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31_days2012-07-01 09:28 pm
issen4.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2012-07-01 09:28 pm
1 July - Condor Series by Louis Cha - Thoughts fly up
Title: Thoughts fly up
Day/Theme: 1 July/"He wanted to explain how people were never quite what you thought they were."
Series: Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre
Character: Guo Xiang
Rating: Gen
It was a fantasy that Guo Xiang would never admit to herself - perhaps even she was not aware that she ever had such thoughts in the first place.
In that fantasy, Yang Guo never found his long-lost wife. Never re-united with her, never found himself again in perfect amity with her as he had sixteen years ago and never rode off with her into the sunset.
She had only seen them once again, after the victory at Xiangyang city. Hand in hand they came to wish her a happy seventeenth birthday, and hand in hand they left, wrapped up in each other and smiling in perfect happiness. He looked more handsome and dashing than ever, the premature lines of sadness on his face all smoothed out when he looked at her, and she - she was still the most beautiful woman that Guo Xiang had ever seen, everything about her neat and fairylike and ageless.
No, Guo Xiang would never admit to herself that she had ever dreamt that perhaps in some universe... Big Brother Guo did not find his Xiaolongnü because she was long dead, or that she was lost forever. He was sad, of course, but he had promised her not to kill himself.
She would have remained with him. Comforted him, weeping many tears for his grief and regrets, hoping that he would slowly recover. They would go on adventures still, for he was still a hero and it was still his nature to succour the needy and the weak. In time he would become even more well known for his deeds of valour and as years passed, perhaps, he would even start to smile again.
One day, he would have turned to her. Her years of devotion would have been rewarded. Of course he would still be devoted to her memory, but it would be Guo Xiang who was with him. She would have been the one to accompany him through his wanderings and in time, perhaps, he would love her-
If Guo Xiang, now venerable founder of the Emei Sect, ever thought back to her days as a young girl, she did not dwell on the crush she had on Yang Guo then. She had her mother's pride, and she would not let herself be one of those who nursed a hopeless devotion for someone she could never have. (Not like Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang, who had to settle for being Yang Guo's adopted sisters. In old age, Sister Cheng and Sister Lu had lived together and where one was found, the other was bound to be close. She pitied them, and envied them.)
In her heart, though she would never say aloud nor give a hint of it, no man would ever measure up to her Big Brother Guo and she chose the Way when she was thirty - after her parents and siblings died at XiangYang - determined never to marry. Instead, as the Mongols took over her country, she took the opportunity to retreat to the mountains with her disciples and found the Emei school of martial arts, building a sanctuary for those fleeing the treacherous officials.
Now she looked upon the sword before her. She was starting to hear the rumours that accompanied the Heavenly Sword, spread by those who did not know the story of its true origins. Part of her wondered, what would Big Brother Guo have thought of this? But she had never seen Big Brother Guo again.
Day/Theme: 1 July/"He wanted to explain how people were never quite what you thought they were."
Series: Legend of the Condor Heroes, Return of the Condor Heroes, The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre
Character: Guo Xiang
Rating: Gen
It was a fantasy that Guo Xiang would never admit to herself - perhaps even she was not aware that she ever had such thoughts in the first place.
In that fantasy, Yang Guo never found his long-lost wife. Never re-united with her, never found himself again in perfect amity with her as he had sixteen years ago and never rode off with her into the sunset.
She had only seen them once again, after the victory at Xiangyang city. Hand in hand they came to wish her a happy seventeenth birthday, and hand in hand they left, wrapped up in each other and smiling in perfect happiness. He looked more handsome and dashing than ever, the premature lines of sadness on his face all smoothed out when he looked at her, and she - she was still the most beautiful woman that Guo Xiang had ever seen, everything about her neat and fairylike and ageless.
No, Guo Xiang would never admit to herself that she had ever dreamt that perhaps in some universe... Big Brother Guo did not find his Xiaolongnü because she was long dead, or that she was lost forever. He was sad, of course, but he had promised her not to kill himself.
She would have remained with him. Comforted him, weeping many tears for his grief and regrets, hoping that he would slowly recover. They would go on adventures still, for he was still a hero and it was still his nature to succour the needy and the weak. In time he would become even more well known for his deeds of valour and as years passed, perhaps, he would even start to smile again.
One day, he would have turned to her. Her years of devotion would have been rewarded. Of course he would still be devoted to her memory, but it would be Guo Xiang who was with him. She would have been the one to accompany him through his wanderings and in time, perhaps, he would love her-
If Guo Xiang, now venerable founder of the Emei Sect, ever thought back to her days as a young girl, she did not dwell on the crush she had on Yang Guo then. She had her mother's pride, and she would not let herself be one of those who nursed a hopeless devotion for someone she could never have. (Not like Cheng Ying and Lu Wushuang, who had to settle for being Yang Guo's adopted sisters. In old age, Sister Cheng and Sister Lu had lived together and where one was found, the other was bound to be close. She pitied them, and envied them.)
In her heart, though she would never say aloud nor give a hint of it, no man would ever measure up to her Big Brother Guo and she chose the Way when she was thirty - after her parents and siblings died at XiangYang - determined never to marry. Instead, as the Mongols took over her country, she took the opportunity to retreat to the mountains with her disciples and found the Emei school of martial arts, building a sanctuary for those fleeing the treacherous officials.
Now she looked upon the sword before her. She was starting to hear the rumours that accompanied the Heavenly Sword, spread by those who did not know the story of its true origins. Part of her wondered, what would Big Brother Guo have thought of this? But she had never seen Big Brother Guo again.