Training and instinct finally began to kick in, driving Mei Li's numbness to the back of her mind. "Blood. The disease has progressed dangerously far, affecting her lungs and her respiratory system. We don't have much more time to administer the treatment. Please, show me the way immediately. I will do everything I can to save your mother."
----------
In the end, lunch had been so entertaining not a single child wanted to leave the dojo once the rain finally let up. After Akio had finished his sad tale of his mother's heroics, the hall went quiet, many of the children eying them both in pity. But Fan had not let it stand.
"Dragons! Now let me tell you about dragons!" Fan began on a long tale of the first firebenders, of history's great dragons, and then concluded in their unfortunate decline during the Hundred Year War. No one talked during her story, thoroughly enraptured. Akio had heard it a million times; it was his favorite story and the one he requested the most as a bedtime story. He suspected that was the very reason she was telling it now when he caught her eye and she gave him a warm smile. She would never stop mothering him; she'd told him so. And truth be told, he never wanted her to.
The children were still nailed to the floor by the time the story ended. Fan promised another story would be waiting for them only when they returned another day, taunting them with it like a sweet. Every one skittered out of the dojo eagerly, determined not to lose the privilege of another tale if they were too slow.
"Was I that easily manipulated as a child?" Akio asked, scooping up empty and half empty bowls into a neat stack.
"Oh, more so!" Fan chuckled. "I knew exactly how to get you to do anything because I raised you. I'm still figuring them out."
No comments:
Post a Comment