Tao Zi shrank back, his dark eyes wide with panic.
Zhāo Yàn crossed his arms, his tails swaying dangerously. "You have a very strange way of showing affection, firing poisoned arrows at children."
"The arrow was a warning shot! To scatter the lowlanders!" the scarred leader insisted, dropping to one knee in the dirt. He looked directly at Tao Zi, placing a hand over his heart in a dramatic, sweeping gesture of loyalty.
"Young Master," the jaguar rasped, his voice dripping with sudden reverence. "We are the true loyalists of the Jade Jaguar Clan. We survived the coup five years ago. We have been searching the continent for you. We came to rescue you from these savages and return you to your rightful throne in the southern jungles!"
Tao Zi blinked. He looked at the kneeling man, a spark of desperate, aching hope flickering in his terrified eyes. Loyalists? People from his home? People who hadn't forgotten him?
