Fluffy WangXian Oneshots

Something to be Treasured Part 1

Wei Ying woke up disorientated. He sat up slowly, blinking back to reality as his heart settled down to a regular beat.

There was something missing.

Had been for quite some time now, worming it's way deep into his subconsciousness, like a parasite.

He was tired...if he was honest, he was beyond tired. Work was exhausting these days, and he didn't have the heart to charge money for his services. If he was lucky, a villager would take pity on him and offer him a meal, but these days they were worse off than himself.

He stood up, since the sky was quite high in the sky, but he struggled to maintain his balance, dizziness clouding his vision. A few deep breaths later, he could stand up properly. His stomach gurgled painfully and he sighed, as his ears caught the sound of running water.

His mouth felt dry and so he staggered towards the river. Finding a quiet place where the waters were shallow, he drank his fill and he felt much better.

But there was still one part, in the middle of his chest, which refused to feel... anything. Like a gaping hole where there shouldn't be, it was emptier than empty. He sighed again and stood up, thankful that the dizziness had subsided.

But the dancing shadows upon the tiny waves caught his attention and he sat back down.

It wasn't as if he had anywhere to be...

He watched the water for a while, admiring the tiny bubbles as they shone in the sunlight, hues of rainbow colours reflected upon their surfaces. Little silky fishes swam closer, interested in this new entity, a part of the water that hadn't been there before.

He must have sat there for a long while, longer than he was aware, because when he came to, the sunshine had disappeared and clouds were holding an open meeting right above him. Little drops of rain kissed his face as he reluctantly stood up. The tiny drops quickly turned into a deluge, drenching him within minutes, and then he started shivering.

With no golden core to heat himself up, he knew it was bad.

This time, he might have pushed his luck too far, and now there was nothing he could do about it.

He staggered into the nearby town and was met by a frightened village elder.

"Young master, please help! We have asked other Cultivators to come, but they haven't arrived yet, and by the time they do, I fear it will be too late!" The Elder was breathing too fast, and was now bending over in his haste to get the words across.

"What is the problem, Grandfather?" Wei Ying tried to blink away the extra moisture from the rain, but it was falling quite hard now.

"There's a mysterious presence just yonder, over by the oak tree. It is definitely something malicious because of the dead bodies at its base. Please, could you take a look?"

Wei Ying could do more than just look, but he smiled kindly at him, more to give him some much needed courage than anything else.

"Show me where this is."

The elder took him to a large field and pointed at the lonely oak tree.

From where they stood, Wei Ying could see bloody shapes on the ground. The elder was looking rather green now, in the pale moonlight, so Wei Ying bade him to stay there while he went closer to investigate.

The branches were packed tightly together, age turning the smooth bark into knobbly mounds, and gnarled bark curled around the trunk like a widow's bony fingers. There was a little shelter here, and Wei Ying was grateful for the few moments of dryness as he crouched down and placed his hand on the nearest corpse.