socalfunplaces Page 178
Page 178
Text: 281. It's so good to see you again.
At the succession banquet for Karasu, she found Mayumi Haga, who was huddled in a corner drinking juice, with a glass of wine in hand.
Strangely enough, the Guardian is very striking in both her hair color and figure, but when she wants to be alone, her presence magically disappears.
Perhaps it's because Mayumi Haga is always very quiet, and her every move is very gentle, so calm that she seems out of place at this lively banquet.
"You're here? Why aren't you drinking?" Ya Yu's tone was clearly a bit cocky. As the main character of the banquet, she had happily drunk several glasses.
Mayumi Haga: "I don't like drinking."
She didn't really like the taste of alcohol. After all, alcohol didn't have any calming effect on her mind, and it had very little effect on her body. Overall, it was just a beverage she didn't like.
Since Mayumi Haga considers juice and wine to be similar drinks, there's nothing wrong with her choosing juice.
It was already dark, but the starry sky here was clearer and closer than ever before.
Before Karasuha even arrived, Mayumi Haga was already looking up. She was beginning to understand why Karasuha was so fascinated by the starry sky.
Not only star fragments, but Raven Feather also uses her homemade telescope to observe the starry sky; she really loves these gem-like sands scattered across the heavens.
Before Mayumi Haga could speak, the little black bird sat down beside her. Its feathered body was warm and slightly hot after drinking the wine, and the crow feathers spread its beautiful wings and wrapped around Mayumi Haga's back, as if covering her with a black down comforter.
It immediately kept out the cold night wind.
When Mayumi Haga heard Karasuha say, "Actually, there is a tradition passed down in our clan."
The sound grew softer and softer. Curious about what would happen next, Mayumi Haga instinctively asked, "What?"
"A warrior who is favored by heaven can ask the heavens to grant her a good match." Raven Feather was still smiling. This little bird really loved to laugh, her smile was cheerful and bright. "Simply put, it's the right to choose a mate first."
"Does such a tradition really exist?" Mayumi Haga thought carefully, but this was not mentioned in the blessings she had requested from the River of Life.
“Perhaps it existed at first, but later… probably because of the difference in lifespan, it disappeared,” said Raven Feather.
In reality, because of their short lifespan, most winged people fall in love at first sight.
Some birds may have only seen those glittering fragments of stars, but they can never forget the eyes they once saw.
Mayumi Haga wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by Karasu.
"You're leaving tomorrow, right?" Raven Feather said, trying to lighten her tone. "And then the next time you come will be for the next Warrior Selection?"
That will probably be a hundred years from now, and I'll be an old woman by then.
"……perhaps."
The word "maybe" is used because Mayumi Haga might come here again due to other missions, or she might never have the chance to visit again.
Seeing Karasu's reluctance, and out of concern for her friend who had just come of age and was about to shoulder the responsibility of the entire clan, Mayumi Haga, who had no further tasks, said:
"However, I will stay here for a while."
"Really? Huh?" Crow Feather was clearly delighted, and the feathers on his head straightened up.
It is true, of course.
After this experience, Mayumi Haga realized that she still couldn't master the paraglider, so she planned to practice hard in the Gale Valley before her next mission.
This is one of the most complex and turbulent places in the world, with abundant updrafts. If you can master gliding skills here, other places will be a piece of cake.
Raven Feather then fully perked up and said happily, "Then I'll teach you. You'll definitely master gliding very quickly! Although you're not a Feather Clan member and can't use the power of wind, many techniques are still common..."
Hearing the cries of the crows in her ear, Mayumi Haga drank the juice in her glass in one gulp.
-----------------
After Karasu took over, Mayumi Haga lived in the village of the Feather Clan for a month, honing her gliding skills to perfection.
With no reason to linger and other tasks at hand, Mayumi Haga bid farewell to Crow Feather and the familiar Feather Clan, embarking on her own journey alone.
A hundred years later, I visited the Valley of the Raging Wind once more.
This time, she will once again witness the birth of the new clan leader.
She skillfully used a paraglider to ascend in the updrafts and then glide down to the Feather Clan's village.
A century has passed, and the village is very different from what I remember, but the chieftain's residence is still on the mountaintop.
Looking at the triangular patterned totem on the mountaintop, Mayumi Haga didn't take the well-maintained cliffside path, but instead chose—
—Using the airflow and thrust generated by the self-destruction, take off from the ground and then fly directly up in a paraglider.
"What is that!?"
"How did it suddenly jump so much upwards?! What happened?!"
The shocked words of the Feathered Clan were left behind by Yuga Mayumi. She controlled the force of her self-destruction and quickly reached the top of the mountain.
She opened her paraglider and gently landed in front of the chieftain's residence on the mountaintop.
Because only the Winged Tribe can reach this place, and in order to reduce the probability of their houses being blown away by the mountain winds, the Winged Tribe's dwellings basically have no walls.
Mayumi Haga spotted Karasuha sitting in the room with his eyes closed, resting.
At 110 years old, Crow Feather is an old man in his twilight years. His once bright and beautiful feathers are now messy and dull. Despite his best efforts to groom them, they are no longer as smooth as they used to be.
Its beak doesn't seem to be able to peck at anything anymore.
She looks thinner than she did a hundred years ago, perhaps because every race may shrink in size as they age.
As Mayumi Haga approached, Karasu's eyes snapped open.
Although its eyes were cloudy, they were still sharp and bright, giving Mayumi Haga a sense of crisis as if she were being watched by a large bird of prey.
But after seeing Mayumi Haga's face clearly, Karasu's aggression vanished.
She opened her eyes wide with the same joy she had in her youth, and her voice seemed to echo from a hundred years ago: "You've come."
Mayumi Haga hummed in agreement and approached. As she drew near, Karasuha gazed at her with a childlike curiosity.
But gradually, a sour feeling crept into his eyes.
“You’re still exactly the same as you were a hundred years ago,” Ravenfeather said. “Here, I’m already an old monster. But you have much more time than I do… That’s great, I can still see you.”
Mayumi Haga remained silent.
Crow Feather continued, "Did you see that little white bird? He will be the next clan leader. He's a descendant of the Mountain Roc you saw last time. Doesn't he look a bit like him?"
Text: 282. The Chattering Clan Chiefs
Although Ravenfeather's statement sounded like a pre-arranged decision, she had lived for 110 years and was old enough to see clearly who among the younger generation was most likely to win the Warrior Selection.
Her eyes had aged considerably, and her vision was far worse than before, but after becoming the clan leader, she was able to see the "souls" of others to some extent.
The brightest young winged creature among them is the next clan leader; it's obvious at a glance.
Of all the people, the brightest and most unique light that Karasu had ever seen came from the guardian, Mayumi Haga, whom he had befriended a hundred years ago.
Because of Crow Feather's special status, as the generation of Feather Clan she knew passed away one after another, she gradually lost her peers with whom she could speak.
Few of the younger generation dared to chat with her, except for a few mischievous ones. But even the mischievous ones would have their parents come knocking on their door, grabbing their ears and taking them away, telling them "not to bother the clan leader."
And so, the silence around Crow Feather grew ever quieter.
Because it's so quiet, as she gets older, Ya Yu is more prone to overthinking when she's alone.
She sometimes wonders what would have happened if she hadn't chosen to take on this responsibility and instead accepted her short but free life.
That was perhaps a life as dazzling as a shooting star.
She would chase after the fragments of stars falling from the sky, tirelessly flapping her wings, until she died of exhaustion in a place infinitely close to the sky and the sun.
Then, her soul will return to the river, wash away everything, and be reborn into the world.
For a guardian like Mayumi Haga, a life of only a few decades is like a raindrop falling on the surface, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
For a race with such short lifespans, parting from their guardians would be a lifelong regret.
Ravenfeather is not actually a sentimental member of the Winged Clan. Their lifespan is too short, so most of them are straightforward and don't spend too much time on sorrow.
She remembered what the former clan chief had told her when she was a child, about the clan chief's hair ornament.
She used to be a troublemaker, sneaking up to talk to the seemingly lonely chieftain.
The clan chief would tell her stories about their ancestors.
Legend has it that the feathers on the clan chief's hair ornament are the most beautiful and magnificent feathers from the ancestor of the Feather Clan.
That was the first winged creature in the world, the ancestor of all winged creatures, and his blood flows in the veins of all winged creatures.
He was conceived by the long river and, after his birth, arrived in the north of the continent in a daze. Feeling lonely, he used his shed feathers to create a life that looked exactly like him.
But these creatures do not possess his powerful body; they are clumsy and heavy, with wings but unable to fly.
In order for the feathered race he created to continue, the Archaeopteryx pleaded with the River of Life to give the feathered race a lighter body and hollow but tough bones at the cost of its own blood and bones, making them more suitable for flight.
Having done all this, Archaeopteryx was on its last breath. It lay helplessly on the ground, its last breath passing through the heavens and earth, turning into the ceaseless wind.
The finer downy feathers on their bodies were blown across the continent by the wind, thus becoming a feature of other birds that lack intelligence.
The longer and heavier feathers fell into the cracks in the earth, becoming the source of the raging winds in the deep valleys.
The soul of Archaeopteryx did not return to the long river, but was scattered in the wind. Whenever his descendants called for the protection of the wind, he would gently lift them up.
The crystal-clear, almost gem-like feathers on the chieftain's headdress, yet so light they seem weightless, are amulets left behind by the ancient Archaeopteryx.
It houses a portion of the soul and power of the Archaeopteryx, thus protecting the succeeding patriarch and allowing him to continue to drive and quell the raging winds in the deep valley, providing a natural wind barrier for the Feathered Clan.
And after the passing of each clan chief, their souls also possess the right to make choices:
Returning to the long river, or transforming into a gentle breeze with our ancestors to protect future generations.
That was a realm that Raven Feather did not know and felt extremely unfamiliar with.
In her little mind, all of this seemed so far away.
But as she became the clan leader and grew older, even older than the clan leader of yesteryear, she became increasingly able to hear the whispers from her hair ornaments.
To be precise, it is the sound of a soul in the wind.
She is still alive, so she cannot see, but she can hear more and more clearly the voices of the clan leaders.
[I never imagined that Little Raven Feather could become so well-behaved.]
This child was quite impulsive and clumsy when he was little.
Sigh, falling for a guardian is really tough, you know, I know from experience.
Are you referring to the giant guardian who came before?
That's far too different from our people's aesthetic... Ah, but Lady Ulzana is indeed very dashing.
No, before that, a black-haired human guardian also came by...
Ah! So it was because of him that you chose not to marry my great-great-grandfather and remained single for a hundred years?!
[Shut up, Little Chestnut Tree. Compared to that clueless guy, Lord Floating Cloud is clearly much better...]
It seems my ancestor was infatuated with Lady Ulzana...
[Putting everything else aside, the guardians who came this time look quite cute. Wooden-faced? Does Little Ravenfeather like this type?]
[Alas, the Guardians are truly sinful beings...]
[Seriously, has no one ever succeeded? Why is everyone reminiscing?!]
"Lady Ulzana, that's impossible."
[However, Lord Fuyun was surprisingly easy to get... ah, I mean, to be eaten.]
[Damn it, why do they send a guardian every hundred years to lure our clan's young people?]
At this point, Yayu would pretend not to hear.
Even the Archaeopteryx would occasionally join in with great interest: [What? Wasn't this a complete wipeout?]
Then he laughed heartily at the group of defeated clan leaders.
Yayu was even less inclined to reveal the fact that she could actually hear the previous clan leaders speaking.
Thanks to these wind spirits, Raven Feather was never bored; any gossip that the wind could reach would be transported back.
Because the clan leaders' spirits are all gossipy about the younger generation, they often exchange observations about Yuga Mayumi.
For example, he became more and more skilled at self-destruction; for example, he went to the aquatic territory and got bitten several times; for example, he tamed the skeleton horse on the island in the middle of the lake.
The other guardians are mostly asleep; this child is really busy.