Hao and The Golden Phoenix

A Chinese boy frees a golden phoenix from a poachers trap and sets out to find her missing tail feather and to follow a mysterious sound from the mountains.

Hao and The Golden Phoenix

 

By Travis Archer

 

It was 1423 in the Ming dynasty, Beijing, Northern China. The entire land is surrounded by enormous green mountains, standing as tall and stiff like a soldier. The wide-open river streams stretched through the entire valley. A red-crowned crane soars and glides through the enormous river stream and glides through a group of the fishermen with their Asian conical hats and exotically colored rain coats, standing on their boats and paddles through the river as they make it to the shore. The red crowned crane flies towards the enormous Great Wall of China that stretches through the entire valley. As the crane glides through the great wall, the Chinese people release their beautifully colored kites into the air. The children run through wall with the fire-cracker-like sticks in their hands.

 

The crane flies past the wall and towards a valley where a bamboo of pandas stayed inside a wooden fence with the cozy little Chinese-style house right next to it. A 19-year-old Chinese kite artist with a prosthetic leg named Hao arrives into the house with his pet red panda named Bao. His grandfather, Huizhong, a short 83-year-old Chinese panda keeper with a white robe, white mustache and white beard, arrives into the house with his pet female giant panda named Ai, having tea with his grandson.

 

Suddenly, Hao hears a strange growling noise in the distance, stands up on his feet as he grabs his staff and walks towards the front door and towards the distant hills while standing outside the house. Huizhong and the others follow him. Afterwards, a bright golden blur shoots from the sky and crash lands into one of the distant grassy mountains.

 

Ai bends her body over to Hao and the young man climbs right onto the top of her back with. Hao opens his arms towards Bao and replies, “Come on Bao.” The red panda leaps into his arms and climbs towards his shoulder and Huizhong lends Hao his long staff.

 

“Be very careful, grandson.” Said Huizhong.

 

“Don’t worry grandpa, I’ll be back.” Ai makes a squeak and walks towards the edge of the hill until she leaps all the way down towards the edge of the hill and slides towards the bottom with her claws.

 

Hao rides over a bridge and towards the Jin city as the city folk are traveling on their horses, carriages pulled by donkeys, horses and oxen. Most of the men are carrying carriages with passengers inside. The people are wearing their colorful robes with various designs and patterns. There were market places where they sell such food as tofu, noodles, pork, beaf, chicken, and rice, as well as fine jewelry and statues of tigers, dragons, and phoenixes. The Chinese-architecture and buildings surround the entire city and are decorated with orange lanterns and are accompanied with lion statues made of marble.  The villagers are carrying lanterns, flags, weapons, dragon costumes, food carriages and wagons, fishing poles and nets, and sometimes their kites. Hao rides past all the people of the Jin city.

 

Suddenly, a small 9-year-old Chinese girl with a red robe and two small hair-buns on her head and puffy cheeks named Li walks towards Hao and looks up to him with a smile. She waves her hand to him and says with a cheerful tone of voice, “Hi!”

 

Hao responds, “Uh…hi.”

 

“What is your name?”

 

“Hao. Chong Hao.”

 

“Where do you come from?”

 

“I-I just came from the other side of tha-”

 

“Where did you get that giant panda?”

 

“Well my grandfather is the panda keeper and he-”

 

“How old are you? Are you married? Do you have kids? Where did you get that long staff? And why do you have a red panda on your shoulder?”

 

“Look, little girl, I can’t answer that many questions, I’m in the middle of something so if you don’t mind...”

 

“Mind what? Oh and how did you get that peg leg?” Li points to Hao’s prosthetic leg.

 

Ai stops walking to get Li’s attention, “Oh, this? Its just a long story.”

 

“I like long stories! Is it a good one?”

 

“Well its one that…you wouldn’t understand.”

 

“I could understand. Is it sad one?”

 

“Very sad. And depressing. Look I’d love to stay and chat but right now I have to run an errand of some kind so…go somewhere that’s safe, alright?”

 

“Okay,” Li walks towards the crowd until walks right back to Hao on his panda, “oh and one more thing.”

 

“YES?!” said Hao with an annoyed tone of voice.

 

“My name is Li. Okay bye!” Li runs towards the city and skips through the streets.

 

“Ha, kids. Am I right, Bao?” Bao makes a cooing sound and nods his head ‘yes’. “Alrighty bud, lets stay focus.”  Ai continues to walk and lumber through the imperial city until a couple of people in their dragon costume walks past them. “Must be the Chinese New Year.” The giant panda lumbers through the city and runs towards the other bridge in front of her. Hao and Bao rides over the bridge and heads directly towards the bamboo forest.

 

Hao and Bao rides through the large tropical bushes until they discover a gigantic female golden phoenix named Huang captured and hanging in a net on a tree trunk, struggling to open her wings. Hao opens his eyes and looks surprised at what he see. “A golden phoenix!” Hao whispered with awe, “How is this possible?”

 

Huang continues to struggle to open her wings until she opened her eyes and sees Hao beneath her. She looks down towards him and said, “Oh, hey, ha, didn’t see you there.”

 

Hao opens his eyes in realization, “And it talks!” Hao approaches towards the trapped phoenix, “Y-you needed any help?”

 

“No, no, I think I got it. I just gotta spread it a little more.” Huang tries to open her wings as she continues to break the rope off of her net until she becomes tired and out of breath. “Huh, that’s odd, I’ve never seen a couple of ropes this tight.”

 

“Whoever built this trap must know what they’re doing.”

 

 “I guess you couldn’t get me down from here, can’t you?”

 

“Hmm, I think I might have an idea. But your not gonna like it.” Hao climbs onto Ai’s back again and pats on her head, “Ai, climb.” Ai walks towards the tree and climbs up the tree towards the branch of which Huang is trapped to. Hao leaps from Ai’s and towards the tip of the net above Huang. While he holds on to the net, he brings out a dagger from his pocket.

 

Huang looks above her and looks petrified, “Your right, I don’t like it! I don’t like it at all!” Huang continues to move around rapidly and uncontrollably, causing Hao to be a bit dizzy and cautious as he look down below.

 

Hao responds, “whoah, whoah! Take it easy! I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m gonna get you out of here.”

 

“You sure?”

 

“Yeah, I just need to concentrate that’s all. Now, until you feel loose, don’t move.” Hao grabs the one of the ropes and begins to rub his dagger against the rope, trying to cut her free. Then continues to do the same thing with the other ropes while he hangs onto Huang while she still caught in the net.

 

“Oh, okay. Take your time, no hurry here.” Suddenly, a large south Chinese tiger leaps out of the bushes with a loud roaring sound and quickly approaches towards Huang in her net. “Oh, I take that back! Hurry!”

 

Hao continues to cut through the net with his dagger while he hangs on it, “Just a few more ropes! I gotta concentrate!” The tiger charges towards the trapped phoenix, leaps towards her and tries to catch her with its claws and teeth while Huang swings back and fourth while trapped in her rope.

 

Ai looks down at the large striped cat and leaps off the tree branch towards the tiger. The panda fights off the tiger with her teeth and claws while the tiger fights back. The two animals jumps and attacks each other vigorously and violently while Hao continues to cut the net open. “Almost there…” Suddenly, another south Chinese tiger pounces on the same tree branch of which Huang is hanging on and charges towards the net. Bao the red panda charges towards the tiger and bites its neck until it scrapes him off his neck and Bao falls off the branch until he grabs onto the net with his paws.

 

Hao continues to cut the ropes off the net until the giant tiger pounces him off the net and into the ground. The young man fights off the tiger with his staff as he constantly knocks the tiger away from his face and continues to swing his staff towards the large creature. The tiger pounces towards his chest, trying to bite and scratch him while Hao holds the tiger against his face with his staff.

 

Bao climbs up towards the upper part of the net above Huang and bites off the last piece of the rope, releasing the golden phoenix out of the net as she soars through the sky with her giant feathered golden wings and her long beautiful feathered tail. The feathers of her entire body begin to glow as bright as the sun and Huang zooms herself towards the tiger as she knocks it off of Hao’s chest. Huang zooms herself towards the other tiger that was attacking Ai and knocks the large striped cat off of her with her large and beautiful body.

 

Huang lands on the ground in front of Hao with her large gigantic wings flapping while the tiger approaches towards her, growling to her and baring its teeth at her. The large cat swipes its claws at her while baring its teeth. Huang opens her gigantic wings, leans her head forward towards the tiger and makes a loud shriek-like roar to it with her beak wide open. The phoenix knocks the tiger away with her large golden wing, pushing the tiger towards the tree.

 

Huang soars around the tigers as the two cats tries to reach her with their teeth and claws. The golden phoenix zooms towards one of the tigers and knocks it away with her talons. Huang continues to fight off the tiger with her beak, claws, wings, and tail while the tiger fights back. The second tiger pounces on her back and Huang soars the air in opposite directions with her wings wide opened, recklessly and uncontrollably, as the other tiger pounces and bites onto her talon as she struggles to get the tigers off of her. Huang’s body feathers continues to glow bright and she spins around the entire forest with Hao, Bao, and Ai looking up towards her as she spins rapidly until she turns into a spinning golden blur, hovering in the sky. After she stops spinning, she pushes the tigers up in the air until she grabs their tails with her talon and throws them towards the distance.

 

Huang lands onto a hilltop towards the cliff with her giant wings flapping. Afterwards, Huang opens her wings and makes a loud shriek-like roar with her beak wide open.

 

 Hao looks at her in awe and said, “Whoah! What was that?!”

 

Huang turns over to Hao and walks towards him and responds, “Oh that? That was just a defense mechanism. All phoenixes have it.”

 

“Well whatever that is… it’s amazing!”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“And I never knew phoenixes could glow either.”

 

“I-it’s a special power of mine.”

 

“Special power. So you’re a real… golden… phoenix.”

 

“Yup. That’s what I am, a golden phoenix, ha.”

 

“This…is…so much to take in!” Hao responds while he touches and rubs his head while looking overwhelmed and confused. The young man turns around and walks away from the confused Huang. “I need to sit down right now and think this through!” Hao sits on a large rock while he touches his head, still overwhelmed and confused as he rambles with himself, “How in the world could you possibly be real!”

 

The large magical bird approaches behind him and lifts up her giant golden wing behind him and replied, “Touch my wing.”

 

Hao turns his head on the left side and looks at the feathers on her wing, “Uh…are you sure?”

 

“Go on, try it.”

 

Hao touches the soft golden feathers of her left wing and whispers with awe, “So soft.”

 

“You can pick a feather out of my wing if you like.”

 

Hao plucks the feather off her wing and touches the length of it with his fingertips. “A real golden feather.”

 

“And that’s not all I can do! Watch this!” Huang raises her head and sneezes, causes her entire feathers to be on fire. Yet, the fire all over her body is golden colored and burns as bright as the morning sun. Hao, Bao, and Ai stares at the phoenix in awe, glaring at the golden flames, burning all over her massively feathered body. Afterwards, Huang blows out the fire by crossing her wings together, making the fires disappear into her feathered body.

 

“You can set your feathers ON FIRE?!!!!”

 

“And at will.”

 

“What else can you do?”

 

“I can do this.” Huang flies turns over to the other side of the forest, opens her giant wings and makes an incredibly loud shriek-like roar, causing a large sound wave from her roar to blow all of the trees, grass, bushes and water away and even causing Hao, Bao, and Ai to cover their ears. Afterwards, Hao walks towards Huang and stares at the damage from her loud shriek.

 

“And a super sonic shriek?!”

 

“Yup!”

 

“My gods! I must be talking to an all mighty powerful legend!”

 

“Well, I don’t consider myself a legend per-say. And I don’t think of myself as being mighty or powerful.”

 

“What?! Are you kidding me?! You’re a phoenix! You can fly, you can glow, you can turn yourself on fire, you do that super sonic shriek thing you do to blow away that part of the forest, hell, you can even do that-that spinning thing where you can turn yourself into a bright light in the sky! And wait…wait a second…”

 

“Uuh, wait for what exactly?”

 

“If all the legends of the golden phoenix are true…you can even heal my missing leg!” Hao reveals to her his prosthetic leg as he rolls up his pants-like robe. Huang stares at his peg leg with her eyes wide open.

 

“Oh, well,” Huang sighs, “hate to break it to you but that’s the one power I don’t have.”

 

“What? But I thought-…”

 

“I mean do have that kind of power but there’s only one tail feather that would grant me the power to heal.”

 

“One tail feather?”

 

Huang looks over to the other side and points to Hao towards her long golden tail with her wing. Huang continues, “See this tail? I have a dozen other tail feathers that represent each and every power I possess, from my super sonic shriek to turning my feathers into fire. But there is one next to the tip of my tail that is missing, a feather that can grant me the power to heal the sick and injured. And as you can see, it’s gone.”

 

“So where was the last place you found it?”

 

“I think it was sitting on a mountain of some sort until my tail got caught in a glacier and after I took off, the only thing that’s missing was that tail feather.”

 

“You mean…from there?” Hao points to the large snowy mountains in the distance.

 

“Yup, that’s the exact place where I left it.” Suddenly, Hao hears a loud growling sound coming from the distant mountains.

 

“That noise. The roaring sound… I don’t know what it is, but I-its calling me to those mountains.”

 

“You hear it, too?”

 

“Yeah…wait, how do you know what it sound like?”

 

“I’ve been hearing that sound since I left the mountain. Right before some jerk shot me down and caught me into his trap.”

 

“You’re hearing the noise… I’m hearing the noise too!” Hao and Huang walks towards the edge of the cliff, stares at the mountains, and listens to a loud growl-like roar from the distance.

 

Huang replies, “Whoever or whatever it is, it’s calling both of us to those mountains.”

 

“Or maybe it’s calling us… so that you can get that missing tail feather!”

 

“And that I can heal your leg!”

 

“Oh, this is fantastic! Wait till my grandfather here’s about this!”

 

“Your grandfather? You think he’ll trust me?”

 

“He’ll trust anybody! My grandfather is a very friendly guy, believe me.”

 

“Oh, ok…I suppose.”

 

“I’m Hao.” The young man brings out his hand towards Huang.

 

“Oh, ha, please to you, Hao. I’m Huang.” The Phoenix brings out her talon and shakes his hand with it.

 

“Am I shaking my hand with your foot?”

 

“Oh sorry!” Huang brings up her talon and brushes to the dust off of it with her wing. “I just have no idea where it’s been.”

 

“Where has it been?”

 

“Trust me on this, the less you know, the better. Anyway, lets start over, I’m Huang!” The giant bird lends her large gigantic wing to Hao.

 

“Hao, again.” Hao shakes his hand with her large feathers. “My god your feathers are so soft.”

 

“I know, and it’s beautiful to look at.”

 

“Yeah”, Hao looks closely into her large beautiful blue eyes. “You know, you…look…so familiar to me. Almost like I met you before.”

 

“Oh, that, ha-ha, I think you must be talking about a different bird, or phoenix. That is if you met one before.”

 

“I don’t think I have. And the sound of your voice is familiar too.”

 

“Oh, this? It’s just how I normally sound. Why? Do I remind you of somebody?”

 

“Well, yeah. You remind me of someone who I really love a lot.” Hao and Huang sits by the river on a large rock while Hao holds her staff. “Someone I had a close connection with. Someone whose smile always warms my spirit and that same someone who…died trying to look for me when I ran away from home.” Huang looks devastated with her eyes watering.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. Um, what happened to that someone?”

 

“It was a storm… she was swept away trying to find me… she got lost in the woods…and by the time the storm cleared the next day…” Hao closes his eyes as he leans on his staff with tears rolling from his eyelids. “Well, that’s when everyone knew that she was gone. And I never saw her again.” Huang wraps her wing around his shoulder, giving him a large hug with her wing and she nudges her beak towards his nose.

 

“Don’t worry, Hao, I’m sure that you will always see her, in your memories.”

 

“Thank you, Huang.” Hao and Huang looks at each other with a loving smile. Suddenly, they turn to the other side and see the bushes brushing recklessly and uncontrollably. “Someone’s coming.” Hao leaps into the ground and sticks out his staff towards the bushes with a fierce look on his face, posing as if he’s ready to attack.

 

 Huang leaps behind Hao with her giant golden wings opened while she sheathes her claws on her talon and makes a fierce look on her face with her eyebrows meeting in the middle. Ai the giant panda stands next to Hao as she growls with her teeth showing. Bao the red panda stands next to Hao on the opposite side and bares his teeth at the bushes in front of them.

 

The bushes brushes at each other harder and harder until Li runs through the bushes with a bag strapped around her chest and wave her hand towards Hao, “Hi!”

 

Hao, Huang and the others look surprised in an awkward manor as Li walks towards them. Hao raised his eyebrow and said, “Li? Wha-what are you doing here?”

 

“Well, I got bored and lonely and I saw you going to the woods on your panda friend, and I figured…why not!” Li looks at Huang in awe with her eyes opened, “Wow! Is that a golden phoenix?!”

 

Huang opens her large wings and responds, “In the feathers, ha.”

 

“Wow! And she talks too!”

 

Huang lends her wing towards Li and said with a smile, “You can touch my wing if you like.” The little girl touches her soft golden wing with her hands.

 

“Your feathers are so soft! I love them!” Li playfully drops herself on her wing and rolls her body over while she giggles playfully.

 

Hao grabs her hand, takes her away from Huang, and responds, “Li, your not supposed to be here! It’s too dangerous for you to be in the bamboo forest!”

 

“I can handle myself in the forest,” Li justifies, “besides, I have my very own dagger!” Li brings out a dagger from her bag and shows them her dagger as they both react very nervously.

 

Huang leans over to Hao and whispers, “How does a child know how to use knives like that?”

 

Hao answered, “I have no idea.”

 

“Trust me,” said Li as she puts her dagger in her bag, “when you guys go on your big adventure, you’ll be thanking me!”

 

“I think she wants to go with us to the mountains,” Huang added.

 

“Look, Li, I gotta take you back to village and take you home,” Hao declares to Li, “Now where are your parents?”

 

Li starts to look devastated and answered, “Actually, I don’t have any parents.”

 

“Wait what! You-you mean your-”

 

“Yup. I’m an orphan.”

 

“Oh.” Hao starts to look devastated as he kneels on his knee towards the little girl. “I’m so sorry. How long ago was this?”

 

“Three years ago. The Huns killed my family. And I’m all its left.”

 

“Yeah, I know how that feels. Do you have any place to go?”

 

“No, it’s just me by myself.” Li begins to smile with realization, “Hey! I got a great idea! How’s about I stay with you guys!”

 

“US?!”

 

“Yeah! Why not? You guys seem to be a lot of fun! You especially, golden phoenix bird.”

 

“Oh, stop!” said Huang, blushing with her cheeks turning red. “I’m only a magic bird! The names Huang!”

 

“I’m Li.”

 

“That giant panda is Ai,” Hao added, “And the red panda’s name is Bao.” Ai comes towards Li and nudges her snout towards her, lovingly and the little girl hugs the panda on her large bulky neck. Bao leaps towards her shoulder and nudges on her cheek lovingly with his tail moving around her face and hair.

 

“They both like me!” Suddenly, they all hear the mysterious roaring sound from the northern snowy mountains from the distance.

 

“There it goes again!”

 

“I swear I feel like it’s calling us to those mountains,” Huang commented.

 

Li puts her hand up to her ear and said, “I hear it too.”

 

“WAIT, REALLY?” Hao and Huang asked at the same time.

 

“No, not really, I don’t hear anything.”

 

Suddenly, they hear loud rumbles of thunder as a giant storm cloud comes in and starts to rain, “Oh no!” Hao laments, “It’s raining!”

 

Hao, Huang, Li and the others walk through the rain in the bamboo forest. While walking, Huang covers Hao and Li’s head with her giant wing and Ai, the giant panda, walks along with them through the rain. “You think we can reach to the mountains in the rain?” Li asked.

 

“Barely,” Huang answered, “Now we just needed a place to stay dry until the rain stops.”

 

“Well that’s gonna take a long time.”

 

Hao looks to his left, points his finger to the other side and said, “Hey look, there’s a cave!”

 

“Oh cool!”

 

“I’ll say.” Huang remarked, “Cause this is too much for a bird bath.” So Hao, Li, Huang, and Ai walks directly towards the deep dark cave until a mango drops out of Li’s strap bag and rolls towards the bamboo forest, causing Bao to leap from Hao’s shoulder and chases the mango through the forest.

 

“Oh no! My mango!” Li alarmed as she chases Bao in the rain.

 

“What the…” Hao exclaimed as he sees Li and Bao running towards the forest, “LI! BAO! Get back here!” Hao quickly turns to Huang, “Huang, you stay here in this cave until we get back.” The young man runs towards the little girl and the red panda towards the forest and Ai follows him through the rain.

 

While Hao chases Li and Bao through the thick bamboo forest in the rain, the boy leaps onto Ai’s back and rides towards the girl and the red panda. Bao chases the mango on his four legs until he catches the fruit and Li catches the red panda with her hands once she leaps towards him. The little Chinese girl turns around and sees Hao riding towards Li on his panda. She says to Hao, “I got your red panda!”

 

“Great! Now lets bring him back into the cave before we get soak and wet!” Suddenly, a group of angry Mongolian bandits called the Huns, lead by the notorious Hun, Yow, riding through the forest on their horses while carrying their weapons such as swords, bows, and arrows. Yow and the notorious bandits charges towards Hao and the others as they ride closer and closer towards them. “Uh-oh! We gotta run!” The young man pats on Ai’s forehead.

 

Hao and Li takes off on Ai, the panda rushes and runs through the forest on her four legs while the Huns chases after them.

 

One of the Huns leaps towards Hao with his sword in the air and Hao knocks him over with his staff.  Another member of the Huns leaps towards Ai with two swords in his hand and Li punches and knocks him hard into the ground with her fist. Hao turns around and asked, “Wow! Did you know you could do that?”

 

“Maybe.” Li answered. The huns bring out their arrows and shoots Hao, Li, and his pets while riding on their horses. The Huns continues to chase Hao through the bamboo forest. The panda runs up to the highest hill of the valley while the Huns are chasing them. While riding on Ai, Hao reaches into his pocket and found a bag filled with marbles.

 

“Hey Li, watch this!” Hao turns around behind him and throws the marbles towards the ground, causing Yow and the horseback riding Huns to slide through the marbles as they continue to spin and slide and slip through the marbles uncontrollably until Ai leaps to the other side, causing all of the Huns to fall 100,000 feet off the edge of the cliff and fall directly into the water.

 

Hao and Li looks down towards the water and are amazed by what they see, smiling with surprise. Li exclaims, “Wow! That was totally awesome!” Hao and Li high fives each other with their hands as the giant panda lumbers towards the bottom of the hill on her four legs. “How do you know it could work?”

 

“Simple really, a couple of marbles, plus horse hooves, equals sliding, slipping, and falling.” Hao and Li laughs with relief until another mango drops from her strap bag, causing Bao to leap off of Ai’s back and run towards it.

 

“Oh no! Bao, get back here!” Li yelled.

 

“Not again!” Hao laments with a sigh. The young man taps on Ai’s forehead, “Ai, go forward.” The giant panda runs towards the red panda on her four legs and runs through the bamboo forest, chasing towards Bao and the rolling mango through the heavy rain.

 

When they finally reach to the topside of the slope, Bao catches the fruit with his claws and teeth. Li jumps from Ai and catches Bao in her arms. She stands on her feet, raises the Bao in the air while turning to Hao and Ai and cried, “Got him!”

 

Suddenly, a tall, skinny, yet muscular looking grouchy Chinese man named Aiguo slam opens the door wide open and walks towards the porch of his house and calls Hao and Li’s attention. Aiguo exclaims, “HEY! WHAT ARE BOTH OF YOU DOING IN THE RAIN?!!”

 

Hao turns around, notices the grouchy old man at the front porch of his house and answered. “Oh, uh, sorry to bother you, good sir, my pet red panda was just chasing a mango through the forest.”

 

Li raises Bao in the air and exclaimed, “AND I GOT HIM!”

 

The thunder continues to rumble in the sky as the rain continues to fall harder and harder as Hao, Li, Bao, and Ai continues to get soaked and wet. Aiguo scuffs with disgust and responds, “Come inside! Both of you! Its not safe for you to be out in the rain like this.” Hao holds Li by the hand and the two of them rushes towards the front porch of Aiguo’s house while docking their heads down. Ai follows them towards the front porch. As soon as Hao and Li make their way through the front door, Aiguo puts his hand up in front of the giant panda. “Ah-ah-ah, not you! No giant animals inside the house!” Ai makes a loud moaning sound in response. Aiguo points his finger to her and shouted angrily, “Stay!” Ai sits on her rear with her two paws in front like a dog and looks at Aiguo with an irritated yet disappointed look on her face with her stiff upper lip while soaking in the rain.

 

Hao looks back at her and whispers with his hand on the side of his mouth, “Sorry.”

 

Aiguo walks towards the front door and closes it as Hao and Li enters inside the house while walking through the living room. “You three must be soak and wet, I can tell.”

 

Hao and Li follows Aiguo into the dining room with a long table in front of them, paintings, carvings, and statues of golden phoenixes, a sword that is placed on the left side of the wall, and a large wardrobe in at the end of the wall in front of the other side of the table. “Uuh, thank you, very much, for your… hospitality, good sir.” Hao looks around the room and responds, “nice place you got here.”

 

“Sit!” Hao and Li kneels on their knees towards the table. Bao leaps out of the bag and lands on Hao’s shoulder. Aiguo kneels on his knees across on the side of the table across from Hao. The grouchy old man passes a bowl of dumplings towards Hao with two chopsticks on it. “Here are some dumplings for you, in case you get hungry.” Bao leaps towards the table, takes one of the dumplings and is about to put one in his mouth until he looks at Aiguo’s grouchy and irritated face. The man stares angrily at Bao and replied, “I meant, For the BOY!” Bao puts the dumpling back into the bowl with his tail and leaps right back onto Hao’s shoulder. Aiguo passes a bowl of noddle soup towards Li with a two chopsticks inside.

 

“Oooh, noddle soup,” Li exclaimed with a smile, “My favorite!” Li takes the bowl of noodle soup and continues to eat all of them. Hao takes the dumplings with his chopsticks and eats them one by one while also staring nervously at Aiguo.

 

The grouchy old man stares at him with a sour grouchy yet irritating look on his face and responds, “I see that you came a very long way to get here.”

 

“Yeah-yeah, very far, ha-ha.” Hao answered.

 

“I see.” Aiguo picks up his own chopsticks on his side of the table and eats his own bowl of dumplings. “Might I ask, young man…do you, have any idea who I am?”

 

“Uuuuh, no, not really, no.”

 

“Well I know that you make the best noodle soup!” Li added and continues to eat the noodle soup from the bowl.

 

Aiguo continues to stare at Hao from across the dinner table and continues, “Does the name, ‘Aiguo’ ring a bell?”

 

“Wait…you’re Aiguo?” Hao asked. The grouchy old man nods his head while glaring at him irritatingly. Hao opens his eyes in realization, “Hey, I’ve heard of you! You’re the guy who got fired from the palace. People said that you went crazy or something.”

 

“That’s what they all say about me! Everyone in both the palace and the town kept calling me a lunatic! A crazy old man! A living, breathing definition of the word, insanity!”

 

“Well…you…don’t seem that crazy to me.”

 

“That’s because I haven’t even told you about the legendary beast that I saw and have been obsessed with…for YEARS!!!”

 

“Wow, that long, huh.”

 

“I used to work all day, all night at the palace!” Aiguo stands out of the floor and walks towards the left side of the wall where his sword is placed, “Serving the emperor with every single shred of my loyalty, my honor, my dignity! I used be the royal adviser for the emperor and his favorite…until I was replaced!” Aiguo grabs the sword by the handle and draws it out of the cover. “Cast aside by my own ruler for a fool of which everyone liked! Everyone worshipped! Everyone praised! And yet, they had the NERVE, THE ARROGANCE, THE ORDASSITY TO LAY ME OFF AND DISMISS ME, ALL BECAUSE OF MY MENTAL HEALTH!!!” Aiguo stabs the table with the blade of his sword.

 

Hao is now startled by his words and the way used his sword once he, Bao and Li got his full attention. Hao responds with hesitation, “Oh, I’m… sorry that happened to you.” 

 

Aiguo takes the sword off the table and swings his sword around while he moves angrily with his hand gestures, “I USED TO BE THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE ENTIRE KINGDOM!! LET ALONE, THE BIGGEST LAUGHING STOCK IN ALL OF CHINA!! EVERYONE KEPT LAUGHING AT MY FACE! POINTED FINGERS AT ME! CALLING ME EVERY SINGLE NAME I NEVER WANT TO HEAR!” Aiguo swipes a vase towards the ground with his sword and turns his body around. “And if things aren’t bad enough,” Aiguo’s eyes begin to water, “my own niece, the only family I ever had left, the one person who with lived me the longest in my house hold, ran away from home, searching for that one peg legged fool who she loved so much.” Aiguo hunches his body towards a dresser while facing towards the other side of the room. “It was a terrible storm! I did everything in my power to look for her through the forest. And it was too late.” Aiguo puts his hand and sobs quietly with his hands covering his eyelids. Hao, Li, and Bao look at him in sadness and with tears in their eyes. “Do you have any idea what its like to loose a love one? DO YOU?!”

 

Hao nods his head and answered, “Y-yes, sir, I do. My father killed my own mother during an argument. I retaliated and then he cuts off my leg with his own sword. So I took my horse and rode away from home during that same storm and then my father committed suicide the day after. And I also lost my girlfriend, Mei, in that same storm. So, yeah, you’re not only one who’s grieving.”

 

“I also lost my family to the Huns,” Li added.

 

Hao looks up and sees a beautiful portrait of his girlfriend, Mei, as a 10-year-old girl with her name on it, which made him shocked and surprised. Aiguo lowers his hand, opens his eyes in realization, and says dramatically, “MEI! That was the name of my niece! That was the one little girl I’ve lost all those years ago! That was THEE person who I’ve been grieving for all those decades!”

 

“Oh, I…I didn’t know that.” Hao commented, nervously. “You almost look like her.”

 

Aiguo slowly raises his upper body, slowly turns his body towards Hao with a surprised yet angry expression on his face and responds, “So you’re the peg legged fool who took my niece away from me!”

 

“I-I didn’t take your niece away from you, she just-

 

“She was talking so much about you! Everyday she talked to me about how great you are, how loyal you are, how she wanted to marry you! And I told her, ‘NO NIECE OF MINE IS GOING TO MARRY A TOTAL COMPLETE STRANGER IN MY OWN HOUSE!’ I FORBID HER FROM TALKING TO ANY YOUNG MAN EVER AGAIN! And just when I was sleeping that night, she ran away from this house, to find you!” Aiguo points his sword towards Hao across the dinner table, making Hao nervous and petrified. “And only you!” Hao looks nervous and swallowed his dumpling. “In her mind, She had it absolutely right; making it her mission to spend all of her days with you so that you can put a ring on her finger and call her ‘your wife’.”

 

“But, she did all of that out of love.”

 

“And look where that got her!” Hao continues to look nervous with his eyes staring at him in awe struck. “So, would you like to know what I’ve been doing all those days?”

 

“Ooh are you gonna show us your wardrobe?” Li asked curiously.

 

Aiguo walks towards the doors and puts his hands on the handle. “This is isn’t just any ordinary wardrobe.” Aiguo opens the wardrobe and reveals all the weapons, all the gadgets, all the catapults, nets, knives, giant sacks, crossbows, arrows, swords, ropes, bear-traps, and chains that are stored inside the wardrobe in a very organized fashion, with a painted picture of the golden phoenix in the center of it. As the loud thunder rumbles, Hao begins to look shell-shocked and petrified with his eyes wide opened as did Bao as the red panda drops the dumpling from his mouth, revealing his jaw dropping expression.

 

Li stares at all the weapons and traps inside the wardrobe and uttered, “Whoah!”

 

Aiguo turns over towards the dinner table and kneels on his knees again. “Now lets get to the point.” Said Aiguo as he clears his throat, “I am the golden phoenix hunter! I’ve spent every waking moment tracking down that bird until you freed her!”

 

Hao stutters with fear, “wha-wha, me? Oh, no-no-N-no, that wasn’t me, y-you must be talking about a different person. T-that could be anyone of any age who would free a giant, golden, magical bird!” Hao looks at Aiguo with a nervous smile.

 

“But I saw you with her for the first time.” Said Li.

 

Hao responds while cleansing his teeth while looking at Aiguo, “That wasn’t me who freed her.”

 

“You know, Hao,” Aiguo responds as he stands up from the floor with the sword in his hand and walks towards him across the table, “There are people who say I’m crazy, Calling me names, Never believing a word I said, and there are people…WHO LIE…TO MY FACE…IN MY OWN HOUSE!!!” Aiguo bangs on the table as he walks towards his face. “And you are one of them!”

 

“Uh, excuse me,” Li added, “Is it one of the people who lie or one of the people who don’t believe you because I’m pretty sure that-

 

“We believe you,” said Hao, nervously, “yes-yes, we believe you. We believe everything you say, ha-ha. Yes, the phoenix is definitely real and the person who freed him must be stopped! And believe me, I am definitely not that person! I would never free anything from someone this wise and sweet and non-hostile nor intimidating. Not that you are intimidating, you look great! Did you do something with your beard or something?” Aiguo continues to stare at him with an angry expression on his face and makes a loud groaning noise with his lips shut. Hao makes a very awkward-looking smile on his face and looks over to the window, “Oh, would you look at the storm, its time for us to go!” Hao grabs Li by the arm, “Come on Li, let’s get a move on, ha-ha.” The two of them walks backwards towards the door.

 

“And just where do you think you are going?” Aiguo asked angrily as he slowly walks toward them with a sword in his hand.

 

“Oh, um, well, we couldn’t stay, cause there’s a hurricane outside, a big one, m-my house is near by and we really need to get there.”

 

“But Hao,” said Li, “Its only just rain outside.”

 

Hao responds to Li while cleansing his teeth, “You may say that now but its gonna get worse later.”

 

Aiguo points his sword towards Hao and exclaimed, “That’s what they all say when they come directly into my house! ‘Oh I can’t stay because there’s a wedding I need to go to!’ ‘Oh I can’t stay because there’s a festival I need to attend!’ ‘Oh I can’t stay because THERE’S A HURRICANE OUTSIDE!!!’ AND WHAT DID THEY SAY ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK?! ‘THIS MAN IS CRAZY!’ ‘HE’S A LUNATIC!’ ‘A REAL NUTJOB!’”

 

“Well I never thought of you as a nut-job, I just thought of you as a-

 

“’POOR…WORTHLESS…FENGZI!!’ But all of that’s about to change!” Aiguo turns to the golden phoenix painting on the wardrobe, “Once I have that bird in my clutches, I’ll have a very special place in the empire and my name will be cleared, and they will have to believe m-…” Aiguo turns his body around and noticed that Hao, Bao and Li disappeared from the living room. The old man walks towards the front door, opens it and sees Hao, Bao, and Li riding on Ai, the giant panda, through the bamboo forest in the rain. The panda flees away from the house and runs further and further into the rain. Aiguo looks angry as he walks out of the front door, points out his sword and yells, “YOU WILL NEVER HOLD ON TO THAT PHOENIX, YOU HEAR ME?! I AM COMING FOR THAT BIRD!!”

 

Lightning and thunder clashes in the sky as Ai runs through the forest and directly towards the cave. The giant panda makes her way inside the cave, allowing Hao, Bao and Li to leap off of her back. Ai shakes her body to get the water off her fur, as did Bao once he leaps to the ground. While walking through the dark cave, Hao calls out her name, “Huang! Huang, where are you?” Hao continues to walk through the cave until he bumps into Huang while she sleeps on the ground, causing her to raise her upper body and yawn with her beak.

 

The golden phoenix looks at him and says, “Oh, your back! What took you guys so long?” Huang raises her body off the ground and stands on her two legs.

 

“Huang, change of plans, we have fly out of here and get to the snowy mountains, now!”

 

“Wha-…right now? In the rain? Why?”

 

“We just met the guy who trapped you!” Li added.

 

“And I don’t know how,” Hao pondered, “But he knows about me freeing you and he…was…furious!”

 

“What?” Li turns towards Hao, “but why didn’t you tell him the truth?”

 

“Li, let me define…’PHOENIX HUNTER!’”

 

“Oohhh, makes sense.”

 

Hao turns towards Huang and continues, “His name was Aiguo! He’s more berserk than ever! He was the craziest most deluded man I’ve ever met! And by the way he’s been talking, Huang, you’re number one on his poaching list!”

 

 “Wait, Aiguo?!” The phoenix asked, “He’s the one who trapped me?!”

 

“And he’s very determined about it.”

 

“You should have seen his wardrobe,” Li replied, “He got gadgets, weapons, knives, arrows, trapping nets, all organized or something. It was so weird!”

 

“I’ve never seen anything like it. And worse of all, he’s blaming us for harboring you!”

 

“Well you did free her from his trap.”

 

“Ya think?”

 

“Well I don’t want to be trapped in that sack again!” Huang exclaimed. “I don’t want to smell my own fart!”

 

“Well then we better get out of here now because he’s coming for YOU!”

 

“Guys,” Li replied, getting their attention, as she looked outside, “It stopped raining.” Hao, Huang, Bao and Ai looks towards the exit of the cave in awe as the sun shines through the bamboo forest.

 

Hao smiles, “This is perfect! Now all we have to do is-

 

Suddenly, they hear the sweet soft hollow whistle tone of a Chinese flute in the distance. As soon as they walk out of the cave, Hao and the others walk towards and the other side of the cave and see Huizhong playing his Dizi by the lake.

 

Hao walks towards his grandfather and said, “Grampa?”

 

Huizhong stops playing his flute and turns towards Hao and replies with a smile, “Oh hello grandson.” Huizhong gives Hao a hug, “So good to see you here.”

 

“What are you doing here in the bamboo forest?”

 

“Hao, you know that I always come here to play music before I tend to my pandas. It always motivates me to do my work.”

 

“Hmm, true.”

 

Huizhong looks towards Li walking towards them, “And I see you made some new friends.”

 

Li waves her hand and says, “Hi! I’m Li!”

 

“Well its nice to meet you, young lady, I’m Huizhong.” Li runs towards Huizhong and gives him a big hug. “Oooh, quite the hugger this one.” Huang walks towards him, causing the old man to gasp with surprise, “Hao, is that-

 

“Yup,” Hao answered, “she’s the golden phoenix. Her name is Huang. And yes, she can talk.”

 

“I must say, you look absolutely-

 

“Beautiful?” Huang added, “Glamorous? Awe-inspiring?”

 

“Humongous!”

 

“Alrighty, I wasn’t expecting that.”

 

Huizhong walks around the giant bird’s body, exploring her different features, “I never knew phoenixes could grow up to this size.”

 

 “Well, you could say it’s a bit of a growth spurt.”

 

“Why exactly are you here, divine golden phoenix?”

 

“Beats me, old man. One minute I was flying through the air, trying to find my missing tail feather, the next minute some idiot shot me down and then I fell into his trap!” Huang points to Hao with her giant wing, “Until this guy came in and save me.”

 

“How right you are to do so, grandson.”

 

“Thanks gramps.” Hao responds.

 

“Now Huang, where was the last place of which you found such a thing?”

 

“I would say from the snowy mountains in the far distance,” Huang answered.

 

“You mean the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“That must be a very, very long way to get there. “

 

“I’ll say,” Hao remarked, “Oh and…are you familiar with a man named…Aiguo?”

 

“The crazy old bird hunter? I’ve heard a great deal about him.”

 

“He was the exact idiot who shot her down.”

 

“But he did invited us into his home.” Li added.

 

“The fact that both of you have made an encounter with Aiguo is gravely serious.” Huizhong replied.

 

“Your telling me,” Hao said, “He’s planning something and whatever it is, it must be bad! That’s why we have to go directly towards the snowy mountains, find the missing tail feather and find the source of that roaring sound that’s calling both of us.”

 

“Wait, you hear the noise, too, Huang?”

 

“Yeah, I know right?” Huang smirked, “Its hard to believe that both of us are linked to its call.”

 

“Well it sounds to me that this expedition is very important. Although, I must warn you about a few things before we get there.”

 

“Like?”

 

“Snow leopards, avalanches, enormous glaciers and icicles and according to legend, there’s only one pond that you must never ever drink from…the black pond! Legend has it that whoever drinks from the black pond shall transform into a colossal and wild beast that would soon destroy everything and everyone in its path!”

 

Hao, Huang, and Li are now stunned by his words until the phoenix responds, “Okay, then I’ll try to stay away from those. Even if my mouth is gonna be as dry as the desert. And gassy too.”

 

“Eww.” Li commented in disgust.

 

“Welp, no time like the present!” Hao replies as he mounts on the phoenix’s back. “Next stop, The Jade Dragon Snow Mountains.” Huang spreads her wings and takes off through the forest and into the grassy valley. Huizhong and Li mounts on Ai’s back and the panda follows the phoenix through the forest as they make their way through the tall grass and bushes of both the forest and the valley.

 

Meanwhile on the mountain, Aiguo looks through his telescope while mounting on his horse and sees Hao flying on Huang and Ai follows her. The grouchy old man lowers his telescope and makes a sour yet sinister look on his face and growls, “I knew it!” Suddenly, he sees Yow and his band of Huns emerges out of the water with their horses down the mountain, all of them coughed water out of their mouths.

 

“I always wanted a drink from water,” said one of the Huns, “but this is ridiculous!”

 

“Oh great!” said the second Hun, “Now my pants are all wet!”

 

“I’ll tell you one thing,” said Yow, “That Hao is gonna pay! He… will… PAY!” All the Huns mounts on their horses as they make their way out of the lake. “If we ever see that boy again, we know what to do. Come on!” The Huns rides through the grassy meadow until they hear Aiguo’s voice in the distance.

 

“Oh, gentlemen.” Aiguo replied as the Huns turns to the right side and see him riding down the mountain on his horse. “Perhaps I can be of help.” The old man rides towards the bandits.

 

One of the Huns points his finger towards him and said, “Hey, its that crazy old man from the palace! We haven’t seen him since we invaded the Jin city five years ago!”

 

“What does he want now?” said the second Hun.

 

“Probably raving about some stupid magic bird again.” Said the third Hun.

 

Yow rides towards Aiguo and said with an aggressive tone of voice, “for the last time, Aiguo, there is no such thing as a PHEONIX!! NEVER HAS, AND NEVER WILL!”

 

Aiguo responds, “What if I will give you,” the old man reaches in his pocket, “This!” Aiguo brings out a large bag full of coins and puts it into his hand, causing all the other Huns to look at with surprise. “And funny enough, that’s not even the best part, but eh, I guess you wouldn’t be interested. Oh well, such as life, enjoy your little raid.” Aiguo turns around and rides away from the Huns.

 

“What is the best part?”

 

“It comes with revenge on Chung Hao!”

 

The Huns makes an evil sinister smile and looks at each other in agreement. Yow smirks along with them and replied, “I’m listening.”

 

Meanwhile at the grassy green valley of Beijing, Hao continues to ride on Huang through the field while Ai follows them through the wide-open grassy glade, traveling through the exotic colorful flowers by the enormous lake.  The phoenix turns towards Hao and says, “Hey Hao, wanna see how fast I can go?”

 

“Fast?” Hao asked.

 

“Hold on tight!” Huang zooms through the enormous flowerbed with her enormous wings opened and Ai runs through the valley and into the flowerbed, following her. Huang spins herself through the atmosphere and dives towards the enormous slope of the hill.

 

The giant bird glides through the humongous Great Wall of China and continues to flap her wings. Huang continues to zoom through the enormously stoned architecture as she glides up and down through the long wall until she soars towards the other side the Great Wall and glides over a stampede of wild Pzawalski’s horses, galloping through the grassy field.

 

The giant bird spins her rapidly as she makes her way towards the clouds. Huang soars through the sky and glides over the clouds, Hao smiles with amazement as he sees all the clouds around him.

 

Ai, the panda, leaps off the cliff of the mountain and Huang catches the panda in her talons and continues to fly all over the valley of China. The massive bird carries Ai through the enormous lake and Huizhong and Li looks down towards the lake and smiles with amazement. The people on their boats release their giant massive kites of each and every animal of the Chinese zodiac and also phoenix kites as well. Huang soars through all the kites with her massive wings opening and glides towards the snowy mountains in the distance. Hao looks amazed at what he sees and smiles, “Mei, you really got to see this!”

 

Five days later, Huang soars further and further towards a steep mountain in Lijiang. On the peek of the mountain, Huang flaps her wings, lands safely on the ground, and hops off of Ai’s back. “Alrighty,” said Hao as he steps off of the phoenix’s back, “We’ll stop right here.”

 

“Well thank the gods for that!” Huizhong replied as he steps off of Ai’s back.

 

“That was…AMAZIIING!!!” Li exclaimed with her arms up until she slides and drops herself off of Li until she stands up and hops on the ground with excitement, “fly me again-fly me again!”

 

“Sorry Li,” Huang responds, “But I do have to rest my wings a little bit.”

 

“Awwww.”

 

Huizhong touches Li on her shoulder and asked, “Would like to have some dumplings with me, child?”

 

“Yayy!!! Dumplings!!”

 

“Now be careful young one, some these are very hot.” Huizhong brings out his strap bag and shares his dumplings to Li, “Dinner is served!”

 

Huizhong and Li eat the dumplings while resting on Ai’s left side and Huang walks towards Hao. The young man sits by the edge of the cliff with Bao, the red panda on his lap. The phoenix approaches to him and said, “Mind if I join you?”

 

Hao turns his head and responds, “Oh, not at all.” Huang perches next to him and the two of them looks towards the Snow Mountains from the nearby distance. “You know, those mountains look more and more closer than I ever thought.”

 

“Yeah. It’s a…shame your girlfriend had to miss this.”

 

“Yeah, she always loves to have big adventures, just like this.” Hao and Huang stares at the sun going down and the sky becoming darker and darker, revealing the bright stars in the sky and the full moon that lights the night sky. The roaring noise continues to call to them as they stare at the nearby mountains ahead of them.

 

“Okay, is it me, or is that growling noise getting louder.”

 

“I know right. But just think.” Hao stands up from the edge and Bao leaps off of his lap. “Once we get that tail feather, and that you heal my leg, I’ll never have to walk with my staff again!” Hao sits on a rock with his hands on the back of his head as he leans on a giant wall-like rock. “Gonna make people see me alittle different. Once you heal my leg, its goodbye Hao the peg legged, hello Hao the two legged!”

 

“Well that’s good to hear! And maybe, if I have that tail feather, I could have the power to heal everybody!”

 

“That’s the spirit!” Hao exclaimed with encouragement as they high five each other. The young man tries to turn the nail on his prosthetic leg until Bao gives him a wrench and Hao pats him on the head. “Thank you, Bao.” Hao turns the nail with a wrench.

 

Huang begins to look concerned and spoke, “So, uh…how did that happen anyway?”

 

Hao looks at Huang with a serious look, then he looks down at his peg leg and answered, “What good is having a father who did THIS to you, and let you suffer for it.”

 

“What happened?”

 

Hao stands on his two legs, takes a rock from the mountain and throws it towards the lake, “It all started when I was 10 years old. I ran downstairs and saw my parents fighting each other, physically and verbally. My dad picked up his own sword, stabbed my mom in the chest, and then I retaliated with a dagger and once we fought, well…that’s how I lost my leg.” Huang opens her eyes and gasps while covers her beak in shock, “Then I limped off into my stables, took off on my horse and ran away from home. The following day, he committed suicide. As for me, I live with my grandfather and I’ve been living with him ever since.”

 

Huang’s eyes begin to water and responds, “That’s…that’s horrible! Why would he do such a thing?!”

 

“He is the way he is. Lets just leave it at that.” Hao looks towards the mountains in the distance, “But once you find that feather to heal my leg, it’ll all be worth it.” The young man sits on the edge again while staring at the mountains. Huang perches next to him and puts her large wing around his shoulder, causing her feathers to glow bright gold. “Wow, you’re like a walking living warm blanket.”

 

“Thank you, Hao. And you know what, whatever we find in those mountains, it’ll be worth it for the both of us.”

 

Hao smiles at Li while resting on her feathers, “definitely.” The young man closes his eyes on sleeps on her glowing golden feathers. Huang rests her head on Hao’s hair and Bao leaps and rests on Hao’s lap by the edge of the cliff of the mountain.

 

Meanwhile at the Lugu Lake in Lijiang, the Huns make camp near their boats by the shore and sits with each other around the campfire, eating their rations and talking to each other indistinctively. Yow walks towards the peek of the hill where Aiguo looks towards the other steep mountain through his telescope. The leader of the Huns catches up to him and growls, “Aiguo, we’ve been searching all over China for 5 days! Never ONCE did we ever catch up to that boy or the bird!”

 

“Ssh! Trust me, my barbaric friend.” Said Aiguo, calmly, “Hao and the golden phoenix are out there, I know it.”

 

“Well, as crazy and deluded as you are, finding the boy and making him pay for what he did is one thing, but to scour all over China looking for a bird that can only exist in legends is far too impossible. You know what they say; if it doesn’t exist, don’t take the risk.”

 

“Nonsense! We are going to continue our search for that bird, starting in those mountains!” Aiguo walks towards the edge and said with a sinister tone of voice, “A worthy survived.” The old man continues to look through his telescope.

 

“Why are you so obsessed with being right all the time? Even when it could mean…your life?”

 

“Because I…” Aiguo reaches into his pocket and brings out a golden feather and shows towards Yow, “Have the golden feather.” Yow looks surprised at what he sees. “Hao left this from his pocket the moment he escaped.”

 

Yow takes the feather, “You sure this is real?”

 

“As real as the blood that you shed.”

 

Yow turns over to his fellow Huns and exclaimed, “Everyone! Gather your weapons, we’re going on a phoenix hunt!” Aiguo, Yow, and the huns rides on their horses and leaps towards the bottom of the slope of the mountain, riding through the wide-open field. The other group of Huns sails through the lake on their boats as they assemble more Huns from all sides of the field.

 

At sunrise, Hao rides on Huang through the sky as she carries Ai in her talons while Huizhong, Li, and Bao rides on panda’s back. The phoenix glides through the enormous lake with her wings opened until she finally makes it to the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains ahead of her while the snow falls softly from the sky. “There it is!” said Hao, staring at the gigantic snowy mountains in awe, “The Jade Dragon Snow Mountains!”

 

Huang continues to glide through the snowy mountains with massive wings opened while carrying Ai. “Okay. So far so good.” Huang added, “Now all we have to do is to follow that roar and find the feather. What could go wrong?” Suddenly, a snow leopard leaps out of the cave, runs on the mountain and lunges towards Huang, causing her to fall into the snow.

 

Hao fights off the snow leopard with his staff as he swings it and hits the cat with it with full force while the leopard fights him with its teeth and claws. Another snow leopard pounces towards the phoenix and the bird sways her body around to get it off her.

 

The two snow leopards charge towards Huang and the phoenix knocks them with her wings, talons, and tail. The two cats try to pounce towards her but she flaps her wings and hovers above the ground. The giant bird continues to fight off the leopards until Li comes in and fights them off with her dagger and karate fighting skills. She kicks the snow leopard in the lower jaw and punches the other in the face. Huang takes the two leopards by the tails and throws them into the lake. “Yup,” said Huang, “I just did that. Your welcome.”

 

Suddenly, a flaming arrow shoots into the snow in front of them. Hao, Huang, Huizhong, and the others looks up and sees a thousand Huns on the mountain shooting flaming arrows towards them. “Lets get out of here!” yelled Hao as he mounts on Huang’s back and flies away through the snow while carrying Ai in her talons while the other group of Huns chases her up and down the snowy hills on their horses. The Huns on their horses shoot Huang with their arrows and the giant phoenix takes off into the sky.

 

While soaring through the sky, the Huns on the tall steep mountaintops on the left and right side continue to shoot flaming arrows at her. The phoenix spins her massive body and shoots a wave of fire from her feathers to the Huns on the mountaintops. Huang continues to soar towards the colossal snow mountains as the Huns continues to run up the mountain, trying to catch her with their grappling hooks, chains, ropes, and trapping nets. Huang zooms towards the Huns as her feathers turn into fire and knocks them off the mountaintops.

 

Aiguo arrives with the Huns on the left mountain. Augio reveals to be very pale with his pink nose and continues to sneeze and cough. He points to the phoenix and shouts, “There she is! I see her! I see the-…” The old man coughs and sneezes while Yow and the other Huns look disgusted by him.

 

Yow responds, “You sure you don’t need something warm to-

 

“DON’T WORRY ABOUT MY SICKNESS! JUST CATCH ME THAT BIRD!”

 

Yow and the Huns stretch their flaming arrows and shoots Huang as they ride through the mountaintop.

 

Aiguo steps off his horse, sets up his net catapult and shoots directly towards Huang, capturing her inside the net as she falls directly towards the bottom until Aiguo grabs the trapped bird inside the net and pulls her towards the top of the snowy mountains where he is.

 

Li unsheathes her dagger, cuts open the net, releasing herself, Hao, Huizhong, Huang, Ai, and Bao out of the net and charging towards the Huns, fighting them with their weapons. Li fights off the Huns with her fists and her Kung Fu fighting abilities with her dagger, head, legs, feet and fists where as the Huns fights her back with their swords. Ai, the giant panda, lunges towards the bandits and fights them off with her claws and teeth while Bao, the red panda, lunges towards the Hun’s face and mauls him with his teeth and claws and does the same to all the other Huns. Huizhong battles Yow with his staff and his Kung Fu fighting abilities with his fists while Yow fights him off with his sword. Hao fights off Aiguo with his tall staff while Aiguo sword fights him with his own sword. While fighting, Aiguo cries out, “You think a punk like you can take away my greatest PRIZE!!!”

 

“What chance would you have with a phoenix anyway?!” Hao responds.

 

“Like you would have to ask!”

 

Hao and Aiguo continues fighting with their weapons. “You cannot take Huang! She needs to get that feather!”

 

“And let me rot in shame like a maniac, I don’t think so!” Aiguo raises his sword towards Hao until Huang zooms towards Aiguo, pushing him to the other side of the mountain. Afterwards, Huang continuously zooms though all the Huns on the mountain and fights them off with her wings, tail, beak and claws. The bandits fight her off with their swords and gadgets. The Huns on the other side of the mountains shoots canons at Huang, causing her to fly to the air. Aiguo runs towards his net catching machine and screams, “I CANNOT LOSE THAT BIRD AGAIN!” The phoenix hunter pulls the lever and releases a rocket as it explodes into a sack-like net, capturing the phoenix inside of it. The trapped phoenix falls to the side of the mountain.

 

“HUANG!” Hao screamed as he tries to reach her until a large Hun grabs him and pulls him back, “NOO!!”

 

Aiguo jumps with joy and exhilaration, “I GOT HER! I GOT HER DID YOU SEE THAT?!!!” The phoenix hunter makes his evil maniacal laughter, “PERFECT SHOT! PERFECT SHOT, SHE’S MINE!” Aiguo continues laughing minacally, “ALL MINE!!” Aiguo continues to laugh until he coughs heavily and sneezes repeatedly with his nose running, causing the Huns to look at him in disgust. Aiguo reels up the rope attached to the sack-like net.

 

The bandits grabs Huizhong and Li and holds them tight into their arms as well as capturing Bao in a sack and Ai in their ropes.  While Hao is held tight by the large Hun, Yow points his sword towards his face and replied with a smirk, “Now what shall we do with the little trouble maker?”

 

“Do what you want with the boy!” Aiguo said with a raspberry voice, “I’LL TAKE THE BIRDY!” The hunter makes his evil sinister laughter as he continues to reel his net up to the surface of the mountain. “Finally, after all those years of mocking! After all those years of ‘Phoenixes don’t exist!’ Now I, Chifu Aiguo, have captured the greatest mystical legend to ever live! And they never believed me! Just wait until they get a good look at ya!”

 

Li bites the Huns arm and unsheathes her dagger as she runs towards the trapped phoenix. Bao rips out of the sack with his teeth and claws. Li cuts the ropes off the net while Bao bites them off, causing Huang to break free and escape. The phoenix swipes Aiguo away with her long whip-like tail and fights off the Huns with her wings, beak, tail and talons as they all pitch in and tries to capture her. Hao mounts on her back again; Huang grabs Ai with her talon and flies away. Aiguo screams, “MY BIIIIRRRDD!!!!!”

 

Huang takes off into the sky until Yow throws his chains towards her talon and pulls her to the other side of the mountain. Huizhong knocks Yow with his staff; the Hun draws his sword and fights him off towards the edge of the mountain. Li takes the chain off of Huang’s leg and the phoenix soars towards the mountaintop where Huizhong fights off Yow.

 

By the cliff, the old man fights harder and harder with his staff until Yow swipes the staff away from his hands with his sword and quickly stabs him in the chest, causing him to scream in agony. Hao, Li, and Huang gasp with horror as they soar closer to the cliff. Yow pushes Huizhong towards the edge of the cliff, causing him to fall towards the bottom of the mountain until Hao catches him in his hands and rides further and further away from the Huns.

 

Aiguo tries to catch up to Huang until she flies far out of reach to another mountain and screamed, “No! My phoenix! My reputation! My chances of being in the royal court, NOOOOOOO!!!!” Aiguo drops himself on the ground of the mountain and bangs his fist in defeat.

 

“You know, Aiguo,” Yow responds as he draws his sword and puts it on the side of Aiguo’s neck while the Huns points their weapons towards him, “If you wish for us to put you out of your misery, you only need to say so.”

 

“NO!” Aiguo shouted angrily as he stands on his two feet, “I’ve come too far to let that punk steal my bird! Now whether you assist me or not, I AM GOING AFTER HAO AND THE GOLDEN PHOENIX IF IT KILLS ME!!” Aiguo marches towards his horse and rides forward on the mountains while he continues to cough and sneeze, much to the Huns disgust.

 

 The second Hun looks to Aiguo and asked, “So…are we still gonna kill him or…”

 

“No,” Yow answered, “Lets see where his madness goes. That way he can get himself killed on his own terms.”

 

“Hmm,” the third Hun uttered, “I like the sound of that.”

 

“Works for me,” The fourth Hun added.

 

Yow and the Huns mount on their horses and follows Aiguo on the top of the snowy mountains, while the snow continues to fall harder and harder.

 

Huang glides through the snow and soars towards a deep snowy cave in the top of the mountains. The giant bird lands inside the cave and leaps off of Ai’s back. Hao steps off of Huang with Huizhong in his arms and puts him on the ground. Hao, Li, Huang, Bao and Ai gathers around Huizhong as they look into the wound on his chest. Li exclaimed, “Huizhong, are you okay?”

 

“Oh this is all my fault!” Huang responds, “I never should have left that feather!”

 

“No.” said Hao with his wide-opened, “No, its-its gonna be okay, all we have to do is to find that feather and heal his wound.” Hao walks to the cave and digs through the snow.

 

“Hao,” said Huizhong in his dying breath, “I don’t think you’ll find the-

 

“Trust me! It’s around here somewhere! I know it! I just gotta keep digging.” Hao continues to pat and dig through the snow as he walks further and towards the cave, “Where is it?! Where is it?!”

 

Huizhong grabs him by the hand and replied, “Hao,” The young man looks at him with tears in his eyes, “Its too late.”

 

“What?” Hao walks towards the dying man, “You mean-…”

 

“I’m going to see our ancestors.”

 

“No!” Hao puts his hands on his mouth and nose in a shock-like manor, “No! Not now! I just-

 

“Hey, hey, no tears, grandson. Death is just a part of life, you know that.”

 

Li hugs him on the chest with tears falling from her eyes and cried, “Oh Huizhong. Don’t leave us!”

 

“Hey no tears now, little one. I may be gone but your friends are right here to guide you. Listen to them, do as they say, and stay true to whom you are. Always.”

 

“Okay…I-I’ll try.”

 

Huizhong turns over to Huang, “And Huang, promise me you’ll never leave my grandson out of your sight, no matter where you go. Watch over him, always.”

 

“For you Huizhong.” Huang responds with her wing touching his hand. “Anything.”

 

The old man looks over to Hao, “And Hao, I know it hurts now but I want you to stay strong, find that feather, and have a new reality.”

 

“I will, grandpa.” Said Hao with tears in his eyes, “I promise.”

 

Huizhong smiles with his tear rolling down his cheek, “Good boy, Hao. Now go find your reality.” Huizhong closes his eyes; his hand slowly sides away from his grandson’s hand and slowly dies on the ground. Hao looks at him in sadness, as did Li and Huang.

 

“Grandpa.” Hao puts his head down in sorrow with tears falling from his eyelids. Huang wraps her wings around Hao, hugging him. Li comes in, hugs Hao on his arm and cries. Ai and Bao also comes in and gives Hao a hug as well.

 

By the snowy lake, Huang perches on his corpse and turns her feathers on fire, burning his body. The phoenix swipes the flame away with her tail, allowing Hao to swipe the ashes into his small jar and Li swipes the other half of his ashes into her small jar as well. Hao looks into the jar and replied, “I’m so sorry grandpa, for everything.”

 

Huang walks towards Hao, touches him by the shoulder and replied, “Hey, Hao, its gonna be okay.”

 

Hao turns towards Huang and responds, “Okay? Okay?! I lost my mother! I lost my father! I even lost my girlfriend, and now grandpa?!” Hao drops himself on the snow and cries. “WHAT GOOD IS LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST IF EVERYTHING YOU LOVE IS TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU?!” Hao continues to sob softly until he wipes off his tears. “You know what.” The boy takes his dagger and is about to put it up to his throat, “I guess it’s my turn now.”

 

Li’s eyes begin to water. The girl runs towards him, holds his hand by the wrist and shouts, “NOO!! NO! NO! NO!” Li begins to scream, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” She knocks the dagger off his hand and gives him a big loving hug on his chest with tears falling from her eyes. As she cries on his chest, Li responds, “I don’t want you to die, Hao! You mean so much to me! I don’t blame you from losing your parents, or your grandpa, or your girlfriend, but I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU DIE!!! I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH IT HURTS! HUANG LOVES YOU, BAO LOVES YOU, AI LOVES YOU! EVERYBODY LOVES YOU!” Li continues to cry hysterically, “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE ME, HAO! PLEASE!”

 

Hao’s eyes continue to water and wraps Li into his arms, hugging her and shielding her like a teddy bear. “I’m sorry Li. I’m very sorry.” Li gives him a kiss on the cheek and continues hugging him.

 

“DON’T YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT, OKAY?! WE’RE ALL HERE FOR YOU!” Bao and Ai looks at them in a sad-like manor and nudges each other on the noses.

 

Huang looks at her reflection on the water with a sad yet worried look on her face with her eyebrows meeting at the top and with her eyes watering. She walks besides Hao and Li, closes her eyes dramatically, and utters, “Mei.”

 

“Yes,” Hao answered, “Mei is gone!”

 

The phoenix walks towards the boy and touches his shoulder, “No, that’s my real name. Mei.”

 

Hao opens his eyes in realization, “What?” He stands up and turns towards the giant phoenix as her name changes from Huang to Mei, now in her golden phoenix form.

 

“Its me, Hao. It’s me! I’m Mei!”

 

The boy opens her eyes in both shock and amazement, “Wha-…Mei, is that really you?!”

 

“Yes my love, its me! It’s been me this whole time!”

 

Hao inhales and exhales as he smiles happily with tears falling from his eyes, “MEI!” Hao gives Mei a big warm loving hug while he cries tears of joy and Mei hugs her back and kisses him on the cheek. “I can’t believe its you! After all these years!” Hao takes a step back and looks directly at Mei, “But how? What happened to you?”

 

“You’ve been gone for so long. The moment that I heard that you ran away from home, I had no choice but to catch up with you in the middle of the storm. When the hurricane got worse and worse, I fell directly into a cave. I got thirsty and then I saw a red pond. I’ve never seen in that color before, so I drank from it and that’s how I would become…this!”

 

“So it’s the red pond that turned you into a golden phoenix!”

 

“Precisely. There was inscription on the wall next to the pond that says that only the smoke from the mighty dragon, Long, can turn me back into a human and that he is located in the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains. So I flew all the way over there and wait for his arrival. And when the snowstorm got worse, well that’s how I release myself from the glacier I was sitting on. And the rest you already knew.”

 

“You went through so much to look for me. And here I was thinking that you were dead. I am so glad I found you, Mei. Now my life has new meaning again.” Suddenly, they hear the mysterious growling noise from the distance, causing Hao, Mei, Li, Bao, and Ai to look towards the tall mountain-like cave in the far distance. “That noise…wait, didn’t you say that only the smoke from the mighty dragon can turn you back into a human?”

 

“That’s what I remembered it said.”

 

“Of course, it all makes sense now, it’s wasn’t a tiger or a panda at all. It’s the dragon!”

 

Hao and Mei looks at each other and says at the same time, “He’s the one who’s calling us!” The boy and the phoenix continue to hear the loud growl-like noise from the distance.

 

“You know what,” Hao declared, “forget the feather, forget my leg, we’ve gotta get you all the way over to that cave so he can change you back!”

 

“But what about your leg?”

 

“Don’t worry about it. I can live without having a leg, but I can’t live without having you, in my life.”

 

Mei is now moved by his words as she puts her wings on her chest and whispers, “Oh, my love.”

 

“Well what are we waiting for?” Li exclaimed as she mounts on Ai’s back, “Lets go see the dragon!” Bao leaps onto Hao’s shoulder; Hao mounts on Mei’s back as the phoenix grabs Ai with her talon and soars towards the distant cave through the snow.

 

The snow continues to fall slowly yet softly and Mei continues to glide through the snowy hills and slopes of the wide-open valley covered in an enormous blanket of snow. The phoenix flies further and further through the atmosphere and towards the cave in the far distance until a cannon shoots at her and that she soars away from it. A couple more canons shoot at her as Mei soars side to side to avoid getting hit.

 

Hao turns around and sees the Huns firing their canons at the phoenix as she continues to soar and surf through the snowy atmosphere through the large and enormous mountains. “Alright, Mei,” Hao smirked, “Lets show these bandits whose boss!” The golden phoenix turns her massive body, zooms towards the Huns and knocks them away with the tip of her beak. Mei continues to glide through the mountains and knocks away the Huns on the other side with her massive body. As another team of Huns charges towards them on their horses, Mei throws Ai towards the bandits and the panda fights them off with her teeth and claws. Li and Bao fights along with her while Yow and the other team of Huns tries to shoot Mei down from the sky with their arrows and trapping nets.

 

Aiguo rides through the top of the mountain on his horse with a crossbow in his hand and yells, “I’ve got you now, phoenix!” And just when he was about to fire, a piece of the mountain breaks off causing Aiguo and his horse to fall directly towards the bottom of the mountain.

 

Mei looks down and exclaimed, “AIGUO!” The giant phoenix zooms all the way down towards the phoenix hunter. Aiguo falls closer and closer down the enormously tall and steep gigantic mountain until Mei catches him in her talons. Mei stretches her neck down towards the old man and responds, “Uncle Aiguo, its me, Mei!”

 

“What?! That’s impossible?!”

 

“No really, Uncle, its me! I’m your niece!”

 

“Wha-…”Aiguo opens her eyes in realization, “Mei?”

 

Suddenly, an enormous cannon hits the tall gargantuan mountain, almost hitting Mei, causing an enormous avalanche of humongous glaciers to fall on Mei, Hao and Aiguo. The old man falls off of Mei’s talons while phoenix spins her body all the way down and falls directly into the snow. Aiguo falls through an ice-cold glacier-filled cave, slowly gets up from the ground. “I’m thirsty,” Aiguo whispered, “Why do I feel thirsty.” The old man sees a black pond right across from him. He rushes towards the pond, drinks from it with his hands, and then hunches his body downward, shaking and feeling the pain in his body. Aiguo’s skin turns black-ish gray, his body hair turns into black feathers and his eyes begins to turn hell-ish red.

 

Meanwhile at the outside of the cave, Hao and Mei rises out of the snow and the phoenix walks towards the cave and exclaimed, “Uncle Aiguo!” Another set of glaciers falls in front of Mei as both Hao and the phoenix runs away from the falling glaciers.

 

Once the glaciers stops falling, the three Huns on their horses charges towards them with their swords and Mei knocks them away with her massive whip-like tail. She flies towards the fallen Huns, picks all three of them up with her talons, spins herself around until she turns herself into a bright golden blur and throws them off towards the distance. Mei grabs Hao with her talons and carries him through the sky. “Alright Mei!” Hao exclaimed as the phoenix throws Hao on her back with her talons. The phoenix soars towards Li, Bao, and Ai, grabs them with her talons and takes off towards the dragon’s cave in the distance. 

 

Mei continues to soar through the sky while carrying Ai in her talons and Hao on her back. “We’re gonna make it!” Hao exclaimed with excitement. Suddenly, they hear a few giant bumps through the glacier-like mountain. The Huns points their swords and weapons towards the mountain as the bump becomes louder and louder until a giant colossal black blur bursts through the giant glacier-like mountain, causing an enormous avalanche of glaciers. The giant blur reveals to be a 30-foot-tall gigantic dark phoenix with black feathers all over his body and a wingspan of 65 feet wide, roaring with his wings wide opened.

 

“ANOTHER ONE?!” Li yelled

 

“Alright we gotta keep moving! Go on, Mei!” The golden phoenix continues to soar towards the distant cave.

 

The colossal black bird hovers off the iceberg with his giant wings and spins himself in the air and then spins towards the bandits. The dark phoenix spins towards the Huns and turns his black feathers into an explosive flame, destroying all The Huns and setting them on fire. Yow and the Huns charge towards the dark phoenix with their weapons on their horses until the giant bird knocks the giant icicles towards Yow’s chest, impaling him to death as he falls off his horse and falls into the ice-cold river along with the other Huns.

 

The colossal black phoenix chases Mei through the bulging snowy mountains while chomping his giant beak at her. She flies further and further towards the distant cave until the dark phoenix knocks Mei and the others to the other side of the snow. The golden phoenix opens her wings and roars at the dark phoenix. The two phoenixes fight each other with their wings, tails, beaks and claws. The dark phoenix spins towards Mei, Hao mounts on her back and the enormous black bird dives into the snow, exploding it into a flame, causing Hao and Mei to take off into the sky.

 

The dark phoenix rises out of the snow and continues to chase Mei further and further up to the clouds. Li the little girl, Ai the giant panda, and Bao the red panda look up towards Hao and Mei in awestruck, as they make their decent up to the deep dark clouds.

 

The monstrous black phoenix flies up to the dark clouds until Mei zooms towards the phoenix with her beak and knocks him to the other side. Then she knocks him to the other side with her beak until she dives towards the bottom and the dark phoenix dives towards her as they both make their descent to the bottom. “Hold on, Mei!” said Hao as he holds tight on her feathers. “And…now!” Mei turns her body and zooms towards the dark phoenix’s beak, flying to the atmosphere. The phoenix zooms towards the black bird and pushes him down towards the ground with her beak, causing an avalanche of ice and glaciers to fall.

 

Mei flies towards the surface until a few glaciers falls towards Hao and knocks him off of the phoenix’s back, causing him to fall into the distance. “HAO!” Mei exclaimed as she dives towards Hao as he falls towards the snow while the glaciers falls towards them.

 

Li rides towards the fallen glaciers and exclaimed, “HAO! MEI! HAO!” She hears a series of flapping noises and sees Mei flying with Hao’s unconscious body in her talons. She lands on the snow in front of Ai and puts Hao’s body on the snow. Li and Bao jump off of Ai’s back. “Hao?” Mei looks at her with tears in her eyes and nods her head, ‘no’. Li begins to cry on his chest, as did Mei, Bao, and Ai until they hear a loud ferocious roar in the distance getting their attention to the left side. They see a silhouette of a giant creature with a snake-like body with four limbs, roaring in the far distance.

 

The creature leaps into the air and lands gently into the snow and the creature reveals to be a massive 35-foot-tall colossal Chinese dragon called Long with red scales all over his body, a long snake-like body, two antlers on his head, four legs, and two long whiskers. On his mouth is the glowing golden feather. He lowers his long neck to put the feather down on the snow and gently tosses it towards Mei with his muzzle. The golden phoenix stares at the colossal dragon and utters, “My gods! Are you-

 

“Yes, Mei.” Long answered in his calm yet baritone voice, “I am the mighty Long, the ancient great one. I am also the one who called you and Hao for this very moment. And I believe you left this on the side of the mountain.” Long pass the feather to Huang with the tip of his talon.

 

Mei takes the feather from the snow and brings it up to the corner of her eyes, “My feather!”

 

“Is that the one with healing powers?” Li asked.

 

“Yup.” Mei puts her feather near the tip of her tail and the feather magically attaches itself into her tail, causing her feathers to glow once more. “Whoah.” The phoenix looks over to Hao’s unconscious body with concern.

 

“Why do you hesitate?”

 

Mei whispers, “What if it doesn’t work?”

 

“Well, if it doesn’t work then, at least you tried your best.”

 

“Okay, I can do this, and this might be a little gross.” Mei gently stretches her neck towards Hao and licks him on the face, causing him to miraculously gain consciousness and slowly opens his eyes and sees Mei, smiling at him, lovingly, “Hello my love.”

 

“Mei!” says Hao as he slowly rises from the snow, “How did you-

 

“Look down,” Hao looks down to his legs, he rolls up his pants-like robe, and sees his actual right leg being back to normal and healed, causing Hao to open his eyes with shock and surprise.

 

“I know you don’t want to but, yeah, you saved my life, I saved yours. Surprise!”

 

“You-you got my leg back?”

 

“Yes, my love, and I found my missing tail feather.” Mei shows him the feather on her long feathered whip-like tail.

 

“But how?”

 

“Don’t ask me.” Mei points her head towards Long behind him. Hao turns around and sees Long in awestruck and surprise.

 

“Long!” The young man puts his upper body downward and bows his head towards the giant creature. Hao looks up at the dragon and replied, “I thought I had to die before seeing you in person.”

 

“No need for drastic measures.” The dragon replied.

 

Suddenly, the giant dark phoenix rises from the fallen glaciers, soars towards Hao and the others until Long comes in and makes a loud thunderous roar towards the creature, causing the dark phoenix to open his large red eyes in realization and lands on the snow. Mei stands in front of the dragon, opens her wings and responds, “I’m ready.”

 

Long lowers his neck and breathes a powerful smoke towards the phoenix, causing Mei to magically transform back into a human. Once the smoke clears, Mei reveals to be a beautiful and gorgeously appealing 19-year-old Chinese young woman with long beautiful black hair and her face and cheekbones carved beautifully like a super model. Hao smiles happily with tears in his eyes and exclaimed, “Mei!”

 

“Hao!” The couple runs towards each other and embraces each other with a big warm loving hug. Afterwards, Hao and Mei kisses each other on the lips and slowly tongue kisses each other on the mouth.

 

“I miss you so much!”

 

“I miss you too, baobei!” The young woman turns towards the giant black phoenix. The giant creature looks down towards her with tears in its eyes and Mei puts her hand on her beak. “I know its you in there, Uncle Aiguo.”

 

“Uncle Aiguo?”

 

The black phoenix closes his eyes and hugs Mei with his long bulging neck. The woman stands aside, allowing Long to breathe a powerful smoke towards the giant black phoenix. Once the smoke clears, the giant black phoenix reveals to be Aiguo in his human form. The old man stares at the young woman in awe and responds, “Mei? Your alive?”

 

Mei crosses her arms in disappointment and answered, “I know what your about to say, uncle Aiguo. How could I have done this? To our family! To our honor! Well, what chance do you think I have, uncle Aiguo, that anyone in Beijing could?! I’d love to be with Hao! My whole life is dedicated to be with Hao! But did you listen to me?!”

 

“This is why I never stayed with my uncle,” Li added, “This and one other reason.”

 

Mei’s eyes begin to water, “I know that you cared so much about me! But if you do, you would care about what I want and what I choose! I know I wasn’t supposed to leave the house but this what I want do!” Aiguo walks towards Mei in awestruck, “Stop looking at me like that uncle! Go on! Shout, scream, say something!”

 

Aiguo gently touches her face with tears falling from his eyes and whispers with a smile, “I’m so glad I found you after all these years.”

 

Mei begins to cry hysterically and embraces Aiguo with a hug. Aiguo hugs her back as he wraps his arms around her. Hao walks towards Aiguo and embraces him with a hug as well. “Your-your hugging me.” Said Aiguo with a surprised tone of voice; “After all I put you through. Why?”

 

“Any family of Mei is a family of ours,” Hao answered.

 

Li comes in, hugs Aiguo by the waste and responds, “All of us.” Aiguo hesitates for a brief moment until he hugs her back. Bao leaps onto his shoulder and rubs his cheek with his snout. Ai comes in and hugs Aiguo on his side.

 

The old man begins to cry happy tears and responds, “I don’t know why but I feel so happy!” Aiguo continues to hug Li and the two animals until he walks towards Hao while he holds his hands. “Hao, my dear boy, I am ever so sorry for…everything I put you through and I thank you so much for bringing my niece back to me. And if there’s anything I can do to repay your kindness, please let me know.”

 

“Well, if its okay with you, Aiguo,” Hao responds as he hold Mei’s hand, “I would like to be with your niece.”

 

“And I want to be with Hao,” Mei added.

 

“For you, Mei,” Aiguo responds, “anything.”

 

The couple embraces each other happily with a hug until Hao kneels on his knee and declared, “Mei, I just want to make this official and before anything else happens.” Hao brings out a ring towards Mei, “Will you marry me?”

 

Mei cries tears of joy out of her eyes and responds, “YES!” The young woman embraces Hao with a hug once more and the two of them share a passionate kiss to each other. Li, Aiguo, Long, Bao and Ai react happily with a smile.

 

Hao turns over towards Long and responds, “Hey Long, you think you can give us a ride?”

 

“I would be honored,” Long answered. The dragon puts his front foot forward, allowing Hao, Mei, Aiguo, Li, Bao and Ai to climb up to his giant back. “Hold on tight.” Long leans his body backwards and lunges forward into the sky off the hill and soars through the air away from the snowy mountains and towards the enormous lake.

 

10 years later, Hao is now Mei’s husband and a father of a child named Chao as they live in Huizhong’s house near the panda preserve. He and his son makes a golden phoenix kite made of feathers. Once it was finished, Hao, Mei, Bao, and Chao rides on Ai towards the docks and lands onto a sailboat with Aiguo and Li on board, wearing their Asian conical hats, standing next to each other with their hands by their waists.

 

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Chong!” said Aiguo.

 

“Aiguo!” Hao exclaimed as he embraces him with both a high five and a hug with a pat on his back. “I didn’t know you are a boat captain.”

 

“And I have Li as both my first mate and my adoptive daughter.”

 

“Hi Hao! Hi Mei!” Li exclaimed as she embrace them with a hug. “Hey Chao!” The young woman gives Chao a hug as well.

 

“Hi, cousin Li!” Chao replied.

 

“Oh Hao! Your never gonna believe this but, I got my old job back! At the palace!”

 

“Your serious?” Hao asked with surprise.

 

“As a heart attack. Full time actually. It took me a lot of therapy but it’s all worth it. And the advisor that they have at the palace is now a good friend of mine.”

 

“Oh that’s great, Aiguo! Shall we be on our way?”

 

“Gladly,” Aiguo releases the giant sail from the top beam and the boat takes off into the ocean, Hao puts his son his shoulder and the two of them releases phoenix kite into the sky.

 

“This one’s for you, grandpa.” Said Hao, smiling with his eyes watering.

 

Mei kisses Hao on the cheek as they both see the other kites fly off into the sky. Long, the large Chinese dragon, glides over the ocean and winks his eye at Hao and his family. Hao and the others wave their hands at him as the dragon soars through the kites, takes off through sky and flies off into the sunset.

 

The End