*FEATURED* Ao is a wrathful, ravenous former god trapped in a human body and sentenced to roam the Inner Empire for all eternity.
Eternity is rather dull, until she meets a green-eyed prince and his friends.
The prince offers her a deal; help him a...
閉月羞花 Bì yuè xiū huā Shut out the moon shame the flowers. Beauty so great it eclipses the moon and puts flowers to shame.
Over a thousand years ago, the Dragon Lords of the Eastern Ocean went to war.
As with any war, the sources of the conflict were myriad, thousands of smaller issues feeding into bigger ones like streams into a river. At the core was this: stay separate, disjointed, hundreds of individual tribes and groups, or unite into one, great Dalong clan, as many other mu'ren species already had.
I had fought for unification. Young, idealistic, I believed together we were stronger. That we could put aside our differences, and, united, forge a new age for the dalong, one beyond the dark ocean deeps, on land, with the rest of the world.
I was young, idealistic, and foolish.
Needless to say, the side I fought for lost. In the closing years of the war, the 'war' was little more than a culling of all who had fought for unification. Those of us who survived fled to the land, or to oceans and seas beyond our own, left with only defeat and our scars.
It may seem strange, that I could forget ripping out someone's eye. But I did many violent things during the war, some I remember, some I have forgotten, most of which I regret.
Ripping out Guang Han's eye, or Han He's eye, as he was called when I knew him, was not one of the things I regretted. Given the opportunity and the ability, I would take his other eye from him still.
Han He, or 'wide ditch' as we had called him, had claimed neutrality during the war, and offered up his territory, a long deep-sea trench from which he got his name, as neutral ground where combatants could rest and recuperate, or die peacefully from their injuries.
We were all so busy fighting and killing each other for our ideals, neither side thought to question Han He's oddly selfless generosity.
I found myself in need of his shelter after one particularly bloody battle. Later it would be called the Battle of Brown Water, as it was said the ocean turned brown with rust colored dragon's blood for days afterwards.
Han He had agreed to offer me sanctuary, but told me he could not shelter me in the trench, as there were already several members of the opposing side there. However, he offered to escort me to a small island just inside his territory, where I could hide in human form until the others had left. Injured and exhausted, I had followed him without thought.
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I remembered vividly coming to the island. Han He had taken human form to lead me on land, and urged me to do the same. Wounded as I was, it had been difficult, but I managed it, changing into the small tanned body of an island girl with a mane of wild hair that I customarily assumed. My wounds followed me, tracks of long sickle shaped gashes running along one side of my torso and dripping blood down my side. Claw marks.
