The Myth of the White Dragon

by Park Moon

  I had forgotten that a not so large wall surrounded the lake, but since I was practically a goblin, jumping over the walls would be quite a task.

  I walked along the edge of the wall, hoping to find something to propel me, and a tree stood before me. I grabbed its weak branches and, unmercifully breaking my body when I fell, I threw myself over the other side.

  Before I could take another breath, the voice of the cursed goddess echoed through the garden, approaching the lake.

  “Oh, hell! She’s coming!” I growled, looking at my torn and dirty hanfu.

  I aimed for the middle of the lake, and there was the filthy shack that Dan Lao had not set foot in for years. I sighed. I could not swim!

  I denied my lack of skill and fixed my eyes on a rotten piece of wood that floated sadly among the water lilies.

  “Right! That’s it!” I bit my lips and threw myself into the cold water.

  I hugged the wood and, shaking my feet without any harmony, tried to push my stiff body to the edge of the hut.

  The time to get there and the goddess to approach the gate was the same. I clung to the base of the shack, which was a huge, plump log that hid my silhouette from the shrew.

  I do not know how long it took her voice to disappear from my ears, because I was crying so hard and terrified that I would slip and drown.

  To tell the truth, it would be a death without any honor.

  What would the gods say? That I died for slipping like lard on a piece of wood, without even fighting to survive?

  I kept whimpering until I could not tell which was weeping or freshwater.

  My Father always said that strange creatures lived in the lakes, and that greenish color, aquatic plants, and the lime wood, reminded me of a swamp with a monster waiting for the dinner.

  My nails dug into the bark that was coming loose from the trunk and if the terror I felt was not enough, a strange ripple wandered before me.

  “I’m going to die, being eaten by a swamp monster!” I uttered a scream, but the goddess would hear, so I stifled my fear by dipping my mouth into the dirty water.

  The waves grew and a white thread shimmered beneath the muddy green of the water.

  “Divine! If the monster is going to eat me! Let it eat in one bite! I do not want to suffer!” I grumbled with my mouth still submerged.

  The wave increased and my fear went with it. Another wave and another... And the white thing got closer and closer, and I saw a huge fish tail hitting the water.

  “A monster fish! That is the end of me! I should have died in the sea! It was better than this!” I wrapped my legs around the trunk and closed my eyes.

  I did not want to see my death, because at least the decency to die with dignity, I wanted to preserve.

  “Jade!”

  That voice, damned voice!

  “Dan!” I opened my eyes.

  He was there, in front of me, naked, but, thanks to the Divine, he was covered by water, from the chest down.

  “What have you done? You cannot swim, Jade!” he brought his left hand up to my arm and lifted me close to him.

  “I wanted to protect you from the bad woman. If she found me, you would be punished!”

  “You shouldn’t risk yourself like that! I can take care of myself!” his eyes bulged with fear and a little water too.

  “What did you want me to do? Anywhere was dangerous. She would not dare go into the lake, because you said no one goes in here! She must have known that rule, and you would have forbidden her too.”

  He pulled me close and my lips hit his right shoulder and touched his skin. I blinked in bewilderment and kept my distance, but Dan squeezed me and I was caught in his arms. His left hand slid into my hair and his jaw touched the top of my head.

  “You’re safe now, Jade! I freaked out when I saw you behind the shack.”

  “Did you see me?” I murmured, trying to avoid any more contact than was already evident, throwing my hands away from his touch.

  “When Xi stopped at the gate, I saw the ripple that his desperation was producing. I am a fish, have you forgotten?”

  At that moment, soaking in the cold dirty water, feeling Dan’s chest touch and warm my frozen body, was all I needed to feel protected.

  I laid my jaw on his shoulder and I collapsed. He held me tight, picked me up, and threw my hands over his shoulders to lie on them.

  “I need you to hold my neck! Can you do that?”

  I nodded, hugging his wide neck, held by his hair, most of which lay in a harmonious back and forth across the water.

  A little beyond the dark water, the silhouette of a tail moved and I remembered what Uncle Mao had said about Dan being a merman when he wanted to be.

  Did he want to?

  Had he not retired after his wife’s death?

  It also wandered through my thoughts, Pan’s words, that he did not visit the place often.

  While a whirlwind of unanswered questions went from left to right in my stagnant mind, Dan swam on, taking me with him.

  When we reached the edge, he set me down on the low grass and stood beside me, lying on his left hand that was propped up by his elbow.

  I looked at him, trying not to look at anything that was below my field of vision, which was restricted from his hair to his navel.

  “It was strange to be here. It has been a long time since I allowed myself to swim like this.” he sighed, closing his eyelids slightly and bringing his right hand up to my eyes. “Close your eyes, I need to get dressed.”

  I obeyed him, and then he gently nudged my left cheek. It was time to open my eyes.

  Dan was standing in front of me, wearing a long tunic and white pants, with his right hand out to help me up. I accepted the help, since I was a wreck in person.

  We continued walking, and the seaweed slipped over my dress. The fingers of Dan’s right hand entwined in mine and my heart soared.

  In the distance, Pan’s fast feet were crossing the garden and when she came closer, she sighed, covering her nose with the wide sleeve of her hanfu.

  “You need a bath! You look like you swam with pigs!”

  “I admit that the lake needs some maintenance!” Dan shrugged, squeezing my fingers in his. “This would keep Jade from looking like a fishing net, after days on the high seas.”

  I raised my eyes and my left eyebrow.

  “Respect me! I am not that bad!” I opened my nostrils and inhaled the smell of dead seaweed and slime. “Right! I need a bath!” I smiled at Pan, who slipped her hand between our hands.

  I felt Dan’s fingers slip away and Pan’s take over. I stared at him, while I was being pulled by the maid.

  Dan stood there, watching me, but not blinking. His silence was destructive. He could talk a lot without any words. What he was thinking, I would never know. Dan was a charming mystery, and, in my chest, his warmth was still there.

  Chapter 6

  Narrated by Jade.

  Dan was sitting, watching the rainfall in the garden, in a hanging chair, attached to the ceiling that looked like a bird’s nest.

  We were properly away from that horrible smell and dirt stuck to our skins.

  I put my hands in prayer and I counted my steps until I was two feet next to him. I knelt down and even though he was aware of my presence, Dan did not look away, but looked off into the blue.

  “I want to be your friend! Your best friend!” I smiled and he slowly turned his face toward me.

  “I thought we were already friends.”

  “You need to make it official, with our little fingers touching each other.”

  “Where did you get the idea that we need that?”

  “I just made it up! Come on! Give me your little finger!”

  He stretched out his arm and reached for mine. Our fingers touched and I stared at them.

  “Done! We are officially friends! No one can break this friendship. See?”

  “That’s right!” he became sad and moved his finger away.

  �
�And, you can’t lie! You must always tell your friend the truth!”

  “I always tell the truth!”

  “Right! So, we will speak only the truth. Starting with a question and answer, because I am curious to know more about you!”

  “Curious? I did not realize it! Jade, you are the chattiest and curious creature I have ever met, not even octopuses are like that!”

  “Wow, octopuses can talk?”

  “Yes! Anyway... What do you want to know about?”

  “About you and my cousin. You got married, but you have no children. Why?”

  “I can’t have children!”

  “But your dragon father had a daughter, your mother had you!”

  “I’m an unlucky hybrid!”

  “I’m sorry!”

  “If she left me a child, maybe, the pain would be spared in half.”

  “Right! All right, all right! We will change the subject.”

  Dan’s eyes grew downcast and I feared he would cry, making the rain harder. In those days living with him, I realized that his mood dictated the weather. If he was well, clouds without rain, but if there was something bad inside him, thunder would roll through the clouds.

  “Tell me about yourself!” he arched a smile without showing his teeth and I slid my knees closer to the chair, almost resting my chin on his right leg.

  “Well, I’m chatty, curious, house cleaner...”

  “I know it. Say something different.”

  “What to say?”

  “Desire? Besides wishing for your asshole suitor.”

  “Chin is gorgeous! I will marry him sooner.”

  Dan looked away and stared at the flowers in front of him, which were planted in the flowerbed, two steps away from his feet.

  “I wanted to get married and have children! Lots of them! About ten!”

  “You’re a woman, not a mouse!”

  “Oh, my! Every woman wants children!”

  “I know it, but don’t you think that a dozen is too many? You are not a fish with thousands of eggs to throw into the water. Having human children requires more than just inordinate procreation.”

  “Right! I hate it when you say coherent things.”

  He laughed weakly and bowed his head.

  “Did you laugh?”

  “No!” he raised his head quickly and widened his dark eyes.

  “Yes, you did! I saw it!”

  “Maybe I did it on impulse! All right! Ask what you want to know.”

  “Do you intend one day to get married again?”

  “No!”

  “Really? You are so young.”

  “I’m two thousand years old, Jade!”

  “You are really preserved. What do you use on your skin?”

  He held back his smile and I smiled along with him.

  “The slime from the lake, maybe. You used it too.” he kept smiling, and his thin cheeks tightened a little, going up to his eyes.

  “I’m going to throw that slime on my face right now! I will look beautiful!”

  “And stink! If vultures fly over the island, it will be your fault!”

  “Ah, I got it! You are going to comb the scales on your tail, aren’t you?”

  “Ah! Great! Did your mother not give you any education? Respect elders!”

  “I respect elders up to a hundred years old. Millennial beings are not on these terms!”

  He kept smiling and my heart warmed. Dan smiling was brighter than the sun.

  “Are you hungry? Can we have dinner?”

  “I’m not in a good mood. I asked Pan to bring dinner to the bedroom, if you do not mind dining alone, of course!”

  “I don’t mind!” I blinked and I ran out.

  ✽✽✽

  I opened the door of Dan’s bedroom, without even knocking, because the goal was to take him by surprise. I wanted to appear as a surprise element, with no chance for Dan to get away from me.

  He was staring sadly at the soup, and I burst into the bedroom. He widened his pupils and dropped the spoon into the bowl.

  “Jade?”

  I held up a bowl and, smiling, threw myself on the bed in front of him.

  “I’ll have dinner with you!”

  “I told you I’m not feeling well. I wanted to be alone.”

  “No way! You will be sad and there will be an overflow outside. The poor flowers are soaked with rain. Don’t you feel sorry for them?”

  “Jade!”

  “Don’t start to say Jade! Keep eating! Go! Go!”

  “You’re a little inconvenient!”

  “Me? You should be thanking the Divine. I am bringing joy to the palace that looks like a cemetery.”

  “Jade!”

  “Eat the soup!” I took the spoon from his bowl, filled it with soup, and put it in Dan’s mouth.

  “You’re not going to force me to eat it, are you?”

  “Of course I am! If you do not eat, you will be weak! Who will save me if I fall back into the lake?”

  “No dare go in there again!”

  “Good idea? If you do not eat, I will run and throw myself in the lake!”

  “You will drown, because I won’t save you!”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Don’t you dare, Jade!”

  I let go of the spoon, opened my hanfu, and took off my coat that touched my heels, leaving me with only my dress. It was cold, but I wanted to show courage.

  “Come and get me, big fish!” I laughed and stuck out my tongue, making a face.

  “Jade!” Dan growled.

  I ran, before his eyes got any wider.

  I did not dare look back, because I knew he would appear at the end of the hall. Hell! He did not show up!

  “Right, Jade! You gave the word!” I thought and ran to the lake.

  The likelihood of Dan following me was getting almost nil, however, a man’s word is law and I should keep my word.

  The rain was beating down on my back. Oh, how I wished to see the moonlight.

  I went on with my mission to make Dan realize that life went beyond the funeral emptiness he placed between his heart and mind.

  My feet stopped at the edge of the lake. I lifted the left corner of my mouth and took a good look at the stupid thing I was about to do. I took a deep breath, aimed at the first water lilies, and took a breath!

  “DAN! I AM GOING TO DROWN!” I shouted, with no sign of him nearby. “Dumb! Jade, you are stupid. You are going to die, fool!”

  I put my right foot in the water, and as I leaned over to jump in, Dan’s huge hand grabbed my left arm.

  “You are stubborn! You are lucky! I am not stubborn like you!”

  I looked him up and down and Dan was wearing only white linen pants, almost transparent. His breathing was coming and going on his rain-splattered chest, which seemed sculpted by some unusual nature’s spirit.

  I blinked, looking up to see his eyes. The rain troubled the scene, falling on my eyelashes and making me blink more than usual.

  “All right! Teach me how to swim!”

  “What?”

  “We are here, wet from the rain. No harm in falling into the lake and swimming.”

  “Slime and mud. Do you want another bath?”

  “We’ll need one anyway.”

  He did not speak, just pulled me closer, releasing his hand from my arm, but lightly taking my waist. My body brushed against his and his face tilted up.

  “Right! Do you want it?”

  He pressed my waist even tighter and with his right hand, hugged the back of my head.

  “Trust me!” he drew his breath closer to mine and I closed my eyes.

  I felt my body fall backwards, but with Dan still holding me. The water touched my hair and we plunged into the dark lake. My feet, which were touching his legs, felt the scales in their place, my arms wrapped around his neck, and his arms covered around my back. We rose to the surface and I opened my eyes, when I felt the cold air outside the water.

  My hair fell over my forehead an
d blocked my view, but between one strand and another, Dan was there, two fingers away from my nose.

  I kept squeezing his neck for salvation, because if he tried to let me go, I would die.

  “Don’t let me go!” I mumbled, with my mouth full of water, and a bunch of my hair too.

  “I won’t let you go!”

  The rain was still falling, but miraculously it had stopped dripping heavily, and when I looked up, a little piece of sky appeared, and with it, a shy star.

  “Star?” I smiled, staring at the sky above our heads.

  “Do you like stars, Jade?”

  “I love it!” I turned my eyes back to him, and Dan took the right hand that was holding me and he raised it above his head and snapped his fingers.

  I looked at his index finger, pointing to the sky, and then up. In an instant, the clouds dissipated and a pure sky appeared, filled with stars and with a crescent moon brushed on the horizon.

  “I can’t believe it!” I smiled broadly, grinning like an idiot, looking up at the sky.

  When I turned my tearful eyes to check Dan’s countenance, he was smiling shyly and his breathing was so strong, yet so rhythmic and harmonious, that I lost my breath.

  “Thank you! Thank you!” I threw myself into his arms, as if I was not already attached to him, and I rested my jaw on his left shoulder. “It’s beautiful! The stars are so beautiful! Who is the god of air? Are you friends with him? Because he is the one who takes care of the stars, right?”

  “You’re hugging him, Jade!” he took a deep breath and hugged me tight.

  I closed my eyes. I did not need anything else.

  Chapter 7

  Narrated by Jade.

  Days went by without my noticing. It turned into months, and then, two years passed in front of my eyes.

  Dan had taught me how to swim, the basics of not dying like a nail in the water, and the lake was cleaned up. Pan was happy to see that life was returning to normal, because Dan was changed, very changed indeed.

  The lake that had changed, and Dan had changed too. The rain no longer turned night and day, and rays of sunshine appeared, now and then, on the horizon.

  Between one cloud and another, when the rain was falling and the sun was still there, I could see his eyes admiring the rainbow and a hint of relief I could feel coming from him.