Chapter 34 Moving onto the next

Joana didn’t know if she had done it right, it had been a week since she had prayed unto the river spirit but yet she still hadn’t been called. She wondered if there was something wrong.

“I don’t know,” she complained to Dana in her room that day. “I did everything the way you told me but still I haven’t heard anything from her yet.”

“You’ve done your best, maybe you should wait for a while and be patient. In the meantime, you can start your search for the next ingredient.”

“Yes, I’ve already gotten started on that, the tears of the black dragon. I’m thinking maybe I’ll have more luck with that. In the books I’ve read they all seem to be pointing to a specific location.”

“And where is that?”

“The watery cave of the Heilongdawang Temple, I found out that it’s in China.”

Upon hearing what she had found, Dana began to smile. Joana wondered what she said that was so funny. She tried to read her mind to see the plan that she was hatching, but Dana was so darn good at shielding her thoughts.

“I’m thinking it’s time we all went on a vacation,” she finally said after a while.

“All of us?”

“Yes, all of us, you, me Derick, Edmund and Hillary, it’ll be fun, just like the old times.”

“Dana, I mean no offense, but I don’t think I can afford to spend any more time on a vacation, you know I have a quest on the ground.”

“And you will continue your quest while on our vacation, we’ll all come with you to China to find the black dragon, and then have a good time while you’re at it.”

“Really, you’ll all come with me to China?"

“Sure, we will. Besides, if we make it a vacation, not only will we all get to have fun, learn about some Chinese history, visit some temples and all of that, but you can also go on to find the black dragon afterward, it’ll be a win-win situation.”

Joana began to reason what Dana had said, she also figured a change of scenery would be good for her at this point and it would also help take her mind off the evergreen river for a while until she got called, as she was already beginning to worry.

“Ok, then let’s do it!” She spoke.

“Great! I’ll go and tell the others; we are going to have so much fun!!!”

Dana rushed out of the room excited to let Edmund and Hillary know about what she and Joana had talked about, they both agreed, Derick did too. And then in order to save time, they started making preparations immediately.

It took about two days for Dana and Hillary to plan and make reservations for the places they would be visiting, where they would sleep, and all other necessities. It would have taken a lot more time than that but Dana found a way to speed things up. They had to leave the castle to head to the town to make enquiries in a travel agency. They booked the night tours there and went to get some vamscren that would be enough for their trip in case they had to go out for something during the day.

Joana on the other hand, continued her research on the black dragon, the Heilongdawang Temple was located in the Shaanxi province of China, quite far from Beijing, where Dana and Hillary had in mind for their little getaway. According to them, Beijing had the best sites and attractions for tourists, and they had already made their bucket lists for the stuff they wanted to try out there. She would have to leave them at some point during the trip to head to the temple to find the dragon.

By the third day after the vacation plan was introduced, Dana and Hillary had already reserved their hotels and tourist packages, they would go with a private Beijing night tour, the agency had given them a list of the places they would visit with the tour guide, the Beijing CBD and SOHO business street, The Place, Changan street, Tiananmen square, Wangfujing night food street and Houhai lake bar street. After their week of fun, Joana would head to the Shaanxi province to find the temple and then the dragon. Derick insisted on coming along with her, and after a lot of nagging, she allowed him.

Dana and Hillary had already fully packed as they were the ones most excited about the vacation, Joana was more focused on finding the black dragon than the vacation, Derick was just happy to come along and spend some family time and Edmund, well as long as his wife was happy, he was happy too.

Dana had already briefed them on everything but still decided to call a final meeting so they would have one last discussion before they headed for the airport tomorrow. And yes, they all decided to take a plane because Dana and Hillary had packed a lot for the trip.

“We don’t know how long we’ll be in China,” Dana said. “But the only thing I can say is that it will depend on how fast Joana is able to locate the black dragon. We hope she does so on time so that we can come back home and start looking for the remaining ingredients. Any questions?”

As Dana spoke, something then occurred to Joana which made her heart stop for a second.

“Since we are going through the airport, won’t we be stopped if we don’t have passports?” She asked them. I have one but I left it at home, Edmund told me earlier today that none of you had one done and I don’t want it to be a problem later when we want to enter China.”

Everyone looked at Joana as if she had said something strange, why were they looking at her like that? Suddenly, the whole coven burst into laughter after absorbing what she had said.

Joana flushed. She didn’t know what ever she said that was funny but she definitely wouldn’t take it easy if she were sent back at the port of entry because they didn’t have any means of identification. Hillary, noticing her annoyance, began to explain things to her.

“Honey, when you’re a vampire with hypnotic powers, you don’t need passports.”