A sharp pain in his side, the stab of a blunt knife, caused the man to groan again and again as he hurtled through piles of rocks and clouds of twigs; rolling down the steep slope until he struck heavily a trunk, the jarring blow that whipped his body into thorny bushes.
He recovered the breath that had been ripped out his body, and forced himself to walk as rapidly as his wound and the darkness would permit.
A little farther he heard the sound of the stream and took comfort in the fact he had nearly reached his destination.
He stooped low as he tried to run, all the while pressing a hand to the bleeding wound to ease the pain in his side. He was also clenching his teeth as if to shut out the pain, as if every moan would drain what was left of his strength.
Drawing deep breaths he pushed forward, following the stream that led to the foot of the mountain. After a while came the growling, churning and rumbling sound of the waterfalls that told him of his imminent rescue.
And soon he found himself on the narrow trail that ran sharply upward, zig-zagging alongside the river. Immediately ahead loomed out of the moonbeams the great dark tumbled mountain mass and he realised that he had reached safety, away from his pursuers.
Weakened and exhausted, his ankles stumbled left and right on the pebbles and his body stooped forward and downward. His vision became so hazy that his eyes could see nothing, but he could distinctly hear a voice that he knew.
No sooner had Jian grabbed the man's waist than the latter's consciousness abandoned him.
*
While everyone was sitting around the hearthstones and gazing into the leaping flames, awaiting for Jian's uncle to awake; somewhere outside and very close to them, a silhouette, either friend or foe, was lurking for a whole hour before daybreak. And with the rising flame of bright yellow light the silhouette eventually vanished.
Jian's uncle drifted to wakefulness when a strong fish smell returned him to the land of the living.
He was too weak to rise from the comfortable bed of fur on which he lay. Turning his head to the centre of the cave floor, he found himself staring at the warm fire which lit up the familiar faces sitting on woven reed mats around it.
A blaze was cracking the dry sticks and an earthen vessel was set upon it. Fish stew.
He raised himself slowly into a sitting posture, his wound had been washed and bandaged. And as he made an effort to lean back to the wall; Jian, seeing as he struggled, lifted him to a more comfortable position as easily as if he had been a small child.
The firelight flickered over So Dzong's impenetrable face as he removed the pot to the floor and retreated to the entrance of the chamber.
Everyone was agog to hear Hanyu reporting the events that happened on his way here:
"My eye was caught by a flutter of white robes gleaming under the bright moon. I guessed it was a young woman from her slimness and from the mass of dark hair framing her face. She was walking along the path in my direction.
"I strained forward and I saw that it was indeed a young woman and she was approaching me.
"And then as she came nearer, I strained further forward and I caught only a glimpse of her face before it was hidden by clouds soaking up the moon beams, but that glimpse told me that she was not a woman at all... It set my pulse leaping!
"But I waited that she would come into sight again. You see, part of me could not believe what I saw. Due to the exhaustion, the hunger and the sleepless nights, I believed my mind was playing a trick.
"However she had vanished. I concluded I had imagined it. So I continued on my way here.
"When I had gone on a few li, I overheard a woman weeping and wailing and my eyes found her in the distance. And in a moment she was running as fast as wind and stood before me.
"She said: 'Take pity on me and save my life!'
"So I asked her what was the trouble and she replied: 'A man is pursuing me.'
"With that she ran up to a hollow tree and crawled inside. I felt intuitively that something troubled me about this woman and ran. And sure enough, no sooner had she disappeared, than she came rushing and roaring and stretching out her claws. She was directly in front of me, her bright and yellow eyes staring into mine as though she would rip apart my soul.
"I could not move. I saw the blade of her knife gleaming in the moonlight and then she stabbed me. She raised her eyes deliberately to mine and laughed insanely. Then, to my amazement she fled."
"Who was she?" Li Ji asked as she reached for the fur blanket with unsteady hands and slid it over her shoulders.
"Either a fox demon or a were-tiger."
There was a movement among them and fleeting looks of skepticism passed over their faces, but before they could speak he continued:
"It disguises itself under the shape of a man or a woman and suddenly falls upon a benighted traveller and tears him to pieces. It is a true miracle that I am alive."
Shufeng looked at Hanyu and made a low bow indicating he meant no disrespect, then spoke in a friendly manner:
"Imagination fed from childhood on superstitious tales stimulated by a mind deprived of sleep and weakened from hunger as you pointed out earlier. All of us have read those tales over and over. And if I recall when a person has been devoured by a were-tiger or a fox demon he becomes his slave and leads the monster to the destruction of other victims."
Upon the prince's last words, no one uttered a word—So Dzong included!—each one seemingly intent on his own thoughts stared at Hanyu. The rigid attention on their faces suggested that for a moment their minds were being confused by dwelling on the mystical and fairy tale books that were presently awakening their doubts and exciting their imagination.
Shufeng found it funny to observe the latter expression lingering on their faces. Hence the prince continued: "There are many tales of shape-shifting. A person could change themselves after death into cats to take revenge upon those who were their persecutors during life.
"I recall the tale of Ryuzoji.
"Duke Nabeshima employed a man named Ryuzoji to serve as his opponent for Go. One day Ryuzoji fell out of favor with his lord, and Nabeshima had him put to death. Ryuzoji's mother was heartbroken by this, and poured out all her sadness to the family cat they kept, then she killed herself with a knife.
"The cat licked the blood from the mother, and from this transformed into a nekomata. Every night the cat would sneak into the mansion to torment Nabeshima.
"According to the tale, fish was the dead giveaway for the nekomata. If the were-cat eat fish its true nature would be revealed and suddenly transforms back into a ravenous beast."
Li Ji glanced at Hanyu's bowl filled to the brim with uneaten fish stew. She attempted to disguise a note of suspicion in her voice as she asked Shufeng how would one fight against a were-beast.
"Fox demon, nekomata, or were-tiger, those are mere fanciful stories from creativity out of a boundless imagination.
"Or else, how would Hanyu have survived? You cannot fight them. According to folklore the were-beast does not show mercy and no one had ever lived to tell the tale… unless…"—Shufeng paused, his eyes sparkling with amusement—"unless you are either the were-beast who has assumed the human shape of its victim or its slave."
Hanyu quickly realised that everyone, even his nephew, was squinting at him with mixed expressions:
A sliver of—could it be?,
A wisp of—nah, of course not,
And a dash of—but what if it is!
"Your Highness," Jian's voice sank to a lower key. "Then, how do you explain my Uncle's wound? It's real enough."
Meanwhile, beneath the heaviness of his eyebrows, the look of intensity in The Alchemist's eyes deepened. His mouth opened but he paused an instant, as though he was nerving himself to speak, as though he was asking himself if he should tell them…