To their horror, the few minutes that Bai Qian and Ye Hua spent outside the gates of A-Li's Qingyun Hall was enough for their son to coerce Gun Gun to go out and play through the window.

When they returned to the receiving room, all that's left were the teacups and some unwanted snacks that only Bai Qian had bothered to even notice. A-Li's hunting bow was also missing and Bai Qian and Ye Hua were out of Xiwu Palace the next minute, using her magic to find the two children.

"I haven't seen Cheng Yu either," sighed Lian Song, when Ye Hua asked him if he saw A-Li. "Why are you so worried?" admonished Lian Song. "You know how your son usually is. Maybe he took Cheng Yu with him as a guardian to play in the mortal realm."

That was even worse!

Bai Qian wanted to cry. Qing Qiu was much closer to the mortal realm than Jiuchongtian. If Feng Jiu knows that she's been keeping her son from her, wouldn't she hate her more?

"I'll go look for them in Mount Junji."

::

A-Li was already 10000 years old, but though he excelled in swordplay and weaponry, and not much in academics, he had yet to master using the bow. Thus, for this particular reason, he suggested - more like coerced - Gun Gun to go outside and play.

"But your mother will be worried," he reminded him, biting on a mooncake. "And your father is here too, aren't you afraid that he's going to be mad?" 'Maybe mortal realm is another term for Midgard?'

This place is very weird.

A-Li shrugged, grabbing his bow. "It's stifling up here. So many regulations and proper decorum. It's just for how many months-"

Aghast, Gun Gun nearly choked on his cake, his eyes wide as he looked at A-Li, as if asking him if he had lost his mind. "A few-A few months?" he nearly shrieked. He was here to find his mother! Not on a vacation!

A-Li looked at him cluelessly as he slung his bow on his back. "What's wrong? We'll just be gone for a couple of hours here," he paused and did some calculations in his mind. "A day here is a year in the mortal realm, so if we stay there for a month, we'll be gone for two hours."

For a moment there, Gun Gun's mind drew blanks. He'd listened to his Enchantress Mother's, his governess', his Teacher's, and the Prince's words, even though he did not mean to sometimes, but he was pretty sure time did not work like that between the realms. His Teacher said something about time being different, but what he said was that there was no exact difference of time between the realms. Sometimes, a day in Asgard would be a year in Midgard, three months in Alfheim, and sometimes, a day in Asgard would also be a day in Midgard, kind of what was happening now. Sometimes, it would be twenty years, and in some realms not even two weeks had gone by.

He had never heard of a fixed time interval.

A-Li grabbed his hand. "Let's go, maybe you'll even find your mother in the mortal realm," reluctantly, Gun Gun joined him and escaped through the window. But when they went outside, A-Li ran a hand through his face.

"What's wrong?" inquired Gun Gun, raising an eyebrow when A-Li started climbing back to the window again.

"I forgot the snacks!" he whispered, his head disappearing, before reappearing once more, this time, holding a knapsack. A-Li tugged his sleeves once more. "Let's go!"

This was how another immortal, by the name of Cheng Yu found them, hiding behind a pillar and poking their heads once in a while to see if they could pass through, unseen.

"Your Highness, what are you doing?" A-Li jumped hearing the lady's voice. Gun Gun, though surprised, calmly turned around, just in time to see the lady gawk at him - precisely his hair. Surely his hair can't be that unusual, right?

He'd seen a lot of blondes and light-haired people, and he'd seen them on Midgard, and that was saying something. The pure whites, however, he'd seen them in Alfheim, and a few in Asgard, but those were probably offsprings from the light elves.

Speaking of, he hadn't seen anyone with pure white hair in here, so it must be a rarity.

Gun Gun sighed. 'Enchantress Mother, I must find you quickly, so that I can enjoy another trip to Alfheim,' he lamented. 'Prince Legolas had promised to teach me how to master the bow. If I cannot go back in time, then I will have to wait until next year.'

Gun Gun unconsciously rubbed his nose.

"Cheng Yu, do you want to accompany us down in the mortal realm? I heard that there is a festival this time around!" A-Li whispered, dragging her close.

"And this is?" the lady, named Cheng Yu, asked, pointing at him while she tapped her fan on her chin patiently.

A-Li gestured to him. "This is Gun Gun. He came to find his mother."

"And your father?"

Gun Gun shook his head. This is the first time in his 200 years of existence that he heard the same question being asked twice in a day. "I don't have a father."

He doesn't have a father - not that he nor his mother knows of. That was the reason why his Enchantress Mother became so upset because she knew she could not provide him a father. Others wondered too, but as time passed, many spun tales of his birth. One of them being that he really had no father, but that he was cultivated inside the ice, like his Enchantress Mother was, in her longing for a child. Another is that he was the secret love child born from King Thranduil - one which made his bones go cold. Now that was something he could affirm to be not true. And the least he liked, was that he was a frost giant adopted by his Enchantress Mother.

The first he'd mentioned was the closest to the truth.

When his Enchantress Mother was freed from the ice by Prince Loki, he laid dormant inside his Enchantress Mother's womb for thousands of years, while feeding off of her magical essence. Until, 500 years ago, his Enchantress Mother discovered his existence, and then put him in a spring whose waters came from Hvergelmir. The water from the spring nourished his severely weakened form - which was unborn - and made it even stronger and more capable in the arts of magic. 300 years later, when he was finally strong enough, and could've been treated as an infant which one could carry, his Enchantress Mother insisted on being the one to give birth to him. And so, Queen Frigga had helped in putting him back to her womb, until months later, after a painful ten-day delivery, and on an auspicious day, he came to existence.

Cheng Yu looked unconvinced. Gun Gun, for his part, though very behaved, he was still a very sheltered child, and had not experienced people doubting his words. "Do I need to have a father to come to existence?"

Cheng Yu pursed her lips. "Well, technically, mortals do have the phrase, 'It takes two to tango', so..." she trailed off, uncertain if he should be hearing that.

Of course, Gun Gun did not get what she meant. "Can we just go to the mortal realm?"

No matter how friendly Lady Cheng Yu was, it did not change the fact that she was a stranger. All of them were strangers. This boy, A-Li, his mother, Bia Qian and his father, Ye Hua, all of them were strangers.

In the end, Lady Cheng Yu offered to distract the guards while they went to the barrier.

They landed in a forest, sunlight peeking from the forages of the trees. Immediately after they landed, they were just in time to see some sort of a bird soar above them. Gun Gun smirked. It had been far too long since he'd watched a hunt. Being the only child of a respected entity made one vain.

He stretched out his hand, his dwarf-made bow materialising in his hands. Squinting, he pulled the string, watching as the arrow materialised between his fingers. All these happened in a second before he let the arrow go, then cupped his hands over his eyes to see his arrow pierce through the bird's left wing fall. "Good shot," he says to himself, before the bow disappears.

When he looked back, Cheng Yu and A-Li were gaping at him as if he'd done some sort of sin. "What?"

A-Li raced over to the injured bird. Confused, he padded over just in time to see the bird glare at him as if he had offended the creator of the universe. "It's a rok bird!" Cheng Yu exclaimed. Gun Gun raised a brow. So what if it was a bird? It was just a bird. "That's the Buddha's bird!"

"Who's the Buddha?"

Then Lady Cheng Yu and A-Li's face changed, while staring at him - or rather - behind him, Curious, Gun Gun turned around to also gape.

There was a man behind him, in purple robes, owning hair with identical shade to his. 'So there are white-haired people here too,' he thought, staring at the man. So drawn in was he that he did not notice Cheng Yu and A-Li make their greetings.

That was until A-Li tugged on his 'sleeve' which was his hair. He let out an annoyed yelp as he cradled his hair roots and glare at A-Li who did not look the least bit sorry, but kept signalling to the other god. Finally, Cheng Yu stepped in and whispered. "You need to make your greetings."

Gun Gun looked at the man once more. He did have an air of omniscience and omnipotence around him, so it made sense if he was a revered figure. He clasped his right fist on his left chest, while putting his left arm behind him and did a bow. "Blessings and graces to..." he stopped short. He didn't know how to address him since he spaced out when A-Li and Cheng Yu did their salutations. He turned to A-Li.

But A-Li did not dare let his voice be heard and only used his mouth.

"... Tee-jun?" 'Well, that's...'

On his peripheral vision, both Chengyu and A-Li's faces twist to pain.

"Oh? How interesting," Gun Gun looked back at the white-haired uncle who just spoke and tilted his head, his nose twitching. There was something about him... something familiar... "Who is this child?" he vaguely heard him asking, but he furrowed his brows and focused more. There was indeed something familiar. Masked by his aura was some sort of scent... a scent of flowers... A scent like his...

"Mother..." he breathed out, eyes wide and staring at the uncle with awe. "You have the same scent as my Mother," the uncle's posture tensed, and his brows twitched. Gun Gun instinctively took a step back. Did he say something wrong? "... or not?" he was rarely sheepish, but he felt like he really needed to back off on this one.

He gave a dry chuckle. "I think I should go-"

"Wait."

Gun Gun abruptly halted. "You just shot the Buddha's precious rok bird. I reckon he'll hunt you down once word gets to him."

Gun Gun smiled, suddenly wondering why neither Cheng Yu nor A-Li was helping him. "I think I can handle a few nuisances," he replied, but was again thrown back to the fact that he didn't even know who the Buddha was.

He ignored him. The nerve of him.

Gun Gun honestly wanted to stamp his feet on the ground, because this was one of the rare times when he was ignored, and he was NOT happy.

"A-Li," the uncle called out to A-Li, who jumped at the mention of his name. "Bai Qian and Ye Hua are about to turn the Nine Heavens upside down because of your sudden disappearance," he paused. "It is very unusual."

"Why don't you wait in Tai Chen Palace and eat some snacks?"

Poor A-Li and Chengyu looked absolutely appalled, glancing warily from the uncle to him, then back and forth, and so on and so forth. Gun Gun hid his rolling eyes. 'So much for being subtle.'

Running away wasn't an option now.

As mortals say, 'If you can't beat them, join them'. And he was going to do just that.

He shrugged. "Well, what could be the harm?"

Oh boy, he was in for quite a ride.

::::::::::::::::::::

Since I'm too lazy to bother naming any elves, I will borrow Legolas, Thranduil's and some other elves' name.

Finally, Gun Gun meets his Dad! 

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