The Dead Groom's Bride

Turn back the time

"You are one tough chick to kill, Ling Ling." Said Junjie grinning. He rearranged Ling Ling into his lap and fished for that same bottle of ointment he used on her earlier.

Junjie spread it carefully around her wounds, broken leg, and once he got to her chest, he hesitated.

"It's okay," said Ling Ling. "I won't scream if you touch me there."

Junjie let out a long exhale, having to ask for her permission was something new to him. He'll have to get used to searching for it each time.

Junjie understood that this is a different time. The Ling Ling he's used to normally just threw herself on him without hesitation.

He spread the salve on her chest, letting the ointment soak in her skin. Junjie took his time doing this, enjoying this opportunity. This seemed like the most intimate they've been together since he found her.

"Do you still not remember who I'am?" He asked a little too silently. Perhaps, fearing her answer.

"I don't." She answered, breathing as the healing effect of the ointment took place. "But, there's something different about you, something familiar." Ling Ling stopped, she wanted to say more but she couldn't come up with the proper words to say it.

It was as if she'd known him all her life.

Her bones mended back into place and her bruises faded. Ling Ling felt refreshed as if she was good and new.

"We need to get out here, Junjie" She looked up as if calculating the height of the climb from the ground to the mouth of the well. It seemed like an impossible climb to her. "How are we going to get out of here?"

Junjie grinned, "you're going to have to hold on to me tight, Ling Ling."

"What you're going to climb with me on your back?"

"I may as well might."

Ling Ling gaze at him lost at what he was trying to say, until he took both her hands and wrapped it around his neck. "Hold on tight!"

He didn't have time to explain and Ling Ling didn't have time to ask when he exploded in to his dragon form and soared out of the well and into the sky, ripping through the misty night.

Ling Ling gasped, a sudden fright engulfed her but that temporary fright wouldn't last long. Her arms wrapped around his fuzzy neck and leaned into him.

A whip of familiarity hugged her again. It was something she felt like she did a hundred times before. Ling Ling didn't even questioned the oddness of what just happened. Junjie bursting into a dragon?

She'd seen a frog, a spider, cats that looked human, beautiful foxes that looked human, and a toddler that looked more dangerous than anything she had ever seen, but a dragon was something so majestic and so unreal that no wonder Junjie looked so beautiful in his human form.

They flew over the sky as he took her away from the Lao's mansion and into safety. For a little while Junjie was flying without direction, just flying around in circles rippling in the sky as if he's giving Ling Ling a free ride on his back, until boredom hit her.

"Do you know where your going?" Ling Ling asked.

She had not expected Junjie to answer in this form when he did, and the sound of his voice made her jolt. "I was going to take you home with me, but I realized that I can't. I forgot you're human and not a spirit anymore. I can't take you home with me, Ling Ling. I must take you where you live."