The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 1

Xie Lian hurried through the palace grounds; he was running late because Hua Cheng had distracted him with early morning cuddles until they turned into rather late morning cuddles. Not that he regretted spending quality time with his mate, but the man really needed to learn restraint sometimes. Xie Lian sighed, and hurried along even faster.

Last week, he'd accidentally found a somewhat large-sized kitten when he was on his way to meet Shi QingXuan, and had been unable to ignore it. He'd crouched down, and patted it a little, even playing with it a bit, and he had grown so attached within seconds, that he'd just picked it up in the end, and brought it with him to see Shi QingXuan.

While carrying it, Xie Lian noticed that the paws were a bit too big, even for a large kitty like this. He'd blinked, and paused, realising he wasn't holding a normal kitten at all, but a baby tiger. He wondered where it came from, and immediately looked around to see if the mother was around somewhere, but he couldn't see, nor hear, anything that would suggest such a thing.

When he'd reached Shi QingXuan, he told Xie Lian that it was most likely an escapee from the menagerie, which was apparently just outside the palace walls. Thus, they had promptly decided to bring it back there, with Shi QingXuan blabbering on about all the amazing animals they had in there for the whole way. Once they had arrived, the first thing they saw was a person who was apparently working at the menagerie, trying to calm down a very agitated tigress. Xie Lian put down the baby tiger in his arms, and it immediately ran over to his mother, who in turn calmed down immediately. Then, Shi QingXuan had introduced Xie Lian to the other person, who turned out to be Lang QianQiu.

Xie Lian remembered that name from the incident with the dogs a few months ago, and while he knew that Guzi had been allowed to work in the palace kitchen and live in the respective quarters as well, he hadn't known about the fate of the dogs and thus inquired to Lang QianQiu about it. According to him, the dogs had been too valuable to dispose of, and were in the process of being re-trained into hunting dogs, which Xie Lian had been immensely pleased to hear.

He'd been to the menagerie almost every day he wasn't dancing, and had gotten to know a lot about the animals that were being held there in the meantime. Yesterday, Lang QianQiu had told him that a pregnant dog was due to have its pups last night, so how could Xie Lian not be excited to visit today?

Xie Lian ran into the inner circle of the menagerie, but Lang QianQiu wasn't there. He'd previously been told not to get too close to the bars separating the animals' habitats from the plaza, for his own safety, but Xie Lian couldn't just stand there until Lang QianQiu eventually showed up. So he went closer, and peeked into the spacious area that was occupied by.... the tigers. Which were also fascinating creatures, but not what he was currently looking for, so he started walking along the bars, until he got to the next section, which was occupied by... nothing.

He frowned, and stared into it a while longer, before he sighed, and kept walking and peeking, until he eventually found the comparatively small compound that was occupied by the dogs. However, Lang QianQiu couldn't be seen inside here either, which made Xie Lian feel a little bummed. After all, he couldn't enter without the key, and he doubted the dogs would come running to him with the pups voluntarily.

"Your Highness!", Xie Lian heard Lang QianQiu's voice from behind him at that moment.