"Has it really been four years? It feels like just a single night, like I'm waking from a long dream." Yuliy leaned on his cane, looking around, the ice crystal cane trailing shimmering fragments behind him.
"Watch it, Yuliy." Sara called out, displeased, sweeping her tail across his calf, "You're freezing my paws."
"Sorry, I'm still recovering..."
Cangdu in the Northern Hemisphere was in the crisp early autumn, whereas the Morton Country in the Southern Hemisphere was welcoming a bright spring. Snow and ice were melting under the sunlight, with the snow water flowing down high slopes into rivers, washing away the cold accumulated over the long winter from the capital on the water. Beneath the blue-tiled and white-walled buildings, people moved about, citizens shedding their thick winter clothes for long sleeves and light jackets, gentlemen carried the reserved demeanor of the ancient city, and the ladies' expressions were as bright as spring sunshine.
