The four from Cloud Recesses rode out together after Anshi gave a command to his Princess. "Tuulai alj bolokhgui."

The eagle glared at him and he repeated the command. He smoothed her indignant feathers, and he fed her a tiny sweetmeat, then she settled on his pommel for the ride.

What did you say to her?" asked Wei Ying. "She seems pretty upset."

Anshi smiled slyly. "I told her 'Do not kill rabbit.' Thought it might be too much for your constitutions."

Lan XiChen said, "You must not change your traditions to spare us."

"Not changing traditions. Changing the main course. I have developed a taste for water deer. They are in abundance here." His eyes twinkled merrily as he saw Lan XiChen blanch.

Anshi continued in a more serious vein. "We never waste a ride. The eagles accompany us and fill our stew pots." Lan XiChen glanced at Lan Ge Ban ahead of them with his Dragon on his pommel.

Anshi continued. "Yes, even the Lan soldiers all partake. No food is wasted. But we also have Dawa Tuya who cooks all the vegetables we gather or purchase at markets we find along the way. And rice is plentiful."

Wei Ying looked gleeful. "Meat. It has been a while!"

Lan Zhan just shook his head. His Wei Ying indulged his culinary cravings whenever they left Cloud Recesses. He fully expected his mate to go crazy this month.

"And A'Qiang and Xiao Mian have their own eagles as well."

"They hunt?"

"They do. They have adapted well. And they are talented."

Lan Zhan looked seriously at his brother. "Do you think she and A'Qiang would do well here?"

Anshi nodded. "Yes. Both are young and the adventure appeals to them. It has been hard. A'Qiang killed in order to save her life. It was difficult for him, as any first kill in battle is. Do they not say that the first kill is the one you will always remember? But then there is give and take in its most basic form on the Steppes. If he had not and was killed instead, we would have lost Xiao Mian, Boloramaa, and Little Mouse. All the heroic striving of Xiao Mian to bring Little Mouse into the world would have been for nothing. She, in turn, was on the verge of giving her own life to save the others. They are stronger for it all."

"Mhn. Stronger does not necessarily mean wiser."

"You are worried about her changed affections?"

"Yes."

"I was too. But what is unrequited love? I see it as a rehearsal for the real thing. It prepares the heart. I have not seen her waver toward A'Qiang and her truer nature has returned. She does not manipulate any longer, although she still digs her heels in harder than most. I feel the attachment is sincere."

"But they are so young." They all heard the fatherly tremor in Lan Zhan's voice.

"How old were you when you first felt feelings for Wei Ying? And you did not have the advantage of knowing one another for most of your lives, as they have."

At this point they stopped by a small waterfall to let the horses drink, Lan Zhan was still visibly upset and Wei Ying tethered his horse to his husband's and hopped on Lan Zhan's mount, snuggling in front. Anshi smothered a grin. Wei Ying could teach Xiao Mian a thing or two about adorable manipulation. He saw his hero melt at once and they almost became one before your eyes. Lan XiChen met Anshi's amused glance.

Well done!

The ride was perfect that day, with clear skies and a gentle fall breeze. The colors were changing a little as they gained altitude The forest became thicker and the further up you could hear the whistle calls, barks, and yips from a large pack of dholes.

"If the red dogs are hunting, then game may be plentiful. If we can get further down in the opposite direction from them, then what they hunt may be flushed our way and the eagle will have the advantage. It is a large pack, but they shy from humans and are rarely aggressive unless cornered. They are heading toward a clearing I have hunted before. Let's move!"

They went downhill a bit and further west from the encampment. In fifteen minutes, they had arrived and settled undercover. Then the birds were released, and the eagle began to rise, then spiral tightly in the sky. They recognized the strange whistles in the distance and waited for the flushed prey to arrive.

The crashing of panicked bodies against brush signaled their arrival and as various animals came thundering through in a flat run, two adolescent water deer were among them. The eagles began their dives. Heart in their mouths, the Lans watched, pulses pounding. Despite their lives as vegetarians, they responded primitively as they observed the hunt unfold. They knew that if the eagles succeeded it would help maintain their kin among the caravan's people. In its way, the hunt was a battlefield, and the victory would mean full bellies tonight.

Both were victorious. Like arrows, the birds of prey streaked through the skies. The bigger the target, the better the reward. The velocity as they hit the deer was tremendous and they fell immediately as strong rapier-like talons dug into slender necks and the eagles held on trying to deliver death blows. Anshi and Lan Ge Ban raced over and with sharp daggers, dispatched the water deer swiftly. The Lans were surprised at how quickly the dressing of the meat was accomplished. The deer were young yearlings and when prepared they provided at least twenty pounds of useable meat and the bone marrow would provide a nourishing broth to mix with rice. In one of Dawa Tuya's stew pots, that would help feed the entire tribe and Guardian Force. The eagles were given the hearts to eat. Just as they completed, the full force of the red dog pack barreled through the edge of the clearing. They came up short and the men held their stares until the pack relented and melted back, just out of sight. They would come in later to see how much was left that they could scavenge. They would be terribly disappointed.

As they paused out of scent range of the clearing to refresh themselves with rice balls and fresh water, the conversation turned toward Anshi. He knew it would eventually. They had learned most about him, since his rescue, and now needed to catch up since his departure from Cloud Recesses. The curiosity about Han must be killing them. So, he began it himself.

"Well. You must have questions..."

"Oh, we do little brother, we do." Wei Ying scooted forward a bit. "How do mortal enemies go from, well, enemies, to such good friends in such a short amount of time?"

"Ouch. Going right to the heart of it, Wei Ying?"

All three heads nodded at once. He wasn't even sure where to start.

"I...it was slow at first. I began to soften a bit when he joined us on the road, until we could have conversations. He even opened up about his childhood after I deliberately got him drunk. But after I looked down on that place and realized my life would be behind those walls once more, even just for a few months and under the safety of the title Envoy, I refroze towards him again. I could not get beyond the past that was now a cold, hard fact in front of my face.

Finally, I confronted him. I did know he would be honest. But it was a part of me I never want to show again. Raw. Ugly. Cut to the bone precision. I would not let him alone. I hammered away at that veneer until the one thing that had protected him was destroyed. That cold facade that kept the world from seeing the wounded child beneath. I said things, awful, hate-filled words. I brutalized him until I saw his emotions loose balance and I knew he was hurt, perhaps forever. 

Until he admitted that the punishment, he endured, had been to save me. 

We had both been given the same number of matching lashes and while I was dragged away, the Crown Prince confined him to his room and nailed the whip above his bedroom door." He could feel Lan Zhan, sitting next to him, stiffen against his own memories. He saw Wei Ying reach for his husband's hand to soothe them away.

"He broke and still I could not let him go. I followed him and as he lay weeping I finally pleaded, begged him to tell me why he was beaten as I was. Why had he taken punishment for me? And he told me that he had done it because he loved me. That was it, so plain and so simple."

Anshi looked up and all of his brothers were openly crying for him. "Don't. I won't have you cry...because what we went through and the month since has been what we both needed. He and I are on different paths, and I will follow my commitment until I have my questions answered and until I have my revenge. He will help the Childe King attain his majority. This means I have until spring to enjoy the deepest happiness I have ever felt. To love a good and generous person and to be loved in return. We will end it then. But until then..."

He cleared his throat and waited a moment.

"That is all I will tell you. If I did the usual male bragging, it would fall into the realm of the less than sacred. And it is sacred, what he does to love me within his limitations. I will not do that because it would expose Han's deepest and most painful realities. He has scars as deep and dark as my own. And despite his looks and demeanor he is more fragile than I because he was even more dehumanized. I love him too much to do that."

"Nor would we ask. We see how happy he has made you. He is family to us." Said Lan XiChen. Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were in agreement. Lan Zhan spoke. "You must never call me Hero again. You have become mine today." Anshi could not speak and threw his arms around his role model. Wei Ying and Lan XiChen rose and allowed them sometime together.

Lan Zhan finally spoke. "You are soul-mated."

"I believe so."

"Yet you will part?"

"Even soulmates do not last forever in certain lifetimes. We believe it to be true with us. We will break as duty and commitment commands. One can only see what the fates have in store and then respond. It is unlikely that we will see each other again. 

My bloodline will end unless I marry. My third brother went further northeast with the remnants of the old tribe and has no children. My fourth brother also disappeared without a trace at the time I did. My fifth brother is in a monastery and is partially blind. Progeny is a thing left up to me; my lineage could die with me. The lives in my caravan depend on me.  Han sees that, and he had his own enormous duty towards his dependent Childe King and Dowager Queen. A life together is simply a dream."

"I understand. But never give up. What is lost to us by fate, can sometimes find its way back to us. 

Never give up, Littlest Brother."