Two Worlds

I had been in debt,

With the love, I felt,

I never know it would be this great,

To be beside you, with the fate.

***

THE YEAR 1904, a century away from the present time.

Althea raised her eyebrows from what she had heard and gaped at her place. She swallowed as she heard the wind gusting on the trees as Qing Long knuckled his fists. Althea didn't know what he meant by that, but she knew that it was the lives he had been living off since then. Qing Long walked past ahead of her as he sighed and controlled the tears from coming.

Althea was left hanging by her place, with her confused face, and her white robes draped with sweat all over her body. She was getting nervous every second that passed by, and she swiftly turned around to follow Qing Long. She observed his Magua, and she was bothered to ask her mind if Qing Long was not feeling hot through his clothes.

The spring breeze blustered through the trees that it may crack in half while Althea walked with leisure and stopped beside Qing Long. She looked up at him and he saw that he was staring at a distance. Althea was determined to find an answer on why she had been traveled back in time, and she didn't want to believe it for a second.

The only thing that convinced her in a matter of hours was the people she saw from the side mountains, where the nearest peasant's houses had been built around the Qing Empire. She clasped the cloth of the skirt of her white, satin robes, and asked, "You said that she looked like me. Would you mind stating why she was not here?"

Qing Long averted his eyes from the river that he was staring at and looked at Althea's azure eyes connected with his shadow white ones. She swallowed as Qing Long turned to her and said, "She had been killed with an arrow, the fire embers through the tip, and it found its way through her heart."

Althea got confused by what she had heard, but at the same time, she was astonished by it. Who would have thought that Qing Long would witness something drastic in his entire lifetime, rather than the ones he had been granted upon? The curse was too much for him to handle, and yet, the love of his life had been killed.

"Julissa is... like you. She was hesitant to know where she was, but she came to the reason why she had been sent here," Qing Long explained while sniffing quietly and turning to her with grieving eyes. Althea got taken aback by the devastation that was engraved through his pupils while looking through her.

Her azure eyes met with the shadow white ones, and they were staring with each other for the longest time that she may think of. Althea formed the questions on her mind. The whole empire down by the side of the hill where Qing Long's cave had been built was now getting noisier than usual. She sighed as she looked at the center and tilted her head to one side.

She ignored it for a while as Althea turned to Qing Long once again, asking, "Answer me first with the question I asked earlier. Why do you know... that I am not here?"

Qing Long was not surprised when she asked the same question again. He sighed and sat down on the rock beside the fire, careful not to fall down on the threatening downhill while putting some wood on the fire that he had set up early in the afternoon. Althea watched as the fire enraged through the wood while Qing Long looked up at her.

He sighed as he said, "Do you know me as the way the books interpreted my empire?"

Althea widened her eyes when she heard of it and she creased her eyebrows suddenly, puzzled about what Qing Long said. She was not in the mood to know what he was trying to convey, but she knew that she got it right after it slumbered through his mouth. He was asking if she had known him through the textbooks...

Althea tilted her head to one side as she muttered, "You mean, you wanted me to confirm if I know you through the books?"

Qing Long smiled right away and nodded, agreeing to what she was thinking. He looked at the tree and retrieved a huge rock. He didn't even grunt when he hoisted it up on his arms, which made Althea approached him fast. Qing Long just shook his head and said, "I can carry it, don't worry."

He swallowed as he placed it beside him. Althea was still scrutinizing every emotion he had, and she was not surprised by what it was. She was just wondering if he was really a dragon, based on the curse that had been granted. She shook that thought out of her mind because she wanted to know why Qing Long has knowledge from where she came from.

"I am asking that. What you said. I wanted to know what I had been described through that textbooks," Qing Long stated as he rubbed his hands together and finally stared up through her. She looked at her dainty slippers and she could not answer what it was. It was right at the tip of her tongue, but she could not state it.

"I know from the very start that you came from the present... because of your clothes and all... and I must say... it was not the first time I encountered someone like you," Qing Long indicated as Althea had been motioned to sit down by the rock. Althea slowly sat down on it, and she felt a little comfortable than usual.

Qing Long tilted the corner of his lips as he smirked and smiled sadly. Althea was watching him closely, and she mumbled, "What do you mean? It was not the first time you encountered...?"

She could not continue what she wanted to say as she was stammering in every letter that she said. Qing Long nodded and muttered, "It's Chinese New Year... that's why... someone had fallen on the river once again because of the curse."

Qing Long picked up a stick and scratched it through the sand. Althea furrowed her eyebrows as she didn't get what he was trying to say. Althea stuttered, "W-what did you mean b-by...?"

"Answer me first: Do you know me as the king of the Zhaochong Empire, who had been cursed, and became a legend, or do you just see me like a normal man?" Qing Long stared suddenly at her, connecting at those gawking eyes like an eagle looking at its prey.

Althea shook her head vigorously as she bit her lip and shifted her eyes. She breathed, baffled, and with the anxiousness painted on her gaze.

"I don't know... I don't... I don't understand what is happening...," Althea was befuddled. She doesn't know what to say anymore. Qing Long didn't say any more words as it may confuse her anymore. Althea held onto her chest and turned to him once again. Her breath was catching up on her chest while she closed her eyes.

"Is that you...? The one... the one where my grandmother was always telling me... the one who turned into a dragon after...," Althea was taking deep breaths before she can continue. Qing Long was staring at her deeply, with the fists knuckling on his robes.

"The dragon who had been cursed. The Legend of the Cursed Dragon, King Wang Qing Long. Are you... are you the reason for that prohibited folklore?" Althea finally said it and she was waiting for his answer. Qing Long didn't have the time to deny and he nodded right away.