The Definition of Eternity (Zeno Love Story)

Chapter 6 - The Yellow Dragon

Chapter 6 – The Yellow Dragon

"Z—Zeno," I stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"Why are the crops glowing?" his eyes were full of wonder. How would I be able to explain this to him? Surely, no normal human would be able to make the plants grow or in this case, the soil, right?

"I actually don't know," I lied. "When I came here, they were already like this that's why I stayed around because it looked so beautiful,"

I was sure that Zeno wouldn't buy it. It was a lame excuse. I meant, who would believe that lie? There was no other way out of it. After approximately six seconds, Zeno spoke up, "Well, I think it really is pretty," I mentally sighed when I saw him grinning. I didn't know if Zeno was really that oblivious about his surroundings that he believed my lie immediately.

But I would take what I could get.

***

"Thank you again for coming all the way here to help us," Geun-tae bowed to me once again. I guessed that he really was thankful to us. "Please have a safe trip back to the kingdom,"

"Will do," Yun said.

After leaving the Earth Tribe's territory, we noticed that the sky was dark even though it was still early in the morning. "What's happening?" Zeno asked.

"I—I don't know," I said as I looked up in the sky.

I felt uneasy with what was happening right now. It seemed like I knew of why the sky was dark.

We didn't waste time to go back to the castle immediately. We saw everyone inside the gates of the kingdom but they were outside of the castle. By the looks of it, all of them were wondering why the sun was nowhere to be seen.

"H—Hak," Yona called the attention of her husband. "What are we going to do? Our people are panicking now,"

"I don't know," Hak responded. "It's the first time that this happened,"

"Maybe it's just the weather," Kija's eyes were widened. "Maybe it's just going to rain,"

Shin-ah—who was looking at the sky—spoke. "The clouds are blocking the sun,"

"It seems that the sun is distant," Jae-ha added.

My heart started to beat faster. I had an idea of what was happening and everyone was having a hard time because of me.

"It seems like the sun is being caved away like before..." Roo-na muttered and everyone's heads turned to look at her. "...Darkness will now cover the world,"

"Before?" Yun repeated. "This already happened before?"

Roo-na nodded. "One time, Susanoo—the god of the storm and sea—ruined Amaterasu's crops,"

"Amaterasu is the sun goddess, right?" Zeno asked.

"Yes," Roo-na then continued, "Since Amaterasu felt strongly attached to her crops, she hid away in a cave and refused to emerge. The world was plunged into darkness that time,"

"If you say it that way..." Hak thought deeply. "It seems like you're saying that the sun goddess is now hiding? If Susanoo is the god of the storm and sea, why is it not raining?"

"Tsukuyomi—the god of the moon—may be behind this," I answered Hak's question. After I said that, it also started to rain heavily. "And here comes Susanoo,"

"Tsukuyomi is also Amaterasu's twin," Roo-na explained further. "They were married before but Amaterasu left him when he killed the goddess of food. In history, they said that Tsukuyomi never stopped to make attempts to make Amaterasu his wife again,"

Roo-na was right. Tsukuyomi made many attempts to make me his wife again but I simply refused. The thought of my twin brother disgusted me.

Everything around us grew darker and the rain poured heavier than before. It seemed like Susanoo and Tsukuyomi were now joining forces to get to me. As I looked at the faces of the people who were now with me, my heart ached.

It was my fault that they were suffering like this.

Even if they didn't want to take me in at first, they showed complete hospitality to me afterwards. Even if Hak was opposed to me staying here, he didn't throw me out of the castle.

I considered the people here as my friends.

My human friends.

"No offense, Roo-na, but I don't believe such silly stories," Hak shrugged.

"You didn't believe the four dragons before but you can see them with your own eyes now," Yona pointed out. "Don't you think that you should give it a thought?"

Hak thought about it for a second and gave up. "So...you're saying that we need to find this Amaterasu goddess to return the world back to normal?"

Roo-na spared me a glance and she was frowning. She knew of my identity. She knew of it all too well.

"But we don't know where to start," Kija told the group.

"I think I know where to start," much to everyone's surprise, Zeno chimed in.

"What do you mean?" Jae-ha asked Zeno.

After a moment of silence as everyone anticipated for Zeno's reply, Zeno turned to look at me. "Lyra...are you Amaterasu?"