The Voyage In The Blizzard - Chapter 23
For the next several days the lifestyle on the Frosty Mountain peaks slowly was flowing in it’s usual direction.
Soldiers were training, practicing their sword skills and the blizzard was the only thing which was disturbing them.
Running barefoot, without shirt, the heavy breathing and loud heartbeat, all these made this cold world look alive.
Longwei, feeling relieved after that incident with the beast finally could went back to his usual rhythm. But still his human nature wasn’t fully satisfied. Longing for new knowledge he was looking for any book in the village. Reading everything on his way, his mind was hungry and his soul felt some kind of degradation even though the knowledge which he gained could compare him to the great scholar. But in spite of feeling degraded, he was ignoring, with all his might, the fact that he could go to Lei’s personal library and take some books from there.
Ignoring him, pretending like he did not notice him, Longwei tried to look cold and indifferent even though his mind and body were longing for him.
Desiring to run away from here and from him, from the very beginning till the end of the day he was avoiding Lei’s gaze and when Yue-Liang showed up after several days and asked him to be his guest in the village of the Third clan he immediately agreed..
“I did not expect that you would accept my invitation. But I am happy that you did accept it. In my clan, I am always so bored. Training, sword fighting, listening to my father’s lectures and that’s it. I have no friends at all. You won’t believe but it’s been a while since I had fun. My father does not let me to have fun and relax a bit. But right now, I won’t do anything, I am gonna live my life and pretend like there are no beasts and everything is fine.” Yue-Liang said. Walking in front of Longwei, he was leading him to his village which was a few forests away. “By the way Longwei, have you been in my clan?”
“No. Never.”
“Well, this is even good. Then, I will be able to surprise you. I invited you because otherwise how else would I show my gratefulness to you. You don’t want a fame, feast, you don’t want to be a hero, all you want is to live the calm life. Am I right?”
“Quite right. To be honest I have to interest in anything what is happening in this world. Of course, I want to destroy all these beasts but my heart is longing for another things.”
“What kind of things? If it is not a secret.” Yue-Liang stopped and smilingly bent his head to his right shoulder as if he was cunningly flirting with him.
Longwei still feeling uncomfortable and a bit tensed next to him said, “For Sun. For crystal blue sky and for knowledge.”
Now, staring at him with his dreaming eyes Yue-Liang’s expression changed and for a moment it was like he was enjoying with what he heard. “For Sun. For crystal blue sky and for knowledge.” He repeated his words and whispering them to himself continued walking ahead.
Longwei did not say anything. Following Yue-Liang’s tall and beautiful figure he was happy that finally he could leave the First clan, even for some days.
The way to the Third clan was a bit difficult and long. Localizing on the top of the Third mountain, the clan itself was behind a few forests and fields. As Longwei understood, it could take a few hours to the Third clan.
Walking already for an hour, he did not feel any exhaustion at all. Maybe that was because Lei always make his every student to run and walk as if they were some kinds of powerful robots. Remembering his face when some of the soldiers felt tired and was ready to die right on the training field, his face which showed disgust and such a seriousness as if he was deciding an important task, Longwei involuntarily smiled and did not even notice that Yue-Liang was telling something to him.
“Longwei! Are you listening?”
“What? Yes. I am listening.” Longwei sharply answered.
“What did I say just now?”
Looking at him, Longwei shook his head and blushed. The smile was still on his face.
Yue-Liang stepped closer to him. Grabbing him by the elbow he said, “You are such a dreamer. And I think I know about what you are dreaming right now. About your teacher. Am I right?”
Hearing this Longwei screamed out and almost fell down. “What?!”
Hardly balancing on his feet on the surface of the ice he tried to look cool and indifferent. “What made you think so?”
Rolling his eyes Yue-Liang came even closer and whispered, “Let’s say that my intuition is good developed.”
Pushing him away Longwei blushed and walked away.
The cold ice was quietly cracking underfoot. Stepping with all his might he did not even notice that the ice was actually very thin.
“Don’t lose your mind or you’ll break this ice. You’re stepping like a giant.”
Gently taking him by the hand Yue-Liang smiled and slowly led him towards the another forest.
After one more hour of being on their way, they finally reached the village of the Third clan. Without noticing that they actually climbed to the very top of the mountain which was taller than the other two mountains, they stopped in front of the iron gates behind of which could be seen nothing except the very dense forest.
Yue-Liang approached the iron gates and pushing it in front he easily opened them wide. “Welcome to my clan.”
The village of the Third clan, indeed, was very mesmerizing. Unlike the village where Longwei was living, this one looked very different. The tall wooden houses with perfectly carved shapes on them made them look like the houses from the fairytale. Lots of wooden benches, tables right under the open sky by the burning fires and what were the most mesmerizing were many wooden figures around the village. These were figures of wolves, warriors, snowflakes, and every figure was beautifully and skillfully carved.
Longwei, who read many fairytales in his childhood, felt like he, himself was in the fairytale right now.
Seeing the soldiers in the dark uniform and red vests, he noticed that they were too, the part of this fairytale. Training as usually, they looked somehow harmonically and the beauty around them turned them into some other creatures but not into soldiers.
“This is where I live. I hope you’ll like it.” Yue-Liang said.
To which Longwei happily exclaimed, “Are you kidding?! I am in love with this place! This is so amazing! It is a real fairytale! Look at these crafted figures! Yue-Liang I love this place!” Approaching the first wooden figure which resembled the warrior with an arrow, he slid his hand over it and was again amazed by the talent of the unknown sculptor. “Who is the sculptor? Who created all these?”
Yue-Liang hesitated for some seconds, blushing a little he replied, “It is me.”
“You! You created all these?!” Exclaiming loudly Longwei attracted everyone’s attention to himself. Looking at him, the soldiers were whispering something to each other and none of them looked happy.
“Yup. It is me. It is nothing actually. This is just the result of my hobby.” Yue-Liang shyly replied.
“Don’t be ridiculous! This is the piece of art. The true art. You can’t imagine how happy I am to see such beautiful things in reality. I’ve been reading lots of things about art and sculptures, but these skills were popular a few centuries ago. I thought now, they are forgotten. Yue-Liang, I want to stay in your clan for more than few days.”
“I am happy that you liked my wooden creations. But this is only a half of what you saw. I have prepared a surprise for you. But it is for later. For now, we should go to the main house. My father is awaiting you.”
“Your father?”
“Yes. What is wrong?”
Longwei not knowing how to say just hesitated but then said, “I am scared of him.”
Laughing out loud Yue-Liang hugged him by the shoulders and said, “I am scared of him too.”
“The Main House” as Yue-Liang called it was another tall house but in compare to others this was a simple wooden house.
Approaching the entrance Longwei noticed two gigantic warriors. Standing still and holding their swords as if they were ready to attack at any second, they did not pay attention to both of them. Only when they got closer to the house, one of them cast a glance at Longwei but immediately looked away.
Feeling the tensed atmosphere around Longwei took a deep breath and entered the house.