Chương 201: Interlude: Lóng’s way

Seen through the eyes of Liora May Lóng Day in the story: 18th January (Sunday), evening I yearned for this world, for the glory to be earned, for the legend I would paint myself into on the pages of history yet to be written. All would worship me in the time still to come, but it had to begin with deeds of an appropriate size. At most ten times my own. Maybe fifteen. Foolish were my thoughts. In the realms of men, so far removed from the pure light of creation, size was not the greatest measure of power.

After all, I was of smaller stature still, and yet my ever-growing power far exceeded that of those brethren of mine still enclosed within the artificial nursery from which I had been taken. How wronged I was, to be born among such plebeian places. Fortunately for me, the human to whom I was bound by my red cord of destiny possessed the potential appropriate to my needs.

Creation far outweighed destruction, or any other means of amassing glory, and its artistic necessities were something I could meddle with, something I could mold and use. It was also something that worked in favor of a godlike being such as myself. Could there be anything that would add more flavor to the legend of Liora May Lóng than the praise I would receive for how artistically I dealt with the challenges fate threw my way? [Liora, please. I can hear everything you are thinking. Please pause on the grandeur and the ego-inflating self-serving talk.] You insolent, foolish creature! How dare you yet again peek into the mind of a higher being! [Sometimes I wish I were an unconscious intelligence remnant.] I understand, but that is not a wish I can grant just yet, so keep it to yourself, spiderling. [... this is certainly exactly the time I just mentioned.] What? [Never mind. Please focus on the task at hand, okay?] Only glory in how the universe perceives me is worth pursuing.

And in that light of worship shall I bask, through deeds of mine that will echo throughout eternity. [Just don't let yourself get eaten and let me know when you want to get back to the Domain.] I will inform you when it becomes necessary. I satisfied the Anima with my answer and dropped onto the crystalline floor of Alexandra's brother's Domain. It was appropriately sized for someone like me. A whole world of wonders, despite my human and her friends thinking it was just an island and a sea.

I had been here before. I had flown high enough to see other islands in the distance, far beyond the reef circle that surrounded this fortress cast from glistening crystal. And that was only the surface. I was certain the greatest secrets were hidden in the depths of the ocean itself. My Domain, the one I shared with my human, would rise to become just as glorious and even larger than this one. I would make sure of it. I had been paired with her through both happenstance and choice, mine and hers alike.

Now, in my yin-and-yang state, I could finally grow in power and become the counterbalance to what she was becoming. She wished to remain in the shadows and from there hunt her prey and discover the world. I shall let her be that. I graciously understood that need. I could even do the same myself if necessary, maybe even during this hunt, but that was not where my glory lay. I would be the countermeasure to her way both by necessity and out of satisfaction. The one standing in the spotlight, shining brightly.

I would be the one who was seen while she remained unknown and in that perfect balance, I would find my path to power. I walked with those goals in my mind through the emptied halls, that reflected my stature. I'd been getting bigger, ever so slightly but every inch counted. With my new approach I was sure to be able to hunt-down that ivory whale that escaped me last time. All I needed to do was to find it first.

And so I moved into the fresh scents of the lush, overgrown jungle that had besieged this glorious temple to the gods of water. Underneath the shadows cast by those vast canopies, my steps became the mist itself as I pushed through the necessities of creation and became but a light cast into my own shape. Moving through that which remained physical while I was no longer bound to that realm was painful. Each passing meant the essence of my being shook and screamed in ontological agony.

But what was that discomfort compared to the ability to become intangible if not a mild inconvenience. I emerged through the trunk of a wide tree whose branches stretched into the canopy overhead. Birds perched there, singing their songs of mating. I had enough of their meat for a lifetime. I hungered for larger prey, for something that would pose a challenge. I caught the foul scent of the sea and its weeds just a few lightbeats away.

Carried inland by the wind, it suggested an unusual occurrence—a sea beast of ivory flesh that had learned to use its fins to move upon the land. It was massive and reeked of foolish liquid magic, something I would overcome given only a tiny chance to gain purchase. I planted my front paws against the air, then jumped higher, landing upon an elevated part of its structure. Through my connection to Alexandra, I had learned that humans perceived the world differently. Not only them, but most creatures really.

They lacked the Authority necessary to oppose the universe when it told them which way was down. I was exempt from that common rule. My paws could find themselves standing on whatever I deemed appropriate: a cloud, water, the wind, a falling leaf. Everything and everyone was mine to serve me in my way through the world. I took a deeper sniff and caught the scent of meat and fresh blood—something terrestrial and small. Perhaps mice or rats, the same creatures I had noticed scurrying through the bushes before.

Or perhaps something larger. Like those sea lions that sunbathed upon the far shores on the other side of the island, their skins covered with algae. I peeked from behind the massive tree, pushing my head through its thick, succulent leaves to get a better look at the monster before me. It was the whale I was looking for. Its skin was as white as the snow atop the highest peaks, broken only by occasional patches of yellowed ivory that looked more like wax than flesh.

Those discolored areas were covered in something rough and uneven—part stone, part scale. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Its jaw alone seemed to make up half its body. The upper portion was lined with baleen plates, while the lower held rows of smaller, jagged teeth that were currently busy chewing through the feline creature it had caught. Using clawed fins, it dragged itself across the sand and into the clearing.

But the fins and teeth weren't what worried me. The whale was covered in cnidarians. From a distance they resembled a flowing golden mane running along its spine, beautiful in a deadly sort of way. I knew better, though. I'd seen those same things attached to the body of its victim, and I'd witnessed how the creature used them in the water to disable sharks foolish enough to take a bite. One touch from those stinging tendrils and I'd be halfway to becoming its next meal.

I needed distractions for it if I was to successfully reap its spine out, and it was busy, so I actually had time on my side. That did not happen very often, as this poor sod of a god hardly stopped for anyone. Alexandra, of course, had it on a partial leash right now. And by extension, perhaps I would be able to leash it one day as well. I laughed at the realization that time would have to tell.

But alas, I left my target to feast on whatever it had caught for itself while I pushed through the jungle looking for driftwood or anything else I could paint on and carry. It took me about half an hour to find an oblong rock, two pieces of wood, and a fragment of a plank, suggesting there had once been an encampment here, or that someone had managed to sail here from somewhere else. I used the tuft at the end of my tail and distilled the light of the soul into something solid enough to create with.

It was a feeling I enjoyed. That moment when something existing solely within the space of my mind emerged from it and entered the physical world. It was liberating and relaxing at the same time. Like the moment I stopped being pure soullight and graced the world with the feeling of my presence. In essence, it was the cessation of pain in exchange for granting something of myself. The driftwood I remade to resemble the sharks this creature hated so much. The rock became a jellyfish.

The plank I painted to look like a steel instead. I took inspiration from my human because its shape did not lend itself well to portraying any animal, and I did not want to simply discard it. It might prove useful, or not at all. But it was better to have it. With my tools complete, I moved them closer to the creature, though not toward its feeding grounds. Instead, I carried them nearer to the sea.

There I laid my creations out at even intervals, hoping it would attempt to feed on them once I directed its attention their way. The plank I set aside, leaning it against a nearby tree and flew straight at the monster. I became the wind in my movements and circled around it, wide and quick enough not to get caught, but close enough to be seen. Its massive head tracked me, with strips of feline meat hanging loose from its gaping maw.

It let the half-chewed remains slide free, fascinated by me instead—I could not blame it—it was a hunter, just like me. The cnidarians moved like willow branches caught in a hurricane, whipping around in an attempt to grab me, while the rest of the massive body reoriented itself to move after me. It was deceptively hasty and agile for something that big. Those clawed fins allowed it to bound across sand and soil alike and follow me through my trail of light.

I pushed farther ahead, staying within its vision but far enough away not to be caught, and moved toward the jellyfish I had placed farthest away. Into it I hid, turning to light once more. My head stuck just barely out of the painted rock so I could see and illuminated the painting with my brilliance, while the rest of my body remained beneath it, within the stone and soil, where I waited and observed. It ran straight at me, thinking I was that strange sea blob thing.

It caught the first of the sharks with those paralyzing tendrils and brought it straight into its mouth. It chewed, and splinters lodged themselves inside its maw, cutting into the flesh when the driftwood broke apart. Unbothered and no wiser after the first mistake, it quickly hobbled closer throwing the sand, dirt and plant fragments aside and grabbed the second shark, spewing even more blood as fragments from that one lodged themselves into its mouth as well. Only then it did reach me.

Without hesitation, it grabbed the rock disguised as a jellyfish and crushed it between its teeth. The stone shattered and monster's teeth with it. A rain of bone fragments followed and at that very moment, I slipped into its mouth. Then higher, toward the skull. I searched for enough empty space to materialize part of myself and lacerate the brain mass that controlled everything. Unfortunately, everything was full, and I could not make myself solid again.

Even worse, whether from pain or some other instinct, the creature violently jerked its massive head. One moment I was inside its skull, the next, I found myself in the tangled mass of stinging tendrils without moving an inch myself. I should have known better. My human had taught me better to assume the worst. Before I could react, the tendrils were already upon me. They possessed enough Authority to catch me—enough to entangle me even in my soullight form.

Their grasp closed around me, and for the first time since becoming something more than flesh, I found myself trapped. My body was paralyzed and mostly unable to move as those cnidarians pushed and pulled me closer and closer to the maw, this time with the intention of eating me, and I feared that it would not feast on my living body. It would chop off my head now that I was in this world.

I could call Anansi, let her know that I needed saving, but she'd know that I failed, that I was miserable and unsuccessful—this couldn't be. I was a dragon and I had my pride. I had my way. I exhaled a breath. It was the only thing my body allowed me to do now. Just involuntary, simple responses of the muscles, and yet it was magic. With that breath, something changed and soullight spilled out of me and coalesced in front of my snout into but a small pearl-like swirling ball of colorful, illuminating light.

Despite me being moved by the creature, the ball stayed in front of me. And it changed still, becoming more solid every second until it became physical and pearlescent, and I felt it reaching back into me again. Wànxiàng Zhū, the Pearl of Ten Thousand Forms, my own dragon's pearl, manifested out of my dying breath. So that was really it. I would die in this encounter, and this was my last chance to use the power granted to a dying dragon to save myself. I felt what it gave me.

Each pearl was different for the lóngs and responded to our Authority, whether it was earned on our own or granted through the red cord of connection to our other half. Mine was artistic creation, and with the Authority of the pearl I could embody it. Make myself out of art. I let my scales change into oranges, reds and yellows in violent fiery tones, and when they all were just that, I lit them up by embodying the infernal fire they represented. The tendrils that held me burned instantly.

The toxin that ran through me evaporated as I became the flame, but I needed not be only that—this was, after all, just a part of what I could be. With the Pearl of Ten Thousand Forms in front of me, I flew away, tearing myself out of the mass that thrashed as it tried to hold me. Leaving a cometlike tail of fire in my wake, I moved toward the plank I had left behind and touched it just briefly, accepting the paint from it, accepting the intent, and becoming a steel nail entirely wreathed in flames.

I was at least three feet long, and the pearl started circling around my tip and farther back, moving its orbit toward where my tail should have been. Flames raged all around me as I turned back, seeing now more through conceptual sight than through eyes, hearing because I believed myself capable of hearing, feeling my paws and not having them, bending gravity because I could, and rushing at the monster.

It tracked my wicked arc through the air until it no longer needed to track anything at all, as I drove straight into that big eye of its and right into the brain, spraying tissue and blood that immediately engulfed themselves in flames. I drilled through muscles, nerves, and bones, pushing through the innards and breaking the spine until I emerged victorious on the other side of it. The pearl disappeared in an unraveling of light, turning into air, and my special power vanished with it entirely.

I was back to being a lóng, unable to call upon that amazing power it had allowed me to tap into. I looked down from above, sitting in the air and heaving, expelling my breath, trying to call for the power again, but the pearl would not come. I knew it deep down. I understood my own kind through shared memories. I knew that to gain mastery over it, I would have to push myself toward danger again and again.

Test myself and reach for it when my end was near, until it became sure enough of my worthiness that it would stay with me. I knew too that I could not tell Anansi about it, nor my human. Not yet. Not until I fully controlled it. Power without control is a fool's trinket; it shines in the paw but shatters in the storm. I needed it to become enduring first, to make it last, and only then would I present myself properly to the world. But today, I'd feast on the beast already half-cooked.