Chapter 21 The Flying Bird
"don't want!"
A mournful child's voice rang out in the main hall.
It was Xie Mianmian. She struggled to be held in Wen Shuwan's arms, her eyes brimming with tears, her sadness almost overflowing.
Through the hazy dampness, the childlike, sorrowful eyes gazed at a pair of wild yet gentle amber pupils.
The beautiful feathers were broken, and the broken feathers, mixed with blood, drifted sparsely through the cold iron cage and landed on the luxurious floor tiles.
Someone in the hall turned their head away in dismay, saying, "What a terrible thing to do."
Some people's eyes concealed an unknown excitement and madness, and they felt their blood boiling.
After a while, the golden eagle withdrew its gaze from Xie Mianmian. Following Handa's previous instructions, it stretched its right leg, which was locked in shackles, backward, folded its left wing in front of its chest, and spread its eight-foot-long right wing backward.
It lowered its proud head and bowed deeply to the people in the high hall.
"Good!" The people of Beirong took the lead in clapping and cheering.
Seeing the unruly golden eagle obediently follow orders, Handa proudly puffed out his chest and bowed to the emperor, saying, "This is the fiercest eagle on the grasslands, specially sent to Your Majesty to bring you blessings and wish you good health and happiness!"
The Emperor said in a deep voice, "Thank you for your thoughtfulness."
Then, Handa whistled and made a few gestures, and the golden eagle stopped resisting and carried them out.
The tall and mighty ruler of the grasslands, like a marionette, obediently followed the puppeteer's movements, providing amusement for the dignitaries in the palace.
He received several more rounds of enthusiastic applause, and Handa's confidence swelled to the extreme. He believed that he had successfully tamed the eagle.
He turned and opened the iron cage. "Next, I will release the golden eagle. Within five breaths, it will surely return to the cage."
Handa wasn't worried that the golden eagle wouldn't return. Although he had just given it the antidote, the golden eagle would depend on him for survival as long as the poison in its body remained.
There was much discussion in the hall.
"Did he think he was training a homing pigeon? How could it come back on its own after being hit like that?"
Some people thought of something deeper: "If the Northern Rong people can even tame such fierce golden eagles, and use them on the battlefield in the future, the Great Zhou will be in grave danger."
What they could think of, the emperor could also think of.
Beneath his yellow robe, the emperor gripped the armrests of the chair tightly. The Northern Rong people's blessing was a pretense; their true intention was provocation. Very well, the emperor kept his eyes fixed on the golden eagle, watching to see what it would do next.
Handa knew that the golden eagle was intelligent, so he whispered a few threats to it and patted the antidote bottle tied to his waist, signaling the golden eagle to come back within five breaths, as its life was in his hands.
Handa freed himself from the heavy shackles that had bound the golden eagle's feet for days, turned to face the crowd, closed his eyes, and confidently raised his arms.
"Woo!" The golden eagle raised its head and let out a loud cry, as if it had regained its former glory.
It spread its enormous wings and flapped them a few times, causing those nearby to feel a strong gust of wind and squint.
With a few flaps of its wings, the golden eagle vanished from the hall in the blink of an eye. Everyone looked outside, but it was pitch black, and they could only vaguely see a blurry shadow flying in the sky.
Handa silently counted to five breaths: five, four, three...
The golden eagle did not return.
two……
Handa broke out in a fine layer of cold sweat.
one……
The golden eagle returned. It circled above everyone's heads a few times, but refused to go into the iron cage.
Suddenly, it flew swiftly towards Handa.
Before Handa's horrified eyes, the golden eagle swooped down, its hard beak pecking fiercely at his eyes.
"Ah!" Handa let out a non-human scream, covering his bleeding eyes with both hands.
"Protect the Emperor!" The guards drew their swords and protected the Emperor.
The golden eagle stopped not far from Xie Mianmian and bowed deeply to the child. "Thank you, Mianmian. I am finally free. I am going back to my place, a cliff. See you again, Xie Mianmian."
The golden eagle took one last deep look at Xie Mianmian before flying away into the blue sky.
Xie Mianmian staggered out, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted at the sky, "Be happy and carefree, Golden Eagle!"
The echo of a golden eagle's "whoosh! whoosh!" came from the sky. It flew away, and the imprisoned soul was finally free.
Tuoba Hong ordered his men to drag the half-dead Handa away. He was somewhat embarrassed. "This was just a small mistake. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
The Emperor was relieved, but said in a cold tone, "The eagle trainer was pecked in the eye by an eagle. I believe the Second Prince has his own considerations regarding what he should and shouldn't do."
Tuoba Hong bowed to the emperor, intending to demonstrate to the Great Zhou that they had the ability to tame wild beasts and build an army, using this as leverage to demand more cities during negotiations between the two countries.
As is well known, their attempt to steal a chicken backfired, and they ended up dragging down the most skilled animal trainer, Handa.
Tuoba Hong was unwilling to give up. He said, "I believe that the Great Zhou has a wealth of talent and there must be many excellent beast tamers. I have a ferocious beast that I captured from the deep mountains and forests. I would like to see the Great Zhou's powerful beast taming methods."
The crowd fell silent. They knew nothing about animal taming. Lions, tigers, bears, and wolves existed, but they were usually shot during hunts. Who would tame them? They all looked at the Emperor.
The Emperor: ...He doesn't have a penchant for taming wild animals either. Does the Tibetan Mastiff count?
Without waiting for the emperor's response, Tuoba Hong clapped his hands, and his men pushed up a half-person-high iron cage, the very one that had startled Xie Mianmian.
Inside, a series of thuds, like wooden sticks striking iron bars, echoed continuously, extremely harsh and heavy, each sound seemingly striking the hearts of everyone present.
"Whoever can subdue this creature will be richly rewarded by me," the Emperor said slowly, seeing the silence of the crowd.
The people of Da Zhou looked at each other, the civil officials winking at the military officials, "Go quickly, aren't you usually the loudest shouters yelling for battle?"
The military officer glared back fiercely. This was a matter of life and death. Why didn't you use pen, ink, paper, and inkstone to persuade the guy in the cage?
Seeing the people of Da Zhou cowering in fear, Tuoba Hong said sarcastically, "Is no one coming? Why not send that child who just rushed out and shouted at the golden eagle? I think she has some talent for taming beasts." He then burst into laughter.
"This brat is arrogant!" The military officer was furious. No matter how cowardly they were, they would never let a child conquer a ferocious beast for them.
"That child just now was Xie's youngest daughter. Did you see that? The golden eagle even bowed to her before it left!"
"Yeah, she even chased after the golden eagle and talked to it. Is she born with some kind of connection to wild animals?"
Another person whispered to the person next to him, "I think if we let that kid out, he might actually be able to be disciplined."
"Are you crazy! Sending a five-year-old girl to face a ferocious beast alone!" The speaker thought to himself, "What if?"
Hearing what the officials next to them said, the Xie family members were furious. Listen to what they were saying! Why don't they let their children go out to tame animals?
The Emperor, observing the commotion below, asked, "Who is willing to come out?"
"I do!" came the resounding voice of a young girl.
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