White Dragon

Cranes and Pheasants

Not long after, night came. My limbs were all over the place and the position I was in was hurting my back.

I scanned my room again and it occurred to me just how spacious and regal it looked. My bed was in the southwest direction, on the far north from me was a folding screen with mountains and seafoam entertaining me half-awake. Glancing a little more to the right, I noticed a cheval glass. 

I got up, neglecting the sudden rush of blood. I got a good look at myself; white hair with blue eyes. However, when I looked closer, my eyes were alive. I didn't understand how but they were. My eyes behaved perfectly like ocean waves, the arctic blue deluged the fragments of sapphire.

But something else caught my attention...short build.."I'm a child."

From the windows, I heard voices coming from outside. There were 4 people running around a pavilion—surrounded by a floral landscape beyond an even more atmospheric lake.

I hurried outside and called out to them—the taller kid froze as soon as he saw me. 

"Whew haha..huh? What's the matter?" my supposed 'older' brother asked them.

A kid with darker navy blue hair and turquoise ends—looked oddly natural on him— pointed his nose in my direction.

"Xiao lian!" My brother ran towards me. 

I was anxious since to me they were complete strangers unlike what I've felt earlier this morning. I paced slowly and hid behind my brother's back.

"Uhm, gege, I don't know them. I've forgotten many things remember?"

"Oh, right." He spared our introductions and proceeded to take me to a stone pavement by the lake.

"Do you remember anything? Anything at all?" he asked.

I shook my head in disappointment. "All I remember now is that I was way older in my past life—22 or 23 maybe?"

"Past..life?" His eyebrows furrowed. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"I was a student at that time still, and the last thing I remember was that my father stabbed me here.." I pointed where my heart's apex would be. "..intentionally," I added.

I wanted to say more but I felt like my brain was erasing my memories on purpose prior to the incident. A lot of things I knew as an adult began to fade, all my understanding and background. Everything within me started to quiver.

[grunts] "Who am I? How old am I right now?" It was as if I was only meant to know what I needed to know at this age and time.

He calmed me down and told me everything he was savvy to. "Don't worry xiao niao, I'll help you no matter wha-"

"What?" I asked looking straight into his eyes.

"What do you mean, what?" Both of us couldn't think straight but I could tell he was more confused so I tried to compose myself a little harder.

"Why'd you call me xiao niao?" 

"Maybe because that's what we've called you ever since?" He let out a chuckle.

I shrugged it off mainly because I've made peace with the fact that this may be my "second chance" at life, thanks to my grandma I guess. Safe to think so since I was surrounded by celestial abodes and rosewater skies.

"Anyway, your name is Jiao Shenlian and you're 15 years of age as you are two years younger than me."

"I'm Jiao Yuan, 17 years old," he added. "Our mama is the White Dragon of the west, and our baba is the Black Dragon of the north. We're direct descendants, as you can see." 

As much as I wanted to disregard what he said about us being 'dragons', it was more complicated to even disagree with. 

Fireflies were prominent against my hair, they appeared like fluorescent stars on silk white canvas. They brushed against the side of my face until I saw them eye to eye—my vision was exceptionally lucid that it was haunting. It made normal fireflies look like floating lanterns. I may have started to forget about my past, but even my amnesiac brain knows how much I love the Mid-Autumn Festival, the lanterns, and of course, the double-yolk mooncakes.

Gege decided to introduce the rest of his friends to me. 

"This is Wen Shui. He's 18 years old, the eldest out of all of us...you can call him Ah Shui."

Wen Shui kneeled in front of me and apologized, "I'm very sorry, truly I am! I hope you can forgive me for being so careless." Like my eyes, his were alive too but didn't resemble the ocean. They displayed solar flares but dimmer, was it because of the guilt?

I wasn't one to hold grudges so I forgave him— I didn't want anyone to be so hard on themselves. To my surprise, his dim eyes were now brighter and the flares were much more apparent.

The introductions continued, this time, the same navy blue-haired boy approached me. His was face was tomato red. 

[coughs] "I'm Tian Jie...I'm the same age as your brother. L-let's get along well." 

Judging from the way my brother nudged me, I caught on that Ah Jie was the type who isn't normally introverted.

"Ah Jie is pretty boastful so I suggest you don't take him too seriously," gege whispered.

"Hey! Move it, it's my turn!" A peachy-haired boy pushed Ah Jie aside.

He grabbed and shook my hand and said, "I'm Huang Chen and we're the same age! They always leave me out to play by myself because I'm not old enough, apparently." He said that while side-eyeing all three of them at once—I couldn't help but notice his yellow eyes that resembled a nebula, not with asteroids but with raining comets. 

My brother excused both of us so we could catch up, they agreed and went to Ah Shui's place while my brother and I talked. I never got the chance to properly look at Ah Yuan's eyes. I asked him to face me and what I saw were blood-red hues with the same "atmosphere" as mine, waves, but his were far calmer than my merciless tides. He figured out what I was doing and just let me be. 

We couldn't sleep so we just chased cranes and pheasants more nimble than dusk.