Kiyu squeezed her eyes shut as best she could, but light fell on those very eyes and thought nothing of letting her sleep any longer. Forced, she opened her eyes and tried to get used to the view. She directed her gaze towards the cloudless sky. The soft sound of water, which must flow nearby, reached her ears.

'Light? The last thing Kiyu remembered had been the long darkness of the smuggler's tunnel, so where was the light of the sun coming from now? "Where am I?" she groaned, straightening up under the lingering pain in her body.

"Kiki!" cried Laki, coming running to her. "Lie still, rest," she said more gently now, hugging Kiyu. "We're safe for now."

Kiyu returned Laki's hug, glancing around. She recognized nothing from her surroundings, but one thing was clear to her - they were no longer underground. In front of her stretched a vast lake with clear water. She realized that the mountains, which had been only in the far distance from Jarifa, were now very close.

"How long did you carry me?" Kiyu couldn't hold back her amazement. Based on the spiritual energy she had regained, she could at least roughly estimate how long she must have been asleep, but....

"We're a day's march from Jarifa," Zhèngyi replied, rising from the lake he appeared to be using as a bath. "The city guards haven't found us yet," he continued. "I'm not even sure they'll come looking for us here."

"A day..." That about coincided with the amount of spiritual energy pretending to be in her body. She released the embrace and moved to a cross-legged position.

"Kiki," Laki called out upset, afraid that Kiyu might still hurt herself, or a wound might open up if she moved too much.

"It's okay," the young Spiritformer replied, and felt her body using her energy. Since she wasn't quite up to her strength, she wanted to focus first on the wounds that were still the worst. The places where she exposed her body to the fire of her opponent were the most affected.

First, she had healed her arms and feet from the burns, leaving everything scar-free. Only the soot on her body testified to the fact that Xianzhu had caught her in a massive fire. Next, she rid her upper body of her wounds.

Not much of her clothing survived the fight anyway, but the little that was left had bonded with the burn blisters and was causing small waves of pain. As she looked down at herself, Kiyu realized Laki must have given her the cloak. Her clothes were almost completely burned, and perhaps Laki didn't want Zhèngyi to see her friend like that.

At the idea that Laki worried about something so small despite her situation, Kiyu couldn't suppress a smirk.

"What's wrong?" asked Laki in surprise when she noticed the smirk.

"Nothing, it's fine," Kiyu replied and then tried to suppress the smirk so that Laki wouldn't probe further. Doubtless the first thing she would receive after her recovery otherwise would be a blow to her shoulder.

Most of her wounds had healed, so she could stand up again. What remained, however, was the scar in her palm that Siwang's blade had pierced. 'Another scar, but this time visible.'

"Until evening I think we can rest," Zhèngyi opened, "but then you should go. And so should I."

Kiyu and Laki looked at each other in wonder. How were they supposed to understand this? 'Does it have anything to do with Toras death?'

Stolen novel; please report.

"Are you up to something?" asked Kiyu, waiting for the boy's answer, who was still floating in the water.

"What do you mean?" replied Zhèngyi, not seeming to know what the question meant. It was almost as if they were talking past each other.

"Well, you said 'and so do I'... does that mean you have something to do and we're parting ways?" This time, Kiyu asked outright what bothered her about the wording. "Or do you have a problem with us? Is it because of me?"

She couldn't make sense of it. Had she done anything that could have upset the boy? Or was it her very nature?

"Well...I..." Zhèngyi only stammered out the words and lowered himself so that the water hid his face.

"Well, tell me," Kiyu called louder and with more seriousness considering the situation they were in. It was quite incomprehensible to her he would now want to split off from the group.

"Well... I thought"... he continued again, but did not produce another sound.

"Yes....?" A hint of impatience resonated in her voice after Zhèngyi kind of just pressed around it and didn't give a straightforward answer.

"I thought... that you might want to continue traveling alone. So as a.... couple," he finished, letting his head dip into the water up to the base of his nose.

Kiyu turned her head towards Laki and had noticed that she had turned towards her as well. They both stared at each other and seemed to be engaged in a contest. Laki's lips were the first to deform from a stern line to a grin. Only a moment later, the two girls burst into peals of laughter, and were back in each other's arms.

They didn't even notice Zhèngyi's reaction at this, as they were too busy laughing, but judging by the annoyed `what's that all about?` he was anything but thrilled with the two's reaction.

"I'm... I'm sorry," the two replied almost in sync.

"So you thought we didn't want you there because we wanted to enjoy our togetherness?" retorted Kiyu, wiping a tear from her eye as she tried to suppress laughter.

"Hey-iaa," Laki cried out as Kiyu stood up with her beloved still in her arms and carried her to the lake. Without warning, she took momentum and threw Laki into the lake, causing her to land in the water near Zhèngyi.

"Kiki.... you!" yelled Laki, just offended by the surprising action, but interrupted her grumbling when she noticed Kiyu was throwing herself into the water with an ass-bomb to them. In doing so, she had jumped extra high to cause an enormous wave, which the other two turned away from.

They turned both away from Kiyu and didn't even have the chance to turn around fast enough, before Kiyu had already wrapped them in her arms and held her close. In her left arm she held Zhèngyi tight, and in her right arm she held Laki tight, squeezing them both to her center.

"We know what it's like to lose your family," Kiyu whispered. "I lost my parents and my foster parents, Laki's parents." The voice seemed weak, broken. The subject still triggered grief in her as well, even if she didn't let it overcome her. "I won't say I know your pain. But I understand it."

Silent for a moment, she nestled her head against those of the other two. "From now on, we're your family," she comforted in a soft voice. "We'll take care of each other, be there for each other. Forever."

For a moment, there was complete silence. Not one of them had anything to say to what Kiyu was saying. Kiyu felt both Zhèngyi and Laki tremble. The trembling grew stronger and stronger and they turned around still in her arms, looking at her with tear-filled eyes.

At the sight of them, tears came to her eyes as well, and they hugged tighter than ever as they let out their grief over the past events. It had been the first time since that Laki and Kiyu could let out their feelings. All that had happened to them was accumulating piece by piece.

And Zhèngyi's loss was doubtless still so fresh for him he couldn't help but let go of all the pain he felt, either.

This whole situation was more than unusual for Kiyu. Until now, Laki had been the one to motivate her and drive her on. Kiyu always gave up all too soon in recent years. But as uncomfortable as she was with the thought... since they had lost almost everything in Harios, she changed. She took on more responsibility, was more concerned about what was happening around her.

She was deciding and acting on that, that's how Cheryu would put it if he had interfered with her thoughts.

"We still have some time," she was the first to break the group's sobbing. "We should rest here for a bit before we move on."

The other two broke free of her tight embrace and nodded to her.

"And until then..." she opened, swinging a larger wave of water into the faces of the other two with an arm she freed and waited for them to finish their coughing, " we have some fun."