“Can I help you?” I ask bluntly. There’s no time to spare for pleasantries. Not with a man-eating monster on the loose.
“Will you come join us for tea?” one of the women asks unabashedly. I wonder if they’re drunk. “My sister here thinks you’reveryhandsome.”
I clear my throat, hot under the collar. I don’t much care fortheir attempted advances. There are far more pressing matters I must attend to. Even if I do find their smiles pleasant, duty comes above and before all.
“Not interested,” I answer. Best not leave room for argument.
As the ladies let out jeers of disappointment, Wen nudges me in the arm with the tip of his elbow. “Let them down easy, Cap’n. You’re hurtingmyfeelings.”
“I’ll buy you flowers later,” I offer dryly.
He doesn’t deserve them, Sooah protests with a roll of her eyes.
“Course I deserve them. In fact, I should get a medal for dealing with your nagging ass day in and day out.”
Sooah gestures rudely, her imaginative string of signs translating to something along the lines of,Go fuck a hungry tiger.
While the two of them bicker back and forth, I notice something curious out of the corner of my eye. Across the water on the other side of the canal, I spot a figure skulking in the shadows. They wear a heavy wool cloak, its hood drawn low over their heads to obstruct their face from view. Strange, given that we’re in the middle of the summer months. They must be sweating buckets in that thing. Unless…
Unless they don’t know this isn’t how humans act in the muggy heat.
The figure turns their head, as if something in the distance has caught their attention. They pivot with hawkish precision, disappearing like a specter into the night. The fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, my heart racing. I don’t need a talisman to confirm my suspicions—I just know. It’s in their gait, in their posture. Eager, yet careful; a predator stalking prey.
Whatever is prowling the streets of my home, I have every intention of running my sword through its heart.
“Sooah, Wen,” I call. “Come with me.”
3
Before him, a wasteland. The parched ground cracked and crumbled beneath his arduous steps. There were no trees in sight, no flowers in bloom. Even the weeds, normally steadfast and conniving, had shriveled up and forsaken the land.
“Houyi, my husband, please wait!”
He turned to find his darling wife clinging to the shadows of their abode, though she dared not venture out into the sunlight. The rays were far too harsh for her ivory complexion to withstand a moment’s exposure. He himself was covered from head to toe in white linens to protect his flesh from charring, and even still, he could feel himself beginning to burn.
He placed a hand on her round belly. They were expecting their child any day now, though with the world outside on the cusp of disintegration, it was difficult to enjoy their impending gift. “Chang’e, my love, you need not fret. I shan’t falter in my mission.”
“At least take this along with you,” she said as she produced a dried calabash. It was full and heavy, liquid sloshing within. These days, fresh water was worth more than gold. She likely spent weeks collecting what little could be drawn from the underground stream beneath the mountain—a feat in and of itself.
“Please take caution, my lord. You must promise your safe return.”
Houyi pressed his lips to her cheek, relishing the momentary coolness of her skin. “For you, my lady, I will move Heaven and Earth.”
With that, he adjusted his grip on his bamboo bow and quiver before setting out to do what many had deemed impossible—to kill the very stars above.
The heat was unbearable, the air horrendously dry. He could hardly draw breath without the back of his throat cracking and his lungs burning up from within.
Ten star gods hung low in the sky, all of them as brilliant as they were blinding. They laughed at his efforts to climb to the tallest peak of the tallest mountain, and laughed harder still when Houyi readied his bow, nocked his arrow, and aimed toward the sky.
“Begone!” he shouted toward the stars. “Lest I pierce you each through the heart.”
“Do you mean to amuse us, little archer?” the first star replied mockingly. “Your hubris shall be your undoing.”
“I shall only warn you once!” Houyi declared, steadying his breath as he prepared to loose his arrow.
The ten stars only burned brighter in response, setting the land ablaze and evaporating the remaining rivers. So hot was the air around Houyi that his sweat dried the moment it formed upon his brow. Crops shriveled and turned to dust. Critters burrowed deeper into the ground in search of relief. His warning unheeded, Houyi fired his bow—
And pierced the first star in the heart.
