⟨❁⟩ ❝Take me back to the night we met❞

[✧ 花chéngzhǔ.]

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[ name ] high noon
[ kalon name ] Ran "water lily"
[ special item ] plain silver ring
[ prompt word count ] 990/1000
[ extra ] one art piece

[ link back to contest ]
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[✧ 花chéngzhǔ.]

[click for full image]

The locals told you not to come down this path. The old man at the inn had drawn you a better route on your map, but for all his help, it's hours out of your way. You don't have time for detours. You've traveled enough anyways that you're not worried. There's not much you haven't encountered. The forest path is clear beyond the neglected remains of a torii at the edge of the trees. You look up at the beam as you pass underneath, if only to make sure it won't fall on your head.

Beyond the path is clear and easy. You travel steadily for a bit, light in your step with the knowledge that you seem to be ahead of schedule and have saved yourself some time. But the further you go, the more a weight settles in your chest. There is seemingly no break in the trees, just a path running windingly on for who knows long. The daylight is waning and it seems to be going too fast. You should have hours left of sun.

The path disappears gradually. It's thinner and thinner, the press of foliage thicker on your sides. The birch seem to stare at you with hollow eyes. It's just nerves, you tell yourself, spooked by the locals’ stories you were sure would not affect you. It's nothing to worry about. Until you look at your feet and the path is gone entirely. Nothing before you, and looking back, nothing behind. You swallow hard.

You must be more than halfway through. The forest must end at some point. It seems silly to turn back, and your body's already facing forward. No need to panic. Best to continue on. You push through thicker and thicker shrubbery, one foot in front of the other, until not only is the path gone, but the ground beneath your feet! Almost too late, you grab at a tree trunk to stop yourself from walking right off the edge of a sudden cliff.

The trees open up to a small valley, steep slope leading down to a pond reflecting the moon and lighting up the surroundings. The water is pitch dark, impossible to tell how deep. But something catches your eye.

There... There's someone down there, dead still in the water.

The embankment is slippery, fog rolling in and turning everything damp: the soil, the shrubbery, the detritus of the chill autumn season. You stumble and can't catch yourself. You slide on the ground and trip at the edge of the pond, pitching head first into the murky surface.

It's cold. You can't breathe. You try to turn, but something has you by the wrist. You're sinking down, being pulled into the depths. It's too deep. It shouldn't be this deep. You open your eyes, but you can't see the moonlight at all any longer, just black shapes of tendrils in the water. There's no air.

It's crushing, burning, and after too long, your body reacts, mouth opening and breathing in a flood. There's no relief, and as you sink down to the impossible depths of the small pool, you feel yourself fading.

You're fading.

You…

[✧ 花chéngzhǔ.]

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You look down at the ring on your finger.

The moonlight glints off the simple band and you smile. It's not expensive or decadent, but it's perfect all the same. A promise, a declaration of love. You feel your heart swell as you look up to the rustling in the trees. Just as you have countless times before, he's promised to meet you under the moon.

Someday you won't have to keep this secret. Some day you can end this war, and where you come from won't matter. You can be together. You a prince, and he, a soldier from the enemy kingdom. If you can find love for each other, then why can't your people?

He steps out from the trees and you can't help but run to him. Like every night you see him. You greet him with a kiss.

But there's something wrong this time.

He's not alone. Your moment of confusion is long enough for them to surround you, to grab you. You're not strong enough to fight back against them all. You feel yourself falling. You hit the water and you can't get up. Too many hands are holding you under, but you fight as hard as you can. You can see the moon just above the shallow surface but it's darkening at the edges.

Love. You loved him. You thought... You thought he loved you too... If you could find love for each other…

But you've only found betrayal.

Your vision's going. You open your mouth and scream beneath the surface, but you're fading.

You…
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[✧ 花chéngzhǔ.]

You gasp in air as your head rises above the water. You cough desperately, gasping and hacking as your body sprawls on the dirt of the shore. Someone's patting your back, saying something, but you can't hear them around the rushing in your ears.

Eventually you can breathe without choking. The stranger beside you is wet, and you gather they pulled you from the pond, saved you. You don't know what happened, don't understand what you saw beneath the water, but you have a haunted feeling in your bones, and tears in your eyes not solely attributed to your just nearly dying.

"Did you see his death?"

The stranger is looking out over the water, and a faintly glowing eye on his forehead opens slowly. You're too shaken to register it as out of the ordinary. He smiles sadly.

"He's rightfully angry. But he needs to let go and move on."

The beads around the stranger's neck clack together as he grasps them, standing to full height and staring at the now churning surface of the pond. He looks down at you briefly and smiles more confidently.

"Do not worry. I'll put him to rest, and then I will escort you out."