14 A Wild Huang Jin Appears! (1/2)
”Does he have a name?” Mei Hua asked her fairy friend.
Ye looked thoughtful.
”Huang Jin.”
”…you mean like the color…?”
”Yep. The color gold. Just call him Jin.”
She glanced at them both. Leaf and Gold. Who were the parents to these children? Could she find them and smack them upside the head?
”Well, it's nice to meet you Jin. I'm Mei Hua.” She gave a polite bow to the man, which he attempted to imitate, and almost fell head first into the dirt. She grabbed him by the shoulders, stopping his fall. ”I see your balance needs some work.”
Clearing her throat, she helped stand him up right again.
”There's so much going on here, I don't even know where to start.” She pressed her palm on her forehead. ”I suppose learning to stand up properly will be the first, balance the next, uh…”
”Talking.”
”Oh right.” She was quiet for a moment. ”Exactly how do you teach someone to talk?”
”Uh… well, like how you teach a baby I guess?”
”Don't you just talk at babies? Does that mean I just talk at him?”
Ye gave a slow, uncertain nod. ”Yes… I think so.”
Scratching her head, she turned to Jin and tapped the side of her mouth. ”When I talk, watch my mouth, my tongue, my lips. See the way I form words. If you need, I can talk slowly and then you can try to imitate it. Does that make sense?”
Jin just stared at her hopefully. Mei Hua gave him an uncertain stare back.
”What happened to him that he lost the ability to talk?” Mei Hua asked Ye.
”Ah that…” Ye frowned. He thought about where the corpse was and then looked hard at the face of the Emperor. A vague notion rose up in his mind. ”I… I think he fell.”
”You think? How are you not sure?”
”No, well…” The fairy paced in a circle. ”It's difficult to explain. My memories on him are a bit… unclear.”
This only added to her confusion.
”Never mind. It doesn't really matter how it happened. The point is, he fell, I'm pretty sure. The fall was big enough, it killed him. The Emperor revived him.”
”The Emperor can revive the dead?!”
”Apparently, if he puts his mind to it.” Ye shuddered. ”Let's hope he never does it again though.”
”What, why?”
”Because he destroyed a piece of a mountain to the south of here to do it. It was terrifying.”
Mei Hua's eyes got very large and round. Jin had been resurrected by the Emperor. That was really something. As far as she knew, that was the first time it'd ever happened.
”Why did the Emperor resurrect him? Is he special somehow?”
”Uhm…” The fairy tugged on his hair, a bit uncertain. Jin was giving him a very intense look that Mei Hua did not understand.
Finally Ye shrugged. ”He's special alright, a special kind of stupid.”
”I know he's got problems, but that's a bit rude, Ye, even for you…”
”The Emperor, I'm talking about the Emperor.”
”Alright. You always say that about the Emperor. So what's that got to do with—”