The Cautious Wolf King

At the Wolf camp the situation was very intense. The entire palace had gathered for this important meeting. "Hail The King" echoed through the Hall way as the Wolf king made his way to his throne. The people in his presence included all the ministers, his children and queens. "What do we have here today? " he asked the minister sitting at his right.

"My Lord, we have gathered here today to discuss about the reemergence of the curse" He bowed with a long scroll in his hand with details and particulars of the event. "And what are the developments? " He asked. "We have eye witnesses claiming the involvement of the Foxes in this" He reported.

"Idiot. Ofcourse both the clans have to be involved for this curse to emerge. Do we have any lead to the offenders' identities? " He was furious.

"No my Lord. None as of yet" He replied sheepishly. "No? Not even the one from our own tribe? We can't even trace to committed such a heinous crime from our own Clan and we dare to point fingers at others. Do you want us to look like the laughing stock amongst all immortals? " The king stood up in anger. The entire court went down on their knee to ask for forgiveness.

"Please forgive us for our incompetence Lord. " They echoed in a chorus. "Stop wasting my time and get to some real work. I want results and quick. Is that understood? " He roared past them. "Understood " They replied in unison. As the king walked towards his chambers, he whispered to one of his queen "You know very well but the others don't"

"What do I know my Lord" The queen stopped in her track as she faced her husband. "The fact that somebody from our Royal Family is involved in this. The entire world just knows that any for of blood tie evokes the curse. Nobody, except a few, have the knowledge about the fact that the blood tie that actually evokes the curse must be formed between members of the Royal families belonging to the two clans" He said pointing at themselves. "I am well aware my Lord. But what are you implying? " She asked with inquisitive eyes. "I am implying that as the Chief queen you must keep your eyes open. Somebody amongst us have is responsible. They might have some ulterior motive in evoking the curse. We must get to the heart of it before others do" He gave her a knowing nod. "Yes of course my Lord" She agreed as they strolled to their respective chambers.

In the meantime the princes had gathered around to discuss the happenings at the court. "I marvel at the courage of the defector. Whosoever amongst our clan might have had the courage to brave the curse for love" Remarked the mischievous twelve th prince.

"Ssshhhh! Soso, do you think this is a matter to joke about? " His elder brother tried discipling him with a nudge. "But how to we trace the person? " Asked the tenth son. "That is the question we all are wondering about. " The fifth one replied. As they were having this discussion, an arrow from afar came rushing towards them. It hit the ground as they dispersed. A beautiful lady swam down behind it, laughing her heart out, quite amused at the princes' reaction. "What are you all have this discussion about Brothers? " She poked them. "Roe.you are a young lady now. You must try to behave more in a lady like manner" Her eldest brother tried rectifying her.

"Says who? The King of this land, my father has given me full permission to do what my heart desires" She retorted rather angrily. "Yeah we know. He is the one spoiling you" The second prince nudged. "Enough.stop bullying her all of you" The third one, her favourite, Xie, came to her rescue. "Anyway.we were developing strategies as to how we should find the culprit from our tribe" The eldest said "would the princess have any insight to it" He almost mocked her.

"Do you really want to know? " She teased "Do you have one? " They asked together. "I just know one fact.The curse finds the defectors. So if you sit patiently enough, one day or the other the curse will itself follow the defector to our tribe. You can arrest him then" She rolled in laughter as she teased them. Their bewildered faces gave her too much satisfaction. She then went away hurriedly. From there she had gone directly to her room, to pack her stuff before her journey. She had hoped to sneak out alone at the middle of the night. When all the lights went out, she tip toes out of her room and bounced on top of the terrace. Just as she was about to make her jump outside the boundary walls, a pair of hands held her hands.

"You? " She asked shocked. "I knew something was up with you. Where are you heading this time? " Xie asked worried. "I will tell you if you promise not to stop me" She urged. "I promise" He assured "Brother, I thought about the curse situation. No matter what you do it comes back to the dead end, unless" She stopped. "Unless what? " He was genuinely curious. His sister was one of the wittiest in their clan "Unless we get to know more about it. And there is only one place we can gather such information" She looked at him. "The tree of knowledge" He replied. "Precisely.So I am off. Bye bye" She tried freeing her hand and make an escape.

"Mei mei wait. The road towards the tree of knowledge is very dangerous" Xie replied. "I know" She was still tugging and pulling. "Let me come along with you" He insisted. She immediately stopped pulled and asked in amazement "you will accompany me? " She was very happy. "Since I can't stop you, I better try helping you. It's about the future and safety of our tribe after all" He winked. "You are the best Xie" She hugged her brother tight before they both jumped ,to embark on their secret journey, in the silence of the night.

********

Sacred Lands

As Lin and Boshu stepped on sacred land of the Forbidden Woods, they were on their tip toe. This place was quite unique. It was a levitating piece of land. However the gateway to the realm of the Tree of Ages was situated right at the centre of it. The most peculiar thing about the place was that it could gauge intentions. Anybody with malice or ill intention would immediately turn to ashes the moment they set foot on this land. So before descending, one had to make a firm resolution with a pure heart and stick to that intention for the rest of their journey forward and back.

Any difference of heart would be sensed by the sacred land and the person immediately eliminated from it. "Boshu.why exactly are you here?" Lin teased the already tensed Boshu as they strolled forward. "I.um ... I'm here to help you with solving the case of the eternal curse. " Boshu replied very carefully choosing his words as he stuttered. "Are you sure? Don't you have any ulterior motive behind it? " Lin continued teasing him. "Wha... Wha... What are you talking about Lin. Stop teasing me. " He was still stammering to get his words out.

"Are you here to get close to me, you dirty little bird" Lin laughed as he tapped hard on Boshu's back. " Lin........ " And Lin ran as Boshu ran after him to catch him. By the time Roe and Xie landed on the place, it was already night. The sky was lit up with beautiful lamps hanging from the heavens. They stopped for a moment to admire the beauty before heading forward towards their destination. "Roe, do you have any set of question in mind you will be asking the tree of knowledge? " Xie asked his sister. "Uhhh.not really. I didn't think about that yet" Roe replied. "You know there will only be three chances" He let her know.

"No, six. Three for you, three for me" She smiled wide pointing with her finger towards herself and her brother. "You" He pretended to hit her "you little girl. Don't you think you are being too clever. The tree of knowledge asks for a sacrifice in exchange for three answers. I might not be willing to make that sacrifice" He gave her a look. "Won't you? Not even for me? " She made a puppy face with winking eyes.

"You... " Her brother pulled her along "your tricks won't work on me". She laughed as they walked forward. Suddenly they heard some rustling sound from behind the bush. " Carefull Roe Roe " Yelled xie as they stood back to back with their swords drawn in their hands. From nowhere, a whirlwind appeared and started coming right at them. They ducked and dodged. Then there were whooshing of leaves and the branches started coming at them with force.

"Roe, do whatever you can to dodge them but remember not to make a single scratch on them" Xie instructed his sister. "I know. I know brother. These are sacred lands and we are not allowed to cause anything any harm here. But why are they attacking us? " She asked confused. "I don't know. May be they are not satisfied with the reason we have for visiting this land. Or may be they are testing us. It's difficult to say" Xie replied. "Brother come here. Look there's a pit down here. Let's hide here for awhile" Roe said huffing and puffing from all the action. "Good good. Let's go" Xie pulled at his sisters hand and both went down the rabbit hole. They landed on what seemed like a pile of hay. The surrounding was pitch dark and they couldn't see where they were initially.

Then from nowhere a voice started screaming "Wolves.Those wolves are here too. Liiiiinnnn what am I going to do? Where will I hide. Help. Please somebody. Wolves help" It was Boshu shouting his heart out due to his phobia that he developed because of his previous encounter with the wolves. Boshu had once been brutally attacked and mauled by some rouge wolves. He was almost dead when Lin had saved him. He had been so grateful that he had dedicated his entire existence to serve Lin there after.

At the moment he was hanging upside down from a net. So was Lin. They had both fallen in a boobie trap. Lin was very relaxed. He was taking immense pleasure in Boshu's fright. "Who are you? " asked Roe. "It's a bird look Brother and a Fox. Whatever on heaven and earth are you doing here. And why are you in this state? " Roe answered her own question as she curiously checked them out. Xie pulled his sister away out of caution "what is you purpose here? " He asked them holding his sword out. "As you can see, we got stuck in these traps after suddenly being attacked by whirlwind and hale out of nowhere" Lin explained. "We too were attacked and fell in this pit" Roe said as she cut them loose. "What are you doing? " Her brother asked her in sign language .

"They look reliable" She said "tell us who you are and where are you headed" "Thank you. We are just travellers" Boshu tried avoiding the question timidly Roe immediately held him at her swords end "Don't you dare ignore me. I am the daughter of the wolf king" "My apology my lady" Lin showed courtesy "I am the seventh prince of the Fox clan and this is my bird friend Boshu. We are headed towards the tree of knowledge" "I think I have seen you somewhere" Xie was particularly suspicious about Lin. "" That's great. So are we" Roe cut her brother short " You might have seen him, he is a prince, you are a prince. But I think the heavens wants us to work together, that is why the turmoil sent us here" She observed. "

" Work together? "Lin pretended to be lame " We are here to solve the puzzle about the curse " Roe said. "So are we" Boshu let out, now quite excited at the sight of the beautiful she-wolf. " I guess we are all stuck with each other for awhile now" Lin said. "Guess there isn't much choice" Xie agreed quite annoyed. Roe and Boshu were the happiest with the arrangement.