The Purple Jade Palace: The Hummingbird's Plan

Consequences

Groggy and eyes filled with sleepy grit, Teal began to eat his breakfast, hungry from his night-time adventures. Lana and Ralen were at the table as well, quietly discussing their plans for the day. A bird sang in one of the trees not so far away and the brook continued with its steady soft flow of water. Teal leaned back and sighed. It was peaceful and serene, and then, Jale stormed onto the veranda. It was the first time Teal had seen him angry and it ran deep, flooding out of his body.

"What do you think you were doing?!" Jale demanded. Teal rose to his feet while Ralen watched on in shock with Lana frozen in her seat.

"What do you mean?" Teal tried to feign ignorance although with a sinking feeling, he knew his night-time trip had been reported.

"Traipsing about the palace in the middle of the night?! Climbing and scaling walls?! Clambering over rooftops!? Even stopping to sit down and stare at the view?" Jale threw his arms up in the air. "Did I not explain to you that you are to stay in the confines of the consort area? Within these walls?"

"Yes! Exactly!" Teal cried, suddenly unable to hold back. "Within these walls!!! I'm going crazy! I've gone from all these wonderful open spaces doing whatever I want, to suddenly being unable to see past my very own nose due to these horrible walls. I went out to stretch my legs, that's all."

Jale scoffed and leaned back, eyes narrowed. "Stretch your legs?"

"Yes, and I feel much better for it."

"That's too bad," Jale snapped, "because it's not only me that is angry and wants to have words with you. Galton and the Emperor are waiting to speak to you. You are lucky you didn't get killed last night because Teal, Galton was more than aware of your night-time excursion!"

Teal's face flooded with panic. "I didn't mean anything by it! I really didn't. I just, I just needed to get some air and move my body. I've always been so active."

Jale tilted his head. "Unfortunately," he said, his voice calmer than what it had been. "It is not up to me to decide what is going to happen to you. That is up to the Emperor, but I'll give you fair warning, his official criticizers are not happy." Jale pointed to the tunnel of trees leading to the Emperor's quarters. "Go! They're waiting for you right now."

Teal's heart pounded inside his chest, and his mouth ached with dryness during the entire walk along the tree-branched tunnel. Once they reached the end, they were met with additional guards. Jale took the lead, guiding the way to a part of the main building Teal had not been in before.

They turned in on a room that was dominated by a large wooden table filled with men and women. It was a meeting room, full of the Emperor's criticizers and council officials.

Teal caught the end of their conversation as they entered, and he swallowed down his fear when he saw the amount of people in the room, standing and sitting around the Emperor's table.

"He needs to be punished!" An old wrinkled man was in the middle of saying.

"Why do you try to cause so much trouble? Taking a concubine like him?" another complained. "You know nothing of what he is capable of."

A woman on the opposite side of the table quickly added her own opinion. "Letting that animal roam free in the palace, you're lucky he didn't kill or eat anyone in the process."

Teal stopped at the top of the table as the Emperor gave both the men and woman a look of disdain. His eyes fell on Teal and anger flickered over his face.

"Or how do we know he hasn't gone and killed someone and we just don't know about it yet," the old man on his left continued to assert. "How do you know you can completely trust him? The palace could soon have half eaten bodies turning up every night."