For a moment, she blinked, confused at the sight. How strange to see two white feet. Wait. What?
She quickly leapt to her feet, settling into a defensive position, and glancing upwards slowly, taking in the pure white robe that cloaked the figure, to the sizeable chest, and then up a thin pale neck to a face, so pristine, beautiful and elegant, it seemed from a direct angel itself.
The strange woman immediately whipped out a fan, sending a light breeze toward her face, and gazing down, full of inquiry. "How curious." she exclaimed in a quiet, melodic tone, drooling with insincerity. And a little queer. "What a very curious thing." she said again, as excitedly, yet as queer as she'd cried it the first time. "My, just how cur…"
"-I got it." interrupted Hui, waving her hand, exhaustedly "I'm curious, I got it, no need to repeat, please."
The woman seemed to be taken aback, leaning back in shock, stepping back for a moment, before bending over to see her more clearly and blinking…"how ever cur…"
"-STOP!" Hui collapsed in defeat. "I know I'm a curious situation, but rather than that, aren't you the more curious one?"
The pretty woman immediately straightened again, tilting her head slightly, pointing at her face, "Me? Curious?" before closing her fan to tap it to her chin. She nodded affirmatively, before glancing back down. "Yes, I would be quite curious, to you, wouldn't I?"
Hui just sat there in perplexed discombobulation. "No… um…" was this an insane person? Also…."I didn't know anyone lived out here, I'm currently lost," she glanced at the sun, now nearing the horizon, "Are you just passing through as well…?"
"Passing through?" she was shocked by the assessment. "Nonono, I could never, this," she waved over everything excitedly, before covering her lower face with her fan again, shyly, bashfully, "This is my place, dear."
"..." so a random insane person owned a bunch of….rocks. Got it. Just rocks, and a stream. Hui's hand trailed into the water, she hadn't noticed earlier, but now that the sun was setting and the air cooling, the water was unusually warm it couldn't be…. "...well, I'm currently lost and in need of a roof so…?"
"Roofs?" the lady asked curiously, before shaking her head, exhaustedly, "no, there are no roofs here."
Hui couldn't with his lady. "Um, where do you live then?"
The woman immediately straighteded at this, before blushing and backing up, covering her face with the fan more. "You…want to come to my house? Oh dear…"
"Yes." Hui was deadpan. Whether this person was crazy or not, she looked very healthy, so where she lived, there must be food, and in this wasteland of rocks, Hui was desperate for supplies. "I want to go to your house."
"Follow me, dear." she began to move, almost drifting, up stream. Hui immediately scrambled after her.
The farther they went up, the larger the rocks, and her long exhaustion from lack of food and continual movement finally got ahead of her. After ascending over one rock, she suddenly felt herself drifting backwards, unable to catch herself, her legs just giving way without resistance. However, before she fell all the way, to smash her skull against the rocks, a light hand caught her back.
She glanced up to see a small smile on the woman's face, the smile looked a little off kilter, "My, be careful dear, let me help you." Her voice came out drifting and queer again.
"Yes, thank you." Hui didn't see a reason to refuse her help, and immediately grabbed the woman's elbow tightly.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, Hui could feel the woman's light body jump slightly. A slight blush rising. "My… how cur.."
"Curious, yes, I got it, lets go."
By the time the sun set, they'd finally made it to the top of a small rock plateau, and the origin of the stream.
Warm steam rose up from the water, and it was as Hui had guessed, a warm hot spring greeted them, hidden by large rock walls, buffering the winds that raced up the sides of the plateau. It was quite the pleasant temperature and atmosphere. There was even a little grass and bushes around the sides of the spring. And in the center of the clearing, a huge tree, with orange and yellow leaves, rose up to shelter the area.
Hui immediately let go of her guide to test the temperature and finding it good, leapt into it, completely clothed. Her clothes were dirty, her body was dirty, and as for the need of dry clothes...with the current temperature…nah.
The woman watched her in shock, floundering around in the steamy water, before her lips tilted upward and also descending into it to join her. Hui splashed water on her, as she came in, and she smiled, before whipping her fan over the water, causing a huge wave, to completely knock Hui over.
Hui, not one to back down readied her body, and with a powerful whip of both her arms, lashed out a beautiful crescent wave back, as her face broke out into a vibrant grin, and she laughed for real for the first time, since being kidnapped by the demon sect. It was right then, as she heard the light giggle escape from her mouth, that she was suddenly completely aware of something…"Wait. I can talk?" She hadn't noticed herself, until just now, she must have been really out of it.
The lady smiled, drifting backward to lean against a rock. "Just to me dear." She pushed herself toward Hui, resting her arms over the rock like a mermaid, and tilting her head, her long white locks fell over her shoulder. "I made a spiritual connection between us, so we can talk. It seems," her eyebrows knitted in sympathy, "your voice has some problems, so I had to make it."
"Spiritual connection? But that's only for beasts and…oh." She finally understood, glancing around at the large rocky area, with not a house in sight, without clothing or a bed to be scene. "Oh."
The woman grew excited. "You're a human though! How curious! A human this far out!" she lifted up her legs behind her to splash in the water, before coming closer and sinking so deep, lifting her head barely above water to gaze upward at hui. "To think I found a human! Ahaha!"
Hui petted her head, before pulling herself out of the water, to attempt to dry herself in the last rays of the sun, that had already basically disappeared. "So…where do you sleep?"
The woman pointed to an incredibly large clearing nearby. "Right there dear." she winked. "I can share my bed with you if you want…"
Hui glanced at the huge area, mostly cleared of rocks and filled with sand. "How..how big are you normally?"
"Oh! You realized! I'm not a human!" she replied excitedly. "But I look like one, yes!!?" she quickly opened her mouth to spit out a black bead, before suddenly her body morphed and twisted, her feet and neck and torso elongating, lengthening by several meters, until pale white head formed, a thin slit tongue licking her lips and her tail rolling out, her winding body grinding over the granite, closer to Hui. Her jaw, closed, was taller than Hui stood currently, and for a moment, she was stuck in place, quiet, a little awe-stuck before she could help but ask: "you didn't bring me here to eat, right?"
The snake twisted its giant head, confused, "Well, I don't really see why I should, I ate yesterday, you know." She licked the bead back up from the ground and mystically turned back into a beautiful woman. "And you are much too small to fill me."
Hui's eyes were immediately drawn to her mouth. "What is that thing.."
"Oh? This?" She pulled a couple more beads out of her sleeve. "I made these! They can turn you into things! But it's still based on your original body after all…"
Hui couldn't help but rush forward for a closer look, "May I?"
Yes-" before the response finished being said, Hui had already picked up a bead. "Can I turn into a monster with this?" She asked, curiously.
The women tinkled with laughter. "If you want to, maybe…but you must use a lot of spiritual power to make it happen…"
Hui had already placed the bead in her mouth, unlike what she expected, it didn't do anything initially, until…suddenly the little qi she had was instantly drawn towards it, she allowed it in, and then, after processing some ideas of what to do, it shot out, instantly applying that power to her body, reforming it according to her will however…as her body began to grow, after merely a couple in of height, her energy and qi was completely drained, and she fell down, gasping. "This is incredible!"
"Yes!" the snake was very happy for the praise. "I made it!!!" However, she didn't look overly happy and kept glancing worriedly at Hui's mouth. "The bead…"
Hui glanced up, "Ah yes, my bad." She spat out the bead. The qi used to increase her height, slowly dissipated back into her dantian.
The snake grabbed it back, glancing at it with a relieved expression, before taking it back to herself, tucking it into her clothes. It seemed they were very valuable to her.
Hui sighed in sadness at such a priceless thing, within arms reach, yet completely out of it and went to sit down on a rock at the edge of the cleared area.
The woman followed her curiously.
"What are you doing?" She asked, as hui began to grab things out of the several spacial rings covering her hands.
"Taking inventory." Three spacial rings in particular stood out. One was a green one, with an elegant design, one was a completely red one that glowed slightly, and the last one was an overly large, ostentatious one, gilded, and bejeweled. The green one had a couple interesting manuals about inner qi, and several pills for refining it, including a short green dagger made of jade. She set it down, before inspecting the red ring, it carried a pickax, but instead of being made of iron, it was crafted from obsidian and so sharp, it could hardly be crafted for mining stone, but rather flesh. Inside the ring had a couple poisonous pills, a couple manuals with body refining techniques, and uniquely powerful killing moves, that involved self sacrifice. She quickly shook her head before taking out the most ostentatious ring. Within it was just a hairpin…made of bismuth. At this point, she was beginning to question what materials peak experts liked using for their weapons but..
Who even fights with a hairpin??? She quickly scanned through the rest of the things, to find a couple charming arts, beguiling techniques and mind control methods.
…ok, so now she doesn't want to know what the person was doing with this hairpin.
She also took out things from the other rings, of which there were only about seven more but one stood out in particular. It was a plain ring, she had grabbed it because she had been grabbing everything, quickly, but this ring was incredibly unique. Made of a simple mixed metal alloy, it was dull to the sight and looked completely ordinary, however, when she inserted spiritual power, it instantly bonded to her. And it was a sworn bond too, so strong, she doubted anyone else would have access to it's contents, unless killing her first. Even when asking the snake to try, the snake inevitably failed.
"This one doesn't even look very good~" She whined, handing it back over. Hui smirked. "Ok, thank you, then, how about…" She saw where the snakes eyes were looking. "How about I give you all these rings." She quickly swooped up all the rings and sat them into the snakes hands…."there."
All but the dull one, quickly filling it to the brim with all the weapons and materials she'd taken out of the rest. The ring itself, had only a couple illusory techniques and some strange white pills. She couldn't be bothered to find out what they were at this moment.
Meanwhile, the snake was blushing in excitement, slowly putting on each ring, and admiring it before putting another one on another finger, until they all glittered with light. Hui giggled at her excitement from the side. The woman instantly blushed harder. "Dear, oh dear."
She suddenly stopped admiring them, considering deeply, glancing at Hui's plain ring that she now wore. To the snake, it seemed Hui had taken the worst of the things…"Oh dear." She bit her lip nervously, slowly taking out her precious beads, she stared at them for a long time, before staring at the rings for an incredibly long time, then staring back at the beads again. "Sigh." As if breaking her heart in two, she slowly lifted her hand and, with a light flick, the bead rolled out of her palm into Hui's.
"I suppose, you can have this too, if you want…"
Hui did not give her a chance to regret, face changing from surprised to overjoyed in an instant. "Yes, yes yes! Thank you! Thank you!" she quickly raced towards the woman, wrapping her arms tightly around her waist, and burying her face in the woman's soft cloth.
"Oh my, how cu-"
"-rious" finished Hui, smiling.