To Love Your Enemy (Mongolia)
DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, the characters aren't mine. They belong to KH. The story is completely AU, and the characters are OOC. Read with caution; it won't be helpful for your history exam on Mongolia, nor will it be consistent with the information on your KH database…
A/N: Set in the 12th century; it's the warring period for the countless clans living across the continent of Eurasia. Clans are trying to conquer neighboring clans and build an empire.
Prologue
-Desert of Gobi-
Snip Snap
Long locks of red hair tumbled onto the ground as the woman hurriedly chopped at her daughter's hair. The eighteen-year-old was done binding her chest and was now struggling into boy's clothes. With shaking fingers, the woman quickly braided the remaining long tresses of hair and handed her daughter a thick strip of cloth.
"Tie this around your forehead, cover your eyebrows."
The sky outside the window was burning crimson. Everything seemed surreal. 'The sky set our village on fire.' The girl, Kairi mused as she stared at the destruction of the place she spent her childhood. The dead were strewn on the street like rose petals. She recognized some of them. The person closest to them was the butcher, Hans. The one on the left was the herbalist, Treya. She couldn't make out the one on the right. Was it Quht? Or Skiasc? The person was burned beyond recognition. Death would have a feast tonight. The girl realized her hands were trembling when she had difficulty tying the cloth into a knot behind her head. Her little brother stepped up and took the two ends from his sister's trembling fingers and tied it for her. A sense of foreboding brought her current situation to life.
CRASH
Sounds of yelling were coming closer. The woman drew the curtains shut, cutting off Kairi's view of the tragedy outside. Glancing nervously at the door, the woman hastened her actions. After throwing together a pile of several necessities and provisions, she wrapped everything up in a bundle and shoved it into the girl's arms. She clawed at the ground until her bloody nails hit a sliver of a crack. Together, the woman, the girl, and the girl's little brother moved the tile to uncover a small tunnel.
The woman cupped the girl's cheeks with her hands.
"Take your brother and run towards the desert, they won't look for you there." The girl nodded her head. "Don't let them catch you!" The mother fiercely kissed her daughter and her son on the forehead.
The young boy's eyes were wide and frightened. "Ma, come with us. Why won't you come with us?"
BANG
"We know you're in there, Lady Rega, Open up!"
BANG BANG
She shook her head. "I can't. Too many people know who I am. They'll come for you if they knew who you were as well." She gripped her daughter's shoulders tightly. "Kairi, from this moment on, you're Kai." Her voice shook. "You're a normal man who's going to live a quiet, normal life until they forget about us. Do you understand? No matter what, protect your brother and stay alive."
Kai nodded.
The banging stopped for a second and words were exchanged. They were going to break the door open.
One
She hugged her children for the last time. "I love both of you very much. Now go. Run!" The woman whispered hoarsely.
Slinging the bundle to one side, Kai held his little brother's hand tightly and scurried down the tunnel.
Two
The woman dragged the tile to seal the secret passage once more. Once the job was done, all the strength left her body and she collapsed onto the ground.
Three
Please have mercy on my children.
The door burst open and the heat of the ongoing destruction flooded the room.
A one eyed man straightened his back and dusted off his hands. When his eye caught sight of Rega praying on the ground, his thin lips stretched into a crooked smile. "Rega, my dear, it would have been so much easier if you had just opened the door for us."
Rega grit her teeth, "Xigbar."
He looked around the house and frowned. "Where are the kids?"
"They aren't here."
His eye flicked towards her. "As if. Don't be silly, I said hello to them yesterday." He paced around the room. "Kids these days have no manners. Didn't anybody teach them to greet their guests? Don't you agree, Rega?" He tutted. "No manners, no manners at all." He leaned towards her and searched her face. "Where could they be? His golden eye roamed down her shaking figure to her bloody fingers. An eyebrow twitched.
He knelt next to her. "Where did you hide them?"
She spat on his face.
The man slowly wiped away the saliva. Then he slapped her hard across the face and jerked her head up by the hair.
"Bitch, where are they?"
Rega laughed, "Always pay back the favor and never break your promises. Even our clan's babies know this saying by heart. You'll never find them, Xigbar. But don't worry, when you least expect it, they will find you. Oh, I promise you that they will find you. And when they do, Xigbar, when they do… you better watch your back.
He bashed her head to the ground and threw her aside, causing her body to slam against the wall and slide down lifelessly. He muttered under his breath. "Creepy bitch."
He hollered, "Find the bloody children! A fourteen-year-old boy with blond hair and an eighteen-year-old girl with red hair. They should be together. Kill the boy, but I need the girl alive. Search the walls...the ceilings and floors! They don't have anywhere to go. Find them at all costs and bring them to me!"
The men ran around the house, patting the walls ceilings, and floor. The blood that dripped from their armor speckled the tiles and managed to mask the one tile that had been spotted with Rega's blood before they came in.
"If you want to destroy them, you've gotta pull them from the roots," Xigbar muttered under his breath.
Several feet below all the devastation, Kai ran with his brother's hand in tow.
...tbc
*A word from you is the world to me*
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