福星高照
fúxīnggāozhào
Lucky star in the ascendant.
A lucky sign, a good omen.
*~*~*~*~*~*

Once I had bathed and washed my hair in the old wooden tub, the girl showed me how to wear the beautiful silks her family had lent me. They were even finer material than my own blue gown. I wondered briefly if my purse held enough coin to buy any of them, and then remembered my purse was empty.

I guess I could always steal them. Morally, it wouldn't be the worst thing I had done. After all, these people had tried to rob me a few hours earlier.

I left the bathing room and made my way to the kitchen, but before I could enter, something small and soft slid into my hand. I looked down to see Sangmi holding my hand and staring up at me.

"Wanna see my castle?" she asked, hopeful.

"Not really," I said, but she started tugging me toward the stairs regardless.

Reluctantly I followed her up four flights of stairs through the heart of the great house. On every floor, dried herbs hung, some for food and some for dye. Machines for spinning silk and then weaving it into cloth stood cobwebbed in the corners like old, forgotten relatives. It seemed like many people had lived and worked here once.

If I had learned one thing from my time in the human world, it was that change and humanity were inseparable. The humans grew and developed and innovated, and nothing within their reach stayed the same. It was inevitable, I knew, for even the good things to come to an end.

Still, I wondered what had led to this dereliction.

Once on the top floor, the the roof sloped steeply away to either side and I had to stoop everywhere but the center. Sangmi led me to the end, around a floor littered with carved wood and cloth toys, to the little round window with paper stars on it I had seen earlier from outside. She slid the paper screen open and pointed outside.

I looked out. The sun was setting, throwing long shadows of trees across rice fields and casting a warm glow on everything. People made their way home from the fields, laughing and joking, voices lively with anticipation of the evening's festival. The river was a red ribbon, reflecting the color of the sky.

"Nice castle," I said, but the girl had gotten distracted by some dolls at her feet, and was making them kiss each other. Or strangle each other, I wasn't sure.

When we returned to the kitchen the men had already left for the fields. "Oh, how wonderful you look," said Lao Bang's wife, clapping her hands together.

"I don't think I should wear this-" I began. Fine as the silk was, it was too fragile for my liking.

"Oh no, you must wear it. Most of the girls have gone to the city to work, and it'll do the men's hearts glad to see a pretty girl wearing our clothes." I recalled her lack of judgement earlier when she discovered I was a girl traveling alone with men, and wondered what kind of work the women from the village had gone to the city to do.

"She liked the castle," Sangmi said.

"I'm glad you showed her. That's where you'll be sleeping tonight," the old woman declared as she bustled around the kitchen with tray after tray of cakes. "And you must stay. It's too far to the nearest town to leave tonight, and the roads are dangerous."

"Because of bandits?" I asked, intending to humiliate her, but she only nodded agreement. I realized she had no idea what her husband and son had tried earlier, which made me suspect it had been their first attempt.

Hopefully it would be their last. They were terrible bandits.

I helped Sangmi and her grandmother prepare food for another half hour, easy tasks like sprinkling sesame seeds on top of cakes and packing it all into wooden boxes, so I wouldn't dirty the silks I wore. Then Sangmi and her grandmother also disappeared into the back room and emerged in brightly colored dresses similar to mine. Sangmi's hair had been braided into loops on either side her head with strips of colored silk.

Lao Bang's wife saw me looking at her granddaughter's hair and asked if I wanted mine braided as well.

"No," I answered quickly, and left my hair loose.

*~*~*~*~*~*

We gathered together the food and made our way to the festival grounds, where the men were to meet us. It took us a handful of minutes to walk to there, and we met many other villagers on the way, all similarly laden with boxes and trays of food. Children ran past us, carrying small paper lanterns on sticks that floated through the air. To represent fireflies, I supposed, as Lao Bang's wife had called it a firefly festival earlier.

The festival ground was a field of cut grass about a thousand lengths square. Blankets had been spread around the edges of the field with more paper lanterns strung overhead. Everywhere families sat eating and talking and laughing. Sangmi and her grandmother set up our own blanket and spread out the wooden trays of food. We sat down and began nibbling, and the blanket became a base of sorts, from which Sangmi and her grandmother could offer their cakes as trade to their friends and neighbors.

We soon acquired a variety of foods from other blankets.Though everything I ate was delicious, I noticed the absence of meat, salt, sugar, and other more expensive ingredients.

Just as I was biting into a fried dumpling filled with carrot and leek, a deep voice behind me said, "Well hello, pretty lady, may I sit here?"

I turned to see Zakhar smiling down at me, the others behind him. I nodded and he plopped down on the blanket beside me and reached for a cup of blueberry wine.

Sanli smiled and sat on my other side. "Such a beautiful dress," he said. The look in his eyes said it was more than the dress he thought beautiful. "Those bright colors suit you," he added.

Actually, I usually preferred cooler colors, blues and greys, but I wasn't one to refuse a complement. I smiled back and poured him a cup of wine.

Kageyama sat on Sanli's other side, as near the edge of the blanket as he could. "It's out of fashion, that style," he said, dark eyes dismissive as they wandered over my dress. Sanli coughed and pointed to our hosts, who were clothed similarly.

Luckily they hadn't heard, caught up talking to other villagers who had stopped by our blanket to compliment the lotus cakes.

"Really?" I was too surprised to be irritated by Kageyama's comment. I looked down at the gown, colored silks draping from a narrow high bodice and long, flowing sleeves. I knew it had been popular the last time I had been in Zhanghai... but I guess that had been about 20 years ago now.

"So apparently this festival is to commemorate the founding of the village," Sanli changed the subject. "Lao Bang said his ancestor was in the woods hunting one night when he saw a bright light like a shooting star streak across the sky and fall to earth."

"Probably some poor mu'ren who flew within the Circle without realizing it," said Kageyama, reaching across the accumulated food to spear a dumpling.

Sanli continued. "Lao Bang's ancestor searched and searched, but he couldn't find where the light had landed. Then, suddenly, a line of fireflies appeared in front of him and led him to this valley," Sanli gestured at the shadowed hills of the valley around us. "They led him to the river, where he found a beautiful maiden, injured and unconscious."

"And?" I asked. I suspected Kageyama was right, and the woman was a mu'ren who had accidentally flown within the Circle's influence and been forced into her human form. Usually, a simple and painless transformation if you were at ground level, but if you're flying and suddenly find yourself without wings, well...

"And of course, he feel deeply in love with her, and she with him, during the time they spent together as he nursed her back to health. She taught him to spin and weave silk and they made a home for themselves together by the river. The woman gave Lao Bang's ancestor a strange rule however. She could never let the sun touch her skin. So while he worked outside during the day, farming, she would sit at her loom inside weaving or sleeping or cooking, until the sun set and she could walk outside."

I snorted. "A guess, the husband does something to cost them their happiness?"

"Not a romantic, Lady Four Strings?" Sanli laughed. "You guessed right. The husband grew suspicious. So one day, he pretended to fall into the river by their house. He shouted for help, and his wife ran to his aid. The moment the sunlight touched her skin, a man, a great king, dressed in fiery red and gold silks appeared, with a blazing crown on his head, and demanded his daughter return home."

"It turned out the woman was a star, her father, the sun. He demanded she return to her duties weaving silk for the other stars in the sky. The woman was given until sunrise the following morning to say her goodbyes. Tearfully, she and Lao Bang's ancestor spent one last night together, and when the sun rose in the morning, he took his daughter up into the sky with him."

"Good story," said Zakhar with a dramatic sniff. Whether it was real or he was acting, I couldn't tell. Kageyama was quiet.

I scoffed. "Why would a star fall in love with a simple farmer in the first place? And besides, everyone knows that stars are just balls of fire too far away to reach."

Sanli shrugged. "Perhaps. But I think there is truth to be found in all stories. Perhaps she was a member of the Dafeng clan, that would explain the falling from the sky."

"Still doesn't explain the love."

"You really aren't romantic at all, are you?" Sanli said, laughing.

I smiled proudly. "Not at all."

At that moment Lao Bang, who has been steadily transforming from a grumpy old man to a jolly sprite as his wife plied him with wine, leapt up and called for music. Several instruments appeared, drums and an erhu and a couple wooden flutes. I offered to go get my lute and join them.

"Oh no," said Lao Bang's wife, caching me by the sleeve. "Tonight you dance! There aren't enough girls as is!"

I realized there were indeed almost no young, unmarried women present, and that as a result I was now the center of a lot of attention. All the young men glanced to where I sat and then at each other, as if sizing up their chances versus their competition.

Zakhar beat them all to it, however. He stood and offered me his hand, and I took it. He pulled me to my feet easily. "Can you dance?" I asked him, surprised.

"No, why, can you?" He was grinning beneath his beard.

"I've been told my dancing is bad enough to make gods cry."

Zakhar laughed loudly. "Well then, let's make them cry together."

*~*~*~*~*~*

After Zakhar a young man from the village with thick arms and a droopy cap took my hand, and then another youth who seemed especially proud of his sparse mustache that sat like a crooked caterpillar on his upper lip. After that a slew of young men asked me to join them in dance, not at all fettered by my lack of skill.

Each partner would try and engage me in conversation after our dance, some line about the weather or crops, as country folk were want to do. Some of the bolder of them complimented my looks or dress. I didn't mind their desire to get to know me, but I knew it was wasted effort. So in response I just simpered and laughed and then let myself get whisked away by my next partner.

Zakhar managed to fight through my admirers and take my hand again for a second dance. Despite our combined lack of skill, I enjoyed myself. Zakhar was even clumsier than I was, to the point I felt almost elegant beside him. He encouraged this by sweeping me into spins and turns the already complicated country dance didn't require, and we ended up disrupting the dance so much the other couples excluded us completely, leaving us to dance on our own to one side of the festival field.

Zakhar and I finished our second dance, and, laughing and panting, I left to sit and get something to drink.

There was no one on the blanket when I returned. Lao Bang and his wife were dancing, and Sangmi and her father were talking to neighbors nearby. I sat and poured myself a cup of cool tea and drank it quickly. I scanned the crowds. I found Kageyama, leaning against a tree in the shadows, cautiously aloof, as though fearful the festivities would somehow induce him to something as frivolous as fun. Idiot. I looked again, but couldn't find Sanli, and soon gave up trying.

It came then, suddenly, as I sat catching my breath from all the laughing and dancing. Calmly, I reached for a lotus cake and munched it, enjoying the smooth paste in the middle. I watched the gathering, the happy humans spinning and circling. I ate another cake, and attempted to ignore the thing lurking behind me, but it drew closer all the same.

I always imagined it as an animal, some shadowy beast, that followed in my footsteps wherever I went. It wasn't loneliness. Loneliness implied a desire for company, and I was as content alone as not. It wasn't sadness either. After those dark years, I knew well what the bite of depression felt like.

If I had to give a name to the beast that followed me it would be this: Isolation.

It always seemed more eager to make itself known at times like this, when, distracted by the present, I managed to forget the past.

It would appear, as if to remind me. This isn't you, it whispered in my mind. This isn't who you are.

I ignored it and reached for another lotus cake.

This isn't what you are. What you really are.

My lip curled. It didn't matter who or what I really was, because I could not tell anyone my true identity. I could not tell them my story, my curse, or even whether I regretted my past actions or not. It had been part of the Golden Emperor's seal, when he had placed me in this body.

I could not even speak my own name.

And even if I could, why would I want to? The stories of me that had been passed down had turned me into a monster, hated and vilified by all. I had learned my lesson well the last time I had removed my rings and tried to convince a human who I was.

Watching the swing of bright lanterns overhead and the whirl of happy dancers, I scowled, wondering how I had let my thoughts wander so.

When Zakhar came up to me to ask for a third dance, I claimed exhaustion and stayed on the blanket. Zakhar sat with me for a time, telling me about his other dance partners, one of whom had been a grandmother with very free hands. I laughed, but my heart wasn't in it.

A challenge at arm wrestling distracted Zakhar. With no one looking, I slipped away.

*~*~*~*~*~*

I made my way along the river and back to Lao Bang's house. Inside, I quickly changed out of the fine silks into my plain linen clothes, feeling more comfortable in them. Then I made my way up four flights of stairs, through the dark and empty house, to Sangmi's 'castle'.  There, I slid open the small paper window and leaned on the window sill.

From the height of the fifth floor, I could feel a faint breeze moving the night air. The sky overhead was still obscured with heavy clouds. They hid in the dark of night, as though embarrassed they had lingered this long, but I knew from the lack of stars they were still there. The festival ground was easy to pick out, the lanterns like thousands of earthbound stars making up for the absence of their heavenly counterparts.

I let my gaze wander, trying to pick out the outlines of the hills around the valley in the darkness. Mengxiang wasn't a bad place to live. Though poor, the villagers seemed content, and this far from any major city or town I wouldn't have to worry about meeting anyone who knew me. There were plenty of unoccupied houses. I had little experience with the loom, but like everything else, I was sure I could learn. And the blueberry wine here was delicious. It alone was reason to stay.

Perhaps, in the morning when the men left, I would stay behind. Despite my determination, my pursuit of Sanli certainly didn't seem to be making progress. I was proud, but I could admit defeat when it came.

I sighed. Even if I stayed, I would have to leave eventually. Severing ties was tiring. It was better just to keep mov-

"Why the sigh, Lady Four Strings?"

I was too surprised to jump. Looking up, I saw Sanli's face peering down from a gap in the thick thatch of the roof. Then I noticed the ladder nailed to the outer wall beside the window. It ran up through the thatch to the rooftop.

He saw my eyes find the ladder. "Want to join me?" He held a rough clay bottle up and shook it, the contents sloshing. "I have wine."

In answer I leaned from the window and pulled my body onto the ladder, then up it and onto the roof.

In the darkness I could not see much, but the feeling of the valley spreading out around me was soothing. I had always loved high places. It made you feel as though the horizon was within reach of your fingertips. I spread my arms to enhance the feeling, and breathed in deeply.

A wooden platform ran along the top of the roof just wide enough for a human adult to comfortably stretch out on. Sanli had moved further along to make space for me. I sat beside him, briefly debating telling him I had first spotted him from atop a roof.

Then I changed my mind, realizing that then I would have to explain following him to the inn, approaching him at his table, and relive my defeat.

"You seem rather melancholy, what troubles you?" Sanli asked, holding out the bottle to me.

"You're the one drinking on the roof alone," I countered. I took a swig from the bottle, the wine sweet and biting, and then passed it back.

"I am, aren't I?" Sanli laughed and took a drink. "Not my troubles. Mengxiang's. I've been trying to think up a way to help the village out of its current circumstances."

I frowned. What did he care about this village in the middle of nowhere? His job was to report back to the Green Throne, not to solve the problems of peasants.

"And how is that going?" I asked skeptically.

"Not so well," he said. "I think my good ideas are directly proportionate to the amount of wine I've drunk, and I only have one bottle." He sloshed said bottle, and I laughed.

"Why are they struggling in the first place?" I gestured around us. "They seem to have a lot of good land. And silk is always in demand. They have the resources. Perhaps they're just lazy."

Sanli shook his head at my last comment. "Not lazy. In recent years the silk imported from the Western Kingdom has become cheaper. The White Queen developed some sort of metal loom that produces as much silk as ten men. And it doesn't need to eat or rest."

Ugh, I thought. Baihu and her machines, determined to ruin everyone else's kingdom.

"And as for farming," Sanli continued. "Mengxiang is too far from any major town to trade their crops. It sounds a s though they were doing well supplying themselves with food, until the rains fell too hard this year and washed away the young plants. Apparently it washed away the firefly eggs as well, which is why we have a firefly festival with no fireflies." He gestured at the dark valley before us. "Although...."

He passed me the wine jug with a slosh and stood abruptly. Drawing a small knife, a little longer than his hand, from a sheath hidden at his back, he drew it slowly across his palm until blood beaded, coating the edge of the knife red, like rouge on a woman's lips.

Taking the knife in his other hand, he began to trace zih in the air. I followed the movement of the blade, recognizing the strokes of some characters. It was a spell, and a fairly complex one at that. I felt the magic around us hum through the air as it was drawn to the zih that gave it shape, purpose. I could feel it brushing against my skin like the tickle of tiny gnats.

Sanli finished the last character, and as he did so, the zih he had traced suddenly blazed to life, golden-copper colored characters hanging in the air. I tried to read them to myself, but in their brilliance they blended into one another, the gold and copper oozing together like molten metal.

Unimpressed by the blazing characters hanging before him, Sanli carefully wiped the side of his blade against the back of his hand to clean the blood from it. He tucked it back into his sheath and reached to his collar, drawing out a pouch. It hung on the cord I had noticed about his neck the first night in Nan'ye. Sanli opened the pouch and started searching for something.

It must be as I had suspected, he carried a yinzhang, an official seal that allowed the bearer to perform magic.

All these actions were done slowly, with practiced ease. Sanli seemed unrushed by the fact that the golden zih hanging in the air were slowly fading, their light dimming like a lamp being turned down, the magic dispersing once more like a wave returning to the sea.

Finally, when the zih had faded almost from sight, Sanli brought out a small polished stick of wood, the yinzhang, and brought it to rest in the air just beside the last zih.

The zih blazed again, their light changing from gold to a bright green, and then spread out in all directions, like crowded flies scattering from a plate of fruit. They split apart and winked out of existence.

I blinked in the sudden darkness.

Then, I saw the green lights starting to form, first around us on the roof, then spreading out across the village. I heard cries of wonder as they reached the festival ground, and joyful shrieks as children ran to catch the small glowing orbs. The lights spread, all across the valley, flicking in and out of life, like ghostly green fireflies.

That was Sanli's intention, I realized. To replicate fireflies. A pointless, superficial gesture. But beautiful all the same.

"One of the villagers told us if you see all three, the fireflies, the stars, and then the new sun, without closing your eyes, you get good luck," Sanli said, as he settled himself beside me again.

"Well unless you plan to make stars as well..." I pointed toward the starless sky above us. "And I don't believe in luck" I added.

I studied Sanli carefully. He looked tired. Human magic drew primarily on the circle, I knew, not the caster, but still, the focus and concentration required to construct a spell was exhausting.

Sanli smiled and lay back, head on arms. "Oh I don't know, luck seems like a pretty good thing to have."

There was silence between us as I watched the lights of his spell bob through the night air, some close and some far. I glanced over and saw Sanli's palm had already healed.

"I've never seen someone scribe a spell like that," I said. I really hadn't. A spell usually required five things. A brush, ink, paper (or something else easily written upon), human blood, and a yinzhang, a seal. Most scribes had to carry all these with them, but Sanli's unusual knife let him forgo all of the items except the yinzhang.

"Ah, you mean the knife? It's Sho Sensei's. He let me borrow it. Convenient right?" He flexed his now healed palm. "It's called Tenzetsuto."

He traced the zih of the knife's name in the air with his finger and I fought back a laugh. Sky Cutting Sword. Men loved to give their weapons ridiculous names.

"You were getting a lot of attention earlier," Sanli said, jerking his chin toward the festival ground. Dancers still whirled by the combined light of the lanterns and Sanli's spell.

Wait, was he jealous?

He continued before I could ask. "It must be tough. A lot of the girls left this year to work as seamstresses in the cities and towns." Ah, so that was were they had gone. Not to the brothels then. "There won't be enough food to last the whole village through the winter. The rains this season were too late."

"A good rain knows its season," I said in response, by reflex, then froze when I realized the man beside me would recognize those words. They were the first words of my prayer. He had chanted them scarce a week ago before my broken altar.

Sanli's eyes slid to me, his smile never faltering.

"You know, I keep asking myself a question," he began. I tensed at his tone. It reminded me of the night we had met in the inn, when he had so casually challenged me to our musical competition, only to soundly defeat me.

"I've had an interest in old myths and folklore since I was a boy," he continued. "The Five Gods, the 12 Great Clans, the dragons of old, I loved stories about all of them. But my favourite story was always that of The Sixth God, Xiyu. Perhaps because it was 'forbidden'. I used to beg Sho Sensei over and over to tell it to me."

Sanli rolled onto his side so he was facing me. "When I got older, my interest became a hobby. It took me years to finally find a copy of The Book of Mountain and Seas with her prayer still in it. And it cost me a good amount of coin as well."

I knew Sanli was looking at me, watching my face, but I kept my eyes fixed on the flickering green lights above. "So the question I keep asking myself is-" Sanli shifted closer, "how does someone such as yourself, happen to know a lost god's words?"

Because they're my words.

Sanli waited for an answer, and when none came he leaned a little closer, breath tickling the side of my face. "You know what I think? I think Xiyu WAS good, and kind. When she was deceived by Liu Zhua, and then cast aside by The Golden Emperor, a man who claimed to love her, I think she broke just a little bit. I think something like that would turn even the gentlest heart cold."

I could not stop my lip from curling. What do you know about my heart?

I turned. Sanli was watching me intently, one hand propped under his chin. I tried to read him, but as always, his handsome face was mask-like in its ability to hide his thoughts.

Did he ... figure it out?

But no, how could he have. He had no evidence, no proof. My rings made my hands appear five-fingered, normal. And I couldn't have said anything that might indicate my true identity. Yan's spell made sure of that.

Sanli's breath reached me, sweet and sour- the blueberry wine.

I relaxed. It was all just wild, alcohol fueled talk. He had no idea who I was. Who I had been. What he was saying.

The question was, did I want him to know?

Sanli had been moving slowly closer to me during his speech and my silence. I had heard the planks below us creaking and understood his intention probably before he himself did. Now, we lay facing each, less then arms width apart. His strange green eyes, illuminated in the light of his own spell, searched my face for permission.

And suddenly, I was just a pretty girl alone on a roof with a very handsome man. A very handsome man who wanted to kiss me. I smiled, wondering idly if the falling star in the story had felt this way, waking to find Lao Bang's ancestor beside her after nursing her back to health.

Trapped in a moment. A single glass bead on the endless necklace of time.

Perhaps, I thought to myself, smiling deeper, I am not so entirely unromantic after all.

Then I hesitated.

Normally, when I found a delicious thing I wanted, I devoured it as quickly as I could. But there were some things, like fine wine, that improved with age, or fruit, that tasted best ripe. With such foods I could restrain myself, knowing patience would payback tenfold. Knowing the fruit would be all the sweeter if I waited to eat it.

Sanli, I decided, was definitely a peach. Something to be savored, anticipated. I would not have him now, when I was no more to him then a pretty face conveniently close by. I would wait, and I knew it would be worth it.

So, when Sanli took my smile as permission and leaned in to kiss me, I caught his chin with my hand and stopped him. I ran my thumb along his soft bottom lip. His eyes, which he had closed, flickered open in surprise.

"Your lips are blue," I said.

He leaned back and ran his own finger along his lip where my thumb had traced. "Probably the blueberry wine" he said, and the moment started to fade.

As if to make sure the moment died, Zakhar's voice suddenly rang out from below.

"Ohhhhh The Dangerous Ones are many,
Listen and beware,
Tiger's teeth, phoenix tail,
Dragon's claws, Tortoise shell,
Kirin's horns- ohhhh take heed.
A good sharp sword is what you need."

He started to slur his way into the second verse of the rowdy soldier's song before Kageyama's voice hushed him.

I heard the creak of the timber as they made their way up the steps of the house to the narrow attic. "Now sleep and don't bother our hosts anymore," Kageyama said. We heard a thump as Zakhar fell to the floor. "Sanli?" Kageyama called.

"Up here," Sanli called out. The rungs of the ladder squeaked as Kageyama joined us on the roof. When he saw me he frowned.

"What are you both doing up here?" He asked.

"Trying to find some stars, so we can get good luck," said Sanli, shifting away from me and trying to disguise it as if he was making room for Kageyama. "There were no fireflies, so I had to improvise."

It was dark, but I instinctively knew Kageyama's frown had deepened. "I didn't give you Tenzetsuto so you could do tricks," he said.

"Ao, you up there?" Zakhar called. "Want to watch the stars together?" I could imagine the drunken smile on his face if I said yes.

I laughed. "I'm already watching the stars. Or where they should be."

"What? Wait, I'm coming up." We heard the creak at the window, a pause, and then a curse. "Don't laugh, but I can't fit out the bloody window," he said.

We all laughed, even Kageyama. "Quit laughing at me, you useless cat asses!" Zakhar shouted. "Ao, you'll catch a chill, why don't you come inside and we can lock those other two shit heads out there?"

"She's trying to get lucky with me," Sanli called down.

"You're already lucky enough, Sanli you dog!" Zakhar yelled back. I laughed so much my ribs hurt.

Soon after that Zakhar's muttered curses stopped, and I realized he must have fallen asleep. The festival ended, and the lamps were extinguished. A few distant voices and faint laughter drifted to us on the night air as the villagers made their way home. Lao Bang and his wife returned, followed by Xiao Bang, a sleeping Sangmi on his back.

The light of Sanli's spell still hovered in the air, the green lights silently fading in and out like the lazy blink of a million glowing eyes.

"San, don't fall off the roof," Kageyama muttered, and soon his even breathing showed he too was asleep.

Before my eyes closed, I saw Sanli reach out a hand and trace one finger in a slow arc across the sky, as if following something.

*~*~*~*~*~*

When I next woke, the clouds had lightened to a dull steel, with a faint pink tinge on their eastern side. The sunrise was coming.

I was surprised I had manage to sleep up here all night. My back was stiff, and a dew sat on my cheeks and hands. The village was fairly high in the mountains, and the temperature had cooled during the night. Someone had placed a blanket on me, so my body was warm.

Kageyama had disappeared, but Sanli still lay beside me. He saw me stir and smiled. "Good morning," he said.

"Ugh," I replied, rubbing sleep from my eyes. "Did you stay up all night?" He nodded.

I sat up, turning toward the ever lightening horizon. "Well," I asked, yawning, "Do you feel lucky?"

I stretched. As I did, the sun crested the horizon. Like when a plate is dipped in gold, the sunlight slowly coated the bowl of the valley, from one edge to the other. The grey of night disappeared, and color returned.

I looked at Sanli. The new sun set his jet hair to shining like polished bronze. His eyes were bright, matching the green of the fields around us.

"You know," he said, turning to me, the warm glow of morning illuminating his smile. "I think I do."

*~*~*~*~*~*

❤️ Fanart by DarlyDarlynne !