Kapitel 4: Chapter 3 God of Lightning

'Wa! So cool!' The little peach at that time thought enthusiastically; she wanted to be as awesome as him, able to fight and jump up and fly away so fast like lightning! A hero was born for her, and she started to find more information about him.

From her network of news from her various air and water friends, she found out he was not only God of Lightning but also nominated to be the next God of War, she took pride that she chose this kind of idol and she started to scour more news about him from the animal sprites that could fly close to the skies of Heavens and exchange gossip.

TaoHua starting piecing all the news about his deeds and then she started to write then sing to spread the stories of the God of Lightning grandeur and stories from battles. Her audience, who some were present during the God of Lightning's first and last visitation, was enthralled of the lofty person that graced their humble island with his presence, even though it was all very brief. They requested for the fruit sprite to draw his features to remember him by. Our female lead did not to disappoint so she drew from her fragmented viewpoints, added with other islanders' commentaries, she managed to draw the God of Lightning.

Although as self-considered artist standpoint, our female lead was not happy to draw an imaginary God of Lightning. She wished hard from her peach heart to see Yuan LeiFeng again, so she could get to draw his portrait.

It was a wonderful surprise when her wish came true not too long afterwards when the second most eventful thing that happened to her sprite life, was when she acquired a painting of God of Lightning from He FeiQuan, a Celestial crane, who descended from Heavens to look for food and was at first about to eat her then found her endearing and became her friend.

She was not completely taken by his earnest behavior to be her friend, thinking at first that he wanted to kidnap her and eat her later and fattening her up. Then, she thought how lots of other sprites and beings like her as their friend and threw her precautions to the winds and agreed to be his friend.

In honoring their friendship, He FeiQuan wanted to gift her something and she immediately took up the offer and He FeiQuan acquiesced to find a painting of the God of Lightning for her. That painting was drawn in details showcasing the bravery of Yuan LeiFeng fighting in a large battle. She was so ecstatic to see such a meticulously drawn artwork with beautiful colours and strokes and of course, the God of Lightning.

The meeting and seeing of the God of Lightning again on the picture, made our female lead realized that life was filled with surprises and she yearned to see more places and expand her horizon outside of her island and who knew along the way start her peach blossom romance, like how she heard from the tales. Of course, all these would happen later. An orphaned peach child with no clear background aspired more, wanted more, and could not wait to experience the possibilities life had to offer.

He FeiQuan at first was curious what she would do with Yuan LeiFeng's painting, thinking that the gal had heard of their Celestial stories and fell in love with the God of Lightning. Little did he know that the gal actually idolized LeiFeng and spoke tales of him to her fellow sprites. He could only cry and laugh in his heart, thinking the efforts he had to go through, was for the little gal to put up in her little space to show her peers.

Although TaoHua was now friends with He FeiQuan, it took her a while to be brave to go close to speak to He FeiQuan, as she could not help but still think about their first encounter and it gave TaoHua the shivers just thinking about it.

It was when He FeiQuan flew down from Heavens and he flapped his grand wings and landed gracefully close to where she was and started to pick seeds and fruits on the ground with his sharp beak and eating them. Even those were not sprites or that she was not near ChaGuan, exploring the other side of the island for colorful stones to be grounded for her paints, still she felt that they could be her, picked away and eaten, without her least expect it.

TaoHua blanched, feeling her skin paled several shades of yellow and quickly hid away from his sight, trying to camouflage herself to the autumn leaves. Her friend told her before that her dirty, dull yellow skin color looked like these tree leaves and DaShu also made a similar comment too. She even successfully played hide and seek, hiding in DaShu's fallen leaves and her friends could not find her.

'I'm a leaf, a leaf, a leaf and not a plump, juicy peach', she kept chanting silently, while shutting one eye and one eye opened just in case she needed to flee if that stork somehow caught sight of her. Her survival instincts grew better and better over time since her shape is inviting to many species who like her curves and eat her as their meal.

As much as she thought she could put hiding skills as part of survival repertoire, the stork had already sniffed her sweet alluring smell from high above the sky and was taking his time to enjoy other appetizers before his main meal. Slowly prancing around, showing off his beautiful white wings with profile of bright red crest with a ring of black feathers on his chest and smaller crest on his head, which he was proud of his looks, befitting his princely status and image, he stooped to eat the small fruits on the bottom on the tree, while carefully spying that round fruit. Then he overheard unclear mutterings from the peach, sounding like "Shoo, shoo".

Pretending not to hear, he drew close up to the where the peach is when he saw flecks of gold on the skin of the dirty peach. He jerked up and leapt to the peach in a single flap of his right wing. The peach jumped with his sudden movement and before she could roll and flee, He FeiQuan used his left wing to gently surround the peach. Lo and behold, the peach in shock, emitted shiny gold flecks.

Impossible! He couldn't believe it – this could not be... but it was unmistakable, in front of him was the legendary gold peach, the dirt could not hide some shininess showing. Thank Buddha he had the instincts to see and observe before his strike and did not to hurt this ancestor, lest he be punished not only by his royal family but the entire Heavens.