The Abyss (1)

The bottom of the pit was a bottomless abyss that seemed to gaze back at me when I looked down. The scenery around the cliff was normal, if you ignored the high winds and the beautiful view. White clouds decorated the blue sky along with the lush green of the trees that dotted against the white, jagged quartz of the cliff.

The visual appeal of the cliff seemed so out of place as you stood on the edge. The high winds that brought soothing breezes also brought the clouds that floated atop the black abyss, shrouding it in mystery.

Fiona was trembling in my arms with her eyes closed, remembering something traumatizing. I brought her closer to me, my arms on her back and her head on my chest. It worked. I felt her shivering body warm up as her breath steadied.

"What's wrong, Fiona? We are out of the forest already. You shouldn't have nightmares. Did you remember something from the past?" I asked, patting her back gently.

The past. Hearing those two words, Fiona shuddered and gripped my shoulders. She murmured something inaudible as the wind picked up speed, sending shivers down my spine.

A growing sense of danger made the hairs of my body stand up as I heard 'dun dun dun' sounds, like footsteps of a giant beast in a boss fight of a movie.

Her fingers dug into my shoulders as she exclaimed, "Daddy!! There's something down there!"

A deafening roar sounded out behind me. I grabbed Fiona by the waist as the force knocked me into the abyss. My vision blurred as the clouds covered my eyes until there was complete darkness.

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Mhrmm. I stirred, opening my eyes to blades of grass that tickled my arm. My entire body ached with pain, probably from the fall. The distance we fell from was huge. It really felt bottomless.

I stood up, my legs wobbly as I searched for Fiona. The two of us fought over who would brace for the impact of the fall along the way. I resorted to using force and threw her on top of me, and could faintly remember her squirming and biting my arms until, well, we landed on the ground with an enormous boom.

"Fiona?" I called out, rubbing my back. It was a good thing my cultivation soared to Golden Core realm, or else I don't even know what would've happened.

My eyes blinked as I adjusted to the darkness. The place... looked like a valley. I leaned over and pulled a handful of grass from the ground. They felt normal—the blades of grass and the dirt. I scanned my surroundings using my spiritual sense and felt nothing out of the ordinary.

"Fiona?" I called out again, my voice hoarse. Coupled with my injuries and the worry about her whereabouts, my body felt even weaker.

A rustle came from the direction of the faraway forest, and I put my guard up, along with expectations. Sure enough, the figure of Fiona that I was familiar with appeared, with a dead chicken in her hands.

I heaved a sigh of relief and felt my legs give away. Fiona froze, dropping the chicken, and ran over to me before I fell, supporting me up.

"Daddy, you, you stupid! Why are you up when you're injured?" she berated as she looked around, trying to find a place to sit.

She helped me over to a log. I sat down on it and extended my arms forward, asking for a hug. She stared blankly at me as she sighed and walked over.

"I'm sorry," I murmured. I nuzzled against her face and kissed her on the cheeks. "I worried that you'd left again, when he woke up and you weren't by his side."

She pushed me away and touched where I'd kissed, her face blushing again. I laughed as she glared at me, looking like a kitten in a tantrum. "You'd better get used to the teasing by your daddy, Fiona," I said, giving her a shameless wink.

Fiona puffed her cheeks and left angrily, stomping away to collect the dead chicken. She threw it in front of me and spat, "Cook, I'm hungry."

I made puppy dog eyes as I whined pitifully, "My little kitten is so mean, so spoiled. Your daddy is injured and you're still forcing him to cook."

"Humph!" She snorted as she crossed her arms and looked away.

I smiled, but kept my mouth shut, knowing that she's angry this time because of my actions earlier. Besides, she cares about me, even bringing that chicken and cooking for me, if I didn't tease her...

As expected, Fiona couldn't bear the silence as she peeked to see what I was up to. I lay, my body sprawled over the log, coughing up some blood. Yep, trying to act like I was half-dead so I could take advantage of her.

She quickly scrambled over and reached into her spiritual ring, grabbing a pill. She fed it to me under my excitement.

"Does it taste good?" she asked.

I answered seriously, nodding a few times. "Tastes very good! Very good! Because you're feeding it to me!"

I stared at her cute, angry face to brace for the impact of her punch to my gut. "Stop teasing me, daddy," she said, shaking her head.

It was all worth it! I quickly cooked up a tasty roasted chicken and handed over a piece to her. Her drool and the fat of the chicken dripped onto the ground, making me disappointed that I didn't have a camera to capture this moment.

"You're so cute, Fiona," I said seriously, after staring at her devouring the drumstick into bones within a second. She ignored what I said and extended her other hand to me, demanding more.

I stared at the rest of the chicken as a troubling thought passed—is one chicken not enough for her?

Fiona licked her lips as we finished up—I mean, she finished the rest of the chicken. I... I only had a small chunk of the breast! My stomach wallowed in despair, as I found the sudden urge to tease her again.

She was about to pat her stomach when I did it for her. She stared at me, then at her greasy fingers. I licked it off of her, stuffing her and her bloating stomach in my embrace again.

Fiona was speechless, her arms and fingers still frozen.

"Not angry anymore that I took the fall after you've eaten, hmm?" I asked, fixing her hair. There were some leaves on it, probably from when she entered the forest. The silky texture and her scent felt and smelt even better than the chicken. Mhmm, oh how much I wanted to gobble her up!

Fiona came to her senses as she snorted. "Humph, I was the one with the higher cultivation base, daddy. I should've taken the fall. I have protective talismans too."

I twisted my body around, looking at our surroundings. "If you got injured, who'd be the one to lead the way out of here? What did you remember about the abyss?"