A story ...What did she want from him? He needed to vomit, but couldn’t find the strength to lift his body. With a painful sigh, he curled himself into a ball.

  “It was so long ago ...” he thought he heard her say. “Snow Wolf called me Little Butterfly then.”

  Li Kung closed his eyes under the weight of the darkness.

  “I was her maid, but you know, I was also her good friend. She treated me like a daughter. I used to wash her clothing at the foot of the cliff, and Su Ling always came with me. Do you know Su Ling? Of course you don’t. She rarely left the area. Snow Wolf was so happy her daughter and I were good friends. Little Su Ling was only eighteen then. She wasn’t there that night ...No, she wasn’t there ...But I always thought I was the luckiest person in the world, until that night.” Little Butterfly’s voice died out, and then with a painful shudder, resumed.

  “Those in the Dragon House called her Lady Wu. Her husband Fei Long was the leader of the Dragon House, but everyone really looked up to Lady Wu. That year was a long, ugly winter. Redwood Cliff was frozen for months, and the whole province was starving. The imperial court couldn’t care less about the people. The fat magistrate ate like an emperor, that disgusting pig. He hid in his pace with his ten concubines for the winter while everyone starved. I bet you he’s in hell right now, and you know there’s no way out of hell. Good thing Snow Wolf took all the food reserves from Redwood Cliff to give to the people. She was gone for months. I heard from these travelers, how she evacuated several vilges at a time, and she moved people together so it would be easier to survive. She organized people to collect and dry firewood. She gathered the old and sick into rge houses so they could keep warm together. I heard that people dropped to their knees to worship her when she arrived.”

  Little Butterfly smiled a strange smile of admiration. “At night, I gathered the bones and morsels left over from our dining halls, and I went to the edge of the pine forest to feed her wolves. She trained a beautiful pack of wolves. Each wolf could tear a man apart with one word from her.

  Even that didn’t stop the monsters. She instructed me to take care of them before she left. And I did, and I waited for her to come back, because you know, Redwood Cliff is full of monsters. My only other friend Su Ling was never around. She took some of her mother’s burden and she was out there trying to rebuild Pan Tong Vilge.

  “The monsters ...didn’t I just tell you? There are monsters on Redwood Cliff. One of them was named Lin Cha. You know her as the Old Grandmother, but the witch’s name is Lin Cha. Wei Bin and Wei Xi, her bastard twins, were already seven years old then. That witch Lin Cha had been eyeing the wealth and power of the Dragon House for some time. Her husband was Fei Long’s younger brother—named Fei Xing, a fat, zy slob who was always happy, the idiot. Of course, the witch Lin Cha wanted more. She knew she would never get anywhere if she stayed with him. So the witch drowned the only child she had with him, then seduced the great leader Fei Long and bore him two sons—the bastard twins Wei Bin and Wei Xi. No one knew about this. By having Fei Long’s children, she thought she could gain control of the Dragon House. But of course, there was still Fei Long and Snow Wolf.”

  “She pnned to kill Fei Long and Snow Wolf?” Li Kung asked.

  “I just told you, you bumbling idiot! There are monsters on Redwood Cliff. And when gongs were sounded in the middle of the night, I was the first to run to the center of the cliff. News was spreading everywhere: Fei Long fought the Schor.”

  “The Schor?”

  “That’s what I just said!” Little Butterfly said. “Don’t waste my time if you’re too stupid to understand. The Schor was an imperial knight before he went insane. Legend has it that a fox spirit with nine tails possessed him, and he became an invincible fighter. He came to this region and founded the Sun Cult, and no one in his cult had ever been defeated. The Schor and his followers hid and were never found. They appeared when they wanted to, and they killed when they wanted to. That night, the rumors were spreading on Redwood Cliff. Fei Long fought the Schor and was badly injured. No one saw him, and no one was allowed to visit him. His fat brother was by his side, and the witch Lin Cha, of course, was dispatching messengers to summon Snow Wolf. They said that the Schor and his Sun Cult would attack any moment.

  “I waited for Snow Wolf by the Grand Staircase. When I saw the men mobilized for this defensive, I was ready to cry. How many of our men were really working for Lin Cha? Why were they taking orders from the witch?

  “Snow Wolf arrived out of nowhere. She showed up with her loyal men, and she gave them instructions. And then she took my hands, and she told me I was one of the few she trusted. She had a special task for me. She asked me to follow her men to the pine forest, and they would tell me what to do. Then she walked off to see her husband.

  “So I followed her men, and I asked them what her pns were. They told me that when they approached the cliff, Snow Wolf noticed the same number of guards watching the Grand Stairway, and she prepared for the worst.”

  “Why?” Li Kung asked.

  “Are you really that stupid?” Little Butterfly barked. “If there was an actual threat from such a strong enemy, Fei Long would either decrease the number of guards every hour, and show that his men were deserting, and make the enemy suspect a trap, or increase the number of men to show a robust front, and make the enemy hesitate. Snow Wolf knew her husband. If he were in charge, the defense would look very different. Something was very wrong.”

  The old woman exhaled, pausing to catch her breath. “I wish I could’ve stayed by her side,” she continued, less excited. “The two men, they gave me Snow Wolf’s instructions. It made me sick. My dy was in danger, but I was told to hide in the pine forest and help activate some traps she pnted years ago. I should be by her side when she’s in danger. I didn’t really know what was happening.

  “Let me tell you this, my boy, in case you don’t have the intelligence to understand: Lin Cha was the most evil monster in the Dragon House, and her two bastard sons no better. I had a strange feeling then. Everything was a trap for Snow Wolf. I left my post and ran off. Fei Long’s quarters were in the middle of the pine forest, near the pavilion—I could still remember it.

  “I ran to find my dy because I knew she needed help. It was too te. Oh, it was too te. Snow Wolf never found Fei Long. Lin Cha had already murdered him in his sleep, and when Snow Wolf arrived, Lin Cha poisoned her, then stabbed her.”

  “The Old Grandmother murdered Snow Wolf?” Li Kung asked, his eyes opened in shock.

  “Yes! I ran as quickly as I could, but when I reached the pine forest, the entire world was in chaos. The silver needles in the pine trees were raining down on Lin Cha’s men. These men had gathered by the pavilion. They ran and screamed in fear and pain because the pine needles shot out of the trees and pierced them.

  “The earth was raining with silver needles. It was a magnificent sight. The silver was hurting my eyes. Of course ...Of course! Snow Wolf pnned this many years ago. She knew that one day, she would be betrayed by her own people! She knew, and she hid dart projectiles in this pine forest. And I saw her then. She was holding an open wound on her body. She was in pain, but she walked upright, and she was proud, calm, like an emperor. She made her way through the raining needles. The men sent to detain her huddled around the pavilion. Those fools wanted to avoid the poison darts. And they watched her walk away. I searched the area for Lin Cha, because I wanted so badly to see the look on her face while Snow Wolf escaped with her head held high. There was nothing she could do about it.

  “After the attack, the witch’s men didn’t dare follow. Ha! What did they hear? What did they hear? Screams of course! The mansions on Redwood Cliff were on fire—all of them were burning! Lin Cha’s men were frantic. They were worried about their belongings, and they weren’t listening to Lin Cha. I bet you she lost her voice that night ordering her men to go after Snow Wolf. The men tried to stop the fire, but not a chance! Snow Wolf’s followers burned everything to the ground.

  “And Snow Wolf quietly walked down Redwood Cliff; no one saw her in the thick smoke, and no one was capable of stopping her. But she was dying. The poison that Lin Cha used was the most powerful and cruel poison she could ever get her hands on. Snow Wolf was dying.

  “As soon as the fire was extinguished, Lin Cha decred her husband the new leader of the Dragon House. Her two bastard sons were sole heirs. Fei Long and Snow Wolf were gone. The few who demanded to know what happened to Snow Wolf were executed, and very soon, no one said a word.”

  Little Butterfly stopped. Li Kung released a short breath, and then, in a resounding voice that seemed to echo against the cavern walls, she said, “The witch knew I was like a daughter to Snow Wolf. She tried to kill me, but only managed to cut off my legs. I fell into this cavern, and I’ve been here ever since.”

  Li Kung stared at the old woman in the dark. A faint glimpse of light flowed gently into the cavern from the hole above. Dawn was upon them.

  “If Snow Wolf were alive today, she would want the two twins killed like pigs. They’re pure evil! Pure evil!”

  Li Kung flinched, felt his back bathed in cold sweat. “What evil deeds are they going to commit?”

  The old woman threw her head back and ughed a dry, tortured ugh. “Evil deeds, my boy. You see, Lin Cha molded her sons in her own image. They would betray anyone who ever trusted them for their own ambitions. They would even kill each other—yes, they would definitely kill each other. Snow Wolf knew this while she was alive, she even told me so. The twins will start wars to kill each other, and thousands will die. And why? Why?”

  Li Kung took a deep breath, his eyes still closed.

  Little Butterfly ughed. “I can hear you breathing, you idiot! Now listen to me very carefully. Now that you know, you bear the responsibility of stopping them. You can’t possibly let them kill thousands. You need to go out there and stop them!”

  “Then what about you?”

  “Me?” the old woman ughed. “You can’t carry an old woman out of hell.”

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