Sword and Snow

Avuri was, perhaps, mildly annoyed with me. We had made it several hours up the Flowing Dragon Peak before Vale finally stopped us to allow him to shapeshift to fly us the rest of the way. Avuri had been perplexed at first, wondering why we stopped walking. Then, when Vale shifted, she screamed.

Admittedly, it had been a startled action, and not one out of fear necessarily. I probably would’ve also yelped if a blast of fire Qi had gone off nearby and there was suddenly a dragon standing there. She had been utterly unprepared for it, and the suddenness took her entirely off guard. She even recovered quickly after realizing what happened.

Didn’t matter. I still laughed at her like an idiot. If for no other reason than to get back at her for egging Talya on at lunch with embarrassing stories of me, I poked fun at her until we were up in the air on Vale’s legs and she couldn’t hear me anymore. But I still pointed and laughed whenever she looked at me.

I was pretty sure she was taking it well, all things considered. Over the course of the relatively short flight from the middle of the mountain to the basin beyond the peak, Avuri went from looking at me with an expression of mild annoyance to an overplayed pout. I kept poking fun until we landed anyway. At one point, I even got Cierra, who was huddled next to me in my arms, to point and laugh with me. Or at least she pointed and looked mildly amused, maybe?

When we crested the top of the peak and began the glide toward the middle point between the peaks, I could see Avuri’s eyes go wide. The view from here wasn’t spectacular. There were clouds, mist, and fog all around. Even some snow flurries this close to the top of Flowing Dragon Peak.

Even then, the view was something your average person - even your average Cultivator - was unlikely to see. The shadows of the other mountains loomed behind the clouds and fog in the distance, but the sky above us was beautiful and clear. It wasn’t quite sunset yet, but the colors of the sky were just beginning to turn.

As we descended into the clouds toward the basin, our vision was blocked for a short period of time before we finally emerged once more below the clouds. I looked back toward Avuri to see the look on her face as the basin itself came into view, and was not disappointed by her look of awe.

From above, the basin looked almost like a magical oasis. Surrounded by mountainous terrain on all sides, the lush, vibrant plant life all around stood like a beacon amidst the night. The canopy was predominantly the soft purple of the wisteria trees, though it was dotted with more average colors like green and small sparks of red. And that was without mentioning the massive elder wisteria which dwarfed all of the other trees, standing a few hundred meters above the rest.

We had also crafted a small river of water, running from the Flowing Dragon Peak’s abundant natural springs, that ran throughout the whole basin. You could see hints of blue running under the canopy in places, and altogether it was a breathtaking sight. Even I had to take a moment to appreciate it all, despite having seen it multiple times.

Avuri’s head swung back and forth to look around as we came in for a landing. There was no way to talk up in the air as we had to separate to different legs to be carried. But when we landed at the edge of the basin by the tree line, Avuri bounded over to me with one large leap.

“This? This is your home?” She asked, sweeping an arm out toward the trees.

“Well, sorta.” I hedged, pointing toward the center of the trees. “The house is much closer to the center. These are all just trees for cover.”

Avuri gave me a flat look, as if to say ‘Duh.’ I chuckled, and turned toward the trees.

“Come along then. I’ll give you the grand tour.”

And I did so, showing her around to all of our finished landmarks. Avuri was delightfully fascinated by the whole compound, even asking Talya and Vale about the Arrays used to keep the whole place so temperate and livable. Apparently, while the Frozen Mountain did use some simple ones, they had said that the cold and snow of the mountaintop forged better Cultivators. Avuri thought it might just be an excuse to skip out on paying for nicer Arrays.

Eventually, we spiraled our way in toward the main house. Rather than show off the outside, I made my way in. As we walked around, Cierra had begun to flag. I wanted to get her inside and into bed, hoping that the excitement of the day would leave her out cold for the night. And hopefully dreamless.

When we entered the main house, I excused myself to bring Cierra up to my room, leaving Avuri to look around as she pleased. After getting Cierra changed and into my bed, I gave her a comforting snuggle before heading back down to Avuri. She had apparently ventured up to the second floor, and was wandering around the living space, just taking in the woodcrafting.

“She’s asleep?” Avuri asked, when I came around the corner. I headed toward the kitchen to put away the mass of groceries we bought. They were placed in a storage ring for ease of transport, but since I only originally bought a cheap one, the food would spoil in there. It needed to be placed within the Arrays around the kitchen for storing food long-term.

“Yes, at least for now.” I said, putting fruit and veggies away. “I’m really hoping all the excitement of the day wore her out and she’ll be able to sleep soundly.”

“Nightmares?”

“Nightmares.” I confirmed. “They’ve been going on without end. I think they’re getting at least a little bit better, especially in the last few weeks. She wakes up with less screaming, just crying.” I looked bitterly at the tomato in my hand as I placed it away.

“I see.” Avuri said, sounding contemplative. “I imagine anyone in her situation would have nightmares for a while.”

I nodded. “It’s been almost a year, though. I’d expect her to have nightmares on occasion still, sure. But it’s still almost every night. I’m worried that there may be some real lasting damage to her psyche.” With a sigh, I moved to put the rest of the perishable away.

“I don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Is it so uncommon to be acting the way she is, even a year later?” Avuri asked.

I considered this for a moment. “In my experience, kids can outwardly usually bounce back pretty quickly, but with underlying scars remaining.” I said, talking through my thoughts. “Nightmares being this frequent for almost a year? Yeah, that’s unusual. As is the way she seems to be almost emotionless after this long.”

There was a long pause in the conversation as I put away the last of the groceries. When I stood and turned around to face Avuri, she was watching me very curiously. I raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

There was another moment of her studying me before she responded. “You’ve dealt with this sort of trauma before, haven’t you?”

I silently inclined my head in ascent. “Yes. A number of times.”

Another pause. “Don’t suppose you’d want to tell me those childhood stories now, would you?”

I met Avuri’s gaze with a soft smile. She was a sharp one, alright. “They aren’t good stories, Avuri.” I said, seriously.

“I can see that by the look on your face.” She responded.

“And I can see on yours that you’re still curious.” I said, trying to force a little cheer into my voice. Avuri still just regarded me with silent earnestness.

I broke eye contact first. “How about we go make use of the bath house? It’s a rare treat, and you may as well get to use it while you’re here.” I said, once again keeping my voice as cheerful as I could manage.

Before Avuri could respond, I walked away to call after Talya, to let her know to keep an ear out for Cierra while we were occupied. She agreed, and left her room to keep Cierra company while she slept for now.

With that settled, I motioned for Avuri to follow me toward the bath house. “Come along.”

As we walked the path to the bath house from the main house, I kept the conversation going while describing the trees and building techniques we used around the basin. As we neared the bath house itself, I started talking about its layout and what went into building the whole thing.

When we entered the building that housed the stalls and storage for changing, I called around for Vale, but he seemed to be elsewhere. Satisfied, I turned back to Avuri. “You prefer towels or bare?”

Avuri thought for a moment. “Let’s go with towels for now.”

I nodded, and passed her a huge bathing towel from the storage closet. I had them made extra large for comfort, and really liked them that way. We both stepped into stalls to change out of our clothing. Within each stall was a small water Array to rinse off your body before getting into the bath. We both rinsed off and wrapped ourselves in towels before we walked into the open air bath.

As I left my stall wrapped only in my towel, I could feel Avuri’s eyes on me. As it was nothing new, I walked unhurried to the bath, Avuri just a step behind me. I dipped a foot in the water, just to be sure it was a good temperature, then stepped all the way in. Avuri followed suit next to me, a meter or so away. As we settled into built in stone seats to enjoy the water, I laid my head back to stare at the open sky.

“Just ask.” I said, with a sigh.

Avuri was silent for a moment. “Just how many…?” She trailed off, eyeing my shoulders and upper back.

I snickered. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever counted. There’s a whole mess of scars under my hair too, so even if I did count the ones on the rest of my body, I wouldn’t have the whole answer.” I ran my hands through my hair. “I’m so thankful a Cultivator’s body is practically magic. I’d have no hair, otherwise.”

Avuri winced. “I noticed the scar running down your arm before, since it’s still so dark against your skin. But all those others?”

I nodded. “Hidden under my clothes, and roughly the same skin color. They get more noticeable with the sheen from being wet.” I traced a finger down the scar on my left arm, starting from my shoulder near the base of my neck and running along the line down to just past my elbow.

Avuri remained quiet for a while after that as we soaked in the water.

“In case it’s not obvious,” I said, “This is what you’re asking about when you ask about my childhood.”

With a solemn nod, Avuri turned to face in front of both of us. “I understand.” A pause. “I’d still like to know, if you’ll tell me. I won’t force you to, of course. But I’m curious about your whole family. Not to mention why you have scars as a Cultivator. Don’t Cultivator bodies usually heal them?”

“They aren’t normal scars, so Ascending Realms did nothing for me.” I said, absently. “If you really want to know, I can tell you the basics.”

“I’m here to listen.” Avuri said.

I took a deep breath. In. Then out. Where to begin?