Surely, you would make another deal with me, please shiftress? I do
not want my blood to die!" Jiangyu was on his hands and knees, bowing before the
beast, too afraid to look the creature in her crazy eyes.
Entertained, the shiftress considered. "If a woman of the Wu line truly wants a
child, she must be willing to give her life to me. If not, I will collect the baby.
Either way I get my flesh."
"But! There must be another way for both mother and baby to live!" Jiangyu
pleaded, he was sobbing now, wells of tears and snot flowing grossly from his face.
He was pleading with a deranged being.
The shiftress guaffewed, startling Jiangyu and shaking his entire body. "You beg
so earnestly now, little man! Where was this rationale when I was a woman?" she
bellowed. "Fine. If the mother wishes to keep her life and that of the baby's, she
will have to face me!"
Throat too tight to speak, Jiangyu nodded feverishly.
"As for a snack, I will eat your tiny men poised as the exits. Be sure to tell
your wife, daughters, and sons of my curse because of your weak-willed heart."
The beast, for its titanic size, moved with the speed of lightning, dashing out
of the thicket. Jiangyu heard the cries and shouts and rips of flesh as the
shiftress consumed his company.
For a fortnight, Jiangyu slowly escaped the forest. When he reached his empire,
the guards bombarded him questions, the doctors with their ointments and wrappings.
All he wanted was to see his wife.
But she could not see him, for her tears clouded her vision. In the time Jiangyu
spent in the forest, Chen delivered a stillborn. She wailed at her lost, completely
ignorant of the guilt that belonged only to Jiangyu.
Jiangyu told her of the shiftress' curse.
That very night, Chen conceived. And nine months later, she passed.
At her burial, Jiangyu craddled his whimpering daughter, fearing the day she too
will rest next to her mother.

"That was just the account of the first Wu when he met the shiftress. Heng has
all the written records from all the pregancies, miscarriages, delieverys, and
deaths of the Wu women." Gui whispered to his wife.
Overwhelmed with information, Meihui sat still, understanding her fate. Drawing
in a great breath, Meihui prepared to speak. Heng, Boqin, Jiao, and Gui all leaned
in to her the Empress' faint voice.
"I leave at sunrise."

---------------------------------------

Meihui sat atop a speckled brown and white horse with a light gray falcoln on her
shoulder, both animals female as per Meihui's request. Her eyes were hardened and
focused, posture ramrod straight, regal and ready to face the shiftress.
She resembled one of the fiercest soldiers Boqin ever trained -and, in a way, she
was, for today, she would fight for her right and her unborn child's right to live.
Meihui was eeriely tranquil, in Gui's opinion. She trained with Boqin all
afternoon and night of yesterday, learning battle techniques with an adeptness that
overshadowed Boqin's brightest pupils. She perused all the scrolls Heng privately
guarded, searching for any time a woman of Wu ever ventured to the shiftress. None
did. Meihui would be the first.
"You do not have to go, my beloved. I could take a concubine, and she, not being
a woman of Wu, will deliver safely. We would raise the child as ours." Gui weeped
at Meihui's hip, clutching the leather saddle.
Curling her lip, Meihui was disgusted at her husband. Was he truly that weak to
let Meihui just watch and standby as he conceived with another woman in the name of
keeping her safe?
 "Gui, I want my child, a child that I will carry, so they will know and respect
the sacrifice their mother went through." Meihui stated, plain as day.
Nodding numbly, Gui stepped back from her horse, standing beside Jiao, who packed
provisions to feed a battalion within two satchels.
Rearing her mare and releasing the falcoln to soar, Meihui rushed off into the
entrance of the trecherous forest.

-------------------------------

It did not take Meihui long to find the shidtress.

Or rather for the shiftress to lead her in the right direction.
The shiftress wore a short pure white dress, baring her arms and legs, neck and
the majority of her chest. Her hair, the color of autumn, was crowned with a wreath
of frosted leaves and tiny fruit of all colors. She sat atop a large buck, far
bigger than Meihui's mare. The shiftress looked regal in this element- a force of
nature, serene at the moment.
But Meihui would not be fooled; the shiftress was as volatile as a volcano.
A graceful smile met the lips of the shiftress, acknowledging Meihui. "So, the
first of the women of Wu to come and meet me. It has taken some time."
"Yes it has, shiftress." Meihui called out, steadying her horse, who clopped her
hooves clearly perturbed at the shiftress' malevolent aura. Meihui scanned briefly
with eyes for her falcon, who had yet to descend. "Sorry to be hasty with you,
shiftress, but I believe you understand why I am here."
The shiftress' smile went sour. "Pity, do you not wish to see my little secret
before you come demanding?"
Meihui knew better than to upset a supernatural being; yet she kept caution. "Of
course, shiftress, but might I inquire as to what this secret is?"
The shiftress smiled wider, laughing once. "You will just have to see with your
own eyes, Meihui. Follow please."
The buck ambled to the left where the trees grew thicker and denser. Hesitant,
yet determined, Meihui consoled her mare to tail after the shiftress and the buck.
All the light vanished as Meihui and her mare were lead deeper into the cluster
of trees. The shiftress glanced back ever so often to smile at Meihui in a way that
raised the hairs on the back of her neck.
Suddenly, light flooded Meihui's eyes and for a moment she was momentarily
blinded. Once she regained her sight by blinking rapidly, Meihui saw paradise.
A vast and lush green land spread farther than what any fowl could take in from
above, farther than what any beast could run. The lands rolled and boasted coloful
flowers and delicate trees and quaint streams. Joyous laughter and squeals of
children bubbled everywhere. Sweet songs from mothers flowed over the land.
Whatever this place was, Meihui was so overwhelmed with happiness that she did not
realize tears fell from her face.
"I do not eat the babies nor kill the mothers, Meihui, I keep them here where
they can live without the pressures and harships of the real world. Here, they are
at safe."
Meihui found herself nodding along in agreement with the shiftress. She could see
the children's and mothers' easy smiles and carefree behaviour, untainted and
unbroken, free from problems.
"Would you not give everything you are to let you or your baby live in this
paradise?"
But then, a chill shuddered Meihui when she looked just at the edge of the
clearing. There was a rabbit, dead, chest cavity cracked open, blood staining the
fur, little hands of children prying the ribs and ripping out bits of flesh.
Meihui nearly vomited.
"You are turning them into you." Meihui whispered, awe for this place gone as she
beheld the horror her eyes missed before. In another area, the mothers were
skinning a man, drawing lines in his body until he was too marred, too mangled to
recognize. In one of the many streams, two children and a mother splashed heavily,
parading over and over in one spot; Meihui did not miss the sick sounds of bone
crushing nor gurgled screams.
"How astute of you, Meihui. You saw through my image." There was a gleam in the
shiftress' mad eyes. "You are free to have your baby and raise them."
Meihui was disbelieving. "That is it? You show me a two-sided scene, and just
like that I am free from the curse?" Meihui could not understand; she did not want
to question the shiftress' easy test, but the way it concluded troubled Meihui.
The shiftress' posture grew bored. "You are free to have your baby, Meihui. You
should go."
Then it clicked in Meihui's mind.
"You do not take from just the Wu line, you take babies and mothers from around
the globe!"
"Congratulations!" the shiftress said with mock enthusiasm, clapping.
"You wretched beast!" Meihui screeched. She envisioned the countless babies,
innocent creatures, stolen from their parents and raised to become monsters. And
the mothers! Unknowingly sacrificing their humanity to let their little ones live!
"Well you already came here for what you wanted. Unless you want to, I don't
know, make a deal?" the shiftress drawled, waving her hand.
Meihui did not take long to consider. "Of course."
"Your wager?"
Meihui knew her offer must be more than desirable to the shiftress. "I wager the
all the children dwelling in the Wu empire, as I am their Empress."
A predatory smile, one with too many teeth and too wide a mouth, spread across
the shiftress' face. "Delightful. Then, seeing as how you will lose, you can decide
what I will give up."
Meihui did not falter at the shiftress' lofty attitude. "If you lose, I want you
to free all the mothers and children here, revoke your curse, and turn yourself
into a baby."
The shiftress snorted. "So many requests, thought purely from the heart no doubt
and to punish me. Are you sure, Meihui?" the shiftress taunted. "Certainly you know
you will lose terribly. Do you really want to be the one held responsible for the
fall of an empire?"
Meihui gave a firm nod.
Barking a laugh, the shiftress said, "Since you are almost fated to lose, you
will decide the deal. Choose foolish girl."
Meihui exhaled a shakey breath, the tiniest ghost of a smile gracing her face.
"What will soon descend from the sky?" Meihui asked.
"What kind of question is that?!" the shiftress huffed. "Do you insult my
intelligence or have you none at all to challenge a powerful goddess such as
myself? Well, to answer your dim question, it is rain, Meihui, rain will descend
from the sky."
Meihui laughed quietly. "Is that your final answer, shiftress?"
The shiftress whipped her head so quickly in Meihui's direction, Meihui surely
thought it would snap. Her malicious eyes narrowed to slits, making her more feral.
"What do you mean "final answer"?" she gritted out. "I am right!"
It was Meihui's turn to smirk. "Well, that is where you are wrong, shiftress."
Releasing a high pitched whistle, Meihui's falcon swooped down, landing atop
Meihui's shoulder.

-----------------------------

Gui tripped over his feet as he sprinted towards his brave wife. She looked
absolutely victorious, horse galloping proudly, falcon cheerily squawking, proud
smile upon his wife's beautiful face. As she came closer, Gui could see his Meihui
drenched in sweat and in her arms a small baby swathed in fur.
"Isn't our baby wonderful?" Meihui breathed out.
Gui craddled the underside of his beloved's jaw and the top of the newborn's
head.
"I would do anything for her."