Chapter 5 Mythical Creatures

"Where do we go now?"

"East."

They reached an open area where the bushes were completely out of sight; Sunshine slowed down and finally stopped in front of an ancient oak tree.

"Why?" Joy asked, as both of them leaned on the tree trunk and gasped for air.

"Because one of the grains will be there."

It is recorded in the book-Wilderness that there are five kinds of mythical creatures in ancient times when it is a multi-deity society , represent the directions of East; West, South, North and Middle .Their existence is to guard the five directions and protect the peace of the space. In fact, their role is not that simple, but has a more far-reaching significance, that is, they represent the five fundamental elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, which contain all the things in nature and human society in the universe.

Azure Dragon lives in the east and is the head of all mythical beasts. It is said that his body looks like a snake; his head is similar as a unicorn’s and his tail is like a cyprinoids’ tail. He has long whiskers on its face, deer-horns, and five claws. White tiger lives in the west, Rosefinch lives in the south, Black Tortoise lives in the north, and Yellow Dragon lives in the middle. They are all gone after the fall of the deities because of their loyalty. The forest is created as an independently space benefits from the protection of the five mythical creatures, they left a piece of their body part with A Deity’s blessing to built the void as a better environment out of the planet for their descendants.  

As they were heading straight to East, Sunshine was telling Joy the story of five mythical creatures. Joy noticed that her hair disheveled like wind-blown withered grass, stringing over her forehead. It seemed Sunshine couldn’t care less, as long as she could catch sight of the path. Joy stepped by next to her to fix her messy hair tenderly, while two red spots burned in Sunshine cheeks and her eyes shone.

"What’s wrong?" Joy did not pause.

"Nothing, this is the first time someone has brushed my hair. It is exhilarating."

"How come? Your mother has never fixed your hair for you?  "

"My mother is not the kind of mother who normally combs her daughter’s hair, and she hoped that her daughter should not be the kind of daughter who would like sit there, waiting for her to do it."

Joy slowed down, the hair got full of static when Joy brushed it. She had to stop to fetch out a soft nylon baby brush which was her favorite brush from her bag, and restarted to comb the hair and made it into a pony.

"Why East?" Joy changed the subject, to assuage Sunshine’s grief.

"I guess the grains were celebrated to worship the five Deities. Besides we are close to East."

"How would you think of that? My first thought is that some birds may have them as their food."

"To tell you the truth, I asked Master Lin for the clue, guess what?  He showed me the word ritual." She quoted the word with her fingers.

"It was not hard to guess it is related to the mythical creatures. They are Deities of the forest."

"I see."

Baby was leading the way ahead of them; Joy noticed that Baby was so quiet since they met Sunshine and Happy. She moved faster than usual to catch up.

"Baby, are you ok?"

"What is your deal?"Baby flied up to her head.

"You are so quiet. I thought something went wrong."

"I am just wondering if Happy is single? She is so cute. "

Joy was laughing so hard until she needs to gasp for breath. She walked with Sunshine side by side and told her what Baby was worrying.

"Is it allowed a dog and a cat to mate in the forest?"

"Only if our king gives us his blessing, but it is impossible for the king to approve."

"I read it in the books that creatures are allowed to mix with each other at the beginning in the ancient times."

"What happened?" Joy was interrupting.

"The hybrids’ are completely out of control because of their lust for blood and killing are unappeasable. At last each leader of their packs has to sacrifice them to ensure the survival of the others. Since then they were forbidden to copulate with different spices, much less having children. "

"Hypothetically a vampire and a werewolf were falling in love, and they were born with a child, what would it be like?"

"Actually it is a great analogy."

The Time went by quickly during their pleasant talks; they were marching ahead with cheerful laughter until they were facing the miasma woods which were full of endless poisonous miasma. Unlike the forest they were standing right now, the odor of pines and camphor-trees pervades in the air.

Baby stopped and turned around.

"The miasma is not harmful for us, but for you humans, it is deadly."

From a distance, Joy was observing inside at the entrance of the woods covered with black thick fog; she could not see through it so she came up with one word-depressing. There were several vegetation growing well near the miasma woods, she pulled them up and put a piece of leaf into her mouth. It was known that an antidote must be near the poison according to the concept of mutual generation and restriction.

"Do you want one? It will help." She handled the vegetation to dare Sunshine.

"You know herbs very well." Sunshine took over it and put one piece into her mouth too.

Joy did not response to sunshine’s comments; she was pulling out a mask from her bag and wearing it. While she was going to ask if Sunshine want one, only to find out that Sunshine was already wearing a mask.

"Be careful." They were holding hands and stepped into the woods carefully.

Although covering their mouths and noses can stop some of the miasma, it was not a long term solution. They must get out of the miasma woods as soon as possible, otherwise the longer they stay, the more dangerous it would be. Penetrating the smoke would not be easy, which made them unable to see clearly. Baby was showing the way as Joy was holding sunshine’s hand tightly in case they were separated. When they were far into the woods, they heard the sound of ghost crying and wolf howling, which was extremely terrifying.

"Keep walking, it was all a ploy to distract attention."

Finally they reached out the side of the woods; Joy started to run like a child as if seeing the most exciting landscape. There was a huge stone blocking the road, Baby stopped in front of the stone.

"We are here."

Joy approached to the stone close enough to see that it was carved with a significant totem of an image of the Azure Dragon. She was staring at Baby with questionable looks while Sunshine was coming up.

"As long as there is a totem, we can go directly to the mansion by using power."

"That is so cool, how do we do?"

Sunshine put her bag with Happy inside on top of the stone. She was whispering about something to Happy, and then she began to practice her power, one moment later, an entrance revealed inside between the stone, she went straight through the entrance with Happy, disappeared; Joy followed her footstep, carrying Baby in her arms.

At that instant it was plunged into total darkness, Joy heard a snap and suddenly the place was lit up. There were no splendor palaces or huge pyramid temples, not even a tall building. What they can see was another green forest. There was a very old wooden door with a simple sign, which read "Welcome to the Array Labyrinth".

Suddenly she heard the cry of Baby, he must have bumped into the wooden sign and was lying on the ground curled up into a ball. She ran over to his side to check up on him only to discover a map displaying in the sky where Baby was hitting.