The tiger Tribe

Year 0189 of the MunYu empire, day 21 of five Moons.

It was already quite late in the morning when Lee Yenshu and Tiaowen reached the Tiger tribe. The place had several caves, all near each other, some bigger, some wider, but most of them were of the same size.

The only difference from a regular cave, that you could find anywhere on the mountain, was the fact that those caves were all beautifully decorated with plants, some had gardens in front of it, and the biggest one, had a chimney made of stones coming out of it, a small herb garden in front, and a peach tree that grew right at the entrance of the cave, with it's branches so artistically bent, that it seemed like a artisan's hand had sculpted it. 

Tiaowen saw how Lee Yenshu stared at the peach tree, and for some reason, seemed really proud of it.

- That's something a human taught me about 500 years ago, it's called a Bonsai, it grew a bit too large to keep it inside, so I moved it to the front of my cave, beautiful isn'it. I have been taking care of that one for 200 years now. It's almost time for it to become a spirit on its own. 

The look on Tiaowen's face, was a proud one, and it was weird for Lee Yenshu to see such a majestic figure, with such a face, he couldn't help but laugh a little.

Tiaowen ignored this, and continued to show Lee Yenshu the village, at first, he was expecting a fierce village, filled with ferocious tigers, but what he saw, was a nice and peaceful place. A bit further from the caves, there where a few small circular farms, on each of those, a different grain was planted. 

He could also see a few houses that closely resembled the ones from his own realm, they had fences set up around a small space, were animals were kept, not regular animals, the chickens were almost 4ft each, but oddly enough, seemed quite tame.

On the center of the rural part of the village, there was a large well, it was nothing like the wells from his realm. On each of the four corners of the well, there was a sculpture of a tiger floating in the clouds, holding a jewel on its mouth, a blue jewel no bigger than Lee Yenshu's head. Each time someone would draw water from the well, the jewels would shine bright, and even from a distance, Lee Yenshu could feel the Qi coming from those, and entering the well.

- This is our village, it's not as big as the one for the Flying snakes on the east, but we make do with what we have. 

The leader of the tiger tribe was really proud of his village, he pointed at each of the farms, each of the houses, and explained it to Lee Yenshu all about it, but still, what most got the child's attention, was the well, most of all, since he could sense a pure and abundant Qi coming from it.

- I get it young one, the well is our most important artifact, did you know it actually has no water in it? This place was not this green when we first settled here. It was the providence of the Pine Tree spirit that allowed us to flourish, that's the reason I've kept you safe so far. You have the same scent as her. 

Tiaowen's eyes turned sad, as if he knew, she had ascended, and he had lost a friend.

- You see those jewels on the tiger's mouth? Those are called cloud spheres. They can harvest the Qi from the air around them, and turn it into actual clouds. This is sucked by the pillars, through a hole in the tiger's mouth, and a pipe leads the clouds to the bottom of the well, were another jewel, called the everfrozen droplet, resides. That jewel lowers the temperature of the clouds, turning them into water. But not just any water, the water we use here is infused with both wind Qi and Ying Qi1, that helps nurture the crops and animals we plant. This was a gift, and it's our greatest treasure.

Lee Yenshu was filled with curiosity, to try and understand the process behind it all, and as Tiaowen explained it to the child, he smiled, as if he was teaching one of his own kids. The look on Lee Yenshu as they passed other artifacts, or animals and plants he had never seen before, was amusing for the old tiger, it was fun to see such joy being brought just by looking at things he deemed normal.

The last stop on the tour was a old house. It had a herb garden, and a tiny fenced area, were animals could be kept. But the house was empty, and was outside of the village. It was not run down, or overlooked, in fact, other than the fact that there was nothing growing on the herb garden, no one would know it was a empty house. It was clean, well taken care of, and even if it was outside of the village, there was a small stone road that lead to the village itself.

The two stopped at the front of the house. Lee Yenshu had no idea why.

-If you want, you can live here while you teach the young ones. This house was built for humans, as sometimes the ones we trade with were injured, but, now, we don't use this anymore, and all trades are done outside the forest, it was easier that way, humans are too fragile.

-This one can sleep here? 

-Not just sleep, you can live here. This house is now your's... Why are you crying?

-This one is crying?

Lee Yenshu hadn't realized, but he was crying. Ever since coming to this world, despite all the hardships and dangers, he was filled with more love and care than ever before in his life. He was treated as a person, as a guest, as a friend. Those were all firsts for him. In his realm, he was a object, a laughing stock, a hitting dummy, a slave... he had never been anything other than that. But here... he finally realized what he was... He was Lee Yenshu, nothing more, nothing less.

-Thank you Tiaowen, thank you... I'm really happy right now, so I don't know why I'm crying.

As Lee Yenshu tried to wipe the tears, Tiaowen laughed at the child.

-Don't worry little one, sometimes we cry when we are happy. It's part of life. How about I show you your house, and then we have a feast in the village? You can start teaching the young ones your martial art tomorrow.

And so, they did. The house was nice, it had a inner kitchen, a outside bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room. All the furniture was really old, but well kept. After showing the house to Lee Yenshu, Tiaowen howled at the village, the child didn't understand why, but when he approached the village with the old tiger, he realized, the howl was to tell everyone to prepare for the feast.

A lot of tigers were on their animal form, drinking something from a large plate, while others were in the same shape as Tiaowen, either laughing, or doing some cooking. Lee Yenshu couldn't help but feel amazed on how fast they set everything up, from the house to the village it was not even a 30 minutes walking. 

The youngest of the tigers were hiding behind their parents, they would look at Lee Yenshu with both amazed and fearful eyes, but, once Lee Yenshu smiled at them, they easily flocked to his side, jumping around him with smiles, for many of those, it was the first time seeing a human.

The feast was lively, as the tigers danced, and showed Lee Yenshu their martial prowess, he understood why Tiaowen wanted to teach the young ones his martial arts. While the martial arts they had shown Tiaowen was powerful, with vigorous strikes and strong and centered core movements. It lacked fear, and it lacked a stable flow.

It was like the movements were forced together with brute strength, for the adults, it was easily doable, but not for the young ones, not so much, they lacked the muscle strength to complete the core movements, as this martial arts, were almost the opposite of Lee Yenshu's.

While his newly developed martial arts, had his roots on Tàijí quán, which valued the natural flow of the world, and used one movement to link to the next with the least amount of strength, using one movement to propel the next, the tiger's martial arts used brute strength to force one movement after the next, forcing the last one to a halt before starting the new one. It was not a bad martial art, just a different one.

If one would compare, the tiger's martial arts were like a old tree, whose strong roots would leave it grounded even if the earth would shake, but Lee Yenshu newly developed art was like the branches of a young tree moving along the wind, it's leaves would dance together with the wind, and the more flexible it was, the more it would survive. Like a young tree that survives a typhon, because it could still bend, but a old tree is uprooted, since it could not.

That sparked a realization on the young child, and he finally found a name for his martial arts. "Flexible Pine Sprout" he had yet to name each of the variations, but he was happy with the name of the martial arts itself, as it did resemble a sprout, moving along with the wind.

Tiaowen realized that, and smiled at the child.

-Looks like you realized something seeing my tribe's martial arts.

-I did. My arts are different, while yours are suitable for the strong, for when they can already grasp their roots, my martial art is more of a young sprout facing the strong wind. That's why I've called it the Flexible Pine Sprout.

-Meowhahaha, weird name for a martial art kid, but I like it. Since you told me the name of yours, I'll let you learn the name of the one my tribe uses. The Fierce Tiger Stance. If you want, once you are stronger, I can teach you how to use it.

And as Lee Yenshu smiled back at Tiaowen, thanking him for his future teaching, the night went on, as did the feast. Lee Yenshu had fell asleep on the ground, while playing with the young tigers he would start to tutor, Tiaowen picked him up, without waking him up, and brought him to his new house, laying him on the bed.

As he was placing the young child on the bed. The scent of the old pine tree was lingering in the air.

- Don't worry old friend, I don't know what this child is to you, but I will look after him in your stead. I'll make sure he is strong enough to live in this world. As you did for me when I was but a cub.

As he said that, he draw a rune in the air, a green rune, and Qi started to gather around it. He focused for a moment, and pointed his finger at Lee Yenshu, upon doing so, the rune sinked into his forehead, and disapeared.

-Hope you like this gift in the future young one. I'm sure it will come in hand. Sleep well, you will have a busy day from tomorrow onwards.

And, as the old tiger left the house, the night went on, and the marking the end of that day.