Dark Wind, Icy Snow - RyuTar, YinYuan [BL]

RTYY 056 - Returning from the Dead

As the end of the Seventh Year Gathering approached, ZaiWin was forced to regretfully leave that part of the forest and start making his way back to where he knew the others would be.

He chose to find the largest group of kids, the ones that had been left behind after the dueling challenge. He'd wait for the others with them. Still, even though finding them wasn't all that hard, he chose to remain out of sight until the Calzai's men made their way back, leading the rest of the kids with them.

Taking into account the rate of casualties up till the moment he'd left the group, he was kind of surprise seeing that they had all made it back. Well, all except the bronze-haired boy he'd tried to save from FeiWan's fury and had almost got him killed. As to be expected, there was no sign of him.

CarFan was also being carried in an improvised stretcher made of tree branches, pulled by one of the Calzai's man. He had a bloody, swollen face and two clearly broken arms, none of the injuries looking as if they were the result of a mere accident. The girl that had accompanied him still tagged along beside him, watching him with a worried expression.

Once they entered the improvised camp the kids waiting there were immediately relieved. They could finally go home!, it was written in everyone's faces. But when ZaiWin stepped out from the trees finally showing himself, the entire camp was immediately silent again.

Most of the kids that had been left behind looked at him with those all to familiar glares of disdain and despise. But the ones that had been with him at the start of the hunting challenge looked as if they were seeing some unworldly ghost raised from the dead. Only the twins took a single glance at him and looked as if they couldn't care less.

Finally NimRen was the first to react, gasping and running across the empty clearing to tightly wrap her arms around him. ZaiWin couldn't help tense up at the feeling of her warm hands pressed against his back, even over his tunic. And so he tried his best to gently push her back.

"ZaiWin! I can't believe it! We thought you were dead!" she blurted out, glancing at him from head to toe and back up again, and he gave her a small, friendly smile.

"I'm fine."

"You're fine? How can you say that? FeiWan said you had been injured!" she quickly demanded, the still visible stains of blood on his clothes easily capturing her gaze, and ZaiWin shrugged.

"It was just a scratch, really."

ZaiWin made the mistake to raise his head to look at the others, and FeiWan's angry scowl as he crossed his arms sent his heart racing in alarm.

"If you were fine, why didn't you come back to us? Uncle Yu was looking for you the entire night!" NimRen persisted, now in full scolding mode, and ZaiWin scratched his head, but then remembered he had to be careful not to undo the knot tying his hair.

Even though the little one had left his backpack behind he had apparently taken the hairpin he'd given him. Which was good. It had actually eased his conscience a bit. At least he'd have money to buy some food.

"I got a fever. I was asleep for an entire day. And since I didn't know where you were headed next, I decided to make my way back here and wait for your return," he argued, discreetly taking a glance towards the Yu Calzai, wanting to determine if the old man was actually buying his tale, but the Calzai was simply staring at him, looking completely undisturbed by his sudden reappearance.

At this explanation, NimRen immediately went from angry to worried again. Her face was still bruised, but the darkening areas were almost completely gone. And she looked really tired, dark circles shadowing her bright, green eyes.