All was quiet except for the crunching snow beneath Ye An's feet. With each step, her boots sunk two feet deep into the pristine snow. Ye An huffed breathlessly as she planted her feet in front of her, each step an effort,  her breath puffing into billows of white smoke that disappeared into the night. She could feel the skin on her feet wrinkling from the water that had melted from the snow that entered her boots. Ye An tugged the fur coat that was draped over her body closer to the core of her body heat.

Small clumps of snow started flittering down gently and landed on Ye An's hair. She stopped and gazed up upon the night sky. The crescent moon was hiding behind fluffy snow clouds, half of its beauty hidden away. But the other half that was on display illuminated Ye An's rosy cheeks. Ye An couldn't help but feel a sudden wave of loneliness. One hand twitched at her side, itching for her guzheng back at the Imperial Palace. It had been a long time since she felt this way.

She was past the stage of anger, beyond the point of crying. All Ye An felt was a hollowness in her chest. Her eyes dropped down to the bare branches of the trees around her that were reaching out to each other and encasing her in their suffocating embrace, pushing down onto her until she was on her knees. Ye An couldn't breathe. The frigid air that she was frantically pulling into her lungs cut into her throat like daggers.

Breathe.

Ye An started. Who was that?

Breathe.

Was that.. Was that Xi Chen?

Keep going, Ye An. Keep your head up and follow the path.

Was she hallucinating? Ye An shook her head to get a grip on herself but it only made her feel dizzy. The whites and the shades of grey and black of the wintry forest whorled into an unrecognizable vision. 

And then all was black.

*******

Ye An jolted awake. It was still night. She whirled her head frantically at the unfamiliar surroundings and immediately regretted it as another bout of dizziness hit her. When her eyes managed to focus and adjust to the low light, she realized that she was in a simple room.

The size of the room was somewhere between Xi Chen's quarters at the barracks and Ye An's chambers back in the Imperial Palace, but everything was made out of bamboo. The walls, the windows that were somehow opened in the dead winter, the floors, and even the bed frame were made out of bamboo. Ye An could even discern the shape of what she guessed as bamboo tables with a couple of bamboo chairs in the far corner of the room even though they were shrouded by shadows.

The winter breeze traveled through the opened window by Ye An's bed and caressed her cheeks. She shivered from the cold and naturally went to pull the fur coat that was over her shoulders and realized that it wasn't there anymore. Ye An searched around her and found the coat neatly folded at the foot of the bed. She then realized that she had a thick blanket over her and a soft mattress underneath her. It wasn't as thick as the ones in the Imperial Palace, but it was thick enough for one to sleep somewhat comfortably.

Ye An jumped when the door suddenly creaked open, its sound amplified in contrast to the quietness of the night.

"Oh! Sorry, miss! I didn't mean to frighten you! I didn't know you were awake." An elderly woman with a kind face fussed and apologized. She held a lantern in one hand which illuminated her face. On the other hand, she tucked a basin of water at her side.

Ye An remained guarded, the muscles in her shoulders knotted into a tight bundle across her back.

The elderly woman seemed to notice Ye An's wariness and smiled sadly. She padded in regardless. "I was just going to give you a wipe-down. You have.. Blood on you. A lot of blood."

Ye An blinked and looked down at herself. Another waft of cold air breezed in. Ye An shuddered, unsure whether it was from the chill of the wind or the sight of the bloody mess that was her clothes.

The elderly woman set both the lantern and basin by Ye An's bed. "Sorry about the open windows. The temple monks insisted on it. It keeps the air circulated. But, I prepared the thickest blanket I could find around here for you." The elderly lady then adjusted the corner of the blankets so that they cover Ye An's exposed feet. Feet that were raw from the cold. That gesture pricked something in Ye An's nose.

The elderly lady then picked up the clothes that Ye An hadn't noticed were beside the neatly folded fur coat and put them on the bed. "Come, miss. Let me change your clothes."

The elderly woman's hands were firm but gentle as they undressed Ye An. Ye An didn't protest.

"I'll try to be quick so that you don't catch a cold." The elderly woman said as her deft hands remove the layers of clothing. With each discarded item of clothing, Ye An felt her senses return to her as the frosty air wrapped around her. 

When she met the bandage binding Ye An's chest, the elderly woman didn't even question Ye An.  But she hissed when she saw Ye An's wound. "That is a deep gash. How did you get it?"

Ye An looked down to her side and saw the stab wound by Leader Wakhia. That battle felt like centuries ago. "I accidentally hurt myself.", Ye An croaked.

The elderly woman merely gave Ye An a reprimanding stare for her obvious lie, but didn't try to dig deeper into it. "I have no idea how a girl like you trek all the way here with that kind of wound. But I'll need to get some ointment and bandages for it." She pulled the blanket over Ye An's sitting figure and wrapped it around her back before tucking the edges in to secure it. Again, that small gesture brought a sting to Ye An's nose.

"You wait here." The elderly woman's voice was bossy. Her robes swished in the quiet night as she left, the door clicking into place behind her. She left the flickering lantern behind as if she already knew the layout of the area like the back of her hand and only needed the light of the moon to guide her. Or maybe she knew that Ye An wouldn't want to be alone in the dark.

Ye An turned her attention to the scene outside the window by her bed. The crescent moon had followed her here, but the snow had stopped. She had a vague feeling that the night sky was closer here, even the stars were showing themselves, sprinkling across the dark ink of the night. The air she breathed was crisp and clean, like the gore of the real world had never tainted this place. Her tired eyes then slid closer to the ground and she could only see the tips of the exposed trunks of trees. She made no movement to investigate further.

Ye An turned to the smoldering flames that danced within the lantern, casting dancing shadows on the walls. She didn't know how long she had stared at it until the bamboo door clicked open again.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, miss." The elderly lady was huffing and puffing as she entered the room. "Thought I'd warm some of the vegetable broth that was left over from the dinner earlier."

The elderly woman placed the bowl of piping hot broth and a basket filled with what Ye An guessed to be medical supplies on the bamboo table. And Ye An was right. The elderly woman took a tub of ointment and a roll of bandage from the basket before heading toward Ye An.

"I'll leave the broth to cool first. In the meantime, I'll dress your wound and clean you up." The elderly woman's voice was firm but soothing which allowed Ye An to lean into it for the support that she didn't know she needed.

The elderly woman removed the blanket with deft hands and quickly worked on wiping the surrounding of the wound with the clean water from the basin that she had brought in earlier. Ye An flinched at the pain. The elderly woman continued with the application of the ointment. Despite her practiced hands, Ye An could still feel the sting of the touch. The elderly woman continued without a shred of hesitation as she reached behind Ye An to wrap the bandage around her torso. "You're lucky that my husband decided to head down to see if anyone was at the foot of the mountain." The elderly woman rambled. "You would have frozen to death if we had discovered you later."

Ye An kept her mouth sealed as the elderly wiped the now-crusted blood that had splattered across her face and neck. Pursing her lips at Ye An's silence, the elderly woman continued, her hands never stopping, not even for a second. "I won't ask anything. But judging by how close you were to the temple when you fainted, I assume you're here for refuge too. Was there another battle?"

Ye An's soft jaw feathered, followed by an excruciatingly slow nod, as if not trusting her own words.

Air escaped the elderly woman in what Ye An assumed was a sigh as she bent down to rinse the now bloody rag and proceeded to wring the rag dry before standing straight again. "I might need to start preparing more space for the newcomers then."

That statement piqued Ye An's curiosity enough that she asked, "More space? What do you mean?"

The elderly lady continued to wipe the rest of Ye An's body. Goosebumps raised where damp skin meets the night air. "The Temple of Ninety-Nine Blessings has always been a haven from wars and battles. This is a sacred place. A safe place for those who want nothing but peace."

"Have you been here for long?" Ye An asked quietly as she watched the elderly woman wipe the bits of congealing blood on her hands, trying to get as much out from under her nails as she could.

"Me and my husband fled from the capital." For a moment, fear flashed through the elderly woman's eyes as she recalled what had happened. "We were there selling trinkets when everything happened. Streets burned, people- people were running all over to save themselves. People running over each other."

There was a sheen of darkness over her eyes,  no doubt replaying the scenes that she had witnessed. "We barely managed to leave the chaos that was the capital. Before they closed the gates. Beyond the gates, everyone scattered in disarray. Thankfully, we remembered this temple. So we made bank for it when we were returning from the capital."

Ye An knew that it was a lost cause, knew that it was a wasted question. However, she couldn't help but ask. "Did you see a woman in her forties? Wearing lilac-colored robes with white magnolias over them?"

Ye An's shoulders dropped when the elderly woman said no.

"Was she.. Someone important to you?" The elderly woman asked gingerly.

Ye An merely gave her a smile that was brined with sorrow. "She was like a mother to me. And I wished that she was here with me now."

+* Thanks for reading! Please vote, comment, and follow if you like the story!*+

*Writer's note: 

I'm sad now after writing this chapter /0/