by Park Moon
“Why did you do this? I never hurt you!” Dan bit his lips and frowned.
“You didn’t do anything, because you’re a fool like your parents. Your father was my fiancé. Did you know that, dear? He left me to run after that pathetic mermaid.”
“I don’t understand it! You are human! My Father was a demon, not mortal. He was a spirit, not human.”
“Who told you, Dan Lao, that I am human? I am a red demon, just like your father.”
I saw Dan Lao’s expression become terrified. I looked at his hand that was still holding mine, and the veins between his tendons were raised, filled with rage and blood.
“Tell me what you have done, demon!” he shouted.
“Revenge! Just a long and wonderful revenge. I saw your father die ruined, I also watched your mother disappear. I believe she is in bones, trapped in some underground cave right now.”
Dan Lao gritted his teeth and foamed at the mouth.
“I’ll tell you something else. Vengeance did not end when I saw your parents gone, I wanted to take revenge on you, because you are the fruit of their love, love that drove me away from your father. I used the gods, putting anger in their veins, stoking their flaws. They hated you! It wasn’t hard to make it worse.”
“Are you the cause of it all? You killed my wife!” Dan Lao took another step, and something in me snapped.
I flew up in front of him and put my left hand on his chest.
“Dan, no!”
“Jade!” he whispered.
“Don’t match, right?”
“Yes, my love!” he sighed, and his words made me tear up.
Not understanding, I smiled weakly and stood in front of him, but the shaman kept talking:
“Your wife? Ah, we will talk about her! Mao had a beautiful little daughter, but the poor thing died in childbirth, and, of course, I was there too. Her soul was far from her body, and I put inside her body the soul of a demon, an idiot who did not have the strength to speak properly. I never imagined that that asshole Mao would introduce her to you, and worse, that you would fall in love.”
“Was my wife a demon?” Dan took my hands and closed his eyes.
“Yes, the poor woman knew that she was nothing but a nomadic soul. That is why she sacrificed herself to save you. You know how demons are, they like freedom, and staying in a human body for too long makes them bored.” she was wicked, and Dan, with his eyes still closed, cried.
“What else don’t I know, shaman?”
“Jade...”
He stared at me, and I sighed.
“Jade is something I created to be offered to you so that my revenge could be finalized.”
“I am not understanding.” he gasped.
“I want you to be thrown off the altar you are on, Dan Lao. For Jade, you will give up being a god!”
“He won’t do it!” I turned and faced the shaman.
“Don’t talk nonsense, Jade! You do not even remember him. In fact, he was the one who took away your memories. Did you know that? He abandoned you and left you to suffer.”
“Who loves fights, shaman!” I spoke without blinking, and Dan Lao pulled my left arm and I turned with his touch.
“I took away your memory.” he sighed and smiled weakly. “I’m breaking the rules anyway. If I do, I can give it back to you!”
“DON’T YOU DARE, DAN LAO!” the shaman shouted.
“Jade!” he smiled and his right thumb touched my forehead.
A warm, bright light felt the length of my forehead and my eyes closed, uncontrollably.
In the darkness of my eyelids, I saw Dan in the lake, in the sea, smiling and loving me. I saw him, in all the colors of the world, beyond the air I breathed, far away from any pain. My eyes opened and I admired him.
“Dan...” I smiled, amidst the tears that flowed like mad waves in a sea of longing and loneliness. “My Dan!”
“I am welcome in your heart again, my love!” he hugged me, and the shaman shrieked, like a hunted beast.
In a blink, I saw Uncle Mao run before us and his hands rotated, creating an invisible circle before us.
“Run, son! Take Jade away! Run! I do not know how long I can hold off a red demon.”
“Damn you!” the shaman growled.
“There was only one real shaman in this village, and his name was Mao. I have kept silent all these years. The time to rebel has come!” Uncle Mao looked again at Dan, who was holding me in his arms. “Go, son! Go, son! Save Jade!”
“You will die!” Dan said, with sadness.
“I will rest in peace, because one day, someone saved me. Take care of Jade, son! Thank you for keeping me alive all these years. Now, it is my time!”
His hands created a huge circle that mixed red and gold lights. Dan took me in his arms and spun me around, lights embraced us, and we disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter 12
Narrated by Jade.
We landed in the garden and Pan was waiting for us.
“Dan! What have you done? Have you broken the rules again? You will be punished!” her look was apprehensive and a little maternal too.
“I know well what awaits me. I just need to protect Jade and you, take care of everything. Right? Provide what she needs, because we are leaving.”
“What are you going to do? Where are you going? Have you gone mad?”
“We’re going east, Seyru can help us.”
“That old dragon can’t take care of himself.”
“He’ll help us!”
“I can’t let you go like this, Dan! You will lose your throne! Remember, there is something here that you must protect!” she averted her eyes, which started quickly at me, and maintained her rude posture in front of Dan. “Your mother left the reigns to you!”
“My Mother would rather die than fight me, Pan. I hope she will understand my decision, if her soul wanders through Heaven. Just do what I asked you to do, hours before. Right? I will be back soon.”
“Dan, I’ll take Jade to the east, if you wish so much. You must stay and take care of the kingdom, and what belongs to you! That is what the gods want! They want you to give up. You are succumbing!”
“Pan, just do as I ask! We cannot waste any time! When Jade is safe, I will come back for what belongs to me.”
“What do you say?” I asked, but Dan did not answer, and that troubled me.
I knew that Dan was not a man who was adept at lying, and that if he could not tell the truth, he would shut up.
Pan closed her face and stormed off.
“Pan likes you and wants to protect you.” I muttered.
“Pan is just a servant, who must obey her master’s orders. I need her right now. Jade! Do not make things worse! Don’t put more blame on my tired mind. If you continue with this sad face, saying that Pan will suffer with my absence, it will be one more burden to carry. Do you understand? I am suffering for leaving and leaving a part of myself on this island.
“Pardon me! Can she come with us? It would be better.”
“She needs to stay here and take care of something important. We will think about ourselves now. Let me be a little selfish, Jade.”
I nodded, because Dan was right.
While we waited for Pan, Dan explained to me that he could not just teleport to the east, or appear and disappear as he did near the bridge. That was only between the coast and the island. So, if he wanted to go east, he should, by divine law, walk like any man.
“This will take time, and we can’t waste any seconds.” Dan scratched his head.
“The gods will find us, right?”
“Yes, I think, before we get there. So, we will walk in the dead of night and hide during the day.”
“I see!” I took his hands, brought them to my lips, and kissed it.
Pan came up, rancorously, and handed over a package without looking at us.
“You’ll be sorry, Dan!” she snorted.
“Sorry, Pan. I need to keep Jade protected. The shaman wants revenge
, Jade’s husband wants revenge too, and when the Oracle finds out that I have broken the rule again, he will hunt us down. Please understand it!”
“You will no longer be a god, I am sorry. It was all in vain! Your mother made you king, but you threw your crown into the abyss of the sea.”
“Nothing compared to the abyss of loneliness without Jade around me, Pan. What is a king without his queen? Nothing! Living without Jade is like having an army without weapons, a sea without fish, and a land without rain.”
He held my hands and we stood up.
“Pan. I hope to see you again!” I smiled, pulling my face forward in an unsuccessful attempt to hug her.
She turned and walked away, making me sad, because I had had her for a mother from the first moment I saw her.
“Let’s go!” Dan smiled worriedly and I returned the gesture, afraid.
✽✽✽
As we walked along the coast, always by the edge of the sea, Dan talked about the rules that were innumerable and that his father had broken many times, for the sake of the love he felt.
“Do you somehow believe that your father did wrong, Dan?”
“Not at all! My Father did everything because he loved my Mother. Without love, life is just a wind shaking the dry leaves, Jade. You do not necessarily have to love someone, but...” he stopped walking and smiled, as only he could smile without showing his teeth. “You have to love things in the world. You can love nature, work and routine, love relatives, friends and animals... I believe that to love someone, in the romantic perspective of things, becomes something deep, but this does not reduce the love of the rest. A fisherman may love his work, bring fish to table, laugh with his children, but he may hate other things. Loving does not make him immune to other feelings, but it magnifies his heart.”
“Did he make mistakes and he tried to fix them?”
“My Father did several things wrong, and only the love he felt for my Mother woke him up. It was too late. The red demons ravaged the Earth with disgrace. I admit that I acted like one, when I left your people without water.”
I jumped into his arms and kissed his left cheek.
“Let’s not talk about the past, because the future awaits us, right?”
We kept walking. Dan wanted to talk, a rare thing, and I lost some of the will to speak.
He had explained about being a dragon, and that he hardly ever used his form, because he was a hybrid and the gods felt affronted before him.
I asked about what would happen to him if he was punished again, and his expression changed. His cheerful smile, talking about the pranks he did when he was a small dragon and his mother was still alive, gave way to a deep wrinkle in the middle of his forehead.
“I will die!” he stared at his feet, and I held his jaw.
“What do you mean?”
“I am the age of centuries and centuries. When I lose immortality, my body perishes at the same instant.”
“Come back! Go back to the island. Just forget everything! Save your life!” I freaked out.
“Life? Without you? Jade, being immortal has given me nothing good. My life during these years has been divided between fighting and suffering, crying and surviving. I found love, and as my Father once did, I’d rather lose everything, but not you.”
“Dan...”
“To the east, Jade... We will get support, I am sure the old dragon will help us.”
✽✽✽
We walked during the night and slept in caves during the day. The east approached our sight on a blue horizon, and I sighed, because the old dragon’s palace was before us, like a shimmering mirage, translucent and enchanting.
Dan made a sign with his left hand, as if he took the air in his hands and turned it twice. A door opened and we entered the almost invisible palace.
The memory of Uncle Mao and my daughter wandered in my tearful eyes, as Dan led me to his almost dragon friend.
A man, also with white hair and a beard touching his chest, smiled without opening his mouth, bowed his arched back and Dan knelt before him.
“Seyru, old Seyru. I need your help.”
“I know about your romantic adventures, Lao. You have your father’s blood. Blood draws blood, right?”
“I know you will have trouble helping me, but there is no one who can do it.”
“I am too old to deny help. Take my house! It is yours. I have had no luck in life, and I have not begotten any heirs. I believe that everything has a reason, because that is how the Universe is ruled. Therefore, I give up wood for your cause, Dan Lao.”
“What do you say?”
“The deaf old man is me.” the man smiled slightly and Dan kissed his feet.
“How can I thank you?”
“Take care of the wood, the air and the water. You are now the supreme god, because you touch three elements.”
“Soon I will lose my immortality, Seyru.”
“A god never loses his gifts. Even if the world erases you today, tomorrow your light will shine. You know what I mean. Your legacy is safe, right?”
Dan looked at him and took a deep breath. There was something in those superficially spoken lines that I did not know. If they were both hiding something, I would not dare find out.
Seyru took a deep breath and fell down in front of Dan Lao. Behind him, Goddess Xi stood with an army holding her arrows.
“NO!” Dan growled, in a breathless, painful scream.
The arrow had pierced Seyru's frail body, and the old dragon put his hand to his chest, and there, the light that inhabited his heart, migrated to his bloodstained fingers. Dan had the ancient power of wood in his hands.
The old man fell to the ground, and like magic, his body turned to golden dust and flew into the air. It disappeared when the rays of the sun touched the particles.
Dan had talked on the way about how power exchanges took place, and they always happened in the following way: the god took the power from his heart and gave it to his successor. The successor had to absorb the power quickly, placing it close to his skin, in the middle of his chest.
Xi, seeing this scene, became furious and ran to catch up with Dan and stop him from putting that light on his skin.
I ran too, as she raised her sword to cut down Dan, who at that moment was vulnerable because he was holding a power that was not natural to him.
He put the light down on his chest. Dan kept his head down, unaware that Xi was approaching. There were mere seconds between throwing myself in front of him and the sword cutting my throat.
Dan screamed, but to my delight, Seyru’s power was already stored in Dan Lao’s heart.
“My love!” I smiled, feeling the life coursing through my veins.
“Jade! Jade!” he held me in his arms and I brought my trembling right hand up to his jaw, caressing it.
“I love you!”
“No! No! No! No!” he pressed me in his arms and my nose touched his neck.
“You will lose immortality, Dan Lao!” Xi affirmed, but my ears were losing the ability to understand the rest of her speech.
In the last breath before death touched me, I could hear the whisper of Dan Lao’s words.
“I will be mortal, kill me! I have nothing left. Just stay away from the island.”
The deadly clang of the sword touched Dan and he fell on me.
Our story would not end there...
Chapter 13
Narrated by Dan Lao.
The servants of the Oracle carried to the island, and there, in tears, Pan welcomed me.
“Oh, Dan!” she touched my forehead as the servants laid me on the bed. “What happened?”
“I don’t know yet, Pan. Where is Jade?”
“The girl is dead, Dan Lao!” San was standing behind Pan, looking remorseless as ever.
“No!” I stood up, but my neck burned, and Pan pushed my right shoulder. I finally accepted it and I lay down again.
“The Oracle accepted the plea of Seyru’s soul, which gave the power to y
ou! We cannot just eliminate you, unfortunately. Today, you are the strongest of the gods. I admit that this is a big problem for someone like me, who has audacious plans.” San shouted in a feverish wail.
“I choose to die! I want to die! Then I will find Jade! Please!”
“Now I understand why the Oracle leaves you like this, it’s the worst torture, isn’t it?” he grinned, mocking my pain.
I stared at Pan, who was turning her eyes left and right, restless, and I knew why.
“Go, Pan! Take care of everything.”
“Yes, master! Do not do anything rash!”
She bent down and hurried away, while San sat on the edge of the bed.
“You are a foolish man. The most foolish I have ever known. It is a shame that someone like that is such a powerful god.”
“Where is Jade?”
“Possibly, she is in the reincarnation queue. Who cares? I hope she is born out of your sight, very far away.”
“The Oracle let me be immortal. I do not mind wandering day and night after her.”
“I’ll be tracking your footprints, Dan Lao. Whatever your destination. I will follow you and I will do the impossible for you not to find her.”
“Why? I just hate you!”
“I just hate you too! That is enough! I should be the supreme god, not you! Well...” he stood up. “I hope you’ll drown in your sorrow and forget the responsibilities of a god, so we can claim the throne.”
He left and, still weak, I stood up. I staggered to Jade’s bedroom, because I knew Pan was there.
I pushed open the door and there she was, holding the child. I let go of my shoulders and burst into tears.
“This hurts, Pan!”
“Oh, son! I am so sorry! We will do everything for the child.”
“Mao handed me the nearly lifeless baby. I did not have time to analyze or ask anything about the child.”
“The little baby needed seawater, son! It is a girl! She will be a mermaid, like your mother.” Pan whimpered.
I fell to my knees at Pan’s feet and cried copiously. She leaned over and called me:
“Here, son! It’s yours!”
I lifted my eyes and the child, so small and fragile, sparkled before my eyes.