A Tear Frozen in Time

Dancing The Tears Away

Over the following week, Mo Yuan allowed Die Feng to make many of the decisions in his stead that he would normally have made, because he just didn't feel up to it.  For hours he would sit on his platform staring blankly at the comings and goings of his visitors who sometimes managed to get a word or a look, but after learning what she had done to bring him back only to then cut ties, had left him in a state of apathy and it showed.

Her voice was very much a part of Kunlun Mountain and he heard the whisperings of laughter, tears, happiness and mischief everywhere he went, only they were memories still locked in his mind and after a week of it, he soon grew tired of the constant clamour for his attention when all he wanted to do was lie back down and dream of her a little longer.

Only he didn't, instead he rose slowly off the platform and headed straight for the entrance while disregarding the group of fresh young faces looking at him in awe and reverence as he lowered himself to the low valleys for some fresh air and to think about how he was going to get her back when she had no inclination to return.

At that moment, there wasn't really anything he could do about it, not when he could barely stay awake for more than a few hours at a time, but he did intend on doing something, only he had yet to figure out what exactly.  Only the moment he passed the two large boulders that marked the entrance to the low valleys then her laughter and gaeity suddenly filled his mind as the sea of flowers she had once loved came into view and instantly his mind was transported back to her earlier days as his Disciple.

Back then, she had come willingly enough, but the initial days had been exceptionally difficult for her.  She did not like routine, chores, rules or anything that resembled a growling, because her parents had pampered her to a point where Die Feng had struggled to contain her wayward ways so she always ended up in his study writing out texts.

Only the sea of flowers that spread out for miles brought back one specific memory that he had never forgotten about, it remained in the back of his mind for every successive day that followed.

He had been taking a walk in that exact same spot all those years ago, when he suddenly caught sight of movement among the flowers, movement that should not have been there only the moment his eyes caught sight of nine tails swirling over the tips of the blossoms then he had quickly raised a an invisibility barrier to watch as she jumped and frolicked about the fragrant field while completely oblivious to him.

Sitting down on the same rock that he had sat down on back then, he dragged the entire memory back to the fore where it played out it in sequence.  For a while he had watched her play with the flowers, the birds and the butterflies until eventually she grew tired of her little game, and without any warning she suddenly jumped high into the air where her entire body gave way to her true form.

In astonishment, Mo Yuan watched as she landed lightly among the petals. Dressed in a flowing peach blossom dress that billowed out behind her.  This was the first time he had ever seen her in her true form other than the first day when he had stripped back Zhe Yans glamour spell, but in the short time that she had been with him, he noticed immediately how much she had grown.

She was beautiful.  He immediately lost himself to the girl who then began to dance freely and without restraint among the blossoms.  As his Disciple, she was a rough and tumble girl, who had no issues with speaking her mind or roughing it with Zi Lan until one or both were reduced to tears.  And regardless of her small petite size, there was nothing dainty or fragile about her, if anything, he saw her as one of his Disciples who was more than capable of coping with the harsh training he put her under.

But the little girl dancing in the flowers and trailing a canopy of silk in her wake, was a far cry from that child.  Initially he had worried that she would not manage among the boys, so in the earlier days, he had tried to make things a little easier for her, only she was not the kind of girl who deemed herself too fragile to be one of them, so if anything, she was always trying to prove that she was just as good as they were if not better which he was proud to see.