The Dragon's Abode(Compressed)

Part 2: Chapter 1

The clock ticked painfully slow. The room smelt of medicine, warm yet suffocating. A stifled cough echoed in the room in irregular repetitions. The herbalist, with her nose and mouth covered neatly with a cloth sat beside the bed with a concoction of herbs in her hand.

The girl stood by the door her head hung low.

"You'll be staying with me for a while." A woman with raven black hair said as she rested her hand gently upon the girl's shoulder.

Her grandmother had fallen ill for a while with no signs of recovery. The girl turned back to look at her grandmother. She seemed restless as a feeling of uneasiness clouded her mind. It was as if something she had suppress has begun to surface and she did not like the deep sense of foreboding. She wished to say something but she could not find her voice. She knew she had to get rid of the thought.

Her grandmother was growing weaker but she hid the pain beneath her kind smile.

"Go on little one. I'll get better soon so we can be together again." She assured her grandchild.

The raven-haired woman looked down at the girl. Her eyes held empathy like she could see through what was going on inside the girl's mind.

"Let us go now..."

The girl looked at her grandmother, her lip quivered.

"Get well soon, grandma."

She said as she turned away. She had only taken a few steps out the bedroom door when she barged outside the house and ran as fast as she could to the river. Everything was dark, she ran as fast as she could only led by the light of a waning moon.

Years had passed since the girl was but a child. She had thought nothing would ever change. She never thought a day would come when her grandmother would be confined to a bed. It had been a long time since she last tasted the food her grandmother cooked. She could not recall the last time she heard a story from her grandmother. Those evenings seemed distant. And before she knew it, people were coming and going, paying her grandmother a visit as if they were bidding her goodbye as if they were ready for her to cross over to the other side. But the girl wasn't. She never will be ready to say goodbye. Her grandmother was all she ever had. She held her tears back as she ran. It angered her that no one felt her pain. It angered her how her grandmother tried so hard to be strong in front of her.

The girl stopped by the river. She drew in a long and shaky breath. Her head throbbed in pain. With her thoughts screaming at her, gnawing at her mind she could barely make out what she felt. She was angry that things were going to change. Angry at herself for being weak in front of her grandmother.

"How can I ever be like you..." She broke down as she fell to her knees beside the river.

"Be like the river ..." A voice answered from behind her.

The raven-haired woman that decided to take her in had followed her to the woods.

"Your grandmother had always been like a river. She is ever abundant in kindness and in wisdom. She flows like a river. She nourish and cleanses. And she doesn't hold back when she has found a driving will." The woman continued. Her voice commanding yet gentle.

"And she accepts everyone with open arms..."

The girl looked up at the woman.

"Get up child." She told her.

"Your grandma is still alive despite her illness, isn't she?... Do not dwell in worry of what the future holds. Be like a river."

The raven-haired woman offered her a hand. Her crimson eyes seemed rather different from when the girl first met her but they still gleamed as if reflecting the silvery moon from the mirror of water beside them.