Nellie wasn’t sure what she expected when she reunited with Rhys. When she was small, before she knew about her parentage and the Realm, she would sporadically imagine her father turning up with a big smile and some kind of treat as a souvenir for her and Nathalie from whatever adventure she invented as his excuse for being absent. He'd apologize and the three of them would laugh and act like the years of desertion was a funny, fantastical story. In other imaginings, she would scream at him while he blubbered about how sorry he was while Nathalie wept how proud she was that Nellie had grown well enough to not let anyone off the hook for wrongdoing.
Admittedly, Nellie had not had such fantasies since learning Rhys was her father. She was far too distracted with the upheaval of everything she thought she knew. Even still, the silence had not been what she predicted.
Rhys had fed them some sort of meat that had long been dried with lumps of sopping rice he had stolen from nearby fields. He said nothing the whole time he prepared the meal, nor while they ate it. He didn't so much as look at either of the kids, and only quietly acknowledged the little fox when she'd prod at his knee for bits of his food.
“This is growing quite awkward, Uncle,” Morgan said.
Rhys flinched as if struck before sliding into a rueful smile. He slipped the fox another bite of meat, giving her head a small pat.
“I take it that you being here is no coincidence,” Rhys said. His voice was slightly hoarse from lack of use.
“We were searching for you,” Morgan said. “My father said you were in China, and so we convinced Beast and Brigitte to smuggle us in.”
Convinced was not the word Nellie would have chosen given Beast and Brigitte apparently were just humoring them until Evora arrived. The only consolation of this revelation was that it was very likely they tipped Silas off, and he explained things to Nathalie. She would still be beside herself with worry, but the knowing would help some.
Nellie cleared her throat. “What’s her name?” She pointed to the fox when Rhys’s brows knitted with confusion.
“Oh.” Rhys looked glad to talk of something other than the situation they found themselves in. (Morgan turned sulky.) “She hasn’t got one. Not that she’s told me at any rate.”
“Well, I think she deserves a name,” Nellie said.
“And I think it a stupid idea to create a bond with a huli jing,” Morgan grumbled. He suppressed a small smile. “But, I am still alive, so there’s that.” He dangled the last bit of his meat at the fox. “I’ll name you. You’ll have to be patient with me.”
Morgan lured the fox outside, leaving Nellie alone with Rhys. She had finished her food and couldn’t use it as a distraction. She scratched at the dirt with the toe of her shoe. There was so much she wanted to say, but nothing took hold strong enough in her mind.
“How’s your Aunt Nathalie,” Rhys asked conversationally.
Nellie’s hands balled up. The whirling thoughts and emotions narrowed to anger.
“I thought she was my mother until seven months ago,” Nellie growled. Her eyes prickled with hot, furious tears. “Do you know how messed up all that is?”
She wanted to yell about being uprooted from Florida, and then from her entire sense of self, but she could not find the words. Nathalie, Uncle Winston, and her grandparents shared a degree of blame, but Nathalie at the least had apologized for the unintentional deception.
It all started with Rhys. It started with him abandoning her.
“That must have been confusing,” Rhys said quietly. “My intent was just your safety, Perenelle. I hadn’t expected to be gone so long.”
“And here I am with Morgan,” Nellie said scathingly. “So much for keeping me away from the Regere.” She glared at him. “Do you even know how old I am now? I’m twelve. Twelve! Did you even think about me at all in the last–?”
“Of course I have,” Rhys said sharply. “Everyday.”
His tone cut off Nellie’s building anger. There was an edge of offense in it that she hadn’t expected. She was preparing for him to be more regretful, maybe even get teary-eyed over all the missed years. She was unsure how to proceed. Making him angry wasn't her intention and it probably wasn't smart seeing that she and Morgan were in the wilderness with him. She doubted he would hurt them, but Nathalie’s podcasts were full of people lamenting such thoughts as they described horrific attacks or dead friends.
“Forgive me,” Rhys said with a heavy sigh. He pinched at his eyes. “The lack of nicotine is bringing out my worst.” He got to his feet. “Shall we?”
The three humans and small fox headed into the forest away from the hut. Nellie fell back to walk with Morgan, partly because following in Rhys’s trail was easier than trying to keep pace.
“How was it,” Morgan asked under his breath.
Nellie shrugged glumly. “Any luck with the name?”
“Something Chinese, of course, but my knowledge is extremely limited,” Morgan said. “What lead does he have on your mother?”
“I didn’t ask,” Nellie said.
“What? The entire reason for this trek into the wilderness—.”
“I know! But, there was sort of a lot going on, Morgan,” Nellie said coolly. “There still is.” She gestured at Rhys’s retreating back. “How am I supposed to talk to him about anything? I don’t remember him!”
Morgan charged ahead. “Uncle!”
“You really don’t need to call me that,” Rhys said, pausing for them to catch up.
“Nellie had something to ask you,” Morgan said.
Nellie glared at him as she drew in a breath to address Rhys’s mildly polite stare. “We were researching which dragon Brunhilde could be, and wanted to ask you which ones you’ve ruled out.”
Rhys’s expression stayed almost identical except his jaw stiffened. He turned away from them after an uncomfortable few seconds and started back through the trees.
“This path takes us back to the river,” Rhys said. “We’re bypassing the areas without banks this way. Keep close. The feihu don’t usually hunt here, but we cannot let our guards down.”
“Uncle,” Morgan fumed, stomping after him. “We’ve gone through too much trouble–.”
“Trouble?” Rhys stopped, rounding on them. “Is that what you call nearly getting yourselves killed? Trouble! You’re children. You leave matters such as these to adults.”
The anger that had been disrupted earlier flared back up at Rhys’s admonishment. He had no right to scold them. He didn’t know them; it was hard to believe he even cared about them outside of the grace of the average adult making sure a random child didn’t come to harm. It was her life that had fallen into disarray when he left. Nathalie lying, the rest of the family covering it up, not knowing about the Realm and her connection to it, Morgan: all of it came back to Rhys choosing to ditch her with the instructions to keep her from Brue’s family.
“No!” Nellie stopped, fists clenched, and glared at Rhys. “Me and Morgan put too much work into this. And, she’s my mother. I’m involved now, and you don’t have any right to tell me not to be!”
She would have stormed off for dramatic effect, but she had no idea where she was. She settled for standing stiffly, eyes narrowed at this stranger.
Morgan’s eyes darted between them before he cleared his throat. “Shall we? I don’t want to be stuck out here once it grows dark.”
“No,” Rhys said, tearing his eyes from Nellie, “you don’t.”
They continued on. Nellie made it a point to cross her arms and glare whenever Rhys turned to check on them, but that act was growing more difficult the sweatier and sticker she grew. Morgan started checking his phone reception once they felt the ground beneath turn into a downward slope.
“How did you get your phone anyway,” Nellie asked as her cousin once more tucked it away with a groan. “Mrs. Adams keeps them in her office.”
Morgan looked affronted. “You think this is my real phone?” He scoffed, holding up the black rectangle that looked remarkably like his phone. “This is just a Huawei I bought at the airport when we arrived. Just in case we needed a contact phone.”
“Quite the survivalist," Nellie said, rolling her eyes. She jerked her head at Rhys’s back. “What’d you think? He never answered you. He might be as much of a dead end as before we found him.”
“Perhaps… If we can delay him disappearing until my mother comes, then we can eavesdrop while they talk,” Morgan suggested. “He’s bound to tell her something useful. She is practically my father’s mouthpiece and ears when he’s not around, and it is his sister that was dragoned.”
It was the only plan they had.
After walking in a definite downward incline for several hot, sticky moments, they heard the river and the tourists rafting upon it. The trees thinned, and the river gleamed silvery at them. Rhys didn’t tell them which way to turn or warn them against the uneven shore. He turned and walked, and clearly expected them to keep up.
Morgan stole a glance towards a raft drifting nearby, half ducking behind Nellie. “I’ve a thought… Isn’t it suspicious for three obvious foreigners to be wandering the river with no guide?”
“Can you turn into a human for a bit,” Nellie asked the fox gleefully hopping rocking beside them.
Nellie only managed to spread her arms and partially shield the huli jing from the river–the rafters too busy to notice anything anyway–as she morphed into her girl form.
“Right… I don't think anyone will believe that the CCP employed a twelve-year-old in dirty shorts,” Morgan said dryly.
She hadn’t noticed until then that the huli jing was dressed in dirt stained shorts and wore no shoes. She had been too distracted by her growing freckles and turning into a fox. Nellie suspected the baggy t-shirt she wore with bold, black Chinese characters also was not up to the standards of a government official.
“Can you age up and change clothes?”
“She can’t,” Rhys called over his shoulder. “She’s not old enough. Watch your steps on the rocks. They’re quite slick.”
“Ah,” Morgan said knowinging, a superior expression on his face. “She must be under fifty. Lore says huli jing can’t turn into a woman until around fifty. Well, no matter. We’ll think of some excuse if stopped.” He held his phone over his head. “Oh, excellent! The slashed circle has disappeared. I should get a bar shortly.”
The girl was bouncing from rock to rock, happily humming. She would circle around Rhys and then return to Nellie and Morgan, hover around Morgan’s shoulder to stare at his phone, and bound off again.
The river widened and human noises picked up. The bridges came into view, the shores widened and shallows expanded. They trudged up a well worn path from the river to the residential district outside the palace.
“Am I correct in assuming that you have been placed with Mrs. Wu,” Rhys asked.
The girl skipped ahead, spun with her arms out—garning disapproving looks from passersby—as hurried off in the direction of Mrs. Wu’s apartment.
“Perhaps something starting with X,” Morgan mused, staring at his phone which now was slowly loading an internet page. “Hmm, sounds like ‘sh’... interesting.”
Morgan absorbed himself in his phone. Nellie did not want to get any closer to Rhys, still dragging a few feet behind him. She gave the girl skipping at her side a strained smile, getting a head tilt and perplexed expression back.
“Not happy? Rhys. Father. Not happy?”
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Nellie admitted. “And it’s not just because of the language barrier. …Species barrier?”
They fell behind further. Nellie did not want to be scolded for running off, did not want to sit there while Rhys stepped in to play father, did not want to wait for Morgan’s mother to appear for what was sure to be more scolding mingled in with trying to step into a family role. She wished someone had the brilliant idea to bring Nathalie, but she didn’t get her hopes up.
Her attentions turned outward as the sounds of mean giggling fell upon her ears. A group of girls around her own age were sniggering, pointing to the huli jing’s dirty feet and t-shirt. Pre-teen girl teasing, as it turned out, was an international language.
“You can’t make sandals,” Nellie asked. She pointed to her sneakered feet. “Shoes? It probably isn’t very comfortable without them when you have human feet. Our feet are kind of useless like that.” The girl cocked her head. “How’d you get the clothes you have on? They’re just… on you whenever you transform. How come you don’t go from naked fox to naked girl?”
The fox-girl’s face lit up. She pointed dramatically into the crowd. “Naked! Naked! She’s naked!”
Nellie frantically shushed her, grabbing her wrist and wrenching it down. Most of the crowd was Chinese from what Nellie saw, and they stared at the pair of them as if they were rabid dogs. A few foreigners speckled throughout were turning on the spot, trying to catch sight of this naked girl.
“Clothes,” the girl said simply, tugging her t-shirt collar. “No more yelling.”
“Yeah… okay,” Nellie said, her heart rate still recovering from the outburst. “Let’s figure out how to get you shoes too. You’ll get even less stares.”
She caught sight of Rhys’s blond hair momentarily up ahead in the crowd, crossing the street before approaching the nearest vendor. She browsed the cheap, rubber sandals, smiling politely as the stall keeper aggressively waved random pairs around her face calling them deals and bargains in very broken English.
“Cute,” the girl said, picking up a pair with flowers stamped across the band. She broke the tie keeping them together, dropped them, and put her feet in. She skipped off.
“Wait!” Nellie scrounged in her wallet as the vendor chittered angrily at her. “Sorry. How much?” She was confident the figure was double what the sticker on the bottom of the sandals said.
“Hold it,” Morgan said, appearing by her side, and stopping her from handing over any money. “Xinyi! Come here. …Please.”
The girl—now a good ten feet away—stopped, tilted her head at Morgan, and then raced over with a wide grin on her face. She yanked on his arm, bouncing in place.
“Xinyi? Me? Pretty!”
“Yes, yes, I thought so too,” Morgan said dismissively, failing to suppress the proud smirk on his face. “Shoes.”
He paid for the sandals after showing the vendor the price written on the bottom. The three of them mixed back into the crowd as much as they were able with Nellie and Morgan being foreign and Xinyi happily tripping about like an excited puppy with something stuck to its foot.
“Xinyi,” Nellie murmured to Morgan.
“My best guess is it has something to do with being joyful,” he said, shrugging. “Characters play such a massive role in the meaning, and I don’t know any of those.”
“Naming her and buying stuff for her… Careful, little cousin, that could mean trouble,” Nellie teased.
“I was saving you from being overcharged!”
She wanted to continue her teasing, but the crowd froze and split with an angry, “You two!”
Brigitte was a ball of fury. Her short, purple ombre hair looked as though she’d been yanking it in all directions for the last few hours. She stormed over with her small, dark fists clenched into sharp balls. Nellie thought she was going to pummel them.
The crowd was giving her a clear path towards them, and it got worse when Beast appeared. They were practically running to get out of his way as he took long, brisk, intimidating strides towards them.
“Just hold firm,” Morgan said, straightening himself. “Once they see that we’ve found….”
They both noticed at the same time that Rhys was not anywhere near them nor in view.
Lina rushed between Beast and Brigitte and the kids, holding up her hands in surrender and hissing about causing a scene. She gestured frantically back towards the apartments, keeping up a babble of appeasement and apologetic nods that she directed to anyone nearby. She glared coldly at Nellie and Morgan.
“Come,” she commanded.
Morgan looked as if he wanted to challenge her a moment before deflating and dragging his feet after the adults. Nellie spun on the spot, seeing no sign of Rhys or even of Xinyi, before trotting along. They went single filed into Mrs. Wu's apartment with Nellie and Morgan wordlessly instructed to sit before the three angry adults. Mrs. Wu shuffled around them offering tea; Lina declining and politely ushering her off to the kitchen.
“We found him,” Morgan said quickly.
Beast and Brigitte did not look happy, or stunned, or whatever Nellie imagined would have been reasonable. They looked angrier. Beast swelled to fill the room, ready to unleash on them.
Nellie’s hackles rose. “You don’t dismiss him,” she snapped, jumping up. “You were never going to help us!”
“Watch your tone, girl,” Beast growled, his deep voice reverberating through the room.
“Or what? You’ll call Morgan’s mom to come get us?” She narrowed her blue eyes at him, relishing the satisfaction at the look Beast and Brigitte exchanged. “I heard you last night.”
“That is no excuse to run off during the night,” Lina cut in. “The mountains are dangerous.”
Morgan turned in a vain attempt to cover the bloodstains on his shirt. Nellie’s hand went to her arm as guilt swirled in the pit of her stomach. She tightened her jaw and met Lina's dark eyes.
“Why wouldn’t we run off if this whole trip was lie after lie,” Nellie asked.
“We are not just kids,” Morgan said. “And I don’t say that because of who my father is, before you roll your eyes and think me a spoilt brat. Nellie and I faced a dragon. How many adults in the Auctorita can say the same?”
“A dragon,” Brigitte said, scrunching her face.
Nellie watched each adult in turn with mounting apprehension. Beast was scowling heavily as something seemed to click into place. Brigitte was bemused and shifted uncomfortably while Lina looked the most perplexed—likely never seeing a dragon and only vaguely aware any still existed.
Before anyone had a chance to break the static building in the room, the front door opened, and Xinyi walked in. She froze with all eyes on her (Lina turning stark white) and gave a little yelp. She shrank into her fox form with a faint pop, scrambled over the sandals left in her place, and dashed back out.
Mrs. Wu came shuffling from the kitchen at a surprisingly brisk pace, lamenting after the little fox and waving a biscuit of some sort.
“Xinyi,” Morgan called, hurrying out into the hall, but stopping abruptly with his back foot still visible.
Rhys filled the doorway as Morgan backed up into the apartment. Xinyi in her fox form peeked around at his ankles, sniffing the air while he held out a small, tastefully wrapped box towards Mrs. Wu.
“I remember you liking these the last time I darkened your doorway,” he said politely.
Mrs. Wu gave a bow—Rhys mimicking her—as she took the package. She peered at Xinyi and spoke softly but with reverence to the fox, beckoning her in and holding out the biscuit to further entice her.
“C-Commander,” Brigitte stammered.
Beast and Brigitte looked as if they were facing a ghost. Rhys, for his part, barely acknowledged them outside of a curt nod. He looked instead to Lina.
“Remind me of your name?”
“Wang, sir. …About the huli jing…?”
“She’s been helpful,” Rhys said. “It wouldn't hurt to have her around as an asset. Now then, may I trouble you and Mrs. Wu for some water?”
Rhys’s expression turned steely the moment Lina and Mrs. Wu exited to the kitchen. His eyes snapped to Brigitte and Beast; Brigitte shrank while Beast did his best to draw himself up to his full height—impeded by the low ceilings.
“Why are these children here,” Rhys demanded.
“You daughter–,” Beast started.
“No,” Rhys said sharply. He shook his shaggy head. “No, no, you will not attempt that. You may’ve convinced the children that you were sympathetic to their cause, but I know much better, don’t I?”
It was a slap in the face to hear Rhys demand an answer to his question. Nellie hadn’t had time to ponder why she and Morgan were in China when it was clear that Beast and Brigitte were just keeping them busy. It would have been much easier to laugh them off back at Silas’s compound than to smuggle them into a country with such strict security measures.
Rhys’s eyes narrowed as the seconds ticked on. “What are they doing here?”
“The Regere…,” Brigitte trailed off, her voice small.
“Of course,” Rhys growled. “Am I right assuming Evora was called to gather her child? When is she arriving?”
“Shortly,” Beast said. He stared down at Nellie and Morgan. “She’s ending her Singapore trip early for this. Your childishness could've cost the Auctor–.”
“You will not shift blame on them,” Rhys interrupted coldly. “You are the adult, Beast. You were in command.”
“These are kids, not soldiers,” Beast growled. “Kids don't follow orders.” He sneered. “But, I guess you have no practice.”
Rhys looked less than bothered by the accusation, which irked Nellie. He should’ve been bothered, ashamed, embarrassed, sad, anything except accepting and indifferent.
Her thoughts were halted by Xinyi–still in her girl form–cuddling into her shoulder, trying to get her head pat. She patted her glossy, black hair awkwardly as Morgan side-eyed her with bemusement.
“Xinyi, is it,” Rhys said, redirecting his attention away from Beast. “You've been enormously helpful. Would you like to learn how to be human? Mrs. Wu surely would be very glad to adopt you as a granddaughter.”
“I insist against it, sir,” Lina said, reappearing with a tray of tea. “She’s a huli-jing.”
“That doesn't mean she's bad,” Nellie said. “She saved our lives out there. She didn't have to do that.”
Lina pursed her lips. She focused on handing out the tea.
“Wang, I would appreciate a conversation with you and Mrs. Wu once this mess with the children is handled. If you would indulge me.”
Lina gave a noncommitted grunt as she retreated back into the kitchen. Rhys gave Xinyi a small smile that had the girl beam back. Nellie leaned away from Xinyi as a stab of jealousy shot through her core.
A frantic pounding sounded on the door. It was thrown open before Brigitte even touched the handle, and she only just jumped aside to avoid the metal door smacking into her.
The middle-aged woman bearing a frantic expression on her pointed, tanned face could only have been Evora. Her black hair was starting to unravel from its tight bun; her brown eyes scanned the small room and she immediately thrust herself upon Morgan once they found him.
“Oh! Oh, my baby!” She rapidly placed kisses on every inch of his face while he tried scrambling from her embrace. Her accent thickened on the next “baby boy” and she was no longer speaking English after that.
Amias slid into the apartment with a small roller bag in his fist and a duffle on his shoulder. He looked haggard.
“Amias,” Nellie called, hurrying over to hug him. She shot Rhys a look from her peripherals as she gave her godfather an extra squeeze. “It’s good to see–.”
“Are you insane,” Amias said, grabbing her shoulder to hold her at arm’s length. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed out there, Perenelle! I’ll be telling poor, dear Nathalie all about it. You have me at my word on that!”
“Trying to play the parent; pathetic,” Beast sneered.
“Acting as a proper godfather,” Amias said coldly. “Or just a responsible adult in general. Perhaps, you should consider giving it a try, D’Von, before carting my goddaughter off to China!”
Beast scoffed. “You were more fun when you drank.”
Red blazed across Amias’s face. Nellie pulled away as his grip on her shoulder grew painful.
“Enough of the bickering,” Rhys said, clearly and sharply. He continued on as if oblivious to Evora’s and Amias’s bug-eyed stares and gaping mouths. “Evora, I trust you booked a room? We can speak this evening.” He pushed his way towards the door. “Now, I’ll be outside for the time being.”
The other adults exchanged glances that Nellie didn't care to decipher. She hurried from the apartment before Amias could grab hold again. Xinyi followed closely with wild eyes.
“I'm supposed to chase after him, right,” Nellie asked her.
“Chase,” Xinyi repeated with enthusiasm.
She gave chase at a slow walk, dragging her feet down the flights of stairs. Xinyi mimicked her until her boredom took over. She entertained herself by jumping up and down the steps.
“Shouldn’t he be coming after me,” Nellie asked. “Shouldn’t he be curious about me? Even if just a little bit? I mean… he hasn't seen me in ten years. And, it's not like he was getting any updates either. It's really hard not to think he doesn't care…” Xinyi tilted her head at her. “Human problems, I guess.”
Nellie peeked out into the street; Xinyi doing the same a head below her. Rhys was standing a few short feet from the apartment building entrance, smoking a cigarette and purposely ignoring a short, Chinese man in a business suit similar to Lina’s who was side-eyeing him.
“Rhys. Father.”
“Yeah, but where do I go from there,” Nellie said. “I don’t want this to mean I’m leaving Nathalie. Maybe he feels as stuck too? Like, maybe he’s trying to figure out if he’s supposed to step in now that I found him?”
She teetered a moment before going over to join Rhys. She wrinkled her nose at the cigarette and turned her head away to wave the smoke away.
“It is an unpleasant smell,” Rhys said. He dropped the cigarette and stamped it out. The bureaucrat next to him cleared his throat loudly. “Right. My apologies.” He picked up the squashed butt and tucked it in his pocket. “Evora’s escort; courtesy of the Auctorita’s spy network. Man of few words. Pay him no attention. Something on your mind?”
“Something on my… Are you serious?”
Rhys gave a wry smile. “Which of the many do you wish to start with?”
It was a simple question with a complicated answer. Nellie wanted to know what Rhys was doing in China, which dragons he already investigated and ruled out. She wanted to know if he would be coming back with them; why did he blame the Regere, and would this meeting mean she would have to say goodbye to Nathalie. That was the one she felt most heavily.
She mustered the courage to tell Rhys flat-out that she didn't want to leave Nathalie, but he suddenly went rigid. She switched gears to ask what was wrong, but knew before she had the chance.
An immense pressure bore down on her. The small hairs on her arms and the back of her neck prickled.
The Regere was approaching the apartment building, dressed in a business suit with his dark hair smoothed back.
“Perenelle,” he called upon seeing her. He froze. “Rhys…?”
“Brecken.”
----------------------
Oh man, longest one yet! Wish I could think of some comments, but my exhaustion is peak today. (I'm got to schedule this so that I can hopefully remember to come back and add one, lol.) There was something about Xinyi's clothes. I think it had to do with huli-jing using illusion magic. Like, she wore the dirty shorts (stolen from a laundry basket) and the t-shirt (stolen from a souvienger stand) long enough that she became familiar enough to incorporate them into her image of 'human'. That might've been all...?
