bubble // zhuiling

four

Jin Ling

Jin Ling's mind raced. They had...

Tails?!

•

Lan Sizhui

"Um, what do we do now?" Jingyi scratched his head as Sizhui lifted up the unconscious Surfacer for what seemed to be the nth time that day.

"I guess we just have to wait for him to wake up again... I'm not really sure how soon that'll be, he looks so tired." Sizhui wondered what that boy had been through to look so wrecked.

"He should be grateful we didn't pass out when we saw his legs." Jingyi scoffed.

"I mean, at least we knew that Surfacers existed... he's probably never even heard our kind before."

         "Don't Wei WuXian and Hanguang Jun visit the Surface frequently? Surely word of a man with a tail has gotten around somehow?"

         "Well... Don't tell anyone this but when Hanguang Jun goes to the Surface he uses a special plant and loads of talismans to um, get legs?" Sizhui explained. It was a complex process that he knew nothing about, but they'd told him once before. "They figured it'd be pretty controversial if word of that sort of thing got out."

         "Oh... I can't even imagine how that would work, but I'm happy for them I guess?" Jingyi tilted his head. That hadn't been what he'd expected. "Wait, so there is a way to go to the Surface!"

         Sizhui nodded hesitantly. "Yes, but it's super dangerous and in return you are rendered mute during your time above water."

         "What? He doesn't say much but, wow. Hanguang Jun must really love Wei WuXian..." Jingyi's thoughts of escaping to the Surface on his own two feet were put on hold.

          He nodded with a smile. "Yeah, yeah he does." Hanguang Jun and Wei WuXian were constantly affectionate in his presence, and sometimes he couldn't sleep at night with all the noise they were making.

          Sizhui really had to tell them to stop jumping on the bed all the time!

         "I want to look at someone the way Hanguang Jun looks at Wei WuXian," Sizhui stated, his gaze resting on the cave wall.

         Jingyi glanced at him before agreeing. "They're so in love with each other."

         "They take walks with the rabbits every other day." Sizhui laughed. "They're so in love, it's ridiculous."

         And so, the two boys sat there in the cold cave at midnight, pondering love.

•

         It was, of course, quite a long night. They discovered that their Surfacer friend spoke in his sleep. It was all nonsense, which started out quiet and only got louder as the night progressed.

         "Fairy... Bad Fairy... don't eat... Yiling Laozu yet..."

        "How is it that he's inconsiderate even in his sleep, Sizhui?" mumbled Jingyi, pressing the fabric of his robes into his head.

        "Surfacers are strange like that, I suppose. I wonder what having legs feel like. Maybe that's why he speaks like this." Sizhui thought aloud.

         •

        "Uncle... Please don't... break my arms..." Jin Ling moaned softly in his sleep.