Yang Wan Yu poked her pointed stick into the soft mud of the riverbank and then expertly shifted some of the brush away. The moon was so full tonight that it was perfect for picking this particular herb. 

They would have to hurry. 

It was an unusually clear night, but as it was early in the year the weather could still turn to snow at any moment. Beside her, the river flowed in the darkness swollen with water, even though the spring melt had yet to occur. Although the lingering cold seeped into her bones, Xiao Yu ignored it as she could see her prize in the stubborn white flower that had chosen to bloom in the moonlight despite the chill.

“Da! Moon grass! I found it!” she grinned, waving a cold hand at her father who was a little further away. Yang Ming Xi grunted in acknowledgement and moved unhurriedly to stand next to her.

“I see it, daughter,” he nodded, approvingly.

Sticking her tongue out in concentration, she focused on the object of her desire and reached into her sash for her herb knife. With utmost care, she began to dig around it.

“A’Yu! The roots! Be careful of the roots!” her father cautioned. Chuckling, he stepped back to give her more room.

“Daaa!” she grumbled, rolling her eyes, but she smiled at him over her shoulder, her eyes twinkling. Smiling back, he tugged on his beard and continued to observe her practiced movements with a critical eye.

Freeing the precious herb from the heavy soil of the riverbank, she cautiously lifted it out, and then triumphantly placed it into her basket.

“Good!” he praised, patting her on the shoulder. “Let’s go now. It’s still too early in the year for most of the rest, but this is a good one,” he said.

Feeling a change in air pressure, Xiao Yu stood up and shifted her basket. Mouth dropping open, she looked over her father’s head.

“Wh-What is that?” asked Xiao Yu in surprise, staring. Her father turned and his expression instantly changed.

“A waterspout!” he cried, shoving her up the bank. “A’Yu, go! Go!” he cried, pushing her hastily.

They ran as quickly as they could, ran for their lives…but as swiftly as it had formed, the waterspout dissipated, filling the air with a mysterious misty spray. The river continued to flow by, and the moonlight glittered beautifully on its rippling surface as if nothing substantial had happened.

Yang Ming Xi’s face creased with anxiety, feeling the remnants of the spray on his face. His heart was still thumping in his chest.

Waterspouts did not normally form over rivers and there had not been enough of a wind for it to have occurred. It was the only waterspout he had ever seen in his life. Even though he had heard that they could form over bodies of water, he wasn’t sure why one had happened just now. It was very strange and filled him with great unease. Shaking his head, he hurried A’Yu back to their home, wondering what it meant. 

Later that evening, while he was standing outside smoking his pipe, a streak went across the sky…He shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the comet.

Change…that’s what it means…a change for Tiansheng, he thought grimly.

The strange combination of phenomenon bothered him for the rest of the night. Inexplicably drawn back to the river, he reluctantly returned with his daughter on the following morning. In the same place where they had encountered the waterspout, there was now a body washed up onto the bank. The corpse was lying face down in the mud and next to it was an unusual and large box of a shape and design that he had never seen. From the size and the shape of the body, it looked like a slender young girl with extremely long dark hair.

“Da…is that person dead?” Xiao Yu asked, hesitantly.

Her father crouched down and started checking the vital points looking for a pulse. The girl looked dead, but over the years he had learned not to trust his eyes so easily.

Yang Ming Xi felt that the appearance of this person in this place to be exceptionally odd. There had been no travellers that he had noted on the mountain paths yesterday. There were no apparent wounds on the body, not even bruising…could the young woman have fallen into the river, drowned, and then floated here? But there was only the river source further up and surely no one had gone up the mountain the day before. So, how did one float upstream?? Had she been killed and then dumped here?

Despite the numerous questions raised by the appearance of this person, Yang Ming Xi was first and foremost a doctor. With a grunt, he rolled up his sleeves and continued to move his hands in swift sure motions, feeling the neck, hands, and feet.

“A’Yu, help me roll her over,” he instructed.

His daughter immediately assisted him with turning the girl over. As it was, the girl was completely soaked in her strange clothes, her skin cold and very pale. He felt at the neck again and suddenly found a decent pulse. His brows came together as the girl had clearly not had a pulse nor breath just a moment before. Yet as he had rolled her over, air hissed out of her mouth and then she inhaled strongly.

“There will likely be some water in her lungs,” he said, rolling her back over and striking her a few times on the back. However, the girl did not cough. 

“Hmnnnn,” he hummed, continuing to frown. That was an unusual reaction. Bending, he put his ears to the girl’s back and was surprised to find that the chest was clear, the sound of the breathing becoming more even.

“No water?” Xiao Yu asked, puzzled.

He shook his head.

“Very strange,” he commented, sitting back a bit with a thoughtful look.

“She’s pretty,” Xiao Yu observed, tilting her head to the side. “She won’t be more than two or three years older than me?”

Her father nodded.

The girl was indeed very pretty with thick, dark lashes, light skin with a hint of gold to it, a sweet oval face, slender hands and feet and thick dark hair that grew past her waist, but she had the tiniest mole beneath her right eye at the top of her cheekbone. It was a mole of tears. So, it seemed that this strange girl was destined to a bitter life.

“I’ll rub her limbs and try to get her blood circulating better. Let’s start a fire. We have to get her warm or she’ll die of cold,” Yang Ming Xi instructed. Leaving his daughter and the strange girl for a moment, he approached the large box. Reaching out to touch it with one finger, he was surprised to find that the shiny black surface was hard and extremely smooth with a slightly tacky feel. It appeared to be two pieces fitted together and he could see several handles made of a different but also smooth black material. He tried to shift it around, but he found that it was far too heavy. Puzzled, he sat back on his heels to think.

“What do we do with that?” Xiao Yu asked, nodding her head toward the box.

“It obviously belongs to the girl. We can’t take both the box and the girl back to the house, so let’s just hide it under the bushes and we will come back for it later when her condition has improved.”

The girl’s eyelashes fluttered and then she moaned.

““¥¤ §œ µ§ «ž øŸ…?” said the girl, eyes still closed. She turned over weakly, clutching her head, but a moment later she lapsed back into unconsciousness.

Father and daughter stared at the girl and then at each other.

“Wh-What did she say?!” asked Xiao Yu in astonishment. “She seems to be a foreigner.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not, but it’s not a language I recognize,” Yang Ming Xi said dubiously. 

There were too many strange things about the situation that were beginning to concern him. 

Those sounds were they really words…?

Many years ago, even before he had settled in the capital, he had travelled widely, even as far west as Persia and the sounds that the girl made were garbled noises to him. Who, or perhaps he should be asking, what was she?

“But she doesn’t look like a foreigner…” Xiao Yu mused. “Perhaps she’s lost her ability to speak because of her injuries?”

Yang Ming Xi recalled the very full moon, the strange appearance of the waterspout, the comet, and wondered if he had stumbled onto a creature belonging to the realm of the gods…or was she a demon? Was that more likely?

He helped Xiao Yu sit the girl up so he could examine her more closely. Since her heart was beating strongly and she was breathing well, except for her skin being icy cold, she was actually quite healthy. Also, in spite of her temperature she wasn’t shivering and that was also very odd.

The girl was wearing a very thin shirt and because it was wet it clung to her skin, but it appeared to be a very, very fine blend of cotton material, finer than anything that could be produced currently. It was short sleeved and rather tightly fitted to an attractive, but still child-like body. Her trousers were also tight-fitting made out of a heavy and rough dark blue material. As her feet were bare, he assumed that her shoes must have washed away in the river. He wondered where her outer robes may have gone. The poor thing was almost naked.

Xiao Yu left for a moment to gather some sticks together. She was back a moment later.

“It’s too wet,” she said to her father, shaking her head. “I can’t find anything dry.”

He shrugged.

“Let’s go,” he said calmly. 

Instead of making a fire, they gathered together enough branches to weave a makeshift litter, using it to drag the girl back to their home.