They were asked to wait until 10am before they could check in. Derick checked the time, it was 8:00 so they only had two more hours to wait. They remained in the reception lounge having nowhere else to go. The hotel staff, because of their waiting customers, quickly tidied up the room so their guests could move in instead of waiting for long. It wasn’t their usual check-in time, but they had to make an exception as Joana and Derick had seen the whole ruckus the angry customer caused, it was their way of persuading them not to tell anyone and pretending it never happened. Derick looked at Joana, who had already started dozing off in the couch, he hoped they would be done on time, as he was already beginning to suppress the urge to doze off too. At exactly 9:30, they were called to check in. “How much is it?” Derick asked the receptionist who was arranging the payment.“It’s 4,000 CNY per night, for the master’s suite,” she said curtly. 

They flew to the side of the cliff and went through the falls and into the cave. They were already partially drenched from the waterfalls. Derick tried to look into the cave to see if anyone or anything was there. It was a small cave, and one would find it hard to believe that a mighty dragon would dwell here. Suddenly they heard a small feminine voice. “Who goes there?”They looked at each other, waiting for the other person to respond before Joana decided to after Derick gave her a “it’s your quest” look.“We are vampires, we have come to ask for something.”She hadn’t prepared anything to say and was unsure if she gave the right answer, but it was better than saying nothing. There was a long period of silence and Joana was beginning to wonder if the voice heard her correctly. They began to hear a small rattling noise coming from the other end of the cave and suddenly a small

Joana might have had a hard time finding the ingredients and all, but she sure was happy for the few hours she spent with her new friend, Yin. She was even more excited that she had one of the ingredients now as she and Derick hurried back to the hotel. They would have to wait till it was evening before they would leave the hotel and go back to Beijing, so she was practically stuck with him for another day. They both flew into the courtyard fast before anyone could see them and entered the room giggling as they were lucky enough that the sun took its time today. Derick locked the door behind them and then they suddenly met each other’s gaze when he turned, none of them could look away as they kept on standing there, staring at each other for a few minutes, then all of a sudden, the excitement that filled the air was replaced with intense passion, the same one they felt when they made love many nights ago. Derick didn’t know what took him to wh

Derick and Joana set out the next night to journey to the spirit world. They chose to go through the north pole because it was much closer to where they lived. As they flew, Joana reminisced on the discussion they had last night. Though she was pleased that Derick chose to help and follow her as he had been of much help to her lately, she also found it somewhat annoying that he thought she couldn’t handle herself. Asides that, they had returned from China only a few days ago, and yet they still hadn’t talked about their intense moments of passion. Joana felt the need to talk about it, but Derick stuck to the agreement and said nothing. She wanted to ask him how he felt, but she didn’t want him to get the wrong ideas or think that he could get her to change her mind about marrying Andrew. “We’re here,” Derick said, snapping out of her thoughts. The north pole was closer than she imagined, and was filled with so much snow that she c

 The third ingredient: Earth from the volcano of life. In the middle of the Caspian Sea, Lies a volcano standing free, Sitting high above its bay,Watching as the eagles play. Mighty volcano, give us earth, Boiling magma which you birth.It sees the sky high up above,And boils the earth, a mighty stove. But then one day, the lava dried, What happened? This fine volcano died. Former magma turned to stone, Only earth now fills this cone. Why then call it the volcano of life? When it stands there held by the hand of death’s knife? We call it that name because we hope it will wake,To calm the cold sea and for old nature’s sakeBut watch out as the small sea troll, Lurks around this big volcano.It looks around for who it’ll bite,Filled with nothing but greed, hatred and spite.