Sheltered in their immense coils, Lin and Jia lay asleep. "We have put them to dreams," Nuwa said; Fuxi continued, "full of easy prey and quiet so they would not alarm and flee. We smelled a goddess on them and have kept them safe. Are they for you?"
"They… are." I risked touching their scales. "What are you?"
"We are of a kind." "Disaster has ever been our domain, and it came to us that we are wise to mending the heaven-breach, of restoring mortalkind to this earth. This we would set to for a little boon. Will you grant us this, or bring us to one who may?"
It wasn't for me to grant anything, and they were so large that I could not imagine carrying them back to heaven, let alone with two mortal girls. We managed by and by, and I directed them to Xiwangmu—she had authority I did not, an
