Hua Cheng and Xie Lian Save Nargothrond by UnicornsInSpace

A Typical Vacation

         Xie Lian was clearly bored. Hua Cheng had to make sure his husband was enjoying himself.

         “How about we take a vacation, gege?” Hua Cheng asked. “Somewhere far away, where we have never been before?”

         “Sounds lovely. Where do you suggest we go?” Xie Lian responded.

         “I heard of a wondrous kingdom inside a cave, filled with people who neither age nor die naturally, but are neither ghosts or gods.”

         “Sounds fascinating. Take me.”

         Hua Cheng placed one hand on Xie Lian’s waist and the other hand under his legs and hoisted him easily off his lap. With a flick of his wrist, he let his magical dice slip out of his hand and onto the floor. A door opened up and they walked through it. The door opened to a green hill, near a cliff. However, the sound of screams rang out loudly, and the putrid scent of smoke filled the air. Cresting the hill, they saw in the distance the magical kingdom was being destroyed by a fire breathing dragon and its army. There was a man just standing there in front of the dragon, in strange metal armor, while a noble woman was being dragged away and screaming towards him. There were many other innocent people around being treated similarly, and their own soldiers were clearly losing the fight.

         “What is wrong with this man?” Hua Cheng said incredulously.

         “I don’t know. Do you think we can help the other people?” Xie Lian asked.

         “Let’s do it, gege. I’ll take the dragon, you get the noble woman. Then we fight the rest.”

         Xie Lian nodded. They bounded up from the cliff, moving fast as lightning towards the fighting. It was too fast for any of their adversaries to react. With two hits from E-Ming, the dragon’s head was sliced clean off. Hua Cheng then went to town against the dragon’s lackies. Xie Lian used one of his favorite sword techniques to take out three of the monsters carrying the noble woman. When she was free, she began to run towards the man who had ignored her before. The creatures were now running from them. Xie Lian ran around, using Ruoye to save people who were being kidnapped by the fleeing monsters.

         Hua Cheng’s attention was taken by the sound of a loud slap. He turned towards the sound, to see the noblewoman slapping the man who just stood there. She began screaming at him, but he still did not respond. The man must have been under some kind of spell. Seeing Xie Lian go towards them, he went to them as well.

         “Thank you for saving me,” the noblewoman said to Xie Lian, “My name is Finduilas, and I am the princess of this city.”

         “Nice to meet you, my name is Xie Lian, and this is my husband, Hua Cheng, the Lord of Ghost City.”

         “He’s a ghost?” Finduilas asked.

         “Yes, and a very good ghost.” Xie Lian smiled widely as Hua Cheng took his hand and interlaced their fingers. They looked deep into each other’s eyes and forgot where they were for a moment.

         The woman giggled, not unkindly.

         “You two are adorable.” Finduilas said, “Could you help my friend as well?”

         Xie Lian was brought back to reality immediately.

         “Yes, it seems he is under some sort of spell,” he said.

         “Of course Glaurung would do that,” Finduilas said.

         “The name of the creature I slew?” Hua Cheng asked.

         “Yes. Now, I think I can undo this spell…”

         She lifted off the man’s ornate helmet and pressed her hands against his temples, singing a hauntingly beautiful song. The man jolted back to.

         “Princess Finduilas? What happened? Where is- why is Glaurung dead?” He sputtered.

         “Lord Túrin, this is Xie Lian and his husband, Lord Hua Cheng, who saved us.” She motioned towards both of them.

         “Thank you so much. I don’t remember anything past when Glaurung slithered up in front of me. I have such bad luck.”

         “I know the feeling,” said Xie Lian, “I used to have pretty bad luck, too. 

Chapter End Notes

I am not Chinese, so let me know if I accidentally wrote something insensitive about Hua Cheng and Xie Lian and I can change it and not make that mistake again.

Also, I know Túrin was called Agarwaen in Nargothrond, but I felt like Túrin is the name he is most know by, so that is why I chose it.