Just then, the bell at Lacey’s waist jingled. There was a visitor.
They were almost to the mansion now and hurriedly ran the rest of the way. When they arrived, Brooks was there carrying a huge bundle of luggage.
“Oh hey, Lacey! And you’re here too, Wayne!” He laughed heartily. He was one of the party members who had defeated the Demon King alongside Lacey. The size of his body and the volume of his voice were both quite abnormal.
“I figured you’d be of age around now, Lacey! I brought lots of booze! Let’s all drink!”
“Huh? Um, sorry, I appreciate the thought, but I’m not old enough yet...”
“Oh, you aren’t! My bad! It’s okay, at least Wayne’s here to help!”
“Don’t sign me up for that. Give us a heads-up before you come next time, all right?”
Brooks slapped his forehead and made a tremendous sound, but he laughed cheerfully. “Wa ha ha!” He meant it as a light “oops” gesture, but the force of the slap was strong enough to blow a shock wave across Lacey’s and Wayne’s foreheads too. In any case, Brooks had apparently come to celebrate Lacey’s birthday as well.
Lacey was feeling a mix of gratitude and embarrassment. Just as she was about to quietly put her hat back on, a mini-dragon gently flew down from overhead.
“Huh? A-Are you...Piana?!”
“Pyuu-ee-ee!”
“Wah, wow! I haven’t seen you in so long! You’ve gotten lots bigger!”
“Pyuu-ee!” Piana energetically responded. It flashed its emerald green scales and landed on Lacey’s shoulder.
Piana was a mini-dragon who had been taking an exam to join the Dragon Postal Service. It had been distressed because its bag had been stolen by monsters. Piana was now much bigger than it had been half a year ago when Lacey met it, and the bag it had so carefully held on to was currently slung across it. The insignia of the tamer guild which ran the Postal Service was sewn onto it: a likeness of a dragon and a letter.
“Did you...pass the Postal Service exam?!” Lacey asked with surprise.
“Pyuu-eeeeee!” Piana answered with even more energy, spreading its wings out. That seemed to be a “yes.”
“Wow!” Lacey exclaimed again.
Tee poked its head out of the mansion to see what was going on and then squawked with delight. “KWUUUUUUH!” Tee and Piana were friends. The two of them rejoiced together, making “kwee kwee” and “pyuu-ee pyuu-ee” noises.
“So if you came all the way here, does that mean you’re Lacey’s personal postal dragon?” Wayne asked.
Piana nodded in response. Then it seemed to remember something and jumped down from Lacey’s shoulder. It collected its strength and once again cried “Pyuu!” while energetically spreading its wings. The button on Piana’s bag popped open and an envelope sprang out.
Lacey hurriedly grabbed the envelope with both hands. It was addressed to “Lacey Aster of Starseeking” in pretty, flowing handwriting.
“It’s a letter for me?”
“Pyaah.”
There must have been lots of envelopes tightly crammed in the bag. With a flutter of its wings, Piana took off with its stuffed-full bag in tow. There were lots of people waiting for it to deliver their letters.
“Kweeeeee! Kyew!”
“Thank you, Piana! And congratulations! Come and visit for fun next time!”
The mini-dragon was gone in an instant, but a soft wind carried its cry from the far reaches of the blue sky. Even after she couldn’t see it anymore, Lacey held her breath and kept watching where it had been.
“So who’s the letter from?”
Lacey blinked, then checked the sender with a little smile. “Dana. We’ve been in touch a lot lately,” she told Wayne.
Nothing had ended.
It was just like Lacey’s all-season garden. Flowers blossomed, and when they withered, new flowers sprang up from the scattered seeds.
Life goes on until you die.
But that was just another flower withering. Someone else would continue in their place.
“G-G-G-G-GRR-OOOINK?!!!”
“HEY! YOU’RE THAT WILD BOAR!!!”
While Lacey had been deep in thought, another emotional reunion had started to unfold.
Come to think of it, the last time he’d come, they hadn’t seen each other because Noi had been frantically staying away from Brooks. Brooks had initially brought Noi as a delicious gift. Enough time had passed that Noi apparently had let its guard down and made a careless blunder amid all the commotion.
“Brooks, don’t eat him. Absolutely do not eat either of them. You understand?!”
“OKAY, LACEY, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT!!!”
“Kwee kwee kwee kwee kwee!”
“Grr-ooooooooooooink!”
The two creatures had started to sob from fright. Lacey felt sorry for them.
“Brooks, I hate to repeat myself, but turn down the volume,” Wayne sighed.
Brooks turned to face him. “Whoops.” He rubbed his neck. “Sorry about that, Lacey. If I get loud again...FEEL FREE TO HIT ME!!!”
“You know, if Dana were here right now, she’d knock you into the stratosphere.”
Wayne and Brooks’s typical exchange got a giggle out of Lacey. But she soon noticed that Tee was looking dejected at her feet.
“It’s okay,” she knelt down and told it. “Piana will come again for sure. When it does, we’ll give it our best wishes.”
“Kwee!”
∗ ∗ ∗
A year had gone by since Lacey had come to Plume Village. The hands of time just kept on ticking. Long enough for a cowardly mini-dragon to become a full-fledged postal worker.
What did the next year have in store? And the year after that?
Thinking about it, there would be joyful days when she’d be too eager to sleep, and there would be unbearable days when she was anxious and scared. All of those changes would be dear to her, or so Lacey thought as she looked up at the sky. When she did, the hat she was wearing blew off in the wind.
“Ah...”
It had happened to catch an air current. It whirled around and rose up above the top of the slope, growing smaller and then disappearing completely. It made her a little sad. But it’s okay. Lacey gently drew her fingers across her hair accessory, being careful not to mess up her neatened hair.
It was cool to the touch, but for some reason, it warmed her up inside. Lacey didn’t understand why she felt that way yet. But one day, she would realize why.
Because she would keep on walking through the cycle of seasons and continue to write her own story.