My Mother's Will
The leaves fluttered, dancing in the sunlight. A breeze was stirring and the small pond was rife with ripples. The residents wandered about, seemingly aimless. Their eyes were to the ground and the wind was to their backs. Ā Ruǎn clutched at her flute.
It was an almost painful sight. They had no thought for the world about them. Its beauty was imaginary to their averted eyes. Their souls knew no, or little, peace. Too soon their time would end without peace or the knowledge of its truth.
"Ā Ruǎn,"
She glanced up. "Xià Yízé,"
He was frowning. "Are you well? You seem troubled,"
She smiled. "I'm fine,"
He stared at her a moment longer. Questions lingered in his gaze. Then he turned, unable to voice his thoughts.
Ā Ruǎn sighed. She wasn't unused to concern. It was often that people glanced at her. Their curiosity was sparked when she appeared. They knew she was different just as keenly as she felt it. She averted her gaze. She missed her mother's warmth. She missed her father's warm hand upon her shoulder.
She began to follow after her comrades. They were needed elsewhere. The aches of the world were growing and, in the deepest depths of her consciousness, she questioned her own role in life. What life stemmed from dreariest doom?
What good could come of it?
Ā Ruǎn faltered. The birds were singing louder than before. The melody was one of old. Her father occasionally hummed in time. His kind eyes would follow the sky to a place that she couldn't fathom. She supposed, in her maturing years, that it was a place of death: the place her father wouldn't go.
She glanced back with eyes so sorrowful and distant that for a moment the birdsong paused. In the blaze of the fading day she found the shimmer of the lake. The water rippled towards her. The surface sparkled bewitchingly.
She spun around - heart broken.
"Ā Ruǎn,"
She paused, and turned. The birds were gathering distantly.
"Yes, māma,"
With eyes as calm as snow Qíng Xuě gazed out to the glory of the sunset on the lake.
No word was exchanged between the two and young Ā Ruǎn had not the patience of her parents.
She approached and sat by her mother's side.
She rested her torso over her mother's legs.
"Mā ma,"
Still no answer was given.
As the sun vanished from the world Ā Ruǎn retreated, unhappy to have missed the birds.
"If an entire instant is a lifetime, and we are together for an instant in this life, that is still an entire lifetime,"
Author's Note: That line was included in a fan song. I'm not sure if she actually said that but it's become synonymous with her. I would post the lyrics but I have no wish to dine with danger. I rather enjoy my account. However, you can find the lyrics and a download link to the song on Wuxia Edge. That's where I get my fix of things as I can't read Chinese any longer and I cannot listen to Chinese any longer… Truth be told, I cannot even speak Chinese any longer…
Gah! Oh, what have I done? What have I done? I finished this weeks ago and I didn't upload it! Oh, I'll do it! I'll do Beautiful Eternity and Solemnity too!