Everybody who knows Tshu Tia Hiang, the Mighty Emperor of Kaina and the Ducks, also knows his favourite line:

- We are the Empire!

The Emperors of Kaina never say 'I', 'my' or 'me' but always 'we', 'our' and 'us'. That is to say, everything that is yours is also his, or 'ours'. And even more likely, the Emperor is too mighty to fit in a word like 'I'. He fills at least two 'I's, which makes 'we', doesn't it?

Tshu Tia Hiang is remarkably proud of himself, yes, but but his favourite line is not necessarily an indication of it. His first name Tshu means the Empire. Being born in the Kainan month of Clay, which doesn't sound too mighty to a Duck ear, the baby Emperor-to-be got the greatest name related to clay his mother could think about.

His mother Bu-Ji Tiu is one of the most benevolent Pinclans I have ever met--you know, the people who never complain but are always smiling and speaking gently to everybody. The previous Emperor Oo-Kai Tia Hiang picked up Bu-Ji from a mud field like she was a flower.

- I was harvesting rice when I saw a huge sedan moving by. I stopped to watch it and raised the brim of my straw hat to see it better. I noticed immediately that there had to be a Rooster inside of it! Bu-Ji recalls with an enthusiastic voice and twinkling eyes.

All members of the ruling family are Roosters and Hens. That is what the surnames Tia and Tiu mean. But only the Emperor can keep the epithet Hiang, which means both 'Yellow' and 'Golden'. Those colours are forbidden for the common people - only the Emperor, his mother, his wives, and his daughters can use it. Not his brothers, not his sons.

- When Tia Hiang brought me to His palace, He already had three handsome sons. I never even dreamt of my Tshu becoming the next man dressed in Yellow! Bu-Ji sighs happily.

Bu-Ji certainly didn't dream about becoming a mother of the 233rd Emperor of Kaina - I just can't imagine she would lie. It was a plan of Tshu's deceased step-mother Zo Tiu, who got two daughters but not a son. What a destiny for a Duck, who normally wouldn't want any sons! Zo Tiu hated bitterly Oo-Kai Tia Hiang's fertile first wife Kin-Shing Tiu. She also decided to hate Bu-Ji, but no one can hate Bu-Ji. Instead of teasing her, Zo Tiu decided to help her son.

- My mother showed Him all the secret passages in the palace. That's how He found out all the plans and decisions before any of His brothers. Of course Tshu Tia Hiang is smart too. If He wasn't, He couldn't have exploited all the secret knowledge He gathered, explains Zo Tiu's younger daughter An Tiu.

I ask An Tiu to show just one of the secret passages to me too. She tries to make me forget this idea, but I'm not going to give up. Finally she promises to take me to a passage 'everybody knows'. We walk through an uncountable number of buildings and their huge rooms, all furnished with skillful and surely expensive things. Room walls are shining in different colour combinations, some of them covered with magnificent tapestry. I'm not exaggerating or ironizing with all these praising adjectives. They are not even nearly enough to describe the brilliance of the palace's buildings.

We walk so fast I'd get lost if I stopped to take photos of the palace. I start feeling lost, confused, and indisposed. The enormous palace area is full of gardens and beautiful houses with several stories. Many courtiers have measured the circumference of this area. Some of them have arrived at two mikes, some of them at even seven mikes. Impressive walls separate the area from the common people. How can anyone find anything in a complex like this?!

I can only notice that we have been heading in the same direction the whole time - North-East, I guess. But suddenly An Tiu steeply changes our direction. Now we are going to a badmitton field, where about 10 people are watching the four players.

- It's my brother Tshu Tia Hiang! Didn't you say you wanted to see Him? An Tiu justifies her move.

Tshu Tia Hiang, the Sweet Emperor, is easy to recognize: he is the only male in the Empire who can wear yellow clothes.

When we approach the badmitton field, I recognize the famous face of the Mighty Emperor. It feels unbelievable. This man in all-yellow clothes seldom meets even the visitors he himself has invited to the palace in person! That is the task of his numerous relatives, who with their servants raise the palace population up to 9,000. Reporters should be more than satisfied if they are allowed to get in to the palace area. So I'm almost shaking when An Tiu leads me to the badminton audience.

Tshu Tia Hiang is playing with his eldest daughter, a young woman named Fu Tiu. Fu Tiu has 20 younger siblings - 11 sisters and 9 brothers. One of her brothers will be the next Emperor one day. Or maybe the next Emperor will be Fu Tiu's own baby son Wo Tia? Rumours tell that Tshu Tia Hiang can't deny anything to his favourite daughter, the eldest one.

Their opponents are the Emperor's harmless brother Gan Tia and Gan Tia's wife So Tiu.

- So Tiu is his only wife! An Tiu snorts, like that was a sin. - Gan Tia has no ambition, she adds.

- Doesn't that keep him alive? I ask.

An Tiu looks at me darkly. She clearly doesn't understand that I am joking. Or am I? The sweet Emperor's eldest brothers both died young. First-born Huang Tia was on a diplomatic mission in Brobdingnagia when he got a sudden fatal stomach disease. After long and accurate investigations nobody got blamed. Still, this may be one of the reasons or excuses why Duck-Bear relations have cooled during Tshu Tia Hiang's period of ascendancy.

Huang Tia was an intelligent young man, who had best possible chances to become Tia Hiang. His brother Asng Tia wasn't too clever. When Huang Tia had died, Asng Tia started to slander Tshu Tia, being sure the shrewd little brother had something to do with the fatality. Asng Tia organized a murder which fizzled out. That was Tshu Tia's chance to execute his bloodlusty brother and become a crown prince.

Gan Tia is not interested in power. He is (or plays) a simple man who likes to play badmitton.

Gan Tia passes, and the Emperor hits. They play fast balls, 'til Tshu Tia Hiang stumbles and loses. Fu Tiu frets aloud. But this man can even stumble in a handsomely noble way. His slender face is shaven excluding the moustache, and his shiny hair would reache his heels if it weren't bound for the badmitton match. His skin is duckly yellow.

Young servants Hiai Eo and Po Eo are watching the badmitton match. They are ambitious enough to love their life in the Emperor's palace.

- Bring us another battledore, says the Emperor to his servants, who are running after the plume ball. An Tiu and I are the only non-servants nearby. You can recognize a servant easily - they are all Duck men who wear a shiny green silk coat, a round green hat, and orange trousers. There are 998,596 of them, and according to the official palace brochure, they all live just to serve the Emperor. Duck parents send their younger sons to the palace very diligently. They just need to send one to inherit the patch. Daughters are desired, for they mean dowry. Sons are not desired, because they need money for dowry to buy wives.

Many Duck men can't spare enough money to buy a wife before they are twice as old as the nubile girls. The Roosters show their might by taking several wives. Nobody can, however, take more wives than the current Emperor has, except if the wedding happened when the earlier Emperor was still alive (or had more wives). Oo-Kai Tia Hiang had four wives, and Tshu Tia Hiang has six. The custom dictates that they marry two Hens first and only then can they marry among common people.

The royal dowry is naturally the biggest stroke of luck that can happen to common Duck farmers. Bu-Ji Tiu's parents became very rich when Oo-Kai Tia Hiang chose their daughter. And Ducks rich enough can buy a post in the palace.

Oh! The Emperor speaks!

- You see, the plume ball always strikes with its hard head, never with its gentle feathers.

All the servants agree.

- Fortunately we can handle Brobdingnagia better than we handle this plume ball. You musn't worry, my Dearest, Tshu Tia Hiang pronounces to Fu Tiu. - Our steady arm hits the Brobdingnagian threat back to where it came from, as many times as are needed to make the Bears crash hopelessly to their own field.

- Daddy, let's have a break. I want some fruit tea, says princess Fu Tiu.

She is pretty tall but graceful, and her face is made up in strangely beautiful way. It is pink and white, and her black hair is combed upwards into a complicated, flowered headdress. By chance she notices me.

- A Tiger! she exclaims and patters to me. - I just lllove Tiger tea! Please tell me you are a tea-seller!

I quickly force an artificial smile onto my face and greeted Fu Tiu in a Tiger way. Why didn't I take tea with me? My eldest son Rassam suggested me to do so, because he incorrectly thought there wasn't any decent tea in Kaina. He knows what a tea addict I am!

- I'm so sorry to disappoint Your Highness, but I'm just a poor reporter without any tea with me. I promise to send you a good variation of tea mixes when I get back home!

- Then you must go home immediately, says Tshu Tia Hiang. - Our daughter wants some Tiger tea as soon as possible!

His servants are ready to fulfill his will before he has even finished the sentence. I try to get some more time, so I look straight into his sharp dark brown eyes and say:

- But I haven't yet heard your fabulous music, O You Almighty!

- We are not in the mood to play music right now. Our servants will give you our newest album, he informs indifferently but charmingly at the same time.

Aviculture is high developed in the Emperor's Bird Garden. The birds pay their full-board by dedicating their tail feathers to the Emperor every now and then. In this picture you can see three Ringeyes, three Grimbirds, two Kainan Swans and a Badminton Biddy.

Suddenly I'm travelling on the servants' palms towards the Southern Gate out of the palace area. I have time to watch the landscapes. Roosters and Hens seem to have many exotic pet birds in their lovely gardens.

To be honest, I'm glad the Emperor didn't give me a private concert. His psychedelically self-confident music doesn't please me, though it has many fans all over Pii. But when I'm literally thrown out of the palace area, the servants poke his newest album at me. I can speak Northern Kainan, but not read it, so the name of the album stays mysterious to me. I hope my children like this record.

There is a shiny yellow envelope fastened to the album. Now I remember that every Pinclan who leaves the palace gets an aphorism made and written by Tshu Tia Hiang himself. I open the envelope and face wise words written in pure Mango: 'Kal vinkhjo yelheijei bhunurri. Mhuxa yelheijei asurri.'

Only tame birds dream. Free birds fly.

Najana Asqe