Rising (I)

Hui Lan's weak body was gently placed down on the soft bed.

In one swift of Feng Furen's hands, the candles were lit up.

The middle aged lady stood beside the familiar face that she had watched grow up before her eyes.

It was the same face, yet it was not her…

Her eyes slowly looked down at the red round mark that was on Hui Lan's wrist.

It must have hurt.

Then, her eyes wandered around Hui Lan's entire body that was covered in scratches. The light purple dress of Hui Lan's was also torn into different shreds.

Feng Furen eventually reached her hands towards Hui Lan, and covered the young lady under the blankets.

She took one last look at Hui Lan before closing her eyes and stepping away from Hui Lan.

"Xiao Chao, since you're back, cover me."

"My pleasure." Xiao Chao replied right away.

As Feng Furen could no longer see anything, there was only darkness and darkness was to be called.

Slowly, Feng Furen swirled her hands around Hui Lan once and brought her hands back to herself in a praying gesture where only her fingers were touching each other.

As Feng Furen began whispering voices underneath her breath, a gust of wind rushed from below the bed and up to the ceiling before it diverted itself towards the middle aged lady.

Xiao Chao, who had been hovering above Feng Furen, shut its eyes and began to raise his large wings once and then as the wind was about to hit Feng Furen, Xiao Chao immediately flapped its great wings against the force.

As the force was released, Xiao Chao was flapping its wings softly in the air with its eyes still shut. On the other hand, two different directions of wind came to impact with each other and caused a great swirl of wind in between Feng Furen and Hui Lan.

When the two forces came into contact with each other in the form of wind, the wind that could barely be seen by naked eye was slowly forming a shape in front of Feng Furen.

In no time, silvery moonlight shapes were formed, one in the shape of a crow and the other in the shape of an owl which looked like Xiao Chao. The two creatures were formed into a spirit form that could be seen fighting with each other ferociously and as the fight got intense, the curtains began to rumble and Feng Furen's clothes began to float up in the air.

They were like two different forms of silvery wind fighting with one another. When one was struck, silver dust would fall down from their forms.

Meanwhile, Feng Furen was concentrating her mind on Hui Lan as she began extracting her own powers out of Hui Lan.

Slowly but surely, white streaks of clouds began floating towards her palms and into her chest. The power was being extracted little by little.

On the other hand, the fight between the two animals saw no signs of who was to win. In the beginning, the crow was aiming itself towards Feng Furen, but would always be blocked by the owl that was in front of it.

The crow began snarling horridly at the owl. It was no sound that could come from a normal crow nor did a normal have such sharp teeth like this one.

"Fool!" Its horrid voice growled towards the owl.

"Hmph! Only fools would get itself caught!" A voice that sounded like Xiao Chao's proud voice resounded from the silvery owl.

"You filthy rat!" The crow hissed out silver dust towards the owl.

"Many thanks, old bird!" Xiao Chao's proud voice responded back.

All of a sudden, a small squeak came from above, "Miss!" A young boyish voice resounded in the entire room. The two wind creatures that were fighting each other turned to the direction of the voice at the same time. Both of their silver eyes stared directly at the newcomer.

"Xiao Chao, what's that noise?" Unlike how both of the two creatures understood the newcomer, all Feng Furen could hear was an unfamiliar squeak from behind her.

Xiao Chao's silver eyes became squinted as he looked at the newcomer before he spoke, "Get away from here! Nothing princess."

The newcomer was none other than Xiao Mao who was terribly disturbed in it's sleep as it had felt his miss' pain. It tracked his miss' particular endangered trail that only he could see whenever she was in the brink of death.

...This voice

Xiao Mao turned his eyes away from his miss to the two silver forms to his miss' mother and then to the black midnight owl that was hovering faintly in the air.

"Die!?" Xiao Mao's voice cried in alarm. His worried eyes turned from the midnight owl to the silvery form that was still fighting with the other silvery form.

The crow halted briefly before letting out a vicious mocking laugh, "So you now have a son, hm? Chao Chen hahaha"

"Stay away from him!" Xiao Chao's silvery form quickly hovered up to block the crow from finding a new target.

"Your son is here?" Feng Furen asked while her eyes were still closed and pulling her power from Hui Lan.

"Later princess."

"Hm, very well." Feng Furen could only understand her own spiritual beast and this particular crow.

However, the crow's eyes caught attention to the black jade bracelet that was being formed onto Princess Feng Nuo's wrist.

...No good.

Xiao Mao became furious as it heard the mocking tone that was directed at its father, "You little crow!"

Both Xiao Chao and the crow were momentarily surprised to hear Xiao Mao's voice from above.

On the other hand, the crow laughed grimly, "What can you do little owl?"

"What!?" Xiao Mao flustered.

"Don't listen to him." Xiao Chao quickly interrupted. However, it was too late and the next thing they knew, Xiao Mao dove itself towards the crow figure.

"No!" Xiao Chao cried.

Hearing his father's uneasy voice, Xiao Mao had a stronger feeling in destroying the crow. He was not young anymore or was a shame to anyone and he would prove his father otherwise.

The crow laughter grew louder and louder within the entire room.

As Xiao Mao's figure came in contact with the two forms, a big blast blasted within the entire room. The two silvery forms were dissolved instantly and Xiao Chao's real figure returned to his consciousness.

His fatherly eyes became uneasy immediately as he searched for his son. There were no more signs of the silvery crow figure in the room and the spot where they were fighting was Xiao Mao's small body slowly falling down.

After finding his young boy, Xiao Chao immediately dove downwards and as fast as lightning, his big body swooped underneath Xiao Mao's body and caught his son just on time on his back.

Xiao Chao then took off into the air.

Meanwhile, Feng Furen finally lowered her hands and slowly opened her eyes. She was done. However, there was burnt dust all over the entire room.

...What was this?

On the other hand, Hui Lan's index finger tapped ever so slightly on the bed, before no more movements came from her fingers.

Xiao Mao, who was now floating on its father's back, blinked once and twice. His small snowy face was now covered with burned dust.

After coming into contact with those two forms, everything went white and it could not see anything. However, afterwards, his entire body went weak and it could no longer move.

"Die...did I fail again?" Xiao Mao's small voice faintly cried behind his father's shouldering back.

"Oh son, you were never a failure. It's all over now, so get some rest, hm?" Xiao Chao's fatherly voice spoke to his own owlet that was on his back.

The entire room went calm, no more wind or any forces left in the room.

However, both Xiao Chao and Feng Furen were feeling troubled inside.

...That bird...it was not supposed to get away, but that was to be discussed later.

The two faces became grave as they knew the effect of today's event.

...That person would probably rise soon.

.

.

.

In a deep dark cave where it seemed bottomless, a beautiful young lady was sleeping on the seemingly pitless floor.

Her black hair was even blended within the darkness around her.

A black crow sat on her body as it tried waking the lady up.

Just then, her deep black eyes opened abruptly.

"Master!" The black crow cried in joy. However, even it's delighted voice sounded wicked within the depths of the cave.

The young lady slowly got up to sit, but her bones were all bent into different directions.

Her innocent-like face observed her entire body and her eyes began to tear up.

"Oh, look at how they treated me." Her voice was even more pitiful.

"Master, I've been waiting for you all this time." The crow's voice resounded sorrowfully toward's its master.

"Oh Bao Bao, how I've missed you." The lady's hazy sweet voice resounded along with the sound of her bones cracking into place. She reached her hands and stroked the crow's face in her palm ever so softly, "We're finally reunited again."

"Yes, Master." Bao Bao's voice muffled as it was finally reunited with its master.

"Very well, let's finish what we started shall we?" Her smile was as sweet as honey.

In response to his master, Bao Bao began laughing and as it laughed, his laughter echoed in the entire cave.

On the other hand, the young lady slightly lowered her eyes as she looked at her crow from the dark. The smile that had been on her face grew a murderous intent in them.

It was her time to get her payback…

...Just you wait.