by Park Moon
“Are you a helper of that dragon?”
“No!”
“Who are you?” I let go of my shoulders and breathed in as much as my lungs could hold in one breath.
“I am the dragon!” the tall, rice-white man put his arms behind his back and I stared.
“What?”
He smiled and bared his teeth a little, and me? I screamed!
I turned my back and I went out, waving my arms like a lunatic, screaming for help. However, he appeared at the other end of the corridor, where I was running to, and my feet stopped in front of him.
“Are you going to punch me? Until exactly two minutes ago, you were braver.”
“I'll take it back! You can stay there. Right there! I just want to go home. Is there a way? Any little boat will do. I have no extra.”
He bit the left corner of his mouth. Dan Lao pulled his arms out from behind his back, and stared at me:
“You can’t go back! If you go back, your father will kill you!”
“My Father is kind!”
“Really? As far as I know, he put you on a boat so that you would become shark food.”
“Dragon food, correct that!” I shouted and crossed my arms.
“I don’t eat crap!” he snorted.
“Are you saying I’m crap? Uncle Mao said you were wise and intelligent.”
“I’m a God that hates crap! I hate humans!”
“But you saved me!”
“I was summoned!”
“You were always summoned by Uncle Mao, and you didn’t help him.”
“He wanted the impossible.”
“Making it rain is not impossible, it’s a lack of will, and in your case, laziness too!”
“How dare you talk to the White Dragon like that?”
“Big deal! I have seen many snakes in the bush! Dragon is a snake with feet!”
“Ah! Great! Have I become a snake with feet?” he crossed his arms too and I raised my right eyebrow.
“I spoke the truth! If you cannot stand that, I am sorry! Now I want to go back!”
“I said, you can’t go back, are you deaf?”
“Just give me a boat, I will find my way, I don’t need you!”
“You couldn’t find the coast without my help!”
“Wow! Right! Boat and an oar!”
“What is your name?” he deflected the subject, thinking I was stupid enough not to notice his cleverly contrived idiotic strategy.
“Jade! My name is Jade! Now, give me the boat!”
“Jade, is the shaman still there?”
“The shaman? Do you know her?” I watched him, trying to analyze between the lines of his gaze.
“Yes, a lot! More than I ever wanted to. Is she the one who talked about the sacrifice? I suppose so.”
“Exactly!” my eyes widened. “How did you know it?”
He looked away and stared at the garden.
I saw that his eyes sparkled and the glow was the result of tears that, from somewhere far away, had come to the surface.
“You said your uncle prayed for me. He is your uncle, so... You knew your cousin?” his eyes wandered slowly over to mine and his breath caught in some part of his throat.
“I didn’t know her, because I was born after she died.”
“How long after it?” his nostrils flared and his pupils widened.
“I don’t know. A short time after, I think. Uncle Mao was still in pain when I remembered my first traces of memory.”
“Jade, you will stay here, until everything is set on.” he pulled the cloak over his greenish hanfu and took a step toward me.
“No way! I want to see my parents! I want my home!”
“You’ll die if you go back. What will they say? That the Dragon has rejected you. Without rain, your father will believe I was offended and he will kill you!”
“He would never do that!”
“He would never do what he did to you, and yet he did it. Don’t trust blindly, Jade!”
“My uncle Mao trusts you blindly!”
“Because he really knows who I am. If you do not know who lives with you, just wait for them to show their face. Sooner or later, every mask comes off.”
“I have to go back! What the hell!” I hit my feet on the floor and he held back his laughter.
“Why? Is there something valuable there?” he turned pale, if it was really possible to turn whiter than he already was.
“I love a boy in the village. Chin is his name. He is a kind boy. Chin returned my glances. I think he likes me too.”
“Oh, you want to go back because you love someone?” he sighed.
“Exactly! Now... The boat!”
“No way!”
“Please!” I rubbed my hands together, praying.
“I’m sorry! But, I will not let you go back. The shaman is there!”
“Chin will help me!”
“Did he help you when your father put you in the boat, or did he hide behind some stone? Jade, who loves, fights for!”
His words broke my heart, because I had not seen Chin anywhere on the beach.
I bowed my head and sighed, the dragon was right.
“Right! Uncle Mao said that you have supreme intelligence, and that the ignorant always bow down before the wiser. May I ask you something?”
He nodded, when I lifted my eyes and looked into his.
“Bring rain to my people. Not for them, but for Uncle Mao. He will die soon. Let the fish come through the dragon’s throat. Please!” I dropped my knees to the floor, and he bent down.
“Get up! You do not have to do this, Jade!”
“Just say you will give my people a little hope.” I whined. “They are too ignorant to understand things that are beyond their sight. Spare them the pain! It is already massive in you. Do not carry any more guilt, because if they die, you will take it with you!” I stared at the ground, his index finger of his right hand took my jaw, and his thumb touched the tip of my lips.
“One day a week, there will be rain and fish, if that makes you happy, Jade. That is all I can give to your people. They never asked for forgiveness, they only offered me things, as if bargaining would erase the pain I drag like chains around my ankles.”
My tearful eyes locked on his, and the softness that Uncle Mao said about Dan Lao came before me.
He was truly divine, in his delicate movements, which, as Uncle Mao said, were strong enough to lift the walls for miles around.
“Get some rest! Now, I need to deal with some problems and get the rain underway for your people.” he stood up and took my jaw with him.
“Will I live here forever?” I frowned.
“You are not immortal. The word “forever” is relative in your case. You stay here, until the shaman gives up what she wants.”
“What does she want?”
He let go of my face and turned away, leaving me with no answer. His left hand was raised and in front of him, a maid appeared and as far as I could understand, he gave her some order, and she promptly answered. The woman came toward me and took my left wrist:
“Come on! Dan Lao asked me to accommodate you in the royal room.”
“Royal room?”
The woman, who was euphoric, without reason, leading me down the corridor, did not answer my question.
I could not take my eyes off Dan Lao’s silhouette, which, in the distance, disappeared into the darkness corridor.
Chapter 3
Narrated by Jade.
“You need to take a bath!” the woman and half a dozen maidens put hot water in a wooden tub.
The bathtub was something unimaginable, as if it was molded from a single tree trunk, and I questioned whether there was, anywhere in the nation, a tree that size.
I was too curious about everything around Dan Lao, because I had, from the day Uncle Mao spoke, absurdly believed that I needed to find out the mysteries of that man, if he could be called one.
I got into the tub and the women left the room, leavi
ng only the talkative lady who had pulled me into the corridor.
She took a strip of cloth and softly touched my back.
With a piece of courage, I took the line:
“What’s he like?”
“Dan Lao?”
“Yes, I don’t know much about him. My Uncle Mao told me about the Dragon. But, I wanted to know from the female point of view.”
She dropped the cloth into the warm milky water, standing in front of me, leaning over the border of the tub.
“Dan is a perfect God, darling! There is nothing like him in this world and beyond the borders of the Universe. Because of this, the envy of others hurts him from time to time. You know... Unique people arouse the insane desires of others.”
“He dated my cousin!” I whispered, afraid that the walls had ears.
“Dated?” she laughed and covered her mouth with her wet hand. “They were married, dear!”
“Uncle didn’t tell me that!”
“He wouldn't do it. He brought her to Dan Lao himself. When Dan could not visit her. In addition, on a rainy day like this, they were married.”
“Does the myth that getting married on a rainy day brings happiness come from this? Because I heard that when you get married in the rain, the marriage will be prosperous, and the couple will live happily ever after.”
“I can’t say it! Anyway...” she touched the water and watched it, while I shrugged and analyzed her expression.
“Is he a fish when he’s in the lake?”
“Ah, your uncle said that too?”
I nodded, a little embarrassed, I admit it.
“Yes, he is one. But, he doesn’t go to the lake, because that place is sacred to Dan Lao.”
“Why is that?”
“There, he...” she stepped off the border of the tub and ran her wet hands over her face. “You know what I mean. He and his wife, there... Do you understand?”
“I don’t understand!”
“Child! It was their love nest!”
“He’s a fish in the water, like he used to...”
“He’s fish when he wants to be, not when he gets in the water. It is not instantaneous.” she laughed.
“Did they stay there?” I widened my eyes, because I knew nothing about couples with the sheets as the only witnesses.
“One day, may the walls not hear me, I saw there. The lake is big, made for him by his late mother.” she gave a weak sigh, as if her mind wandered far, far away. “In the middle of it, there is a shack, elevated from water, but the base touches the water. In that shack, without walls, but covered with silk, there is Dan Lao’s bed. They lay down and I watched the couple for a few minutes, until the shame took over my eyes and I bowed, to not see the unfolding of that act.”
“Did you see them?” I blushed my cheeks and ears.
“Yes, dear. If Dan Lao is in harmony with every step he takes, I cannot explain what I saw. His movements were majestic and his wife over the moon in his arms. At that time, Dan Lao had his hair down to an inch below his ribs. He was so different than he is now. Because nowadays, he does not smile easily.”
“Does he still use the lake?”
“As I said... Rarely. He sits on the edge and looks at the shack. He allows some maids to care for the sacred ground, to clean it. Ah, to get there, we need to use a boat. I and another servant are the only ones with access to the shack.”
“Doesn’t he become fish anymore?”
“I saw him swim once, floating and looking at the moonlight, so immersed in his pain that he didn’t dare look at me when the boat passed by.”
“Does he still love her? Do you believe that?”
“I do! Dan Lao is a faithful man. He would never let the love he felt die. But, I admit that feeling makes him very ill. He lives alone and Dan needs to live again.”
“You say that he has changed. Is that why he is vengeful? My people suffer and he is to blame! But, I feel sorry for him.”
“Your people are selfish, my dear! You are proof of that! If Dan Lao had not saved you, your bones would now be in the belly of a whale.”
I swallowed hard and sighed, she was right.
She stood up, took a cloth and stretched out her arm, handing me fabric. I took the cloth as I stood up, and covering myself, stepped out of the tub.
“Can I see that lake?”
“No way! You just landed here. Do not dare step out of bounds. Do only what is allowed.”
I frowned and she took the clothes to dress me.
I was not used to being fondled by servants, but this woman looked so much like my Mother that I accepted without blinking.
“Call me Pan. We will be friends.” she smiled with her eyes and looked at me. “You are ready! You can have dinner with Dan Lao.”
“Will I have dinner with him?” my voice had a hint of fascination and a bucket of desperation in it.
“Of course! You are his great visitor.”
“I’m his gift, you mean.”
“He doesn’t see you like that. In fact, he has never seen anything that way. He hates offerings to the gods and rolls his eyes when any god brags about what he gets.”
✽✽✽
The table was two feet off the ground, with two trays full of fruit and a couple of bowls of broth, placed opposite each other. On the floor, a red carpet.
Night was rising in the horizon, darker than usual, because the rain clouds darkened the horizon before the evening knew its place.
The lamps made the room, which had one wall open to the garden, comfortable. The opaque clarity from the lamps, with a flickering yellow, warmed the atmosphere. Here and there, the flames danced slowly.
There was no one, except me. I looked to see Pan, who, after a smile, turned her back and disappeared into the dark corridor.
As I watched her silhouette moving off, a whisper touched my bare neck, because Pan had done a hairdo that tied my hair into a single knot. My spine froze and my feet tingle.
“Come on!” the husky voice penetrated my left ear, sliding down to my throat.
“Ah, you!” I turned and smiled. “Do we really need this?” I blinked frantically, trying to stare into his eyes that were tilting so that I could watch him.
As I mentioned before, the Dan Lao looked like a huge mast, similar to the ones we used to put up flags on the beach. Dan Lao was tall. What about me? What a shame!
As seemed to be his routine, not a word came out of his lips, which, through the warm light, I noticed were stamped into round red masses.
He sat down, without a word spoken, and I followed his rite. He touched the bowl with the bamboo wands between his fingers and took the pieces of fish from the sauce to his mouth. His ritual was slow and harmonious, that would make anyone forget to feed their own mouth.
My misery at seeing my bowl filled with the fish broth made me choke and a tear fell over the bowl.
“Is everything okay, Jade?” his eyes still held the sight of his bowl, but his voice ran the distance of the table between us.
“I think of my parents, Dan Lao. They do not have food. I feel bad to have a full plate and they're there, hungry.”
“Rain is falling now on the Kan’s tribe, Jade. Feed yourself!”
“Fish? Will you let the fish go down the dragon’s throat?” I stared at him, and he raised his eyes and smiled weakly.
“While we dine, the bay is teeming with fish. Now, eat!” he turned his pale face to his bowl, and I took the broth and drank it, still with that heap of tears coming and going in my throat.
“Pan said I am your visitor.” I let go of the bowl and pressed my lips together, to wipe away the traces of soup, and he stared at me, or rather, stared at my lips.
“Of course! I am not a good host and I hate visitors, but fatality forced me. I must be hospitable.” he picked up the small porcelain cup and drank what was in it.
I stared at my glass and raised my eyebrows.
“What is it? Fish juice?” I pointed to the glass.
“Fruit! Drink up!” he set his glass down on the table, and then Dan rested his jaw on his hands with long fingers and almost translucent skin.
“It must be an exotic fruit!” I smiled widely and picked up the glass, scared to death that it was poison.
“It’s orange!” he blinked twice, as if to mock my ignorance, and well he could.
“Ah! Orange!” I brought my nose to the border of the glass and smelled it. The citrus air entered my nose and I almost cried. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an orange! You know, someone very bad took the water away from us. Without water, trees do not bear fruit. I think you know that, Dan Lao.” I sneered.
“You still want, by the way, to punch the person who took the water from your people, like you said? Punch hard, well...” he grinned.
Damn the time I said that!
“Forget what I said before. I was nervous! When we are nervous, we talk too much!”
“That’s right! I thought it was funny how angrily you slapped one hand against the other. I felt afraid. You are small, but I think you would hit me hard!”
“Don’t be silly! I cannot kill a fly!”
“Then... I am safe! Ah! I can sleep in peace!” he smiled softly, and I felt a warmth creep up my neck and into some corner of my cheeks.
“Are you always sarcastic or is it just to annoy me?”
He shut up and continued to watch me.
I admit that I was bewildered by his way of looking at me, because his right eye still insisted on being protected by his white, slightly grayish hair.
Those damn eyes were analyzing me. Dan Lao was fascinating.
“What were you doing in the village?” he broke that silence between my delight and dread.
How could he be a dragon and at the same time so delicate and handsome?
I denied with my head the thoughts that came up as if those damned waves before I fell into the sea and caught the mast.
“Ah! I... I clean a pretty decent fish!” I puffed out my chest.
“Is that all?”
“I also cleaned the house and cook good food. Sometimes, I helped in the sewing of the nets. My Father was not very skilled with the thread.”
“Your father had never been skilled at anything, except arrows.”
His voice echoed sadly and something in my chest crushed.