Pi Pa woke early, before even Bi De crowed. It was her habit, to awake and begin the day before anyone else, as a good servant should. She awoke beside her Dear, Chun Ke, asleep with a contented smile upon his face. They were in the Servants Quarters, as they were often, sleeping with young Sirs Gou and Yun Ren, as well as the newer additions to Fa Ram.

She smiled down at her Dear. He was sleeping well again. She had been worried that the nightmares he had been having were a precursor to something worse, an unexpected remnant of the injuries he had taken. Her greatest fear was that it would somehow cause him to regress to his previous state, when he was broken and barely there.

Thankfully, they had just been nightmares. Her dear was still healed, mostly. She could take a few scares if that meant her other half was fine.

She turned to check on the third person sharing their quarters. Young Sir Bowu was asleep against his side curled up against her Dear. Pi Pa smiled warmly at the scene and pressed her nose gently against her Dear before leaving them both to their sleep.

In truth… she didn’t have much to do most of the time this early. Every other member of their household cleaned up after themselves and generally made her job very easy. But even if they didn’t, this was a job she enjoyed. She liked taking care of people, like The Master and the Mistress. It may be a small duty, this task of hers, but she enjoyed it all the same. To keep everything neat and tidy, to take care of the small things, was her contribution. Each small task added up, in the end, to something greater. Each day was an opportunity to better herself, and contribute.

Pi Pa heated up some water and brought it to Bi De who she knew would have returned from night watch. The rooster was sitting upon the coop, stretching his neck, and cleaning some of the snow off his vest in preparation for his morning call to the sun.

He turned at her approach and bowed his head. “Thank you, Sister.” he said with full honesty.

Pi Pa nodded and departed, leaving him to his duties. She opened up the coop and let the rest of the chickens out as Bi De called the morning alarm.

They spilled out, clucking as the sun rose, hazy behind the clouds.

It was time to start another day, even as more snow fell down upon them.

=========================

“It’s time!” The Master said with a bright grin as he gathered them all after their morning exercises. His grin was bright, as it had been for the past couple of days. He and his lady had been even more affectionate than normal with each other recently. “The winter is fully upon us! We shall commence the construction of the Great General! He Who Commands the Winter!”

A great cheer rose from their assembled ranks as they stepped off into the snow.

Her Dear squealed happily and took off; little Bowu, Young Sir Gou Ren, and Young Miss Xianghua all upon his back. Between one step and the next he grew until he scooped a swathe of snow from the yard into an enormous pile, constructing the General’s foundation.

The Master laughed, his eyes bright and steady as he brought out a strange translucent crystal—the one that had been in the last General’s chest.

They all pitched in. Pi Pa was right behind her Dear, collecting and packing snow, along with the rest of them. Swiftly, the General grew, and just as swiftly the material for its construction grew scarce–for they had used up all the snow upon the main island upon which the manor house stood.

Pi Pa, though she maintained her outward composure as a proper lady, couldn’t help but be excited as they all worked together. The General rose first above the house then gradually its height exceeded even the trees.

They worked until it was time for lunch, at which point the massive edifice of snow was the tallest construction Pi Pa had ever witnessed in her life.

While the younger ones frolicked about his base, Chun Ke at their head, Pi Pa simply settled down on the porch, content to watch. Her heart soared at the sight of her Dear so happy. . At his bright eyes, his spark undiminished.

She breathed a sigh of relief. It never hurt to check.

Pi Pa’s first solid memories were of darkness, pain, and terror.

Her consciousness had been fleeting, in those early days. Something barely there, that came in bursts.

But she remembered being happy. The Master had taken care of them well. He had been so kind to them, feeding them and playing with them, hoisting them up and scratching their bellies.

He had been their father, in most respects. Their patriarch, seeing to their needs with his kindness and giving to them without a care in the world.She remembered the flashes of joy as she grew and played alongside her Dear.

Two parts of a whole. Equal in every way.

And then the rats came.

It was the smell that she could never forget.

The acrid, burning tang of Chow Ji and his rats. It was seared into her memory. Even now, so long after his death, she knew his slimy, oily scent. The smell of blood and death. The burning eyes of the rats as they ate their own dead kin.

They had tried to warn Bi De when he welcomed Chow Ji, in their own way. They stomped and tried to kill the little vermin who desecrated the land.

Together with her Dear. Her brave, noble Dear. He had been so quick to understand things, to see the darkness of Chow Ji and to spare Ri Zu. It was Chun Ke who had recognised Ri Zu’s pure spirit. They had seen her begging them to help, in a hazy, dream-like fugue.

With Ri Zu’s help, they had broken free of the pen that held them and charged the foul demon. They had done battle with Cow Ji and his horde of minions. They had protected Fa Ram!

That was where the memories sharpened, in that battle. That was where she truly became aware. When she truly became Pi Pa.

The moment Chow Ji’s claws struck her Dear, scoring those three massive gashes in Chun Ke’s face. His scream of pain was as much a part of her as her own name. She would not forget it. She could not unhear it.

And in that moment, with her Chun Ke, her Dear falling to the ground… it had spawned the void.

The ravening hatred. The sucking pit in her gut that always was there. The ugly, black hate, as her other half was torn from the world. She thought him dead. She thought herself dead.

Yet Bi De, with the assistance of her sister Ri Zu prevailed in the end. He struck down the rats and saved Fa Ram.

It should have been a glorious victory, as her Dear opened his eyes.

It wasn’t.

She remembered how Chun Ke’s spark had flickered and faded. His eyes were dull. Her other half, her complement, had been killed in every way that mattered. He was but a beast.

Her heart had torn in half at the sight, and the little pit of darkness grew.

Chun Ke had clung on, though. Little sparks of thought, little gasps of awareness. He had fought whatever had maimed him.

And that was enough. She would never give up on him. She couldn't.

The Master had been with them, every step of the way. He had administered medicine crafted by the Lady of the House. He had aided them, when all seemed lost.

For that, he had her loyalty. Her devotion. She was proud to be his servant, he who would sacrifice so much for them.

Her Dear’s nightmares kept her up every night, pressed into his side. His eyes sharpened and dulled in fitful bursts.

The bad days were the ones where he simply trundled around the pen and oinked unintelligibly. The worst days were those when he didn’t seem to recognise her at all.

On those days, the festering void grew. On those days, she contemplated killing Bi De for his arrogance and stupidity. He had been weak. He had been injured. If she wanted to, she could have destroyed him.

The ravening black pit pulsed every time she thought of it. She knew her cultivation was twisted and perverted. Something dark. Something almost demonic that would surge with her emotions, reaching out to destroy everything that had hurt her.

But that wouldn’t have brought her Dear back. It would not have helped him. So she had stayed her hand. She toiled relentlessly, in the hopes of bringing her dear back from the endless nightmares that plagued him.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he had started to heal. His spark came back. His eyes stopped going dull for days or weeks on end.

Her Chun Ke was healing, with the medicine of the Lady of the House, Meiling, and the ministrations of their Master.

But her noble other half was diminished. Broken. Her once equal, her perfect, balanced partner spoke in halting grunts and made up words. He said nonsensical things. He was slow to understand and had to study things for hours to learn them, if he could at all.

It was nearly too much. He was a stranger at times in her Dear’s body. The only thing that saved her heart was the one thing that was undiminished about him.

His love for her, and his pure devotion to the wonder of life.

Even when he struggled. Even when he forgot, he still called her a pretty lady. His blank, dull eyes would light up, and he would bring her flowers before they inevitably fell back to his demons.

It hurt. It hurt so much.

But she endured it every day. She had to endure it, for him.

For herself too, lest she lose herself to the void in her chest.

Her love was a candle against that darkness. A spark against the storm.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he had truly come back. He would live with the marks of Chow Ji for the rest of his life… but his nobility and wisdom manifested themselves in other ways. Crippled, he grew into a new direction, as only her Dear could.

He was the only one who could calm Tigu without her retaliation. He was the one who could chastise and never have his words taken as an insult. He was the one who brought them together. More than Bi De. More than Ri Zu. More than her own attempts to keep the others from fighting.

Her Dear became the beating heart of all of The Master’s disciples. Strong in spite of his injury.

The strongest one of them all, in her opinion.

If her Dear was the light of all of them... Then Pi Pa was the opposite. The Yin to his Yang, as she was always meant to be.

These days, she could say she was content. Today , she could even say she was truly happy.

She had a purpose. She had her Dear… even if he wasn’t ready for piglets quite yet.

But as she sat calmly looking down upon the laughing crowd chasing her dear. As she watched over the Fa Ram that had given her a home and purpose. She would not forget. She could not forget. She may have made peace with Bi De, forgiven him for his failures… She had vowed that whatever would seek to harm her Dear, whatever would seek to harm her home—

She would devour it whole.

And that would be the end of it. A good Lady always kept to her word.

===============================

Editors: Massgamer, Oshi, Ayje