Red Panda Goddess

Grand Cheng Cabin

After we enjoy some peaceful time on top of the mountain Mr. Cheng reminds me that we still have a long drive ahead of us and need to hit the road so we climb back down make our way back to the car. Once we get back on to the main road Mr. Cheng turns the music down and starts telling me about his grandfather and the cabin he built. He tells me that the cabin he’s going to be talking about is where we will be staying.

“This is going to be a long story Vemo, so I need you to just keep driving, keep quiet and keep all questions until after I tell the story. Once I’m done we should be at the village where we will park the car and it will stay there with my uncle until we need it to leave or go to the city. Alright so let me think back...ah yes I think I’ll start like this. I would go to my grandfathers cabin every summer and winter to spend two months there each season. Because I didn’t go to a traditional public school, my parents were able to send me there for lessons that only my grandfather could teach me. He was a very wise old man that lived by himself in a small part of the Wudang Mountains in China that was secluded. But it was near enough to a village that he would make a weekly trip there to get supplies and whenever I visited, he would make me make the trip with him. His cabin was on top of a large hill in the middle of a forest, there were 8 paths that ventured out from the cabin and they never seemed to grow over, the trees and plants always kept his trails clean and visible even in the dark of night. It was almost like the spirits of nature respected him to a point that nature itself accepted him as one of their own. The first path led down the hill and about 10 miles to the village. He would start at dawn and reach the village around noon after gathering everything and having a meal at his favorite restaurant he would make the trip back just in time to sit in the back yard and watch the sunset. The second path led north to a mountain where there were 2 springs. One spring flowed so perfectly out of the way that it made a small river that ran directly west of his house and was about a 10 minute walk to get fresh water. He built two small bridges across the river right before it came to a waterfall, the first one led to a big rock jutting out of the falls that was untouched by water and big enough to sit on comfortably. The second bridge led from the other side of that rock to the opposite side where there was a small path leading into the forest. The other spring led to a natural hot spring that had made a pool of itself, but over time he had added rocks and clay to make the pool deeper and more closed off aside from an opening on the east side where it could flow out and animals could come in and use it as well. The third path was directly beside the north path that led to a natural orchard with cherry trees dotting the area and one plum tree in the middle. Surrounding were many berry bushes planted by him and he only picked fruit from certain ones. The plums he would only pick a couple a day and leave the rest for the animals. The fourth path led to a shrine he had built to pay his respects to his family and ancestors. That path was the cleanest path, as if someone were to come by everyday and clean the path. The trees overhung the path and when the leaves would fall they would all float to the side of the path. The fifth path was directly to the river and over the bridges and into the forest. The waterfall was the cleanest source of water and fresh with fish. The sixth path was to a small opening in the forest where once a year a deer would appear there and he told me that the deer was there to show it had come to the end of its life and wanted him to take its body for food and skins. The seventh path was one of the tougher paths because of the uphill climb that seemed to punish you. It led directly to a dead black tree that refused to fall. He told me that when this tree finally falls, my life will come to an end. Every Monday he would go to that tree and hang something on it’s branches. It was never the same thing, sometimes it was a piece of glass, or a bottle he had found. Any kind of garbage or something that would harm an animal or plant he would hang on the tree. I asked him why he did this and he told me to investigate the area and I did so without hesitation. I noticed that all living things avoided this area and the black tree and I looked back at him and told him what I saw. He said because of this being the safest place to rid oneself of bad things I feel it is necessary to do so to give respect back to the forest and its inhabitants. The eighth path led to a large boulder that was sitting to the south about a mile away that he said had been there for thousands of years and there are red pandas that come here to play, he loved watching the pandas play and they seemed to love his company. I believe it was the 4th year of my visits to my grandfather we were walking to the village for supplies. Every time we made a trip together he would teach me of the flora and fauna that was in the forest, what was good and what was bad, which animals are friendly and which were aggressive. And this time he wanted to tell a story. He said that one day after building his house and finishing the shrine he gathered his lunch and decided to take the southern path to find out where it led to. I looked at him in confusion thinking he made all the paths himself and he saw right through my expression and said no I never once touched the forest aside from the bridges which it asked me to build, all of my materials were given to me by the nature here. Take a tree struck by lightning is still good wood to be used although it is laying on the ground now, those paths were here when I decided to build. Everything is as it should be grandson, he would say to me quite often. As he ventured down the path he heard animals playing and came up on the boulder where the red pandas were playing and so he spread his jacket out on the ground, set his food down, and watched them play. Smelling the food, there was one red panda that limped around the big rock and over to him. All of the others stopped and watched as it slowly made its way over to him and he set out a piece of his fish and some berries so that it could eat without getting close to him. He watched as the little thing ate all that he set out and it looked up at him as if to say thanks and all of the other pandas went back to playing. The one near him limped over and sat next to him about 3 feet away. He looked over and noticed that it’s leg had been injured, the injury looked like it was caught in a snare left by a poacher. He got very angry when telling me this part.” I could notice anger building in Mr. Cheng’s voice as well,” so he reached into his satchel and pulled out a small box that had some ointment in it and he took out his knife and cut the sleeves of his shirt off and made a tourniquet. He approached the little thing with as much good will and ease as he could as not to frighten it and it didn’t realize it until it was too late and he had grabbed its leg with a lot of force and pressure and he knew he was going to hurt it some and frighten it but he didn’t want the poor thing to get infected so he endured the panda biting and scratching his hands and arms deeply as he put the ointment on and wrapped the leg up tightly. And it scampered off once he got done. He took the other sleeve and fashioned a couple more tourniquets for his hands. He showed me a scar on his left hand where the panda had bitten down and it tore his hand open. He told me it was 35 years ago which was 2 years before my dad was born. He continued to say that there was a few days that went by that he didn’t see those pandas playing around and he got worried that he messed up trying to help but on the fourth day he returned to his house after sitting at the rock everyday for 4 hours and his shirt sleeve was sitting at his back door. He reached down and picked it up and a note fell out.” He reaches into the back and rustles around in his bag for a moment and turns back around holding a picture of him and his grandfather. He takes the picture out of the frame and there’s a note behind it and it’s the same note from his story, it was worn and very old looking. He read the note aloud, “thank you, we will be back to playing once the plum blossoms fall and the cherry blossoms bloom...” he puts the note and picture back and puts it back in his bag, “Grandfather was confused thinking that he was alone out there. Sure enough once the last plum blossom fell and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom the red pandas came back to play. But there was a woman sitting on the bench he had cut out of a fallen tree to sit on, this woman had red hair with some white hair around her ears but the hair was very long reaching her thighs, she was dressed in a very elegant dress. I looked up at grandpa at that point while we were walking and asked him, didn’t grandma have natural red hair? He just smiled and nodded to me. Then he continued on, he walked over to introduce himself and as she turned to face him he was speechless and couldn’t breathe he was so shocked at how beautiful she was. He had never seen a woman so beautiful.” He reaches back to his bag and pulled out a small photo album and opened it to a certain page. He was pointing to a picture that was a picture of his grandfather looking around 40 years old and this red haired woman looking about the same age as Lori. “Grandfather was 23 when he met her and she looked the same age until she died of an illness when I was 4 years old.” He closed the album and put it back in the back seat. “After that meeting, they both met at the boulder on the bench every day except for Friday when he would go to the village for supplies. Then one Saturday when he went to the boulder she was missing and he got upset thinking she had left. But when he got home she was in his back yard watching the sunset. She told him that he had the perfect view of the sunset during the cherry blossom season and he sat next to her to watch. He looked down as a dragonfly landed on his arm and his eyes averted to the woman’s leg where he noticed a tooth like scar on the woman’s leg as if she had gotten hit by a snare trap. As he was about to ask her if she had seen the poachers that had been trying to hurt the pandas she spoke up and said, ‘it’s good fortune for a dragonfly to willfully land on you and bless you with her presence.’ He replied with, ‘her?’ She continued, ‘the male doesn’t like social interactions so he only comes around for water and mating. The females love to play, sing, and dance but they are afraid of other bigger animals, so if you are graced by her presence then you are in good fortune.’ He was again speechless at everything this woman had to say. They spent countless days with each other falling in love and even got married. They had a son and lived a happy life until she got ill and so he decided to try to find a way to get her to a doctor. He got bit of their clothes ready, went outside to get his wagon to carry her to the doctor in the village, and ran back inside to see she was gone and her clothes lay folded perfectly on the bed. He ran outside and looked all around but couldn’t find her. That’s when he sent us a letter telling us she died. And after him telling me the story of how she met we had just made it to the village. And when we started to head back he asked me if I believed that grandma was that red panda that he doctored up and I said no! Of course not grandfather! She was just a caring lady that saw you help it right? He smiled and we headed back to the house. One day I get a letter telling me that grandfather has passed away and we held a funeral for him at his shrine he built, and his urn is still there, empty. My dad put on the facade for everyone spreading fake ashes from a fake urn. Grandfather never died. That black tree fell over finally and he disappeared. I went from the funeral to the black tree and saw it had fell over and to my surprise there was an animal at the base of the tree just sitting there staring at it. It never moved the whole time as I walked up to the tree and sat down beside the animal. I looked over at it and it crawled into my lap and laid down and died. I looked at its leg and there was a scar from a snare trap and my heart broke instantly. It was the red panda that grandfather had helped that day. To this day after crying at the base of that tree I will always believe that it was grandma. It is also the reason that Mifuon, my aunt whose house we just left, sent me Juki when she was just a baby. I nurtured her just like any good father would and made sure she was raised correctly. She was the only one her mother had and she turned out to be black coated instead of red, and the white in her coat is missing aside from the crescent moon shape on her forehead. She has been, and always will be very special to me.”

I decided to ask him about the deer first. “Do you believe that the deer would do that? Seems kind of odd, but he whole story seems magical in a way.”

He looked over at me and smiles, “yes I saw it with my own eyes as I walked out there for 8 years in a row with him and the deer would meet him in the middle of the clearing. He would bow, the deer bowed to him and he would pet in gently as it laid down and died peacefully right there in front of him. Then we would pray and then take the deer back and clean it.”

“Okay and you believe your grandmother was also that little red Panda that your grandfather doctored up that day right?”

“Yes, after seeing that red Panda at the base of that tree and how it just laid in my lap and died the same day we held grandfathers funeral was too uncanny.”

“I mean it’s a great story and I would love to believe it because your grandmother was a beautiful woman and she looked very young for her age, but I don’t really believe in shapeshifting humans like werewolves and stuff.”

“I needed said the word werewolf. But you would just have to experience the feeling I had that day to understand. I’ve never seen any human transform into an animal or vice versa but I just had this feeling.”

“I understand Mr. Cheng, one day I might feel this thing you’re talking about. I really would love to believe in a magical thing such as that.” I smile and he smiles back at me. Then he directs me to a very rough looking road that’s mostly dirt and gravel.

“We are almost there Vemo, in about two miles we will come to a village and there’s a restaurant that has a big warehouse in the back of it. That’s where we will take the car, then we will grab our stuff and make the 10 mile trek up the mountain.” When it kicks in that he really said 10 miles my lazy part of the brain kicks in, “wait, why can’t we take the car up and drop everything off then drive the car down so we don’t have to carry everything such a long way?”

“That’s not a bad idea Vemo, you’re more than welcome to try to drive the car up the path, but once we get to the hill where the trail starts going up we have to ditch the car and go on foot. I just thought it would be better to just take the whole trip on foot.” As we get into the village and pass by the path that he was talking about you can see the hill from where we were which wasn’t but 100 yards away.

“Smartass,” I say to him and he starts snickering with a sarcastic grin. We pull around the small road and to the back of the restaurant as we pass a lot of people staring at us with happy faces. “Why is everyone so happy here?” I glance over at Mr. Cheng who is waving at everyone.

“Because they see I have returned and wish to make me feel welcome.”

“But you’re just Mr. Cheng, I mean yeah these people knew you and your family but I’ve noticed a lot of people both in America and here in China show you great respect and even fear when you show them your ID and passport. Why is that?”

The smile washes off his face and he stops waving, “I will tell you about that tomorrow over dinner. But for now let’s just focus on today and being very happy.” Then his face perks up again and he continues waving. I approach the back of the warehouse and Mr. Cheng gets out of the car and walks over to a door and rings a buzzer. A man walks out and bows to Mr. Cheng then they smile and laugh at each other and hug. They talk for a minute and Mr. Cheng turns to me and points to the door that’s starting to open so I drive into it and I notice a small garage at the end of the warehouse so I continue down and park inside the garage. I get out of the car, open the back door and grab our stuff, carry it around to the back and open the hatch, and grab all of our things out sitting them on the ground. I start to combine some of my stuff to try compact the amount of bags I would be carrying when Mr. Cheng walks up and stops me.

“Wait Vemo,” he starts laughing and the man walking beside him laughs with him. “This is my cousin Nick, short for Nichan, but we all call him Nick. He has this off-road ATV that has a truck bed that we are going to use to take ourselves up the mountain with. It can handle the trail and the mountain where the car wouldn’t be able to. I was just joking about making the 10 mile hike with luggage. We will have to make it after we return the vehicle back to him but that will just be you and I.” He hands me some keys and points to the front of the warehouse where a souped up golf cart looking thing was sitting. I jogged over to it and drove it over to the back of the car and they both helped me get all the luggage except for our backpacks strapped on to the back of the vehicle. I look around and don’t see Juki anywhere and Mr. Cheng looks at me with a wink and a finger over his mouth while handing me my backpack. I could feel her inside the bag and I put it on my back and sat in the drivers seat. Mr. Cheng said his goodbyes and we took off out of there.

We started up the trail and Mr. Cheng starts telling me about the flora and fauna of the forest around us.

“At night you can see the entire sky like looking up at an ocean. The waterfall where the bridges are has fireflies that crowd around it and it makes for a beautiful sight. The hot spring pool is very comfortable and secluded. The whole place is wonderful. The last time I spent a year here I didn’t want to leave. I believe you will love it here too.” He pats me on the back and smiles. We reach the top of the hill and see another path that leads up another hill. “This where we have to go on foot. It would be disrespectful to the forest if we took this vehicle any further.” I was confused but didn’t argue with him since it cut the majority of the walk out. We grabbed all of our things and made for the trail. It took us around 45 minutes to climb the hill and once we cleared the edge of top horizon the cabin came into view. It was majestic and very rustic. The ancient Chinese architecture was built with extreme precision and crafted with looks in mind. It was two stories tall and about 100 square feet in space. There was a porch that wrapped around the whole cabin and in the back was a swing. We walked up to the front door and made our way inside. Once inside he put all of his things down, “we should go ahead and take the vehicle back to town and grab some supplies.”

“We will coming back on foot?” I dropped my things and let Juki down to run around as she pleased.

“Yes but we should leave Juki here to enjoy herself and keep the village people from seeing her.” I raised a curious eyebrow but didn’t question his motives. He walked over to the side of the front room and unlocked a small animal door that swings back and forth. “This is so she can go in and out of the house as she needs to.” He walks out of the door with me following and he locks it back. We then make the trek back down the hill and towards the vehicle. Once we got back onto the vehicle and on our way back to the village I decided to entertain my curiosity.

“May I ask as to why we keep having to hide Juki? I mean to anyone else she looks like a raccoon, so I don’t see the point in trying to hide her as thoroughly as we have?” He looks at me sternly as he takes a deep breath.

“Well, I believe she is a wonderful pet, the red pandas are endangered and close to extinction. So having them as pets is very illegal, but she is special. Many people in my family and some others believe that she belongs to a certain family of red pandas that are supposedly descendants of some gods. One is a very beautiful Female goddess that can take the form of a Fox, a red Panda, or a koi fish. One is a male god that can take the form of a regular panda, a wolf, or a snake. And the last is a girl that nobody has ever really seen, but they say she has the same forms as the woman. The legends say that the female goddess and male god had a child and she was born into the world of man so they started taking animal forms to watch over her.”