[centre][h2]Clouds Across Great Moksha’s Shine[/h2][/centre] Wenbo sat silently on a carpet on the veranda of the city palace. By his feet his crown had been neatly placed and the great golden mantle laid not too distantly from it again. The dreamer lord had a slow, steady breath; his eyes were fixed on the great bright mist in the sky. A myriad of worries and anxieties filled his mind and with a strained wince, he focused all his concentration into drowning them out. Moksha had shown him a multitude of sights and played a symphony of sounds. There was laughter, song, grunts and sighs, and one thunderous guffaw stood out in particular, a cheerful bass that seemed to vibrate the very bones of its listeners. Wenbo snorted out two quick shoots of air and felt that familiar itch in his nose that always seemed to come whenever he meditated on Moksha. Two fingers dabbed his orange-ringed eye and Wenbo shook his head with a weak snicker. “Hey, Chaggie… Wouldn’t be possible for you to pass down some leadership tips from up there, would it? Moksha didn’t reply much, Wenbo had found, but there was a certain joy in the hope that up there, in God’s grace, his beloved brother was listening. A pang of longing slammed into his chest like a hammer and Wenbo nearly felt the need to cough. He cleared his throat instead and went into a routine kowtow. “... To my God, I offer my faith; to my family, my love. I miss you all, and will see you when my time here has come to an end.” A faint green wink of light flickered in the nebula and Wenbo felt another sting in the nose. He stood up and dusted off his knees before collecting the mantle and the crown and heading into his bedroom. “Wenbo, dear?” came Ai’s voice from the changing room. “Yes, love?” replied Wenbo absent-mindedly as he placed the mantle on a clay mannequin. “Have you seen Bean Bun anywhere?” The alabaster-haired face peeked out from the curtain-covered doorway. Wenbo hummed. “Nnnno… Not for a few hours, anyway. Maybe he’s in the wine cellar again?” Ai gave a light groan and went back inside. “Could you go check? I’d rather not have him drink the wine we’ve been saving for Yongqi’s marriage.” Wenbo clicked his tongue. “A fair point. I’ll be right back, okay?” “Oh, and check on Bei, too, would you? She’s so nervous for her speech.” “I will, I will.” The dreamer lord put on his wicker sandals and pushed aside the wood-and-paper slider door to the hallway, bringing with him a torch. The hallway’s darkness fled before the flickering light of the torch as Wenbo made his way down the complicated maze of corridors and empty rooms. He could never remember which ones everyone had moved into, and it annoyed him that only a subset of his children and grandchildren had bothered to hang up namesigns on their doors. The further he went, the more the doors and rooms seemed to blend into one another. Finding Bei’s room in the darkness would take ages. He would head to the cellars first. At least then, he had some scent to follow. [hr] “It’s a profound joy to be given the honour of holding this speech to my--... No, no, no, that’s so convoluted…” Wen Bei rubbed her bloodshot eyes. She had spent days writing this speech for her precious nephew, little Yongqi who in many ways had been just as much her own son as it was her brother’s. He was in his late teens now, and set to wed the beautiful young Changchun. Bei hoped she could still rely on him to come by every now and then and help her with the harvest and the baking. Oh, and babysit little Rende and Kongrong. In a multitude of different ways, she wanted to thank him - but to condense all of these into a simple speech was much harder than the lady had thought it would be. She took another deep breath and started over: “It’s a profound joy to speak my love, no, appreciation? No, no, uhm… Ugh…” She put down her script again. She looked over her shoulder to see her husband, Jochi, droning a quiet snore. She sighed and went over to their window. She looked up to the green mists of Moksha and closed her eyes. Calm violins filled the room around her; the sugary scent of sweetgrass tickled at her nostrils; distant giggles of old friends and family echoed in the corners of her mind. A tranquil warmth lazed its way through her body and Bei felt her legs buckle slightly. The wedding was still a few days off. She stole a glance at the bed again. She could allow her mind some rest, she thought. [hr] There it was again. The jerk of neck, ab and back muscles as the body realises it’s about to keel over. Snap, he had fallen asleep on guard again! Wen Tian slapped his cheek in frustration and scanned the multitude of wine pots he could see from his stool. Snapping-- He was the second oldest son of Wenbo and Ai and he would be damned before some snooping cloudling got into the pots on his wa-- [i]”Pop-pop…”[/i] Tian jerked to his feet and grabbed the small pot of sour wine next to his stool. He pulled off the cloth lid and slowly snook his way between the tall wine pots in the dark room. He squinted as hard as he could, the dark outlines of pots, shelves and lids sharpening a little bit. One lid in particular seemed a little too bloated. Carefully, Tian shuffled up to the bloated lid and, holding ready the pot of sour wine, gave the lid a poke. There came an eggy burp from the pot and Tian winced with a quiet “ugh”. No, that was just fermentation at work. [i]”Zzt!”[/i] Tian spun around. A couple of pots away, a translucent shape drifted slowly up from under a half-open lid. It popped suspiciously at the surroundings and Tian shouted, “Aw, snap-- Bean Bun!” The cloudling spun about and gave a chuckle-like pop before soaring off. Tian gave chase, nearly tipping a number of pots in the process. He wafted his hand over the sour wine to spread the smells, but the cloudling didn’t seem interested. However, Tian knew he had him cornered, for Bean Bun was heading towards the door in the corner. And the door was locked! “It’s over, Bean Bun! You have nowhere to run!” Tian exclaimed triumphantly and made himself as big as he could by stretching out his arms and taking a wide stance with his legs. The cloudling had no face, but its bewilderment was evident in its [i]”Pop?”[/i] Tian slowly closed in, a victorious smirk on his lips. Then the door swung open and a blinding light set the wine cellar aflame with radiance. Tian fell backwards to the ground, dropping the pot of wine to the floor with a hollow, lucky [i]thunk[/i]! He threw his hands up in defense and bellowed, “LIGHT! AGONY! AAAAAGH!” “Tian, son, what’re you doing?” came a confused voice. Tian uncovered his face and scrambled to his feet. As his eyes adjusted to the flickering flame, he recognised the slightly worried frown of his father. Tian dusted himself off and grinned. “Oh! Hey, dad! Uh, nothing! Just… Guarding the wine! As per your instructions.” Wenbo pursed his lips. “Yeah, that’s, uhm… Great! Say, have you… Been sitting in here all night?” “Yeah, ‘course. Gotta, gotta protect the wine, you know. Just doing my duty, dad.” “Naturally, son, but… You sure you wouldn’t want some fresh air? Maybe a bite to eat?” “Thanks, but no thanks, dad! I must keep my keen eye on these pots so no cloudlings get-- Oh no!” Tian sidestepped Wenbo and looked up the stairwell. Bean Bun was nowhere to be found. “... Bean Bun got away…” “Oh, so he was in here?” Wenbo asked with a hum. “Yeah… And now he’s gone…” Tian said in deep defeat. Wenbo patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Tian. Don’t worry about it. You wouldn’t happen to know which pot Bean Bun drank from?” Tian shook his head. “It was dark. They all look the same in the shadows.” Wenbo huffed and went over to the pots with his torch, inspecting each of the lids. When he came across the half-open one, he snickered and stuck his hand inside. Tian came over to see and after a few moments of Wenbo rummaging inside, there came a surly “[i]Zzt![/i]” Out of the pot came a small flock of newborn cloudlings, some of which buried themselves in Wenbo and Tian’s black hair. Wenbo shook the wine off his hand and chuckled; Tian stared at the crowd of cloudlings on his father’s head and poked the pile on his own. “Oh, well,” Wenbo said with a snicker. “I suppose it’s fine if we don’t get completely knock-out drunk at the wedding.” Tian hung his head. “Are you ashamed of me, dad?” Wenbo scoffed and squeezed his son’s shoulder. “Ashamed of my son for something like this? I’m not His Lordship, blessings upon Him. No, if you think I’ll scold my thirty year old son for this like you were some toddler, then you’re overthinking this.” Tian gave a weak chuckle. “Heh… Yeah. I, uh, I think I ought to head to bed.” “Sounds like a plan, son,” Wenbo agreed. “Say good night to Shenmei for me, would you?” “If she’s not already asleep. Thanks, dad.” With drowsy steps, the second oldest son shuffled up the dark stairwell towards his room, the cloudlings on his head lazily hitching a ride and popping gleefully all the way. [hr] “WAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” came a squeal from the next room. Wen De’s groggy eyes opened with reluctance and he poked the shape of his wife. “Chunhua, could you--” “Nuh-uh,” came a defiant voice. De deflated. “Pleeeeeaaase?” “I did it last night…” Chunhua insisted and curled up further under the thin blanket. De gave a groan. “Fine… I’ll be right back.” The youngest of Wenbo’s sons sat up on the side of the bed, did a half-hearted stretch and stood up, shuffling into the next room. The squeals had doubled now, as the first twin had awoken his brother and now the two were having a fight to see who could scream the loudest. De dragged his feet over to their bed and groaned again. “Heeeey, kids… What’s going on?” They slowly quieted down and Yun said, “Tu scared me!” “I had a nightmare!” the little Tu defended. De squatted down next to be bed and amiably stroked his son’s head. “What kind of nightmare, son?” Tu pouted. “It-... It had Yun in it, and it had the fall, and, and, and… Yun got hurt again, and then a big meanie roar came and, and--” De sighed and gave him a hug. “Hey, it’s alright. Yun’s fine, right, Yun?” “I’m thirsty,” the little boy complained. “Okay, so fine soon, but no hurt anywhere, right? No broken arm again?” Yun waved his right arm about and shook his head. “No, don’t think so.” “See, Tu? Your brother’s fine, and the roaring? That’s just Chuanwang, you know. He’s just an old tortoise and he’s really nice.” “He’s really scary,” Tu insisted. “What if he eats me? Or you and mommy? Or Yun?” De sat down on the edge of the bed and ruffled the hair of them both. “Hey, listen - Chuanwang won’t eat any of us. He doesn’t like Dreamers, he’s-... He’s vegetarian.” “What’s vedgetaran?” Yun asked. “It means he only eats vegetables, like grampa Wenbo.” “Are there vegetables that big, dad?” De shrugged. “Maybe? I’d like to find out some day, too, really.” He gave them each a peck on the forehead. “Go back to sleep now, boys. We’ll be in the next room as always.” He tucked the twins in under the blanket. “Good ni--” “[i]POP![/i]” De turned around and the twins sat back up. “Was that Noodle?” Tu asked curiously. “No, Noodle says ‘zzt’, not ‘pop’,” Yun corrected and Tu hummed. De went over to the window and looked out. A smile cracked across his face and he beckoned to the twins. “Boys, come see this.” The twins looked at each other, then quickly got out of bed and hurried over to the windowsill. Outside, across the green streak of Moksha, a swarm of cloudlings followed a slightly darker one, one they immediately recognised as Bean Bun. The boys giggled in amusement as the stressed little cloudling was seemingly chased down and possibly interrogated by its friends about where it had found all that sweet-smelling wine. De put a hand on the shoulders of each of the boys and smiled. “Remember to thank Lord K’nell for giving us cloudlings now, boys.” “Thank you, Lord K’nell,” the twins echoed along with their dad and the three remained staring at the spectacle for a slight while longer. [hider=Summary!] Wenbo’s thinking about Moksha and is having some anxieties about his leadership. Moksha doesn’t respond much, but he’s happy to get it off his chest. As he’s about to go to bed, Ai asks him to check if he’s seen their cloudling Bean Bun. Wenbo hasn’t, so they conclude he might be in the wine cellar. Wenbo heads down. Perspective switches to Wen Bei, who’s pretty nervous about a speech for her nephew’s wedding. As she consults Moksha about it, Moksha tells her through music and tranquility that she should rest and instead work on it the day after, rather than stress herself out. Perspective switch to Wen Tian who’s on guard in the cellar. He wakes up after having fallen asleep, only to find that there has been a breach and that Bean Bun’s drinking from the wedding wine. He tries to catch it and even corners it at one point, but Wenbo enters with a torch and blinds Wen Tian who’s been sitting in the dark. Wenbo asks if his son is fine and after some chatting, Tian comes to the conclusion that he should go to bed. Bean Bun has spawned a bunch of cloudlings, though, and these take refuge on both their heads. Perspective shift to Wen De who has to put his twins back to sleep. Tu’s had a nightmare and woke up Yun, too, so De soothes them both. The post ends with all three of them watching Bean Bun get chased by other cloudlings. [/hider]