Years later another crimson moon is going to take place, the mountain god sees the village chief is making her way to the offering table, she sets down a bowl of lovely fruit and asks, “Any sign of the Soul Drinker?”
“None, my dear. However, it is still early yet and the eclipse is only just starting.”
“Yes you are right,” reponds the young lady, covering her mouth as she begins to yawn.
Both of them watch the right side of the bright full moon begin to change colour. Then they hear the sound of faint thunder and they both turn their attention to the line of trees.
The next thing they see is the Soul Drinker. This time he is dressed in a golden half coat and all of his long fringe has been fastened back with a long light blue ribbon.
“It is so good to see you,” cheers the Chief full of happiness as she makes her way over to greet him.
The Soul Drinker smiles and asks, “May I?”
The young lady looks down at her sleeping son cradled in her arms. “Yes, of course,” she answers holding the baby out to him.
The god gently takes the infant into his arms and states, “My he is a heathy boy. Got some weight on him.”
Kāihuā is astounded and wonders how did he knew that when she had not even mentioned the sex of her baby. This makes her begin to think, was he reading her mind?
“When did you have him?”
“A month ago.”
The Soul Drinker’s eyebrows rise and he repeats, “A month ago, you say?”
The young lady giggles and agrees, “Yes, I know he is as you said a healthy boy.”
“My dear, you must have known you were carrying him?”
The Chief nods and tells him, “Oh yes towards the end my poor back ached a lot.”
“I bet. My goodness, are you sure you are not an Annihilation in disguise?”
The young lady looks at him all baffled. “A what?”
The Soul Drinker shakes his head and explains, “Forgive me. They are another form of god who are incredibly heavy. Well, not when they are infants. They only become heavy when they produce their fire... If I remember correctly it happens when they reach puberty. Saying that their babies are like this a good weight, you must have good milk.”
Kāihuā’s cheeks flush and she responds all shy, “I think so too.”
“It is good to see you again,” calls the Mountain God making his way over to them.
The Soul Drinker gives him a wave. “It is good to see you are still free.”
“Yes, thanks to you. Now you have returned Kāihu, and I can thank you properly. Go ahead, my dear.
The young god shakes his head and tells them, “Really, there is no need to thank me. I am just undoing what the Dark Ones did centuries ago.”
The young lady takes hold of his hand as she glances into his stunning ocean blue eyes. “Please stay for some tea and biscuits," she requests with a smile.
The god takes a deep breath and gently hands the sleeping baby back to his mother.
“Well when you put it like that, all right I will stay until the crimson moon is over. You though, my dear, do not have to remain that long.”
Kāihuā nods, she goes on to pour both the gods a cup of tea and they all sit back to watch the moon turn red.
The Soul Drinker starts to cough, he tasks a deep breath and informs them, “No need to look so worried both of you. I am fine this is just normal for me when there is damp air coming down from the mountains.”
“Of course anything like that is bound to irritate your sensitive throat,” says the Mountain God pouring him another cup of tea.
“Exactly. And beside if I get all wheezy, I have got plenty of herb bundles to use.”
The Chief cannot believe what she is hearing. “Pardon me for saying, I never thought a god could have breathing problems,” she questions, bowing her head in respect.
This makes the young god place a hand to his broad chest. “I am a Soul Drinker, all of my species suffer with breathing problems," he explains with a sigh. "It all starts when we turn a year old, we suffer a terrible fever... that can very easily send us in to the next realm. If we manage to survive it, then we have to go through it all again when we become immortal at the age of eighteen. Survive that, and we are left with damaged lungs and airway for the rest of lives, which gives us restrictive breathing and there is no cure. Even a Healer cannot fix it.”
Kāihuā is all shocked she finds herself giving him a hug. After a moment, they both look into each others eyes and smile.
“You are a kind young lady,” admits the Soul Drinker, gently stroking the side of her face. “Now if you were not already taken and we were compatible I would happily have some fun with you.”
The Chief and the Mountain God stare at him all shocked.
The young god rubs the back of his neck. “Perhaps I should not have said that.”
The Mountain God shakes his head and states, “It is quite all right, when I know after the Dark Chapter a lot of your kind had went on to have large families.”
“We sure did. We wanted to make sure when the next darkness comes there are more of us to fight it.”
This makes the young lady study the Soul Drinker's face and hands to see there are jagged lies here and there upon his skin. This tells her one he is way older than she thinks he is and two it is clear he has been involved in a Pixie battle, because all the elder gods carry these marks.
Their eyes meet again and Soul Drinker's lips form in to a soft smile, then he starts to cough and the young lady gives him a pat on the back.
The stunning god slightly raises his left hand and tells her, “Bless you, I’m all right. Trust me this is perfectly normal for me when the air is slightly damp."
"I understand," replies the Chief giving him a worried smile.
The Soul Drinker goes on to place a herb bundle near his nose and slowly his breathing returns to normal.
They all carry on watching the moon turn to lovely shade of red. However, their eyes are soon drawn to the ground when the partly hidden symbols begin to glow through the long grass.
The Soul Drinker gets to his feet. “Just as I thought. You are not out of the woods yet, my good man.”
The Mountain God quickly rises up and asks with a voice full of panic, “Why? What did he do?”
A book rises out of the young god's bag, the cover flaps opens and the pages turn until he finds what he is looking for.
“Just a little curse," he informs them.
Even though there is no change to the Soul Drinker’s emotionless handsome voice the Mountain God states:
“I like the way you said that with such calm. Anyway, my dear, I think it is time for you to leave.
Kāihuāis helped to her feet by both gods.
“Yes, you’re right," she agrees with a smile. "I hope it all goes well.”
“It will, our good man here is going to be fine.”
“There he goes again as calm as anything. When I am worried sick what is going to happen to me,” declares the Mountain God patting his chest.
The Soul Drinker emits a soft cough as he tells him, “Nothing is going to happen to you, for you are safe with me.”
“See you are in safe hands. To be honest, I could tell he meant it,” informs the young lady, before she trots away clutching her son to her chest.
“Right, stand right there on the altar and hold this,” says the Soul Drinker, placing a crystal in his hand.
The Mountain God watches a lovely shard as red as the crimson moon come rise out of the bag. The young god goes on to strike the same pose he did when he used the Qīng jiàn to release him from the barrier. This time though a strange looking rock comes floating out of the bag and begins to orbit around him.
Suddenly the odd looking stone rushes towards the Mountain God, it seems to hover in front of his chest for a moment before rising into the air above his head. It is soon joined by another which orbits in the opposite direction around him and he can hear a strange humming sound as they pass his ears.
“What is happening?”
The Soul Drinker does not reply, he is too focused on what he is doing.
The Mountain God continues to watch the stones move faster and faster until they become nothing but a blur whizzing around him. He turns his attention to the young man to see beads of sweat are forming upon his brow, and it is clear it is getting hard for him to breathe. A small bundle rises out of the bag to hover near the Soul Drinker’s mouth and nose. Then his blue eyes look right at him, the Mountain God knows his face is full of worry which is lessen when the Soul Drinker's lips form in to a soft smile to reassure him all is well.
There is a flash and the spinning stones suddenly stop on either side of the Mountain God’s head.
“Just stay where you are, I will be right back I will be right back. I just need to,” then the young vanishes.
The Mountain God realises he was needing some private time e just hopes he is not gone too long when he sees an eery black mist is beginning to rise out of some of the symbols.
Even though he is unable to feel it he notices the wind also seems to change direction and he becomes aware he is being watched from the shadows of the tree on the other side of the clearing. What could be lurking there? All he can do is hope the young man is on his way back.
All of a sudden something comes shooting past him and he is relieved to hear his somewhat disembodied voice come from the shadows:
“Remain where you are you dark fiend.”
This is when he hears a growl then a black mist creature comes running towards them.
The Soul Drinker's slender hand appear and he call, “Yè jiàn!"
Something cuts the creature in half and it instantly turns into a black cloud that gets carried away on the wind.
“I should have known Yǐngzi gǒu would come,” states the Soul Drinker stepping back into the moonlight, but keeps his eyes on the line of trees to his right. “Yè jiàn, go after any Yǐngzi gǒu that appear.”
This is when the Mountain God gets to see what Yè jiàn is, a beautiful sword. All of the handle is inlaid with crystals and there is a long red tassel dangling from the hilt. It seems to have a will of its own and it bows to the young man before moving on to hover in front of the line of trees.
The Soul Drinker strikes the same pose as before, the stones once again begin to rotate around the Mountain God and soon become nothing but a blur. The beautiful sword carries on killing shadow dogs every time they emerge from the forest and the mist from the symbols begins to intensify to the point they can barely see each other.
From out of nowhere there is a gust of strong wind and the Mountain God sees the Soul Drinker. He has both of his slender hands together above his head and there appears to be a strange light blue almost white light emanating from the tips of the first two fingers.
“Kin’da unsa ka,” he chants in quite a bold voice.
Quickly drawing his hands down the light from his fingers shoots out to surround the Mountain God and each symbol upon the ground start to flicker.
The Soul Drinker takes a deep breath, his hands part so the palms are facing the other god.
“Min daaa!”
All of a sudden the Mountain God is surrounded by a white sterling mist. Through the gasp he is able to see the symbols on the ground, they seem to flicker and change to a soft yellow. The two orbiting stones also change direction from spiralling around the centre of his body and head to a diagonal rotation. He can hear the young god is still chanting:
“Un ta ka, lin da unmin san ka. Us’si ka hinda."
After a moment there is a soft rumble of thunder and the swirling mist begins to dissipate. The odd symbols on the ground start to crumble into glittering dust that is blown away on the wind. This is when the Mountain God notices the Soul Drinker is swaying and his eyes are heavy. Ge quickly makes sure the barrier is gone before he rushes to his side and just manages to catch him as he begins to collapse.
The young god’s left hand grips the sleeve of the Mountain God's robe as it becomes harder for him to draw breath. This makes him quickly search the bag to find a large bundle of strong smelling herbs. The Mountain places it over the Soul Drinker's mouth and nose. Slowly the young man's breathing returns to normal and he drops to sleep.
The mountain god gently picks him up and takes him to his hut that lies on the mountainside. The whole structure is being kept in place with long poles, which only adds to the precarious nature of the place. The door opens all on its own and they continue in to a large room. The Mountain God goes on to sit the Soul Drinker down on a raised double bed, he gently removes his little boots, shoulder bag, setting them together down on the floor. Then he goes on to remove the ribbon and pins from the young man's bun which is keeping his long fringe back, making sure to place them all on the table. The Mountain God uses his abilities to take the thick blanket, that is folded up at the base of the bed and wraps it around him, before laying him down and leaving him to rest.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
