01.Escape

Heavy thundering continued as if heaven is angered and lightning made the surrounding illuminated intermittently. The pouring rain fall upon her heavily.

It was almost for six hours; on a horse back, they were fleeing, drenching in heavy rain, but Yin Yue had no clear sense about it. She had drenched totally in rain, with her clothes stuck to her body completely and her eyes were red and swollen from crying. Coldness from the heavy rain was entering through her skin, piercing through flesh and reaching bone marrows, making chills run through her whole body.

But at the moment, her mind was completely benumbed from the shock she experienced and she didn’t feel anything at all. She barely managed to hang on the horse by leaning on to the strong man behind her, who was riding the horse.

Their speed was considerably lowered because of the heavy rain but they had managed to distanced themselves from the capital far enough.

At the moment, they were passing a desolate area. There was no sign of a single house, any inhabitants, even of an animal to be seen not to mention a trace of a human being. The horse kept galloping forward.

It seemed they were heading towards a forest. They had to cross the forest so that to reach to a human populated area.

Soon after entering the forest, they could get a little shelter from the pouring rain because of the thick canopy of the forest. Yet, light of the lightning managed to pierce through the canopy and illuminate their road. Wang Wei rode the horse forward, trying to find a place for them to stay the night.

On their way, when the lightning was illuminating the surrounding, suddenly he saw a cave beside the road. Although that might be a habitat of a some kind of beast, in this desperate moment he thought of checking it and rode the horse towards the cave.

After reaching the entrance, Wang Wei got off the horse, but that made the little girl on the horse who was leaning on to him, unstable. She started shivering and wavering here and there terribly on the horse. So, Wang Wei took her off the horse and help her stand up by holding her in his arms. Then he listened to the sounds of surrounding and started to examine the cave.

Wang Wei was a highly skilled martial artist. As the most trusted head personal guard of General Jiang Ling, he was a soldier with excellent military skills. He had very sharp eyes like an eagle and his night vision also was not bad. Not only that, he had got a sharp nose, good hearing skills and fast reflexes due to his cultivation for years.

He tried to penetrate through the darkness and examine the place found, by using his skills. After searching a while, he couldn’t feel anything amiss or dangerous and entered the cave carrying the little girl.

Inside the cave was dry. Plenty of dry leaves and wooden sticks could be found. After trying for a while, Wang Wei managed to light a fire and immediately he made it grow large by adding wood sticks and dry leaves.

The little girl was lying on the floor where he put her, curled up like a ball. She was shivering terribly. Wang Wei lifted her up carefully and brought her near the fire.

“Young miss, come near the fire and make yourself warm.” He asked her.

But little girl was obviously not fully conscious. So, he started helping her warm up. He removed his outer cape, wringed it well and hung it near the fire to dry. There was a little leather bag attached to his waist band. He took and open it. There were few pieces of dried meat, dried fruits and nuts neatly stored in it slightly wet. He put the meat under the heat of fire.

Yin Yue was slowly getting better with the warmth of fire. She slowly sat up and slowly started to warm herself up by putting her hands and feet near the fire.

The smell of roasted meat started to spread. Wang Wei took the meat out of fire and offered the meat and dried fruits to the little girl.

“Young miss, you must be feeling weak now. You may eat some food to get some strength.” He asked the little girl.

“I don’t want to. I have no appetite.” Wang Wei could hear a mosquito like murmuring coming out of her mouth.

He was well aware that, how terrible she must be feeling right now, how that incident happened earlier must have affected to her innocent little mind. He felt very sad remembering the always cheerful, bright smiling face of his young miss previous to the incident. But he was helpless. Now his sole reason of living is to protect this young miss, the one and only heiress of his master’s family.

“Miss, we can only stay here for tonight. We have to move out of this forest and find a place to survive. So, miss should eat something and be strong.” He again said to the little girl. He didn’t know how should he persuade her.

Suddenly, he looked at the little girl’s face after hearing the sounds of her sobbing. With the light of fire, he could see tears were rolling down her eyes ceaselessly.

“They said my father has betrayed our country. They said my father is a traitor” She continued sobbing.

“They killed my mother, my unborn brother, they killed Xin er. They thought she was me because she was wearing my clothes” Yin Yue was crying her eyes out.

“I do not want to live too”

Wang Wei was startled hearing that. He understood the pain she was going through very well. But he wanted to persuade her to live. As his master’s last wish, he wanted to protect the only heiress of master and avenge for his master. So, he went near the little girl and knelt in front of her. This little miss was merely nine years old little girl but he had to make her understand the importance of her survival. He took her little hands to his palms.

“Miss, my master is a truly great hero. I can swear on the honour of a soldier of black dragon army*, he never betrayed our country. He was framed by someone and that person is the true betrayer.” He told little girl the truth.

She slowly stopped sobbing and he continued.

“That person and his people killed your family. Miss has to avenge your family. So, miss must eat and be strong”

 Little girl seemed to get his point. Wang Wei felt the lifeless little hands which were in his palms become stiffened. She stopped crying. She wiped up her tear-filled eyes and face. She sat up properly.

“Then give me something to eat” She asked Wang Wei.

A faint hint of determination was added to her voice. Wang Wei heaved a sigh of relief. He got up and offered some water to her first, then he offered some food prepared.

Yin Yue had no appetite at all nor did she feel any taste of food. She ate the food given by Wang Wei with the only intention of surviving and becoming strong. She had to avenge her family no matter what. That intention gave her a hope to live.

She didn’t eat much but that was enough for Wang Wei because she chose the option to eat and survive. After eating, she stared at fire loosing among her own thoughts. Her clothes were almost dried by now. The heavy rain had stopped and it was only drizzling outside . Wang Wei took his thick dried cape and put it on a flat surface of the floor and made a somewhat comfortable and warm place for his young miss to sleep.

“Miss, it is not much comfortable but please try to have some sleep and get some rest.” He asked the little girl.

Ying Yue’s mental agony was so much that she didn’t feel the physical tiredness nor did she have a peaceful state of mind to fall asleep. But she knew that if she wants to continue her journey, her body must have a rest. So, she obeyed his words and went to sleep.

Wang Wei could see that even in the dream, young girl was suffering. Although her eyes were tightly shut, her brows were furrowed. She was turning here and there, murmuring herself, sobbing…etc.

Because she was sleeping, he took a quick tour outside the cave and gather some fire woods because he had to keep the fire lit for entire night. He put them near the fire to dry and sat in front of fire, watching over the sleeping little girl and keeping the fire alive.

*Black dragon army -The  bravest army squad  which was under General Jiang Lin’s command. Consist of his personal guards. General Jiang Lin was called as black dragon because of his bravery and his personal army consists of few hundreds soldiers was named as Black dragon army.