Divine Madness

by Harmon Cooper

“I’m good,” he said, the tropical bird now perched on my shoulder. “Since no one has mentioned it yet, I’m expecting a fur jacket tomorrow. Maybe then I’ll go out. And that’s a big maybe.”

  “You will be the talk of the town in your jacket,” Dohna said as Saruul guided us toward another flight of stairs, this one leading up to the bedrooms.

  “As long as no one licks their lips while they look at me, I’m okay with that,” Roger said.

  “This is where you will be staying,” Dohna said, motioning toward a bedroom on the right, the door currently shut. “And this is my bedroom,” she said, pointing at the bedroom on the left, the door open and revealing a quaint room with low ceilings and a red sleeping pad on the floor covered in silk cushions.

  “What about you?” I asked Saruul.

  “I’m staying with you,” she said.

  Her mother nodded.

  I looked at Roger to see that he was trying not to laugh.

  “Great,” I said, ignoring him. I couldn’t help but smile, though, happy to see how frank the snow lion women could be.

  They really didn’t skirt around anything.

  “Now that you’ve had a tour I suppose we should eat a quick meal, and there are more things I need to prepare, like washing the berries a local boy sold me this morning,” Dohna said as she turned back toward the staircase made of stone. “Eat well, but do not eat too much, Nick. Your training begins tonight. Also…”

  “Yes?” I asked her.

  “You will need a bath. I’ll have Saruul prepare one for you.”

  “It’s fine, I can do it…” I started to say, feeling embarrassed.

  “Nonsense,” Saruul said, “you are my guest.”

  Chapter Ten: Midnight Fighter

  Saruul woke me up.

  I was in her bedroom, resting on the floor as I’d been instructed to do, my head propped up by a cushion.

  “It’s time,” she said, bringing a hand to my cheek.

  She moved forward and kissed me.

  “Your mom wasn’t kidding when she said it started tonight, was she?” I asked after a yawn. A bit of light from the street outside cut an arc into the room, illuminating a swath of her body, Saruul’s tail curled.

  “I hope you’re ready for this, Nick,” she said, crouching next to me now.

  “This is what I came here to do, well, and to see you, and…”

  I snapped my mouth shut.

  Saruul laughed. “Are your words moving faster than your mind can process them?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Sit here and meditate for a moment; I will massage your shoulders. You need to focus, Nick. He will be here soon.”

  “Who is he again?” I asked for the second time that night.

  “You’ll find out soon enough. The women of my village have come up with different ways to train their cubs, and this is the way my mother has devised. You need to get into the right mind space, though,” she said as she slipped around me, her hands falling onto my shoulders.

  Following Baatar’s instructions, I imagined myself breathing through a tunnel all the way to the back of my mind, and from there down to my stomach.

  I really didn’t know what was in store for me, only that I would meet “him” tonight.

  Any hints I tried to get over dinner were quickly shut down by Dohna, and aside from the fact that she had been elusive as to how my training would work, she was otherwise a great hostess.

  Even as I meditated, my mind started to drift to the happenings of the night, from the bath Saruul had given me, to a dessert that Dohna had prepared for us from whipped curd and tart berries, and the conversation we’d had about the Path of the Divine.

  I was instructed to head upstairs and rest, and here I was, now having my shoulders massaged by Saruul.

  “Are you going to be there for the start of my training?” I asked suddenly.

  “You are supposed to be meditating,” she said, “and no, I’m going to sleep. I will see you when you stumble up here, if you can even make it up the stairs.”

  “That’s not very reassuring.”

  “It is not my goal to reassure you any longer; it is my goal to aid in your training. Don’t worry, you’ll survive, and tomorrow we’ll visit the monastery and see what your friend has been up to.”

  “So my training is only going to happen at night?”

  “Meditate,” she reminded me again. “But to answer your question, your training will happen during the day and night. But that’s all I’m allowed to say. And that you aren’t allowed to heal yourself until you’re instructed to do so. You do remember my mother telling you that, right?”

  “Not until after the training,” I said.

  “Exactly, no other runes either. Now meditate. Shut up.”

  I did as she instructed, focusing again on my breath and coming to a pretty good space as I imagined the air moving through me, circulating, and then moving right back out.

  There were a few moments that I actually had no thoughts, able to feel my body for once, the tightness of the skin over my biceps, my heart slowly beating in my chest.

  Of course, this spawned a thought about how strange it was to be alive here in Lhasa, considering where I was from.

  It also made me wonder about another part of all this, something that had yet to be revealed. No one had yet mentioned what happened to the original Immortals who came to Lhasa, or if any of them had ever made it back to my world.

  I tried to stop that thought right there, not quite sure how I would feel if I was banished to this world forever.

  Even though the place had been pretty rough with me, there were parts that I was starting to like about it, including the person currently massaging my shoulders.

  There was a magic here that I hadn’t experienced in my world, and even though there were serious social problems in Lhasa, something told me this was also a place where change could be made, and that this change would spread.

  Once Saruul finished, I was led downstairs, where she blindfolded me.

  She guided me outside, the bitter cold instantly reaching the exposed parts of my skin.

  As Saruul continued to guide me, my bare feet now on the frigid stone, I thought about asking her what to expect again.

  But I knew that she wasn’t going to tell me, so I kept my mouth shut.

  Eventually, she stopped, and leaned forward to whisper in my ear.

  “I’ll leave you here. Keep the blindfold on until you are instructed otherwise. He will not speak to you, but he will grunt, and that’s how you will know it is time. Good luck.”

  I heard Saruul shift away, the squeak of the back door shutting coming to me about a minute later.

  The only other thing I could hear now was a breeze blowing over the rocks, the startled cry of an animal in the distance.

  I turned to the noise, trying to judge what it was.

  What if there were wolves out here? What if something attacked me?

  I swallowed these thoughts.

  While I wasn’t so certain that the rest of Lhasa wouldn’t abandon me, I knew that Saruul wouldn’t leave me to the wolves.

  So at least there was that.

  I stood for another few minutes in silence, listening for any sounds that indicated someone was approaching me.

  My mind started to drift, which I encouraged it to do once I started shivering, hoping that I could lead my thoughts away from how cold it was.

  A few more minutes passed, and my teeth started chattering.

  “Hello?” I said at some point, when I thought I heard movement.

  Nothing.

  I remembered Baatar mentioning controlling one’s body warmth.

  Figuring I would put it to the test, I started taking in deep breaths, ignoring the cold, imagining a warmth radiating through me.

  At first, it did nothing, but then I changed the way I was thinking about what I was doing, now imagining an actual fire, the plumes lifting from my gut and spreading up my chest an
d out my arms.

  I moved from heel to heel, shaking my hands, inhaling deep breaths and disregarding how cold they felt against the inside of my nostrils.

  The flame inside me grew brighter.

  And as if to test me, a breeze blew past, ruffling the ends of my robes.

  I ignored the wind, now focused on a flame I could see in my mind’s eye, the fire burning in my stomach.

  I was still cold, but I was now so focused on creating an artificial inner warmth that the coldness took less of my focus.

  And it was then that I heard the grunt.

  As I’d been instructed, I removed the blindfold, my eyes adjusting to the brightness caused by the moon.

  A man stood before me, the moon behind him.

  He wore black robes and a black mask detailed with white lines framing his face. The man was a snow lion, evident in his tail, but other than that I had no idea who he was.

  The spot Saruul had led me to was pretty barren, aside from a large boulder off to my left. I didn’t know how far we were from her home, and I didn’t have time to turn and find out as the man brought his fists up. Even though my hands were numb from the cold, I did the same.

  He advanced on me, sweeping me off my feet before I could throw my first punch. The man chopped my throat and scrambled away, right back to his fighting pose as I started to cough.

  I was just catching my breath when he delivered a heel to the small of my back, a cracking sound meeting my ears.

  He was in front of me again, his fists at the ready.

  My throat still aching, I made my way to my feet, wiping blood from my lips.

  The masked lion man came forward with a strike and I blocked it with my arms.

  His right shin met the side of my head.

  An explosion of colors inside my brain was followed by my body hitting the ground.

  I rolled once, pressing myself up only to have the man sink a fist into my ribs, cracking a few of them.

  I was wheezing now, coughing up blood, pain radiating through me.

  He wasn’t finished.

  The lion man kicked me in the stomach just as soon as I could get up. I went to the ground again and he kicked me in the ribs and the side of my body until my organs shrieked.

  “Asshole,” I said as I managed to grab onto his ankle.

  I brought my fist back and punched him in the side of the leg, shattering the bone, a ripple of energy sending him backward.

  He stumbled and eventually fell, the man holding his leg as he looked over to me, a growl emitting from his throat.

  I noticed a shift in his mask as he morphed into an absolutely enormous snow lion.

  The lion slammed into me, flipped me over, and started mauling me as I tried to push him away, his teeth gnashing inches away from my face as I tried to protect myself.

  He reared back and swiped his claws across my chest, tearing through the fabric and ripping into my flesh.

  He did this again and again until I was a trembling, broken and beaten, bloodied mess.

  The lion got off and glared down at my face. I swore at that moment he was about to eat me but instead he roared, the terrifying sound nearly popping my eardrums, everything going black for a moment.

  And then he ran off.

  “Mother… fucker…” I whispered as I tried to move to my side, feeling the sting of his claws across my chest.

  I was a tattered, bloodied mess, barely able to see, my muscles, bones, and inner organs screaming at me.

  I looked left to see a pair of feet approaching me.

  “Heal yourself,” Dohna said, her voice just above a whisper, “I will have more robes delivered in the morning.”

  “Who… who was that?”

  She crouched down in front of me. “Not bad,” she finally said, once she finished looking me over.

  I searched her eyes for a flicker of concern and didn’t find any.

  Instead, Dohna turned back to the house. “Heal up,” she called over her shoulder.

  I awoke the next morning with Saruul in my arms.

  I looked down at her and kissed her forehead, her ears twitching as she blinked her eyes open.

  “Are you feeling okay?” she asked me softly.

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean that last night wasn’t brutal,” I told her. “If it weren’t for the healing ability, I’d be in a hospital somewhere. This place does have a hospital, right?”

  She gave me a funny look. “What kind of village do you think this is? Of course we have a hospital.”

  “Good, because I didn’t see it. And I actually wouldn’t know what it looked like anyway, unless it was marked.”

  “Let’s have breakfast,” she said, her nostrils flaring open. “It should be ready soon.”

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you about how this works.”

  “Which part?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

  “Not my training; I figured you wouldn’t tell me anything about that anyway.”

  “Correct.”

  “No, I was referring to your morphing and your powers. You still maintain the hearing and smelling ability of a lion in this form, correct?”

  I sniffed the air to prove my point, showing her that I couldn’t smell anything that resembled breakfast.

  “Correct.”

  “I have another stupid question.”

  “You are only allowed two per day, so choose wisely.”

  “Where does your clothing go when you turn into a lion?”

  Saruul smirked. “It goes to my stripes.”

  “I get it, it’s all magical.”

  Saruul got out of the bed. She was completely nude now, her skin almost translucent. The lioness slowly turned to me and showed me her ass, her tail bouncing in the air as she gave it a quick shake.

  “You certainly know how to get my attention.”

  “I was going to explain to you how this works,” she said, shaking her hips again.

  I placed my hands behind my head, sitting up a little bit. “Explain away.”

  “The clothing we wear, or any clothing you have seen on any person in this village, is specially designed for our morphing,” she said as she started to slip into her one-piece bathing suit. “I have different styles, and they are mostly black, which is easiest in my opinion. It’s a special type of fabric that was developed by my people, alongside a clever alchemist a very long time ago. When we morph, it forms the black stripes on our bodies. In the males, a lot of it goes to their manes. We don’t actually have black in our bodies anymore, aside from our ears and our tails. That’s how you know if a lion is wearing clothing or not.”

  “You’re going to have to show me before and after,” I said as she finished putting her top on, adjusting her breasts.

  Saruul morphed into a snow lion and leaped onto the bed, stopping right in front of my face as she pressed her paws on my shoulders.

  “Can you talk in this form?” I asked her, swallowing hard as I took in the size of her teeth.

  She shook her head, and as if she were an oversized house cat, I lightly placed my hand on her and petted her back.

  A cross look came over her face, but then she sort of seemed to like it, inching her shoulder a little closer to me so I could scratch it.

  She sat down and I pressed back slightly to get my legs out from beneath her.

  Even though I knew who she was, I was still having a hard time processing the fact that there was an actual snow lioness sitting on the bed casually staring at me. I even glanced at the door once or twice, just to make sure that I had an exit.

  Saruul moved back to her feet and came to my side, nudging me until she knocked me over. She lay down with her back against mine, her tail occasionally slapping against me.

  “You’re definitely warmer this way,” I told her.

  She morphed back to her human form, barely able to contain her laughter.

  “You looked like you were going to make a run for it!”

  “I mean, I sort of was
. It’s not often that…” I shook my head.

  “It’s not often that you see a lion in the bedroom that you’re staying in? Have you been seeing other lions?”

  “I’m pretty sure you would know if I had been,” I told her as I reached over and pinched her nose.

  “Careful,” she told me she rolled on top of me. She squeezed her legs around me and looked down at my face. “We should go to breakfast.”

  “Sure, let’s do that…”

  There were several sets of white robes waiting outside the door. I quickly changed into one of them and headed downstairs to find Roger and Tashi seated around the table. Dohna set a bowl of porridge in front of me, my curiosity piqued by the huge chunks of bacon in it.

  “They’re sugar-glazed,” Saruul’s mother explained. “There’s a butcher on the other side of the city whose family is dedicated to mastering the art of curing meats.”

  “This is from Beard’s Bacons?” Saruul asked.

  “Only the best for our guests,” her mother said.

  Curious as to how it would taste, I used what resembled a spork to get some of the porridge and stabbed into a piece of the bacon at the same time. While the porridge was hot, the bacon was cold, yet it melted in my mouth almost as if it were warm caramel, offering me an incredible flavor the likes of which I’d never tasted before.

  “My God, this is amazing,” I said, smiling up at Dohna.

  “Slow down,” Saruul’s mother told me. “We have some training to do after breakfast; it’s bad for your digestive system to eat too quickly.”

  “Sure,” I said, actually swallowing my next bite before going for another.

  “So, you had to fight a ninja lion in the middle of the night, huh?” Roger asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Anything you want to say about that?”

  “No,” I told him with a smile. “I got my ass handed to me. I’ll admit it.”

  “You have the same test tonight,” Dohna said as she handed her daughter a bowl of porridge. “And every night that you’re in Dornod.”

  “Same guy?” I asked, remembering the man in the black mask.

  “It could vary. I have to keep you on your toes.”

  After breakfast, Dohna instructed me to follow her outside.