A cold night.
It was quite cold. So cold, in fact, that the formerly fearsome Rhino Guards outside the Jade Palace wheezed a little, their crystalline breaths leaving them in short, violent outbreaks. The snow floated gently downwards, enveloping the Valley in a pleasant white blanket. The night air's frigidity knew no bounds; already Zeng had left for water, a mere 2 seconds after bringing back an extra pail. The bird flapped and quacked down the steps, the rubble and stonework coming lose beneath his scurrying feet.
Damn bird, he thought. I bet he was a part of this.
The guard really was not inclined to go and partake in the pastimes that his fellow men and women participated in; sickeningly one-sided games of Mah-Jong, or mundane bouts of laughter… No, he was quite content to stand right where he was, letting the white particles settle slowly on his horn, hardening it, desensitizing the young warrior to already harsh conditions. A cursed blessing, he assured himself. The snow was the least of his problems right now. Meanwhile, the men closest to the entrance to the Jade Palace were almost comically stoic; their rigid, implacable faces almost etched into their heads, with weapons that had scarcely been removed, much less used. Their uniforms frozen to stillness, their lower extremities surely losing sensation by now, their steely gaze never quite leaving the imaginary line in the horizon… all in fear of reprisal from the austere punishment which they had all deduced that would never come. No… they were here for a far grander reason… Loyalty? Respect? Honor?
The young guard scoffed, letting lose a light flurry of previously unmoved snow.
Honor. How ironic, considering the circumstances of their deployment. Trapped in a worthless assignment with a worthless cause, only to be aided by potentially the most worthless servant in China's history… well, at least somewhat worthless. The small bird fluttered erratically to his feet, his voice raspy and despondent.
"Water?" Zeng inquired, though with admittedly more curiosity rather than kindness.
"No thank you," the guard casually responded. He sniffed. He was not weak. He would need nothing. "You may go now."
Ever the coward, the avian hobbled off, evidently to fruitlessly offer water to more prideful guards, who would only give him the same answer… He looked at his toes, trying not to let the pile of snow on his cranium descend into his white nostrils. Blue and freezing, he thought to himself privately. That can't be good. He stole a glance at his surroundings again. The guards, in their shining veils of green and blue standing firm, Zeng evidently walking around, his commander, coughing and wheezing from the brutal temperature that surely took a toll on his already maladjusted body. No, he told himself. I couldn't ask him if I could leave. The man was already choking on his own flesh, he might as well let him cough in peace. The snow settling on the guards was becoming heavy now, the night air was flying by with more force than any training session he had ever been in, and the muddy, wet ground, sordid as ever, creaked and moaned as the repeated footsteps of half-dead Rhino guards fell down.
And suddenly the forceful reality of the situation struck him, an underequipped, undertrained battalion of guards being sent, with more actual resistance from the dirt and frozen grass beneath their sturdy toes than the perpetrators in particular. He gasped once again, not minding the torrent of white coldness that pervaded his previously warm throat, but only because the night air had halted, the winds were no longer howling, the air was calming.. The frigid snow felt more tolerable now, the heavy winds lighter than usual; almost as if the Valley itself was sleeping… a feat in which he would have to be one of the Gods to achieve now. His eyelids drooped, retinas burning from underuse, hands nearly frozen to their sides, nose burning and uniform soaked with the melting of freshly fallen snow, the guard leaned, ever so slightly on the wall he was supposed to protect. Or at least… watch. He would rest for now. For now, he was no longer the stern protector of the Valley of Peace. For now, he was the small, sultry rhino that had once asked his mother to knit him a sweater to keep out the cold.
Hehe, he chuckled. Perhaps if the Five and the Dragon Warrior hadn't slit her throat, then maybe he would have received that sweater after all.
A/N: Well that was ordinary until the end! First chapter in a predictably large work... don't want to spoil anything, but its rather fun to juxtapose heroes and villains... Eeep!