Part 7 (2/2)

And perhaps that was why the second night, when the sky darkened and the moon rose, Dragon crept out from the shadows of the trees and approached the closed, sleeping city. While he wouldn't admit it, Dragon thought just standing by the walled city might make him feel just a bit less lonely.

The silver moon cast a frosted glow upon on the rough stone wall and guardian lion statues. Dragon stared at them as he approached the gate. Their stocky, heavily built bodies seemed to weigh down the stone platforms they sat upon; and the darkness of the night made their stiff curly manes look like rows of carved blossoms. One lion held a round ball underneath his forearm; the other held down a lion cub that seemed to be grinning at him. In fact, all the lions seemed to be grinning at him as if he were a secret joke they were watching.

”Am I so funny?” Dragon asked them as he pa.s.sed.

”YES!” burst out the small lion cub, wriggling free of his mother's paw. ”You're very funny!”

As Dragon jumped back in surprise, the lion cub laughed out loud, obviously highly amused at the dragon's shock. But with his laugh, both adult lions shook themselves from their platforms.

”Xiao Mao!” the mother lion scolded. ”Don't laugh at the lost dragon. Besides, you know the rules. No moving in the presence of others.”

”But it's a dragon,” the cub said, ”not a people. He doesn't count for the rules, does he? Besides, he is funny! Big dragon trying to tiptoe like a mouse!”

”Xiao Mao,” the deep, male voice of the other lion boomed in the air. The cub gave a half-hearted look of shame and was immediately quiet and still.

By this time, Dragon had found his voice.

”You're alive, then,” he said.

”Of course we are,” the male lion said, scrutinizing the dragon with interested eyes. ”Everything's alive - the ground you're walking on, the bark of those trees. We were always alive, even before we were lions and were just raw stone. However, carving us did give us a bit more personality.”

”You're a fairly young dragon, aren't you?” the female lion said kindly. ”You seem only a hundred or a hundred and fifty years old. Don't worry, you'll learn soon enough.”

”A hundred!” the lion cub said. ”I'm much older than you. I'm eight hundred and sixty-eight!”

”And you still have not attained wisdom,” the father lion told him. ”Don't tease the young one.”

”Well, what are you doing here?” the cub asked, not unkindly. ”Dragons don't usually come down to the earth much. Are you lost?”

Though unusual, the lions weren't unfriendly, so Dragon settled down and told them the whole story - being born, living in the forest, meeting Minli, and now their travels to find the borrowed line and the Old Man of the Moon. The lions didn't interrupt once, though the cub did snicker from time to time.

”You belonged to Magistrate Tiger?” the cub said, when Dragon finished. ”That means you're the terrible dragon! You're the one that destroyed the king's father's palace. What a lot of trouble you caused!”

Dragon looked at the older lions questioningly.

”About one hundred years ago,” the female lion said, ”the king's father fled his home village. A dragon had destroyed his palace and his people cast him out, saying he was bad luck. He came here, intending to make his home with his son and to live off his son's wealth and power as the King of the City of Bright Moonlight. There were bad times here for the city, as the king's father and the officials he brought with him were corrupt and greedy. We were very concerned.”

”You?” the dragon asked. ”Why would it concern you?”

”Why would it concern us? It is completely our concern!” the male lion said. ”We are the Guardians of the City. It's our responsibility to watch and keep the city turning. To see it begin to crack alarmed us to no end.” And the lion held out the round ball he held in his hand and showed Dragon an old, deep fracture that was slowly being filled with the dust of the earth.

”What did you do?” Dragon asked.

A STRING OF DESTINY We were afraid the city would break. As the times became more turbulent with secret meetings and violent outbursts, we watched the crack in our world widen. It was only a matter of time, we thought, before it would tear into two.

One night, as we despaired, we saw a figure walking in the moonlight. Bent and old, he glowed like a lit lantern. When we saw he was carrying a large book and a small sack, we knew instantly it was the Old Man of the Moon and called him over.

”Please help us,” we begged him, ”we need to keep the city together.”

The Old Man of the Moon looked at us, our outstretched cracking globe and our pleading faces. Without a word, he sat down before us and opened his book, leafing through the pages and stroking his beard.

After several minutes of consulting his book, he opened his sack and handed us a red thread.

”You are to hold this until it is needed,” the Old Man told us, and then slapped his book shut and walked away, ignoring our words of thanks.

We knew the Old Man of the Moon had given us a string of destiny, one of the very strings he used to bind people together. It was a marvelous gift. While he left us no instructions, we guessed that we were to use it to tie around the city if it looked as if it were to split.

After that, night after night, we watched our sphere, ready to use the string at the first signs of breakage. Unsure of its power or abilities, we dare not use it for anything but the direst of circ.u.mstances.

But the crack did not grow. Unexpectedly, the king renounced his father. He exiled him and his officials from the city and harmony returned. Slowly, the fracture has filled with the powder of earth and stone. And I have held the string, unused.

And as the male lion finished, he lifted his paw, to reveal a flattened line of red thread.

”The borrowed line!” Dragon said. ”That's it! Minli said she needed to get the borrowed line from the Guardian of the City! You're the guardian and that's the borrowed line we need!”

”I suppose it is,” the lion said, looking at the string. ”So, perhaps I have been holding it all this time so I could give it to you.”

And the lion dropped the string into the dragon's outstretched hand.

CHAPTER 25.

Ma and Ba found the days without Minli long and difficult. In the morning, as soon as they woke up, they rushed to Minli's bed to see if she was there. In the afternoon, they hurried from the fields hoping to find Minli waiting at home. And at night, with a rice bowl and a set of chopsticks waiting for her at the table, they looked up at every sound of footsteps.

But an empty bed and house always greeted them, and the footsteps always belonged to a pa.s.sing neighbor. While Ma's anger had disappeared with the goldfish man, she grew a little thinner and paler every day, and Ba's eyes no longer twinkled.

And one evening, in the middle of the night, Ba woke up alone in bed to a voice calling.

”Wake up, old man!” the fish said. ”Wake up! Your wife needs you.”

Ba quickly rose and looked for Ma, who was sitting by Minli's bed. In the stillness of the darkness, Ma shook with sobs.

”Oh, Wife,” Ba said softly, sitting next to her.

Ma turned to him, her face s.h.i.+ny from wet tears. ”What if Minli never returns?” Ma said. ”What if we are always without her?”

Ba put his hand over his face, brus.h.i.+ng away the tears that were forming in his eyes. ”I don't know,” he said.

”Neither do I,” Ma said and she buried her face in Minli's bed, crying in despair.

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