Fresh Embers of Love

Chapter 74

The Flower Immortal Guihua knelt over her husband, trying to scan his body with shaking hands. He had fallen from such a high altitude, that she hadn't even seen what had caused him to fall in the first place. The impact was so tremendous, it had left a crater in the ground around his body.

His lips formed the word "Nuwa", but no sound came out of his mouth.

Guihua pointed to where her daughter was still tied to the tree, hoping to reassure him, surprised when he lifted his hand and cast a spell that would set her free. His arm dropped afterward, and his eyes closed. He had lost consciousness.

Nuwa ran over to them, stumbling on the bedraggled wet hem of her dress, and knelt down by his other side.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed tearfully, holding on to his hand. She stared at him with a worried expression.

Guihua breathed in deeply, trying to focus. She needed to do a proper scan, in order to know where to start healing. She held her hands above his chest, and the golden light of her magic flowed into his body. She closed her eyes, focusing her sight inward, trying to really See into him.

His lungs were burned very badly, he was having difficulty breathing. That would be the first thing she needed to heal. Several bones were broken, including his skull. Those would be easily fixed, but probably caused him a lot of pain. They could be saved for last. His nervous system was misfiring, causing muscles to twitch randomly. Somehow an enormous electrical current seemed to have entered his body. She could see the entry and exit wounds of what looked like lightning.

She focused harder, scanned deeper. She had never scanned him before, never seen his Primordial Spirit. It was beautiful, a full dragon form of clear blue water, but it was scarred from old wounds, and showed fresh damage as well. The fire that had burned his lungs, had gone deeper, leaving a white sheen on his Dragon Spirit. It overlapped an old scar, caused by the same type of fire.

Oddly, the Spirit appeared to be more than twice as old as she knew her husband to be. He was only 41,000 years old. This Spirit appeared to be well past 90,000. The recent damage inflicted on him could take 10,000 years to heal. How long is the life span of a Dragon?

She blinked, readjusting her eyes to normal vision, and took another deep breath, trying not to panic. She brought her hands over his lungs, and focused on healing the damage there. The wounds were stubborn. It took a great deal of effort to get the lungs to produce fresh cells.

Runyu took a deep breath, unencumbered, and sighed with relief. Then he put his other hand overtop one of Guihua's and opened his eyes.

"Runyu!" Guihua gasped with relief. She wasn't sure she would be able to heal him enough to restore consciousness.

Runyu's mouth moved, his lips forming the word 'Guihua', but no sound came out. His ability to speak was still impaired. She raised her hand to his throat, prepared to cast a healing spell on his vocal cords. He shook his head, pushing her hand away weakly.

Guihua focused her thoughts, projecting them into his mind.

"Runyu, I need to heal your throat so that you can speak again" she thought to him.

He looked up at her calmly, and she heard his familiar voice inside her head.

"Don't waste your energy on me" he requested.

"What do you mean?" Guihua asked aloud, taken by surprise. Her voice sounded bewildered and hurt.

Runyu's head moved a little as his eyes rolled around, trying to look all around their surroundings.

"Look at all of these people who are injured, some gravely. Look at how many have died here. Not just our soldiers, but innocent bystanders as well" his voice reverberated in her head.

"Runyu, I have to heal you!" Guihua said emphatically. "These soldiers fought for YOU. If you die, they will feel like they failed you!" she pointed out.

"Daddy! Let Mother heal you!" Nuwa chimed in, hearing Guihua's portion of the conversation.

Runyu closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face.

"I don't want anymore deaths on my conscience, Guihua" Runyu's mental voice sounded tired and sad. "Xu Feng..." he started to say, and then stopped, overwhelmed by emotion.

"Just take me to the water" Runyu requested.

Guihua looked up at Nuwa. "He wants to go to the water" she told her daughter.

"He is a Water Spirit. Will that help him heal faster?" Nuwa asked her.

Guihua looked back down at Runyu hopefully. He gave her a small wistful smile, that did nothing to reassure. Guihua looked back up at Nuwa anxiously, throwing her hands up helplessly.

Guihua twirled her arms to summon her magic, with two fingers on each hand extended, and slid her fingers underneath Runyu's supine body. She raised him from the ground, keeping him horizontal, careful not to jostle him, and floated him along.

"The River is this way" Nuwa told her, pointing in the direction that the Fox Spirit had been dragging her.

Nuwa held her big belly, and walked wearily in the lead, clearing a path through the wounded and walking soldiers, so that Guihua could get Runyu to the water he craved.

"What happened to the water?" Nuwa asked in amazement, as they approached what should be the river's edge.

They could see the mud of what used to be the river bottom, and the bodies of fish flopping weakly upon it.

"Set me down here" Runyu's voice echoed in her mind.

Guihua obeyed, slowly lowering him to the ground, and then removing her fingers from his back. He closed his eyes, grimacing in pain, as the hardness of the ground pressed against his broken bones.

"Please let me heal you, Runyu?" Guihua asked desperately. It was so hard to see him in pain.

He opened his eyes again, looking at her with an emotional expression. He shook his head at her, refusing her help again. He closed his eyes once more, bringing his hands up to his chest level, palms facing his feet. He laboriously circled his wounded arms, performing some kind of magic that Guihua had not seen before.

Soon, the magnificent form of a clear blue dragon erupted from his body. It was immense! It flew up into the air, then came spiraling back down in a corkscrew formation, before laying itself straight along the path of the river. The riverbed began to fill up with water again.

"Runyu!" Guihua shouted at his body, grabbing it into her arms.

She shook it roughly, but got no response from him.

"Runyu! Come back!" she begged the lifeless form, starting to sob.

"I will wait for you... on the other side" a voice whispered in her mind.

She clutched onto his body tightly, shaking her head in denial, wailing her despair. His body lost its form, dissolving into pearlescent powder that drifted away from her, and she could not hold on to it.

"Daddy!" Nuwa shouted, her voice sounding surprised. "Daddy come back!"