No Longer Spring - Writings of tomorrow

V

She called my name.

I heard steps getting closer and closer, but I didn't budge. I wasn't trained at all back then, you see, I just liked acting as if I were tough when, in fact, I was barely even half a human.
Mei Yang came towards me as if she hadn't seen me in months, jumping happily at the sight of her older sister. I was, myself, quite excited to meet her.
We had always gotten along pretty well, training together.
Life didn't feel so lonely and quiet with a friend next to you.
It was a hot, summer day, when I practiced jumping and sword flying so much that my legs were shaking under me.

"You've been gone for so little!" I exclaimed, "How come?"

Our father looked at me kindly as he'd usually do. He had the spark of a teacher in his eyes, talking as if he always knew everything.

"The trip went better than we had expected," he said, "and Mei Yang was so eager to train for the campaign. How could we not come back fast?"

Mei Yang laughed, her smile so big that it reached her eyes.

"Of course!" that's when she stopped, a stern look upon her face, "Gods, you look as if you've gotten beaten up. How many times did you fall?"

"You should wait and do it yourself! See how it is," I spoke proudly.

Truth be told, I barely even managed to do it. It was too early for such a thing. Father laughed as he came closer, picking up my sword.
He moved it from the right side of my head to the left, honoring me.

"I declare you... too young for this, young lady."

Who would have ever, in the sky and below, thought that he had just come back from the man that they wanted to sell their first child to?
Who would have thought that I had simply been made to serve as a token of a debt being paid?

I laughed, "Whatever... ."

And so, the days had passed, one by one. We grew up, left with nothing but memories that didn't even dare feel real. Left with nothing but a drunken thought that passed us by, ready to be forgotten.
Every touch that you've ever felt becomes nothing but the ghost of a mere sensation- that's what memories are. You get older and, perhaps, leave your family behind. You leave them all behind and then you realize that yes, the time had passed. Everything that you ever knew is nothing but a fragment of your person now.
A fight turned into eternity.
I would know that myself. When I left my home, it happened fast. I couldn't understand what I was hearing. I couldn't understand why the very people that I had loved could say such a thing and disappear. I couldn't understand why our mother looked like anything but herself that day.

...

"So, it's been years now," I heard her say.

I was hiding on the other side of the window, hands cold.
It wasn't in my character to listen in, but I heard them fight. I simply wanted to hear their true words being said without any filter. I had follow my gut.

"It has, hasn't it?"

"And we're still bound by the very same curse."

I knew that mother was getting distant. She had never been very close to us to begin with, but in the past few years she seemed to get further and further away from our whole assembly as a family.
Every time we asked or wanted to spend time together she'd find a way to dodge it or, even though she sometimes came, it was as if she had never even been there to begin with. The woman was so absent that one could almost see through her, as if she didn't even exist in the room.
Regardless of what we did, we shouldn't couldn't make mother see us.

"I have wasted my whole life being a slave to this."

"We made a life for ourselves, " father started, "we have two beautiful children that can keep our legacy alive," I could hear dome pride in his voice, but it was almost choked by the atmosphere.