"Yukiya…what are you doing here? Are you hurt anywhere?" Long Ki pulled his stunned wife and checked her all over. She did not have any wounds, but her tears kept rolling down her face. He gently wiped them away and kissed her red eyes. "What is it, dear? Why are you crying? Did anyone bully you?"
"You…you did. You bullied me," Yukiya sobbed out loud and jumped into his embrace.
"Huh? But I didn't bully you though," Long Ki mumbled, soothingly caressing her head. 'why did she have such an absurd thought?' he thought as he softly hugged her trembling shoulders. On her back, he felt something vibrating violently. "What's in your bag?"
Yukiya pulled her head from his chest and sniffed loudly. "It's our child…" she said guiltily.
"you brought our child here. Yukiya, what were you thinking," Long Ki swiftly pulled the bag from her shoulders and carefully cupped the incubating bowl. The little egg inside jubilantly banged into the glass. "Little one, don't hurt yourself. Wait, I'll open this,"
As soon as he opened the incubator, the little egg jumped out. Long ki skillfully caught it and hugged it tightly. "Yukiya, even thought you missed me so much you should not have brought our child to such a dangerous place. He is just an egg." He chided with a frown.
Yukiya wiped her tears. Her heart ached form his hurtful words. 'How could he think that I will purposefully put our child in danger?….' Her bottom lip trembled violently. She held back a sob and glared at him.
"You silly dragon….I thought…I thought you were dead. Travelled thought rain and storm to get to you and this is the thanks I get! I hate you!!" she cried out loud, simultaneously hitting his shoulder blades. The turbulent emotions that she was holding in busted out. She loudly sobbed and cried, hitting him as much as she could.
Long Ki griped her flaying hands with a frown. He pulled her face up and peered into her eyes. "What do you mean you thought I was dead? Wifey, what happened? Who gave you this wrong information," he whispered, hugging her waist.
Yukiya shook his hand away and growled. "You shut up. You bully. How dare you bully me like this? I came so far for you yet you shouted at meeee," she cried pointing an accusing finger at him.
Hearing this commotion, Long Aotian and the ghoul ran over.
"Who is this woman?" Aotian said, glancing at her up and down. The woman glanced at him with tears streaming down her face. Her limpid eyes shimmered under the evening sun and her bright red lips quivered as she sobbed. The white dress she was wearing made her seem more ethereal and angelic. 'Heavenly beauty!' he thought as he nodded at her. 'But why is she clinging to my brother though? Such a waste of her beauty, that stupid guy does not even like woman,' he thought shaking his head.
All of a sudden he saw his brother kiss her. Seeing this Aotian was shell-shocked. Momentarily he even forgot that his lover was Missing-In-action.
"ahhh! He….he kissed her," he nudged the ghoul next to him.
The ghoul rolled his eyes. "He kissed a woman. So what your highness? It is natural for a man to kiss a woman,"
"No, MY BROTHER kissed a WOMAN. I always thought he was into men," Aotian whispered in shock.
Their conversation was not that low; Long Ki heard this and growled out loud. "Xiao Aotian, just because I didn't date woman doesn't mean that I'm into men,' he said hugging Yukiya close. With his right hand, he firmly held the egg in-between them out of sight.
Yukiya glanced up at him and then at Aotian with a questioning look.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce, he is my silly brother Long Aotian," he caressed Yukiya's face lovingly.
Then Long Ki glared at Aotian without blinking. "And this is your sister-in-law,"
"What!! I have a sister-in-law? When did this happen?" Long Aotian frowned. He glanced at the beauty again and sighed. "Really little lady, do you know my brother has woman phobia before? I don't know how you tolerate him. But hands off to you,"
Long Ki swiftly cupped Yukiya's ears and threw a glare at Aotian. "Don't talk trash in front of her. Her delicate ears will melt,"
Long Aotian frowned. "Long Ki, I get that you want to be lovey-dovey with her, but please can we resume our search for my lover. He is nowhere nearby. I'm worried something happened to him."
"Did you search the palace?"
"Yes!! I searched for him everywhere…. I could not even find traces of his scent," Long Aotian growled out loud.
Long Ki sighed. He glanced down at Yukiya and softly patted her cheeks. "Okay, at least give me te last article your lover wore. I'm not familiar with his scent,"
Aotian pulled out a kerchief from his shirt. "It still has his scent." He threw it and rushed away into a dingy looking passageway.
Long Ki sniffed it. It had the faintest lotus fragrance mixed with the scent of the fresh water. He sniffed it again. 'why does this scent smell so familiar?'
He glanced down at Yukiya, who was peering up at him with her eyes wide open. "Oh, this water fragrance smells like you."
"What do you mean," Yukiya hugged the egg from his hands and glanced at him questionably.
"This scent," he shoved it to her nose. "Smell it?"
Yukiya frowned and pushed his hands away. "You know that I can't smell that well on the surface,"
"Oh, but I swear this smell so much like you," Long Ki whispered with a thoughtful expression and shook his head. "Maybe it's all in my head. Yukiya, stay here. I will go search for this person,"
Yukiya shook her head and griped onto his hand. "Don't leave me alone. Don't…I'm scared," she whispered softly.
Long ki sighed and pulled her closer. He gripped onto her waist and flew over the kingdom. His nose slightly changed to a dragon snout, and he used his advance nose to search. He was only able to trace the scent to the palace.
"let's go check inside," he softly pulled his wifey and his child. The palace was a complete mess. Corpses covered the ground anywhere eyes could see. "Wifey, it's better for you to stay out. This place looks to bloody for our child to see,"
Yukiya shook her head firmly. "It's okay,"
"It's not okay! Yukiya our child should not witness this kind of violence in his life. I won't allow it," he held her tight and led them out.
A part of the kingdom was completely damaged by the fight that went on, but some parts remained intact. He found an abandoned building, set up a shield all around the premise. "you both stay here." He placed a small red jade pendant in her hand carefully. "Wifey…crush this when you are in danger. Anywhere in the world, I will come to you in seconds. And just in case I will send someone to protect you." he said urgently and ran away.
Yukiya frowned and nodded obediently. She held her child in her embrace ad watched him go. "Sigh, your daddy is right. It's not okay to expose you to such violence at such a young age. But...baby….I feel so uneasy. It's like something is calling for me to search. What should I do?" she softly caressed the little red egg.
The egg bounced and jumped to the ground. It rolled straight ahead and jumped on a spot continuously.
"What is it?" Yukiya picked up her naughty child and glanced down. It was a small white kerchief. "Ki dropped it," She picked it up, dusted it and carefully folded it. "Baby, this is not ours. You should not make it dirty….." she noticed a small drop of blood on it. She caressed it with her hand and sniffed. The scent was delicate and pure, like that of fresh dew mixed with a touch of sweetness.
"This does smell familiar… it smells like Nevadan river!"
Any creature that lived inside the river for so long would have the trace of the scent soak into their skin. "So this man….is from Nevada?"
Right at that time, a man dressed in black jumped into the compound. He glanced at her and nodded.
"um….did Long Ki send you?"
"Yes," the ghoul whispered and wordlessly turned back. 'I want to search for young master, Xia thought...' he bit his lips and grumbled inside.
"Excuse me?"
"Yes," he glanced back with his impassive look in place.
"Can you tell me who Ki and his brother are searching for? I think this person is from Nevada. I might know them," she whispered silently.
"It's my highness, Long Aotian's lover, Master Xia che," he said and turned back.
She rushed closer to the shield and glanced out anxiously. "Xia? Did you just say Xia? His name really is Xia che?"
"hmm," the ghoul hummed without looking back.
"Does he have shining black hair to his waist and look prettier than a woman? That is the man, right? Tell me?" she shouted whilst banging the shield forcefully.
The ghoul frowned. "hmm, master Xia is prettier than any woman I've seen but don't have any thought about him. He is my highnesses mate."
"HUH! HE IS MY SON YOU IDIOT! LET ME OUT!" she shouted out loud.