Chapter 37: Belen

After disinfecting the skin area and bandaging it with a pad from the first aid kit, She took a blanket from the room and tossed it over him before leaving for the kitchen to hand out the bowl of rice porridge to the kids. The kids seemed to calm after seeing that their mother was sleeping in the room while Willow took the time to cooking them good food in their minds.

Of course, when the girl saw Akira, her eyes widen like a pair of saucepans much to the cat's horror. It would seem that during the time the adults were gone, she had taken great likings toward the pretty kitty whilst showing a great love for animals.

Well, Willow definitely wasn't taking the child near the meat market area anytime soon if all she'll see are rotten meats. With this in mind, Willow returned to check on the guy with Akira watching over the kids as their new source of admiration after she had a look on their mother who only had a couple of bruises on her arm and neck that only needed a little ointment.

She had instructed the brother to watch over his sister and never open the door outside to anyone before leaving them to play after their meal. Her equipments were completely disinfected and put away while the Petri dishes were covered with a large rag.

She returned to the man before checking for any other signs of injuries as it was rare to bring a buff man down, much less inflicting such a dangerous injury on him. There were a few signs of burns and cuts that Willow easily bandaged up as she began to think of the opponent he was fighting against. It was definitely someone capable of using fire, yet there was so many gods of fire outside of China.

If this person is capable of what using sunlight so easily, she fears who this person with such a cheat ability could do. Once again, the idea of dying before she could take up her fist came into her mind as she recalled her death. This time, she refuses to just let herself be killed so easily.

It was fortunate enough that her soul didn't fall into the hands of the wrong gods already and there's no way she can make that happen twice. Rather than recklessly wasting her lives, she have to do her best and stay alive.

Willow took a deep breath as a thought suddenly came into her mind. She took a seat on the stool and leaned against the concrete walls. Why hadn't she thought of that before?

She began to clear her mind carefully to begin a new thought process in her head. After a long time, she finally thought that it was about time before leaving the room briefly to clean up the table in the kitchen. The children had fallen asleep in the corner with the sister leaning against the brother that had fallen asleep against the walls. Willow went to the halls with a bowl of porridge and wrote a note with a pencil before taking it into the mother's room.

She took a blanket from that room and came back for the kids once more with a grumpy cat complaining at her heels. Poor fox had found that all the tofu in the refrigerator had become rotten without its proper packaging leaving the fox to rely on the porridge she made as Willow handed him a warm salted duck egg to accompany it before leaving him with the children again.

When she came back, she saw that the guy had already sat up on the wooden table and had looked at her with suspicions as she brought back two bowls of food with a raised brow. She ignored that and continued moving. She took the two large bowls into the room before setting them on a separate table she had cleaned up.

"If you're well enough, go ahead and eat." Willow responded before turning back to her work after taking one of the bowls with her to her chair as she looked over her notes without caring for what the guy chooses to do.

Seeing her unusual reaction, the guy watched her with deep confusion before staring down at the bowl of food when his stomach suddenly growled. The room felt to have been well lit and ventilated despite the drawn curtain over the closed window. He watched her once more as he saw her eating from her bowl and peeling the salted duck egg.

After much thought, he took the bowl and the spoon and began wolfing down the food occasionally stealing glances at her. However, never once has she looked back on him causing him to feel slightly suspicious despite eating the food she brought him. The fragrance of the simple rice was enough to entice him to drop a part of his guard while the toned-down bitterness of the pickled green veggies made his mouth water.

Watching from the sidelines, Willow could already see that the man was famished and didn't bother to interrupt him from eating. Since she had work, she quickly finished her food before returning to her work. When she heard the spoon clink against the clay bowl, she looked up and said, "Don't move about too much. You were lucky you didn't get an injury to the heart. I'm not our godly parents anyway."

"So, you are a demigod." The man confirmed with a frown.

"Yup." Willow responded and looked up to him, "How did you notice?"

"There was a feeling. A familiar one, though." He responded, "One you can tell by a six sense."

"So, magic or powers." Willow nodded when she came to her conclusion as the guy nodded vaguely.

"You feel a little different..." The guy responded hinting at her with a tone of meaning.

Willow shrugged, "Probably because I practice other stuff outside of my abilities."

"What's this other stuff?" The guy dug his nose in much to Willow's irritation.

"Why should I tell?" Willow responded, "By the way, have you consumed any water from the rivers around here?"

The demigod raised a brow with dissatisfaction when he heard her change the topic.

"It's important to know your health in the current situation." She responded briefly.

"None." He replied when he heard this.

"Headaches? Nausea? Pain in the chest or stomach? Trouble breathing?"

For each questions, she received a shake of his head and a deeper look of confusion before he stated, "I didn't catch the illness."

"Yet." Willow corrected, "I'd rather keep my guard up before we actually do end up catching it."

"You still haven't told me who you are." He said with a scowl.

"You haven't told me who you are from the moment you broke into our temporary shelter." Willow responded with a stare that seemed to surprise him, "There's other people here and a couple of children, so no hard feelings, all right?"

Hearing her words, the man smiled wide as he began to relax a little, "I'm Belen."

"Willow." She replied.

"So?"

I looked up to him in confusion as he continued clarifying, "What's wrong about the plague here?"

Willow raised a brow, "Why do you want to know? Also, what are you doing in China? You're clearly not from anywhere near here."

"Didn't have a choice." Belen responded, "I was once on this side that messed up the majority of the world and got captured when I decided to leave. Next thing I knew I was brought to this dark room and made to fight a bunch of freakish animals and monsters. It wasn't till a while before when there was an earthquake or eruption that broke the place I was in. So, I was fighting this strange white raggy and starving coyote with a dragon and large antlers."

"Starving coyote with a head of a dragon and large antlers?" Willow raised a brow.

Belen nodded before his eyes widen, "Ugh, you probably don't believe me-"

"I believe you."

Hearing her ready words, he stared at her wide eyed as he asked, "Really?"

"How many demigods believed they were humans before they realize that gods were real the entire time?" She brought up with a sigh, "Did it cry like a baby?"

He shuddered in bewilderment as he stared back at me, "It wasn't a hallucination?"

Willow took off her mask and breathed a deep breath, then she thought carefully much to his dismay before she continued so he wouldn't start yelling, "You've heard of tales of how Poseidon caused earthquakes or when Athena weaved fabric from clouds or helped someone tame a pegasus?"

"Aren't those just..." He froze and stared straight at me in bewilderment.

"If it were all just tales, how did we get the horses?" Willow shook her head in dismay, "Didn't Poseidon made them himself?"

"Then, those monsters were..." He grimaced, "Oh god, I actually lived through that."

"You're lucky. You must've fought quite a few before you escaped." She stated before flipping the pages and writing again, "The monster you fought was one of the Chinese monsters called the Gudiao. A man-eating beast that mimics the cries of infants to lure in humans. How did you survive?"

"I killed it and took its horn to attack the walls. It was enough to pierce me, so I thought why not?" He responded, "Didn't think I'd be living in more hell after everything that happened."

"You survived." She responded with a nod, "Probably the very few that survived."

"How did you survive?" He asked.

"Me?" Willow raised a brow and stared at him.

"You were there, right? In that place." He stared at me as the smile on his face slowly vanished, "You don't remember?"

"What?"

Her hand froze as she looked up and placed her pen down on her notebook sitting on her lap. when she heard this, Willow frowned and closed the notebook. Touching her face, she could feel that her cheeks were no longer chubby and the acne on her face had vanished. Her nose had returned to its small size and was no long flat and broad. Not to mention, she's only just realized that her clothes were not tight anymore!

This guy!

He didn't even mention to her that his magic was off and turned her back to normal! Was this how she appeared in front of this demigod the first time?

She took a deep breath and said, "I don't remember anything after I got captured here. The next thing I knew, I woke up almost half dead. I don't remember too much how I got out of it, but I ended up actually finding my dad. My godly parent if you know what I mean."

"You saw your father?" His eyes widened in bewilderment.

"Yup." I nodded.

"Willow, we almost never meet up with our parents who are gods and goddesses." Belen explained.

Willow sighed, "My father wasn't very happy that I got possessed, you could say. Turns out, I wasn't the only one, so he was venting his frustration and small hopes on me. So, yeah. Threw me back and I realized that I was nowhere near Beijing."

Belen breathed in a deep breath and raised a brow, "It seems that you escaped possession by experiencing death?"

"That's what it sounds like to me." Willow said with a sigh, "But, you say that I've been there as well."

Belen nodded, "You didn't talk, so I thought you weren't the talkative type, but you were definitely hard to miss with your red dress. Gotta admit, you were the only flashy one that caught my eye, but nobody talked with you and I wasn't in the mood to talk either. However, I never really forget that because you seem to stand out the most. Next thing I knew, you were gone in a few days or weeks or so. I don't remember too well because it was so dark."

"So, that's what happened..." Willow frowned, "But, if I was brought out, it must've been for a reason."

Belen nodded again, "Why didn't you go back home?"