A Trial by Halves

A Flicker of Calm

25,000 Years later

Er Li was at that place again and continuing to struggle against a force that always left him feeling as if it would be his last time.  He was tired of it,   In the beginning, he had been so young and though he was not physically capable of doing much, or not as much as his spirit could, the excitement was what had kept him going.  Finding one small tiny piece of his fathers soul really was like finding a needle in a haystack that was being whipped up by a tornado, and with each piece he found, he would shed a tear of happiness.  It always felt as if he had achieved something enormously grand and each piece, he tenderly placed into the little pocket that his uncle had shown him how create.

It was an energy bubble attached to his soul, and over the years, he worked hard to find the pieces that he already had.  His uncle Mo Yuan had told him that he was lucky that it was not the Chaos he was battling because it was bigger, and much more violent.  And so for a very long time, he learned all manner of ways to protect himself.

Zhutian Terrace did not eat souls, but it did scatter them within where they were bound for all time.  But they were at least contained, so it did make things easier.  But only a little, because other soul pieces were attracted to Ye Huas glowing form.  They shone brilliantly in that place, and initially Er Li had struggled to keep hold of them, because like the other pieces of souls, his was lost to the agony of being torn apart.  

His father knew nothing of himself, he had no awareness at all, so Er Li had to do the thinking for him.  In spirit form, there are no boundaries, so Er Li was on a par with his father in terms of strength, intelligence and energy, so he managed well enough.  And when his uncle came out from his ten thousand year seclusion, he returned to help him.  Though he told him that he was very impressed with what he had managed to achieve so far, because the little bubble was growing bigger.

And when he wasn't helping his father, he was either on Kunlun Mountain learning all manner of exciting things and filling his head with more and more knowledge, he was in Qing Qiu with his mother and free to be anyone or anything he wanted to be.  She was much less strciter than his Uncle Mo Yuan, so of course he enjoyed his time at home, which is what he referred to Qing Qiu as.

And being the only dragon child among the other children his uncle Bai Zhen brought to play with him, he was also somewhat of a star.  Though when his uncle Mo Yuan found out that he was erupting his pure white dragon form to entertain the other children, he was then put into dragon training, because in that form, Er Li was dangerous.

Many of the children were hurt by his tail and fire which he could not control, no matter how hard he tried to pull it in and just sit quietly so they could observe him.  Instead his form would thrash and snarl and even bite when they got too close, and the sqeals of delight soon turned to terror when his fire would erupt at the sound.  His hearing was far too highly tuned for one so young, which he had honed in Zhutian Tearrace, so their delightly squeals felt like thunder in his head which hurt like anything.

Bai Zhen and his mother were always there to pull him back in, but the older he got, the more difficult it became, until eventually Bai Qian was forced to seek help, and of course the only one who could, was her old Shifu, which she no longer addressed as such.  

Only the day Mo Yuan arrived in Qing Qiu to observe the boy in his true form, he was forced to subdue minutes after he errupted and that was because, dragons did not do well around other dragons, especially untamed childish ones.  Er Li sensed Mo Yuans inner dragon the moment he erupted and instantly he tried to attack it.

Snarling, biting and throwing fire in all directions, Mo Yuan could see for himself that this child would one day be powerful.  At just a few hundred years of age, he was already showing signs of great strength and with his higher energy on top, he would be deadly.  So not only did he smack the little snout that had managed to get its teeth wrapped around his ankle which he was trying to chew, he was forced out of Dragon form in an second