Zodiac Story

Commemorate This August Era With Five Azure Storms Part 3

The first thing she heard was the soft sound of rain falling. Being underwater felt strange, and the open sky seemed more beckoning, more welcoming. Yǔfēi followed the sound of rain. She was ascending faster than usual, and the surface seemed much closer than it should have been. Almost there...finally! The raindrops were soothing, even though it would have made the flooding worse. She looked downwards—and was astonished at the sight of a tail. A scaled tail of deep azure, a very long tail at that. Somewhere down there, there were two paws like a tiger with five claws like an eagle. The entire body from the tail was snakelike and equally blue in colour. She felt long trailing whiskers like a catfish on her face and she noted that she now possessed a camel-like head. Was Yǔfēi a dragon?

She probably was, but that was not important right now. That rain cloud needed to be moved elsewhere and there were people depending on her. With a thought she pushed it out to sea. That worked as the rain cloud drifted away. She tried to move the water away from the streets, but it refused.

No you can't do that. Water is not under your domain.

Under her domain? There are others then? Yǔfēi found her amulet hanging off of one of her claws. The centre and bottom sections were filled in with the traditional character for dragon and five respectively, as in the zodiac. She still needed to go back to her apartment. Moving forward was a breeze, one accomplished by sheer force. Occasionally, she watched the flooded streets for any survivors, but there were none. The only people she found were floating face down. Gently lifting them on her back, she carried onwards.

Her apartment was almost flooded judging from the water level. All of the people that were in her apartment earlier were now boarding a small aircraft parked on her roof. Lǎo Liáng was holding one of Yǔfēi's emergency fish tanks where Ménmén was swimming around and talking with the soldier in front of the aircraft. As Yǔfēi neared the rooftop, the people down below started gaping and pointing at the large dragon above them. The soldiers around the aircraft took notice and warned their leader, gesturing wildly and shouting.

"Is that a dragon? I thought they weren't real!"

"Am I hallucinating?"

"Dragons are peaceful, right?"

"Wait, are those bodies on its back?"

The leader of the group of soldiers looked up at the sky. "What is your purpose here?" The same person she was calling earlier, and why were they so late?

Yǔfēi slowly landed. "The people on my back, I want them returned to their families."

She lay down, with the soldiers unloading the corpses onto the small aircraft. Some of the parents were covering their children's eyes. Her initial thought was carrying everyone to safety, but unless she washed herself thoroughly, no one would want to be on her back.

"Lǎo Nǎinai, have you seen the woman who lived in this apartment? Her name is Huá Yǔfēi. She was swept away by the current when she was rescuing my son and three other children. Did you see her body?" Lǎo Liáng asked. "I have her fish."

"Huá Yǔfēi is safe and sound, she's on the outskirts of the city. Don't worry about her." It felt odd referring to herself in the third person, but would anyone have believed that she turned into a dragon?

"Dragon, you were helpful today, so I'll ask you. They say that you have power over the weather and can control floods. I'm not a believer in my nǎinai's stories, but seeing you...it seems like there is some worth. Can you stop the flooding?" The leader asked.

"No, it is not within my power." She needed to ask the voice more about this later. "You were late coming here. Tell me why."

"The flooding is not only in Shanghai. The entire Yangtze River flooded over. From Qinghai to the East China Sea, we've had to evacuate many civilians before reaching here. Thankfully, it seems that all of the civilians are accounted for and alive."