The Mountain And The Lake

"He was celestial fire.

The last remnants of sunset were his trumpets,

and the stars that unfurled at his heel like the standards of his kingdom.

Every night he would fly across the heavens,

placing the stars like ornaments in the night sky to light the human world.

~

She was the loam of the earth, and the purest of springs.

Soil grew fertile,

and crops came to bear fruit

from the sweetness of her presence alone.

In the night, the mountain tops would glow with her awakening,

and she would descend upon the villages

to bless the human's lands with prosperity.

~

From the heavens above, Yuta would watch her.

Moths fluttered behind her like footsteps,

and glow like the stars he placed,

always leading him back to her.

Every night, the stars would change in his attempts to garner her attention,

to earn her interest.

With lines made of the last rays of sunset, he would fish

into the blackened sky and land galaxies as his canvas.

With brushes made of moonlight, he spattered stars like paint;

each night the same pleading with words of a different piece.

~

She learned of his works,

hearing farmers whisper to one another as she nurtured their land in secret.

She watched the stars change and swirl.

She had no stars of her own,

but instead the earth she tended became

as the sky was to his artistry.

~

Flowers grew bright

with the same hues of his galaxies,

leaves as green as the borealis he strung

overhead like music sheets.

For all the surrounding villages,

the nights became like a play - song of the insects orchestrated

to the tempo of every infatuated

footstep of the Yaoguai's dance.

~

One night, amidst their dance,

the stars shot through the night sky like fireworks,

and the earth herself seemed to reach out

and pluck him from the stars.

His meteoric chariot plummeted to the base of the mountain,

where she caught him in the canopy of her arboreal embrace.

Their love was deep,

and their love was sacred,

and for the first time

they could hold one another in their arms.

But the sun would always rise again.

~

She could not set foot in the light of the sun,

and his very life force connected to the meteor he road.

Every night, the Mountain Goddess would return

to the peak of her home to hide from the violent rays

that would have withered her, like the very plants she gave life to.

The Celestial Prince would watch her go,

unable to leave the vicinity of his meteor

without being torn from the plane they shared.

He would pluck the stars from the sky as the sun rose,

and wait to throw them out once more

like skipping stones as it set.

~

To be so close to her love,

and yet unable to spend that time in his arms

flooded the Goddess with sadness.

She would cry in her throes of despair, unable to wait for the moon to rise.

Her tears flooded the mountainside,

rivulets pouring from the peaks

and pooling in the crater left by the Prince.

She cried from sunrise to set

the crater flooding into a lake

that began to give new life to the forest.

Flora overgrew, secluding them off from the world

behind the dense forest and bush;

the Princes' meteor became an island upon which he waited from, for the nights to come,

always swimming to shore to embrace his Goddess.

~

Together, they gave life and love to the land,

the rivers of the Goddess' tears nurturing the village crops,

and giving way to new farm land

the Prince's' strength protecting their villages

as though they were his own children."

A firm, massive hand holding at the spine of the tome snapped it shut with a dismissive thump of the book, before lazily chucking it a few feet away onto a nearby bed.

"Moon Goddess. That one always gets me." the massive woman chuckled. Her nearby partner, who busied himself with adjusting the strings to a large Guzheng, sat at the mouth of the cave. Yuta didn't have to see his face to know Nuan was annoyed.

"I mean, sure, the dress makes you look a little girly, but I don't know about 'Goddess'. she laughs, obviously trying to get a rise out of her partner.

"First of all, it's a Hanfu, not a dress - We're god's, Yuta, it's expected we dress and act like it." hee said, scowling over his shoulder before sighing. The last dregs of sunset spilled out over the rolling hills and fields below the mountain top, lanterns beginning to pepper the village at its base like fireflies.

Yuta rolled her eyes, walking over behind the petite man as he plucked at the strings of his Guzheng, listening for the proper tuning.

"Come on - We're not god's, they just think we are. Hell, they already know our names, they're going to find out one way or another." she said, dropping onto her rear behind the princessy Yaoguai. "We're gonna have to tell someone eventually." the Oni muttered, wrapping a set of massive arms around her husband. He was petite in her arms as she wrapped them about his waist, a devious smile still dancing at her lips as she tried to refrain from further teasing.

"Tell who Yuta? The man that wrote this died nearly three hundred years ago, and when you tried to talk him out of it, he put our names in it instead." Nuan muttered, plucking a few more strings. He rolled his eyes, though didn't fight the arms that were wrapped around him. "We can't just tell everyone they got their myths wrong."
"Why not? Besides, he only learned my name."
"Because the only way they would believe us, is showing them that we aren't a myth!"
"Yes, and?"

Nuan groaned, tilting to butt Yuta in the chest with the back of his head. It was haughty and filled with faux annoyance, it was gentle and tender and filled with a love no human could understand. His shoulders relaxed, and he let her usher him further into her arms as though a bed of their own.
Yuta was quiet for several seconds, allowing them to relish the moment of tranquility before them. The two sat at the mouth of the cave, overlooking the fields and forests of the surrounding land. The Celestial Princess watched the Yaoguai's slender hands pluck a tuneless experiment at his instrument.

His song rang out as Nuan slowly began to fade into the slow, melancholic rhythm of the nights song. It washed over the land like a river, tumbling through hills and valleys. As the deep reds and oranges of sunset faded, the glow of the mountain took its place - deep greens and vibrant blues sparkling from the mountain top, leaking into the rivers that poured from its peak.

` Most knew Nuan, though there were always different names the legends used. Chang'e was the most common, though he wasn't interested in stealing the true Chang'e's glory, and tried to refuse being summoned by such a name.

Nuan, The Moon Goddess, The Mountain Princess, he was so incorrectly called, a Yaoguai of nature - his body slender and delicate, skin as pale as the Moon herself. His fingers long and segmented, and moth-like antennae sprouted where ears on most humans would be. Fur so luxuriously facaded as a scarf to humans grew along his neck; something never questioned from the man's taste for expensive fabrics. That same green and blue hue of the mountain emanated from somewhere beneath his silken robes, engulfing the two Yaoguai in the last fading lights of the day. Yuta did not argue Nuan's desire to remain hidden. Instead she closed her eyes, and engulfed her husband in her arms, listening to the melody he serenaded upon the humans below.

She was celestial fire. A volcano dwelling Oni from Japan, swept away in the eruption of her home, Mount Unzen. Yuta rode the volcanic rock that exploded, crashing into the base of a mountain far, far away from home. The heart of the volcano gave her life, unable to separate from its energy for too long, she fashioned a necklace from the 'meteor' she landed with.

He was the loam of the earth, and the purest of springs. A Yaoguai of the Zhejiang Province whose heart and soul were bound to the Zhoushan mountain springs. He makes his home at the heart of the mountain to protect the springs, to prevent humans that had grown too adventurous from contaminating the heart of the land.

Where he was petite and lithe, she was beer bellied and barrel chested. Where his skin was as pale as the moon and as delicate as the silk he wore, hers was tempered with labor as her anvil, and the sun as her forge.

She was the Celestial Princess, and he the Mountain God.

Oh the wind and rain on that dreary autumn day - when the stars did not show, and when the sky did not melt with the colors of sunrise or set. No thunder broke the placidity of the early evening; the mountainside village weighed heavy with sleepy laze as the leaves and trees and bushes did with rain.

Footsteps splashed in tune with one another, the creak of a wagon drawling behind as the backdrop to the melancholic symphony of the day. Yuta's fingers whitened as she tugged a cart meant for a horse, her boots squishing in the light mud of the dirt roads as she dug in every step. Nuan nodded to two farmers that sat on their porch watching the day go by in serene enjoyment. His head was low, mostly hidden by the wide brim of his cap. Nuan did not help with pulling the cart - not because he did not want to, but because he was not needed to.

The mountainside village of Jingtang was quiet. An island village in the Zhoushan island chain on the North-Eastern coast of Zhejiang province; a series of islands cut-off from the major cities of China that often went ignored by the politics of both world and country. What little excess was produced from farming went with the hauls of fish sent to the mainland to help support the people. It was a simple life, and a life many were happy with. A quiet life, on a quiet day, that made the broken norms feel all the more jarring.

Yuta and Nuan heard some kind of dispute from the village outskirts, and it had only gotten louder. Crowds of people gathered at the market square, around the entrance to the entrance of the Town Hall. A half dozen soldiers stood at the base of the hall, hands at the hilt of their blades as they stood at attention. A singular man stood behind, elevated at the height of the stairs leading to the Hall, as he declared to the town that he was quite literally leaving out in the rain. Nuan and Yuta joined in quietly to the back of the crowd - immediately standing out to the guards, though not to the people of the village.

"There is no argument! Jingtang Island will be repurposed as a port city for the Ningbo mining operation to Shanghai!" The man shouted, returning his attention to the people, words bellowing out but quickly softened by the sodden houses and land. Immediately upon this apparently final declaration, the people of the city began to protest.

"But what about our harbor? The coal will kill all our fish!"

"You're going to destroy my house just to build a warehouse!"

"You're not even a real soldier, you're a disgrace taking our homes like that!"

The crowd grew restless and louder, and the General more visibly angry. Soldiers drew their blades, attempting to threaten the people into submission. The man snapped, pulling a pistol from his belt and firing into the air. The scent of gun smoke felt thick and acidic on the tongue, the crowd dropping down in cowering fear. Nuan hunched over slightly in surprise, with Yuta taking a wary step in front of him. They looked more annoyed than scared should one look close enough, though the villagers were too busy trying to not be shot, and the soldiers too busy trying to quell the minor rebellion to notice.

"Silence! To defy my word, is to defy the Emperor himself!" the man shouted. Soldiers shifted on edge, staring down the people who seemed pacified in their fear of the new age weaponry the man possessed. He waved the gun through the crowd, scowling among the people before speaking up like the yapping lap dog of an aristocrat.

"For this insolence, the village will be taxed twenty percent of your harvest to aid the Ningbo mining fleet!" he shouted. More protests rose again, one man shouting above the rest.

"Twenty?! We barely have enough for ourselves this season! The Mountain Goddess's generosity has been less and less each season, please!" he begged. The soldiers scoffed.

Yuta crossed her arms, quirking an eyebrow as she gave a concerned looked to her husband. Nuan sighed, looking a tad sheepish under her concern.

"The age of magic is coming to an end, what can I say?" he says in a melancholic, defeated tone. "Coal and smog has been drifting in the air down from Shanghai, and the railways along the coastline have been practically choking the magic out of me. I've been trying my hardest, but it's just not-" Nuan says being interrupted with a firm hand on his shoulder before he can work himself up even more.

"It's fine. We can deal with it." Yuta says with a nod. Though before she can say more, there is another shout from the crowd, and a scream of the old man from before. Yuta looked up, and her eyes went wide.

"Worm! You spit on me?! You want to act like a dog, you will be punished like a dog!" the General shouted, glowering over the crumpled body of the older man. "Soldiers! Teach this pathetic whelp a lesson and take his right hand!" he shouted. The people protested but, did nothing more than shout their begging to have mercy when the General began to wave his pistol towards the villagers once more. They spread wider, forced aside by the armed soldiers brandishing swords as they made space for their demonstration. One soldier kicked the elderly man in the side several times, eventually shoving his face into the mud as he buried a knee between his shoulders. Another pulled out his arm, stepping on his elbow to give an easy target for his fellow compatriots.

"Please! Please, have mercy!" the man begged. His wife cried, lunging at the front of the crowd, held back only by their son who knew the punishment should she intervene.

A third soldier raised his blade, the crowd seeming to quiet as the sing of unsheathing metal rang through the village. The man on the ground sobbed in a futile, pained begging. The guard holding him down looked away. Yuta pushed her way through the crowd, Nuan double taking in surprise and trying to stop her from doing anything brash - to little avail. Metal swished through the air. A woman gasped and looked away. A soldier shouted. The man on the ground flinched - but no pain came.

As the crowd began to relax, they stayed in silence as Yuta stood over the elderly man, hand raised as she grabbed the soldier's blade in a single massive hand. She was taller than each soldier, and nearly as broad as two, the woman's brow furrowed in a mixture of disappointment and anger as she yanked the soldier by his blade, slamming her skull into his - the plate of his helm cracking as she did so. When their fellow soldier dropped with a limp bodied grunt, the rest looked to each other in disbelief before quickly ignoring the threat of an elderly man's disobedience to that of a seven foot tall woman's assault of their ally. Yuta tossed the blade to the ground, looking briefly to her hand which ran red with only a minor cut.

The General's brow furrowed, face twisting with rage and disgust at the disobedience and disrespect of fighting back. He pointed the gun towards Yuta, knuckles white and hand shaking from his anger. The remaining soldiers circled around Yuta with their swords drawn in an attempt to not anger their superior further, but also not wanting to be the next one on the ground. They looked to one another with worry, briefly, shifting in place, boots kneading at the mud like a bull's hooves ready to charge.

"What is the meaning of this? You dare to attack the Shanghai Guard?! Who are you!" the General shouted. Yuta snorted loudly for a moment before hocking a thick wad of mucus at the General's feet. She sniffed.

"Just a grateful citizen for protecting us from an old man." she muttered. Nuan pushed from the crowd, hunching over as he rushed to the man's side, trying to help him to his feet. Yuta glanced briefly to Nuan, the two sharing a look, her husband mouthing a wordless 'don't' to her. The Oni turned back to the soldiers before her before he was able to finish.

"What's all this about a harbour?" Yuta asked, sounding like a condescending boss, evaluating the General's choices.

"I don't answer to cur like you!" he barked in response, thumb raising to the hammer of his pistol. The click of priming the gun sounded like a gunshot in and of itself, tensions mounted so dangerously that many forgot they were standing in mud and rain.

"Fantastic, 'cause I don't give crops to jackasses waving their cock about." she laughs. Yuta takes the moment, looking around for any kind of support - at least a chuckle. No one chuckled with her. She sighed, shaking her head. Then suddenly a crack of thunder as loudly as the pain that shot through her shoulder. Once more gunsmoke hung acrid in the air. Her whole body whipped to the side of the shot, blood trickling thick and sticky down her arm, staining the fabric of her shirt.

"Jesus shit!" she shouted, nearly dropping to a knee, teeth gritting through the pain as she rose back up, grabbing at her shoulder. The bullet stuck out shiny and bent, only half buried into her - something that made the General's anger run to confusion and fear.

"What are y-"

"What am I? Yeah, yeah, we get it - you fucking shot me? Come on - Fuck!" Yuta groaned, rolling her eyes. She pinched the still hot bullet, wiggling it from her arm and dropping it into the mud. The villagers shook in fear, one woman even shouting for Yuta to simply run.

"Listen General Dickhead, let's make this one easy for you. No harbor, no extorting crops. You're going to find somewhere else to pull this shit, got it?" Absently as she spoke, the Oni pulled the headband from her head, wrapping the cloth about her wounded hand. Two small horns, no bigger than half a thumb's length stuck out between her hair, causing a surprised gasp from the soldier's, one of them taking a step back. The villagers, the men and women who knew Yuta, now looked to her in terror. Nuan's eyes went wide, hissing under his breath at the rashness of his wife.

"Demon! The woman is a demon!" a soldier shouted as he rushed at the Oni in a panicked flurry. He thrust the sword towards Yuta, the woman spinning on her heels and sucking in her gut as she took a deep breath. One hand to his sword wrist, the other grabbing at the point of his blade. She twisted sharply, yanking the blade from his hand before grabbing hold of his chestplate and hoisting the soldier over her head with inhuman strength. She gritted her teeth at the pain in her shoulder, soon tossing the man down to avoid letting the pain show for too long. In reality the attack did little to nothing, the soldier rolling in the mud in a daze before stumbling to his feet to collapse near the base of the stairs in fear.

The General and Yuta stared each other down for several moments, the remnants of a shattered tension piecing itself together once more. His face contorted in a rage almost reminiscent of theater masks. The hammer clicked again. Another shattering clap of 'thunder' as he shot. The crowd screamed in fear, though it was drowned out by the onslaught of gunshots. The second buried itself into Yuta's breast, sending her stumbling away, a third embedding itself into her collarbone. Two more fell low in the General's panic and rage, finding themselves in Yuta's gut as she dropped onto her ass, almost sent sprawling into the mud. Gunsmoke filled the air, and for the Oni, it burned more than the gunshots. Like acid on the tongue, like the squeal of hot metal being doused against lungs.

Yuta rolled into the mud, the bullets digging loose of her skin only to be caught in the fabric of her shirt. She had felt the searing assault of smog before and the way it burned her very essence. But never like this.
"Yuta!" Nuan called, leaving the care of the elderly man to the crowd Nuan had ushered him to. The man dropped to Yuta's side, looking down at her, inspecting for immediate wounds, though knowing full well the true damage that had occurred.
"What are you thinking?! I told you not to get involved!" he hissed under his breath. Yuta groaned in a mixture of pain and annoyance, shaking her head and rolling her eyes as she struggled to her knees with the help of her husband.

"You said it yourself, Nuan. Gotta act the part, 'n all." she said through gritted teeth. The Oni grunted as she forced herself to stand once more, spitting at the general's feet as she did so. The woman rolled her shoulders, neck cracking as she started to walk forward. A final gunshot cracked through the air, only putting a waver in Yuta's stride before only the helpless clicking of an empty revolver filled the air. The general's soldier's too paralyzed by fear to stop her as she lunged forward to grab the gun by its muzzle, yanking it from the general, tossing it aside with the strength that lobbed stars into the sky.

"Get off my island." the Oni growled, glowering over the man. Both stood quietly for several moments before the general inhaled a deep, ragged breath and tried to squeeze past the towering woman. The man swallowed roughly, visibly shaking as he tried to maintain a commanding composure, boots clicking as he walked down each step with a pronounced echo through the village. They stood face to face before one another, Yuta towering over the man with unamused annoyance.

"I've decided I will let you keep your crops. You starving dogs need your strength when we put you to work at the harbour." he said, words growling out like a posturing mutt. Quickly the General turned heel before losing any more face with the disrespect that Oni was sure to give had he stayed. The soldiers quickly helped their fallen comrades to their feet, following as closely to the General's tailcoat as they could with tails between their legs.

As the soldiers dispersed, the village seemed to heave a collective sigh of relief, Nuan immediately rushing to Yuta's side as he seemed to be panicking, not sure how to react. He whispered something, hands immediately going to the bullet wounds to inspect them in a safer fashion, but it was all interrupted once more.

"Demon! Demon!" someone shouted from behind. "The demon has been walking among us!" he said, pointing an accusing finger to the two. Nuan looked up, realizing the village huddled away from them. The heartiest of the men having shoved to the front and creating a barrier between the Yaoguai and the villagers. One woman shoved to the front, helping the elderly man away from the two.

"Yuta - What - What is the meaning of this?" she asked, more pleading than scared. She sounded hurt, like a mother that had been lied to by their son, she sounded desperate for an answer that wasn't what it appeared to be. Yuta looked among the crowd, and many shared the hopeful doubt, confused and scared, wary and desperate. Yuta sighed, shaking her head as she looked down to Nuan. He shared the same look as the woman. Hurt and pleading for the village to not do this, scared that the village he had protected and helped was forsaking him so. Yuta sighed, stepping forward to face the townspeople like a child fessing up to their mistake. She knelt in the mud before them, bowing her head.

"I am a Yaoguai." she said simply. "I've looked over this village for three centuries alongside Nuan. You were never meant to know this, but I won't allow you to believe me a demon. I am not human - but I am not a monster." she said. The town was quiet, the world seeming to soften around them. Several moments passed as the people grew used to this realization.

Mud squished under boot as someone stepped forward. Yuta looked up, watching as the elderly man approached her. Wordlessly he placed a hand on her shoulder, 'helping' Yuta to her feet.

"Get out of the mud." he murmurs. Yuta rises, the old man holding onto her arm - she is hesitant, unsure of where this was leading. He pats her shoulder softly, like a father would a son, before turning to the rest of the villagers. Yuta tried not to wince at the fact it was right on broken collar.

"You're family here, Yuta." he says simply, looking to the people. Many nodded in growing acceptance, previously unsure but gaining confidence now that someone was saying something.

"How do we know she won't turn on us?" one man shouted.

"Then ask those soldiers for help!" the old man barked. "Every day, Yuta and Nuan come to help tend the fields, cook for the children, they have lived with us, worked with us, bled and sweat with us! Why should that change?!" he said, accusing the silent doubters among them. "I've known them since I was at the height of my youth and not a day they have betrayed us!" He said. Turning to the two Yaoguai, he bowed his head.

"The Mountain Goddess and Celestial Prince deserve our thanks." he said. Gasps came from the people as they looked among one another, and to the Yaoguai. Then an awkward silence.

"Which... Which one is which?" a voice piped from within the crowd, followed by a handful of murmurs of agreement. The awkward silence was broken by the Oni roaring into laughter.

Quietly, Nuan explained their lives - explained who they were, and how they came to be. Though they left some blanks in the details, not wanting to spoil the wonder and hope these people had in them from the myths. Soon enough, life began to go on as normal. A little girl asked Nuan if he wanted to help sew a new dress for her doll, and Yuta bartered off a days work for a bag of rice. Word spread through the rest of the town - to the women and children, sick and elderly that stayed inside during the soldier's announcement. Word of the Mountain Goddess' return spread through the town, and the already beloved helpers became more loved than before.

But as every sun must rise again, so too must every sun set. Smog clouded in the distance of the mainland, the Harbor of Ningbo shooting plumes of coal into the air, mixing with the overcast, evening clouds. The General watched the island of Jingtang as they sailed to mainland shore. A soldier rushed behind him, bringing a letter in hand.

"General Xang, we've received word from Shanghai - They want to know if the Jingtang Harbor construction is ready to proceed."

General Xang thought quietly for several seconds before replying. His knuckles were white at the ship's railing, and his eyes scowling in the direction of the island.

"Yes. Tell them all is going according to schedule." he says. A nod, as he turned to rush away with the message.

"And Lieutenant," The General calls over his shoulder. The man stopped, giving an expectant look to his superior.

"Tell the Ministry we've found large coal reserves in Jingtang, and ask them to send a fleet from Ningpo to come begin setting up mining operations." he says. The Lieutenant furrows his brow in confusion.

"But - General, we didn't look for any coal-" he starts.

"Silence, or you'll end up on the mining camps!" Xang barks. The Lieutenant stumbles as he rushes away after a brief 'yes sir!' and a salute. The fleet ship watched the island as they sailed away, watched the setting sun and the glow of the mountain top return as it had every night for three hundred years.