Blue Dragon

that I slid down his body, moving easily on the silk robes. He raised himself on his elbows to see my reaction, his expression full of amusement.
    I’d wondered about that, and now I knew. The Celestial Form was complete and he was huge everywhere .
    I grinned wickedly and climbed back up to his face. This was interesting.
    ‘Can you shrink down to about three metres tall?’ I whispered.
    He became smaller beneath me. Now it was very interesting.
    ‘Tell me if it’s too much,’ he whispered. ‘I can change my size.’
    ‘I wonder if Louise knows about the Tiger’s Celestial Form,’ I wondered out loud.
    ‘They all do,’ he said. ‘But his Celestial Form requires more than one.’
    ‘One what?’
    He smiled gently. ‘Wife.’
    ‘What about you?’ I said, running my hand through the wild tangle of silken hair around his head.
    ‘I’m sure one of you is more than sufficient,’ he said, brushing his hands up and down my back.
    I leaned closer. ‘How do I get you out of these robes?’ I said, fingering the black silk at his neck.
    ‘You don’t,’ he said, and the robes were gone. The skin of his Celestial Form was dark all over. Not completely black, like Leo; more a dark silken mahogany colour. It still felt smooth and fine, stretched over the toned muscles, same as his human form. The Celestial Form was as magnificent as the human form, but on a grander scale. Everything was on a grander scale.
    I traced my finger over the muscles of his chest, enjoying the silken feeling, then sat back and admired him. He watched me with amusement.
    ‘John Chen Wu,’ I said, throwing my arms around his neck, ‘you never cease to amaze me.’
    He sat up and towered over me, then bent so that his mouth was next to my ear, his beard tickling my throat. His voice was very soft as he put his hands under my thighs and lifted me. ‘Good.’
    I cuddled into him and he pulled his arm tighter around my shoulder. I brushed my hand over his chest. He was easier to hold in human form.
    ‘Promise me you’ll come back for me,’ I said.
    ‘I promise.’
    ‘I wish I knew how long it will take.’
    ‘So do I.’ His voice was a low rumble through his chest, and I could feel his heart beating, strong and slow. ‘I will return for you.’
    ‘I have a feeling,’ I said.
    ‘So do I.’
    ‘What’s the line? “I have a very bad feeling about this.”’
    He laughed softly, his chest moving beneath my head. ‘It never ceases to astonish me how perfectly innocent expressions quickly become clichéd. Withmodern media the way it is, very soon all of language will become one huge cliché.’
    ‘There’s a lot of stuff waiting for us just around the corner.’
    He shifted slightly to look down at me. I twisted my head to see his face. I could tell from his expression that I was right.
    He squeezed my shoulders. ‘We will make it through this. The greatest prizes require the greatest effort. And I will find you, and Raise you, and marry you, and take you to live on my Mountain. I promise.’
    I lowered my head into the side of his chest. ‘I want to see the Mountain.’
    ‘I know,’ he said with a sigh. ‘It is very hard not being able to take you there, not being able to see it myself. The photographs that Gold brings do not capture the true essence of the Celestial Mountain.’ He wriggled down to make himself more comfortable and pulled me tighter. ‘It drains the household Shen far too much to take humans backwards and forwards. Jade nearly killed herself when the Celestials moved the students to the Western Palace; and, of course, being a dragon all she did was take herself away and hide without telling anybody.’
    ‘Is that what happened to her,’ I said. ‘I wondered where she’d gone; she was away for a couple of weeks. It must be a very long way.’
    ‘It is about as far as anywhere,’ John said. ‘It is further than any part of the Celestial. It is a very, very long way so that it is difficult for demons to get there.’ He squeezed me. ‘You are already too big inside for any but the largest Shen to take you. I doubt if even the Tiger or the Dragon could take you now.’
    ‘You’re joking,’ I whispered.
    ‘You are the finest human student it has ever been my privilege to teach.’
    ‘You’re just saying that because you want to get into my pants,’ I said, twisting my fingers in his hair where it fell in a wild tangle over both of us. ‘Unethical, you know, student–teacher