HOW TO LIVE AGAIN (girlxgirlxgirl)

Three; A red ring

"Shocking, right?"
29

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"Are you sure you're not coming back with us?

She's not.

It's a rainy day. Fresh summer rain pours down rapidly, drumming on the freshly fixed roof of the mansion. The sad weather has cooled down the otherwise intense heat, and cleaned the streets and houses from all the dust and mud laid there by animals, humans and the wind. The clouds are dark, all that is left from the thunderstorm and harsh rainstorm that haunted over them the night before. But now, in the early morning, it's only raining slowly and peacefully.

It's been another week.

A dry week filled with the most intense heat they have ever experienced before, a true heatwave. But it has since calmed down to rain and clouds, which is why Belvedere and Yugo can finally start heading home without complications. Fei stands by the pavilion steps, watching Belvedere be helped up on his steed by Yugo. She is wearing one of her old dresses, from three hundred years ago, somehow still miraculously preserved and still in its former pristine glory. A shining dark blue dress with an azure blue silk belt around the waist. She looks like the true noble she once was.

But Yugo is worried. Noble or not, a young woman all alone in a big fancy mansion, how will she ever protect herself against armies of thieves and foreign attackers? Sure, she can hold her own against one, two, three, maybe even four people at once, but more than that? How can she defend this village while defending herself? Is it truly wise for her to stay here all alone? Fei reminds him of his sister, a woman that is strong and independent and someone who he truly respects, but not someone he would leave alone to defend miles of untouched and beautiful land without any soldiers on her side.

"I have nothing for me in the capital, this is my home, this is where I belong"

Belvedere also frowns, as he is already seated on his horse, waiting for Yugo to get up on his. Fei and him are very close now, and he would be very sad if she ended up dying a meaningless death so far away from civilization. What life can she truly live here all alone?

"You could stay with my family! They are very hospitable and our house is practically a whole garden, you'd love it there!"

Somehow Belvedere can already guess what her answer will be to his suggestion. Even if she did want to come with them, how could she leave behind the near three thousand villagers now under her rule?

But while Fei can't leave, she doesn't want to part from her new friends either. It's with a heavy heart that she hesitantly, slowly walks down the pavilion stairs onto the gravel and grass down below. She doesn't even try to shield herself from the pouring rain. It stains her gown and her hair. Belvedere looks at her, confused. She stands in front of the shorter boy, and then, slowly takes off her ring.

She looks at it for awhile. It's a beautiful ring, one that her mother wore once. It's golden and small, with a big ruby on top. The words, "the Lion family" are carved on the metal in big letters. It's her mothers engagement ring, and the family's crest is painted carefully on the ruby.

Every noble family has a signature ring, and this one belongs to her family. While Fei used to have her own ring it was lost somewhere that fateful night, and never found again. But this one, her mothers one... she found it next to her ashes in the family burial hall. Her mother was the only good person in her life, other than her sisters, and she remembers her mother once saying that the ring should be passed onto Fei once she herself died. It hasn't left her finger since she found it a week ago, and Fei is sure that it will never disappear from her.