Ward of Storms

CHAPTER TWO

The nurse turned off the beeps, though she liked watching the monitors when she couldn't focus on anything else. A blur of messy sandy hair warmed the side of her arm with gentle pressure. Go to work, she thought for him, but the steady rise and fall of his chest began to recede to the haze. He'd stayed too long. Her arm wouldn't lift from the bed. He'd wanted to be with her. She wanted him to go.

Slowly, the cold returned, and she felt the damp grass stalks against her cheek. The storm had ended, and the dusk seemed to pool around her with a gentle lantern's light in the distance. She didn't even know her name.

[Xinrui was mine.] She heard in her head, gently reaching for her temple and rubbing out the words. Xinrui, it sounded Asian, but hers was something else. H...she couldn't remember.

[Just go with Xinrui.]

It's not my name...Rui...can I call myself Rui? She asked the spirit in her head, and in response, a feeling of warmth and agreement wrapped her in a loving embrace. However, around her, she noticed barely anything outside of the lantern's light. A shadow of a dark house with a curved roof and stacked shingles tiles encroached her peripheral vision. Rui rubbed her face and stood, meeting the blue eyes of the Qilin.

Awe enveloped her, seeing the creature in the faint warmth of the light. The storm that had once surrounded him was gone, but the lift and twirling on its mane billowed in the wind. From where she stood, she felt the electricity running through him, and a slight buzzing sound invaded her senses. She'd thought the Qilin had fire affinities, but this one conjured a storm with a glance in its azure eyes. It had the most beautiful golden swirling cloud pattern on its scales, a curly white mane, and a tuft of cloud at the end of the tail.

"If you promise not to shock me, I won't hurt you," she told it, but the creature merely looked on defensively from the side. The wound on its hind leg streaked a dark line down towards its hooves. "You're hurt," she said, quietly pulling her arms together and approaching the creature. Its legs straightened, and she heard a snort in warning but ignored it. "Let me help, please."

A boom of thunder shattered the peace, and the qilin reared before jumping off into the other side of the darkness. She rubbed her shoulder and rushed back towards the house, tossing off her shoes before entering. Her past babysitter, Sue, had taught her well about the expectations of an Asian home. She looked around at the simple decorations and a table laden with what looked to be a small feast of side dishes and a main dish of scallions and noodles.

"Hello!" she called further into the home. It looked lived in, and the hearth roared beside her. Slowly, Rui explored, but besides the bedroom in the back and the open foyer, it was a rather small home. She saw a ladder to the second floor and helped herself to look, but only found storage above. "Is anyone here!" she called again. "I don't mean to intrude, but the..." she stopped herself. Would anyone believe her if she said that she saw a qilin?

She sighed as her stomach protested the lack of food. Rui sharply shook her head. She wasn't a thief, but she was tired. She pulled herself towards the hearth and sat down with a reasonable distance between her and the roaring fire. She didn't know the last time she had slept, but something about the balance of warmth of the fire and coolness of the air lulled her to putting her head down and closing her eyes a moment later.

What was wrong with her? She couldn't remember her name or what she did for a living, yet she remembered Sue, traditions that seemed so different from her upbringing, and even what a Qilin was. Her memory didn't extend to her family, only to Sue, who had cared for her after school for less than a year. Sue's mother lived with them, a granny who would watch soap operas on the small box TV. The women on the shows spoke in squeaky voices that made Rui giggle, but she liked the costumes and all the dancing with swords and ribbons.