[April 1] [Shediao Yingxiong] An Impressionable Age

[lilacfield.livejournal.com]

I'm planning on doing the April themes for drabbles based on Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy (again). Hopefully this time around my computer or my net connection won't walk out on me halfway through the process.

Title: An Impressionable Age
Day/Theme: April 1 - Homeland
Series: Shediao Yingxiong
Character: Guo Jing
Rating: G
Shediao Yingxiong © Jin Yong, et al.


No sudden rush of heartwarming emotion or sense of homecoming enveloped Guo Jing when he set his foot on the mainland for the first time. To him it was no more than a land of strangers he had to get accustomed to, where no one might never have perfected the art of wrestling or slept in tents or even seen a desert. Bewildered, he asked his teachers if this meant he was not a filial son.

"No, it's only natural," Han Xiaoying, the only one who paused to deliberate on the answer, said. "But it won't take long for you to adapt. You'll do fine, Jing-er."

"Too fine," Zhu Cong amended. "Since you'll be determined to belong with these folks, and that is what you'll accomplish."

Guo Jing listened, struggling to be convinced. His teachers ought to know better, after all. Not all the time, surely not, and yet -