The first expedition, proposed by the Emperor and enthusiastically supported by Huxian, would have involved several lesser dragons carrying an entire company of the finest Oni soldiers, backed by court wizards, astrologers, the entirety of the harem, and enough spices, drugs and silks to make a pavilion every stop. The second expedition, proposed by Qasim -- speaking with the hard nosed experience of an trained astro from the more practical world of Stark -- involved him, Ning, and Hua traveling rapidly, by themselves, without drawing attention.
The third expedition, the expedition that set out from the capitol of the Dragon Empire, was a middle ground that left no one happy. Well.
Hua was happy.
But Qasim was growing increasingly certain that there existed nothing on either Earth that could make Hua unhappy for longer than a pet on the head -- something that Hua could wheedle out of Qasim with an alarming ease. Still, Hua was the only one who was pleased with the expedition, which contained too many people for Qasim's liking and too few for Huxian, who had been tasked by the Emperor to be his professional assistant and surveyor. Huxian, a squad of Oni guards, and a single member of the royal harem -- Ning. This status made Ning unhappy, as court protocol required her to be bedecked in a golden torque, golden bikini, loincloth, and nothing else for the procession to the gates of the city, where the Emperor announced that his adoptive son, the Glorious Prince of Heaven, would be taking his draconic companion northward, to survey and assess the newly conquered lands of the Rus, to ensure that all governors were acting with proper filial piety, and that taxes were being collected properly.
The crowd, who had mostly been here to see the dragon Hua, bedecked in silken sheets and an alarming contraption that looked like a silken gazebo strapped to his broad shoulders, had applauded with gusto as Huxian had stepped onto and into the gazebo with her soldiers and Ning, while Hua had reached out with his hand. So used to his draconic companion being the size of a small cat, Qasim took a moment to step onto a hand the size of a shuttlecraft's wing. Once he did, Hua placed him on the space behind his head, and then launched himself into the air with a sinuous wiggle and a beat of wings that were far too small according to most laws of physics that Qasim knew.
To Qasim's complete shock, being behind the head of a dragon turned out to be the finest way of traveling he had yet seen. It lacked the claustrophobia of getting aboard an airplane and the dreary sameness of space travel and the crushing weight of going from orbit to ground or ground to orbit. Instead, it was merely a smooth breeze, most of it being deflected by the curve of Hua's head and absorbed by his furred ruff, and the view of the whole of China sweeping below him. A China that looked like it had been painted by fantasy authors with a larger eye towards spectacle than realism: Monuments the size of mountains loomed below them as they soared away from what he was fairly certain was Beijing.
The land panned by beneath them as Hua said, his voice calm and ruffled. He didn't sound as if he was flying -- hell, he sounded more out of breath when he was scampering along the ground after Qasim: "Isn't this marvelous?"
Qasim tried to not sound too excited -- but found himself unable to hide the eagerness in his voice. "It...it is quite nice."
"Ahh, I love flying!" Hua wriggled -- and then dove forward, which provoked cries of alarm from the gazebo strapped to his back. Qasim grabbed onto his ruff, his fingers sinking into the thick, white fur.
"Hua! Hua! Hua! We have passengers!" Qasim shouted.
"Right! No loops!" Hua said, then laughed. "Sorry, forgot!"
He leveled out and began to climb gently back up, his tail narrowly clearing the peak of a mountain. Qasim wondered at that -- he thought he should have been cold, this high up. But he felt nothing but warm and comfortable. Hua, laughing, said: "Well, once we get to the first stopover, I can fly loops then."
"Only if no one is on your back," Qasim said.
"But loooops!" Hua said, craning his head back and around, managing to transfix Qasim with one of his huge, slitted eyes. "They're almost better than sex. You'll love them, promise." Qasim pursed his lips at him. "Come onnn Qasim! You should try having fun
once
in your life."
"I've had fun in my life," Qasim said, his voice stiff.
"Name the single time you've had fun ever in the history of the universe," Hua said, sniffing. "Er. Universes."
Hua almost pointed out that he had made love to Ning while the
People's Shield
had been tumbling and out of control in space. Instead, he pursed his lips and arched an eyebrow. "I find learning to be quite fun," he lied. "Especially learning magic."
"Uuuuugh!" Hua writhed from side to side in the air, causing the gazebo to shift on his back -- which provoked a single angry shout from Huxian, which was mostly lost in the wind. "Fine. When we land, I'll be sure that you have
all
the fun you can possibly have. So much fun, you'll choke on it. So much fun that you won't even know how to hold all the fun that you are having!"
"Is that a threat?" Qasim asked.
"Kind of, maybe!" Hua exclaimed, then wriggled, his wings beating to push them through the air even faster. The landscape below them showed all the diversity that Qasim had never seen in China -- but had known was there. They flew above a vast desert. They flew across mountains, carved with the faces of kings and gods. They flew above jungles that grew thick and lush and, as the sun fell, the jungle began to glow. But Hua flew down towards a city that was nestled between several rivers and pressed up against the edge of some rocky foothills.
As Qasim swung himself off Hua's back and Huxian -- her silken dress ruffled by wind and shakes -- emerged from the gazebo, the oni soldiers started to ready themselves. They swung down using thick ropes that were thrown out of the gazebo with significant force, and soon, they had arrayed themselves into a formidable looking formation, kneeling to Qasim as he stepped away from Hua's heaving side and into the evening chill that pervaded in the air not immediately warmed by the dragon's body heat.
"Did you have a good flight, Huxian?" Qasim asked.
"Well enough," Huxian said, then brushed her fingers through her long, silvery hair. She leaned in close, whispering softly. "Thank you for keeping him from flying in loops." Her tails twitched in agitation and her fox ears were pinned so hard against her head that they were nearly invisible. Qasim chuckled, dryly.
"It was a full time job."
Once Ning had disembarked -- disembragoned? - Hua shrank with an alarming popping noise, air rushing to fill the space once occupied by an immense dragon. In that space there was only Hua, the size of a kitten and looking irritatingly adorable. He sprang from the ground to Qasim's shoulder as the gates to the city opened and men emerged in armor, carrying spears. They formed into an honor guard and Qasim took a moment to blink a few times. The men weren't the oni that he had expected.
Each was about five to four feet tall. Each had bright yellow, clawed, scaled feet, black tufts of fur beginning at their knees and sweeping up to cover their bodies, which were feathered and furred in equal measures. Their arms had feathers that swept outwards, like those on a wing, and their faces had beady black eyes and curved, yellow beaks. They were, in a word, a combination between a crow and a human being. And they stood at perfect attention, while a female crow walked down the center of their formation. Qasim could
tell
that she was female. It was...very obvious from the low cut of her silken dress and how very taut it was and the significant...uh...
