Hiding (A Fleeting Glimpse - Pt.2)

403 18 11
                                    

AN: Oh, hot damn, this chapter **needed** to be split up into two parts. On another note, apologies for the late upload - this chapter has been rewritten more times than I'd like to admit. /).(\ As a reminder for everyone, MY doesn't know that Yaozu is/was Ye Hua's half-brother. He has his suspicions, but he's not certain (just yet).

** The Wolf Queen, Daiyu = (黛玉) ** - Her father was one of the wolves responsible for looking after Nu Wa's pet fox (Da Ji) in Qing Qiu after she was banished.

o~O~o~O~o

200 Years Ago

"She's waking up," Zhe Yan's relieved voice is the first thing Si Yin hears when she rouses after her fall from the Nine Heavens. Two pairs of hands help her sit as she fights a pained groan. The emotions that greet her are almost too heavy for her to handle.

Relief, for she's finally out of 'that place' and back in the serene peach forest that she's known since she was a child. The smell is familiar, and even though she can't see a thing, it relaxes her overstressed muscles as Bai Zhen rubs her back, speaking softly to her. She can't make out a word he's saying, either, but it bothers her a lot less than she would have expected in that very moment.

His voice alone is more comforting than she ever thought possible.

"Xiao Wu..." Where does he even start? He wants to ask about her eyes, how her mortal trial went, and where she's been for the past three hundred years. As she turns to face him, however, the words are stuck in his throat.

"Si Ge..."

She hasn't called him that in so many years, it causes his heart to clench painfully in his chest. It was almost always 'Da Ge' now, and the mere mention of their lost others alone left him entirely mute.

She moves forward, catching both of them off guard when she wraps her arms around Zhen Zhen's shoulder in a hug.

'Who are you and what have you done with our little brat' would be the first words Zhe Yan utters if not for the fact that he, too, had undergone a mortal trial. He could count on one hand the number of trials he knew of that went 'smoothly', and that thought alone was discouraging given her current state.

Bai Zhen hugs his little sister without a word, using the opportunity to get a few stray peach blossom petals out of her hair that had settled there when she fell.

"The Heavenly Lord doesn't deserve to live. He'd kill his Grandson's wife and his great-grandchild..." Her voice is quiet -- she speaks much earlier than anyone expected as she takes the moment to come back to her own body... but it's enough information for both of them. Her newly ascended, High Goddess energy is unsettled still and all of them can easily feel it.

"Come on, Xiao Wu... We'll help you up. Why don't you sleep in the guest house for a while? I'll send word to the Ghost Lord and let him know that we've found you."

o~O~o
Inside the Ghost Realm - Next Evening (post divine fungal grass)

Bai Qian sits on the bed, twitching her fingers blindly as she allows another soft, quiet shudder to leave her lips. After being allowed privacy that night to sleep uninhibited, she allowed herself the time to thoroughly process (and cry through) her own emotions from the past few weeks.

Her chest ached more than she ever remembered, and she felt like a complete monster.

Not only did she fall in love with the enemy while she had no memories, but she bore the over-glorified snake his first-born son.

In DarknessWhere stories live. Discover now