Chapter 50: Chapter 48: The Doctor’s Room

The sky was overwhelmed by towering trees with large black leaves as still as stone, there was no sign of the sky no matter how far she walked the forest of white trunks and pallid dirt, fat white petaled flowers clinging to both ground and tree. She avoided stepping on them, their slinking vines, something told her it would be a mess if she crushed one.

She was lost.

She was lost and she did not know how she was lost. She only knew that she needed to continue moving. Something was coming, but what? She wanted to look over her shoulder but a cold trickle in her spine whenever she began to turn her head discouraged her.

Memories slipped like drops of water in a river, indistinguishable from thought. They ran blurrily into one another. She could remember strange men, and a dead forest. Then someone coming and taking her away. A dog? The memories were too smudged.

There was a large fallen trunk ahead, blocking her path. Idony put her hands on her hips as she scrutinized the solid mass of wood that seemed the height of seven Idonys and scanned its length, looking for where it ended. It was some distance but she could peer at the severed trunk's end.

She followed the fallen tree at a slightly more brisk pace. She kept her eyes firmly on the ground to watch for any flowers or vines though.

After a span of time she felt was somehow both too short and too long, she reached the end of the fallen tree. Behind it only a stones throw away was yet another fallen tree, but this one was far smaller. Idony moved quickly to it and placed her hands on the white bark, quickly finding handholds that she used to pull herself upwards, pressing her feet on outward sticking chunks of white bark. The girl scrambled up quickly and over, inelegantly flopping downwards with a ‘thump’, throwing her hands out to stop her from falling completely on her face.

She was still for a moment, looking at her vivid red hands as they pressed into white dirt. Then she turned to look back at the trunk she had just climbed over, deep red punctures in it oozing dark red sap.

A thunderous creaking filled the forest, the still leaves battered by unfelt wind. The bleeding wood began to twitch, the white bark splintering atop something moving within. A gust of terror filled her chest. “Liu Xie!” She called out desperately as she turned on her heel, looking around the trembling forest. “Liu Xie!? Liu Xie!?”

But he was not there.

She started running, the forest around her growing angrier. Beneath her petals and vines were crushed, leaving behind thick floral sap that clung to her feet. She felt it splashing over her ankles, up her legs, tugging at her until she finally tripped and fell on her chest, knocking the wind from her lungs as the forest continued its windborne roar.

Idony squirmed as the sticky sap yanked at her, trying to pull herself free from the substance.

“There you are.”

All was silence and still once more and Idony wished it otherwise.

Hands reached down to gently pull her away from the floral mess, “oh my poor child. Lost and alone. Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

 

Idony bolted up and blinked blearily at blurry blue lights that seemed to float in murky air, a figure passing in front of them. A soft green light from strange wet plants that were clinging to the ceiling illuminated everything, even strange pale chimes beside them seemed to have an unearthly glow,, but she did not recognize where she was at all. She was not in the room at Lang Lang’s, or at the inn. The walls were lined with deep shelves holding books, scrolls, jars upon jars of all sorts of objects as well as small drawers with knobs of silver that had an oily sheen in the light. She was sitting on top of a green table of some sort and she realized her side was itchy, and started idly scratching at it as she continued observing the room.

“Are you awake again?” A voice asked. A slender person was standing near her, holding onto some small black sticks with tiny wet black sharp bits on them.

“Where…?”

“One of my rooms,” the person was speaking slowly to her. They looked eerie in the greenish light, a pale face with large black eyes and faint red markings and hair that looked hastily tied back. They wore a shawl that had a scale-like pattern, catching the light around it, but beneath they wore simple looking clothes that had splatters on it which she found herself not wanting to focus on. “My name is Lin, and Lang Lang said you’re called Zhu Er?”

You are reading story Vow of the Willow Tree at novel35.com

She nodded, wary of this person. They were standing near another smaller table that a lump of weird dark-green-and-purple stuff was laying on, seeping disgusting looking fluids and thin red liquid over its surface.

Lin handed her a cup, “here, drink this.”

Idony frowned at the contents, smelling the familiar pungent medicinal aroma of the tea Liu Xie would make her drink, but sucked it down anyway with a face as bitter as the liquid was.

The cup was taken from her hand and Lin was suddenly staring directly at her face their eyes locked on one another. “,,,Yes, that’s what I thought.” Then Lin began muttering, too fast and using too many strange words for her to understand as he moved to another table to jot something down. “Zhu Er, I think you will stay with Lang Lang,” Lin said.

Idony did not know how to feel about that. She did not know how to feel about anything besides confusion and loss. Where was Baozi? Liu Xie? Bo? Where was everyone? She looked down at her legs, which were covered in mottled bruises she could not remember getting, and she then noticed the spot she was itching had a large patch of red-streaked golden scales. “Ah!?” She started trying to tug at it.

“Don’t do that,” Lin’s voice was cold and hard as he moved her hand away with his own bandaged one.

“Why?” She asked after searching for the word in her foggy brain.

“Because it’s going to help,” although there was a slightly doubtful look on his face. “Zhu Er, I do not know what happened to you, but you will need to listen to Lang Lang and I. You are…” he paused, before continuing, “you are in a very delicate spot.”

“Lin?” Lang Lang’s voice called out from somewhere above.

“Ah,” Lin sighed, his shoulders sagged slightly. He muttered to himself before glancing back at Idony. “Stay here.” With that he disappeared into the gloomy murk around them, leaving Idony alone in the strange room.

Idony laid back down on the table, suddenly exhausted. She thought about closing her eyes.

Just for a quick nap.

There was too much happening, too much all at once. She wanted to rest but… someone was waiting for her.

Idony frowned up at the ceiling, resolving to stay awake. Her eyes focused on the strange pale chimes above her. They were long white things and she could imagine them getting longer, and bigger, growing like weeds and turning into white trunks that disappeared far above into blackness.

"I'm here."

The voice was at her ear again, but she could see nothings except those tree-chimes. Yet if she closed her eyes she knew they would be there. They were waiting and she was alone. She struggled to breathe, feeling a gentle invisible hand pressing down on her chest. Then she finally wheezed out, "LANG LANG!"

The thundering sound of feet moving above dispelled the imagine trees, the voice, the feeling of pressure, and yet she still could not bring herself to move even as she heard a monstrous snarling sound come close.

 

You can find story with these keywords: Vow of the Willow Tree, Read Vow of the Willow Tree, Vow of the Willow Tree novel, Vow of the Willow Tree book, Vow of the Willow Tree story, Vow of the Willow Tree full, Vow of the Willow Tree Latest Chapter