' So.... soft...'

A white hand moved over the blanket feebly, feeling the warm fabric under his palm.

' Am I on a bed?'

His head pressed down lightly on the pillow. Indeed, he was on a bed.

' Feels so nice...'

A content whimper escaped his lips. His hands felt like they couldn't get enough of the fleecy blanket snugly covering him, and they kept moving in tender motions over it, his fingers sometimes gripping the cloth.

He turned his head to the side when he registered a steady throb in his head and frowned.

' So thirsty... My throat hurts...'

His fingers came in contact with something smooth. He started tracing the contours, trying to memorize the curves which felt so soothing to the touch. His fingers trembled and he pressed a spot on the smooth object.

He thought he heard a cry.

******

Caihong had been awake until the wee hours, trying to bring Renshu's fever down. It didn't want to relent at first, and it pained her to see him whimpering almost inaudibly in his sleep, and shivering under the quilt. In the end, she summoned the power of her spiritual energy as much as she could, and transferred it to him, hoping to speed up the healing process.

' "Caihong.... My Ren is hurt," the Elder Lord Li wept, holding her tightly to him.

"Here," he placed her comparatively tiny hand on his muscled chest, just over his heart. "He is badly injured, Caihong... He is broken..."

She placed her free hand on his face, trying to wipe his tears away. The simple, childlike gesture only made him cry harder, and place wet, salty kisses on her soft palms.

" Grandpa," Caihong hugged him. His chest ached horribly and felt like lead. He buried his face in her shoulder, as he held the little body close.'

" Ouch, my eye!" Caihong yelped. She had no clue when she had fallen asleep, still sitting on the low seat, with her head resting on the bed covers. She had been slowly stirred to wakefulness by something caressing her eyelids and began to debate whether she should sleep some more. But alas, she never got to commence it, as she received a sharp poke in the eye.

She was about to yell in indignation, when a hoarse whisper made her forget everything, "Water... Thirsty..."

Her heart leapt. Her eyes shot open.

Renshu was moving slightly under the covers. His fingers were twitching at intervals. Caihong rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It was real. She wasn't dreaming. Renshu was waking up.

She couldn't help but laugh and hug him, blankets and all. She jumped down and ran to get some water.

She set the tumbler down on the bedside table, and slowly helped him to a reclining position. She packed the pillows around him to make him comfortable. She held the tumbler to his lips. He feverishly gulped the water down and sighed, leaning comfortably against the downy pillows.

Caihong gazed at him, lovingly. His lips had almost healed; they were slightly chapped. She felt an urge to remove the wanton strands of hair that were hiding his face.

' This smells so nice... So familiar....'

Renshu snuggled deeper into the pillows trying to inhale more of the beautiful scent.

' Rain-soaked earth... Beautiful... Home... Am I home at last?'

Though he was sweating all over, he didn't feel uncomfortable at all. He didn't bother to open his eyes. Neither did he want to do anything, nor did he want to see anyone. All he wanted to do was to envelope himself in the refreshing smell.

He heard a sound as if someone had kept something on the table. He didn't turn to look, for he just didn't care. He was convinced that he had just woken up from the wildest of nightmares.

But, poor Renshu wasn't allowed to dwell in his pleasant, wistful, dreamy world for long. To his terror, he felt hands parting the robes covering his chest.

Everything went black at once. The blackness of his memories spread across his mind and clouded his thoughts.

The sound of fabric being ripped apart.

It felt like his stomach was jammed up around his ears. His entrails had been abandoned somewhere behind him.

Icy cold wind caressing his naked body.

He wheezed and gasped for breath. He was drowning.

Ruthless, maniacal laughter.

He was hurtling through space. There was no hope of being saved.

A hard bite on his chest.

His hands were waving uselessly in the air.

Then another on his stomach. On his neck. Countless.

His lungs felt like someone was slowly squeezing the residual air out of it.

The mild metallic scent of blood.

His whole body began to convulse and spasm as if in tetany. Everything grew maliciously amplified.

Ripping pain.

Suddenly, his fingers closed on something solid. Hard. Tangible. With whatever strength he had left in his shaking body, he lifted it.

******

' Aiya, he's drenched with sweat.'

Caihong dipped a washcloth into the trough filled with freshwater, which she had just brought in. With one hand she parted his robes and with the other, she reached out to wipe the perspiration off his neck and chest.

There was a loud smash.

All of a sudden, there was a blood- curdling scream and she found herself on the floor. Agony screamed up her arm.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!! LET GO!!!"

The turmoil, in the meanwhile, jolted Anbai awake from her peaceful sleep. Not bothering to fix her bed hair, she stumbled into Caihong's bedroom.

The sight which greeted her had her glued to the floor for a few moments.

Small, uneven, and broken pieces of porcelain lay on the floor and the table.

Renshu was sitting upright on the bed, and trembling as if he was having a fit.

Caihong was half sitting and half lying on the floor, cradling a bloody arm.

"Caihong!" She shrieked. She fell to her knees next to her little sister and yanked the sleeve up. There was a long, bloody gash on her arm.

"Ah, Jie, it's just-"

"Don't touch me... Let me go... Leave me... Let me go... Don't..."

Both the siblings looked up. Renshu was shaking like a leaf in the monstrous storm that was raging inside his morbid mind. His trembling hand held a shard of porcelain which was now streaked red with blood. Caihong's blood.

"Don't touch... Hurts... Leave... Let me go..."

' "Caihong... My Ren... Please save him...
Can you make him.. smile again?

He is broken... Can you bring the light back into his eyes?" '

Caihong was about to get up, when Anbai spat out, " What the hell is he trying to do, huh?! Gather sympathy? Where are you going? Sit down."

" Jie!!"

"What?!"

"Please stop saying such spiteful things, will you? You're being beastly."

"Oh, am I being beastly? Then what's this?" Anbai gritted out, referring to the bleeding wound on Caihong's arm.

In the meanwhile, Renshu began to curl himself up into a ball, trying to defend himself from the imaginary monsters looming over him.

"You don't understand!!" Caihong yelled. "He's hurt!! He's scared!! He doesn't know me, so he must have thought that I will hurt him too!! This is a normal human reflex!!"

Anbai was dumbfounded.

' " I don't know how much I can do. I don't know what to do," Caihong admitted.

" You don't need to do anything, just be with him, no matter what happens, please don't leave his side. Ever," Li Liang pleaded. "I'm sure, by being with you, Ren will be happy. He will smile."

"Alright, I will do my best, Grandpa. Renshu is very dear to me, hehe. He is. I can't promise anything, but I can certainly promise you that you will not find any lacklustre attitude in my attempts." '

"What are you saying, mèimei? He hurt you after you saved him... You call that a human reflex?"

" Did you just get out of bed? No wonder your head's not working right. Your eyes are unfocused."

Anbai could only stare.

"Is there any need for me to remind you what happened to him? Have you forgotten that he comes from a well-mannered family, not to mention that his forefathers were high level, spiritual masters?"
After inhaling and exhaling a couple of times, Caihong added, her voice laced with sorrow, "Jie... Do I need to remind you? That he's of the same age as me?"

Anbai shook her head, a bit dazed. Slowly, it all fell in place. She hung her head in shame. ' Am I mad? What was I thinking?'

"You don't understand," Caihong inhaled deeply, walking over towards the bed. The blood from her wound had coagulated. "I promised, Jie. I promised."

' " Please help him, Caihong... Renshu needs you..."

"Grandpa, I will never leave his side." '

Caihong tried to lift Renshu's writhing body from the bed. He refused to comply at first and tried to push her away, still sobbing helplessly and begging to be spared.

"Leave me... Please... Please... Go away!! Leave me!!! Don't touch me!! It hurts!! Let me go!!"

' " Caihong...."

"Even if he gets angry and scolds me, I will never let go of him." '

She slipped one hand under his head and the other under his back, hugging him. Her long, open, flowing hair draped both of them like a curtain, partially concealing the boy struggling beneath her.

"Ren, it's me. Calm down. Calm down. Easy, okay? It's me. It's me. It's alright. Shhh. I'm here."

A sharp intake of breath was heard, and soon, Renshu's arms and legs entangled her in an octopus-like grip. He clutched at her for dear life, as if he was scared that she would disappear. There was something about her, something so warm, that felt right, smelt right.

"Don't go... Please don't go...."

Caihong sat back down on the bed, pulling him onto her lap in the process, and ran her fingers through his jet black hair, easing out the tangles. She could feel his tears dampen the side of her neck.

' "Please save him... If it has to be anyone, I'd rather have you next to him. Please... P-please...."

"I promise, I will always be by his side." '

"I'm here, see? I'm not going anywhere. I'm here, Ren. I'm here."

Renshu buried his face in the crook of her neck. His fingers clung to her in a desperate, white-knuckled grasp. As he felt tender arms rocking him to and fro gently, like a cherished child, he let his body sag. In that embrace, it seemed like his morbid fears had lost their keen sting.

"Don't go... Home... Smells nice... Don't leave me...." He whimpered. "Rain... Earth... Rain..."

The comforting, refreshing, and delightful scent of rain and damp earth, which he had the first smelt on the pillows, belonged to none other than Caihong, who had, unknowingly, become the essence of his haven.

His nascent sunshine.

The bright star in his hopelessly dark universe. 

"I'm here. I'll never leave you. I promise you, Ren. I promise you."