xianxiadressing | [In a forest, by the river]

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[In a forest, by the river]

[cw: some body horror, other to be added as needed]

[With a cry - full of sudden shock and pain - Xiao Xingchen falls to his knees. Soon, even that is too much to bear, and the side of his arm collides with the ground. His legs refuse to move... but after a moment, he realizes that they refuse to move apart from each other. They feel bound, as if with a tight, burning cord as uncountable pieces of something sharp and smooth jut through his skin. He reaches down to feel what has happened to his lower half, incredulous when he finds that these can only be scales...

He never thought he would feel pain as great as he already had. It isn't as bad as that. However, the bandage on his face fills with blood, overflowing and leading streaks down his face.

Even if his mind whirls with everything that's happening at once, his focus turns back to getting somewhere else. He steadies his breathing the best he can, making as little noise as possible while his ears catch the sound of rushing water.

His fingers claw into the dirt as he pulls himself towards the river. With each pull, he knows that dirt smears against his white robes, no longer immaculately clean as they have always been. However, he can't pay any attention to it like this. Shuanghua, fallen onto the bank beside him, still is at the ready to strike if he makes a sword seal. He's more vulnerable than ever to immortal-binding ropes, however, and the loud cry is sure to attract attention. He doesn't even know if this is what he should do, but regardless of what's happened to him, he'll surely move faster in there than right now.

If he can only get over to the water before anyone else arrives...]

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[ Before Xiao Xingchen even reaches the water, a strong pair of hands, even stronger than most cultivators' grips, grab him and drag him the rest of the way into the river.

One of those hands quickly lets go to clamp down on his mouth, and there's a slight sensation of webbing between the fingers of it. The person who grabbed him pulls him down further, down towards the bottom, and despite the water rushing around them when he gives a hushed whisper against Xiao Xingchen's ear it's still rather easy to make out the words. ]

Shhh. Stay quiet or they'll hear you.

[Xiao Xingchen freezes up in his surprise. Not because that someone has picked him up - already a strange occurrence - but because in that very instance, he can tell the figure has far and away more strength than him. That already is very much a surprise. Though he hasn't traveled the world much... during his time in the cultivation world, he hadn't met anyone who he'd imagine would give him this sort of feeling.

That surprise would be enough to repress any urge to struggle out of the person's grip as he's carried, if it had come to him. But as he's lowered into the water, it becomes almost impossible to not thrash around. A moment ago, his best guess had been that he should get to the water, given this new form. Actually being submerged is a terrifying new aspect of it.

It's the fact that he can hear the other figure's voice clearly still that calms him down somewhat, the water not having stifled the sense he's relied on most in recent years. As tense as he is, he holds his breath on instinct, not having much of a choice before whatever the figure refers to has left.

The current pulls at him, loosening the bloodied bandage over his eyes.]

[ Liu Jianghe isn't paying too much attention to Xiao Xingchen beyond the fact that he's stopped struggling and stopped making noise as he focuses on the faint sounds from above the water.

The movement of the bandage briefly grabs his attention and he reaches out to snag it, not thinking too much about what it is beyond that it's part of this cultivator's outfit and he probably doesn't want to lose it. He's holding Xiao Xingchen from behind to make it easier to cover his mouth, so he doesn't see the empty eye sockets immediately when they're revealed. Even if they were pointed his way, he's staring up towards the river's bank as if trying to see what's up there. ]

"I found these. Never seen 'em red like this but they look and feel right. Let's start a search of the river."

[ Liu Jianghe swears, still quiet, and continues to press his mouth near Xiao Xingchen's ear to let him keep his voice low. ]

We have to get out of here right now. Can you swim yet? Nod or shake your head.

[Xiao Xingchen can't be sure, but he nods regardless. Perhaps the other person could swim strongly enough for the both of them, but Xiao Xingchen needs to do something rather than only let himself be rescued. What if he holds the man back and gets him caught by... whatever this threat is that they're hiding from?

Gathering up the idea of a fish in his mind, he tries to move his legs - his only, singular leg now - and push himself the best he can through the water. Braced for the pain, he doesn't let out a sound when the sensitive, remade skin stretches and twists within the water as he does his best to move. It dulls his other senses, but he can only trust that this man is helping him and the others pose some sort of threat, so that they need to get away from here.]

[ When Xiao Xingchen nods, Liu Jianghe finally unclamps his hand from his mouth, murmuring one last thing to him before he moves his mouth away. ]

Stay quiet and low. We're going upriver.

[ The hunters are less likely to check upriver. New merfolk tend to either get swept away by the current before they gather their bearings, or try to make a break for the open water of the ocean. The two of them will be easier to catch until they find open water of their own, but it's still worthwhile if there's no one around trying to look for them.

Liu Jianghe doesn't let go of Xiao Xingchen entirely; after all, if Xiao Xingchen gets swept away at this point it's one of the worst things that could happen to him. He keeps a grip on the back of Xiao Xingchen's robes and turns his face into the current, still too preoccupied with escaping their immediate situation to notice anything amiss. With a seemingly-practiced ripple of his body, his crimson-black-scaled tail propels him forwards into the oncoming stream. ]

[Xiao Xingchen can ask questions later.

Ever since he can remember, Xiao Xingchen had always been the hunter. His prey only included those that caused harm to humans, but he still needed to understand them to track their movements, often needing to think like the creatures to find where they lurked. Unfamiliar as this position is for him, he calls on the experience to tether himself, letting himself act as decisively as he can without falling to panic.

He doesn't have the same ease at the other man, but Xiao Xingchen tries his best to keep his kicks measured instead of letting himself flounder against the water. Long ago, he'd seen fish striving against the current, and he tries to recreate that with his entire body.

So focused on trying to move, he barely notices when he can no longer hold his breath and the water rushes in through his mouth. He coughs as it pours down his throat, and it becomes infinitely more difficult to not panic...]

[ Liu Jianghe feels more than hears Xiao Xingchen's distress as his body suddenly shakes under Liu Jianghe's grip. But hear it he does; it's not a good sound, especially not when he's trying to avoid having them noticed.

Immediately he curses quietly as he hauls Xiao Xingchen close to him again, his free hand going to his neck and feeling there. ]

Don't you have gills?

[ Most everyone who's undergone transformations matching theirs has gotten gills along with it, but there's just enough variation that maybe it's possible this person has...

But Liu Jianghe is now finally staring straight at Xiao Xingchen's face, and missing gills is no longer at the forefront of his mind. ]

Your eyes-?!

[ This person's eyes are completely gone. ]

[Xiao Xingchen's gills only start open across the sides of his neck after a moment of the water having nowhere else to go, and they're still barely perceptible. He reaches out to hold onto the man's arm while still trying to keep up the fish-like swimming motion, almost certain that anything else that can take him by surprise will separate them. In the rushing water, Xiao Xingchen doubts he would get his bearings in time...

His words come out in a pained croak, still forcing down the urge to claw his way back to the surface of the water. The other person can breathe here, just like a fish, so Xiao Xingchen surely has to do the same.]

It's fine... let's hurry...

[The blood clouding the water around where his eyes should be might alarm the man, but that's not important right now.]

[ The assumption that Liu Jianghe has come to is that the transformation somehow destroyed Xiao Xingchen's eyes, which is even more horrific than any other transformation he's seen, and even starts to encroach on the awful stuff that happens once a merperson gets caught.

Given the state of the man's eyes, Liu Jianghe isn't disturbed by the blood. Of course there'd be blood. No, it's the slight glint that he catches sight of that really disturbs him, and he reaches out and grabs it just to be certain he's not wrong. The man's voice from before comes back to him.

Never seen 'em red like this

They're tear pearls. ]

Try not to cry right now. I don't--I know that's hard to ask of you, but you have to try not to cry.

[ That's the last thing he says before he tightens his grip on Xiao Xingchen's robes and continues swimming, trying to be a bit more careful with directing Xiao Xingchen now that he knows he can't navigate by sight. If they're leaving pearls behind, someone is going to manage to track them, and sooner rather than later. ]

[Xiao Xingchen doesn't know what becomes of his tears, but he knows that a bloody trail will definitely meant that anything hunting them has a great advantage. Without much choice, he presses his forearm as hard as he can against where his eyes would be, only able to hope that this will seal the lids enough to keep the blood inside.

More difficult than that, however, is the next words he manages.]

I'll have to hold onto you...

[As much as he doesn't want to slow the man down... with all he has to make sure of at once, completely disoriented, he has no choice but to tamp down any misgivings about that.]

[ Liu Jianghe immediately responds by pulling Xiao Xingchen against him, pressing them chest to chest with the same strong grip that he used to drag him into the water in the first place. He has no idea if his arm can hold back the pearls, or if they might build up in his empty eye sockets and hurt even more, or any number of things about this situation that he's never dealt with before. He has to act anyway; waiting is far more risky. ]

Alright. I'll get you somewhere safe.

[ The lie flows out as easily as the current rushing around the two of them. Without getting to the deep ocean, there's little place for them to go that's truly "safe" with the current pearl-hunting frenzy. But if it makes him less likely to cry, Liu Jianghe will say whatever lie the man needs to hear. ]

Let your tail relax. The water will make it move back and forth as we swim... don't fight it.

[ He gives a couple powerful kicks of his own tail, and soon the two of them are rushing upstream through the water, only a little slower than they were moving when separated. He positions them so Xiao Xingchen is above and he's underneath as he swims low to the bottom, low enough that his tail or hair occasionally brush against it, weaving a bit to try to keep them in the deepest parts of the river as they go. ]

[As difficult as it is to even consider relaxing, Xiao Xingchen has enough control over himself still that he lets the tail be limp, letting himself be carried along. Considering that he might create drag in the water this way, he squeezes himself as close to the man as he can. He can agonize over whether this is all too embarrassing or shameful later, when they're both in the safer place the man mentions.

It takes a moment of swimming before he can feel like he can actually breathe in the water. He feels like he can get just enough air, but it feels like running atop a mountain. Gasping, he tries to inhale, even if the water still makes him feel like he's drowning.

During this, he manages to keep any blood from escaping his eyelids, pressing tightly enough that he would probably damage any eyes if they actually were there. He certainly won't let whatever is tracking him catch this man, at least...]

[ Liu Jianghe isn't as familiar with this river system as he wishes he were right now. All he can do is swim further and further, guessing at which fork to take when offered options, hoping to throw the hunters off of their trail and find something like a lake for them to pause and rest in. Even a particularly deep part of the river would work, but the further upstream they go, the less likely that becomes.

He weaves a little more to avoid the shadow of boats passing above them, and finally the river opens up. They've reached a lake, and on one side there's a bustling town with a lively port, ships coming and going at regular intervals.

Liu Jianghe settles the two of them in an area further from the port, in a place where the lake bed goes a bit deeper and the water is dark. He listens quietly for evidence of humans near enough to overhear them, then once satisfied, finally relaxes his grip on Xiao Xingchen. ]

We can rest here for now. How are you doing? ... Aside from suddenly having a tail instead of legs, and losing your eyes, and all that.

[ His voice is still subdued, but nowhere near as quiet as when he was whispering directly into Xiao Xingchen's ear. ]

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