A woman kidnapped by the Danes of her ancient homeland in Wessex ends up in China after almost dying. When saved, she is brought back to Cheng Du, the homeland of the Shu Kingdom. With no desire to return home to her cruel family, she is given the option of making China her new home…at a price. She must teach the Shu her language to use as a code against the enemies, learn to fight to become a scout, and maybe even become a savior and lover of a man who has sworn never to love again and keeps his loyalty only to his Lord. Will she be able to save him from the past that haunts him, and maybe he saving her from the future that hunts hers? Will they survive together the bloodshed of war and the differences their homelands bring? It is as the story goes…Warrior of the Heart.
Chapter I: Angel on Dragon Wings
"Ah," Zhang Fei sighed, leaning against the trunk of a Sakura Tree. "Finally, we made it back home."
"Yes, it is good to be back in Cheng Du," Guan Yu replied, watching the sun beginning to set. "It was a long, hard journey."
"Oh, your telling me," the scruffier brother said. "Day in and night out of riding, sleeping in the saddles just to make sure we don't get ambushed by enemies, not to mention not having a decent meal for the past several weeks is a killer!"
Guan Yu turned to look at his oath brother and couldn't help but smile. "You've managed quite well, I must say. And all without a woman, too."
"Don't remind me. Where is Liu Bei?"
The giant turned toward the path there youngest oath brother had gone through earlier, seeing nothing. "He said he was scouting ahead, making sure no enemies have occupied the castle while we were away. They could just as easily be waiting for us like had at Bo Wan Po."
Zhang Fei suddenly chuckled as he got back up and stretched. "That was an amusing battle. I've never seen Xiahou Dun run so fast for his life."
"Yes, but he was hardly injured. He's gotten quicker on his feet since his fatal one during the attack against Lu Bu."
"Lu Bu…what a monster. I hear he is currently revolting against Dong Zhuo? Along with that beautiful Diao Chan. Lucky bastard."
Guan Yu stroked his beard than thoughtfully, his robe swaying as he turned and walked out a little ways, pacing. "I still have not come to a conclusion of what her true intentions are. She may become as big a threat as Lu Bu himself."
"What?" Zhang Fei cried out. "Brother, you must have been out in the sun too long, or maybe your just getting old. There is no—"
"Hush!" Guan Yu said sharply. "I hear someone."
Both brothers held their weapons in a battle pose and looked around them, facing back to back. There eyes were alert as they darted left to right.
"Hold, brothers. It is I."
Both the older giants sighed in relief as Liu Bei came back through the thicket of the bushes on a black mare. He had no look of rush on his face, therefore telling them he had seen no one hostile, but his brothers gave him a queerest look when they saw a long bundle in front of Liu Bei.
"What is that?' Guan Yu asked, stepping up to the horse. With his massive height, he came up to Liu Bei's shoulders and looked down to see a young girl's face wrapped up inside the bundle.
Zhang Fei also looked and smiled. "Find yourself a woman, eh, brother? You must have been more anxious than I."
Liu Bei ignored the remark and dismounted off the horse, bringing the girl down with him and laid her on the floor. "I found her further down near the banks of the river. She was unconsciousness when I found her, and she seems badly wounded, several cuts here and there and two massive ones across her back."
"What on earth was she doing there? Why was she not inside the castle?"
"She is not of this region, brother, or even of this kingdom," Liu Bei replied.
Both brothers looked up at him. "Is she a spy?" they both asked at once.
"No, for she is not even of this land…"
He pulled back part of the cloth that was covering her head, dark brown hair with golden streaks in it framing her moon-shaped face.
"A foreign devil!" Zhang Fei yelled, hoisting out his weapon.
"Ease, Zhang Fei," Guan Yu said. "She is merely a child. The only thing I can think of of how she ended all the way over here was she was shipwrecked, carried by the ocean into the current of the river and ended up here."
"A long shot in the dark," Liu Bei said, "but the only one that could explain it. Either way, let us get back to the castle and tend to her wounds. Yue Ying may be able to help her."
Back at the main household in the castle, Yue Ying and Zhuge Liang had come to greet their lords back when they found Guan Yu carrying a strange looking girl.
"Who is that?" Yue Ying asked, walking straight up to him. She saw from a distance that the girl was bleeding and needed help.
"A foreigner," Zhuge Liang replied calmly.
"We found her by the river," Liu Bei explained, opening the door to let Guan Yu walk through. He bent his head low, careful at the same time not to drop or bang the girl into the narrow door frame. Yue Ying was right behind him and pointed to a back room. "Put her on the bed."
Guan Yu did as told, walking into a small wooden room with a bed, a table and chair and one small window looking out the rest of the small village. "Can you heal her?"
"I will try," the strategist's wife said. "Leave us alone for now."
Guan Yu nodded and turned to leave. He joined the other men in the main room and sat down only because he was the only one who had to keep his head bent when in the room.
"We believe she was shipwrecked and carried in by the river from the ocean," Liu Bei explained. "I doubt that she is a spy for anyone."
"If to be carried by the river from the ocean, lord," Zhuge Liang began, "she would have gone through Wei Territory."
All three oath brothers' faces hardened. "They must be the ones responsible for the shipwreck. Cao Cao takes kindly to no one outside his kingdom, especially foreigners."
"Than again, no one really does," Zhang Fei said. "Not with their impurity and sac religious acts."
Liu Bei turned to his brother, raising an eyebrow. "You don't care for her at all, do you?"
"Personally, I think you should have left her to die. That way she could join her family."
Liu Bei shook his head. "I could not leave her out there to die all alone more than I could leave my son were he in the same predicament."
There was a knock at the door than, followed by a voice announcing, "Lord Liu Bei! It Zhao Yun and Jiang Wei."
"Enter."
The door slid open, one of the five Tiger Generals followed by the disciple of Zhuge Liang walking into the room. "Welcome back, lords," they both said as they bowed.
"Hello, Zhao Yun. All is well in the West?"
"Yes, lord. Everything looks clear. I think Cao Cao is at momentary ease for his troops to rest."
"The three kingdoms have been heavily exhausted after the Naman Campaign," Guan Yu said, stroking his beard again. "Most especially the Shu after we attacked them head on."
"Boys," Liu Bei said. "I have a question."
"Yes lord?"
"If you were to find someone…say…stranded out in the forest, badly injured, who was all alone and had no place to go…would you leave them to die?"
Both younger men looked at one another. "No, lord."
"What if it was a woman?" Liu Bei persisted.
"Good lord…" Zhang Fei mumbled, shaking his head.
"Certainly not, than," Jiang Wei answered. "I would not hesitate to help her."
"I am glad to hear that. But there is one thing I failed to mention. What if the woman…was not of this land?"
"If she were not a Shu?" Zhao Yun asked.
"If she were not any of the Three Kingdoms' people."
"Than…what is she?"
"Oh, for crying out loud, brother!" Zhang Fei said after losing his patience. "Boys, the woman is a foreigner. A Foreign Devil from the West! She was supposedly shipwrecked at sea, possibly by the Wei and was carried by the river to here where we found her and brought her back."
Jiang Wei blinked and looked back at Liu Bei. "A foreigner? Truly?"
"Yue Ying is tending to her wounds in the back room," Zhuge Liang said.
"Though give the name 'Foreign Devils,' she is still a human being and at the same time, not an enemy," Zhao Yun remarked. "It would be not be chivalrous to leave a woman in distress, much less inhuman to leave anyone in such a state."
"Well said," Liu Bei replied. He turned to his brother, Zhang Fei, and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Humph!" was the warrior's only reply. "I say it is a bad omen to bring foreigners into our homes! Could bring bad luck. Any woman on a ship or battle brings bad luck, and it could be the same for Shu all together!"
"You are just being superstitious," Guan Yu said sternly. "Besides, you hesitate not to let one warm your bed."
The more crude of the two was about to reply when Yue Ying walked back through the door, shutting it behind her.
"You men ramble too much. Stay quiet to let the girl rest or leave. I have wrapped her wounds and luckily stopped the bleeding. With rest she should recover over time."
"Thank you, Yue Ying," Liu Bei said, folding his hands as he bowed. "I am in your debt."
"No, lord. It is you who should be thanked. Had you not found her, she would have died within several hours, a day at most."
Zhao Yun now looked interested. "May I see her? I've never seen a foreign woman before."
Yue Ying laughed softly, smiling at the young General. "She is the same as any of our women."
"No, not really," Zhang Fei remarked. "She has a bigger build, much taller than any woman I've seen, her hair was much thicker, her face fuller and longer, and her skin darker, though pale at the same time for a foreign woman."
Everyone turned to look at the obvious foreign-hater with slight disblief in their eyes.
"What?!" he yelled.
"For someone who takes no notion towards an outsider, it seems not to stop you for noticing every aspect of a woman's features," the long-bearded giant replied.
"Like you didn't notice, yourself! You were looking at her too, and I must say, you didn't mind at all to carry her here to—"
"Enough, the both of you," Yue Ying rang sharply. "I said to stay quiet or to leave. Let the girl rest." She than turned to Zhao Yun, her expression becoming soft again. "You should not disturb at the moment, but the moment she awakens, you can look at her all you want."
Zhuge Liang, though remaining quiet, was observant as always, and smiled to himself as he saw a soft tint of red creep over Zhao Yun's cheeks.
"A foreign woman, you say," Pang Tong said, his voice a wave of curiosity and amusement. "Is that where Zhao Yun has been? Visiting her?"
"He says he hasn't," Jiang Wei answered, sharpening the tip of his spear. "But I see him go to the Lord's main household everyday. He says he's just reporting in on his scouts, but he spends an excessive amount of time in there for that."
"Zhao Yun…is interested, huh?" This time there was only pure amusement in his tone. "It was clear he always wanted something different in the woman reigned here, but I did not think an outsider would catch his heart."
Jiang Wei, as brilliant as he was with his strategic mind, had no clue in the relations of man and woman. "Catch his heart? No. Zhao Yun is bound to his duties. He would not have time for a woman…right?"
Pang Tong laughed from the rock he was sitting on, the veil over his face shifting. "I think it's why he is interested. When was the last time Zhao Yun ever had a woman?"
Jiang Wei looked down at the ground and thought for a moment. After a while he looked back up and shook his head. "I don't remember Zhao Yun ever having a woman."
Again Pang Tong laughed and looked up at the afternoon sky. "You've been with us for how long, Jiang? A year…two years? I think without the company of a woman for that long would drive any man to extreme measures, duty or not."
"Leave the boy alone, Pang," Yue Ying said. She was standing in front of them with her arms crossed over her chest. "At the same time he may just merely be concerned for her health, being that she is a woman and he a gentleman."
"Maybe," Pang Tong sang. "Who knows? I doubt even Zhao Yun himself does."
"Er…" Jiang Wei began.
"Yes?"
"It if would be all right, Lady, may I also see the foreign woman?"
"Of course. You can go over there right now."
In an instant Jiang Wei was on his feet. "Thank you!" And took off.
"What about you?" Yue Ying asked, turning back to Pang Tong. "Curious as well?"
"A woman is a woman to me, no matter the shape or color." He stood up than and stretched. "Besides, I have better things to prepare than to waste time looking at a girl. Has she even awoken yet?"
"Now and than, but never while Zhao Yun is there. She's only consciousness for several minutes, anyway."
Yue Ying turned than and walked off, heading over to the storage crates for more supplies, leaving Pang Tong to himself. When Yue Ying was out of earshot, the mysterious man smiled to himself. "Good for Zhao Yun, though, although I didn't think he would be into the…heh…silent type."
"Hello Jiang," Liu Bei greeted as the young disciple walked in. "Joining your friend, Zhao Yun, in there?"
"Yes, lord," He said. After a moment, he asked, "if that is all right?"
"It is not my place to give permission. You would have to ask Yue Ying, though I'm sure you already did."
"Yes, lord."
"Very well. Go on in."
Jiang Wei bowed and walked past the Shu ruler who was sitting at a table with his two brothers overlooking a map that had little wooden figures nailed into certain spots.
"Though Sun Jian has been a worthy ally, it seems he is taking his own course now and is trying to domineer over some of Wei's lost land and that of Han's as well," Guan Yu said.
"He is, indeed, trying to take what he can get, and then wanting what is already taken," Liu Bei remarked. "He is getting closer to our own borders."
"That Tiger of Jing is nothing more than a cowardice snake, trying to sneak off to grab more land, little by little," Zhang Fei growled.
Across the table Zhuge Liang sat, who had been studying the map silently to himself for several moments. Liu Bei noticed this and looked up at him.
"What do you think, Zhuge Liang?"
"You are correct, my lords. Sun Jian, now having land of his own, is trying to take over the Three Kingdoms. He wants to be from ruler to emperor, and he will go by cunning measures to take it."
"Cunning?" Zhang Fei gruffed. "He's just a coward with tricks! Just like the Yellow Turban."
"Brother, I advise you to lower your voice, or Yue Ying will kick you out again," Guan Yu pointed out, thankful for his beard than to hide his smile.
Zhang Fei only growled and leaned back in the chair. "At least I'm not being all noisy and butting my head into other people's privacy, especially while they're trying to recover!"
The other three men eyed one another, smiling to themselves as they watched the brute of them all slowly soften up, like he always did when it came to women.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wei knocked on the door in the back and waited for admission. Instead, he heard footsteps walk over and saw the door open, Zhao Yun behind it.
"Jiang?" Zhao Yun said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Yue Ying said it would be all right if I visited. I just want to take a peek and I'll be off."
"S-sure," Zhao Yun said, stepping inside. "So, you know I've been here everyday, huh?"
"Yes. Pang Tong brought it to attention this may have been what you were doing. I always thought you were spending way too much time in here just for scout reports. You don't even go out scouting anymore. Your men do that for you."
"Got me there. Just keep your voice low."
Jiang Wei walked over to the chair where Zhao Yun had been sitting on and looked down at the sleeping girl. She was everything Zhang Fei had said, though Jiang Wei had expected it all to be thrown together into a bulky, ugly like woman. He found instead that she was actually very beautiful. Her hair had been combed out from Yue Ying, obviously, but had left it hang down rather than tie it up as the Chinese women did it. Her face was longer with still full cheeks. She was slightly darker, probably from being out in the sun most of the time. The bed sheets were pulled down to her waist, her whole body bare save for her breasts that were wrapped up to cover the wound on her back. She had a few other bandages wrapped here and there, but what most stood out was a scar running from her right shoulder down to where it vanished underneath the wraps.
"That one healed quickly," Jiang Wei said, particularly to no one.
"Yue Ying said that was an old one. She received long before she was shipwrecked or any of that had happened."
Zhao Yun walked back over than and took his seat next to the bed. "Though I wonder if she really was shipwrecked."
"What do you think happened to her than?"
"I'm not sure. Though I can't believe she got just serious injuries from what our lord said. I believe she might have been attacked."
Jiang Wei looked from his friend to the woman again. "Has she woken up at all?"
"Not while I've been here. Yue Ying says she has though a few times. Sometimes she wakes up during the middle of the night and calls out a strange name."
"Like what?"
"Yue Ying does not know. Being a foreigner, she of course speaks another language."
"Yes, of course."
Just than, Yue Ying walked into the room, carrying fresh bandages and herbal medicine in her arms. "All right, boys. Leave her be now. I need to rewrap her wounds, and I doubt she wants any indecency done to her while she sleeps."
Both the men nodded and walked out the room without question. They knew better than to argue, much less not wanting to interfere with the strange woman's healing. Indeed, they had so many questions to ask. The only thing was, they had no idea how to speak her language, and they doubted she could speak theirs.
Yue Ying sent the supplies down on the table and went to close the door. She than walked back over to the bed and pulled the sheets all the way down to the girls ankles. Her lower body was cut up more badly than her upper one, yet the major ones were all on her back. She carefully slipped her arms underneath the girl's neck and lower back, than slowly, and with quite a bit of effort, hoisted the girl to sit up. She began unwrapping the bandages when the girl's body twitched. Yue Ying froze and looked up at the girl's face. Her eyelids were also twitching, her body jerking now and than.
"Are you dreaming again?" Yue Ying asked softly. "Pleasant, I think not. You must be having a nightmare. Is it of what happened to you?"
The girl did not respond, nor did she jerk anymore, but her eyelids continued to twitch, her eyes moving beneath them with alarming speed. Was she in search of something?
Yue Ying quickly finished replacing the bandages and sat by the girl, watching her closely. She took note again, as she had before, that the girl was well proportioned and had strong feminine muscles. She must have done hard labor or something along the line to develop those. Just what could have happened to her? She had heard Zhao Yun and Jiang Wei's conversation before she had entered. What Zhao Yun made sense. A shipwreck could not have given her those drastic wounds.
Chapter I: Angel on Dragon Wings
"Ah," Zhang Fei sighed, leaning against the trunk of a Sakura Tree. "Finally, we made it back home."
"Yes, it is good to be back in Cheng Du," Guan Yu replied, watching the sun beginning to set. "It was a long, hard journey."
"Oh, your telling me," the scruffier brother said. "Day in and night out of riding, sleeping in the saddles just to make sure we don't get ambushed by enemies, not to mention not having a decent meal for the past several weeks is a killer!"
Guan Yu turned to look at his oath brother and couldn't help but smile. "You've managed quite well, I must say. And all without a woman, too."
"Don't remind me. Where is Liu Bei?"
The giant turned toward the path there youngest oath brother had gone through earlier, seeing nothing. "He said he was scouting ahead, making sure no enemies have occupied the castle while we were away. They could just as easily be waiting for us like had at Bo Wan Po."
Zhang Fei suddenly chuckled as he got back up and stretched. "That was an amusing battle. I've never seen Xiahou Dun run so fast for his life."
"Yes, but he was hardly injured. He's gotten quicker on his feet since his fatal one during the attack against Lu Bu."
"Lu Bu…what a monster. I hear he is currently revolting against Dong Zhuo? Along with that beautiful Diao Chan. Lucky bastard."
Guan Yu stroked his beard than thoughtfully, his robe swaying as he turned and walked out a little ways, pacing. "I still have not come to a conclusion of what her true intentions are. She may become as big a threat as Lu Bu himself."
"What?" Zhang Fei cried out. "Brother, you must have been out in the sun too long, or maybe your just getting old. There is no—"
"Hush!" Guan Yu said sharply. "I hear someone."
Both brothers held their weapons in a battle pose and looked around them, facing back to back. There eyes were alert as they darted left to right.
"Hold, brothers. It is I."
Both the older giants sighed in relief as Liu Bei came back through the thicket of the bushes on a black mare. He had no look of rush on his face, therefore telling them he had seen no one hostile, but his brothers gave him a queerest look when they saw a long bundle in front of Liu Bei.
"What is that?' Guan Yu asked, stepping up to the horse. With his massive height, he came up to Liu Bei's shoulders and looked down to see a young girl's face wrapped up inside the bundle.
Zhang Fei also looked and smiled. "Find yourself a woman, eh, brother? You must have been more anxious than I."
Liu Bei ignored the remark and dismounted off the horse, bringing the girl down with him and laid her on the floor. "I found her further down near the banks of the river. She was unconsciousness when I found her, and she seems badly wounded, several cuts here and there and two massive ones across her back."
"What on earth was she doing there? Why was she not inside the castle?"
"She is not of this region, brother, or even of this kingdom," Liu Bei replied.
Both brothers looked up at him. "Is she a spy?" they both asked at once.
"No, for she is not even of this land…"
He pulled back part of the cloth that was covering her head, dark brown hair with golden streaks in it framing her moon-shaped face.
"A foreign devil!" Zhang Fei yelled, hoisting out his weapon.
"Ease, Zhang Fei," Guan Yu said. "She is merely a child. The only thing I can think of of how she ended all the way over here was she was shipwrecked, carried by the ocean into the current of the river and ended up here."
"A long shot in the dark," Liu Bei said, "but the only one that could explain it. Either way, let us get back to the castle and tend to her wounds. Yue Ying may be able to help her."
Back at the main household in the castle, Yue Ying and Zhuge Liang had come to greet their lords back when they found Guan Yu carrying a strange looking girl.
"Who is that?" Yue Ying asked, walking straight up to him. She saw from a distance that the girl was bleeding and needed help.
"A foreigner," Zhuge Liang replied calmly.
"We found her by the river," Liu Bei explained, opening the door to let Guan Yu walk through. He bent his head low, careful at the same time not to drop or bang the girl into the narrow door frame. Yue Ying was right behind him and pointed to a back room. "Put her on the bed."
Guan Yu did as told, walking into a small wooden room with a bed, a table and chair and one small window looking out the rest of the small village. "Can you heal her?"
"I will try," the strategist's wife said. "Leave us alone for now."
Guan Yu nodded and turned to leave. He joined the other men in the main room and sat down only because he was the only one who had to keep his head bent when in the room.
"We believe she was shipwrecked and carried in by the river from the ocean," Liu Bei explained. "I doubt that she is a spy for anyone."
"If to be carried by the river from the ocean, lord," Zhuge Liang began, "she would have gone through Wei Territory."
All three oath brothers' faces hardened. "They must be the ones responsible for the shipwreck. Cao Cao takes kindly to no one outside his kingdom, especially foreigners."
"Than again, no one really does," Zhang Fei said. "Not with their impurity and sac religious acts."
Liu Bei turned to his brother, raising an eyebrow. "You don't care for her at all, do you?"
"Personally, I think you should have left her to die. That way she could join her family."
Liu Bei shook his head. "I could not leave her out there to die all alone more than I could leave my son were he in the same predicament."
There was a knock at the door than, followed by a voice announcing, "Lord Liu Bei! It Zhao Yun and Jiang Wei."
"Enter."
The door slid open, one of the five Tiger Generals followed by the disciple of Zhuge Liang walking into the room. "Welcome back, lords," they both said as they bowed.
"Hello, Zhao Yun. All is well in the West?"
"Yes, lord. Everything looks clear. I think Cao Cao is at momentary ease for his troops to rest."
"The three kingdoms have been heavily exhausted after the Naman Campaign," Guan Yu said, stroking his beard again. "Most especially the Shu after we attacked them head on."
"Boys," Liu Bei said. "I have a question."
"Yes lord?"
"If you were to find someone…say…stranded out in the forest, badly injured, who was all alone and had no place to go…would you leave them to die?"
Both younger men looked at one another. "No, lord."
"What if it was a woman?" Liu Bei persisted.
"Good lord…" Zhang Fei mumbled, shaking his head.
"Certainly not, than," Jiang Wei answered. "I would not hesitate to help her."
"I am glad to hear that. But there is one thing I failed to mention. What if the woman…was not of this land?"
"If she were not a Shu?" Zhao Yun asked.
"If she were not any of the Three Kingdoms' people."
"Than…what is she?"
"Oh, for crying out loud, brother!" Zhang Fei said after losing his patience. "Boys, the woman is a foreigner. A Foreign Devil from the West! She was supposedly shipwrecked at sea, possibly by the Wei and was carried by the river to here where we found her and brought her back."
Jiang Wei blinked and looked back at Liu Bei. "A foreigner? Truly?"
"Yue Ying is tending to her wounds in the back room," Zhuge Liang said.
"Though give the name 'Foreign Devils,' she is still a human being and at the same time, not an enemy," Zhao Yun remarked. "It would be not be chivalrous to leave a woman in distress, much less inhuman to leave anyone in such a state."
"Well said," Liu Bei replied. He turned to his brother, Zhang Fei, and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Humph!" was the warrior's only reply. "I say it is a bad omen to bring foreigners into our homes! Could bring bad luck. Any woman on a ship or battle brings bad luck, and it could be the same for Shu all together!"
"You are just being superstitious," Guan Yu said sternly. "Besides, you hesitate not to let one warm your bed."
The more crude of the two was about to reply when Yue Ying walked back through the door, shutting it behind her.
"You men ramble too much. Stay quiet to let the girl rest or leave. I have wrapped her wounds and luckily stopped the bleeding. With rest she should recover over time."
"Thank you, Yue Ying," Liu Bei said, folding his hands as he bowed. "I am in your debt."
"No, lord. It is you who should be thanked. Had you not found her, she would have died within several hours, a day at most."
Zhao Yun now looked interested. "May I see her? I've never seen a foreign woman before."
Yue Ying laughed softly, smiling at the young General. "She is the same as any of our women."
"No, not really," Zhang Fei remarked. "She has a bigger build, much taller than any woman I've seen, her hair was much thicker, her face fuller and longer, and her skin darker, though pale at the same time for a foreign woman."
Everyone turned to look at the obvious foreign-hater with slight disblief in their eyes.
"What?!" he yelled.
"For someone who takes no notion towards an outsider, it seems not to stop you for noticing every aspect of a woman's features," the long-bearded giant replied.
"Like you didn't notice, yourself! You were looking at her too, and I must say, you didn't mind at all to carry her here to—"
"Enough, the both of you," Yue Ying rang sharply. "I said to stay quiet or to leave. Let the girl rest." She than turned to Zhao Yun, her expression becoming soft again. "You should not disturb at the moment, but the moment she awakens, you can look at her all you want."
Zhuge Liang, though remaining quiet, was observant as always, and smiled to himself as he saw a soft tint of red creep over Zhao Yun's cheeks.
"A foreign woman, you say," Pang Tong said, his voice a wave of curiosity and amusement. "Is that where Zhao Yun has been? Visiting her?"
"He says he hasn't," Jiang Wei answered, sharpening the tip of his spear. "But I see him go to the Lord's main household everyday. He says he's just reporting in on his scouts, but he spends an excessive amount of time in there for that."
"Zhao Yun…is interested, huh?" This time there was only pure amusement in his tone. "It was clear he always wanted something different in the woman reigned here, but I did not think an outsider would catch his heart."
Jiang Wei, as brilliant as he was with his strategic mind, had no clue in the relations of man and woman. "Catch his heart? No. Zhao Yun is bound to his duties. He would not have time for a woman…right?"
Pang Tong laughed from the rock he was sitting on, the veil over his face shifting. "I think it's why he is interested. When was the last time Zhao Yun ever had a woman?"
Jiang Wei looked down at the ground and thought for a moment. After a while he looked back up and shook his head. "I don't remember Zhao Yun ever having a woman."
Again Pang Tong laughed and looked up at the afternoon sky. "You've been with us for how long, Jiang? A year…two years? I think without the company of a woman for that long would drive any man to extreme measures, duty or not."
"Leave the boy alone, Pang," Yue Ying said. She was standing in front of them with her arms crossed over her chest. "At the same time he may just merely be concerned for her health, being that she is a woman and he a gentleman."
"Maybe," Pang Tong sang. "Who knows? I doubt even Zhao Yun himself does."
"Er…" Jiang Wei began.
"Yes?"
"It if would be all right, Lady, may I also see the foreign woman?"
"Of course. You can go over there right now."
In an instant Jiang Wei was on his feet. "Thank you!" And took off.
"What about you?" Yue Ying asked, turning back to Pang Tong. "Curious as well?"
"A woman is a woman to me, no matter the shape or color." He stood up than and stretched. "Besides, I have better things to prepare than to waste time looking at a girl. Has she even awoken yet?"
"Now and than, but never while Zhao Yun is there. She's only consciousness for several minutes, anyway."
Yue Ying turned than and walked off, heading over to the storage crates for more supplies, leaving Pang Tong to himself. When Yue Ying was out of earshot, the mysterious man smiled to himself. "Good for Zhao Yun, though, although I didn't think he would be into the…heh…silent type."
"Hello Jiang," Liu Bei greeted as the young disciple walked in. "Joining your friend, Zhao Yun, in there?"
"Yes, lord," He said. After a moment, he asked, "if that is all right?"
"It is not my place to give permission. You would have to ask Yue Ying, though I'm sure you already did."
"Yes, lord."
"Very well. Go on in."
Jiang Wei bowed and walked past the Shu ruler who was sitting at a table with his two brothers overlooking a map that had little wooden figures nailed into certain spots.
"Though Sun Jian has been a worthy ally, it seems he is taking his own course now and is trying to domineer over some of Wei's lost land and that of Han's as well," Guan Yu said.
"He is, indeed, trying to take what he can get, and then wanting what is already taken," Liu Bei remarked. "He is getting closer to our own borders."
"That Tiger of Jing is nothing more than a cowardice snake, trying to sneak off to grab more land, little by little," Zhang Fei growled.
Across the table Zhuge Liang sat, who had been studying the map silently to himself for several moments. Liu Bei noticed this and looked up at him.
"What do you think, Zhuge Liang?"
"You are correct, my lords. Sun Jian, now having land of his own, is trying to take over the Three Kingdoms. He wants to be from ruler to emperor, and he will go by cunning measures to take it."
"Cunning?" Zhang Fei gruffed. "He's just a coward with tricks! Just like the Yellow Turban."
"Brother, I advise you to lower your voice, or Yue Ying will kick you out again," Guan Yu pointed out, thankful for his beard than to hide his smile.
Zhang Fei only growled and leaned back in the chair. "At least I'm not being all noisy and butting my head into other people's privacy, especially while they're trying to recover!"
The other three men eyed one another, smiling to themselves as they watched the brute of them all slowly soften up, like he always did when it came to women.
Meanwhile, Jiang Wei knocked on the door in the back and waited for admission. Instead, he heard footsteps walk over and saw the door open, Zhao Yun behind it.
"Jiang?" Zhao Yun said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Yue Ying said it would be all right if I visited. I just want to take a peek and I'll be off."
"S-sure," Zhao Yun said, stepping inside. "So, you know I've been here everyday, huh?"
"Yes. Pang Tong brought it to attention this may have been what you were doing. I always thought you were spending way too much time in here just for scout reports. You don't even go out scouting anymore. Your men do that for you."
"Got me there. Just keep your voice low."
Jiang Wei walked over to the chair where Zhao Yun had been sitting on and looked down at the sleeping girl. She was everything Zhang Fei had said, though Jiang Wei had expected it all to be thrown together into a bulky, ugly like woman. He found instead that she was actually very beautiful. Her hair had been combed out from Yue Ying, obviously, but had left it hang down rather than tie it up as the Chinese women did it. Her face was longer with still full cheeks. She was slightly darker, probably from being out in the sun most of the time. The bed sheets were pulled down to her waist, her whole body bare save for her breasts that were wrapped up to cover the wound on her back. She had a few other bandages wrapped here and there, but what most stood out was a scar running from her right shoulder down to where it vanished underneath the wraps.
"That one healed quickly," Jiang Wei said, particularly to no one.
"Yue Ying said that was an old one. She received long before she was shipwrecked or any of that had happened."
Zhao Yun walked back over than and took his seat next to the bed. "Though I wonder if she really was shipwrecked."
"What do you think happened to her than?"
"I'm not sure. Though I can't believe she got just serious injuries from what our lord said. I believe she might have been attacked."
Jiang Wei looked from his friend to the woman again. "Has she woken up at all?"
"Not while I've been here. Yue Ying says she has though a few times. Sometimes she wakes up during the middle of the night and calls out a strange name."
"Like what?"
"Yue Ying does not know. Being a foreigner, she of course speaks another language."
"Yes, of course."
Just than, Yue Ying walked into the room, carrying fresh bandages and herbal medicine in her arms. "All right, boys. Leave her be now. I need to rewrap her wounds, and I doubt she wants any indecency done to her while she sleeps."
Both the men nodded and walked out the room without question. They knew better than to argue, much less not wanting to interfere with the strange woman's healing. Indeed, they had so many questions to ask. The only thing was, they had no idea how to speak her language, and they doubted she could speak theirs.
Yue Ying sent the supplies down on the table and went to close the door. She than walked back over to the bed and pulled the sheets all the way down to the girls ankles. Her lower body was cut up more badly than her upper one, yet the major ones were all on her back. She carefully slipped her arms underneath the girl's neck and lower back, than slowly, and with quite a bit of effort, hoisted the girl to sit up. She began unwrapping the bandages when the girl's body twitched. Yue Ying froze and looked up at the girl's face. Her eyelids were also twitching, her body jerking now and than.
"Are you dreaming again?" Yue Ying asked softly. "Pleasant, I think not. You must be having a nightmare. Is it of what happened to you?"
The girl did not respond, nor did she jerk anymore, but her eyelids continued to twitch, her eyes moving beneath them with alarming speed. Was she in search of something?
Yue Ying quickly finished replacing the bandages and sat by the girl, watching her closely. She took note again, as she had before, that the girl was well proportioned and had strong feminine muscles. She must have done hard labor or something along the line to develop those. Just what could have happened to her? She had heard Zhao Yun and Jiang Wei's conversation before she had entered. What Zhao Yun made sense. A shipwreck could not have given her those drastic wounds.