The Water Sprite

Growth

"Everything?  What about love?" he had asked looking at her small fists that had tightened at her side while she splashed her feet in the water which she always did when she was excited or angry.

"Love?  Love has nothing to do with marriage alliances Water Sprite.  If it did, it would not be an alliance, it would be a marriage based on mutual feelings of desire for one another.  If I am to marry, I want a man who will love me and I him, otherwise it is meaningless." she said before looking at the cascade with a smirk and to Mo Yuan it was a challenge for him to prove her wrong.

"Ahhh well, since you already have everything a heart can desire, then perhaps love would not be suited to you after all." he had answered enigmatically and throwing the challenge back at her.

Huffing in indignation, her large doe eyes stormed back at him.  "Why wouldn't love be suited to me?  Are you saying I am unlovable?" she almost yelled at him angrily having immediately caught onto his subtle nuance.

"Define love Bai Qian." he had asked while skillfully avoiding an argument which he could see brewing.

Watching as her hands lost the tight fist and her eyes softened when she looked back at the cascade, Mo Yuans heart skipped a beat.

"Love is the ability to put another person ahead of yourself because you care more for their happiness, opinions and well being than your own." she had answered, then thinking she was done, she her eyes suddenly flared out at him.

"And I do believe Water Sprite you still owe me that wish I made when I was little.  I am still waiting for a man who will deem my opinions worthy and respect the decisions I make." she reminded him, which immediately had his mind racing to come up with an answer.

"Such a man is a rare find indeed.  That is because very few women attract such men to them, because they too are just as rare. It takes a lot of effort to become the kind of woman such a man would want to listen to or to find worthy." he had replied which immediately set off her anger again.

"So not only are you saying I am unlovable, but now I am also unworthy and not worth listening to?" she huffed before rising up off the edge of the rock pool. 

"Do you see yourself that way Bai Qian." he countered, which earned him another huff before she stormed off through the trees angrily.  Though she wasn't gone for long, before she came storming back, which he knew she would.  She always had to have to the last word.

"I'll have you know Water Sprite, not only am I to be the Queen of Qing Qiu, the wealthiest land in the entire world, I will also be a High Goddess one day, that makes me worth listening to." she said before turning back around and leaving him sitting behind the cascade laughing.

It was conversations like this one that Mo Yuan loved to have with her.  She was exceptionally beautiful to watch when her mind delved inwards.  Having lived through her younger years where her mind rationalized everything from a childs perspective, watching her doing the same thing as a young woman was exciting to watch.  And  unknown to Mo Yuan, he was slowly beginning to fall for her.

She was not only exceptionally intelligent, but the older she got, the more beautiful she became.  And it was this conversation that suddenly had him realizing no man was worthy for her than himself.  He was the only man who knew her inside and out that any marriage alliance her father arranged would see her kill it before it began.  He loved the fire in her belly, the way she stormed at every injustice, especially if it involved women and he loved he way she stood by her decisions whether they were right or wrong, she was always honest with herself.

And as the years rolled by, he watched as she moved on from her childish yearnings and mischievous tendencies to a beautiful young woman with thoughts of marriage and duties to her Clan.  But the day he began to notice her womanly figure, the soft curves of her form, the way her hair swept her shoulders and the way her soft lips pouted when she was displeased, Mo Yuan began to ease her out of their lessons, by limiting them to once a week, then fortnightly then monthly which he kept in place until he felt she was ready to move on.  He had loved every minute he had spent watching her grow up, but he had to back away, because he was beginning to see her as something other than his friends daughter, he was seeing her as a man saw a woman. 

 She had grown to be the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on, even more than her own mother who had once held the title as the number one beauty, a title she was fast gaining for herself.  She was also now a woman who was worthy of love, a woman worth listening to, and by the time she reached eighty thousand years of age, he finally let her go.