Two days had passed. The rain still poured, and the skies still grumbled with lightning and thunder. 

Originally the tribe should be preparing for the rain festival. In fact the pathways should have long been decorated, a hustle and bustle in the air. Streamers dangling in all the trees. Clouds forming here in there in practice for the big day.  Even some food samples being handed out, testing the quality, getting opinions on what should be changed or if the final product was perfect.

But now none of that was happening. 

It was due to the rain festival being delayed and pushed back into next month. After all, one can not go against mother nature when she wishes to change your plans.

A sudden landslide blocked the cave leading inside the medicine mountain. Due to how bad the damage was, it would take weeks if not an entire month to clear up the debris, let alone guarantee the structural safety of the passageway. Not only that, they had to guarantee a second landslide would not happen, or at least put up preventive measures. With this being the final location to every rain festival, they had no choice but to push it back and hope the rain hadn't stopped by then.

For many this was a grumbling affair. All decorations had to be taken down. Previously prepared food set aside to marinate had to now find another use. If that already wasn’t irritating enough, being teased by the cloud silk sellers was the boiling point. 

Many verbal fights broke out and the guards were called. To the silk sellers dismay, they were pushed into helping. Although very disgruntled, they didn’t mind. In fact if it weren’t due to them being upset over the festival, they’d have volunteered to help without intervention. 

As for the minority, the few procrastinators that leave work to be done on the last day, this was a timely delay! Even the dancers felt the same. Having more time to practice was always nice.

Within the medicine tent.

“How are you feeling Tiv?” Marvena reaches out to read Tiv’s pulse.

“That dreaded itch is finally gone, but I’ve still got that blasted headache. I know you said it will go away on its own, but can’t you give me something that will ease the pain a bit?” Tiv moped and moaned, acting not one bit his age, sounding more like a child than a grown man who could easily tussle a tiger.

Tiv sat there pouting, not looking one bit like the typical member of the tribe. Mostly everyone had wheat colored skin, the hunters with even darker shades, whilst he looked——–odd. A bulky man with crazy black hair and gray skin. Even Marvena looked more normal compared to him.

Marvena just glared at him with dull eyes, showing that she was not only used to his acting, but had also grown numb to it. “You already know why it's so bad. Sitting up when you have been ordered to lay down, to keep your head on that medical pillow. Not listening of course you’re in for a world of suffering.”

Tiv just laughs and slaps his thigh but then winces in pain, groaning for sympathy.

Marvena rolls her eyes, gently pushes him back to the pillow, “stay down.” Then she walks away, the grown man behind her looking very smug, a victorious grin on his face.

Suddenly she glanced back and that smug look had turned innocent, his hand reaching out for her to hold it. Marvena’s left eye twitched. She turned back around and left.

Just as she reached out to hand over Tiv’s patient log, a hand slammed into the table. Marvena jolts back in surprise.

Doctor Termit realized what he had done and promptly apologized, “*cough cough* Apologies Marvena, you must be done checking up on Tiv. Now you're off to look in on Xiao Luo?”

Mavena simply nods. She cautiously sets the paper down and then walks to the other end of the tent as if a demon were on her tail.

“Idiot!” Doctor Rasha slaps the back of his head.

“Shut up.” Doctor Termit waved her off, letting his guilt drip down his face as sweat. “How else am I supposed to react, huh? Two days and those bumbling fools still have yet to kidnap that snake!”

Doctor Rasha rolled her eyes. “I told you we should have burnt down his clinic and wine stash. But no, you had a brilliant and amazing idea~! Well you old lizard, is the idea still ‘brilliant’ and ‘amazing’, mmm?”

Marvena swiftly went behind the partition and out of ear rang. Finally peace and quiet. Although she respects those two, listening to their crazy plans was hair-raising.

She sighed, placing her two fingers to the pulse on young Hong’s neck. Then she touched her forehead. Lastly she looks inside her mouth, then her eyes.

Marvena felt frustrated. The fever had fallen so significantly that it was just a few degrees off from being normal again. “She should have woken up by now.” She mumbles, which catches the attention of Sir Ash.

She smiles at him, “I’ll be checking you next, so wait but a moment.” 

Deciding to triple check her results still did not alleviate her disgruntled feelings. And so she moved to the other patient who was not responding well to any treatment they performed. Another one to frustrate her endlessly!

“You both sure are two peas in a pod.” She grumbles. Luckily tomorrow or day after tomorrow the requested books should arrive. This was all that could make Marvena feel better.

After noting down a few more things, she walked away.

The man watches but then moves his sight back to Hong Luo. He frowns and then signs. His hand leaves her chest, wraps around her waist, and pulls her into his embrace. Forehead to forehead, his eyes close.

It went with notice, the doctors completely oblivious to the strange event happening behind the partition. A dark aura engulfs the pair in a shroud and Tiv who had his eyes peacefully closed, suddenly jolted up. He ignores the pain to look to his right and move to get up.

Before he could do anything a pair of red eyes glared into his mind, chilling his soul in fear, and toppling him over to fall to the ground. “Dammit,” was all he could utter behind it all faded to black.

Just like that, he was knocked unconscious and Marvena, who had been walking passed, rushed to catch him before his head slammed into the dirt. “Doctor Termit, Doctor Rasha!”

All attention swarmed Tiv’s area. Marvena’s call was so loud it even beckoned in the doctors and assistants from the neighboring tent. Many rushed to examine him, tensions filled the air, fretting over a relapse or a sudden life threatening issue that may have been missed.

Marvena, who had no place to help, just stood off to the side, clasping her hands tight. She stood there, waiting to be called upon should anyone need her.

And just like that, no one cared for the area at the end of the tent. No one was aware that it was there that the cause of the issue originated.

The shroud, so dark, neither person could be seen from inside.

• • • •

Water fills the sky just like it drowns the forest. A small existence couldn’t do much else besides stare in awe at such a sight. Only dreams could afford to be so fantastical that nothing in reality could dare come close. 

“A dream within a dream,” the white soul spidering in black cracks mused.

Beneath the gently rippling lake sat the birch filled forest, a place inspiring confusion and heart ache to the one peaking below. A thin gap sits between the two sources of water, a safe haven as you will for the broken soul barely keeping itself together.

“Why stop when you’ve already gone so far? Even in death, even in dreams can I not——–” the soul went silent, staring up at the water just barely 30 centimeters above her head.

Filled with immense helplessness, the soul noticeably becomes transparent as it curls into the fetal position. Those shaking shoulders, fingers desperately digging in, holding tight to what little she had left, turned the air somber and oppressive when the choked cries began to echo.

Suddenly two ripples stir.

Something had fallen behind her. A fig branch that had all its leaves ripped off, the wood hollowed out, the outer skin riddled with cracks and decay. Sickness radiated from it. A heart rendering sight. Even if replanted, given copious amounts of love and care. It would never again become a tree.

Tap-tap-tap.

“People aren’t trees and dreams aren’t reality.” Said another soul, the cause of that second ripple that would form several others.

“It’s time to go back.” The black soul bent down and reached out, but the soul did not budge. She remained still, refusing to answer him. It was as if he wasn’t even there.

He remained still. Those red eyes silently appraised. A multitude of thoughts passed by in an instant. Then finally he dropped his hand and his sight, slightly turned his body and sighed.

“Didn’t you say you’d help me speak again.” Those tiny shoulders jolt, a ghost of a smile disappears from his eyes. “You claimed with you around, that I’d be alright. That everything would be alright. You eluded that my life would be safe in your hands. Was that all a lie to a dying man?”

“No!” The white soul crumbles forward, falling on the black soul's knee. “It wasn’t a lie. I’ll save you! All your aches and pain will be gone! Your voice crisp and clear! Nothing will stop me from following through on that promise, nothing!”

“Then come back.” Those eyes turn to her, wrenching open her heart to bleed. Inside them she saw a weariness just as profound if not more than her own. This man had truly given up on life, for there was not even one spark of hope inside. 

Did her actions hurt the man? She believed they did. Growing numb to expectation had nothing to do with the pain of being stabbed. Having hope crushed before you, even if it were the thousandth time, would still sting, chilling the heart even further then it had already been. 

Why, why did the dream have to pretend to be real? Why must it use guilt to keep her walking? And why can’t she say no? She’s so tired. She just wants to fall to the bed, lay beneath warm sheets, swallowed by the pillow.  But even in dreams the sweet release of sleep fails to find her. 

Hiding the agony as she always would, she smiles. “Alright.”