"What is this place?" I asked surprised.

I turned my head left and right, staring at the scene before me in awe. Before my eyes was a nice medium sized village filled with people bustling about in their everyday world from carpentry, to street market vendors, children playing in the streets running after each other, and just common things regular people usually do. It was hard to tell if they were human or monsters just from appearance.

That was the scary part.

Before we ventured out to the village, Song Qian - now considerably my mother (I am quite pleased to call her that), made me a herbal sedative to calm my inner raging beast while traveling. The thing was, I was use to the whole 'don't go charging off for blood vengeance to quench my thirst' ordeal because I had spent a good amount of time in the isolated mountain region with Song Qian for a good year and the only blood supply I was afforded was animal blood and the occasional regimen of that specialty concoction to quelled my appetite, plus the year of training to learn to control and suppress my urges. Well travelling to a village where there is a mass of people with fresh coursing bloody nectar is a different story for a (still) newborn; training or not.

Call it an extra precaution.

We travelled mainly in the dead of night to prevent any issues with the baking sunlight. No, sunlight does not kill me, but it makes me extremely uncomfortable. Like a rash that will not go away. Plus, the peacefulness of the night brings both of us a sense of serenity and ease.

What I would learn from that little journey would be imprinted in my memory for ages (then again it is not like I would ever forget or age, but that is for another time.)

"This, Yiyun is the Village of the Silver Moon. A village so named for its monthly glorious, illuminated display of the full moon. The reason why most of your kind have made it a home here." Song Qian smiled. "Not only that, but it is isolated enough that it is peaceful for those living, and those who visit.

"Incredible," I whispered.

"I know," She said knowingly. "I helped to establish this settlement."

I whipped my head quickly in her direction. "Seriously?"

"Of course." She giggled. "Now follow me this way."

She took me down the stretch of the main street and then turned left into a narrower street way. Throughout our walking I honed in on the scents wafting in the air. I could smell of food vendors and common smells of everyday lives, but what I was honing in on were the scents of people. I was trying to distinguish scents of mortals from those of monsters/demons. Everyone has a different smell to them that does not exclude demons either.

I found there was a good mix of mortals and monsters in the mix. If mortals knew that they were cohabitating with monsters or not, I had no clue, but from the looks of it they seemed alright with it. I was thoroughly shocked to find how civil monsters/demons that I had pinpointed to be with mortals. They did not look out of place or acted violently. Maybe I had a chance of living like them one day.

"Here we are." Song Qian stopped at a double door with a large brass knocker ornamented on either side of the door.

I raised my eyebrow. How did we go from a narrow street to a small manor of sort with thick walls surrounding the premise? I wanted to ask her but it dissipated as she grasped one of the knockers and briskly slammed it down producing a deep baritone sound as it hit the base.

We waited patiently until someone opened one of the large doors and bowed to us. We both bent forward with a bow of our own.

"Hello, I am looking for Zhoumi xiansheng. My name is Song Qian."

"Ah, yes. Zhoumi xiansheng is expecting you. Please come in." The doorman said. He ushered us in and lead the way down the bricked path and to the back of the manor where a small table was set with food and, surprisingly, animal's blood.

"Welcome!"

Song Qian and I both turned to be greeted by a young man no older than in his thirties dressed in a simple grey shirt and pants with a faded blue outer jacket.

I took one whiff of him and I immediately knew he was one of my kind.

"You're a monster." I blurted out.

"Yiyun!" Song Qian hissed next to me.

"I mean, I'm sorry. I was just surprised." I apologized quickly and bowed.

The man laughed heartily at my blunder.

"That is fine, don't worry. However, I could say the same about you." I raised my head and saw a spark of humor in the man's eyes.

"Sorry about this one's slip of the tongue. Yiyun is just not used to seeing such normal monsters roaming around." Song Qian explained.

"It is fine, really." He exclaimed. "Come, sit, and enjoy some food while you are here. The journey must have made you sluggish. By the way, let me introduce myself to the young one. You may call me Zhoumi."

We sat and ate; well Song Qian ate, both Zhoumi and I drank animal's blood as our choice of meal. Throughout the lunch I stole glances at Zhoumi trying to figure out how he seemed so normal when we both knew he was anything but normal. He looked exceptionally human, but I did the same. His manner was mild and casual, like how an old acquaintance would act. But what got me the most were his eyes. Normally when people think of a monster or a demon they think of someone with blood thirsty evil eyes lingering on them waiting for the right time to strike. However, Zhoumi's eyes looked so human, so warm. His eyes were dark brown and flourished with a warm glow whenever he looked at you. Unless he were to bare his hidden fans and change the color of his eyes to the natural blood lust red monsters are known for, he looked like any mortal you would pass on the streets.

Zhoumi must have noticed my stealthy glances because he chuckled unexpectedly and placed his cup of blood down to make eye contact with me and speak.

"What is on your mind young one?" He asked.

I chewed the insides of my cheek debating if I should ask or be courteous and stay silent and act as if nothing was wrong. I side glanced at Song Qian for  advice. She lightly touched my knee as a go-ahead with my turbulent questions on my mind that I wanted to ask.

"Forgive my prying and inconsideration of staring." I began.

Zhoumi shook his head lightly. "It is fine. I know how.....shocked you must be to see one of your kind so normal. Am I right?"

I nodded. "Yes, quite."

"Go on, ask me your questions, and I will answer them as best as I can."

"Alright," I said. "How old are you?"

Song Qian laughed at that question and covered with the sleeve of her dress to suppress her laughter. Zhoumi gave her a weary look.

"Ah. That question. Well to answer than, I am younger than Song Qian over there." He pointed at her. "But I am still quite old. I am about 118 years old."

I choked on the blood I was drinking. I turned and stared at Song Qian next to me incredulously.

"How old are you?!" I spluttered out.

"I'm 129 years old." She said nonchalantly.

"You're kidding." I deadpanned.

"Nope."

"Okay, you learn something new every day I suppose."

"So," Zhoumi clasped his hands and braced them on the table. "I know why you came here. Song Qian gave me early notice. She said I could teach you some things that only someone like yourself could teach you. Someone who actually has a strong grasp and control over the inner demon could tell and show you."

I nodded lightly and gave him my full attention.

"But what I want to know first is how you became Qian-Qian's child! Never has she ever considered having kids of her own or even settled on the idea of adopting. And now she is your Mother! This is quite the news amongst those of us who know her."

I gave him a nervous laugh because I didn't know how to answer him and the fact that the rapid change in demeanor from serious to a curious child threw me for a loop.

Song Qian reached across the table and whapped Zhoumi firmly on the arm.

"You idiot, that is not something to speak of now!" She said with a tinge of red on her cheeks. We came here to talk about Yiyun and to help control the inner beast. Not to gossip. If we wanted to do that, we would have done so somewhere else."

"Now, now, now Qian-Qian." He tsked. "This is relevant as it is about Yiyun. Now start from the beginning and do not leave out any detail, especially your spontaneous action to adopt Yiyun as your own."

Song Qian face-palmed at Zhoumi's giddiness to know details. Honestly this man had no shame and acted nothing like I thought any monster would ever (in a lifetime) act.

So we, mostly Song Qian, told him about how we met and the training we did to this point. I inputted my life story to the point of when I met Song Qian (rather abridged, but he doesn't need to know). When we got to the point of why she adopted me, she grasped my hand lovingly like a mother would and told him that I missed out what motherly love is all about and that she would be honored to be that motherly figure. I added in that I accepted and I was blessed to have met her and there were no words to describe my gratitude to her.

"My, " Zhoumi said speechlessly. "What a story. I'm still quite surprised you adopted Yiyun, Qian-Qian."

"Would you stop calling me that." Song Qian gritted out annoyed.

"Nope."

She rolled her eyes at his childishness. "Of course not."

I laughed whole heartedly at their interesting exchange. "Well either way, I am glad to call her my mother from now on."

"And I am quite pleased to call you my child." Song Qian said, pinching my cheek affectionately.

"Well, I am quite impressed. Struggling through such hardship as a child, and goodness, if I didn't know ahead of time, I would not believe you are a female. I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around that. But I must say, you pull it off well." He exclaimed impressively. "By the way, how shall you like me to address you, young on