Kai-Se scratched the ropes around his hands against the wooden walls. He picked at the knots as far as he could bend his wrists without feeling like they were going to detach. Multiply the routine a thousand more times. That's how Kai-Se spent his while inside the cart.

It was next to impossible to tell how much time has passed since he was kidnapped from the forest and the hilltop he had awoken in. The sky remained red and what little light shining through the small, grailed window didn't change much throughout the day. His only companions were the sound of wheels slapping the flat ground with all kinds of creaks and rattles and the occasional banters of the lizards. He had grown tired of listening to them debate who's saying the other's name when dealing with strangers. They were both guilty of it, anyway.

The sack which used to be on his head was now folded into a small square by his feet. It was one of the first things he worked on removing from his person the moment the door shut him out from the rest of the world and the cart started rumbling forward.

From there, he had analyzed the current space to an agonizing precision. The only way out of the cart was the door where Jangseok had stashed him in. It was locked from the outside so it's impossible to attempt to sneak out that way.

The window slotted on the door's right side was too small for Kai-Se's shoulders to fit through. Another problem was the metal rails. They were nailed into the wood so hard they wouldn't even budge even when Kai-Se attempted to pull one free.

The floor was another possible route. That was, if Kai-Se could figure out how to burn a hole through it or break through it without making a noise. If the lizards ever got the hint that he's trying to escape it might reset his progress back to nothing.

He glanced at the sky, the rails providing him a striped version of it. Clouds were nonexistent in this place, making it impossible to rain or snow. They seemed to be passing through the town Kai-Se saw from the hilltop, just on the lower ground now. Up close, the crops looked plumper and brighter, but still otherwise foreign. What would those taste like? Were they even eaten at all?

That's another thing Kai-Se noticed about this place. He didn't feel the need to attend to his physical needs. The lizards didn't seem to, either. His stomach didn't growl nor did he feel hunger gnaw on it. His throat remained in a stasis between being thirsty and being refreshed. He seemed to have forgotten to relieve himself too. Those things were just at the back of his head. He knew he used to do and needed those things. He just couldn't seem to feel the need for them.

He gritted his teeth and looked down at his hands. Since having the sack off his head, he saw where he had failed to unravel the knots tied around his wrists. They were just too complicated and too taut to even attempt to claw at them. They either needed to be cut or sawed to thinning. Looking around him, in the absence of other things that might help him, he didn't see how else he was supposed to get out of the bonds.

Then, an idea popped into his head. He turned to the rails then looked back at the ropes. That's it. Wood might have done its best, but metal would do the trick. Kai-Se drew himself up to his knees and stuck his bound hands in either spaces beside one rail. With a clenched jaw, he pressed the middle of the rope against the metal and began moving his arms up and down.

The result was scratching sounds masked perfectly by the rattling wheels. Kai-Se had never been the one to stay attentive to one thing at long periods of time, but he had never focused this much over sawing a rope on a dull, metal edge in all his life.

Mind-numbing minutes of nothing passed. Then, hours. Maybe days. Kai-Se's arms started to hurt, even though all of his senses were dulled to a greater degree (except maybe his sense of smell; he could still taste the hanxin-zhou's blood at the back of his nose). He kept rubbing the rope, letting the heat build. He didn't need to remove the ropes. He just needed to separate his hands. His chances of escape would be higher if he didn't have to flail around.

After a few more chunks of time, the landscape has changed from an urban setting to a busier display. It seemed like the heavens took pity on him after showing him nothing but stretches of farmlands and dusty mountain silhouettes. Now, he watched as the crops gave way to wooden houses with simple roofs and paper-paned doors and windows. Lanterns glowed orange from the stick of wax burning inside them. They hung from stilts, awnings, and even along lengths of wire running across two wooden poles stuck on the compact soil at random intervals.

Also unlike the rural townscape, there were actual people bustling about. They looked like the lizards, bearing all sorts of strange mixtures of creatures back in Shinjien, but hearing rumbling voices, excited chatter, and burdened grunts relieved something inside Kai-Se. It looked like he wouldn't go insane in this cart any time soon. As long as there were people he could watch, he'd be fine.

The town kept stretching on for some time, so much so the houses began to look the same to Kai-Se. There were just thousands, if not, millions of mish-mashed creatures in this town. The cart hasn't even left the main road. Kai-Se imagined there were tons of smaller streets and winding alleys leading to the inner workings of the town. It'd be impossible to find his way should he ever get lost inside it.

Then again, he needed to get out of his bonds first. So, while the cart bumbled along the seemingly endless town, Kai-Se renewed his vigor in getting the rope to thin against the heat of the metal. He scratched and tugged. The skin on his wrists peeled and began showing angry, red blisters, but he didn't care. He has to get out of here.

...and do what? Why was he so keen on not staying caught?

Kai-Se shook his head. No matter. He'd get out of here and be rid of those stupid lizards once and for all. After another eternity, Kai-Se retracted his arms from the window, glaring at the product of his work. The knots had been pulled tauter up until to the point where the bumps had almost flattened back into the rope's line. That's good.

He got to his knees again and resumed tugging and rubbing. That's when the cart hit a bump in the road, throwing Kai-Se back. Instincts took over, his hands fumbling to catch his fall against the opposite wall. A distinct snipping sound followed by a loud thud and a crack happened all at once.

"Aihou, what happened back there?" one of the lizards said. The sound of hands hitting skin with wet schlops resounded from the front wall. Kai-Se regained his bearings, bracing the wood to get back to his knees. Then, he froze. Wait.

He looked down to find the rope had snapped with the force it took to cushion his fall. A wide smile broke out of his lips. At least one thing went right in all this madness. The cart swayed in place as feet landed on the ground with a thud. Unlike in Xuijae where even the towns had cobblestones, the roads here were still pretty much dirt.

Kai-Se listened as the steps neared the door, the lizard's flat head whizzing through the window's rails for a moment. He snatched the sack and yanked it open. He crouched, getting his legs ready to bolt out the moment the door opened.

"Hey, what are you doing there, little blossom?" the lizard said. The hinges creaked as the door opened, letting more pinkish light stream into the cart. "Just hang in there, will you? We're almost to the Ancestral District."

The door swung into its full arc and Waejeon was the one who greeted him.

Kai-Se lunged.

In his head, it had played a little more smoothly. He would have stuck Waejeon's head inside the sack and laugh to himself as he did the same thing they did to him. Then, he would have taken off into the streets and vanished into a thick horde of people...ish. After that, he'd be free to explore this world until he remembered what it was he came here for.

What happened was that Kai-Se's head hit Waejeon's throat on his way out, making the sack fly out of his hands and into the lizard's eyes. As Waejeon swatted at the unfortunate fabric, Kai-Se landed elbow-first into the dirt just as Jangseok stepped in to see what's going on. Before the lizards could make sense of it, though, Kai-Se gripped their slimy ankles and yanked. The hisses and strangled wheees that flew out of the lizards' mouths as they went down was like music.

Kai-Se looked at the streets, expecting a crowd. There were none, save for two bearded men with frog heads playing some sort of tanzhai on a rickety table on the opposite sidewalk.

"Hey, get back here, little blossom!" one of the lizards said. Kai-Se knew how fast they moved now, so he ducked when an orange arm swiped for his head. Then, he lurched forward, straight into the city beyond. "Waejeon! Get up! The hybrid's escaping! He's heading for the Forbidden City!"

Kai-Se leveled his gaze on the high, stone walls looming in the distance. Towering behind it was a huge mansion and an insane amount of front steps. The houses around it must look like ants feasting on sugar to the people living in that mansion since it's so high up. No matter. If it's a palace, Kai-Se would have more luck in surviving it than being stuck with two slimy lizards. If this was the ruler of this town or whatever country he ended up in, then maybe he could negotiate for his safety. There were a lot of things that could happen. He just needed to make it inside the city.

His breaths came easily as he dashed across the ruddy town. If this was back in Dangrao, he would have already fallen on his face or risk not being able to breathe properly for the next three days. He just wasn't built for strenuous activities...of course, until now.

"Hold the gates!" he yelled just as the sea green gates began closing after a caravan slipped inside the walls. He looked behind him to find the two lizards lumbering after him at a steady and faster pace. At this rate, they'd overtake him. Unless he found a way to change that first.

The sentries posted at either side of the gate, two creatures who looked human except for their pointed ears and their blazing orange eyes, looked at each other in a silent debate.

Kai-Se let his mouth run. "I'm a piper!" he waved his arms like he's asking for salvation, though. "I have come to entertain the master of the house!"

He neared the gates and didn't dare slow down. He'd have to risk splattering against the walls if the sentries didn't push it on time. "Please, you have to let me in!" he screamed, his voice coming out so desperate it came close to begging.

The sentries nodded at each other, and together, they pushed the gates in. Kai-Se pumped his fists in the air despite catching a semblance of a look of pity from one of the sentries. What was that about? He had just made it inside whatever city this was! And now, for the fun part...

The lizards scampered towards the gate, shouting pleas of their own. The sentries yanked the gates, closing the small gap Kai-Se had squeezed through. The voices outside faded into nothing as the sentries sent the lizards away. Ha. Good riddance.

Before more pride could swell in Kai-Se's chest, someone gripped his arm and hauled him forward, straight into the long and tall set of stairs. "Get in here, you runt," a hoarse voice bled into Kai-Se's ears. "Don't let the Empress wait."

Kai-Se knitted his eyebrows. Empress? What Empress?

He didn't get to open his mouth to answer because the grip moved from his arm to his stomach. A gasp rang in his throat. Instead of a usual arm or tail or whatever, it was nothing but translucent water, that somehow managed to stay in a cylindrical shape resembling a dragon's body from the myths, that somehow gripped him like it would squeeze him to death. What's stranger? The water felt like water—cold, flowy, and soft—but at the same time, it hadn't seeped into his clothes or dripped down to the earth.

"Hang on tight," said the water. Kai-Se looked towards the source of the voice to find a real dragon's head attached to the curling column of water around him. Before he could ask why, the dragon launched off the ground, leaving Kai-Se's stomach on the ground. A scream didn't quite build up in his throat, making him choke and hack like a plagued man. Then, the dragon zipped forward, straight into the doors thrown wide open.

Just before Kai-Se's feet neared the ground, the dragon loosened its grip around his body. He plummeted to the ground. He braced his arms around his head as he landed on the ground, rolling to a stop with a groan.

It was the laughter that brought him back to his senses first. He raised his head from his arms to regard a throne hall that's a thousand times larger than the one his father used in Xuijae. Hundreds, if not, thousands of floors rose up from the hall. Golden balustrades featuring mythological scenes of ethereal women interacting with nature and other beings shrouded with light lined the four corners, making the entire room gleam.

Human-like creatures flocked the vast throne room, dressed in the grandest fenhais Kai-Se has ever seen. They all stared at him as he picked himself up and dusted his already-dusty clothes. He tore his eyes away from the amount of grand ribbons and nonsensical bulky armor crowding for his attention.

Instead, he craned his neck at the ceiling. Only to find out there wasn't any. The floors seemed to stretch forever, the gold melding with the uncharacteristic orange light bathing the entire hall. Towards the farthest end of the hall stood at least ten pillars supporting a pavilion of some sort. It provided an alcove over one of the steepest thrones Kai-Se had ever laid his eyes on. Tens of hundreds of servants with heads bowed and stances frozen in rigid submission lined each of the steps until it flattened out to even ground.

"Well?" a placid and airy voice spoke from the middle of the alcove. Kai-Se raised his eyes from the stone floor and met the eyes of the most beautiful woman to ever grace his memory. Skin like porcelain, with supple lips painted bright red and eyes lined with ink to showcase thick lashes and sharp taper. Her hair sported the most complicated set of braids, decorated with a resplendent, golden crown filled with sparkling jewels.

Curtains of beads fell from the crown, sliding down her exposed shoulder, tinkling every time she made a small movement. Even her fenhai—if Kai-Se could still call it that—despite curving down to her breasts and hugging every curve in her body, had managed to sprawl at the foot of her throne, showing off one leg until her thigh. The fabric of her dress looked like it was stitched with actual starlight and the pink moonlight shining outside. Even her eyes, now trained without fail at Kai-Se, seemed to hold some sinister but confounding sparkle.

As his faulty memory now clicked into place, it was no wonder this woman seemed familiar. He had spent hours looking at her portrait in the official annals of literature in the archives. He used her as a prototype for most of his earlier stories. He knew who she was, and it pissed him off why he couldn't tell from the first moment he saw her.

She was no other than Amatesu, the great Ancestral Empress of the Spirit Realm, the mother of all nature, and the giver of life. And if he's looking at her just like how he would gaze at another human being, then there's really no denying one certain fact about Kai-Se's circumstance.

This was Shaoryeong, and his life was just about to become more complicated.