White Dragon Stories

Smiles and tears

Everyone sat down on the picnic blanket. Hakuei sat between her parents and Hakuryuu sat down next to his mother and Hakuren. Hakuyuu sat between his father and younger brother. As always when they ate together it was quite cheerful. Hakuren had a lot to talk about and he loved to exaggerate. Hakuryuu as naïve as he was, believed every word his brother spoke and was amazed how great his brother was and what kind of thrilling adventures Hakuren had experienced. Meanwhile the rest of the Ren family silently laughed about Hakuren's stories and how excited Hakuryuu was. It was really cute.
"Hakuren, Hakuryuu don't forget to eat, my dears", reminded Gyokuen her two sons.
"Okay", Hakuryuu answered and demonstratively took a bit of his food.
Doing two things at the same time were still too hard for the child. On the other hand, Hakuren could hardly talk and eat at the same time. So he had to stop his talking for a while.
After lunch the three brothers got back into the water. Hakuyuu had sat down next to the lack and let his feet dangle in the water, while watching his younger siblings. Hakuryuu watched the fishes until they approached him, which caused him to run to Hakuren for protection. He disliked fishes so much that he did not even want them dead on his plate. There was no special reason for his dislike, he never had a bad experience with these animals, but somehow he did not trust these creatures. Maybe because all they did was "bubble" around and had those creepy pop eyes? Or because felt strange? Who knew? Much to Hakuryuu's regret the fish followed him for awhile and even Hakuren could not shoo away the animal. It was a very amusing scene to watch. Hakuyuu almost felt bad for laughing about it, when his youngest brother chose to hide at his side and therewith asked for protection from the bad fish! The best way to get away from the fish was to get out of the water – as far as Hakuyuu knew fishes could not walk or survive on land – therefore he picked Hakuryuu out of the water and set the boy down on the river bank. Hakuryuu hid behind his brother, just in case the fish suddenly grow legs and the ability to breath on land. One could never know what Mother Nature had in store for her inhabitants.
It took some time until the fish decided to let go of the Ren brothers and swam away. Although the danger was gone, Hakuryuu hesitated to return into the water. What if it came back? And what if it brought more fishes with it? He did not voice his concern because he knew his brothers would laugh about him, but this did not change the fact that he had these concerns.
"Come back Hakuryuu. The fish is gone, so there is no reason to stay out of the water. It is so nice inside", Hakuren tried to convince Hakuryuu, who, however, refused to get back inside.
"Don't be like that, Hakuryuu. It was just a fish. A fish cannot hurt you. Or do you want to do something else?", Hakuyuu said, while suppressing his laughter.
His little brother was just too cute. It could be extremely exhausting with him sometimes, but Hakuryuu was such a lovely little boy, so everything was forgiven.
Hakuryuu did not answer to Hakuyuu's question. His attention was directed to Hakuren, who made his way towards Hakuryuu and Hakuyuu with a sinister smile on his lips. What had Hakuren in mind? Probably nothing good.

When Hakuren reached his brothers he bend down a bit, so he could look Hakuryuu in the eyes.
"Come here, Hakuryuu. Let's have some fun together. And don't worry, I'll protect you from the evil fishes, promise", Hakuren said.
As naïve as Hakuryuu was he believed Hakuren and came out of his hiding place. Unfortunately Hakuren was a mean big brother and had a little surprise for Hakuryuu.
"Look Hakuryuu, no fishes are here."
To see if Hakuren said the truth Hakuryuu took a look at the water and this was the very moment Hakuren used to squirt some water into Hakuryuu's face, which caused the latter one to back away and started to cry out of surprise. To protect himself from another sneaky attack, Hakuryuu run to his mother, who put her arm around him and asked what was wrong. The look she gave her second eldest son spoke volumes. She was not pleased at the "little" prank he had played with Hakuryuu. Apparently, Hakuren was the only one who laughed about it. However, he stopped laughing when he saw his mother glaring at him and the disapproving look of his father and his older brother. He had fucked up!
It took quite some time until Hakuryuu calmed down and therewith stopped crying. During that time Hakuei returned from her stroll to show her parents the beautiful flowers she had found. She also showed them to her little brother, who had stopped crying and took a look at the beautiful flowers. They smelt nice too.
"Why don't you go with Hakuei and pick more beautiful flowers, Hakuryuu?", Gyokuen asked her son in a sweet voice and a smile on her face.
"Yes, Hakuryuu, let's take a stroll together and find more flowers", Hakuei agreed happily.
Hakuei liked showing her brother around and explaining things to him. It made her feel proud. She wanted to be the best big sister for Hakuryuu and a good big sister took care of her younger brother. Also spotting new things made people happy and this was what the youngest of the Ren family needed right now. Hakuren's stupid prank had almost destroyed the nice atmosphere and maybe even ruined the day for Hakuryuu – a little exaggeration, but the latter one would definitely remember that not so pleasant event and forget about all the nice moments. Something like this could easily happen!
Hakuryuu nodded in response and slipped down from his mother's lap. Hakuei immediately took her little brother's hand. Together they started to inspect the fruits that grow on the bushes, however they did not touch them, since their mother had forbidden it. Hakuryuu wanted to know what kind of fruits it were, but Hakuei did not know, what made her feel bad. She wanted to be a good sister and as such, she should explain things to her little brother and answer his questions. However, she did not know too much herself. Hakuyuu and Hakuren would probably know what fruits those red little berries were. Differently than his older sister, Hakuryuu did not linger on the thought what berries it were and instead was already fascinated by the next thing. This time it was an ant that carried a little stone – Hakuryuu at least thought it was one – around. Unfortunately he lost sight of it. Hakuei had followed her little brother, when she saw that he had already moved on. She didn't know much about ants, but the little bit she knew was enough to impress Hakuryuu, who listen careful. Although everyone knew he would forget it in a few minutes.
Not far away from their picnic place Hakuei had found a nice grassland with a lot of colorful flowers. There the two sat down and Hakuei tried her best to teach her little brother, how to make flower crowns. While Hakuei was pretty fast and made one flower crown after the other, Hakuryuu struggled a lot. He was too clumsy to make one and it was frustrating, he already had tears in his eyes. This was not fair! He really, really wanted to make a flower crown for his sister, who was so nice and had shown him how to do it over and over again. She was probably disappointed in him and he didn't want her to be disappointed with him.
"Hakuryuu, let's make a bouquet of flowers for mother. I'm sure she will love it", Hakuei said hoping to cheer him up.
Luckily her plan worked and Hakuryuu jumped up to start searching for nice flowers, which they could use for their bouquet of flowers. While searching he got distracted quite often. Sometimes it was because of a butterfly, then because an ant he had happened to see and another time because of some insects he had never seen before and asked Hakuei about. Although she was a princess she knew about a lot of insects, since Hakuren loved to share his wisdom with his younger siblings. Hakuyuu liked to share too, but he cared more for academic knowledge than some small animals. Not that he didn't know about them, it was just that he did not see a reason to explain them to his siblings. It was a good thing to have both of them as brothers, so one always learned a lot.