Prologue

Loghua, Xiao Empire

the Sister

Chen Meifang woke to a hand on her shoulder. It was dark inside the family home, and there was still a smell of smoke from the evening’s cookfire. Mei rubbed her eyes and sat up.

"Quiet," her sister whispered.

Mei rolled off her straw mattress and onto the ground. The wooden frame creaked as she moved. Mei reached out and felt for her sister's pant leg. Her hand grasped the hemp in the dark.

"Follow me.”

The girl followed her sister. They crept past their sleeping brothers and into the common room. The smell from the cookfire was thicker now. Meifang watched the dying orange embers from the spent wood glow quietly in the dark. The rest of the room was pitch black. Mei held onto her sister's pant leg.

It was only a few more steps, and the two girls were out the door and into the front garden. Mei felt the dirt on her feet. It was slightly damp from the early summer rain. A warm breeze off the ocean tugged at her hair. She brushed the hair out of her face only for it to return with the next draft of wind. The moon was bright, and Mei looked up and saw the smile on her sister's face.

"Race you to the middle of the field," her sister whispered.

Before Mei could move, her older sister was off. She followed after her into the dense wheat fields. The stalks of grain shifted in the wind, lit by the moonlight. Far ahead, Mei watched the figure of her sister disappear into the grass. She could barely see over the tops of the grain while her sister stood above the stalks.

"Fei, wait for me!" Mei called.

"Hurry up!" she heard from up ahead.

The girl ran after her sister and smiled. They ran until they were deep into the field. Mei saw her sister standing in the moonlight and the entire skyline filled with stars.

Fei stopped and turned back to look at her. Mei slowed to a trot, then a walk, and finally stopped in front of her sister. She was out of breath; Fei was panting too. Quietly the girls began to work to make a small clearing for themselves in the wheat. They pressed the stalks against the earth, making a small circle that was depressed below the field. Fei lied down, and so she did the same.

"The stars are bright tonight," her sister said.

Mei smiled.

"Do you see the fox?" Fei asked.

"Where?"

"Right there, little sister, it's mid-stride. It's running."

A stretch of stars above the girls took the form of a fox. Her sister had shown her this one before.

"I see it."

"They say a clever fox can change shape. They can become human and play tricks on us."

Mei smiled, imagining a fox turning into a human. Her sister had told her that story dozens of times, but she always loved it.

"What kind of tricks?"

"Maybe the fox replaced mother's ripe fruit with unripe fruit."

Mei giggled, imagining how angry their mother would be.

"She loves her fruit."

"She does."

"Where's the dragon? We saw the dragon last time."

"Look there," Fei pointed off to the horizon, "The dragon waits for us in the stars. Now that it's almost summer, we won't be able to see her anymore at night, but she will bring us the rain."

Meifang smiled first at the dragon on the horizon, and then at his sister.

"The dragons used to rule the land. Great warriors rode them into battle."

"Do you think there were any here in Loghua?"

"Why not?"

Mei imagined if she had a dragon. She decided she would like that.

"And the sea monster, with all the legs, where is it?”

"Only in the winter, little sister," Fei patted her sister's head, "The sea monsters used to rule the sea that separates our lands from the western lands. For hundreds of years, they prevented us from sailing to them."

Mei nodded.

"But where did they go?"

"We don't know. Ships stopped vanishing. Sailors stopped seeing them. Father says they're sleeping."

Mei was never satisfied with that answer. They lay still for a while, looking up at the stars. It was quiet except for the light summer breeze over the wheat and the cicadas.

"I learned a new one today."

Mei looked at her sister.

"Old man Zuan, who works the ox cart," Fei was still looking up at the stars, "Zuan told me how the world was created."

"What?" Mei gasped.

"I know," Fei smiled, "Do you want to hear it?"

Mei tugged at her sister's shirt, "Please."

Fei turned to her, so they lay facing each other in the grass. The surrounding wheat protected them from the breeze in their small clearing.

"Long ago, thousands of years ago, there was nothing. Our world; it didn't exist."

"What?"

"There was only a big ball of light up in the sky."

"Like a star?"

"Bigger!"

"Like the sun?"

Fei thought for a moment, "Not as big, but still big."

Mei gasped again.

Fei continued, "The light always swirled and moved. It was unstable, like a small tree in a summer storm. It moved, here and there. Finally, after many calm days, it was stable and from the light emerged an old man. He was covered in hair and had a long beard."

Mei giggled, imagining a man covered in hair.

"The old man went to work. The first thing he did was to create our land and the sky. But they weren't as far apart as they are now. He had to push the sky up, up, up, for many years until it was high above us."

"Do you think he could touch the stars?"

"Yes definitely," said Fei, "And when he was bored, he arranged them into the shapes we see: the fox, the dragon, the sea monster."

Mei nodded.

"After many years, he pushed the sky and the land as far apart as they are today. But the old man was tired from his work. Slowly he began to die."

Mei frowned; she did not like that. She liked the old hairy man who created the earth and the sky.

"As he died, he fell back to the earth. Remember, the old man was a giant, as big as our lands. When he hit the earth, he shattered into thousands of pieces. His body became our hills and our mountains. His tears became our rains, and his voice became the thunder that comes with summer storms. His breath is our wind and mist. His blood spilled too and became our rivers."

"Our river where father catches fish?"

"Yes."

"Father can't work without it."

"That’s right,” Fei smiled.

"Thank you, old man."

Her sister laughed at her. Mei didn't know why.

"When he died, the earth was quiet for many years until animals arrived. And then us, the people."

"Who created the animals?"

Her sister frowned now, "I don't know. Old man Zuan wouldn't tell me. He said he'd tell me the second part of the story if I bought him two oranges tomorrow. One for him and one for his ox."

"We need to get two oranges."

"Don't worry; I already stole them from mother's bowl."

"She'll know."

"I know," Fei smiled.

The girls shifted back onto their backs and looked up at the stars again.

"They're so bright tonight," Mei said.

"Beautiful."

The girls were quiet again as the cicadas sang. The early summer breeze off the ocean continued to move the wheat around them like water. Mei’s hair blew into her face but she didn’t care anymore.

Fei turned to her sister, "One day Mei, I'll get you one."

"What?"

"A star. One day I'll give you a star. Like the dragon brings us rains and the wind in the summer. I'll give you a star."

Mei smiled. She liked that idea.