Threads 432-Green 1

She found Zhengui in the midst of one of his patrols through the farmlands of Shenglu. His routes through these lands had become roads just by the natural effects of his tread, a wide path of packed earth, cleared of boulders and trees for his own convenience, and where he walked, even the grass had shifted to grow verdant and green along its edges rather than the clumpy patches that might catch a foot or wagon wheel. The earth itself was dark and baked by the heat of his shell to give firmer footing.

Out here, her little brother did not restrain himself. He loomed over the land, a walking hill whose footsteps sent small tremors through the earth, some nearly eight meters from the front of his shell to the back. On his back was the mobile shrine he had described to her, much larger than the one which he had worn in their little family garden. Racks on racks of ceramic planters were set into metal piping affixed to his spiky shell, and they were filled with a menagerie of plants from the farms and town given in offering. He was a steep tiered field unto himself, and the rattling of the planters was matched only by the buzzing of the bees which flitted among the flowering plants, each one like a drop of liquid gold.

She floated, Qiyi’s silk rippling around her, toward him through the hazy, light flow of ash wafting off of him. The ash scattered on the breeze, carried out to the surrounding fields to fertilize the soil. since she was flying today, she’d let the dress grow out the train of her gown into a long fluttering thing that waved a good half meter behind her, little wisps of mist rising from it.

“Big Sister!”

“Come to see this young king’s walk today, Elder Sister?”

My, Zhen’s haughtiness was reaching critical levels. She would have to tease him over it later, and gently deflate it, but now was not the time

“I did. Do you mind if I join you, little brother?”

“If sister comes around the front, Zhengui had his friends build a seat into the new model!”

She circled lazily above him. Indeed, among all the flowers, there was a hollow set with a chair made of thin metal tubing and sturdy linen padding. She didn’t miss that it was surrounded by darker colored and more cold resistant plants, too.

… Zhengui really did love her.

Ling Qi drifted down. “Don’t mind if I do then.”

Pretty, pretty, blooming bright, cold and white, sleeping blue!

Her dress hummed as she settled into the seat. The embroidery on her gown crawled and shifted from wintry whorls to the outlines of petals and stylized white lines like sprouting shoots. Her sleeves expanded, sprouting lace and covering her hands.

Ling Qi sighed, but let it go. She supposed the fanciness lent Zhengui more gravitas, too.

“Everything fine since the ceremony?” Ling Qi asked.

“Mhm! Miss Snowblossom and I have been chatting a lot. She likes hearing about the fields and hills, and even if swimming is no fun, Gui likes hearing about the fishes and the water plants down in the muck.”

“I, Zhen, have been carefully adjusting the release of my qi to better match and mingle with the water coming up from below.”

Zhengui’s qi was certainly mingling with Snowblossom’s, Ling Qi thought sardonically. Joking aside, the relationship between two symbiotic spirit lords wasn’t necessarily intimate in the way that a human would think of it. It could be, but right now, she was just giving herself weird feelings for no reason. Or more honestly, she was using this silliness to distract her from the more serious topic she had come to discuss.

“I’m glad. You’ve really been prospering out here, haven’t you, little brother?” Ling Qi watched the land around them roll by. Even with his slow gait, the sheer length of his stride ate up ground.

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“Yes!”

“Of course!”

“Zhengui, can I ask… Have you ever felt any concern over where you came from?”

Zhen’s body arced up over his shell, looking down at her from above. His tongue flicked out, white hot, trailing a wisp of ash. It was a confused expression for the serpent.

“I, Zhen, do not understand.”

“You’re maturing and growing into your own. I just wonder if you have ever been curious about your actual parents.”

“Gui has wondered if he is doing things right, sometimes.”

“I, Zhen, have only one family. Big Sister is kind, but she should not worry about this topic.”

“I have never doubted that we are true family, Zhengui, but it’s also fine to want to know more.”

“I…” Zhen trailed off, smoke puffing out with each flick of his tongue.