บท 27: The Nine-tailed fox almost gets kissed

They ride for three days, camping in clearings at night and eating whatever they can hunt. Wan Mi is happy to eat her fresh fruits, but won't say no to skewered rabbit, which Wu Yun has gotten pretty good at making, if he does say so himself.

The days go by so peacefully that Wu Yun believes that staying away from humans and their villages and towns is the answer to their problems.

"If we keep this pace we'll arrive at Kunlun by next week." Wan Mi looks up at the position of the sun in the sky, while they're resting under the shade of a pine tree after their latest meal.

"What's the name of this forest?" Lan Tian asks all of a sudden.

"I have no idea, why does it matter?" Wu Yun asks.

"I think I've seen this tree before." He touches the bark of the pine tree and looks up at the copse.

"All trees look the same." Wu Yun doesn't think he's ever noticed anything different about the trees he's seen before. Except, the weeping willow from his dreams. The one in the Heavens and the one in Ling Yan's sect looked nothing like each other.

Wan Mi scoffs. "Said like a creature incapable of flight! Of course trees look different."

"Then what's the difference between this pine tree and the one over there?" He points to the one right in front of them, nestled beside a cypress.

"They're obviously..." Wan Mi starts raising her arm towards the tree, but drops it with a frown. "... the same."

"Ah, I told you so. All trees look the same."

"No, that tree is an exact replica of this one," she says, her voice growing more agitated. "And of the one over there! And it's not just the pines, the cypress, the oaks...every tree looks the same!"

Wu Yun is disconcerted by her worry. "Well, I'm sure it's nothing..."

"Do any of you remember how we got into this forest?" Lan Tian asks, looking at the clearing as if he suspects something to come out of the low bushes.

"Well, we left that other forest, and rode that road around the human village, because I didn't want to go in and meet any more humans, and then we were here."

Wu Yun doesn't remember getting here exactly, his last clear memory was of leading Feng Xing and the cart around a bend in the road and into denser woods, to avoid the village. The next thing he recalls is finishing their meal and sitting under the pine tree. Now that he thinks about it, he doesn't even recall cooking the meal or how they caught it.

"I think we might be inside a secret dimension," Wan Mi says, her voice heavy with apprehension.

"A what?" Wu Yun asks.

"I sometimes forget how ignorant you are. A secret dimension!"

"Consider this your daily reminder! Now explain," Wu Yun says, wishing Wan Mi would stop being so intractable.

"Some being created this forest, it's basically any illusory realm inside the human world. They're usually supposed to keep people out so whoever created the dimension can remain hidden inside of it, for whatever reason, but sometimes, they're also supposed to keep things in."

"Since we managed to wander inside it, I'll wager this one is an example of the latter." Wu Yun sighs and bangs the back of his head against the trunk of the pine tree. "How do we get out of here?"

"Only whoever created the dimension knows that."

"How do we find them?" asks Lan Tian, with a resolute look in his amber eyes.

Wan Mi shakes her head and looks out into the distance, where the woods grow thicker and darker. "Usually they find us."

"What are we supposed to do then? Stay here and wait to be found unprepared?" Wu Yun would rather not make himself easy prey for however created the secret dimension.

"I think we should keep going, and we should leave some markings on the trees, to know which way we came and avoid getting lost." Lan Tian says, unfurling his whip.

The proceed on foot, Wu Yun carrying Feng Xing by his reins, and Lan Tian the horse he named, Gao Song, by his. The two horses pull the cart behind them, unaware of the apprehension running through the tree of them.

Lan Tian marks up a tree trunk every few zhang with a slash of the whip. They walk in a straight line but the woods don't seem to have any end in sight.

They must have walked for hours, but she sun is still above their heads, shining through the breaks in the dense tree copses, as if no time has passed since they finished their meal.

"Time is weird here too," Wu Yun says, turning to Lan Tian.

Which is when he notices that Lan Tian isn't beside him, nor Wan Mi, nor the horses or the cart. He's completely alone bu he has no recollection of getting separated from the rest of the Group.

He looks around and a sudden dizziness overtakes him, he feels faint and wants nothing more than to sleep.

"That can't be a good thing," Wu Yun says, trying to prop up his heavy head.

He tries screaming Lan Tian's and Wan Mi's name but the only answer he gets is the echo of his own voice in the dreary forest.

No scared birds in flight answer his loud cries. If not for the trees he would think the forest was completely dead.

He hears a sound then, running water, there must be a stream nearby. If there's a stream there might be a river, if he follows the river he might find a way out of the forest. He walks towards the sound, hoping Wan Mi and Lan Tian heard the sound of water too, and had the same idea.

As he expected, there's water, but it's not a stream, it's a lake. The sound he heard wasn't running water, but someone bathing. He approaches the margin and sees a broad shoulders tapering down into a trim waist.

At first he thinks it's Lan Tian, but no, his back is covered in scars from Rong Jizi's whip, this man's skin is pristine and unmarked.

"Hey, were you the one who created this secret dimension? I'd like to find my friends and get out now."

The man turns around, and Wu Yun almost falls back in shock, the face staring back at him is Shu Luan's.

His golden eyes light up when he sees him. He raises an arm and beckons Wu Yun to join him in the water. "Ling Yan, I've been waiting for you."

"I'm not..." Wu Yun starts trying to deny his words, but his feet won't obey him, and he starts walking towards Shu Luan and into the cold water despite his attempts to stop his own feet.

When he's so close he can feel the body heat coming off Shu Luan's skin, Shu Luan wraps his arms around him and hugs him to his chest.

Wu Yun's robes are drenched to the waist, but it isn't the cold who makes him shiver. He's dreamt about this man, and now he's here, believing Wu Yun to be Ling Yan, how could that be? Is this a dream? He's certain he isn't dreaming, he can feel is own body, as much as it doesn't seem to want to obey him, we knows with a bone-deep clarity that he is Wu Yun.

"I missed you so much. There's so much we have to talk about." Shu Luan's words are low and smooth against the shell of his ear, and Wu Yun wants nothing more than to give into his body's desire to surrender to Shu Luan's embrace.

"I'm not Ling Yan, you're confused," he says, using all of his strength to fight the compulsion to draw nearer, and put some distance between the two of them.

"Of course you are, you're a little different, but I would recognize my Ling Yan anywhere." He tries to bridge the distance, but Wu Yun walks backwards away from him.

"My name is Wu Yun, I'm not Ling Yan, I've never met you," Wu Yun insists. Looking towards the shore to see if he can run there before Shu Luan catches up to him.

Shu Luan takes advantage of his momentary distraction and takes hold of his hand. "Didn't you miss me? We promised we'd stay by each other's side for eternity."

Shu Luan reels him in by the arm, and wraps his arm around his shoulder. His fingers tighten on top of Wu Yun's arm, his nails cutting crescent moons into his skin. Wu Yun hisses at the viciousness of his grip.

"Let go of me," Wu Yun says, struggling to free himself.

This situation reminds him of the dream where Xue Jin approached Ling Yan in the river, but the roles are reversed, and instead of Xie Jin it's Shu Luan holding on to an unwilling Wu Yun.

"You're my Ling Yan," Shu Luan says, and brings his face closer to Wu Yun's who realizes with a start that he's going to press his lips against his, just as he did to Ling Yan in that first dream.

Wu Yun dodges Shu Luan's lips at the last second, but he grips his chin with his fingers, to hold his face in place. Wu Yun notices for the first time the rank smell coming from his parted lips, like something rotten and long dead.

"Didn't you miss me?" Shu Luan insists. When he smiles, his teeth are yellowed and hang loosely from greenish gums.

Wu Yun fights harder to free himself, when it seems like he is no match for this decaying Shu Luan a familiar and welcome voice makes Shu Luan turn around.

"Let go of him!"