Threads 433-Green 2
"Ready to move, little brother? Come with me to the edge."
He trundled up beside her. In the liminal, he was only as high as her shoulder, his spirit not quite caught up to his body.
Ling Qi clapped her hands twice and bowed three times as the lake and circling mountains blurred away. "I offer my respects to the great Patriarch of the South."
"Zhengui offers his respects to the great Patriarch of the South."
The infinitely tall trees stretching beyond sight above and below loomed ahead. The endless forest had been the first sight she had seen in controlled steps into the dream, and down among the leaves and branches, the teetering ruins of a hundred settlements all built atop each other and sinking into dust sprawled in the twilight. Above, winding through clouds and distant leaves from a canopy out of sight, the kilometers-long coils of draconic scales undulated through the unending twilight.
Their words echoed. Ling Qi felt, more than saw, an eye larger than her whole body roll towards them and fall upon their bowed heads.
Towering pride earned a hundred times over was a weight upon their backs, and Ling Qi grimaced as she felt the smoldering flames within her flare, sending spasms of pain through her limbs. Then, it passed. The dragon patriarch bound to Sect Head Yuan He took no offense nor interest in their doings.
Ling Qi took a deep breath, and looked out over the ruins. Far in the distance, she saw a tower of teetering buildings begin to fall, a slow motion calamity of crumbling wood and stone and rising dust. And there, she saw a flash of brilliant, verdant green.
"That is where we are going?" Zhengui peered out beyond the edge of her isle. He sounded nervous.