Quan watched from where he lay as the deer got to its feet. The does walked over to where he stood and circled him briefly before they turned to move away from Quan. He sensed a feeling of, not gratitude, but respect from the creature before it vanished into the forest.

Quan stood up and shook the dirt off his clothes. His outfit had several tears, and he felt a trickle of blood from his scalp. The worst were his hands. He started trying to dig out the stones embedded in the cuts he had.

He decided to meditate and recover before he made his way back. He directed all his senses to the flow of Ki and how it interacted with his injuries. He tried to narrow his vision to see the minute interactions as Ki flooded his skin and tissue. Was the Ki replacing tissue or just augmenting the natural process somehow? In half an hour, his minor wounds had closed, but he was little closer to understanding Ki's impact on healing. He knew he'd continue to heal until he was left without even a mark on his skin, but the why and how was a mystery.

He stood when there was no more point in waiting and started back towards Asha and the Quest tree as he had decided to call it. With no mission now, he took the opportunity to look around and enjoy the beauty of the forest. One thing he loved about this world, and his time with the sect, was the vast wilderness and the pristine beauty he got to enjoy on a daily basis. He had always been a city boy, but you can't help marvelling at the miracle of nature sometimes.

This was an old forest near the edge of the sect's domain and the edge of the kingdom itself before lands that lay unclaimed by any but nature and the wider spirits. They were several mountains over from the peak they called home, and it was enough to feel just a little wilder.

Quan had been travelling about half an hour when he stumbled onto a scene. Several wolves stalked around the larger body of a tiger. A great white-winged tiger, Quan realized. He instantly retracted his aura as tight as possible and got low behind a bush.

He saw five large wolves circling and snarling. The tiger wasn't moving at all that he could see, yet the wolves still seemed afraid to charge in. He risked extending his senses when he saw the tiger wasn't responding and discovered it was dead. The wolves' auras were neither strong nor corrupted. The tiger's corpse was quite valuable, and he considered if he could chase the wolves away.

He gathered several decent-sized rocks, wishing he had a bow, not that he'd been trained to use it yet. He started yelling and walked towards the wolves. Any that didn't back off, he threw a rock at. Given his current strength, the rock hit with a great deal of force and the wolves quickly backed off with a few gained yips.

As he got closer, he saw the tiger was much bigger than he realized. Easily half again the size of tigers he'd seen on Earth. He could see signs of battle all over its fur. Cuts and burns, blood that hadn't dried yet marring the white fur.

He heard a soft hiss as he got close and realized what had really captured the wolves attention. Two baby tiger cubs hid between the front paw and chest of the large tiger.

"Oh, look at you. You are too cute for words," Quan said. "I wonder if you're tameable." He inched his hand toward the cubs but was greeted only by more hissing and baby teeth threatening to bite him.

"What am I gonna do with you?" Quan pulled out a backpack from his ring that he'd used before and should be a nice snug fit for the two. "OK guys, climb on in for me," he pleaded.

A growl broke his thoughts, and he turned to see three larger wolves behind him flanked by the smaller five. "Oh, where were you hiding?" He asked them as they snarled at him.

White mist gathered at the lead wolf's mouth, and it let out a blast of winter air that actually hurt Quan and coated him in frost. His body had shielded the cubs, though he wondered if they should have shielded him with all that fur.

Before he could react, he saw a motion above his head. He looked up and saw the flying form of Asha descending into the midst of the wolves. She had her sword out and beheaded the lead wolf as she landed. With a hand gesture, a blast of air sent three of the smaller wolves tumbling away while she kicked one of the larger wolves behind her in the same motion. The final large wolf leapt at her, and she ducked under its leap while slicing its underside with her sword. The remaining wolves fled.

"Wow," Quan said. "That was. I've never really seen you make an effort before."

"That was nothing. You should have been able to handle them," Asha replied tersely.

"I'm sorry you felt the need to intervene. I should have observed more before approaching. I didn't see the larger wolves," Quan said.

"The mistake you made was not with the wolves." Quan realized she was still watching the woods as she talked. Her hand hadn't left her sword yet. "We leave, now."

Quan hesitated a moment, then turned and forcibly grabbed the two cubs and shoved them into the sack, hissing and mewling. He placed his hand on the mother, and the body vanished into his storage ring.

He slid the pack on his back; thankful Asha hadn't berated him for the extra moment he'd taken. "What am I missing?"

"Wolves like that could never have threatened a winged tiger. Whatever it battled was recent and close. If you've got the room in that ring, put the wolves in too. Then we leave."

Quan scrambled forward and stored each wolf when he heard Asha swear. He looked in the direction she was staring just off to the left of them. An older man stood atop a tree some distance away. He nodded once at them and then leapt away.

"Run," Asha ordered, "Straight to the sect, as fast as you possibly can, if I fall behind or stop, keep going. Do not stop running till you reach the sect, or I tell you it's safe."

Quan wasted no more time, and he started running. Asha was right beside him, so he asked. "Who was that?"

"Elder Chao Chen. He comes to battle wherever threat has invaded the forest," Asha answered. "Anything that requires his response will be a battle we could not survive being near."

They were practically flying as Asha bolstered their run with currents of air to push their speed. They ran in silence for several minutes after that. Quan nearly turned when he heard booms and explosions behind them. They reached a valley between two mountains and a stream that ran along the bottom of it after an hour of running. Asha stopped and ordered. "Drink, then we keep going."

Quan looked back while he filled his water skin from the river. He could see the snow-capped mountain above and behind them. As he was drinking, a bright light started to shine between the two snow-capped mountains that made up this valley. He could feel the heat from it where he stood at the base.

Quan watched in horror as the snow started to move on both mountains, as it was liquefied and cascaded towards them.

They turned as one, and if they were fast before, they were like the wind now. Sprinting at speeds that would make an Olympic runner cry in envy, they tried to put distance between them and the calamity behind them.

"Are there people downriver?" Quan yelled over the growing noises behind them.

Asha frowned but didn't reply. They weren't in a position to do more than save themselves. The valley narrowed in front of them, and suddenly, Asha directed Quan to turn and run up the side. She put her hand on his back, and he felt the winds practically lifting him as he scrambled up the slope, allowing him to move much faster than he would otherwise.

When they had reached a decent height, Asha threw her hands forward, and debris and foliage whipped free enough to reveal a man-made structure. They were approaching some kind of walled structure that had been concealed. She pulled him to a stand he hadn't noticed and pointed to a sledgehammer.

"Grab that and knock out these blocks, then stand back. Be ready to run if things go bad." Then she ran across the structure away from him.

Quan wasted no time and swung his hammer. The block barely budged. He swore, pulled off the backpack and started swinging for all he was worth. A moment later, he heard a resonating sound as someone else was pounding another block free further down.

A few swings later, the blocks tumbled free, and the wooden wall in front of him fell away, setting free an avalanche of stone. It was rushing down to fill the bottleneck in the valley even as the muddy waters grew near.

As the rock slide blocked the valley, Asha appeared above it and placed her hands on two boulders. Ice formed under her palms and spread out in a circle and down through the pile, making it stronger as the water hit.

The roar was incredible as the wall of mud hit. Water, dirt, and all kinds of plant life slammed into the makeshift dam. Miraculously, it held.

Quan picked up the backpack of cubs, checked it was still secure and slipped it back on. He was making his way back to the paths when Asha joined him.

"There just happened to be a ready-made landslide to dam the river?" Quan asked.

"No, well yes, I suppose, the landside was meant to be used for military reasons in war scenarios," Asha said. "That is never going to hold. Keep running to the sect. Find Elder Trune, tell him where I am and that he needs to come immediately to use his earth arts on the dam before it breaks."

"How long before it breaks?" Quan asked.

"I honestly don't know. The sooner he arrives, the better," Asha said.

"Be careful," Quan said as he turned back towards the sect and started running at the fastest speed he could maintain.

~

From Quan's point of view, things got very anti-climatic after he made it, dead tired, back to the village. A sentry has spotted him and carried his message on. Quan saw several people rush past him back into the darkening forest mere moments later. Then, nothing.

He went to Asha's place with no other instructions and commandeered some of her servants into making a pen for the cubs in the courtyard. He tried giving them some meat, but they didn't seem interested in it and were still very wary of him. He was trying to figure out how to feed them some milk without a bottle. After a few attempts with a bowl and dripping a cloth in their face and mouth, a servant saved him by producing a clay cup with a bottle-like opening on the side. Apparently, it was used for human babies at times but should do the job. In the end, food won out over their fear of him, and he made two new friends.

For two days, he was tense as no one had any news about what was happening and Asha hadn’t returned. He was told explicitly to stay in the sect during this time. He was frustrated with his lack of power to be of any use during whatever was occurring outside the sect.

During those days, Quan spent his mornings at the forge as usual, but he was on tiger-watch and trained in Asha’s courtyard the rest of the day. Hoping Asha would appear at any moment. By the time Asha returned, her servants were in love with the tiger cubs.

Quan was playing with the cubs when he saw her exit the house, clearly bathed and rested already from the valley. She was looking at the cubs with a very perplexed expression as she approached.

"Oh no, tell me what happened before you say whatever is on your mind about the cubs," Quan cut her off.

"Fine, you did good making it back here. I was able to hold the dam in place until Elder Trune could arrive and do a much better job. We then spread out to try and contain any more fallout that might come from their fight."

"What was he fighting? He won?" Quan asked.

"It was a Fire Lion. They are not unheard of in the area, but never so aggressive it would attack multiple creatures and require an Elder to destroy it. Something had disturbed this one, then aimed it at our sect" Asha said.

"Aimed it? That sounds intentional" Quan said.

"I believe so, as do most the elders and masters. Too many events in the last couple of years look like someone is poking around to find a weak spot" Asha said grimly.

"Who's behind it?" Quan asked, "it would have to be the Chao kingdom, wouldn't it?" He said when she didn't reply.

"Your studies are paying off, I see." Asha sat in a chair and gestured for food to a servant. "Lacking evidence, we can only say it was a test of the heavens." Asha poured herself a tea. "But it's time to add weapons to your training."

"Given the context, I'm not sure how I feel about that." Quan scratched the belly of one of the cubs as he talked.

Asha observed the tigers as she ate for a couple of minutes. "So you've adopted two cubs?"

"I was thinking one. This little guy is Shah Khan and is mine. He picked up the other cub while it was sleeping and said. "This is Zinta, and I thought she should stick with you." He set the sleeping cub in her lap.

Asha rolled her eyes. "Impressive bribery to get me on board. Where did you get those names?”

"From Earth, Tigers are most famous from one of the larger kingdoms there. So I named them after the king and queen of Bollywood," Quan replied, "But, bribery? Is a pet that big of a deal? We have plenty of room here, or you do, at least. My hut will be a bit crowded once he grows," Quan mused.

"They are winged white tigers. They will grow into powerful, intelligent creatures, more powerful than many cultivators here will ever reach. It's not as simple as a normal pet." Asha explained, "But they can be a great ally if you can keep up with them."

"She is cute, isn't she?" Asha asked. Quan hid a smile as he nodded, knowing he'd won this discussion.