That damn Baron!
This isn't the time for any delay.
As I speak; Yu is still in critical condition. The worst of his struggle might have already passed, but that certainly didn't mean that the path ahead was smooth sailing. He was adrift in a storm, the longer this took, the worse his chances looked. He was recovering, albeit slowly.
What had been shallow breaths and a liquid diet for weeks, had painstakingly changed to a small variety of grains that could be watered down and fed as slop to the young child. Light was gradually regaining in his eyes and his words were forming more clearly with each passing day. Though, he still lacked the strength to emerge from his bed.
All of those worries nagged at me. But I couldn't exactly...
Tch. These useless people. For all their words of strength and rebuke when faced with my grandson, they were all weak as well.
So what, what if you picked a different element to him? None of you are particularly gifted with it either. If I could just...
But that's the one thing I can't do...
A worst case scenario. I've been keeping myself hidden all this time. Can't risk looking out of place now. If word were to get out, it could spread easily. Then we'd be on the run again. The same tragedy would happen a second time.
Something I had already promised wouldn't, if it really did... their sacrifice would be for nothing.
I would truly be a useless, waste-of-space, old man after that.
Splash!
Blood washed against the stone terrace we erected, several earthen cultivators working in tandem to raise the level of the dam. The scarlet water battering and weathering the rock heavily, despite our best efforts. Steam rising as the molten blood ate away at the mishmash of stone, dirt and other earthly materials we would hodgepodge together. A vain attempt to protect the town.
The bloody rain of the Baron often washed against his lands, that was why they were so barren to this day. He enjoyed that sight. Every adult and child knew that. But as a gesture to the surrounding landscapes outside of his keen eye. The Baron makes sure that the ocean of blood that forms is taken and placed back into the Goblet, to bubble and heat once more before another storm. It shouldn't be spreading this far, but we were dangerously close to looking just the same as those barren wastelands a mere stone's throw from here.
That land of his; dead and calcified, nothing will grow there ever again, nothing of use to humans that is. I heard tell that there were special plants that grew on the feed of human blood and meat. Vile concoctions that had no place in nature, I had no doubt. Supposedly, they were grown specially by the Baron, though their purpose was unknown.
I had my assumptions. More than likely they were correct, but that was neither here nor there. What I really wanted was for that man to fix his mess. The level of strength which he controlled; even this ocean of blood that could drown elephants stood atop each other, all it would take was a single gesture. A wave of a hand, as easy as tipping back a horn of mead.
My grandson wouldn't be the casualty of a simple whim. Of a chore that a lord couldn't be bothered to complete. If he succumbs because of this storm, keep in mind that you'll be the only thing in my eyes going forward. This ocean of blood, I'll litter it with jagged spikes and make my way to your castle. Kick you from your throne and pierce your heart a thousand times over. For if my grandson disappears, my only reason in life will be to bring about the most painful suffering on your body and soul.
...
I was stewing in my own anger and rage. Nothing different from the usual. That rage was useful; it fueled me, kept me active even at this old age.
Scouts had wandered out to the barrier line and noticed that the blood level was gradually rising, much higher than past times. The storm of the Baron continued, a never-ending downpour of blood from the Goblet. The superheated, molten blood would sear and scorch the land wherever it lay at rest. The waves would continue to batter this dam, the one defending hope of the untouched world.
He really wasn't directing any of this blood back into the Goblet... Not a single droplet of this material...
Why?
This had never happened before. Was he planning a conquest of the rest of this land?
Why bother? A few decades, perhaps even sooner he would reach the pinnacle of cultivation.
Godhood.
We had stopped the odd cloud that passed by and rained on the village, the villagers collectively worked to encase the houses and crops with stone rooves. Water cultivators would dilute the strength of blood that washed into the land, cooling it and ensuring the earth we lived on takes minimal damages from the scalding rain. Nevertheless, we would lose valuable land and crop yields just from a few passing red clouds. The number of people with scalded skin and burns from these expeditions was so innumerable that it wasn't even worth mentioning. To receive those burns was almost a rite of passage at this point. Like a badge of proof that you had done your duty as a member of the village.
But this...
This, couldn't be stopped. It was impossible for them. This small village where the strongest cultivator was the instructor. A detestable man that had barely grew the first barnacles and stalactites that came with the craft, never mind having an affinity and deep understanding of the earthen element itself. In my eyes he was as much of a green upstart as the rest of the children in this village. The same could be said for the rest of these cultivators.
WHOOOSH!
A huge gust of wind aided an almost apocalyptic level of molten, crimson death above the barrier line, a line that we had already extended as far as possible. It had taken the cumulative efforts of all the earthen cultivator's to extend that wall a tenth of it's previous height. In our time of relative peace, this village had become complacent... But we could hardly blame the past.
The responsibility landed on us in the present.
No one would emerge from the past or future to save these children.
To save Yu.
No, that rested solely on our shoulders.
On my shoulders.
The cultivators nearby screamed, running as fast and far as they could away from the molten blood encroaching on the land. Our land. Yu's land. The closest thing he had to a home.
I don't want to regret for a second time.
I took my stance; facing the creeping, red-hot death.
And didn't look away for a moment. Whilst droplets spat towards me, singing my robes and burning my skin.