Earth Master

Chapter 7 - the Search (part I)

Chapter 7 – the Search (part I)

“You’re such a good girl.” said Aurora to Peony, who was galloping at her fastest speed despite her bad condition. The torch in Aurora’s hand was losing its light because of the wind, making it harder for her to see where she was going. Once they arrived at the forest right outside the town, which she now left behind, she was relieved. Because there was no way that she was going to lose her way in a forest.

The torch went off after a short while, leaving her alone with the light coming from the full moon. Peony was still going with a complete trust in Aurora, who was trying to keep any negative thoughts away that might affect her concentration badly.

** ** ** ** **

When Aurora was thirteen years old, one day she was on a trip into the depths of the woods which had become a habit of hers ever since she was nine. She would wander off to the woods in the middle of the day and sometimes would not come back for a couple of days. Madame would be worried sick waiting for her, and sometimes she would ask the doctor to go after her. But the doctor would refuse, saying that it was impossible to find Aurora as long as she did not want to be found.

Whenever Madame would ask her what she was doing in the woods for so long, Aurora would only give a vague answer. Eventually Madame stopped asking.

On that day, Aurora was still in the woods near their town that she was so fond of when a fire broke out. The doctor was hiding from his patients and Moonshade was training when they saw the fire escalating in the woods.

“You said Aurora went to the woods this morning, right?” asked the doctor to Moonshade.

“Yes.” he answered, his eyes fixed on the smoke raising from the woods. “I better go and find her.”

“No need.” the doctor argued. “She’ll come back once she sees the fire.”

“I'm goin' anyway.” Moonshade said and ran towards the woods, leaving the doctor alone in the garden of the orphanage.

The doctor was enjoying the most beautiful shade of the biggest sycamore tree in the garden when he saw Madame rushing out from the front door of the orphanage. He stood up and called out to her.

Madame stopped and returned when she heard the doctor, who was coming near her.

“The woods! Burning!” she cried, worriedly.

“I know.” responded the doctor, trying to calm down Madame with hand gestures. “You go back inside, I’ll find her.”

Madame chose to wait for Aurora in the garden, her eyes looking at the direction of the woods, searching for Aurora. Then she realized Moonshade was missing:

“Where is Moonshade?” she asked.

“He just went to look for Aurora.” the doctor answered, doubling Madame’s worry.

The doctor went after Moonshade to the woods, leaving Madame alone with her worries. He was able to follow Aurora's master qi energy, and a little while later he found her as if he put her there himself. He spotted her sitting on the ground alone, but Moonshade was nowhere to be seen.

"That thick-headed brat." he mumbled to himself and laughed to the irony that Moonshade got lost searching for Aurora.

A couple of steps later his expression changed, when he realized that Aurora was holding her stomach as if she was in pain. He rushed over to her side, lifted her face and saw that she was crying, silently.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked, checking her body for possible injuries.

"No-" She was out of breath. "-where."

"Nowhere?" asked the doctor, dumbfounded. "What's wrong then?"

"It- It's hurtin too much." She cried out loud, clinging to the doctor's arms.

"It's alright, I'll carry you." the doctor suggested. He wanted to hurry and get out of there because the fire was expanding towards them.

"No!" Aurora screamed, clenching her fingers at a degree that it hurt the doctor.

"What the hell are you arguing back for?!" he exclaimed and lifted the unwilling but powerless Aurora to his shoulders and began walking in the opposite direction of the fire. As he was carrying her back to the town, they met some people from the town who came to take a look at the fire. In a town where there is only one water well and no other water source, there was not much than can be done against a fire.

To people who asked what was wrong with Aurora, the doctor answered that she was affected by the heavy smoke. Also he asked if they had seen Moonshade on their way here, but none answered positively.

The doctor put down Aurora once they were out of the woods. Her eyes were closed and her eyebrows were crossed, showing how much she was in agony. The doctor touched her forehead in order to check her temperature, her fringe wet from sweat. She seemed fine to the doctor, there was nothing wrong with her physically, so he wondered if it was something spiritual.

After making sure that no one was around, the doctor used his healing demon power to cease Aurora's pain. She consumed quite a lot of his energy, before she could feel any better.

"Are you feeling alright now?" asked the doctor to Aurora, whose breathing was getting back to normal.

"Yes, way better." she answered. "You can be useful sometimes."

"I'm not gonna take this attitude from a child." The doctor stood up. "Especially when I just saved her life."

Aurora smiled. "Where are you looking at?" she asked to the doctor, who was staring into the woods.

"I'm looking for Moon." he said. "He was supposed to find you, but that idiot kid got lost in the process. Best find him, before the fire takes the whole area."

"Don't worry." the doctor added when he saw that she was worried about Moonshade. "I'll find him and come back real quick. Then you and I can sit down and talk about what happened to you back there."

"I've no idea." said Aurora, right when the doctor turned around to go and search for Moonshade. "It just felt like my insides were on fire and I couldn't move."

"And it started around the same time the actual fire started?" the doctor asked.

"Yeah."

** ** ** ** **

After about half an hour of riding in the forest, Aurora finally felt Moonshade's energy. It was weak but there, and it was also the best feeling Aurora felt in years. She wanted to speed up, now that she knew Moonshade was in her reach, but Peony was getting too tired to continue at the same speed.

She supposed there was no harm in slowing down just a bit. The men could not be traveling at her speed with the carriage and she was clearly closing the gap between them. Also it looked like there was still time before sunrise. If something were to happen to Peony, there was no way that she could catch them on foot, so she slowly pulled Peony's ropes to slow her down.

They were traveling at medium speed, when Aurora was suddenly struck with a sharp chest pain...

*end of Chapter 7