Song of the Spring Moon Waning Read Free Page B

translate the Moon Poems."
    "Are you sure?" The thrush looked back at him.
    It was all fine and good for there to be talking animals in a dream, but it was a very different story if they talked to him when he was awake. He looked away from them, up at the field that ended with a row of trees. There was someone moving towards him through the field. Wen Yu squinted, raising one hand to shield his eyes from the sun.
    The figure coming towards him wore silk robes very much like his own, except with bright-colored brocade patterns along the bottom, nearly to the waist, and on each sleeve. It might have depicted birds, but at this distance, he couldn't be sure.
    "Good, he's finally here," the thrush said. "Took his time about it too."
    Back in his tiny room in Imperial City, Wen Yu jerked awake to the sound of tapping at his window.
    Wen Yu stumbled up and over to the window, opening the shutters in time for a small brown bird to flutter in. The bird circled the room and then came to rest on the edge of Wen Yu's wash bucket.
    "No, no." Wen Yu made for the bird, still half-asleep. "You shouldn't be in here, little one, this isn't where you belong."
    The bird chirped at him but stayed where it was, remarkably unafraid. Wen Yu peered at it, trying to push away the fog of sleep that crowed all the good sense out of his mind. Eventually he concluded that the bird was a thrush.
    "Good." Wen Yu stomped back over to his blankets. "I suppose you are going to want to talk to me too? You'll have to wait. I'm sleeping." To drive his point home, he lay down and wrapped himself in his blanket again, rolling to face away from the bird.
    The bird chirruped but did not speak.
    Wen Yu nestled into the blankets, feeling remarkably peaceful for the first time in what felt like years. He knew he should get up and begin his studies again, but the blankets were warm and soft. Maybe it would be all right if he slept a little longer.
    He dozed in the warmth of his blankets, woken again sometime later by the sound of the bird pecking at his window shutters, this time from the inside of the room. Wen Yu sat up and yawned, then scrubbed one hand across his face. He stood and went to the kettle to make his morning tea. Tea in hand, Wen Yu idly watched the bird cling to the shutters as he took a sip. The tea was good, hot and invigorating; drinking tea instead of wine was supposed to the make the senses keener, or so he'd been told.
    A thought formed in the back of his mind and traveled along its inner recesses until it met another thought, and the two together began the trek to the front of Wen Yu's consciousness.
    Wen Yu set aside his tea. He knew of someone looking for a thrush.
    *~*~*
    Birds, it turned out, were surprisingly hard to catch without hurting the bird or himself in the process. He only managed it halfway, ending up with bruised shins but an undamaged thrush. He threw the water in the bucket out the window, upending it over the bird. With a now-snared thrush, Wen Yu dressed with all due speed and went out to buy a birdcage.
    "This is a very nice birdcage," the man at the shop told Wen Yu, who eyed it.
    It looked small to him, even for a small bird like a thrush. Maybe it was actually a large cricket cage. It was also quite a bit above his price range. Wen Yu turned it over in his hands and knew that if he were to buy it he wouldn't be spending time at Zhi Ping's noodle shop any time soon.
    "It's very well crafted." The balding merchant ran one plump pink hand across the tiny birdcage in a loving manner. "Very popular, this design. Very fashionable these days; your lady wife will be pleased with this purchase."
    "Do you have something a little bigger?" Wen Yu asked. "Maybe bamboo?"
    The merchant dropped his hand, not looking at all pleased, probably because the bamboo cages were cheaper. "We do have this one, honorable student." He bustled into the back of the shop and came back with a much larger bamboo cage. "But I would recommend this if you