Han Zhong descended into the residential valley by riding a Finux. The female dragon with a long tail but not as big as the other dragons. In the Severe Mountains, there are many secret caves covered in snow, places where dragons live. Apart from Finux, various other dragons were friends with Han Zhong. But this time, it was not the time to introduce the dragon breed.
Jing Lung's followers were jumping and spinning in the air, with light legs and flexible bodies stamping on the roofs of houses like ninjas. They jumped like frogs without a sound. Han Zhong was not that agile. He had to descend through the narrow streets between the settlements. That morning, sunlight illuminates human activities.
Some traded, went to fetch water, chatted and everything went on as usual. It was as if Han Zhong's arrival this time had no other purpose, other than playing. In fact, if they had known the Flinches were scattered on the roofs of their houses, if they could have noticed that there was a stinging air in the middle of this beautiful morning, perhaps all this activity would not have gone as smoothly as this.
Han Zhong walked briskly following his memories from last night to where the house was referring to. When he got there, the house was deserted. The front porch was empty, the wooden door locked. From the rooftop, Han Zhong signaled to Jing Lung that no one was there. The Abysses had probably taken the human family away.
"Lord Dragon! Lord Dragon!" someone called out from behind Han Zhong. Away from the main street that was bustling with people's activities, an old man in rumpled clothes ran over to Han Zhong.
"Do you know where this family is?"
"They–the Folix took her away! I couldn't catch them because they jumped and went out of the valley. It seems–it looks like they're going to take the baby to the middle of the Barewoods Forest…" the man trembled slightly, but his fear was instantly dispelled when Han Zhong touched his shoulder.
"You calm down. I will save them," Han Zhong signaled to Jing Lung who nodded on the roof. Then jump off to the place where this man mentioned earlier.
"Is–is it true, that the baby is… an envoy of the God of the Dark? I mean, it's all just bullshit, right? The fortune teller near the market said that this village would be met with disaster when a baby was born. And… and we all know that the fortune teller mean is… the Khun family's baby."
"Fortune-teller?" asked Han Zhong. He often wandered around the market, just chatting and tasting the fruits grown by humans, but he had never seen a fortune-teller.
"Yes! The fortune teller had only come twice a day. Lord Dragon, could the fortune teller also be Folix's messenger? Our village has never had such a creature. You say this village is safe because it is close to the Dragon Palace?"
Han Zhong nodded. "Yeah, because it's true. I'll figure it all out first. While we save the Khun family, please keep this a secret from everyone. I don't want anyone to panic or worry."
After calming the man down, Han Zhong exposed his Dragon Spear then climbed onto the roof and headed for the Barewoods Forest. The forest is quite far from the village settlement. A little further down the valley, the forest was the most perverted and deepest place of Newtra's core. There is no humans who came into the forest without a guiding lantern. If the Folix—or as Jing Lung used to call it ugly demons and the minions of the Abyss brought the baby into the forest, it was certain that they had kidnapped the god-blood boy.
As Han Zhong continued to run, jumping from roof to roof, across rivers, across vast fields, he advanced further, away from the cliffs leaving the human settlement village and descending into the forest, the sunlight getting dimmer as his steps began to enter the forest area.
Back when Han Zhong was a child, about three years ago, he and Grandpa Trixon took a walk through this forest. Examine distances and directions so as not to get lost. The size of this forest is like the ocean. Deep as a trough and dark as a maze. For those who do not have magical powers, they may be trapped and die among the trees or roots that cross here and there.
Han Zhong strained his ears, looking for clues to where Jing Lung was. He climbed into one of the trees, perched on a branch like Poppet and then strained his eyes through the branches and leaves that lay before his eyes.
"Stop!"
Jing Lung's voice that he knew so well sounded faint and distant. With the Dragon Spear, Han Zhong slashed at the branches, jumped over the branches again then saw the silver-haired figure of Jing Lung standing in the middle of the clearing. In front of Jing Lung was a group of creatures in dark black robes, carrying several people whose mouths were gagged and their bodies tied up.
With a gleaming blade, Jing Lung pointed at the back of the black creature's head with his long thin sword.
"Flinch..." muttered the creature quietly. The sound is like a crackle in the night, crawling under your bed. Spreading horror and bad air.
"I didn't know Flinch could come down from the border. What's more, you…"
Han Zhong was still perched on the branch, observing how long the pleasantries would end.
"Ah, sorry if I sound so honorable. But shouldn't you thank me for coming down the mountain to chase you?"
The Folix didn't answer. He only turned his head until the people he had kidnapped wriggled, trying to escape.
Han Zhong found that the baby wrapped in dark brown burlap was being carried by Folix who was standing some distance away from the five Folix near Jing Lung. He had to take the baby first but before that…
"What are you going to do with these people?" Jing Lung continued.
Folix's form is basically just a creature with an array of old bones and a mist soul of darkness born from the dead but brought back to life by orbs from the Abyss. They are submissive by nature, but very cruel to other creatures.
"Are you going to pretend you don't know that this baby is a descendant of our god? Don't worry, we'll just keep this baby safe. Besides, wouldn't it be great if we took this baby? So that the village where the humans you love the most are safe from darkness?"
"How can I be sure that the baby is indeed a descendant of the God of the Dark? No baby is born in the holy land—at the foot of Dragon Trixon's most Noble mountain was born a child from the Abyss."
Folix was silent for a moment. He then turned around, letting his hood slide slightly in the wind. Showing the bones in his white jaw and fiery red eyes. He smirked through his skull teeth.
"It's a curse," he sighed scornfully.
***