Threads 434 Green 3

The Layered Labyrinth rippled, the dusty miasma of ignorance and silence in the air blown away. Ling Qi felt a tingling, throbbing pain in her temples, akin to a throat strained by screaming.

[HERE]

[LISTEN]

[KIN]

Her still burnt dantian twinged, and mist leaked from under her fingernails. Her silhouette wavered, and Ling Qi coughed a cloud of burning smoke as she hurriedly reinforced the qi containing the Crucible’s embers still smoldering in her core.

Digging claws slowed, and a mountainous head twitched and rose, shadowed by whirling dust. She felt a pressure across the distance, even before she could see the sharpening of intelligence in dull eyes and a half-sleeping mind.

There were no words, nor even concepts. No welcome nor malice. There was only the cold weight of reptilian observation. Ling Qi looked into vast black eyes across the gulf between them and swallowed.

“Take us in, little brother.”

“Is Big Sister sure?” Zhen asked.

She was. She could never be certain that a higher realm could not hide their intentions from her sight, but the rampant, vigorous growth at the core of the beast was not something that inspired thoughts of veils and lies.

“I am. C’mon, let’s go meet your…”

She trailed off. Her tongue rebelled at forming the word in her thoughts.

“… Let’s meet Kohatu. That’s what the tortoise who made your egg from her core called her.”

“Kohatu,” Gui rumbled thoughtfully. His flames roared, and they left their circling trajectory, soaring toward the titanic lizard waiting for them at the end of the ruined canyon.

Stone cracked as burrowing claws dragged Kohatu around to face them, the lazy whip of a tail collapsing a city’s worth of debris.

Soon, they arrived directly under those deep black eyes, a mere twenty or thirty meters before her lowered snout.

“Who. Calls?”

Her voice was a collapsing mountain and the buzz of a million insects, and Zhengui’s soaring form wobbled unsteadily in the air. It was an unsteady thing, an instrument left to clog with dust and grime.

“I…” Ling Qi began

Black eyes narrowed and focused on her. Something dark and hateful stirred. “ARGeeeeent…”

The wind of the exhalation ripped at her hair and robes, and she teetered back into her seat.

“No. You listen. No more thoughtless swiping, Kohatu!”

Zhengui didn’t use personal names, Ling Qi thought dizzily.

The titanic lizard paused, the oily darkness of hate rising behind her eyes stuttering to a halt.

“Ata…mai…? No… noT. WHo dAres?”

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Confusion was underlaid by something so much softer. It didn’t last. In the span of a sentence, it began to shift back to suspicion and fury.