Moth and Moon

Creeping Plant

When Xie Lian groggily came to, he strained to sit up, wincing through the pain. He didn't think that anything was broken, but his whole body felt bruised. All he could see around him was cold, wet, dense fog. It took him a while to remember where he was and what had happened. 'San Lang!' In an instant, he was on his feet. Had Hua Cheng managed to escape? Were Nan Feng and Fu Yao alright? Xie Lian held out his wrist and breathed a sigh of relief when Ruoye poked its head out of his sleeve, unscathed.

Even with the thick fog surrounding him, Xie Lian could sense the cliffs looming on either side. He was at the bottom of the ravine. He had never been here before, and he didn't know how to get out. Xie Lian inspected the gravel on the floor of the ravine to try and determine which way the now dried-up river had flowed. He headed off in the direction he thought was downstream, which would hopefully take him closer to his cottage. He caught a flash of red in the corner of his eye and remembered the red string tied around his finger. If he could follow it, it should lead him back to Hua Cheng!

Xie Lian closed his eyes and willed the thread to appear again. When he opened them, he saw that red thread leading off into the impenetrable fog. He squinted, but could only make out the vague blurry shapes of the cliff walls. They almost looked like the buildings of Xian Le, surrounded by an ancient forest. The gray fog enshrouding the shapes was reminiscent of the smoke from the fires that ultimately destroyed Xie Lian's home for good. He dropped his eyes and continued walking.

Before Xie Lian and his parents had gone into hiding, the humans had stormed Xian Le and burned it to the ground to clear it away for their own purposes. All of the fairy inhabitants had either been cremated in the roiling, uncontrollable flames, or had escaped and tried to survive on their own. Many that were spared from the fire later died under human blades. Xie Lian had failed his people, and no matter how much time passed, he couldn't forgive himself for it. All he did was try his best not to remember - there was nothing that he could do for the dead now.

Time passed, cloudy and murky like in a dream. It felt like days, but couldn't have possibly been that long. Xie Lian kept checking the red string to make sure that he hadn't accidentally gotten turned around. It was just him and Ruoye, wandering this winding ravine. Xie Lian wished that he could just fly up and out of it; things were so much simpler when he had wings. He didn't have to roam the earth constantly feeling like he was missing something, like his back was too light... Even though it was so long ago, it still bothered him. Oh well, there was no point thinking about what he couldn't do. Maybe he could climb the walls of the ravine somehow? He walked over to a rocky wall and attempted to get a foothold, but the smooth, layered rock was slick from the mist. It was unscalable. With little choice, he continued along.

At first he thought that he might be imagining it, but Xie Lian saw a form slumped on the ground in the distance. Perhaps it was a boulder? He quickened his pace, hand on the hilt of the blade at his hip. As he drew closer, he realized that the blurry shape was actually two forms. They looked like people lying there.

"Nan Feng? Fu Yao?" Xie Lian called. When he got nearer, it became clear that they were indeed two bodies, and that they were not the missing hunters. They were two middle-aged people, a man and a woman wearing loose, shabby clothes. The woman's hand, white as death, rested palm-up on the ground. "Are you alright?" Xie Lian kneeled and hurried to turn the prone man over. At the sight of his face, he recoiled. It was a face that he hadn't seen in a very long time, one that had become faded in his mind's eye. One that he had complicated feelings for, only further muddled by the passage of time. Seeing him now, there was no mistaking it. Xie Lian was looking into the face of his father.

Xie Lian's mind and heart were racing. What was happening? This couldn't be real. He crawled toward the other figure and pulled down her shawl to expose her face, dreading what he would see. Looking at him were the dead, empty golden eyes of his mother. Xie Lian squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed dryly. He tried to regulate his breathing, but couldn't help gasping for air. This wasn't real. What he was seeing was impossible, a trick. Even with his eyes closed, the image of his dead parents was burned in his mind, inescapable.