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Fenghou.
The great symbol of the harvest.
A myth that was passed down from generation to generation, telling of a mighty tree that bore fruit more plentiful than even the most fertile farmlands.
None knew how long the tree stood in its verdant domain. Legends told that it was born of a seed placed by celestials as a gift for mankind. Others painted it as a result of a horrible famine, birthed at a time of need. The origins of Fenghou get fuzzy as it travels from humble farmer to wealthy noble to rambling drunk.
Now the tale rattled around in the skull of a curious if absentminded monk, her well-traveled footsteps now wading through full, vibrant grassland.
The first signs of Winter had been approaching with a great many trees being encased in circles of their own fallen leaves. It had been a bountiful autumn season. Zhen could attest to that, having eagerly filled her belly in the feasts that followed.
The last breaths of windy weather lingered before the howling chills to follow in the coming weeks. Yet in this lonesome spot, the seasons warped beyond reason.
The wanderer noticed as her feet approached the oddly greener pasture. It continued to an enclosure of a tree towering to the heavens. Even more unlike its brethren, its branches - huge trunks having formed their own canopies - were permeated with not only leaves but plentiful fruit.
Like a mythical deity, Fenghou sat in its secluded corner of the land, unmatched by any hidden wonder of the world, creating its own atmosphere of eternal spring.
Zhen beheld the bough, outmatching imperial palaces, along with the offshoots of produce and vegetation cultivated from it. She gasped as her eagle eye spotted a fruit most precious to her.
“Well, hello ~”
With deft feet, she lept between the trunks, no care given for the apples, jujubes, nor the flora dwelling within Fenghuo’s impossible ecosystem.
No. She wanted a peach.
Not just any peach - the last peach.
Zhen’s tail swished with excitement. She leisurely skirted on the precipice of a drop high enough to send her into the next world. A trivial task when the reward was her favorite snack - its juices savory enough to be considered ambrosia.
Her prize lingered just over her head. A mere stone’s throw out of her reach. Her keen nose twitched, sensing the alluring juices already making her salivate. Quite a lovely peach it was - its size seemingly doubling with every footstep Zhen took until it was the size of her very head. She reached for it, her mind dreaming up the wildest fantasies of its taste-
Before realizing she grasped at nothing.
She froze, muttering a confused “huh?” as she steadily processed her predicament. A bewildered red panda scoured the vicinity, knowing there was once a nectarine the size of a pumpkin dangling right before her eyes.
In her desperate search, Zhen spotted movement among the higher canopies. It was there that she found remnants of a tail. Then the shadow of an animal, deftly moving among the tries. It seemingly did so with some added difficulty given by the-
Zhen’s feet moved by their own accord, spurred to action in an instant just when the conclusion raced through her mind;
That monkey stole her peach.
“ Aiya !” She shouted, already leaping to Fenghuo’s higher branches. “That’s mine!”
She expected it to drop the heavy fruit and make its escape but much to Zhen’s surprise, the little thief was already navigating the foliage above her.
Inevitably, a chase ensued.
Nimble footwork allowed her to keep pace with the monkey, not once letting it nor its cargo out of sight. Fenghou’s abundant branches provided ample pathways to traverse, both a blessing and a detriment as now it had become a contest to see who would err first. All it would take would be one single misstep to give the pest more leeway on its meal.
And to be on the receiving end of a perilous fall for her troubles.
Suddenly, Zhen found less reason to bemoan her monastery’s bamboo balancing exercises. Keeping pace over perilous territory seemed less of a challenge with the ritualistic ordeal burned into her muscle memory.
The thing lept out of reach once again, hooking its tail to hang from the branches. Still, it held on to the peach, daring her to hope that it might drop as the monkey dangled upside down. Wishful thinking, at best.
They had worked themselves into a repetitive dance - circling around and throughout Fenghou, Zhen’s reach slowly enclosing her adversary only for it to escape. With every passing moment, their altitude increased.
“ Ki ki ki ki! ”
Zhen had heard monkeys before - she’d heard them chirp, roar, and even howl.
She never heard them laugh.
Especially not at her .
Zhen puffed her cheeks. Had she still been at the Golden Monastery, Master Yin would probably have some well-spoken proverb along the lines of -
To a tempered mind, mockery and laughter are nothing but wind .
“Easy for you to say,” Zhen huffed to herself. “I bet you never got your food stolen.”
In her frustration, she redoubled her efforts, taking farther and riskier leaps. No matter how fast she was, the monkey kept ahead of her effortlessly, unfazed by the rising scarcity of Fenghou’s limbs.
Zhen gathered her strength and lept, aiming for a narrow limb just ahead of the thief. Her hand reached, reached...and closed on empty air! Her fury turned to horror as she realized just how much height they'd gained in their mad pursuit, the ground below being invisible through a layer of clouds. For a moment, she was weightless.
The pull of the earth came swiftly - before the monk could think to scream. Yet just as quickly as she fell, she stopped. From the unseen force grabbing hold of her ankle, her first assumption was that Fenghou’s branches had saved her.
However…
“ Ki ki ki ! Careful! Death by fall is quite the unbecoming end for any of my students!” Declared a feminine voice.
With her peril now halted, Zhen aimed her gaze at the figure dangling her aloft.
Immediately, it was apparent that she wasn’t human - a beastkin if the snow-white fur and nimble tail were of any indication. Yellow and red robes differentiated her from whichever animal she took the form of - monk-like in appearance yet light enough for travel. Zhen was graced with a fanged grin dripping with mischievousness, not unlike the monkey she was chasing. In fact -
Where did it go?
More importantly, where was her peach?
Not soothing her growling stomach, that was for sure.
Zhen wasn’t waiting long to discover where the forbidden meal had gone; the strange lady was holding it.
“ Oki ?” she chirped questionably. “Don’t tell me you’ve gone silent from shock, child!” She rattled Zhen’s dangling body with impatience. The red panda’s lack of response was far from what she desired. Caught between frustration and disappointment, she sighed. “And here I thought you Golden Monastery folk were made of stronger stuff, okiki! ”
The juicy peach was wholly ignored sitting in her palm. Zhen herself was arm’s length away. Even with the blood rushing to her head, the promise of a delectable treat kept her focused.
“You make such an angry face, girl.” Finally, the lady hoisted her up from the drop of certain doom, instead opting to dangle her over the platform branch supporting them both. “ Oki , and what do I call my new dimwitted pupil?”
“...Dimwitted?”
Hurt, perhaps even offended, Zhen managed the feat of tearing herself from the prospect of food. Just for a moment.
“Rude!”
“ Okikiki! The lesser panda speaks!”
In an inhuman display of agility, the monkey shifted her grasp on Zhen's ankle. Her deceptively strong tail continued to hold her aloft as she fearlessly placed her faith in Fenghou’s limb. Not a single soul would flirt with death so brazenly yet here she was, handstanding at the peak of a mountainous tree.
“Tell your new master your name, youngster!” She was giddy as a child, meeting Zhen’s upside-down (or rather right-side up) gaze. The fruit dangled precariously in her grasp.
“Zhen.” She answered plainly. “And I don’t think I’ve ever been your student, Miss uhm…Li-Gho?”
“Nonsense! All become students when the teacher arrives, oki oki !”
“But I already had teachers back at the temp-”
“Zhen, hm?” Li-Gho scrutinized her. Having both her arms preoccupied, she relied on her primate-like foot to rub her chin inquisitively. Zhen was never one to feel embarrassment from having a pair of eyes run her down but this instance felt far more…awkward than the others. “You don’t look like a ‘Zhen’. With legs like those, I’d sooner call you ‘Hips’, kikiki !”
Zhen pursed her lips, momentarily glancing at the culprit of her new moniker. Being upside-down did little to prevent her monk garb from putting her bare hips on display.
She shook her head, reminding herself that now wasn’t the time to address her revealed undergarments. Not when her next meal was just within her reach.
Just…a little…closer .
The monkey woman chirped, as though she sensed Zhen’s intent without a word. With another agile feat, Li-Gho was briefly airborne from her handstand, giant peach still in tow. Zhen let out a gasp before she suddenly realized she now felt…heavier?
“The Golden Monastery monks have a habit of being too rigid. Boring.” Li-Gho mused. Through firsthand experience, Zhen would agree. Always uptight about sleep schedules and limiting meals.
Mandatory meditation.
Wearing pants.
“ Ooki , you impress me though, little fox bear. ”
Zhen aimed her head to the sky, finding none other than the energetic primate perched masterfully on the soles of her feet. Her ever-elusive treat was now wrapped with Li Gho’s tail. “But I’m not a fox or a bear!”
“ Oo ?” She palmed her chin inquisitively. Zhen steadied her posture while her “tenant” chose a most inopportune time to study her. “You sure? Maybe not a fox, but I don’t think I’ve seen so much backside on anything but a bear! Okikiki! ”
Again came the twinge of annoyance that Zhen couldn’t quite shake. The comment on her form took on a different feel when it wasn’t from an enamored fling in the bed-chamber of the local inn. She opened her mouth to make her protest, as she would to her masters when being chastised for sneaking seconds at the dining hall.
“Y-EEP!”
The sound of clapping thunder and a harsh sting at her posterior left the words stuck in her mouth. Her center of gravity tilted from the disruption, forcing the chirpy tormentor to hop back onto the limb.
With a form befitting a falling tree, Zhen’s perspective was replaced with solid wood. Her pathetic whines went muffled into Fenghou as her palms went to soothe her now reddened rear.
“ Aiyaaa ! What was that for?!”
“Mmm…still rigid, ooki ,” Li-Gho jovially brought the peach back to her palm as she circled around her pupil, too lost in thought to partake of it. “Your technique is sound but still lacking a master’s form.”
As quickly as the self-declared teacher dodged her question, Zhen’s focus returned to the succulent fruit. Emboldened, Zhen made for one final pounce.
An instinctive maneuver triggered by her beastkin physiology or just her pestering hunger, she didn’t care. Not when she was denied her treat again and again. Under the watchful gaze of the symbol of the harvest, Zhen was going to have her snack. That was a promise.
The monkey’s back turned, as though toting the peach in her hand with the explicit purpose of mocking Zhen’s poor, empty tummy.
Her form now perfected, she dove with a flame lit in her eyes.
Then missed entirely.
Solid wood met her advance instead, dazing Zhen instantly on impact. Thin air seemed to be the only thing she had luck getting her hands on. Again came Li-Gho’s chirping laughter as a sudden weight planted itself on her back.
“Slow! Slow !” The impish monkey squawked between her usual fits of laughter. Zhen was equally powerless to get her face off Fenghou’s trunk as she was in keeping Li-Gho from using her as a personal seat. “You have much to learn, my barrel-hipped pupil. But fear not, for I have much to teach!”
The implication of being stuck under tutelage annoyed her even more than having her head made into a footrest. Though not as much as her noisy stomach.
“Can I have my peach back now?”
There was a pause - the longest break of silence since encountering her new self-declared mentor. As though the inquiry had finally touched some sense of kindness that was hidden under Li-Gho’s mischievous tricker-
A loud, juicy crunch interrupted her thoughts.
“No. I’m putting you on a diet.” Said Li-Gho, her point emphasized as she used her new student’s rear as a pillow.
It was going to be a long Winter.