Wu Xie
He was not sure of why the bronze gate open in the instant he was threatened by the things that were coming to kill him, nor why Xiaoge was calling him from the inside of the huge thing, when he usually was waiting for him to show up somewhere safe inside the unknown tomb they meet in their dreams, but no matter the reason, Wu Xie had no other way to escape the beasts that were about to slaughter him but to go inside.
Giving his current situation, he better take his chances in, that risk a certain death on a possible dream that could affect him on real life as well. The Xioage outside this place, which he had visit on his dream almost every night when he was younger, had said that demons were coming and that he had sensed them even before Xiaoge did, but then he had blackout on him and was somehow pulled into his dream world in which perhaps those same demons that were approaching in real life were now trying to kill him there too.
"Wu Xie! Hurry!" Xiaoge's voice urged him and Wu Xie turned in a dash to enter the huge gate, just in time, as one of the beast was about to slice his back into shreds with its sharp claws. He had no idea of what was inside the door, but if his dream Xiaoge was there, then it didn't meant to be a threat which was exactly what he needed to escape a sudden death and as soon as his body crossed that strange golden glowing film, he hear the door close with a loud sound that seems to reverberate inside the now dark place.
Thinking back, when he first dreamed with the younger version of Zhang Qiling, the gate had been there and Xiaoge had stood right in front of it. He had forgot about it, as time passes and he grew a bit older, because Xiaoge was in front of it just once, after that, they meet somewhere else inside what looked like a tomb, heavily guarded by other things he knew were there but he could not see them, just sense them.
He was only a kid at that time, but now it was different. He had grown into a young man, capable of see further than he was then and as he stood inside the gate, the darkness that covered everything dispelled just enough for him to see what was in front of him. The place was still dark, but just like a night with a hint of moonlight, although what little light was illuminating the place was greenish, instead of the platinum light of the moon.
"Xiaoge!" Wu Xie called and his voice echoes around the huge room, if it was a room, because so far he could not see walls and not even a ceiling for that matter, just a greenish light that goes on like forever as well as his calling, that were not answer.
"Xiaoge!" He called again, but his only answer was his own voice bouncing back into invisible walls.
"Zhang Qiling! Where are you? Why did you call me? What is this place?" Wu Xie shouted, in hope to see the Xiaoge of his dream, which had clearly called him before was somewhere around, but he could not see him.
"Wu Xie..." The soft voice of Xiaoge also echoes, for which Wu Xie could not pinpoint the exact place from where Qiling was calling him, only that it seems to come from further in and so he walked, getting deeper into the place.
At some point there was a film of water on the floor and he could hear water drops falling down at irregular times, almost making a strange kind of melody. There were stones men scattered here and there. All of them in full armor, most like jade servants in waiting to go to war at any moment, which was not uncommon on tombs of emperors, so he guesses that whatever that place was, it was still inside the tomb despite the greenish light that make it look alien.
Curiously, Wu Xie stopped in front of one to try see it better, but he was stopped halfway by a cold hand that pull him away from the jade servant. When Wu Xie turned, to look at who had pulled him, he was face to face with Xiaoge. His dream Zhang Qiling at that, because the real one, despite been real handsome could never look so... enchanting, for lack of words to properly describe the man he was just watching in something quite close to trance.
Xiaoge's figure was dressed in dark blue, although his head was not cover with a hoody, so unlike in the real life, but it gives Wu Xie the chance to see him properly and Oh, he did have a good look at him. This Zhang Qiling was a little paler than the real one, but it was perhaps do to the fact that he seems to shine in the semidarkness, like a god that had descended from the heavens, covered by his divine aura. He was both enchanting and mysterious, even when he still looked back at him with his usual lack of expression.
"Xiaoge..." Wu Xie whisper finally getting out of his trance and Xiaoge gently let go of his arm.
"Don't touch them... they are here to guard, this is not a safe place." Xiaoge said and Wu Xie raised an eyebrow at that.
"Not safe? Why did you call me in then?" Wu Xie asked curiously.
"For you to answer your calling." Xiaoge whisper and Wu Xie was instantly draw to Zhang Qiling like if there was an invisible force pulling him into his direction and he could simply not resist it at all.
"What kind of dream is this? Xiaoge, are you the same Zhang Qiling?" Wu Xie asked and Qiling smiled slightly.
"I am but a part of him... the one he left in you since birth." Zhang Qiling said and seen Wu Xie confusion, he took Wu Xie's hand on his and slightly press it.
"What that supposed to mean?" Wu Xie asked, not really minding the touch, even if it was cold.
"Let me show you how this all begin..." Qiling whisper and out of the sudden the surrounding darkness was replaced with something else entirely, like if a gate open at Xiaoge's command, transporting him to somewhere else instead of that greenish poorly lighted place full of apparently deadly jade servants in wait for the next war.
Now the both of them where in the middle of a land that could only be describe like the land of the gods, because there was no way a place like that existed on Earth. As far as he could see there was endless clouds tinted with gold and the piece of land in which they were in seems like it was floating in the air like anything else.
The sun could not be seen, yet the day felt warm, as it would be under it and in the far distance high above them, he could see a kind of palace that shined in a light he could not see from where it came from. The palace itself could be consider a work of art of the highest quality, colossal and magnificent, like taken from the otherworldly settings of the best games, shining with divine gold
"What is this place?" Wu Xie asked in daze as he looked up.
"The bridge to heaven and earth." Qiling answer and Wu Xie looked at him with surprise.
"What?" Wu Xie asked back.
"Look down." Qiling simply offer and Wu Xie did, walking toward the border of where they were standing. To his surprise the place far down was submerged in darkness as far as he could see, almost endlessly and inside that void of darkness were the things he had come to known as blood zombies from his grandfather's note... but perhaps, they were not what most tomb raiders thought they were at all.
"They are not really blood zombies, right? They are what you call demons?" Wu Xie asked.
"Yes. Long ago heaven and earth were connected by the four pillars." Xiaoge offer.
"So that tale was actually true?" Wu Xie asked and Xioage assented.
"Yes. There was a war with the demons on earth and the gods sealed them in the underworld." Xioage explained as Wu Xie looked down again.
"But they found their way out and try to reach heaven in retaliation?" Wu Xie asked.
"Yes, so the gods sealed the four pillars in gates." Xioage told him.
"Alright... so the gate we are in is actually what I assume is what the demons are looking for, right?" Xiaoge assented again.
"To protect them, guardians from the heavens were chosen." Qiling continue and the image of a beautiful Qilin materialize out of nowhere and walked closer to them.
"I see, they chose Qilin's for the gates, then they chose human guardians as well." Wu Xie assumed.
"Not exactly boy." The voice of a woman coming from the Qilin said and Wu Xie was startle when the Qilin actually shaped into the form of a tall woman dressed with electric blue robes, long white hair half tied at the top of her head. She was quite stunning in appearance, a beauty that could had come to life from a masterpiece painting done with the finest materials, but her indigo eyes were sharp, as she could see trough him.
"After guarding my gate alone for centuries, I fell in love with a human that was raiding the tomb in which the gate hides. He was a Zhang..." She said and Wu Xie got the rest on his own.
"So Zhang Qiling is actually your son, a half human with true Qilin blood that gives him a certain kind of immortality and abilities." Wu Xie concluded.
"Yes and he became the first half Qilin guardian outside the gate as well. Other Qilin's eventually also paired with trusted humans and have children on their own, that follow my son's steps and became guardians of their own gates. However, just like me, my son also wanted a partner after been alone for centuries..." Zhang Qiling's mother said and Wu Xie looked at him, finally understanding.
"He choose me..." Wu Xie voiced.
"He pled the gods for him to have a partner, when he was getting tired of guarding the gate on his own, when I needed time to rest. The gods grant him a pure soul... yours..." She said and she speaks, an image in Wu Xie's mind pop up out of nowhere.
It was at the time when he was born in the hospital room, in which his grandfather had tell him he had seen a Qilin go out of the room, which he could see now it was true. The Qilin spirit had come inside the room and touch him with it nose, leaving a faint mark close to his heart that he still have it, then go out of the room, revealing itself only to his grandfather, who was a member of the mystic nine, he was now sure were the chosen to help the Qilin's in their task over the centuries of guarding the bridge to the heavens inside those huge bronze gates.
"I mark you in order to protect you." Xiaoge said and then another image show in his mind, this time it was when that man had kidnap him to make him reveal the secrets of his grandfather's note. He had been told that he was cursed, thus the man burst in flames when he threatened him for answers, but now it was clear that his grandfather had lie in order to keep the Qilin spirit inside him from been find out, because the one who set the man in fire was not a curse, nor him, but Zhang Qiling's guarding spirit.
"It was you..." Wu Xie whisper.
"Yes... also, it's me the one who connect him to you in dreams." Xiaoge said.
"So... you are not the one I have been dreaming with." Wu Xie stated.
"You both had been bonded since your birth." Xiaoge explained.
"Thus... I am to become his partner. That's my calling and reason to be brought here?" Wu Xie asked.
"Even if you are the chosen, you had a choice as well as he. My son cares a lot for you right now and he will grow to love you above all else soon, but the real choice is yours. No one will force you to submit yourself to a fate you don't want, the same way I did not force my son's father to be with me or help me guard the gate." She said.
"What happens if I accept this call? Will I become a guardian too?" Wu Xie asked.
"No. Your soul is bound to him, not to what he is. However, if you choose to accept him as his partner, you will gain that all guardians have." The woman said.
"You mean his immortality?" Wu Xie asked.
"Not only that, you will be able to use the strength of the spirit that resides in you." She answer.
"You will be able to stand your ground against demons." Xiaoge said.
"Like as right now in where my body lays?" Wu Xie asked and Xiaoge assented.
"So what's the cost?" Wu Xie asked next, sure that there was something else that was still in between the lines, hidden yet very present.
"It will be painful... very painful to become like him." Xiaoge said.
"Your body needs to be reshaped from the inside out to live as long as he does and it will be agonizing to a point you may want to die." She said.
"For how long?"
"From hours to perhaps days..." Xiaoge whisper.
"How will this be done?" Wu Xie asked.
"When he is willing to fully bonds with you." Wu Xie blushed intensely at that. Where they expecting them to have sex for that? Wu Xie thought and Qiling smirked, pretty much reading his mind.
"No. Bonds are made with blood." Xiaoge told him.
"He had already give me blood." Wu Xie said as he remember the bloody symbol on his chest.
"Yes, but he was not doing it to bond you, just to protect you." Xioage explained.
"My son is not aware of his own wish, as he lost his memory a while after. He doesn't know he had already given his Qilin spirit to you. He feels he is missing something as he knows now it's you, but he is still trying to find out why. He believes you will become a guardian, he is not aware that your calling is not that, but to willingly share your life with him." Qiling's mother said.
"Can I help him now without been bond?" Wu Xie asked.
"As for now you can control the thunder storm in the ruins, as well as to sense the ones humans had call blood zombies. That is because you have a Qilin spirit within you, but beyond that, you can't do more, until my son bonds with you." She answer.
"Then let's start with that first... whatever we end up really bonding or not, is yet to happen, but giving the numbers of demons I sensed, he is going to be in troubles if he fight on his own." Wu Xie said and Xiaoge smiled slightly.
"Yes." He said.
"Then do your best, Wu Xie. My son will go to any length to keep you safe on your journey." Qiling's mother whisper and the next thing Wu Xie knew was he been hold on Zhang Qiling's arms, whit a worry expression on his previously poker face and despite himself, seen him like that, only make his heart skip a beat, because he could see so plainly that Xiaoge truly cared for him, although it may not be called love yet. They were already predetermine to like each other and he could tell it was absolutely right. Zhang Qiling may had wished for a compatible soul to share his life and burdens, but fate had shape his wish into the body of a man he may be reluctant to give in at first and to be honest so may Wu Xie.
"Wu Xie... Wu Xie..." Xiaoge whisper with a hint of anxiousness on his soft voice and Wu Xie impulsively moved his hand to touch Qiling's face, to reassure him that he was fine. Regardless of anything else, that man had wish for him, to share a lifetime when he felt the loneliest after living on his own for who knows how long and at the very least, he owed the man the same protection Xiaoge had offered him since birth.
"Don't worry, I'm fine... now let's get rid of the demons as it was meant to be." Wu Xie whisper as he closed his eyes in concentration, finally feeling that concealed energy building up inside of him and the storm roared in respond, as it had been commanded by its dormant master as an ultimate weapon to strike the coming demons and Wu Xie smiled...
AN: Thanks for reading.
