Chapter 3: Escapee
Tears were still fresh in his eyes. His father screamed at his mother for being their doom. His mother’s straight back held a heartbreaking illusion before everyone while he hid. Two vegetative bodies behind her, him and his brother. While his body was an illusion, his brother’s body was real.
His head spun, and his muscles burned, but he kept running as his mother’s raised, blood-soaked blade still shone in his eyes. He twisted and turned. His eyes burned with fresh tears, and his throat was itchy and sore with screaming. He was hot all over, but he couldn’t stop running. He had to put distance between himself and the palace. The passage before him swayed as he labored to breathe through the burning in his chest. Something was continuously expanding in his chest, and the low loud pulse never faded.
He put a hand on the wall, trying to breathe mouthfuls to stop his head from falling off his shoulders. The guilt in his brother’s eyes never left as he knelt with a black hand around his throat. He looked to their mother, whose determined eyes never left his brother. The hand clenched, and his mother’s raised knife drove into his brother’s chest. His uncle screamed, and his father screamed, but she drove the knife deeper.
An azure spirit dragon rose into the air above them all. She commanded it, “Join Bailong.”
Even as he stood hidden in the passageway, he appeared behind his mother. It was all an illusion. The luminescent dragon rose high in the air before bellowing down on his fake self. Through the fake Bailong, it passed and came at him, entering his chest, his heart, head first, and straight into his soul, the pain was excruciating as if burning his bones from the inside. But there was another pain, much worse- his brother was gone. That knife had driven into his heart was not an illusion. The dragon that rose from his brother was not an illusion. He wanted to pull out the dragon but he didn't know how, he couldn't.
“Mother,” Bailong had whimpered, looking at his brother’s fallen state as his uncle roared and hit his mother.
Bailong's chest tightened, and his throat burned to cry. Unable to hide anymore, he had stepped out, unable to do as his mother commanded, unable to run. His mother fell to the ground, meeting his eyes briefly, telling him to go, a hardness in her, he had never seen before.
The memory flashed in Bailong's head over and over as anger ate him up. He ran. He had left his mother with her illusion. How long will she be able to hold up? He knew he had left his family for dead. His feet caught in a loose stone, and he stumbled. A pouch clattered onto the passage floor.
Before hiding him and his brother away, before urging them to run away, a few moments before tragedy had touched their doorstep, his mother had given him a small pouch, asking him never to lose it. He stopped and looked around. He was still in the tall stone passage that extended endlessly on both sides. His trembling fingers caught the blurry thing and pulled open its string. A crystal orb that shone under the dim lights rolled away, and a thick bunch of small scrolls fell at his feet.
Bailong had difficulty prying open the first layer. The fresh ink on it had imprinted on the back of another scroll. The writing was his mother’s- messy and rushed.
“Qinglong is within you. It was the only way to save both of you. These scrolls will guide you. You have Divine Blessing.”
Fresh tears burst through Bailong's eyes as he looked at the tears of his mother smearing her words. Relief and sadness and more pain filled his head, burning unbearable. He screamed, clutching the orb and scrolls to his chest.
Then, Bailong passed out into the darkness.
—--
Bailong opened his eyes and looked up. There was darkness all around him. The earth was wet. Instead of dimly lit wood, there were twinkling stars above him. The clammy air was replaced with a petrichor scent. How did he come in the open?
Captured? Bailong sat up straight, looking around for who had caught him. No one. If someone was already on his trail meant that his uncle had broken through the illusion. Every muscle in his neck pained as he looked around harder. No one. There was nothing but trees all around him and few lights in the distance, as if he was at the civilization’s end.
His stomach turned inside-out wanting to throw up everything, and his chest ached, ready to burst open. But the burning had dulled and spread. Every part of him was bathing in a dull scorch. Only, he didn’t have time for it all. He had to find aid for his family. He had to put as much distance between himself and them as possible. He turned away but couldn’t take a single step. His heart burst through his chest, and a faint blue luminescent burst forth from him. In front of him stood a majestic blue dragon as giant as 20 of him, neck craned up, looking around.
“What happened? Where is Father? Where is Mother? We are not in the palace.” the familiar voice echoed in Bailong's head, and he looked up at the dragon.
“Where are you?” he asked, but the answer came before he finished the question- his mother’s written words. They were morphed as one now.
“You are within me,” Bailong answered his own question, feeling uneasy as his body was ready to burst, unsteady as if someone else was trying to move him, push his limbs and chest. As if someone wanted to fidget within him. Qinglong wanted to fidget within him. The pain in his soul eased. His brother wasn't dead. His brother was alive; Qinglong was alive.
“That’s not possible. Just now, I ran towards the palace. That was me,” his brother’s voice spoke up in confusion, uneasily rising with every word. He spoke softly, not trusting his own relief, “Your sense of direction on the ground is terrible.”
Neither spoke for a while, and he was left to muse on the scorching soul trapped within him. Was this his brother’s spirit energy, or was it his brother wanting to take control? He did not address the fact that he was not only sharing mind and body with his brother but also spirit. Now his brother could move his body as well. They were two souls and one body now. Unless they survived, they could live, and they could save their family. Hope and willingness he had not felt since he started running burned high, dulling the scorch in comparison.
“What happened?” Qinglong's voice echoed in Bailong's head.
“Here,” Bailong pulled open the pouch and held out the letter, “can you see this?”
“Yes,” there was a surprise in Qinglong’s voice, but as he read the few words, his brother's guilt gripped his heart so strongly that he felt his despair triggered.
“I am sorry. I didn’t listen to Mother before. I was stupid to think I could win against a Supreme.”
“I am sorry for not coming in time. For not helping. For…”
“Look through the entire village,” The command cut short his apology short. Bailong knew that voice. It belonged to the commander of Aliferous.
“What now?” Qinglong asked, and Bailong started running again, “we seek aid from the west. Once we can get help to overthrow the coup, we can look for a way to separate us. Maybe go south as mother said.”
“Good plan. Do you think we can fly there?” his brother suggested, and he shook his head, “I don’t think I can shift into a dragon.”
“I know. Let ME try it.”
Bailong felt his body expand in his clothes. First were the cuffs to break as he swelled and swelled. The air around him smelled sharp, and his sight thrummed with energy as it saw around in the dark. The colors changed slightly, richer and more profound. He felt a shiver run through him but there was no body movement. It was dizzying. His consciousness struggled.
“Now we fly,” Bailong's brother rushed and Bailong blinked hard, gaining some control.
“Wait,” Bailong spoke just as one of the dragon's eyes slit and elongated like that of a snake.
They were in the sky, looking down at a muddy green dragon rampaging through the forest below, at their tail, about to reach. The eyes expanded back to that of the dragon, and he consented, “We are good to go.”
“That’s disorienting but useful,” Qinglong spoke as he felt an intense sensation of back muscles rolling around. The force was as if he was moving his hand and legs in synchronization with his breath.
Qinglong caught the pouch in his claw while the other claw held the first scroll. Then, they were in the air. Bailong was azure, his brother's spirit beast, a blue dragon. If anyone found out he could change into his brother, they would find out his brother survived, which meant Mother’s illusion would be in vain. They had to hide his brother’s existence.
“We need to get as much distance as possible before that vision happens. I don’t plan on exposing your spirit beast.” Bailong spoke but his mouth did not move. It was disorienting.
“Good thinking. I fly. You plan on how to get out of that dragon’s clutches while on the ground.” Qinglong's voice was still in his head but it was far away.
Bailong tried to hold on, to keep looking as they flew up but his mind couldn't grasp it all and darkness filled his vision again.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone