Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kenth beat the sun when he got up the next morning, and left the hotel room when the sky still looked gray. To his surprise, Taruban, the tour guide, was already in the lobby, talking with his fellow workmates. The doctor wondered if the young man slept at all, but there was no chance to ask, as the tour guide immediately spotted him (it was not hard to pick out Kenth’s silver hair and blue eyes among even the tourists, not to mention nobody besides him was up at this hour). Taruban bowed slightly to Kenth as a form of respect. “The shaman is waiting in the village.” He said, his face without expression. Kenth could tell the young man was still not convinced that he was not evil, so he kept his distance, and nodded. The two men then left the hotel room and got into Taruban’s car, the same one that drove Kenth to the village yesterday. Only this time, the trip felt a whole lot longer, with the young man being completely silent and Kenth anxious to start his flower-hunting journey.

The two men didn’t have to return to the elder’s house to meet the shaman, because he was already standing at the gate of the village by the time they reached him. Taruban quickly exited the car and helped the older man enter the back seat. The shaman mentioned something about letting the young man drop them off at the hiking entrance of the mountain, although Kenth paid no heed to it. For a few number of times he glanced over at the older man, wondering if he was really going to climb the mountain with him. The other merely smiled as if he knew the doubts in the doctor’s mind, which made Kenth turn away, feeling quite embarrassed. The journey was silent with occasional questioning from their driver about the Shman’s health. It seemed that the older man was of an extreme high status among his people. To this Kenth was not surprised, because the older man, despite how harmless he looked, was powerful enough to influence even the elder’s decision.

It was not a long drive from the village to the hiking area. The area looked bare, much unlike the hiking areas introduced from the tourism center. Taruban explained that this route was restricted to villagers only, for hunting and collecting purposes. The young man eyed Kenth with a degree of disappointment as he spoke, obviously realizing that the doctor had broken one of their old rules.

“Do you collect the snow lotus often?” Kenth asked, not minding Taruban’s expression.

“We collect them once in five years.” The young man grunted and lowered his voice. “The next collecting time is 2 years later, and we only—“

The shaman raised a hand and promptly stopped the tour guide’s attempt at spilling more information. He looked at Kenth and his smile remained. The doctor felt slightly uncomfortable at the older man’s smile: it was an all knowing smile, as if the shaman could read his mind. No, the information was not top secret, it was simply not needed. Even if this year was the collecting year, Kenth promised that he would still climb the mountain himself for the flower. Without further words the doctor checked his belongings for one more time and made some final preparations. He then turned to the shaman. “Are we ready to go?”

“Ready when you are.” Came the calm reply. The shaman was dressed in the same black as he did the previous day. There was a walking stick in his hand, but other than that he carried nothing else. Kenth hesitated for a few second, but then nodded.

“I’m ready.”

The shaman’s smile became wider, and, after whispering some final words to Taruban, he walked onto the hiking patch, not caring if the doctor was following him or not. Kenth, of course, followed after the older man, who walked surprisingly light and fast.

*************************************************************

“How long is the walk to the peak?”

The two men walked in silence for the first half hour of the journey. Kenth busied himself in observing the surroundings. At first, there were still forms of green vegetations on mild slops. The sun felt warm on his back, and, with the amount he had walked, Kenth was sweating. The doctor was not an expert in plants, but he tried to guess what their species were. By the way some plants were structured, Kenth felt quite certain that this field would be blooming with flowers in spring, if temperature was high enough. These kinds of plants became rarer and are replaced by lower shrubs as they walked further. At one point, Kenth no longer felt warm. The sweat that had remained drained his body heat when met with the cold mountain breeze. Soon, Kenth was forced to walk faster to keep his body warm, but this also drained a great deal of oxygen. At higher elevations Kenth began to feel his breath getting more rapid and shortened, and there was almost nothing noticeable on the tundra, which, at sometime earlier started to be covered with snow.

That was when the doctor finally spoke up.

The shaman paused in his steps, which remained light and fast, but did not turn. He looked up in the direction that the path was leading to, and thought for a while. “If we are fast, we should be able to reach the snow lotus by late afternoon.”

“Late afternoon…” Kenth repeated and glanced down at his watch. It was still early in the morning, and the sun was completely at their side. The doctor took a deep breath, but it sounded like a wheeze. When was the last time he hiked a distance this far? Never, not to mention on high altitudes.

“It only takes a few hours to go back down.” The older man turned this time, eyeing the struggling Kenth, who stubbornly shook his head.
“We’ll go back down once I pick up the flower.”

The shaman tiled his head and observed Kenth, then nodded and started walking again. To distract himself from exhaustion Kenth tried to work his brain more by striking up more conversations. “Do you walk this route often?”

“Once in a while.”

“Are you the one responsible for the snow lotus?”

“I do pick them when instructed.”

“Are they hard to pick?”

“No. Just hard to find and few in numbers.”

“But you do know the place to pick them?”

“From experience, yes.”

“…” Kenth was about to ask more questions, but felt his efforts failing. The shaman seemed to be disinterested in conversing, but was not avoiding his questions. He fell silent, finding even harder to breathe than before. Too much talking was energy consuming, and the doctor finally realized it was the unwise thing to do.

But the shaman did not seem to be bothered. When the doctor was silent after a while, it became the older man’s turn to ask questions.

“Are you not going to ask me why I helped you?”

“You have your own reasons.” Kenth sighed. “And…you said you believe in fate.”

“Do you believe in fate?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Why believe in it when you can change it in however ways you want?”

The older man laughed, facing away from Kenth still. “Perhaps it is fate that tells you to change.”

Kenth said nothing, for he did not want to, and could not respond to the shaman’s statement. He was not going to give up though, and instead countered, “How is it related to the snow lotus?”

“If fate tells me that you are going to get your hands on the flower, nobody can stop you.”

“Is that why you helped me, because fate told you so?”

“No, I’m merely interested at fate’s decision.”

“But I’m the one who will decide---“

“If you are not meant to pick the flower, fate will stop you.” The older man cut of Kenth’s words. His voice was calm, but there was some tension in it.

“A storm is coming.”

It was then Kenth realized that the wind had gotten stronger and the sky was not as bright as before. The doctor looked up to the sky, quite displeased to find the pressuring dark clouds above his head and visibly moving. The wind helped Kenth in his breathing, for air flow helped him to intake higher amount of oxygen, but the situation did not look good. Grinding his teeth, Kenth continued up his path, hoping that the storm would be able to pass them without creating too much havoc. The shaman did not agree with Kenth’s decision however, as he skipped off the trial and grabbed Kenth’s arm.

“We must seek shelter.” The older man said sternly. His smile had been replaced by seriousness. “We cannot continue the path if we want to survive. Storm in the mountains is deadly.”

“If we waste more time, we won’t be able to reach the snow lotus by late afternoon.” Kenth shook his head and resisted the shaman’s strength.

“Don’t be blinded by your desire!” The shaman was now shouting, his voice trembling like midnight thunder. “You said you were going to change your fate, are you going to lead yourself to death?”

“I---“ Kenth hissed at the sudden pain as he was hit with one of the hailstones that had fallen with the storm. The weather did look terrible, but if he was to seek shelter…the doctor trembled at stories about adventurers getting lost in the mountains because of storms and eventually getting stranded. He was not prepared for the storm, he was not prepared to cope with the coldness if he was going to be stuck on the mountains for more than a day. “I might die either way, so I’d rather risk seeing what I want first!”

“FOOL!” Came the older man’s roar, heard clearly even in the howling wind. Before Kenth could respond, he was already being dragged by the shaman far away from the hiking path. The older man was amazingly strong, at least to Kenth at the moment. He didn’t know if he was shaken by the shaman’s words, or just because all the walks had depleted a good amount of energy, Kenth found himself struggling in vain. Soon, the doctor stopped minding his ultimate goal, his mind now replaced with curiosity and fear.

“Where are we going?” He shouted, but received no answer. The man walked and walked, as if he knew where he was going, but not Kenth. The wind was so big and the sky became so dark now, even the nearest surrounding was hard to see. The doctor felt desperate, but he had no choice but to follow the shaman, who still held onto his arm tightly and had no intention of letting it go.

*************************************************************

“Urgh…”

Kenth grunted and turned his body onto the side. Even with his eyes closed he could feel flares of light dancing in front of him. When he opened them he saw himself lying down on the ground in a dark cave, the shaman was sitting next to him.

“Where---what happened?” Kenth whispered, and moaned when the sensation of pain spread throughout his body.

“We were blown off-course. But at least, we found a good place to hide.” The shaman replied. His voice was hoarse, perhaps due to all the yelling before.

“Where are we?”

“Somewhere in the middle of the mountain range.” The older man shrugged and said vaguely. Kenth’s face fell as the reply did not tell him anything. “In other words, we are lost.”

“So far, but when the storm subsides we shall climb again. Although…”

“What is it?”

“The entrance to the cave, the one where we entered, collapsed. So we will have to find another exit.”

Kenth frowned. This was something he feared the most! The doctor began to wonder if the shaman was a wizard of sorts who tried to murder him. Although since he was stuck here as well, Kenth doubt that was the shaman’s intention. Without further saying Kenth stood up immediately, and snatched up the shaman’s lantern (which was originally his, for night trip purposes). As he walked around the area Kenth realized there were three other paths leading to somewhere else in the cave. It was rather troublesome, because none of the paths looked safe: they all lead to the unknown.

“Ever gambled, foreigner?” The shaman approached and eyed all three paths. Kenth turned and looked at the older man in his eyes. There was no mocking, the shaman was not familiar with the paths either.

“I never gamble.” Kenth said quietly. He approached one path, looked around, then knelt down, as if he was testing something. Then the doctor did the same with the other two paths. Eventually he returned to one of the path, and pointed. “We are taking this one.”

The shaman raised an eyebrow, but shrugged and said nothing. Kenth walked into the darkness, holding up the lantern as he checked each step carefully. The shaman followed this time, although his eyes remained focused on Kenth with somewhat an amazed expression. The path was difficult and winding, for numerous times Kenth almost tripped, and many other times he’d hit his head on sharp rocky ceilings. Soon enough, Kenth’s cloth were ruined, and faint scratches began to appear on his pale skin. The walk took what it felt like forever. It took so long, that even Kenth was starting to lose faith in himself. Did he make the wrong decision? Only this path had the least carbon dioxide accumulation on the ground, and rocks felt dry---an indication of good air flow…

“Ah.” The older man, who kept quiet for the entire walk, suddenly cried out. “I can smell it…”

“What?” Kenth twirled around, surprised to see an excited expression on the shaman’s face. But he didn’t stay confused for a long time, when Kenth felt natural lights coming from the end of the path as he made one final turn. Kenth breathed a sigh of relief, so he was right after all.

But finding the exit was not the thing that excited the shaman. Kenth was pushed aside before he could ask, as the older man leapt out of the cave and rushed into the plain snowfield. He then turned, and waved to Kenth like a small boy.

“Look! It’s what you came for!”

The shaman didn’t need to explain much further. Kenth saw them with his own eyes. Small plants that were scattered on the ground. Small plants that looked like water lilies, only in white and pale green.

The snow lotus.

“It’s…the snow lotus, isn’t it?” Kenth’s trembling lips betrayed his attempt to calm down. “But…this is not the peak…”

“The sacred flower chooses its best place to live.” The shaman sighed, “But even I did not know they grow it here…” Suddenly, his eyes brightened up. Then he approached to Kenth, and made a deep bow to the doctor. “I give my thanks to you for discovering another haven for our sacred flower.”

“No…I should be the one to thank you.” Kenth breathed, eyes still focused on the snow lotus. They were beautiful…they looked even more beautiful here than seen in any of the photos. “You saved me from the storm, that’s why…”

“But you were the one who chose the right path.” The shaman nodded. “You have followed fate’s guidance well.”

Kenth forced himself an awkward smile. The shaman would never know that it was not luck, but his own knowledge that saved him. But it didn’t matter now. The doctor carefully approached one of the mature-looking flowers, and extended his hand to touch its white pedal.

“But remember, only one.” Despite the excitement, the shaman had not forgotten his duty.

“I remember. Don’t worry.” Kenth smiled to himself.

One…and that’s all he needed.

"Oh for crisis sake..."

Kenth was used to living by himself, so a little fever was not too much trouble. Even then, being sick was not a pleasant thing, not to mention the many appointments he'd have to call and cancel due to his health conditions. Kenth had considered running the clinic while still in high fever, but eventually decided it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble of getting the patients sick on his germs as well.

But when his body got slightly better, the doctor immediately started reorganizing his schedule and tried to fit everything he missed in the next few days. Although his attempt was cut short when he entered the office the first time in the past two days. The room was in a mess, probably due to the fact that a window was left open and rain had sneaked into the room. Kenth did not notice the wreckage rain had caused, considering last time he checked into this room, the lights were off and all his attention was focused on elsewhere. The realization that the room required a bit of a cleaning came after something else however, something that made the doctor drop his jaws.

On top of the cabinet, where he had put the snow lotus, as also the soul bottle, barely keeping its balance on the edge. Did he leave the bottle there the other night? He must have been already really sick by then.

Alex, the one who delivered the package sent by Kyou, had explained how the soul bottle work and how it "will remove the soul of any living thing you put it next to". Kenth fully understood the potential of the soul bottle, and he was careful enough to put it in a place far away from anything that could be defined as "life", until he would find a suitable creature to use as the soul. Kenth almost feared the bottle to a degree, and he did not care to bring it with him most of the times, even though Alex has assured him that it would most likely not work on a human soul. But now, it was there, sitting right next to a box that contained life, especially a life he had paid so much for.

Still, Alex did say he had to make the bottle touch the life to suck the soul out, right? Kenth forced himself to take on an optimistic, maybe the snow lotus would be okay because it was sealed inside a special box. The doctor reached for the box and opened the lid with care and full of hope. Please, please be alive--!

He thought he saw the flower sitting inside at first glance. Kenth breathed a sigh of relief, and closed the lid. The doctor then walked over and grabbed the soul bottle and tried to put lock it up again, only to find the bottle seemingly...glowing?

He frowned and played with the soul bottle in his hands. Yes, the bottle was glowing, in addition, it felt expectantly cool. As Kenth squinted and looked more carefully, he could see something moving inside, twirling and swirling around the small space that confined it. It...had to be a soul. Kenth's mind repeated to himself. But where did the soul come from? The snow lotus was still alive, wasn't it? Then, as if something had stuck him, the doctor tensed up and stared at the box containing the flower. He had to check again more carefully, and he was afraid.

"Damn it..."

Kenth shouldn't feel so devastated and surprised, considering the content of the soul bottle already told him what happened. Yet, the doctor almost collapsed on the floor when he saw the white plant that was inside the box, the one he'd seen earlier, was merely a skeleton of the once rich and blooming flower. After taking it out of the box the skeleton shriveled quickly and was reduced to dried fibers in a matter of seconds. The soul bottle had killed the snow lotus, the sacred flower that he sought for the sake of his projects. But now, the trip to China was wasted, his efforts in Tian Shan was for nothing. There's no way he'd be able to continue his project, all because of this soul bottle---!

For a moment Kenth wanted to smash the bottle on the floor. Logic stoped him at the last moment. It was not the soul bottle's fault, it was his fault. He was the one being careless, he was the one that destroyed the snow lotus. The soul was not going to return to the dead flower even if he broke the soul bottle. The doctor sighed as his head cooled down. He stared at the bottle in his hand, and all of a sudden remembered the wise (it felt wise to him now) words from the Shaman.

"Do you believe in fate?"

The corners of Kenth's lips curved up, as he smiled to himself. How ironic. In a situation like this, the doctor almost wanted to blame his mistake on fate. Yes, it was fate that made him do this. If that's the case, then everything was fated to be.

"In that case..." Kenth sighed, feeling the coolness of the soul bottle on his palm. Kyou's mysterious subjects were the only thing he could focus on, at the cost of his private projects.

He could talk to Alex again, soon.

A postman enters Kenth's office one fine morning with a package...





Was written neatly on a small card in the box.