Epilogue

Loong Fucan rested his back against the trunk of an ancient pine tree, surreptitiously stealing glances at the Phoenix Kun Ji from across the lawn. She was fawning over cousin Tangyue.

"What cha' doing?" asked a voice from behind him, making him jump.

"Nu-Ah! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Fucan complained.

"Awwwww, don't be like that, my Little Brother" she pouted, sitting cross-legged on the grass next to him.

Fucan sighed irritatedly, unable to resist the urge to sneak another glance at Kun Ji. He wondered if she would ever notice him. Nu-Ah looked back at her too.

"Ohhhh, that's why you are in a bad mood" she teased him.

Fucan scoffed. "I don't know what you are talking about."

Nu-Ah leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "I've been studying the mortals, to prepare for my Mortal Trial, and I read that they think that 'Dragon and Phoenix' are the perfect couple."

She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "You should go for it Little Brother, just tell her how you feel" Nu-Ah encouraged him.

Fucan rolled his eyes, and sighed again.

"So tell me about your latest adventure!" his Big Sister demanded, changing topics.

Fucan looked away.

"C'mon! Tell me!" she ordered. "I know it has something to do with cousin Ching-Wa" she guessed in a sing-song voice.

Fucan frowned. "I went to the Demon Realm with cousin Ching-Wa Shen" he admitted reluctantly.

"What were you two doing down there?" she asked curiously. "I can't imagine Uncle Linyou and Auntie Qintian giving you permission to go there!"

"We were hunting for treasure" he replied, embarrassed.

"And then what happened?" Nu-Ah prompted him, her distinctive golden eyes boring into his soul.

"I fell into a volcano" he mumbled behind his hand.

"What... what was that?" she asked. "I couldn't hear what you said."

Fucan huffed. "I fell into a volcano" he stated each word distinctly.

Nu-Ah laughed heartily. "I just wanted to hear you say it again."

Fucan made a face at her.

"Seriously though, what happened to your scales? Step-mother told me that they look different now?" Nu-Ah asked.

Fucan tried to explain, "my scales were made of Iron, but something in the lava made them change. They are harder now. Father thinks they might be... Steel" he informed her.

"Oooooh" Nu-Ah breathed. "A Steel Dragon. So impressive, Little Brother."

Fucan decided to change the subject. "Are you finished preparing for your Mortal Trial?" he asked his Big Sister.

"I'd better be by now!" she laughed. "I leave at noon!"

"What kind of life do the Fates have planned for you?" Fucan asked curiously.

Nu-Ah gazed off into the distance. "I am to be a poor serving maid" she said theatrically, clutching her heart. "A slave in the royal household." She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead wearing a tragic expression.

Fucan looked at her skeptically. "Are you sure you can do that?" he asked her. "You're a Princess, you've been pampered your whole life."

"Fu-can!" she exclaimed severely, "Are you doubting me? Your Big Sister?" She shook her finger at him.

"I wouldn't dare" replied Fucan, laughing. His sister was always the most funny when she was trying to be severe.

"Fucan, you shouldn't tease your Big Sister" a voice behind them stated sternly.

Tangyue was walking up to their spot underneath the tree. "She has to leave soon" he said wistfully. He sat down next to them and reached for Nu-Ah's hand, holding it longer than he should have.

"You are the Jade Maiden" he told her in an encouraging tone of voice, looking earnestly into her face. "You are going to do just fine. I believe in you, Nu-Ah." He gazed at her adoringly.

"Thank you, Cousin Tangyue" she replied graciously. Then she faked a sneeze as an excuse to pull her hand out of his grasp. Fucan hid his laughter behind a fake cough. Cousin Tangyue was always so weird around his sister.

Just then a whirlwind blasted by their tree, spraying dirt and rocks and cut blades of grass. Fucan grimaced, shielding his eyes with his arm.

"Boys!" Nu-Ah complained loudly.

"Those twins again" said Tangyue disapprovingly, brushing the dirt from his clothing.

Fucan watched his cousins Kamai and Tachi rolling around in the dirt, fighting with each other... again. Those two would never stop.

A blast of flames hit the Ferret Spirit twins, startling them out of their spat. Kun Ji was glaring at them.

"How dare you spray dirt at Tangyue!" she squawked angrily.

Fucan huffed. "What about me and Nu-Ah?" he asked her indignantly. "Are we invisible?"

Kun Ji glanced in his direction. "Oh! Are you there Fucan? I didn't notice" she said dismissively.

Fucan seethed with hurt pride. He got up from under the tree, and stalked off. He wanted to be alone.

"Don't go Fucan!" begged his Big Sister, but he ignored her.

Kun Ji was driving him crazy! He thought about her all the time. She didn't even notice him. It was maddening. He picked up a rock and threw it angrily. It sailed out over the clouds, disappearing in the distance.

"I really should go back" he thought remorsefully, after his anger had cooled. His sister would be gone for awhile. He should be respectful of her feelings.

He made his way to the platform where Yuanji, the Goddess of Fate, was preparing for his sister's Mortal Trial. A large gyroscope spun itself in hypnotic circles, floating overtop of a break in the clouds. A staircase encircled the void, allowing good vantage of the Mortal Realm below.

Nu-Ah was already at the top of the staircase, above and across from him and Yuanji, ready to go. Tangyue stood next to her, casting anxious glances in her direction. Fucan began the climb up the staircase. Suddenly from behind him he heard quarreling voices.

"You stay away from Tangyue!" Kun Ji said commandingly to her brothers. She marched right past Fucan on the stairs without even looking at him. Fucan glared at her back.

"Stop touching me" said Kamai. Fucan turned around and looked back at the platform.

"I'm not touching you!" exclaimed Tachi.

"You're trying to touch me. You are threatening to touch me!" argued Kamai.

"Oh this? You mean this?" asked Tachi facetiously, repeating his action.

"Stop it!" Kamai demanded.

"You stop it!" Tachi demanded back.

Predictably enough, the twins started brawling again. They got too close to Yuanji, who was finishing up her preparations. She turned to look at them with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"You GO!" she yelled, livid, pointing them away from her. "NOW!"

Fucan heard his Big Sister's voice from the top of the stairs.

"She said 'go now'? It's time? It's time!" Nu-Ah exclaimed.

Fucan looked back at her, trying to warn her to stop, but she had already leapt from the platform into space. It looked like she was falling in slow motion.

"Nu-Ah!" Fucan yelled.

Yuanji looked up and saw his sister falling. "No! Not yet!" she yelled in dismay.

Tangyue gave Yuanji a panic-stricken look, then raced down the stairs to confront her.

"Where did you send her?" he demanded to know.

Yuanji also looked panic-stricken. She waved her arms in vigorous circles, manipulating the gyrating components of her apparatus. Finally, she sighed in relief.

"I found her!" she declared, then her face fell. "Ohhhh" she exclaimed.

"WHAT IS IT?" Tangyue yelled in desperation.

Yuanji grimaced. "She landed in the body of a baby boy. The son of the mortal Emperor. She's going to be an Emperor one day."

"She has to live as a MAN?" Tangyue exploded. He raced back up the stairs.

"Put me next to her!" he ordered. Then he jumped off the platform himself, falling into the Mortal Realm.

Fucan gaped in shock. His Big Sister had carefully prepared for this moment for a long time, and all of her plans were changed in an instant. He was startled out of his paralysis by a loud shriek from Kun Ji.

"Tangyue!" she cried out brokenly. She looked like she was about to jump off the platform as well!

Fucan reacted without thinking. He flew up the stairs, grabbing Kun Ji by the shoulders to stop her.

"Let me go!" she demanded, struggling against him. She was strong, being a Phoenix, but he was a dragon. Her strength couldn't compare to his.

"You can't go, Kun Ji!" he yelled at her. "You aren't ready for your Mortal Trial yet."

She struggled against him for a moment more, gradually weakening, then she slumped against his chest, crying.

"It's going to be okay" Fucan said soothingly, stroking her shoulder.

He picked her up and carried her down the staircase, past the Ferret twins who were getting chewed out by Yuanji, towards the deserted park where they had been before. Her sobs eventually quieted down, and she looked up at him while being carried in his arms, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Do you want to be alone?" he asked her, setting her on her feet, reluctant to remove his arms.

She shook her head no, staring at his face like this was the first time she had ever seen it.

"I'll stay with you" Fucan offered in a hoarse whisper. He cleared his throat self-consciously.

Kun Ji nodded mutely, gazing at him with a dreamlike expression. Her tears had left tracks down her cheeks, and reddened her eyes, but she was still beautiful to Fucan. He returned her gaze, soaking up every detail of her face.

The brown of her eyes was darker around the outside of the iris, and lighter in color around the pupil, giving a multilayer color effect. There was a small freckle underneath her right eye that he had never noticed before. His gaze traveled to her lips, noticing the upper lip was more full than her lower lip. He unconsciously licked his own lips.

Kun Ji blushed and looked down at the ground. Fucan cleared his throat again.

"May I walk you home?" he asked awkwardly.

Kun Ji nodded, shyly looking up at him.

"Can I see you again tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

Kun Ji's cheeks reddened prettily in another blush, and she nodded quickly, then looked down again. Fucan had never seen Kun Ji act like this towards him. Only Cousin Tangyue. He seemed to have finally captured her attention. It was like a dream come true.

The old man stood in front of a crowd of seated children.

"And THAT is the tale of how the Jade Maiden became our Jade Emperor, and also how the Emperor of Heaven and the Queen of Heaven fell in love!" he told them all with a grand flourish.

The children clapped exuberantly.

"Dragon and Phoenix are the perfect couple!" a little girl from the crowd cried out.

Another little girl looked confused. "The Emperor of Heaven is a Steel Dragon?" she asked, twirling her hair around her finger.

"Ah, yes, of course, my beauty" the Storyteller reassured her. "As you can see by the world around you." He gestured to the steel skyscrapers that surrounded the little park in the middle of the city.

"What kind of dragon was the Emperor before him?" asked a little boy.

The Storyteller's face grew sad. "He was a Pearl Dragon" he replied.

"What happened to him and his Queen?" the little girl playing with her hair wanted to know.

The Storyteller gazed in the direction of the river. "He gave too much of himself away in order to help others" he explained, tugging at a tendril of hair that framed his face.

"He became the Pearl River, where he still gives of himself to help the mortals until this day. You can still find his scales at the bottom of the river, although the other grownups will tell you that those are Jinjiang oyster shells. Do not be fooled by them! You and I know they are really dragon scales!"

He tapped his index finger alongside his nose, nodding sagely.

"Was his Queen sad?" asked a little girl quietly.

"Yes, she was very sad" he responded. "But when she found his scales at the bottom of the Pearl River, she knew what to do. She planted herself on the banks of the river, her roots digging through the soil until they emerged into the river itself. She is still nourished by him, keeping him company. You'll know her when you see her. A giant Osmanthus tree, over a thousand years old, on the banks of the Pearl River."

"Awwwww" exclaimed the little girls in the group.

"How did they fall in love?" asked the youngest little girl.

"That is a tale for another time, I'm afraid" said the Storyteller. "If I keep you any longer, your mothers will kill me."

He waved goodbye to them, with a jaunty "Farewell, my beauties!"

FOR MORE OF THIS STORYLINE, SEE "FRESH EMBERS OF LOVE", A SEQUEL.