Xiao-Yu dashed down the street and around the corner, then around another corner, but every time she looked back over her shoulder the blue demon was still in her line of sight. Somehow, he kept following her. Ahead, she could hear the water of the river rushing and splashing against the sides of a boat. A group of demons was shuffling onto a large boat. She crept closer, Maybe if I get on the boat…. In the line, a large demon with black and white hair stopped and wrinkled his nose, sniffing the air intently. He started walking in Xiao-Yu’s direction. The little fox froze, then darted away. Breathless, she crept under a large table in front of a shop. She waited quietly, listening. The air was full of muddled smells; demon energy, smoke, dust, and water.
Suddenly a hand reached under the table and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
“What do we have here?”
The shopkeeper was wearing an apron. He had deep wrinkles engraved under his eyes from perpetual smiling. Xiao-Yu froze, then struggled unsuccessfully to get free. Smile never fading, the shopkeeper brought her into the dim shop. Dust floated in the air; the shelves were lined with various bronze and pottery lamps. Under the smell of dust and burning lamp oil lingered a faint odor of old, rotten blood.
The hand that firmly gripped the scruff of her neck shoved her into a small wooden crate and covered it with a lid. A cloud of dust puffed out of the straw padding that lined the bottom of the crate. Xiao-Yu scratched at the side of the crate, but then froze when she heard a shuffling footstep cross enter the shop.
The new customer shuffled around the perimeter of the shop as if inspecting the very dusty wares. The footsteps shuffled closer and closer, then stopped in front of the crate. Through a small opening in the wood, Xiao-Yu saw a blue hand with short claws and a thick green jade ring. She started trembling again. The shopkeeper, who had been standing at the counter and not paying much attention to the blue demon, spoke.
“Does anything catch your interest?”
The blue demon paused. Xiao-Yu saw the blue fingers stroke the smooth jade ring thoughtfully. “Perhaps.”
Another pause. Unable to conceal his avarice, the shopkeeper said, “There are common wares, and there are rarer ones, for those who can pay accordingly.”
The blue demon glanced at the shopkeeper from the corner of his eyes. “I’m looking for something rarer, but it is my own possession.”
“Oh,” The shopkeeper couldn’t help glancing at the crate containing Xiao-Yu before shifting his eyes across the rest of the store’s wares. “What could it be?”
“A small fox.”
“A fox,” the shopkeeper said thoughtfully. “Hmm…. I don’t think….”
Abruptly, the blue hand tore open the crate. Xiao-Yu cowered in a corner and tried to bite his hand, but the claws dug into the scruff of her neck, lifting her up out of the straw padding.
“Ahh!” The shopkeeper said with an enlightened smile, “I see, oh dear, you didn’t mention it had three tails.”
The blue demon scoffed slightly. “Weak human, watch who you dare attempt to deceive. Be grateful that your trade is under the protection of King Tong-Feng.” He sniffed the air again, with its dirty bloody smell, and walked out of the shop, Xiao-Yu clutched in his hand.
The shopkeeper watched him go, smile never wavering.
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The door creaked open. What am I supposed to say? My brain buzzed anxiously. Hey, sorry to interrupt, just looking for a new place. Quite a fixer-upper you got here….. My mind was frantically going over ways to talk myself out of whatever situation this might turn out to be. That kept it out of the way so that my body could dash over to the pile of wooden planks and grab a makeshift weapon.
I spun on the ball of my foot, wooden plank in hand. It was a bit cumbersome, but it would be better than nothing. The eyes that met mine looked just about as surprised as I was. Standing framed by the doorway and the now dark night outside was the blue demon who had come to the restaurant with King Ping-Sheng. The little fox dangled limply from his hand, but started squirming when she saw me.
I brandished the plank in front of me warily. “I was just looking for my fox.”
“Your fox? I think you must be mistaken.”
“What do you mean mistaken? You have her right there-”
“Ah, you mean this creature?”
I was stumped about what to do. Obviously we didn’t share the same goal, and he seemed to be taking the blanket denial route. Wait, wasn't this guy stuttering before?
“Uh, well that is my fox. I would appreciate it if you gave her back to me.”
The blue eyelids half-closed over the eyes in a sly sort of expression as he stepped towards me. I could almost see gears turning in his head. I stepped backwards. I could rely on my body’s muscle-memory to deal with humans, but....?
“How concerning, I was unaware of where my subordinate found the fox,” the blue demon glanced at the hulking form that lay, to all appearances lifeless, next to the cauldron. “To show my sincere regret, I will help you refine the creature to create spiritual pills.”
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“Refine? What do you mean refine?”
“Surely you must….. To extract its spiritual energy and transfer it to another.” The blue demon didn’t loosen his grip on Xiao-Yu, and the little fox gazed at me pathetically.
I vaguely remembered reading about pills and elixirs in my old life. The whole idea seemed sort of like a magical arms race. “No thanks, I don’t need any spiritual energy.”
The blue demon smiled mirthlessly and started walking again, slowly coming closer. Now seems like as good a time as any, I thought. I swung the board at him. He dodged and swatted it away, claws cutting through the wood as if it were butter. Shit.
No matter how great my instincts are, I can’t hand-to-hand combat an enemy that is basically a circular saw. I reached behind me and grabbed another plank. Plank after plank were swatted away like so many mosquitoes. Fragments of wood scattered everywhere. Maybe if I distract him long enough… But the wood is too weak… I glanced around desperately and my eyes fell on the cauldron. I reached down and grabbed the side.
There was a sudden weird vacuum-like feeling, as if something were being pulled from me. I only had a moment register the weird sensation as I swung the cauldron towards the blue demon. He automatically swatted it away like the wood. As soon as his hand made contact, his eyes opened wide. Through the cauldron, I felt what seemed like a dark current, something sucked out of him, with greater and greater voracity. The hand holding the little fox went limp, and he fell to his knees.
It seemed like it was over in no time. The blue demon made a few weak attempts to remove his hand from the cauldron, but with no success. He stumbled and fell on his knees, then collapsed to the floor, hand still glued to the side of the cauldron. I watched, stunned. What is going on with the cauldron? Is it sucking out his energy?
I looked at my own hand on the cauldron. I only felt a mild, vacuum-like current. I tried to remove my hand, but it was as if it had been superglued to the thing. Under my hands, the dimly glowing cauldron grew brighter and brighter. Before, the light had been a dim purple. Now, it was a brilliant gold, and the weird blue metal was getting hot. Every moment, its appetite seemed to grow larger and larger, and I could feel a flood of something stirring, pouring out of my hands. The flood got bigger and bigger, faster and faster.
Suddenly, with a CRRAACK, the cauldron split in two. Something heavy lashed back through my veins, flooding through my body. At first, it was just a heavy pressure, like an elephant had stomped on me. It felt like brain-freeze, but hot instead of cold. There was an irritating tickle in my throat. When I cleared it, a big bubble of blood splattered over my chest. I fell over backwards, unable to move my arms or legs.
Little Xiao-Yu nuzzled my fingers. I stared at the ceiling, wondering if my last view of this universe would be that spiderweb on the rafters. As I lay there watching a plump spider tidily wrap her prey in silk, some part of me wished that there had been something heroic about it instead of just a series of mistakes and desperate bids for survival. Oh well.
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The air over Azure Lake smelled sweet, the breeze was soothing. Some of the pink lotuses had long stems that extended up above the water. It gave the impression that some of the flowers were floating in the air like clouds. The dread he felt made Dou-Jin strangely attuned to everything. Dou-Jin stared at the writhing ball of energy that hovered above his hand. He had heard of the five spiritual roots; metal, fire, wood, water, and earth. He had heard of the various elemental affinities. This resembled none of them. The chaotic mass of energy slowly shrank to the size of a mosquito and vanished.
Dou-Jin turned away from the Azure Lake and slowly walked down the path towards the buildings where the recruits ate and slept. Was there something wrong with him? Was this….. Evil? He pondered the strange energy. Would he have to leave the sect? A small, discouraging voice was saying, What can you even do? You don’t even know what happened, you don’t know who did it, you aren’t even strong among Mortals. Dou-Jin slowly clenched his fist. Yes, there was no clear way forward. But in the Mortal Realm, there would be absolutely no chance to find out what happened to his father. He knew the truth was somewhere in the Immortal Realm.
As Dou-Jin walked further, he heard several loud thumps and rustling off the side of the path. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Yun-Ying muttering fiercely to herself as she thrashed the slender trunk of a bamboo plant.
Dou-Jin raised his eyebrows and turned away. Coming down the path towards him were several other recruits. Dou-Jin started to walk again, but then hesitated and picked up a pebble. He weighed it in his hand a moment before slinging it towards Yun-Ying. It bounced off her shoulder. She spun around and only caught a glimpse of Dou-Jin’s back as he continued walking.
Dou-Jin had only taken a few more steps when a sulky, resentful, somewhat breathless voice sounded behind his right shoulder. “Why did you throw that stone?” Her voice sounded resentful even to Yun-Ying’s own ears.
“What stone?” Dou-Jin played dumb.
“I know you threw it, I’m not stupid.” Yun-Ying said, chin wobbling, and the refrain, Why can’t I stop? running through her mind.
Dou-Jin raised his hands and lied defensively, “I was just throwing it at a mosquito, but I must have missed.”
At this point the other recruits passed them, barely glancing over. Yun-Ying pretended to be absorbed in the inspection of something invisible on the ground.
“I’m not a mosquito.” Yun-Ying hissed at him from the corner of her mouth.
Dou-Jin rolled his eyes and was resolving to keep his head out of other people’s business from now on when he noticed her chin wobbling ominously. Yun-Ying scowled against the enraging, irrational tears that had started welling up again.
Dou-Jin was alarmed, “No, no, don’t cry, here-” Drawing on his experience with crying girls, which was admittedly limited to those under the age of five, he dug into his bag and found the packet of malt candies that he’d bought in Star River City. He sighed with relief and thrust one of the candies into her hand.
“I’m not crying. I’m not a baby,” she said, sulkily putting the candy in her mouth. It was not as sweet as candies from the Immortal Realms. She chewed on the candy, staring at the ground.
Dou-Jin awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, I need to go….” As he turned around to walk away, her left hand shot out and grabbed his sleeve. Her eyes were still fixed on the ground. “Thank you….”
“There’s nothing to thank me for,” he said, waving his free hand generously.
At the exact same moment, she extended her right hand with a quavering, “Can I have another one?”