Destinies (WangXain)

3.Fated curse

. . .

A sweet moist smell fills the senses of  Lan Wanji as a soft sensation touches his mouth. He, being in slumber licks the thing slightly. It is sweet as honey-laced lotus. The little Jade Dragon was hungry and bites onto it. 

Suddenly a loud gasp makes him open his eyes. There laid a boy in dark robes, eyes welled with tears as he shakes in fear and hatred. 'NO' Lan Wanji can have hurt him, he promised not to. He can not see his face clearly though he knows he is important. 

Lan Wanji tries to reach out to the little boy hovering in pain, seeking him with his hands. He wants to explain. He can see the small sobbing figure disappearing in blurs and the mist that covers. He wants to explain. He tries to reach out. ' NO,' He tries to scream, but no voice comes out. He touches his throat, trying hard to speak, to stop him from going. To stop him from hating.  He tries to get closer. 'NO, NO NO' He can not be stuck at this time. His limbs stay unmoving, his troat mum. His head is in frantic desperation as if an important part is being separated from him. His body crashes down in pain as he sees 'his hope' 'his friend' disappearing in the back dark mist. It is taking him far, far away. ' NOOOO' His heart sobs as tears stain Lan Wanji's impassive face. 

Lan Wanji jolted awoke in the Jingshi at midnight. Panting hard. 'It was a dream' He gasped, rubbing his temples. The 150-year-old Jade dragon almost wakes up like this every thunderstorm. For he remembers his first-ever encounter with his fated one. Well, the first and last. 

Lan Wanji gets off his bed, taking his outer robe as he walks solemnly to his study. He knows sleep isn't gonna come by. He takes his Wanji, his guqin and runs his slender fingers onto its strings as the melody elopes the Jingshi accompanying the sound of the rain that washed violently on the porch. Raging and cold. Just as that day.

The sound of guqin was long, the melody he played said the sorrow of a lost friend. An unsaid connection of childhood, and maybe it was much more now. It was short, brief, yet somewhat it was unforgettable.

He plays as he reminiscents the dusk he spent with that one friend when he was just twelve. That chatter and his 'mhn's, The toothy charmful smile and his fascination, The sweet smell of lotus and their shared half-eaten peach blossom, and lastly the help and his mistake.

Under the raging winds, the melody of his guqin said the story of the past. There lied something more than longing for his friend in his strings. Lan Wanji played softening and raging with tunes as the rainstorm that raged and softened pitter-pattering in the Jinshi's roof. Matching the rain, the melody paced as the weather till it could no more. The strings strung apart. 

He sighed. Looking at the broken strings. Getting up quietly he pulled up a small jade box engraved with a lotus from racks. It had a beautiful red ribbon, embroidered with inlaid lotuses in deeper red just at the end. 

'Wei Ying' He called softly, as he caressed the old tattered ribbon as he remembers his conversation with his brother.

- years back- 

" Wanji, Wanji, WANJI" His brother called his didi as Lan Xichen brisked through the mountain forests searching in the rain. No avail. His heart was throbbing with worries as his 14 years old brother again went missing. 

" Wanji, Wanji, WANJI, Where are you?" The crown prince of the Su clan called his brother again. 'Has Wanji again went to the same cave again?' He wonders. It has been years it is like this. Since when he was 12 Wanji's missing episode on every rainstorm has started' Although Lan Xichen is mostly busy learning the responsibilities of the crown prince. He is immensely worried about his little brother. For the first time, he can not understand his didi. Wanji was acting as if he was missing something or someone important. But all his family and people are here. It has become a matter of concern now.