Cold.
Everything was COLD.
Xin Yi’s lungs scread for air. Her vision blurred. The water pressed in from all sides, dark and suffocating.
She was drowning.
[DING! (╯°□°)╯]
[HOST IS DROWNING!]
[OXYGEN LEVELS: CRITICAL!]
[PANIC MODE: ACTIVATED!]
[DO SOTHING! ☆]
Thanks for the update, System! Xin Yi thought hysterically. Very helpful!
She tried to kick, tried to pull her leg free from whatever had grabbed her, but the grip was IRON. Unyielding. Dragging her deeper.
Deeper.
DOWN.
Through the panic and the water filling her nose, she caught sight of it.
The thing holding her.
And her blood turned to ice.
It was HUGE. Almost or about the size of a small car. Tentacles, thick, muscular, covered in suckers the size of dinner plates, writhed through the water like living nightmares. Its body was a grotesque mottled gray-green, pulsing and undulating.
And its eyes.....
Multiple eyes. At least six of them. Black and empty and STARING directly at her.
A giant squid. Or sothing LIKE a squid. This was much worse.
One of its tentacles was wrapped around her ankle, pulling her toward what looked like a beak in the center of its body. Sharp. Cruel. Ready to—
Xin Yi tried to scream.
Only bubbles ca out.
[DING! (⊙_⊙)]
[THAT IS A DEEPWATER KRAKEN!]
[HOW DID IT GET IN A WATERFALL MOUNTAIN POOL?!]
[THIS SHOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE!]
[HOST IS ABOUT TO BE EATEN! ☆]
SYSTEM! Xin Yi’s thoughts were frantic, desperate. DO SOTHING! HELP!
[DING! (◕‿◕)]
[ERGENCY ITEM UNLOCKED!]
[SURVIVAL KNIFE!]
[Cost: 500 System Points!]
[Accept?! YES/NO?!]
YES! YES YES YES!
A weight materialized in her hand. A knife with a wicked sharp blade gleaming even in the murky water.
Xin Yi didn’t think.
She just HACKED.
Stabbed the tentacle around her ankle with every ounce of strength she had left.
The kraken SHRIEKED, a sound that sohow carried even underwater, high-pitched and horrible. It loosened its grip slightly.
She stabbed again. And again. And AGAIN.
Black blood clouded the water.
The tentacle recoiled....just as her ankle BURNED. It was hot, searing, like soone had pressed a brand directly into her skin.
She tried to scream but only managed a stream of bubbles as the last of her air escaped.
Her vision was going black. Fuzzy. The edges closing in.
I’m going to die. I’m actually going to—
Strong arms wrapped around her waist.
She was being pulled. UP. Fast.
They broke the surface.
Air. Blessed, beautiful AIR.
Xin Yi gasped and coughed and choked, water spewing from her mouth and nose.
"Breathe!" Sha Chen’s voice ca. "Breathe, Xin Yi!"
She violently coughed again, her whole body shaking.
"XIN YI!" Ài Yún’s voice was shrill with panic. She was at the water’s edge, hands clasped over her mouth. "Are you okay?! What happened?! There was so much thrashing and—"
Xin Yi couldn’t answer. She just kept coughing. Gasping. Clinging to Sha Chen like he was the only solid thing in the universe.
He swam them to shore with powerful strokes, still holding her against his chest.
The mont they reached shallow water, he stood—
And Xin Yi got a VERY clear view of exactly what she did NOT want to see.
Because he had shifted back to human form.
Which ant he was NAKED.
COMPLETELY naked.
"AHHHHH!" Both Xin Yi and Ài Yún scread in unison.
"COVER YOURSELF!" Xin Yi shrieked, imdiately covering her eyes with her hands even though she was still shivering violently.
Sha Chen looked down at himself. Then at her. Then had the AUDACITY to chuckle.
"Hmm."
"DON’T ’HMM’ ! YOUR—YOUR THING! IT’S OUT! COVER IT UP!"
[DING! (≧▽≦)]
[Host just survived a kraken attack]
[And is now being traumatized by wolf anatomy!]
[Priorities! ☆]
"You were just drowning," Sha Chen said, sounding amused. "And THIS is what concerns you?"
"YES!" Xin Yi kept her hands firmly over her eyes. "Very much yes! Ài Yún, don’t look!"
"I am NOT looking!" Ài Yún had turned around completely, her own hands over her face. "Alpha, PLEASE!"
Sha Chen sighed. "Females are so strange about nudity."
"WE ARE NOT STRANGE! YOU ARE JUST—JUST—" Xin Yi sputtered. "VERY EXPOSED!"
"Fine, fine." She heard rustling. Movent. "Better?"
Xin Yi peeked through her fingers.
He had wrapped sothing around his waist. Parts of his cloth before he shifted. It wasn’t much, but at least the IMPORTANT parts were covered.
"Thank you," she said, finally lowering her hands.
"Now," Sha Chen crouched beside her, his white eyes serious. "What attacked you?"
"A—a monster! A squid! With tentacles and eyes and—" She shuddered. "It tried to eat !"
His expression darkened. "A deepwater kraken. In a mountain pool." He looked back at the water. "That should not be possible."
"Well it WAS possible! Because it just tried to KILL !"
"Are you hurt?" His hands moved over her arms, her shoulders, checking for injuries.
"My ankle—" She looked down.
And froze.
There, wrapped around her left ankle, was a mark.
Not a wound. Not a scar.
A TATTOO.
Intricate. Beautiful. Glowing faintly with an ethereal light. It was a serpent. Coiled elegantly. Wrapped around a lotus flower.
"What..." Xin Yi’s voice ca out barely a whisper. "What is that?"
Ài Yún gasped. "Is that.....is that a MARK?"
Sha Chen’s eyes widened. He grabbed Xin Yi’s leg gently, and examined the tattoo closely.
"What is it?" Xin Yi demanded. "What does it an?!"
"If I knew," Sha Chen said slowly, "I would tell you."
[DING! (⊙_⊙)]
[MYSTERIOUS MARK DETECTED!]
[Origin: UNKNOWN]
[Purpose: UNKNOWN]
[Magical Signature: VERY STRONG]
[This is.....concerning! ☆]
"Concerning?!" Xin Yi looked at her ankle in horror. "What do you an CONCERNING?!"
Sha Chen stood abruptly. "We need to return. Now."
He bent down to scoop her up—
His cloth slipped.
Just slightly.
But enough.
"AHHHH!" Xin Yi covered her eyes again. "IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN!"
"Oh for—" Sha Chen adjusted the cloth. "I am TRYING to help you!"
"Well try HARDER! While keeping your—your SITUATION contained!"
Ài Yún was laughing at the both of them now. "You two are ridiculous!"
[DING! (¬‿¬)]
[Cody in the face of danger!]
[Classic Host behavior! ☆]
Sha Chen finally managed to secure the cloth properly and lifted Xin Yi into his arms. She was shivering now. Violently. The cold water. The shock. The terror.
"But the mark," she protested weakly. "My leg—we need to—"
"We will take care of you FIRST," Sha Chen said firmly. "The mark can wait. You are cold. Shivering. You nearly drowned."
"I am fine—"
"You are NOT fine." His arms tightened around her. "Let us go."
He turned to Ài Yún. "Send word to Bái Fēng. Tell him to gather the hunters."
"What for?" Ài Yún asked, already moving toward the settlent.
Sha Chen’s eyes darkened with rage. "They are to kill whatever bastard creature is living in my waterfall. No one threatens what is mine and lives."
[DING! (≧▽≦)]
[Possessive Alpha Mode: ACTIVATED!]
[He called Host ’his’!]
[Romantic! ☆]
"I am not YOURS," Xin Yi muttered, but she was too cold and tired to put much force behind it.
"Hmm." Sha Chen started walking. "Keep telling yourself that."
"I will!"
"Good luck with that."
"I don’t need luck! I need—I need—" She sneezed. Violently. "—a blanket. And maybe so hot tea. And answers about this MARK on my ankle!"
"In that order," Sha Chen agreed, his lips twitching. "Blanket. Tea. Answers."
Much to Xin Yi’s annoyance, she found herself relaxing slightly in his arms.
Sha Chen was warm. Solid. Safe. Just what she needed after what had almost happened to her.
Even if he WAS an arrogant, kidnapping wolf who couldn’t keep his clothes on.
[DING! (¬‿¬)]
[Host is getting comfortable with Sha Chen!]
[Progress! ☆]
"I still hate you," she mumbled into his chest.
"I know."
"And I am still going back to Qing Lin."
"Hmm. We will see."
"There is no ’we will see’! I WILL go back!"
He just smiled, his usual arrogant smile.
As they walked back toward the settlent, Xin Yi looked down at her ankle one more ti.
The serpent and lotus glowed faintly in the fading sunlight.
Beautiful.
Mysterious.
And sohow......ominous. She had to discover what it ant.
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