Leonard’s initial stupor was then replaced by pure, unrestrained curiosity as he studied the kir-affe’s towering frame, his eyes going up and down her long legs.

“My,” Udrako began in a ladylike fashion, a quality several female members of the Redmanes possessed, as she looked down and fluttered her eyelashes at the stallion. “Am I that alluring to you down there, dearie?”

“It’s those legs of yours, girl!” Sandy comments with a cackle. “Seriously, look at those things. And that’s not even getting into how you like to strut your stuff.”

“Well, my father did use to say that giraffes are symbols of grace, nature, and beauty,” Udrako cooed. She then sideglances at the dark-orange kirin-saddle arabian, “Unlike some mares.”

“...Right.” Sandy deadpanned. “So we’re not going talk about how you use that ridiculously long tongue of yours to ‘gracefully’ pig out on the golden leaves of my house? Thanks for that, by the way…”

“But they’re so delicious!” Udrako protests—Leonard, still awed by her appearance, moves around to get a better view while envisioning himself having her height. Although…he’d have to forego the incredibly long neck. Legs, too.

“I mean, what other house do you see in this village that has golden edible leaves? Truly, dear, you’re being unreasonable.”

Sandy sighs while bringing a forehoof—one of the few individuals that lacked the cloven-hooved trait of the common kirin—up to her face. “My point, Udrako, is that it doesn’t permit you to tongue my frigg’n house.”

Udrako stomps a foreleg in frustration while Leonard just barely manages to leap out of the way with a panicked neigh before tumbling to the ground.

“Hmph!” The kir-raffe lifts her head in displeasure. “Fine. Be that way, then.”

Sandy rolls her ebony eyes, “Drama queen…”

“Excuse me?” Udrako sharply lowers her neck and places her elongated muzzle and angered gaze mere inches from the kiri-rabian’s face.

“I am not a drama queen!”

“It’s a hard truth, babe, live with it.” Sandy finished with a joyful chuckle, only for Udrako to bonk her on the head with their lower jaw.

“Hey!”

“That’s what you get, dearie.”

“Good morning, Udrako, Sandy!” Mulan’s hurriedly encroaching voice suddenly presents itself, gaining the immediate attention of Leonard, Udrako, and Sandy.

Leonard’s eyes are immediately drawn to the vials attached to a vest thrown over Mulan’s original attire and shoulders, her folded umbrella now strapped to her side as she floats a familiar scroll and a unique jade crystalline writing utensil within her green magical grasp via purple alighted insignias on her horn.

He recognized several of those potions, strikingly resembling what was offered to him in his first awakening.

“Sorry I’m late,” Mulan began after stopping and positioning herself alongside Leonard. “It’s been fairly busy, but one of the girls back there reminded me of something.” She turns to the red-maned stallion, “By my calculations, the potion we gave you—wéi liǎo bāngzhù lǐjiě wǒmen de yǔyán yìnggāi suíshí xiāoshī.”

Leonard tilted his head in confusion as, halfway through, he could no longer understand anything she was saying as she now spoke in Qinese, a language still outlandishly alien to him.

“Tā méi shì bā?”

He couldn’t decipher what Udrako just said, but it certainly looked like a question if her tone, current expression, and shared look with Sandy were of any indication. All the while, Mulan stares at him with wide eyes, her mouth forming a perfect O.

The dark-gray kirin abruptly gasps, realization staking its claim on her features as she shuffles through the vials resting on her vest before plucking one off of a blue coloration.

Leonard nods and snorts positively as the concoction was none other than, as he recalled them naming it, a Translation Potion. He quickly approaches Mulan, who’d taken the initiative to pop off the cork during his approach, and offers it to the stallion, who gently bites down on the vial’s neck before lifting his head up to spill its contents down his throat.

He relished the blueberry flavor with a joyful whinny escaping out of flaring nostrils, licking his lips upon emptying the potion to its last drop and offering the now-empty vial to Mulan.

A moment of silence takes hold, save for the activities of nearby residents of Peak Village, Sandy’s flaring forge, and the magical properties of Mulan’s horn as she continues to hold the scroll and writing utensil.

“Can you understand us now, Leonard?”

Leonard nods, tapping the ground with a forehoof and waving his tail.

“Ah, I see,” Sandy chimed in. “So you’ve been giving him a Translation Potion.”

“That’s correct,” Mulan responds.

“We should consider giving that name some more thought,” Udrako comments.

“Meh,” Sandy shrugged, “Sounds good enough to me. Fewer words, greater impact, you know? Besides, we weren’t the ones who came up with that name, so feel free to go out there and file a complaint with whoever formed the recipe.”

“And get caught by one of Oolong’s barbaric search parties? I think not. It’s an absolute nightmare out there, so I’ll be staying here where it’s nice and peaceful, thank you very much.”

“...I wasn’t being serious, Udrako. Sheesh. Maybe I should stop by your classroom and teach the pups an essential subject called Reading Between the Lines. That, and Sense of Humor.”

“Ack! How dare you insinuate that I am not a paragon of such things.”

While the duo continued to converse, Mulan giggled at their antics, followed by turning her attention to Leonard, who was equally amused by the scenario.

“As I was saying before the language barrier interrupted us.”

The stallion turns his head to her with flickering ears.

“The Translation Potion’s effect lasts twenty-four hours before requiring its user to take another shot. And as you saw for yourself, this is around the same time Rainy and I gave you your first concoction.”

Leonard nods in understanding and starts to eye the scroll and crystalline writing tool within the kirin’s jade-colored magical grasp.

“You’re going to love what I have for you here,” Mulan said upon noticing the stallion’s interest. “Although, depending on how things turn out with the waters from the Stream of Silence, you might not even need these.”

She floats the items and maneuvers them into the most extensive pocket set at the rear of her vest before looking over to Sandy and Udrako, still argumentatively locked in whatever subject they’re now chewing into each other for.

“Girls… If I could interrupt your lover’s quarrel for a moment.”

Their ears shot up at that as their formerly furious gazes morphed into beet-red embarrassment.

“We aren’t lovers!” They shout in unison, looking her way.

Mulan covers her muzzle to muffle her laughter. “If you say so. Now, Sandy, is your mother still inside preparing our meal?”

Sandy clears her throat as she and Udrako take a step away from each other. “Y-yeah. Breakfast should be almost ready by now.”

“Excellent. We shall head inside and prepare ourselves. Udrako?”

“Present and ready, dearie. How might I be of service?”

“Leonard here will be needing a teacher, and who better than the daughter of Peak Village’s greatest molder of minds.”

“It would be my absolute pleasure.” The kir-affe spreads her forelegs apart and lowers her neck to perform a respectful bow. She then rises back up and wiggles her ears pleasantly.

“Speaking of which, I’d best be off, dears. Class will be starting soon, and the pups are likely gathering at their appropriate schoolhouse by now. I’d hate to ask this of you, empress, but could you bring Leonard to the school grounds when he’s ready? Our faculty can take care of it from there.”

“I most certainly can do that. Thank you, Udrako. May the great Buddha watch over you.”

“We need the Buddha now more than ever in these troubling times, dearie. Tian knows we do.” Udrako finishes with a nod and hums a melody as her long legs carry her along. She casually yet carefully steps over Leonard and Mulan and continues on toward the western portion of Peak Village.

“See you later, home-muncher!” Sandy exclaimed while waving a forehoof.

“Sorry, Sandy, can’t hear you from up here~!” The kir-affe responds at a generous distance, passing by the last vestiges of booths positioned within the heart of Peak Village. “Ohohoho~!”

The kiri-rabian chuckles while lowering her hoof. “That long-necked pain in my flank. You gotta love her.”

Her ears twitch in response to Leonard and Mulan’s approach, and she shifts her sights toward them.

“Now then… Who’s hungry?”

“Absolutely,” Mulan answered—Leonard, whinnying enthusiastically.

“Well, I appreciate the enthusiasm for my mother’s cooking. With that in mind,” Sandy gestures with her head toward the closed brown circular entrance to the house, “Follow me.”

The home’s circular door is willed open via Sandy’s white magic, the dots on her pair of yellow horns glowing with the same coloration as the prowess they displayed and manipulated.

“Mother!” Sandy called out as she, Leonard, and Mulan entered the home, her voice echoing down the hall, splashing against the hollowed-out tree ceiling alongside the group’s steps, clopping against the wooden planked floor. “The empress and Leonard are here!”

“I’m just finishing up the rice, Scorchy!” A voice similar to Sandy’s yet deeper in comparison responds.

From what Leonard could tell, it was coming from the second doorway down the hall to the left. As if the interior at the entrance wasn’t evidence enough, the visible layout already spoke volumes to the stallion of just how small his residency was in comparison.

“Take them into the living room for me, will you?! I’ll be there in just a second!”

“You got it!” Sandy responds, looking back to her guests, “It’s just over here,” she indicates from the forefront and proceeds to guide them down the hallway before standing alongside the doorway adjacent to where her mother’s voice originated from.

Mulan is the first to disappear around the corner, followed by Leonard as Sandy falls in at his rear. The red-maned stallion immediately admired the living room’s aesthetic, which aligned nicely with the qinese motif that dominates the village.

A pair of three-cushioned light-brown sofas sat on either side of a rectangular dark-brown mahogany table’s length, with a duo of single chairs sharing identical colors to the sofas resting at its widths.

While Mulan sets herself down on one of the three-cushioned furnishings, Sandy resting on the other, Leonard continues his sightseeing. His eyes soon laid upon the first of several pictures lined neatly alongside one another, which depicts-

“The stallion you see in there is my father, Joseph,” Sandy comments. “And that balance of badassery and beauty alongside him is my mother. You can certainly see who I took after. Shit, were it not for the patches of scales and these horns on my head, I’d be my father with a vagina.”

“The product of a beautiful couple,” Mulan added, having stripped herself of the vest and set it on the cushion beside her. At the same time, a familiar scroll and crystalline writing utensil were placed on the table. “It was an absolute honor to officiate your parents’ wedding. I can’t believe it’s already been shy of two hundred years since then…”

“I can’t believe mother managed to fit into her ceremonial kimono while still pregnant for yours truly.”

“You’d better not let your mother hear you say that.”

Leonard snorts in amusement as the kirin share joined laughter, and he returns his attention to the pictures. However, he noticed something particular about them. It was the way they were aligned; it wasn’t random. It all came together to form a sort of timeline.

Within every picture, the stallion amongst the family of three continues to grow older and older, along with the young Sandy. That is until, in the very last frame…he was absent.

The encroaching rattling of dishes and silverware suddenly made itself known, followed by the presence of Sandy’s mother, who stepped through the doorframe and paused to survey their guests with an unreadable expression while floating a bountiful feast within her golden magical aura.

Her appearance struck Leonard as the pictures pale in comparison to the real deal. Her right ear was noticeably missing a large portion from the top, clearly having been sliced off. Several battle scars were present all across her body, along with missing scales that failed to grow back.

And yet, despite her form that screams of past battles, her brown coat, golden scales, green mane, duo of white horns with golden dots, and red eyes were part of the beauty that still persisted.

Leonard took a decisive step forward, drawing Sandy and Mulan’s attention while he locked eyes with the scarred one.

No… She was so much more than that, and he had to give her what any Redmane worth their salt would if they saw what he saw.

“L-Leonard…?” Mulan questioned in confusion as the stallion stopped by the table, but he maintained eye contact with the brown-coated individual. “What are you doing?”

Sandy raises an eyebrow, “You’d better not try anything funny with my mother, pal,” she threatened.

The stallion seemingly ignores them both as he fluently picks up the scroll and writing utensil off the table. With the items in his grasp, Leonard resumes his approach and stands a respectable distance away from the battle-hardened kirin, who uses her magic to float the platted food, teapots, cups, and a basket full of bread over to the table.

Yet neither of them ever broke eye contact.

Leonard closes his eyes and exhales, seemingly having lost the ‘staring contest.’ He then lowers himself to bow respectfully, the action garnering a pair of gasps from Sandy and Mulan. At that moment, the kirin he honored seemed to be taken aback by the action, her eyes widening as her muzzle fell slightly agape.

He rises and proceeds to unfurl the scroll, sitting on his flank and jotting something down with the jade writing tool. Both the tool and scroll react after the stallion finishes writing down his thoughts, and what he had etched onto the scroll’s face is now present for all to see via magically inscribed green texts.

We barely know each other, but I can tell that you are a mighty warrior. Redmane code of honor demands that I pay you my utmost respect. Knowing your name would also be a pleasure so that I may remember it for the rest of my life.

And should I ever find my way home again, I will sing its praise to my brothers and sisters in arms.

Both Sandy and Mulan were simply awed by those words and the bowing gesture. As for the warrior standing before Leonard’s eyes, she stares at the floating words silently and stoically.

And after moments passed by, a joyful chuckle escaped from the kirin’s throat.

“You must be Leonard, then. My heart beats at your praise, young warrior, and I’d be proud to exchange with you properly.”

Her gaze hardens as she shifts her form in a militaristic fashion, standing at a height just below two meters, enough to rival that of Rain Shine and Leonard.

“I am she who once served as the Jade Emperor’s tactician.

I am she who was trained by Sun Wukong—my master and father, though not by blood, whose name I have gladly taken as my own.

I am a survivor of an age long since passed. I witnessed the unfortunate demise of Bailong and the rise of the tyrannical Oolong.

I am… Sun Tzu.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 18~ Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 6 Minutes