Ye An slept like a newborn last night, which was a miracle. But considering that she had been awake for almost two days before collapsing in the forest, it was no wonder that she only woke up when the sun was high up in the sky, its light glinting off the blinding white snow.

As she dwell in a space between sleep and wakefulness, Ye An heard childish whispers and giggles. She shifted underneath the thick blankets that had turned stuffy from the heat of the sun now warming the air and turned to her side, facing the door. Ye An slowly blinked into consciousness. The first thing that assaulted her eyes was the blinding glare of the sun. As her eyes adjusted, she made out a few children's faces framing the bottom of the open window beside the door, the culprits who roused her from her slumber. Some of them had the top half of their hair up with the rest cascading down their shoulders, while others had their head shaved bald. A mixture of the temple's own disciples and the children of the common folk.

When they noticed that she was up, the children quickly scrambled away before Ye An could acknowledge them. Ye An sat up and stretched, releasing her stiff joints. With the sun shining into the room, the ever-present winter breeze on the mountaintop was bliss. Ye An took a deep breath to savor it but she couldn't ignore the empty hollowness in her chest. No matter how much air she pulled into her lungs, it could never seem to fill them up. She sighed and decided to make her bed in an attempt to quell the hole just enough for it to be bearable. When Ye An stood up, she realized a tall mirror was placed near the head of the bed, which she hadn't noticed the night before.

She looked at her own reflection. Last night, it was too dark to see the kind of clothes that the elderly woman had dressed her in. And frankly, she didn't care. Now, in the light of the day, she could see that she was wearing women's robes. This was probably her first time wearing them. The feminine robes looked out of place as they hung awkwardly on Ye An's body that was all muscles and bones that were honed from her years of training and tonic consumption to appear as a man. To appear as Crown Prince Ye An.

As Ye An marveled at the unfamiliarity of the sight of herself in such soft clothes, there was a knock at the door before it clicked open. A melodious male voice drifted to Ye An. "You've woken up, I see."

Ye An turned around to face the voice, the half-folded blanket still in her hands.

The man that she faced wore layers of thick robes in the color of egg yolks and his head gleamed with the sunlight illuminating behind him. "As the head monk of this temple, I warmly welcome you to the Temple of Ninety-Nine Blessings."

"Thank you." Ye An muttered, but couldn't seem to continue the conversation.

It didn't matter to the head monk as he continued the conversation alone. "I had ordered the others to not wake you up. You must be tired from your travels. But I came as soon as the children told me that you're awake. Are you hungry?"

Ye An searched for the rumbles in her stomach but they were not there. She shook her head slowly.

"Then let's go for a walk." The head monk said simply.

Putting down the half-folded blanket on the mattress, Ye An followed the head monk's lead and left the room.

The bamboo door snicked shut behind them as the glorious scene unfolded in front of her. The scenery that she beheld all but stunned her. Her room was located on top of a small hill overlooking the entire compound of the temple that was laid out in a basin framed by peaks of hills and mountains, all of them currently ensconced in the near-blinding white of snow. 

Directly across her room, on the other side of the basin, was the tallest mountain, where the main temple building rested, its curved roof glinting in the sunlight. In between here and there, the sounds from the people living and working, and the cries of children playing, could be heard as the sound waves ricochet within the basin. It was an entire city laid out in front of her. Wisps of smoke billowed from both large and small buildings alike, either from fires that were lit for warmth or for cooking.

Ye An was astonished when she saw that there were even people working the fields, in the winter, fields that were covered with a sheet of some sort of fabric or material that allowed sunlight to pass through but not the cold elements of the winter it seemed.

The head monk noticed Ye An's gaze. "Impressive, isn't it? That we could plant anything during winter. At a mountaintop, no less."

Ye An nodded wordlessly, eyes still entranced by the sight in front of her.

"This place  was built over clusters of volcanoes that were long dead. Legend has it that the lava from the volcanoes had killed millions centuries before the first building was built."

"Sounds like a risky place to build anything, much less a temple." Ye An commented, her voice was neutral in an as-a-matter-of-fact way.

"Indeed. But the residual warmth had been good to us. With its heat radiating from the ground, we merely need to keep the frigid wind from the plants. Now, come. Follow me."

Ye An pondered at the ingenuity but pulled her sight closer to their immediate surroundings. Worn-out flags the size of Ye An's palms were strung all around them with their vibrant colors waving in the wind. At the doorsteps of Ye An's room, there were steps that lead down the hill but the head monk turned sideways, heading in the direction of the next peak. As they neared the edge of the hilltop, Ye An saw strands of vine draped at the space between the peaks. It was a bridge. A long bridge of vines that was crusted with ice and snow sparkled in the sun. Ye An couldn't help but marvel.

The bridge's width could only accommodate one person at a time. It creaked and swayed as the head monk stepped on it but held strong. The soft, fluffy snow that haven't had the chance to become one with the bridge, however, gave away and trailed down the gap between the peaks to the ground below.

Ye An followed in the monk's footsteps. And with each step, she could have sworn that the snow particles on the bridge sang and tinkled, sunlight twinkling through each and every small piece of them.

The bridge's bob and sway reminded Ye An of horseback riding. And the last time she rode a horse was.. Ye An shook her head to clear her mind.

Sensing the movement, the head monk turned around. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes." Ye An answered, her voice suddenly turning hoarse.

The head monk stared at Ye An in a way that told her he was probably one of those few who possessed an all-seeing eye. That nothing escaped his observation. But he didn't press and continued the trek.

After a while, they finally reached the next peak. Unlike the hill from where they came which only housed the small bamboo hut, this peak was wider. So much so that there was a school built on it. A school with a field for the children to play during breaks. The field was now full of children running around, laughing and chasing each other. So this was where the children's cries were from. As Ye An and the head monk neared the children, Ye An could recognize some of them to be the children who were perched at the window when she woke up.

When the head monk passed by, the children quickly stopped what they were doing and gave him a respectful bow, their eyes still full of their playful grins. The head monk smiled at them. "Thank you for informing me that Miss.." The head monk turned to Ye An with a question in his eyes.

"An. Just An." Ye An said quietly.

The head monk turned to address the children again. "Thank you for informing me that Miss Just An has woken up." Which elicited giggles from the children. Giggles that also brought a smile to Ye An's face. But then a thought flitted into her mind. Sze Chang grew up here. Was he as carefree and mischievous as these children? It was hard to imagine.

And so Ye An asked the head monk as they left. "Do you know someone named Sze Chang?"

Ye An caught up with the head monk and was walking beside him as she watched his eyes glazed over, probably trying to flip through years and years of memory until he found the one that he was looking for. "Oh, yes. Sze Chang. I remember the boy. He was a helpful little lad when he was here. His long-lost relative came to pick him up a few years ago and I've never seen him since then."

The head monk turned to look at me as he asked. "Do you know him? Is he well?"

There was nothing but kind concern from the head monk that Ye An knew she couldn't tell him the full truth. She didn't have the heart to. "Yes, I know him. He is a minister now. One of the many pillars  of the Imperial Court."

The head monk's eyes curved into crescents as he smiled proudly. "Sze Chang was one of the kindest children when he was here."

"I wonder what happened between then and now." Ye An's mumbles were lost in a light gust of mountain air.

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

Writer's note: I need a temple retreat T_T