Closer and closer they came to the Land of the Red Curse, and with it, Xiaotong's husband. The land suffered no abrupt changes, but changed nonetheless changed. Going from solid, grassy landscapes to mushy marshes to rocky hills. Aidan tried to make conversation with Xiaotong as often as possible, but she responded little if at all, as was her way.

"So," Aidan began. "Tell me more of this 'Land of the Red Curse'. From the way you spoke of it before, I guessed it was a fairly dangerous sock. Still, I'm not entirely certain what's so dangerous about it."

Xiaotong looked at him like he was an idiot. Aidan shrugged, as if to say 'educate me'. She sighed.

"It is a place from which no traveler has returned," she said.

"Well, we've already passed through at least two other areas from which no traveler has returned, so this should be no different."

"Do not get cocky, Englishman," she told him, her eyes blazing with indignation and... fear. "We have experienced no hardship compared to what awaits us there. Once an entire army passed through there, not one soldier made it out alive. Screams were heard all the night, and it was even made out that the soldiers were attacking their own men. It is a land of horrors that drives men mad! They say the ground itself is stained red! Red as the blood within us!" Her voice passed into hysteria, waving her arms furiously at Aidan. Aidan felt his heart sink to his stomach. Whatever the truth of this place was, she was afraid of it. She wasn't just afraid of it, she was terrified of it. The strange emotion passed over him.

"You know..." he said, finally. "You don't have to do it. You don't have to continue your quest. If you stay here, I swear I will search this 'Land of the Red Curse' high and low until I find your husband and bring him back to you."

Xiaotong looked at him, the fire of rage in her eyes. "You are not going there without me. It is my job to find my husband, not yours."

Aidan put his hands up to show his innocence. "I was just offering."

The two continued on their path, the ground getting damper and squishier as they went. Then something strange happened. A red reed, red as the blood within him appeared. At first, Aidan disregarded it as a strangeness of the country he was foreign to. Then more appeared, and with it came fog that obscured the vision. Before they knew it, they were awash in a sea of red plants, and they had no idea where they were going. The air smelled strange, but it wasn't the kind of strange he had to get accustomed to since leaving England. This was stranger than strange. He looked to Xiaotong. He could barely see her, the fog was so thick.

"Xiaotong," he said. "Stay close to me. We don't want to get separated, believe me."

Xiaotong obliged, keeping as close as was physically possible without touching. "Now, I guess we'll start looking for your husband for real. Is there a trick to it? Or should we just start calling out his name?"

"Yes, I suppose that is where we should start." She drew a deep breath, and shouted with all her might, "SHIHONG!!"

So that was her husband's name, Shihong... Somehow the name didn't strike well with him. It seemed... wrong somehow.

"Sound's a little like your name," he commented.

"Don't just stand there you fool, help me! Surely your voice can travel louder than mine!"

Aidan drew breath and boomed, "SHI-" but was caught short by an abrupt fit of coughs. It was that stupid smell... It made him nauseous somehow. The smell filled his head with an odd feeling of coolness, as if the inside of his skull had been replaced with ice cold water. He couldn't say her husband's name. He tried again, but once more, the words caught in his throat and refused to come out.

"I can't say it," he said finally, testing the words in his mouth. He could say other things, but somehow, the one word she needed him to say would not be spoken. She looked at him strangely.

"Are you feeling alright?" She asked finally. "You... look strange."

"Yes," he replied. "I'm fine. Just a little... salty if you know what I mean."

She gave him "the look".

"Queasy. I meant queasy," he said. She shouted her husband's name again, and for some reason, this time, it made Aidan angry. He batted off the emotion. Where had that even come from? The entire reason he followed Xiaotong in the first place was to find her husband, so he shouldn't be angry at her for calling out her husband's name. Should he?

As sudden as a strike of lightning, a sense of danger swept over him. It was as if a dangerous entity exploded into existence, and he was afraid. More afraid than he'd ever been in his entire existence. He grabbed Xiaotong, who screamed, which did nothing to soothe him. Then, as suddenly as the fear had gripped him, the fear vanished, only to be replaced by another feeling. That same, strange feeling he'd gotten for Xiaotong, intensified ten times its normal strength.

He clutched her close to his chest, not wanting the feeling to go away. He could feel nothing, but that strange feeling. It seemed to him as though the world would end should he let go of her, and that feeling should go away. The strange smell filled him even more than before, spreading the cold sensation all the way down to his toes. Xiaotong thrashed in his grip, but he couldn't feel it... until suddenly, he could. He dropped her, and she fell to the ground, gasping for breath. The icy feeling fled from him, and with it the urge to hold her close.

"I'm sorry! I don't know what came over me, I'm so sorry!" He said frantically. She looked up at him, fear and disbelief in her eyes. He hated that look. He hated that look on anyone, and he hated himself for being the one that caused it.

"What... what's wrong with you? Your eyes... what's wrong with your eyes?!" Xiaotong screamed at the top of her lungs. His eyes? Panic flew into him, and then came that horrible sense of danger. Danger everywhere! He was confused for a moment, then he understood. The danger was him. He felt terror beyond terror just then, and then that strange feeling that he couldn't identify, intensified even more than before. It wasn't a nice feeling anymore, instead it was all consuming, burning thing in his chest. It was a feeling beyond desire, beyond possessiveness, beyond wanting to protect, it was a hunger beyond anything he had felt before. The feeling before had told him to keep her alive, this feeling just told him to keep her. He had one last, sane thought before his mind slipped into insanity.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Aidan shrieked. Xiaotong was too stunned to move. Aidan had been her loyal protector, and dare she say it, friend, for so long, the thought of him being dangerous was impossible. But here he was, his eyes as red as the reeds surrounding him, ready to kill. Aidan lunged for her, his hands hooked into claws, but it couldn't be Aidan. It wasn't Aidan anymore! It was the Red Curse!

Before Xiaotong had time to move or even to think, Aidan was upon her, one hand grabbing her wrist and the other one moving fast to her throat. She grabbed at the hand heading to her throat and managed to divert it.

"Englishman!" She called out, desperately trying to snap him out of his trance. "Englishman! It's me! Xiaotong!"

Aidan didn't say anything, but instead let out a high pitched, animal scream.

"AIDAN!" She screamed before his hand closed around her throat, cutting off any sound she could have made. She thrashed in his grip, but to no avail. All she managed to do was to kick his leather pack, and out of it fell a succession of items. One was a stone, another appeared to be a GO piece, also came a lock of hair, and a green reed. The items dropped, but not to the ground as was supposed to happen. Instead, the items floated, feet off the ground, and rose until it was about 5 feet off the ground.

Then, suddenly, a head began to form where the items had floated. Xiaotong watched in astonishment as her life fled her. The head formed a mask, then sprouted a neck, which then formed a torso, and from the torso shot out arms and legs. Before them stood Feng, though she did not know him as Feng.

Feng ripped off his mask, and leaped into the air, onto Aidan's back. Aidan let out another animalistic shriek and dropped Xiaotong, trying frantically to get the small man off him. Feng let out a shriek of his own before slapping the smiling mask onto Aidan's face. Aidan grew docile once more, and coherent thoughts at last filled his head.

He had just attacked Xiaotong. He promised to protect her, and he had attacked her instead. There was no time for self loathing though, as Feng took both Aidan's and Xiaotong's hands and dashed off, away from the cursed land. Both Aidan and Xiaotong followed blindly, unable to do much more than that. The fog cleared, and the redness disappeared, both from Aidan's eyes and the ground.

Aidan hated himself. What had he done? She would never forgive him. He had let her down in the greatest way possible, by becoming her danger. He wanted to throw up, but realized that there was a mask on him, and that throwing up wouldn't be the best idea. Feng let go of his hand, and Aidan collapsed, heaving to get the horrible smell off him. Xiaotong knelt beside him, but to his surprise, in spite of the dark, angry bruises forming on her neck, she did not look angry with him. In fact, she looked... happy. She was smiling. She was beautiful. She took the mask off him, and kissed him on the forehead.

He was stunned for a moment. Why had she done that? It didn't make any sense! He was a horrible, dishonorable man who had betrayed her, and she was showing gratitude? Then Aidan saw Feng, who was distinctly maskless. Feng was smiling. Feng was smiling a smile composed of pure sunlight. Then he understood. A smile like sunlight, a voice like silk, and a soul with all the mischievousness and nobility of a cat, with the loyalty of a hound.

"I am Shihong," said Feng, with his voice like silk. "Thank you for helping my wife."

(Note From the Author: Welp, I guess that's it! I feel like I may have botched the ending some, but this story was just for fun anyway. Thanks for reading!)