“The Moon Lady will vouch for my honesty and trustworthiness,” Lord Rabbit said humbly, his paws clasped to his chest as he bowed his head in reverence. “I will use extreme care in the garden.”
“—ate all my Fruits of Longevity! He will now live for over six hundred thousand years! The insolence of it all!” the Queen Mother huffed, continuing as if Lord Rabbit had not spoken. She glared at him and at the bowed head of the girl next to him. “Those fruits are not to be touched. They are finally ripening again, and I will not allow them to be disturbed.”
“Your Heavenly Highness,” Lord Rabbit said, “I will touch nothing except the herb I need. We wish only to cure a child with Qi-Ruohua sickness.”
“Both of you?” the Queen Mother asked, and Lord Rabbit saw that she was looking at the Unwanted Girl.
“Yes,” the girl said, raising her head for the first time. “I wish to save my brother.”
She could not meet the Queen Mother’s eyes, but the sincerity in her voice was true and guileless.
“Yes,” the Queen Mother said, studying the top of the Unwanted Girl’s head, which she had already lowered again. “But can you save yourself?”
“Your Heavenly Highness?” Lord Rabbit was confused, as well as worried about the Unwanted Girl’s brother. Their time to save him would soon end, and every moment was precious.
“I suppose I must allow the thread to be chosen,” the Queen Mother said, more to herself than to them. Lord Rabbit cocked his head quizzically, but the Queen Mother just shook her head.
“Very well,” she said. “You may pick the herb. But only that.”
“Thank you!” Lord Rabbit said, bending his head to the ground in gratitude. “Thank you!”
“Remember, do not touch the fruit,” the Queen Mother said with an odd gravity that further baffled Lord Rabbit. “I say this more for you than for me. If you touch the fruit, my annoyance will only be the beginning of your suffering.”
So, with those strange words echoing in their ears, the Unwanted Girl and Lord Rabbit entered the Garden of Splendors. Lord Rabbit soon located the herb they were looking for, but when he turned to show the Unwanted Girl, she was gone. Where was she? Suddenly, a cold dread rushed over him, and he began racing through the garden.
When he found her, she was exactly where he hoped she would not be—in front of the Fruits of Longevity. Her hand slowly moved a fruit away from her face, its golden juice dripping from her mouth and fingers. And at the same time, a horrible screeching noise filled the air.
A force like a whirlwind swirled around the tree, plucking both Lord Rabbit and the girl from the earth. The herbs flew from his paw, the fruit bounced away from the Unwanted Girl, and a thunderous roar filled their ears. “You were warned!” the wind hissed as it threw them high into the sky, out of the garden, and over the golden walls of the Queen Mother’s palace.
They fell for quite a while, and only by Lord Rabbit’s power were they able to land softly. But though they were unhurt, all was lost. They had lost the medicine, and they had run out of time. Her brother would die.
But the Unwanted Girl’s fate was worse.
For when Lord Rabbit and the girl had been flung from the garden and they both lay on the ground, gasping from their escape, a white shape came into view in the distance. The White Fox had been waiting for them. She was smiling.
Wordlessly, the Unwanted Girl rose and walked toward her. With every step she took, the girl began to transform, and when she finally joined the White Fox at the edge of the clearing, Lord Rabbit saw clearly what had happened. The White Fox now had a servant, one doomed to follow and obey her for as long as she lived. The Unwanted Girl had become the Red Fox.
MULAN WAS haunted by the Rabbit’s story. Even after she had eaten, even after they had found the road again, even as they traveled toward the City of Rushing Water through wooded areas and hilly lands, Mulan could not help thinking of it. No wonder the Rabbit hadn’t wanted her to come; it was almost as if they were reliving the same story now. The sick sibling, the search for the medicines…but it wasn’t the same. This was different, right? Mulan shivered, thinking of the Unwanted Girl’s fate.
Evening was arriving, and the sun sent streaks of crimson light into the darkening sky as it set. Mulan slowed Black Wind, looking for a good place to camp for the night.
“Tomorrow!” the Rabbit said.
Mulan turned to look at him, his nose twitching in the air, smelling the sky.
“What’s tomorrow?” Mulan asked.
“Tomorrow we will be at the City of Rushing Water,” the Rabbit said. “I can smell the river.”
Mulan sniffed but smelled only the fir trees that now lined their path. “Should we just keep going, then?”
The Rabbit shook his head. “Best if we camp for the night and leave early. It’s hard to tell how much longer it will take, and”—the Rabbit hesitated as if embarrassed—“I’m tired.”
Of course he was, Mulan thought as she guided Black Wind to a small clearing off the path. The Rabbit had jumped across a cliff the night before and miraculously rescued her that morning. As she lifted him off her back, she suddenly realized how much lighter he was. She could feel his body tremble with every beat of his heart, feel his bones through his fine fur. He was dying, too, Mulan remembered, the gravity of his death causing a sudden ache. But she said nothing as she set him down on the ground.
They quickly set up camp; dry brush for the fire was easy to find thanks to the surrounding pines. But as Mulan munched on her dinner of dates and rice, the Rabbit twisted in his blanket like a kitten and promptly fell asleep.
Mulan sat as the fire crackled, Black Wind silently grazing in the shadows. The Rabbit looked so small and frail as he slept, it was hard to believe how powerful he was. Though, My power has been diminishing, he had said. Mulan swallowed, looking again at the wheezing rabbit, his eyes tightly shut like a blind baby’s.
Was Xiu weakening like this, too? With every shallow breath Xiu took, was her life draining from her? If only the spider had bitten her instead of Xiu! You are too strong for your own good, Ma had said, and she was right. Why else was Mulan always breaking teacups and shrine statues? It probably would have been good for her to lose a bit of her chi. Maybe it would have helped her be less bold, less rough. Maybe it would have made her gentler and more graceful and a pride to their family. Maybe it would have made her more like Xiu.
A soft breeze blew across Mulan’s face with the scent of sweet honey. Mulan straightened and glanced around. A golden light shimmered in the distance, and she heard a faint sound beckoning her, the lilting song of a swallow. Daji.
WITHOUT REALIZING it, Mulan found herself walking toward the glow, the waft of fragrant air pulling her as if she were a kite reeled in by a string. Her feet padded softly on the path of fallen pine needles, their yellow color gently illuminated. Mulan followed it into a thicket of trees lit with lanterns, and there Daji was waiting, just as she had been the first time they’d met.
“Hello again!” Daji smiled as if welcoming her to a party. She was as beautiful as ever, her lotus-petal face so radiant and lovely that she seemed to be made of white jade.