Chapter 19
1424 Words
19
The silver light of the moon cast a shimmering hue on the faces of the Dragons and made their shadows dance along the grass. There were a surprising amount of students here, all joined together in a silence I hadn’t experienced before.
It was… revering.
One of the Shinigami teachers rose to the pyre and placed a small flower on Ryuga’s body. “Sun Dragons, please rise.”
“I’ll be back,” Ryoko whispered as she stood up and pushed through the rows of people. From the crowd of twenty students, only two other Dragons joined her at the front, all with the same solemn look on their face.
I noticed Kurai wasn’t one of them, which brought a strange type of joy to me. I didn’t know what it was about him, but I got weird vibes from him.
The teacher bowed respectfully and all three bowed back. One by one, they took a flower from a bowl and placed it on top of Ryuga’s chest. Red, yellow, blue. The petals danced in the gentle breeze, shimmering with the same silver glow that all the Moon Dragons seemed to have.
Everyone watched in utter silence as the four people each grabbed a torch and lit the pyre from the corners. The flames licked on the wood, quickly devouring the branches and twigs until they reached the body of the Dragon. Of Ryuga.
The man that wanted to steal my powers and my life. With the new light of the fire, his sharp features were illuminated and highlighted. I recognised the wounds I’d inflicted and the ones he gained during the fight with Sim. He’d been so terrifying, but now that he was lying on the pyre, he didn’t look that scary. He was just a man.
I released a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding and welcomed the peace it brought. Ryoko was right, he could no longer hurt me. It was over.
Relieved, I watched the rest of the ceremony. It didn’t take long for the fire to attack his corpse and dance along his limbs.
As we waited, the other people around me started to scatter. Some walked back to the dormitory while others sat down under the surrounding trees.
Was the ritual over?
I sought out Ryoko, who returned from the front and joined me again. She laced her arm through mine and our hands intertwined like they were never meant to be apart.
Her warm breath filled the air with clouds. “Are you okay?”
“I think so.” I gestured to the burning pyre. “So what do we do now?”
“We wait until he’s ashes and moon dust.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” She pulled me to one of the unoccupied trees and sat down against the trunk. “Wait with me?”
Her golden eyes shimmered in the presence of the fire and even if I wanted to, I couldn’t say no to her.
I joined her on the ground, hissing when I met the cold ground. That was unexpected and the perfect excuse to snuggle closer into Ryoko. Her radiating heat and her warm touch would quickly chase the frost away.
“So now we just wait?” I asked, resting the back of my head against the tree.
“Yes. Until sunrise we stand guard.”
“Hmmm…” I turned to look at her, my breath hitching in my throat. With the long shadows from the fire, she was hauntingly beautiful and mysterious at the same time. I still didn’t understand why she insisted on being present at his burial.
She brushed a lock of stray hair back from my face and smiled. “You look like you have questions.”
“I always do.”
“Well, you do look permanently confused,” she teased.
“Really?”
“No, not permanently. But often.” Her golden eyes sparked with amusement. “I confuse you, don’t I?”
“More than you think,” I whispered back. She was confusing, but I wanted nothing more than to figure her out. “Explain something to me?”
“What?”
“Why are you here? Ryuga… He… He wasn’t a good man.”
For a moment, Ryoko didn’t reply. She just sat in silence while the crackling of the fire moved the shadows on her face. It didn’t seem like she had an answer, until she turned to me again.
“He was a great teacher,” she finally said. “He was patient and kind, someone that took the time to explain things to his students. That’s how many people will remember him.”
Why was she defending him?
Before I could interrupt, she continued.
“Good or bad, they’re meaningless terms when it comes to death. He was a Dragon, a man, a soul. He deserved a worthy farewell, regardless of what he did.”
“Elementals don’t have souls,” I pointed out.
“Not like humans do, no. But we have a spirit. Even when we’re gone, we leave traces of ourselves on the world, on other people. If we didn’t treat him like this… If we let our desire for vengeance cloud our actions, we’d become just like the worst of us, wouldn’t we?”
“I…” I wasn’t sure how to reply to that. This philosophy of equality in death was completely different from what we were taught. It was hard to wrap my mind around the idea when it was so against everything I knew, everything I believed in.
But I respected Ryoko. She was a good person with a bright mind and the right ideals. If she believed this to be true, there had to be truth in it. Even if I couldn’t understand it.
I turned to look at her. “This is how you deal with human souls too, isn’t it? You guide them, all of them, regardless of their victories or defeats.”
“We do.”
“And they all go to… What’s the name again?”
“Yomi-no-kuni. The world of Darkness.”
I snapped my fingers. “Right. One place for all… A little bit like earth, hmmm?”
A smile graced Ryoko’s delicate features. “I suppose so.”
“Hmmm.” That was a lot of new believes. I’d have to process it and figure out whether it affected my truth. But I didn’t need to do that right now.
I could just sit here and watch the stars while I held the girl that was turning my world upside down. The gentle heat from the fire and her touch were enough to keep me warm during the cold of night. There was just one more thing I needed to ask. “Ryoko?”
“Yes?”
“What’s a Sun Bearer?”
Even in the dark, I could see the blush creeping to Ryoko’s cheeks. She hid her face in her hands and made a strange gurgling noise that sounded between a laugh and a cry.
“Ryoko? Are you okay?”
She nodded, still hiding from me. “Hmm-hmm. I’m just embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because…” She looked back at me, the gold in her eyes molten. “Dragons mate for life. I’ve told you this before.”
I frowned. That had nothing to do with Sun Bearers. Why was she talking in riddles again? Unless…
Oh…
OH.
Now it was my turn to blush. “That’s what you call your partner?”
Ryoko’s face turned even redder when she realised I understood. “Yes. It’s an old word, but it’s what Sun Dragons have used for ages for their chosen mate. I’ve chosen, Ylva.”
My chest tightened. There were many things I didn’t understand, but I understood this.
I brushed my hand along her cheek, guiding her face closer to mine. Dark shadows danced on her features, but they were no match for the vibrant sun rising in her eyes. My heart skipped a beat and as our lips met, the rest of the world fell away. No more moon or stars, no crackling fire, no whispering wind.
Just Ryoko and I, locked in a promise that I felt in my soul.
We broke away, but there was nothing else I could see but her. Her relieved smile, the gold in her irises, beauty as brilliant as the sun.
I wanted to scream and jump, sing and shout, dance to the beat of the thousand butterflies fluttering in my stomach, but I didn’t do any of that. Instead, I just looked at Ryoko, overwhelmed with excitement and joy.
“Are you okay?” Ryoko asked, so close to me I felt her breath brush past my lips.
An inevitable smile pulled across them. “I’m more than okay.”
“I didn’t scare you away?”
“Scare me away?” I rested my forehead against hers. “Why? This is exactly what I want.”
“To be with me?”
The uncertainty in her voice was like a cold hand around my heart. If I was better with words, I could’ve given her an eloquent speech that would’ve chased that worry away. Instead, I pressed my lips on hers again, capturing her in a kiss that echoed through my entire body.
Only when I ran out of breath, I pulled away. “Yes, I want to be with you.”
A smile appeared on her lips and just like that, it was a perfect sunrise.
- Writer
