Of Forgotten Dreams (Book 1) [NANOWRIMO 2022]

Chapter 33

"Yun, you sure cry a lot, if you're not a crier."

"Is it that obvious?"

"You think?" Ying said, throwing a glance at her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I'd prefer not to. But thank you for the offer."

The sky today was really bright and blue, and Yun enjoyed the sun as they sat out to eat breakfast.

"Things have been moving so fast since I first came." She sighed. "I feel like I have spent my whole life here."

"You've grown so much too." Ying turned over and fixed her with an intense gaze. "I never thought you could become such a person."

"How such?"

"Free, for one." Ying shrugged. "You used to be so rigid and inflexible. Bound to the rules and your ways of doing things. It's nice to see you finally let loose a little."

"Looking at you when you first came was almost like torturing myself. Air Celestials like to be free and unbound, roaming the wide, vast expense of the sky. And you locked yourself in your own cage, threw away the keys and tortured yourself willingly."

"But aren't you staying here with Lord Xu?"

"That's... different." She said, actually blushing a little as she picked at her lychees. "Lord Xu had always wanted to set me free. But I, wanted to stay with him. The cage door for me is open though, I just didn't want to leave. Because to me, the vast sky is meaningless if I am not with him."

"Then how exactly are we so different from each other?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I am so much older than you are?" She quipped, smiling. "Or maybe because I acknowledge everything that I can or cannot do, so that I have more freedom to do whatever I want to?"

"Maybe."

"Alright, that's enough time for breakfast." Ying declared, standing up from the stool. "We need to get to Lord Xu's study again."

By the time they arrived, they saw Lord Xu dressed in the bluish green robes of his own apprentices; his hair tied with a white ribbon.

"Good, both of you are early." 

Yun thought that he looked more youthful than usual, except for the authoritative way that they spoke.

"Don't look so surprised." He said, a smile coming into this face at both Ying and Yun's expression. "Get everything that you need for a trip to the countryside. We'll come back at dusk."

Yun nodded, puzzled.

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"Why aren't you asking me how long until we reach?" Ying yelled in her ear to ensure that she could hear her voice in the roaring wind. "Do you like flying that much?"

Yun nodded, the exhilarating feeling only increasing the longer they flew. And although her arms were slowly becoming sore, and her head slightly dizzy, she wanted the feeling to last.

"Well, too bad. We've reached."

Looking where Ying pointed, Yun could see a small country house that stood at the outskirts of a city. People were lining up into the house. And as they got closer, she saw that they were hurt or wounded in some way, or they looked sick. People in bluish green robes that were helping them look at their wounds, and gave them prescriptions and herbs.

"We're landing." Ying said, and Yun lifted her feet. They landed at the back of the house with a running stop.

"That was fun." Yun found herself saying as she ran a hand through her hair, trying to smoothen it out. The grin on her face was contagious as she saw Ying grinning at her too.