Three Wars and a Goddess

A Cool Damp Cloth

Arriving at the Peach Tree Woods, Bai Qian was immediately pulled towards the low table by her brother having felt her arrival the moment she passed through the barrier.

"Didn't father tell you to stay home?" he whispered as his eyes flicked towards the hut.

Annoyed that she was being held back, her head whipped to the side to glare at him and with a mouthful of choice words ready to unleash, she quickly swallowed them back the moment her eyes landed on his face.

At a hundred and sixty thousand years of age, Bai Zhen looked as if he had aged another hundred thousand years.  His eyes were red from crying and he looked so exhausted and worn out that she wondered if she should take him back home with her instead.  Sitting outside drinking too heavily from the stress, was not healthy, but she knew, the moment she tried to force him home, he would fight her and that would only anger their father.

"Oh Zhen Zhen." she sighed softly as her own tearful eyes looked back him.  Then before he could utter a response, she threw her arms around his neck and drew him close.

For several seconds he merely hung lifeless in her arms.  Until eventually his own raised to embrace her back, thankful that she was there for him.

"Why not come home with me." she said as her eyes then swivelled around to look back at the hut.  The door was closed and seeing as her brother was someone she could actually assist, she turned back towards him with a questioning gaze, one she hope would get him to return home to rest, the shattered look on his face hurt just as much as Zhe Yans condition.

"You know I can't do that.  I need to be here." he said as his voice broke.  

"I'm sorry Zhen Zhen." she whispered against his hair.  There was nothing else she could say to ease the soft tremble coming from his body, but she held him tighter regardless.  

And for a while that is all they did.  She had no words for him even though she desperately wanted someone to tell her all would be well and ease her own heartache.  But eventually the embrace ended as he drew her to the table to sit down.

Looking at the empty bottles on the stone table, she quickly waved her hand over them to get them gone.  If their mother saw how much he had been drinking, he might end up in the same condition as Zhe Yan.

Taking a seat beside him, she waved her hand over the table and materialized two fresh bottles of wine, which they both drank while she answered questions he had regarding the war and what had brought Zhe Yan home in that state having yet to learn the exact cause of his wounds.

She knew it was pointless keeping the truth from him because he knew her better than she knew herself, she was never able to lie to him, but she did edit out much what she saw, especially the gore and barbarism which he wouldn't have wanted to  hear anyway.

But to learn it was a scorpion that had sent him home in that state, had him crying again but this time the anger rose with it.  To think that the gentlest man in their entire world, one who was generous beyond belief and would have given Tengfei the time of day had he arrived at the Grove in the same condition, was too hard to believe.  

Bai Zhen, like Bai Qian had both been rather sheltered from the wars that raged in their world, and though they knew they were not a kind affair, they still expected righteousness and fairness to rule the heart regardless of the anger that raged in the minds of the war hardened.  So to have been attacked by a scorpion, one of the deadliest beasts ever to come out of the Darklands was unforgivable. 

Seeing the way his body seemed to collapse at this news, she kept quiet, refusing to say anymore even though he wanted to hear it all.  Instead she embraced him again and this time he fully let himself go against her until he had cried enough for the entire world.