Information

Xiao
Legacy Name: Andar

The Custom Chibi Paralix
Owner: Faber

Age: 6 years, 4 weeks

Born: March 22nd, 2018

Adopted: 6 years, 1 week, 6 days ago

Adopted: April 5th, 2018

Statistics

• Level: 14
   
• Strength: 26
   
• Defense: 22
   
• Speed: 10
   
• Health: 16
   
• HP: 16/16
   
• Intelligence: 156
   
• Books Read: 147
• Food Eaten: 0
• Job: Stylist

Mei was awoken by the fire alarm going off downstairs. She rolled over to check her phone display. 2 am. It was the third time that month. She sighed and got out of bed.

She had a fuzzy red bath robe on the back of her door for such situations. In the event of a real emergency she would have stopped to grab things, her purse, her laptop, the store's ledger she had been working on late into the night before going to bed, important things. But, this wasn't a real emergency. She threw the robe on over her pajamas, and walked down the stairs to the tea shop's employee entrance.

The panel to control the alarm system was right next to the door, and she put in the code to disarm it as soon as she had the door unlocked. The shrill alarm stopped, and as soon as she could hear herself think again, she called, "Xiao!"

Claws skittered on the tile floor as a ferret-sized dragon scampered to sit at Mei's feet. He was holding his head low, gritting his teeth and squinting his eyes; dragon body-language for "I messed up, I'm sorry."

Mei squatted on her heels so she could better get on his level. "I know you didn't mean to set off the alarm, Xiao," she said gently as she could manage. She had a headache from the alarm, and was getting frustrated at how much sleep she was going to miss out on tonight already. "But we've talked about this, right?"

The dragon nodded his head quickly. As far as Mei could tell, he understood English perfectly, as well as several dialects of Chinese. Her grandmother's customers, who were her customers now that her grandmother had passed, often spoke to Xiao in long, one-sided conversations, none of which Mei could understand. But Xiao always seemed to listen with interest.

"I know you're just trying to breathe fire. But when you make too much smoke, it triggers that alarm there," Mei pointed to the sensor in the ceiling. "So please just be careful, okay?"

Xiao curled around Mei's feet, rubbing her ankles imploringly. She reached down to stroke him like a cat, and he chirped gratefully.

"No more fire alarms, okay?" Mei asked.

Xiao nodded again and rubbed his face against Mei's hand with affection.

"Okay," Mei said, and stood up again. "I'm going back to bed, but I'll be here to give you breakfast and open up in a few hours."

Xiao trilled happily at the mention of breakfast.

Mei locked up again and headed back to her room above the shop. All was quiet the rest of the night.

---

The next morning, Mei returned to the shop as promised, unlocking the door to find Xiao waiting eagerly. "Morning, little one. I have a treat with breakfast."

Xiao's whole body shivered with anticipation.

Mei dropped off her purse and the shop's ledger in the little back office and headed to the employee bathroom where Xiao's food and water bowls were. Xiao was sitting in front of his food bowl and staring at Mei with big eyes. She patted him on the head and pulled out a tupperware container from behind her back. "You get some leftover dumplings to go with your kibble today. How does that sound?"

Xiao squeaked some high pitched noises and tapped his feet on the floor, waiting as patiently as he could while Mei emptied the container into his bowl. As soon as she pulled away he attacked the food like he was starving. He wasn't starving; he ate three meals a day, supplemented by any treats the older customers brought for him, and any crickets or mice that made the mistake of coming into the shop. He just really liked food.

"You be good today, and there will be more of that for supper," Mei promised. Xiao was too busy stuffing his face to respond, but his tail whipped with excitement.

Mei left the bathroom to go open up the store. It was important to her grandmother that Mei always opened promptly at 7, every morning, even if usually only a couple of regulars would wander in before 8. Mei did a lot of things the way her grandmother had wanted, but not everything. Mei's grandmother wanted Mei to learn Mandarin, and Mei's mother only wanted Mei to learn English growing up. Mei still didn't completely understand that. She had inherited the shop when her grandmother passed, and now every day felt like trying to navigate a maze in the dark.

She put out the street sign which declared "Liu Tea and Grocery, Best in Town," even if Mei doubted that last part. Maybe when her grandmother ran the place it was best in town, but now customers would come in and ask questions in Chinese and Mei would have to sheepishly explain that she didn't know how to help them. She knew she shouldn't take it so hard, but it always left her feeling useless.

A young couple walked past, coffee cups from the chain store up the road in hand. They didn't have the time or the tastebuds for the types of tea Mei's grandmother had always insisted she keep in stock. Mei sighed and walked back to the counter to play with the mahjong tiles by the register.

Twenty minutes later a young woman wandered in the shop with a toddler in tow. She walked over to the section for matcha, so Mei went over to see if she needed help with anything.

Mei was discussing what matcha was, and how to prepare it when the woman's little boy shouted, "Dwagon!"

Xiao had trotted over to see who was visiting, but he was startled by the sudden shout. He arched his back in surprise and hopped back.

The woman grabbed the boy's hand and pulled him closer to her. "Careful, honey," she said to him, "Remember, dragons breathe fire. Don't get close!"

"Oh, he's fine," Mei assured the woman, not wanting to lose a customer, "that's Xiao, he can't breathe fire, only smoke."

Xiao huffed, visibly irritated, and stalked off. The woman seemed placated, and she picked out some matcha to buy. Mei rang her out, and waited until she had left to go find where Xiao had disappeared off to.

She found him sulking in the bathroom, blowing smoke-filled bubbles in his water dish. Mei turned on the bathroom fan to vent the smoke, remembering afresh the fire alarm that woke her earlier that morning. "I'm sorry, Xiao," she said, putting the toilet lid down so she could sit on it. "I didn't mean to offend you. I know you wish you could breathe fire, but fire scares people sometimes, and I didn't want the lady being scared of you."

Xiao blew another smoke bubble and wouldn't look at her.

"I wish I knew how to help you," Mei continued, "I wish I knew how to help anyone, but I can't even help myself." She sighed and covered her face with her hands. Some days the stress of everything got to her more than usual, and today seemed destined to be one of those days. Her thoughts had started to spiral into anxieties and insecurities when she was brought back by the feeling of Xiao rubbing against her ankles. She reached down to pet him. "I'll try to do better, okay?" she asked.

Xiao chirped, and it sounded to Mei like he was promising the same.

---

Mei was back at the cash register, idly setting up the mahjong tiles and knocking them over like dominos. A male voice said something in a Chinese dialect, and she looked up in surprise. She hadn't heard anyone come in.

"Sorry, I only speak English," she said in apology.

The man waved a hand dismissively, a familiar gesture Mei had seen her grandmother do whenever Mei said something she considered ignorant. "I said, do you still have Huangshan Maofeng?"

Mei bit her lip, "Hm," she said, "That sounds familiar, is it tea?"

"Yes, a green tea," the man replied, "Chiang kept it here." He led Mei to a section in front which was now home to a small selection of traditional clay teapots that were surprisingly popular with people Mei's age who considered themselves tea enthusiasts. Mei's grandmother would have disapproved of the placement, profitability be damned.

"Ah, yes, it is probably over here now," Mei said, guiding him to a section a little further back. She started reading the stickers on the shelf, looking for one that sounded similar to what he'd asked for.

The man said something in Chinese again, and Mei looked over to see him pat Xiao on the head, who had wandered over to greet him. He said something else to Xiao, who joined Mei in scanning the shelves.

Mei had worked her way halfway down when she heard Xiao give a trill of triumph.

"He beat you to it" the man said with amusement in his voice, "That is my tea."

Mei grabbed the little bag Xiao nudged with his nose. "Shall I ring you up?"

"Yes, please," the man replied to Mei. He turned to Xiao and said something that Mei assumed meant "Thank you," in the language they shared.

At the counter, Mei packaged the tea and took the man's money.

"It is good to see Chiang's little dragon still here," the man said. "Things change so quickly. I'm glad to see one thing is still the same."

"How did you know my grandmother?" Mei asked.

"I moved here right after coming to America. I didn't know anyone, and everything seemed so foreign here. Your grandmother reminded me of my aunts back home. I would come visit this shop when I was homesick. I was very sorry to hear of her passing."

Mei handed the man his change and his tea. "I wish she was still here," she said.

"Me too. Thank you for the tea."

Mei dipped her head in respect as the man left the store, and started to put away the mahjong tiles. Beside her, there was a scramble of clicks from Xiao's claws as he climbed up onto the cash register. Seeing him sitting atop it reminded Mei of when she used to visit the store as a child, back when her grandmother ran the place.

"Am I making a mistake?" she asked Xiao.

He cocked his head in a gesture that showed his confusion.

"Trying to run this shop. I don't know the people, I don't know the language, I barely know the culture at all. Honestly, I'm beginning to think Grandmother made a mistake in leaving the shop to me."

Xiao stared at her for a moment with a pensive expression, before climbing down into the desk which housed the cash register and rummaging around in one of the drawers.

"What are you up to in there?" Mei asked.

After another minute of the sounds of small claws raking through papers and odds and ends, Xiao emerged with a small book in his mouth.

Mei took it from him gently and stared at it in awe. It was old, and worn, but the cover read, in big red letters, "Chinese to English Dictionary." She opened the front cover, and had to sit down. There was her mother's neat handwriting. "To better understand your grandchild, with love, your daughter."

Mei looked up at Xiao, who was once again perched on the cash register. "I thought Grandmother learned English long before I came along. She always spoke it so well. Even when I was a kid her English was better than any other relative I've met."

Xiao glanced down at the book in Mei's hands and then looked back up at her.

Mei turned to the next page, and then the next. All over the pages were her grandmother's writing in tiny, flowing script. She had taken notes in all the margins. Words, sentences, things she heard in the shop in English and wanted to look up later. She flipped through more of the pages, stopping when she spied notes in ink of a different color. By the entry for "Grandchild" her grandmother had circled the word and wrote Mei's name beside it in Chinese and English.

Mei found tears coming to her eyes, and she shut the book. "Thank you, Xiao," she said, "I will treasure this."

Xiao nodded and settled in for a nap. Mei gave him an affectionate pat on the head and went to the back to order an English to Chinese dictionary of her own.

---

Weeks went by, and Mei's Mandarin pronunciation remained atrocious, but she was slowly getting better. She practiced by saying things to Xiao, and if he understood her, she figured she'd said it mostly right.

Mei was in a good mood. The financials of the store were doing okay, and the regulars loved that she was greeting them in their native tongue.

Xiao was down, however. He had set off the fire alarm again, two times in as many weeks. Mei didn't know how to help him. He clearly missed being able to summon flames with just his breath, but Mei didn't understand what it was about that which made him so sad.

It was the end of the day once when Mei used a match to light some incense and Xiao ran away to hide. It was only afterwards that she realized maybe lighting incense was something he used to do for her grandmother.

She found him in the bathroom and sat down next to him. "You miss her, don't you?" she asked.

He looked up at her in understanding.

"I miss her too. You haven't been the same since she died, and neither have I. It hurts that she's gone."

Xiao crawled into Mei's lap and put his chin on her arm.

"I wish I knew how to help you. You helped me, you know that?"

Xiao looked up to meet her eyes.

"With the book. She learned English for me. I understand that now. I didn't learn Mandarin for her when she was alive, but I can do it now, in her memory. It helps to do something that reminds me of her."

They sat in silence for a few moments, before Xiao crawled off her lap and headed off towards the front desk.

Mei got up to follow him and found him rummaging once more in the desks drawers. He pulled something out on a string. It took a moment for Mei to realize what she was looking at.

"Are those fire crackers?" she asked.

Xiao nodded vigorously.

"We can't have those in the shop, those are a fire hazard!"

Xiao immediately looked hurt, and Mei regretted her choice of words. "I'm sorry. We'll take them outside. Okay? But we can't light them off here, we'd have to be outside the city limits for it to be legal."

Xiao nodded. Outside was acceptable.

Mei had an idea. "Let's get your carrier, we need to take a taxi."

Mei brought in the "Liu Tea and Grocery, Best in Town" sign and locked the doors. She grabbed the soft-sided carrier from her apartment along with her coat. With Xiao safely inside, she went out to the street and hailed a taxi. The taxi took them out into the countryside, where the sun was setting in beautiful oranges and reds.

The taxi stopped at the cemetery, and agreed to come back in an hour to pick them back up.

Mei found the headstone with her grandmother's name engraved on it and let Xiao out of his carrier. He walked up to the stone and pressed his head against it, a gesture Mei recognized from when Xiao would sit on top of the cash register and Mei's grandmother would press her forehead against his.

Mei knelt down, pulled an orange from her bag, and placed it on the base of the stone--something she had seen her mother do upon visiting the graves of relatives.

"We missed you, Grandmother," Mei said, "I thought we would come and say hello. Or should I say, nǐ hǎo? I'm learning Mandarin, just as you learned English. It's slow going, but Xiao thinks I'm getting better."

Xiao gave her a look of amusement and seemed to shrug his shoulders.

"Well, I'm not getting worse, anyway. The shop is doing well. The kids my age are really starting to get into tea. I know they aren't the audience you wanted, but they're being surprisingly respectful. They're researching Chinese traditions, and making tea the old fashioned way, I think you'd be proud."

Mei scratched Xiao between the ears.

"Xiao gave me your book. Your English dictionary. I haven't read all of your notes yet, but I will. And I got a Chinese dictionary of my own. I plan to add notes as I go just like you did."

Mei reached into her bag and pulled out the string of firecrackers.

"Xiao found something else too. I know it isn't new years, but I was thinking maybe he wanted to light these off here. With you."

Mei hung the string from a wooden stick she'd brought just for that purpose, and propped it up in the indent on the gravestone meant for incense.

"It's probably not the goodbye you would have approved of, but I figured you could make an exception for us, just tonight."

She nodded to Xiao, who looked at her a little worried.

"You can do it. She's with you, here. She's with both of us."

Xiao steadied himself, staring at the string of firecrackers for a long moment.

When he opened his mouth, smoke started to come out, and for a moment Mei thought she had been wrong, and that he wouldn't be able to conjure fire again after all, but then as he pushed harder, a small flame started and came out in a rush. The string of firecrackers caught and they both sat back to watch the sparks fly with bright pops in the waning light.

"Yeah," Mei said, once the noise had died down, "I think we'll be okay, don't you?" she asked Xiao.

He nodded. Mei pulled out a container of leftover dumplings, and they shared the meal in thoughtful silence, surrounded by the smell of gunpowder and oranges.

fin

Credits: profile/story by Faber, profile art by triangle, overlay by frederick

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