White Healing Lotus | Ashes To Love

Chapter 9

In the evening, Bai Fu slowly crept inside hiding her hand behind her back. She spotted the Fire immortal standing by the table looking at some of her bottles. What a perfect timing.

The mischievous sprite tapped his shoulder. He turned around to see a finger long centipede hanging from the two tips of Bai Fu's fingers.

"Look! A centipede."

The legs of the centipede wiggled. She watches him eye the little creature.

"What do you think? Scared? My snake like friend hates these. I plan to catch a lo-"

The man suddenly plucked the creature from her tips and placed it right into his mouth. Bai Fu wide-eyed saw every little detail of his lips closing and jaw grinding the poor thing.

"I was going to say catch a lot and feed them to you... Did you really swallow?"

He only smiled.

"You ate it! Are you a rooster? I was only joking..."

Bai Fu marched outside and started looking for the other creature she found. Spotting it, she allowed it to crawl onto her hand before coming back inside to show the Fire immortal.

"Today I found another little creature off the cliff. It has a hard shell but is soft and juicy on the inside. Seems more tastier than that centipede," and with that she held the hand with the snail to his face.

Bai Fu wasn't expecting this. The Fire immortal jumped from his spot in fear and jumped into one of the large jars in the room. He waved his hand saying to get that thing away from him.

"It's only a snail. You're scared of snails?"

He only cowered.

She shouldn't be so mean to him. "Fine, I won't feed you this snail. Out of all the things to be afraid of, you're afraid of this harmless creature." Bai Fu threw the snail outside with ease. "See, all gone."

After that incident, Bai Fu set up a herbal bath for him. "After this bath, your physical injuries should be all healed up." She tossed the last bits of the herb and turned around to leave to give him some privacy. He pulled her back and picked up the water scoop for her.

She could only sigh. She's guessing he wanted her to help bathe him.

The Fire immortal started doing the movements of pouring water on him with the scoop then handed it to her. The sprite could only grab it. She raised the scoop high above his head and pretended to smack the crap out of it.

He suddenly turned around and she quickly brought it down and started to pour the herbal water on him.

"Such a rascal but how come you look so glamorous? I've read a book that states, 'Your lips are red without lipstick, your eyebrows are dark without being pigmented, skin silky like gelatin, and blushy cheeks like peach blossoms.' That's you, definitely you. You're also not illiterate. You must be a somebody important don't you think?"

She finished pouring water on him and he was ready to get up. Bai Fu pushed him back down saying, "You have soak in it for a bit longer."

She decided to pour more water on him but stopped half-way to take a good look at his battle scars. "Wow... I see knives, swords, spears, ax, trident, hook, whip, bat, flail, boomerang, and morningstar. How many fights have you been in?" Bai Fu asked touching each scar.

"Your scars carry all sorts of weapons, amazing. I did pick you up from a pile of dead bodies and saved you, so you better treat you life as if it were gold now. I don't want my efforts to be in vain."

She continued to touch each scar until a splash of warm water hit her face. The Fire immortal gave her a look, when are you going to stop touching me.

Bai Fu could only weakly laugh and slowly removed her hand from his body.

"Stay in there for a couple more minutes. I'll go get you a change of clothes."

After he got dressed, the two went out into the mountains to get a fungus she read in a book recently. Once they were finished, the two stopped by a river to get some fresh air. Bai Fu also used this pit stop to wash her small hoe.

She crouched down by the water bed and started to wash the dirt off the hoe. Bai Fu managed to find five of the fungus and decided to call it a day.

She put the hoe back in her basket and then noticed that the immortal was by her side holding one of the fungus she managed to find.

Shook took the small yellow fungus out of his hand. "This is called Caterpillar Fungus. I've read in a book that states that this fungus is wholesome for kidney and lung. This is great medicine to strengthen and get healthy. Don't you think that sounds amazing?" 

Bai Fu realized that he still couldn't talk and sighed. Lately she's been doing that because of him. She spun around and started to head back home. Bai Fu chuckled a bit when she hears him rustling after her carrying her basket.

Through the woods, Bai Fu still initiated conversation. She held the Caterpillar Fungus to him and said, "They grow high in the mountains. Half life as a caterpillar, half life as a fungus. In the winter the caterpillar dies and the next summer it becomes life-saving medicine. From books, they sprout out from the soil. It's just like beetles when you think about it."

She stopped and showed him the fungus again smiling. Instead of looking at it, the man just looked at her. Bai Fu felt her face becoming warm.

She placed the fungus back in the basket he carried and said, "Let's hurry," and went on ahead.

The sky had already turned dark and they haven't returned home yet just as Bai Fu suspected. They left right after breakfast and it took them the whole afternoon to get to the mountain that held the Caterpillar Fungus.

"Let's set camp here. It'll be too dark for us to see the path to go home."

The Fire immortal put down her basket and went to gather wood while the sprite got the potatoes she packed ready to roast.

When she got the fire going, the immortal got out paper and a charcoal pencil out.

Do you feel lonely living deeply in the mountains?

Bai Fu warmed up her hands before replying, "Hmm... Sometimes. Loneliness is my least favorite thing about life. The thing I'm worried about is just being alone without anybody to care for me or for me to care for." She laughed a bit, "But I, have already lived in that solitude for quite a while so I'm used to it."

She took notice of his sadden face and added, "Loneliness is just part of the journey of life. Plus, I have you now." 

She sat closer to him supporting her head with her hands. Bai Fu gave him a long stare as he could only look back. "You know what I've noticed? I've never been this free in my life. My mind is able to be shared with someone else for once and I don't have to contain it. I haven't been able to in a long time. It's nice that you're quite quiet too."

Bai Fu scooted even closer to him. "You are the best listener in the world. Thank you," she said grinning before moving away to check on the potatoes.