Prince. (Xingqiu x Chongyun)

Part 9: Osial

Chongyun looks out and reaches down, pulling me up by my arms, panic fills his eyes. I stumble to my feet and grip his arms, I get a proper look into the waters.

"Chongyun... What the fuck is that?" My breath catches in my throat as I see a snake-like creature come out, its body completely made of water.

He pushes me away from the railing, "It's-It's Osial, listen we- you need to get out of here." He takes a quick look behind him and I peer over his shoulder.

The waves are getting higher, some crashing down on the docks. A few people start to scream and I feel my heart drop.

"W-What about you?" I say, anxiety lacing my voice.

He shakes his head and before he can respond an arm grabs mine, I look up and Hu Tao is hurriedly pulling me inside. I look back at Chongyun.

He mouths the words, "Don't worry." I feel my eyes water slightly.

I nod and turn away from him, I look up at Hu Tao, she isn't looking at me but has a firm grip on my arm and is pulling me out of the restaurant.

"Hu Tao?" I ask quickly and almost trip on a rock, she pulls me through the small crowd of panicked people in the lobby.

She looks back at me for a moment, "Yeah?" Her voice cracks, she's trying to be hopeful for me.

I clear my throat as we step onto the streets, a few people shove past us and I pause and look into the water again. Five of Osial's heads are poking out of the water, their thrashing furiously and the boats in the harbor are starting to flood and tip. 

"Um- Where's Mom and Dad? And where are we going? I-" I cut myself off with a sharp breath as a larger wave crashes down on the lower streets of Liyue Harbor, taking away decorations and food.

Hu Tao starts dragging me through the crowd again, she's sprinting now. "Mom and Dad are staying to help out, they wanted us to get out. We- We're going to a small building Mom and Dad told me about on one of the nearby mountains."

She pulls me onto stairs that lead out of Liyue Harbor and I nearly trip again, I hear screams and waves get louder behind me and I don't dare look back. The clear starry night sky suddenly becomes clouded over and it begins to pour, thunder crashes through the clouds. I look up for a moment and see the lanterns going dark and then crashing down sporadically. 

I don't know how long we've been running, it couldn't have been long. We're barely away from the Harbor and it feels like it's been so much longer. My mind racing quicker than it ever had before, I was standing with Chongyun about to confess only a few minutes ago- What happened? Oh... Please, please let Chongyun be okay. And Mom, Dad, Fischl, Yanfei, Ninguang, Zhongli... Even Noelle who's in the castle and Beidou and Childe who I just met today. I hope the people are okay...

The cold rain hitting my face gets mixed with warm tears, my vision blurry as I run and I start finding it very hard to breathe. The constant sprinting isn't helping. I shake my arm out of Hu Tao's grasp and fall onto my knees, so hard it rips the pants covering my knees.

I cough and look behind me, we'll have to climb up the mountain soon.

"Xingqiu?" Hu Tao runs to sit next to me, putting her arms around me, "Come on... We have to get up." She cries slightly but stands back to her feet.

"I-" I gasp but nod and stand.

"I'm sorry..." She apologizes and I know she means it.

I shake my head, telling her it's okay. I start running behind her again and we reach the stairs to the mountain, it's not a tall mountain luckily but is still going to be hard. I take in a sharp breath and look at the harbor once again, it's a lot more flooded than before and it looks like the Jade Chamber moved closer to Osial.