Peacock: Shimmer

The peacock knows it was born exceptionally beautiful. Its tail feathers shimmer like flowing light, which many praise as a mountain of gold melting into emerald, or rosy clouds woven into color.

So it cherishes its looks dearly. Every day it spends six hours before gilded bronze mirrors and white jade balustrades, grooming inch by inch, allowing not a speck of dust nor a shred of grass to cling. After all, this beauty is heaven's finest gift to it, the very thing that let it walk out of the mud and up to these golden halls and jade steps.

No one knows that it was carried out of a remote mountain forest, a place full of filthy mire, clinging old vines and damp, sticky miasma. It regards that time as a stain: a bright pearl cast into darkness, brocade fallen into a stinking ditch. So it walked willingly into the cage the hunters had laid, and left that backwater without a backward glance. Then, head held high and stepping with its most noble gait, it entered Weiyang City, rich beyond measure.

Here it has received countless gasps of wonder. Noble ladies' silk fans pause for it, young masters spread out poem papers for it, and even the eyes of the lofty City Lord of Weiyang once lingered on its tail feathers for a moment.

But it is not yet satisfied. Merely reaching Weiyang City is not enough. Merely entering the Nowhere Bazaar is even less so.

It keeps gazing at the farther upturned eaves of the city: it means to climb higher still.

These shimmering tail feathers cannot carry it into the sky, but perhaps they can carry it to gold and jade more precious than gold and jade, to vermilion gates higher than vermilion gates.

It is determined to ride this heaven-sent splendor to a place so high that people could crane their necks till they broke and still not see it.

Translated by AI from the Chinese game text. It is replaced automatically when the official English text ships.