Empyrean Rebirth |Jing Yuan & Dan Heng|

☾-Snowy Moonlit Night-☽

Each time her beaten up shoes made the snow beneath her feet crunch, she winced from the coldness and cursed under her breath at how wet her socks were. As she breathed a puff of air appeared in front of her due to the coldness. An icy wind passed by, prompting her to pull what little layers she had on tighter.

She had no clear destination, only that she had to keep distancing herself farther and farther from where she came from; home. Sure her loving parents would be worried sick right now and yes, she did feel a bit bad, but it made her annoyed that all they could think about were the suitors who were fighting for her hand in marriage! Never in her life did she ask to be put upon a pedestal only to be seen as a prize for one lucky man to eventually have. Though she asked each suitor to complete five impossible tasks in hopes of proving a point to her mother and father, it just ended with her running.

And now here she was, shivering uncontrollably as she trudged through a restless snowstorm in the dead of night with only a full moon as her light source. All she carried on her was one of the many expensive dresses her father gifted to her that came with a flimsy excuse for a sweater and a pair of old shoes with many holes in them. Clearly not enough to keep herself warm.

The runaway girl cursed the storm over and over again as she continued to push through the snow in hopes of finding any sort of shelter. Anything would do, even a tavern full of nasty drunkards would be better than this! At least it'd be warm.

In the midst of trying to remain calm as she battled against this monstrous snowstorm, she spotted the flickering of lantern lights along with a glimpse of a star skiff and a few people who looked like knights. Her eyes lit up ever so slightly and she crumpled the skirt of her dress into her hands so she could fumble her way through the snow towards the star skiff.

"W-w-wait f-f-for m-m-me!" The girl shouted out with chattering teeth as she reached a hand out as if it would do something to stop the knights from leaving without noticing her. The knights clad in blue all turned to look at her. At the same time, a head of blonde poked out from inside the star skiff to see what was going on.

"Who are you?" One of the knights asked warily and slowly held up his spear.

"W-w-where i-i-is t-t-this s-s-star s-s-skiff g-g-going?" She ignored the knights' question and answered with one of her own. At this point, she didn't care where this star skiff was going. As long as it wasn't going anywhere near her home, then it would be fine.

"The Seat of Divine Foresight," answered a new voice. From inside the star skiff, a young boy (or was he a child?) stepped out with skepticism written all over his face. The young blonde haired boy kept a safe hand on the hilt of his blade. "What business do you have? If it's nothing important I suggest you seek shelter elsewhere for the night."

"P-p-please," she pleaded, mentally cursing at how the cold was affecting her speech. "I-I-I h-h-have t-t-to d-d-deliver a-a-a m-m-message." Hearing this the young boy's eyes narrowed though now he expressed surprise.

"A message? Is it important?" She nodded to his questions and shivered more when another cold wind passed by. The boy let out a sigh and removed his hand from the hilt of his sword.

"You can come with us to the Seat of Divine Foresight. I'll inform the general about this." With a simple gesture from his hand, the knights helped the shivering girl onto the star skiff before they themselves entered and they quickly departed to their destination. Though being inside the star skiff wasn't as warm as she thought it would be, it was a thousand times better than being outside in a winter storm. For this she was grateful that whoever these people were had conveniently showed up to save her from freezing to death. This now begged the question of how exactly she was going to explain this "important message" of hers...