Six Crimson Cranes

Pain doesn’t get easier. You just have to get stronger.

Find the light that makes your lantern shine,” she used to say. “Hold on to it, even when the dark surrounds you. Not even the strongest wind will blow out the flame.

I would tell you stories from dawn to dusk if it meant filling your eyes with happiness.

If fate is a bunch of strings, then I'll carry scissors. My choices are my own. I'll make them as I please.

Fear is just a game, Shiori, I reminded myself. You win by playing.

Food feeds the belly, thoughts feed the mind, but love is what feeds the heart.

I would not have you be alone, Lina, not in your joys or your sorrows. I would wish your strand knotted to mine, always.

Learn from my mistakes, [...] and learn from my joys. Surround yourself with those who'll love you always, through your mistakes and your faults. Make a family that will find you more beautiful every day, even when your hair is white with age. Be the light that makes someone's lantern shine.

You are my daughter, not of my blood, but of my heart.

To this day, cranes carry the strands of our fate. They say that each time two people’s paths cross, so do their strands. When they become important to one another or make a promise to one another, a knot is tied, connecting them.

Be the light that makes someone's lantern shine.

A reputation is all it takes to spread fear. And fear is a mighty weapon.

Find the light that makes your lantern shine," she used to say. "Hold on to it, even when the dark surrounds you. Not even the strongest wind will blow out the flame

No matter where life takes you, you will be like those stars - connected by the light you shine together.

I liked how he said my name. As if the syllables were the first notes to a song he loved to sing.

Now I saw in his eyes the richness of summer soil. His nose looked endearingly ruddy from being in the cold, and his voice was like a favorite song I never tired of hearing. Funny how he’d stolen his way into my heart when I’d been the thief the day we met.

I must be drunk on moonlight to tell you this…but after I left you at Sparrow Inn, I…I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I didn’t know anything about you, and yet I had never met anyone so determined—or brazen. Not even Megari.” He laughed, then his expression turned serious once more. “Somehow, I knew I would see you again. It was as if I could feel our strands crossing. Yet when you came to Iro, you seemed different. Sadder, more withdrawn. I’d look for you in the kitchen as Pao and I walked around the castle. I wanted to make you smile.

Surround yourself with those who’ll love you always, through your mistakes and your faults. Make a family that will find you more beautiful every day, even when your hair is white with age. Be the light that makes someone’s lantern shine.

Find the light that makes your lantern shine, " Mama would say. Now, more than ever, Kiki was that light.

Only rocks considered sitting still a virtue. Demons take me before I called it one of mine.

And this too, I will overcome

I could of done a hundred things different, but it was too late now.

It’s not wandering if I know how to get home.

Don't teach a dragon history, Princess, especially not magic history.

Think of something happy. Like chasing after whales or winning an argument against a tortoise.” We clearly had different ideas of happiness

Curiosity was my greatest weakness.

No matter where life takes you,” he would say, “you will be like those stars—connected by the light you shine together.

I took in the smudges of ink and charcoal on his rolled sleeves, the windswept hair neatly gathered at his nape, his dark eyes, somehow brighter every time I saw them. Kiki was right, he wasn’t so much the barbarian I’d pictured.

Ironic, wasn't it, that I - a girl who always wanted to make her own choices - now wished for nothing more than to surrender to fate?

Fear is just a game. You win by playing.