All was red.

Idony felt a hand holding tightly to her and in turn she clung to it tightly. She could not breathe. Her eyes were open but she saw nothing except red. Red had been an important color throughout her life. Red like her mother's hair. Red like fire. Red like flowers and warm blankets. Red like raw meat.

Red like blood.

She was sick of red.

Suddenly cool air slapped her face and she felt the hard ground impact her shoulder. Her mind fell through deeper, deeper, deeper into something else. Something that was pulling at her desperately. Idony could imagine pale clothed arms gently wrapping around her, pulling her against someone. They were speaking soothing words she could not hear but for some reason terrified her as much as they calmed her.

They wanted her to keep her eyes closed. To wait there. To rest.

Everything would be just fine, all she had to do was wait and he would have her again.

The girl coughed and sputtered. Her eyelids stuck together and she struggled to wipe away the gunk that clung to them. She rolled on the ground, grass sticking to her arm and back, and got to her knees. Her arms were absolutely drenched in blood, along with her clothes and given how sticky and stiff her hair felt, even her head. Grass in patches of yellow and green splashed with thickening blood stretched towards the muddy banks of a sluggishly moving river that the dark color of blood slithered through. The sky above was blue and free of clouds. She looked around more, her little heartbeat beginning to pick up before she found the crumpled form of Bo close by. "Ah!" She shuffled forward as fast as she could, even though the world felt uneven.

Bo was also covered in blood, curled up on the ground with his eyes closed. Idony put her hands on his chest and felt it rise and fall beneath, breathing a sigh of relief she sat down beside him and tried to make sense of everything that had just happened. It felt like all she had done was take a nap and woken up to a world that had sprung from a nightmare. She furrowed her brow to focus on the dream she remembered having, but like sand in her hands it was sliding away. Becoming a grey and black smudge. The story still burned brightly in her mind, the words gone and replaced with pictures her mind conjured of the despairing people, the being of white light...

Liu Xie was... she shook her head.

Rui Yifu was.... no.

Li Chunning? She did not focus on that either. Ji Ying? Also something she quickly shoved from her brain.

She had finally seen her mother again, healthy but asleep. For a brief moment, Idony felt a happiness she had not felt in a long time. She had imagined her mother opening her eyes and reaching up to hug her and Liu Xie. The idea of the warmth of her hugs had been enough that she had forgotten all else up until that moment.

It was all too much. Far too much for her to handle. She felt like her mind had been stretched farther and farther, trying to wrap up a thousand new things and only barely containing it and now being asked to hold in another thousand. Idony looked down into the river. Her blood smeared face stared back at her, and after a moment she felt her eyes grow warm and itchy. Tears began to fall, cleaning away the drying blood. She watched her mirror image self, crying as she cried, and tried wiping her face. She only succeeded in smearing dirt, grass, tears, and blood over her face. Frustrated she shoved her face into the cool water, releasing a scream she had not realized she had even been holding that bubbled around her face. Idony screamed into the water until she felt her lungs burn and there was no more air to force out.

She yanked her head free from the flowing river, wheezing and taking in big gulps of the cool air before looking back down at the water. Her head was cleaned of the blood at least, and the face beside hers was also clean.

But the face was not Bo's.

Idony jumped to her feet and stumbled backwards a few steps at the new person, who watched her with slightly raised eyebrows. It was an older boy, his messy black hair was held back by a string of twine and he was covered in a tattered hempen cloth that hid most of his body except for his face. The area around his left eye was scarred like someone had poured boiling water over it at some point, leaving him to keep it tightly shut, and he leaned heavily on a dark wooden branch.

"Who are you?" She asked, continuing to move backwards until she was in front of Bo's body. "What do you want?"

The older boy looked at her quietly for a long moment, frowning deeply. Then the frown vanished into a more neutral line as he spoke, "you're both absolutely drenched in blood. Did you kill that winged serpent over there?" He asked, pointing at the large lumpen form of what looked like a large green snake speckled with feathers down the length of its body. Two pairs of equally green wings were spaced out on it. Its head looked like it had been nearly severed, a half-melted chunk of ice sticking out.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"N-no," she said, shaking her head. "We just... popped out here!"

"Oh," he looked over at Bo. "Is he alright?"

Idony frowned looking down at Bo, who had still not woken up. She crouched down beside him and shook his shoulder. "He's breathing," she muttered.

"Stand back."

"Why?"

"I'm going to try waking him up."

Idony looked at the older boy in confusion, but stepped away as he asked. She watched him tap his branch against the water, and the river seemed to rear up like an angry horse. Idony scuttled further away from the water just as it slapped against Bo. The man immediately jerked back upwards, covered in water and yelling angrily. "What the HELL Yifu?!" He called out, looked around. He spotted the boy, then Idony felt herself suddenly grabbed up by Bo, who pointed Liu Xie's sheathed sword at the boy. "Who the fuck are you!? You're not him!"

The older boy looked at Idony, somewhat helplessly, and she felt a strange itch that she knew this body although she could not remember from where. He gritted his teeth, sighed, and shook his head. "My name is Shuang Que."

"I have a name but I still don't know who you are," Bo said, not moving a muscle.

"I'm here to help," Shuang Que offered.

"There's something weird about you," Bo's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here? How long have you been here? Why do you feel weird?"

Shuang Que leaned his branch-walking stick against himself, holding up both of his hands. "Like I said, I'm here to help you. I only came by recently, you guys have probably been laying around here for a while. As to why I feel 'weird' I have no idea, you're a cultivator right? You tell me."

"I don't know what a cultivator is," Bo admitted. "I can't tell you why you feel weird but there's just something very wrong with you."

"...Are you an idiot?"

"Yes," Bo waggled the sword a little, as though strengthening the proof of being an idiot.

Idony, held against Bo, watched the discussion in increasing discomfort as the rest of the blood on her continued to dry.

"I don't know how I can prove it to you, but I really am here to help you," Shuang Que insisted.

"Who sent you then?"

Shuang Que looked irritated, "if I told you would you even believe me? If I said I was about to finally die and the Jade Prince appeared and told me to come babysit an idiot and a bloody little girl, would that make you more likely to trust me?" He asked. Idony looked at his poor frustrated expression and then at Bo's own wary glare.

"I trust you," she said. Idony did not understand why, but she did. There was a familiarity to him that made her feel both aggravated but also relieved to see him, even if she was still grasping for who exactly he was.

Bo looked down at her, "you trust him? We only just met him!"

"But he didn't hurt us!" She pointed out.

"Speak for yourself, I'm drenched," he said but he was still lowering the sword anyway.

"You were asleep, I just helped you wake up," Shuang Que said kindly. "You're still covered in blood though," he looked at Idony.

Idony shook her head, "don't splash me too."

"I'm not." He said.

"Oh, huh," Bo set Idony down on the ground. "Zhu'er you should probably go hop in the river. Dried blood isn't really great to have on you."

Idony quickly went into the river, whose current seemed to have abruptly stopped as soon as she put her foot in. She was reminded of the last time she went into a river and checked around for any hair that could be lurking before putting another foot in. Then another. The water sloshed up past her ankles and tugged at her clothes.

"Don't go too deep in," Bo warned, following her and standing ankle deep in the water. "If you can't stand straight come back to me."

Shuang Que rolled his eyes, watching from further up on the riverbank. "Where are you two even going?" He called out.

Idony watched as the blood that had soaked her to the skin was pulled away by the water, dispersing like red mist. Why had Rui Yifu not come with them? Were Li Chunning and Ji Ying okay? Who was that person who hurt Liu Xie? Was Liu Xie really gone? Her eyes began to burn again and the little girl swallowed up any more of those thoughts. She did not want to show anyone her tears right now.

"We're going to, uh," Bo scratched his head, "y'know, I don't actually know the name of it. I just know there's a mountain in the north I gotta... go to... how?" Bo looked confused. "...How do I know this?" He whispered to himself.

"There's several mountains in the north," Shuang Que pointed out, "which one are you trying to get to?"

"I... uh, it's one that's got a lot of trees on it."

"Maybe the Bone Willow Mountain?" Shuang Que said thoughtfully, "yeah, I think I can help you two somewhat there."

Idony finished cleaning off the blood in the river and pushed her way through the water up to the dry grass. She was not quite sure the ominous name of 'Bone Willow Mountain' was very appealing. "Bo, why are we going there?" She asked as he emerged from the water behind her.

Bo shrugged, "I don't know. I just got this idea in my head. It says 'go to the mountain' and that's where we'll go. I'm not going to question things right now, are you?"

She shook her head.

"I can take you partway there," Shuang Que said pointing northwards. "But this river turns westward further up, and I can't go far from it."

"Why not?" Idony asked.

Shuang Que looked at her with a melancholic expression, "I'm... well, lets just say it's a cohesion issue. Once you lose something you've focused on for so long, staying together is a lot of effort." Idony did not know what 'cohesion' meant, but had a gut feeling that it had something to do with Shuang Que's very being.

Idony caught Bo giving Shuang Que a strange glance, but he began walking along the river without saying anything about it. "Come on Zhu'er," he said. She scampered after him, looking back to see Shuang Que moving quite a bit slower than them both. Bo stopped to look behind himself, "hey. Hurry up."

Shuang Que gestured to his leg, which turned out to be twisted strangely. "I would love to, do you want to switch legs?"

She gasped softly, a phantom pain in her own leg as memories that were not hers surged upwards. "Bo, Bo, be nice ok? He's my friend!"

"Friend?"

She nodded, running back over to take Shuang Que's hand in her own to help him walk faster. It felt cold and limp, but she squeezed it anyway. After a moment, his hand squeezed back.