Yay! My third fic. I guessing I won't get to many reviews on this cuz this category doesn't seem to popular, but once they make DW6 it'll probably get more interesting. I hope they make Da Qiao and Sun Ce's daughter. lol Anyways, I'll do my best. I had to get away from the category my other stories were in, talk about polluted with flamers or what? Here's chapter one! R&R!
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Chapter 1
Home Not So Sweet Home
Late afternoon…
The massive building before her was so distant in her memory. She had once called it home, but that was nearly ten long years ago. Now it was just some remote facade, a figment of her past, along with all the people within its corridors and interior that resembled the twists and turns of a labyrinth. Once you go in it takes hours to find your way out.
Sun Xuan, simple and some what naïve sixteen year-old, stared out the carriage window at the massive Wu palace. Something in her mind was happy to be 'home' where her family was waiting. But in her heart something was reluctant to get anywhere near it. It seemed that everyone in the palace was known for something. For example, her uncle Zhou Yu, he was known for his intelligence and expertise, but mostly for his good looks. And her other uncle, Sun Quan, he would soon be emperor and he seemed to never be shaken by the worst, so calm under pressure. Even her own mother, Da Qiao, who was so refined and so beautiful despite her age. It seemed the only one that she felt comfortable with was her father, Sun Ce, she couldn't wait to see him after so long, but more importantly she wanted to know why she was returning to Wu.
Sun Xuan sighed at her misfortune, she felt that she would never live up to the reputations of the great general that defend her and her family. Suddenly, the carriage came to a halt before a soldier dressed in red opened the carriage door. He bowed and helped her out of the carriage as if she would shatter like a vase if she tried to get out herself. Xuan mentally scolded him.
Once out of the carriage, Xuan looked up the long stair case that led into the palace. She could see her mother waiting patiently with a small smile. Sun Xuan walked up the stairs as she looked up at her mother, whose beauty hadn't changed since the day her daughter left. It had been ten years since she had seen her. When Xuan was six she had been sent to an all girls boarding school in the south east, because her mother had decided that her daughter was under disciplined and sent her away to school, Sun Ce tried to convince her otherwise, but there was no use in that. Sun Ce promised her before she had left, that he would be here waiting for her to return, she was definitely a daddy's girl. She didn't know why he wasn't standing there with Da Qiao.
"Sun Xuan" Da Qiao said as she took her daughter in a modest smile. She seemed surprisingly calm even though she was seeing her daughter for the first time in ten years. "How are you?"
"Fine, I suppose" Xuan said, looking around for Sun Ce. "Where's father?"
Da Qiao had already turned away, ignoring her question, and heading for the palace doors.
"Come" Da Qiao said, gesturing Xuan to follow. "There isn't a party if the guest of honor isn't present"
"Party?" Sun Xuan questioned as she followed the eldest Qiao through the halls. "What party?"
"The welcoming party that my sister planned for you" Da Qiao said with a little giggle. "Xiao insisted and when she makes up her mind, there really is no purpose in trying to change her mind"
Xuan envied her mother innocent modesty and her refined nature. Although now around the age of thirty one, Da Qiao didn't look the slightest moment past seventeen, how does she do it!
Da Qiao stopped outside the double door that led into the great hall, where everyone was eating dinner and the sounds of drunken laughter and chit-chat could be easily heard. Da Qiao turned to her daughter with an innocent smile. "Sun Xuan, after the party, we to um… talk about something…"
"Er… Okay?" Sun Xuan replied with a shrug. With that, Da Qiao led them into the great hall. Sun Xuan eyed everyone in the room. She recognized her aunts, Xiao Qiao and Sun Shang Xiang, who were talking with some other generals that she didn't know and her uncle, Sun Quan, and grandmother, Lady Wu. Lady Wu was extraordinarily beautiful, not a wrinkle was on her face despite being almost fifty. Upon noticing Xuan, Lady Wu stood and approached her grand daughter with a warm smile. Soon the room was silent, with all eyes on her.
"Lady Wu" Da Qiao said as if she were a goddess and went into a deep bow. Sun Xuan just stared, even the empress's gaze was over whelming.
"Ah, Sun Xuan, welcome home" Lady Wu chimed with a bow, which made Xuan feel a strange sense of superiority to have the Wu empress bow before her. Everyone in the room started talking amongst each other over the arrival of the girl. Xiao Qiao and Sun Shang Xiang appeared next to her giving her a share of hugs.
"Young Xuan, I remember the very day of the birth and now you have grown into a beautiful young woman." Lady Wu smiled warmly as she spoke. "Oh, how proud your father would be"
"…" Sun Xuan was stricken by the empress's last statement "My father… Would be? Why? Where is he?"
Da Qiao shuttered behind her as Xiao Qiao, took her sister in her arms as she sobbed. Sun Xuan looked at her mother who was crying uncontrollably, which meant something was wrong. Shang Xian placed her hand on Da's shoulder.
"Where is my father?" Sun Xuan said with slight anger. "What is going on?"
Everyone in the room seemed to hang there heads in despair and some even sobbed a little, which left Xuan in confusion. What happened to Sun Ce?
"My apologies, Xuan, I suppose you have yet to know…" Lady Wu apologized, clasping her hands in front of her as she frowned in sorrow. "But… In your absence, your father had taken ill, and I'm afraid he…" Her voice trailed off. That was all Xuan needed to hear as she averted her eyes trying to suppress her anger and tears.
"No that is a lie" Xuan said simply and firmly. "He's here, just hiding. He used to love to trick me like that. No, this just some disgusting game that you're playing"
Many gasped in disbelief and some were angry that Xuan would have the arrogance to speak to the empress in such a way. Lady Wu just stared at her, not shaken by the girl's denial over her father's death.
"Xuan! How dare you speak to her in such a tone! Have you no respect!" Da whispered scornfully as she grabbed her daughters shoulder, but Xuan pulled her self from her grip. Da, still in a fit of tears, was shocked at Xuan's defiance.
"He broke his promise" Xuan stated, putting her face in her hands. "He said he'd be here!"
"I understand, my dear, but he…" Lady Wu said trying to hug the shaken girl, but Xuan didn't want her sympathy, she pushed her away as people began to gasp again. Xuan, unable to take the attention and unable to accept it, dashed from the room in a random direction.
"Xuan!" Da shouted, but her daughter was already gone.
Lady Wu had stumbled and fallen to the floor and many generals tried to assist her. Sun Quan came running to his mother's side and helped her to her feet. Lady Wu brushed herself off and stared in the direction in which Xuan had disappeared to.
"Oh, Lady Wu!" Da Qiao sobbed, falling to her knees. "Please forgive me for my daughter's actions!" Da begged.
"Lady Da Qiao, please don't be sorry, I am not angry" Lady Wu chimed, pulling Da to her feet.
"Damn that little wretch! Who does she think she is!" Gan Ning scoffed, sitting down. He was already drunk, so he didn't mean to insult Sun Ce's daughter like that.
"Now, now, Gan Ning" Lady Wu told the pirate. "Can you honestly blame her? Can any of you?" She asked turning to the crowd of generals, who had taken their seat once more. "How would react if you found that one so dear to you has passed? You wouldn't be able to see them smile or hear them laugh. I am not angry just because she is my grand daughter, I am not angry because I know how she feels"
Many generals exchanged glances. They're empress had a mysterious aura around her. And she treated each and everyone of the generals as equals and as if they were her own. Lady Wu sighed and looked to the ceiling as if she were looking at the sky. "Losing my beloved Jian, was difficult to bear on its own, but… just recently I have also lost my eldest son… A mother shouldn't out live her son…" She said, placing a hand on her face and smiling warmly. "The only thing that keeps me going is I know that I shall see them again very soon…" She glanced at Da Qiao, who was taken by her words. She glanced at her daughter, whose tomboyish personality made her proud. She glanced at them all before walking off to the exit before speaking as she neared the doorway.
"General Lu Xun" She summoned, facing the doorway. Lu Xun stood and approached her.
"Yes M'lady" He replied, bowing even though she wasn't facing him.
"May I speak with you privately?" She asked, even though the need to ask was unnecessary.
"Of course" He replied, as he followed her out of the room.
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Lady Wu led Lu Xun into a vacant meditation room that had a lattice going up the side of the wall with a enormous rose vine growing up the lattice like a ladder.
"Lady Wu?" Lu Xun murmured, feeling uneasy as to why the empress wanted to speak to him privately. Lady Wu approached to rose vine and smelt on of the blossoms before speaking.
"Lu Xun, Only grandson of the famous Lu Jun, he was a personal friend of mine. He too, I shall be seeing again very soon" Lady Wu stated as if she weren't talking to Xun, but herself. "You mother, Jia Xun, I also knew her, she was a beautiful young woman. She and I, despite the age difference, were best friends. She also passed on due to illness. Your father… I can't say I knew him personally, but he did serve Wu with great ambition, even to the very end."
"Lady Wu… I…" Lu Xun murmured, uncertain of his purpose in the conversation.
"You read a lot, I will often find you in the library almost every day completely focused on the words before you" She giggled a little "You are also a great fighter, if you are not reading you are sparring. I am impressed by your loyalties to Wu" Her words surprised Xun. She seemed to know every little thing about him, she was after all amazing like that.
"You remind me so much your mother with your integrity and intellect, but also your prowess in battle and your loyalty matches that of your father greatly" She told him, turning to him finally with a blood red rose in her hand.
"… I am flattered, Lady Wu, but… what does…" Lu Xun started in uncertainty.
"No doubt that the actions taken by grand daughter this evening aroused your anger, no?"
"No disrespect, M'lady, but the way she treated you was unacceptable" He replied with disdain against Sun Xuan. "But I also understand the meaning of your words earlier… I have been burdened by the death of both my mother and father. I suppose I can relate to lady Xuan's distress"
Lady Wu mentally noted that Xun had already memorized Sun Xuan's name.
"I anticipated that" Lady Wu accredited "That is why I find you the ideal one to talk to her"
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30 minutes later- Sunset-
Xuan didn't have an idea where she was going. The only objective she had was to get as far away from everyone as possible. She came to a peach garden in the courtyard in the center of the palace. All of her troubles were forgotten for a moment as she admired the extraordinary sight. The way the tiny blossoms caught the magnificent glow of the spring sunset. She had never seen such a scene. It was so peaceful.
"It's like a dream" Xuan stated to herself.
"That's its purpose" Someone said from behind her. Xuan whipped around to find a young man, perhaps a year older, leaned against the doorway. Xuan was angry that someone had the haughtiness to pursue her even if he was handsome. Especially that it was some one she didn't know.
"Go away" She told him as she stalked off further into the dream-like courtyard.
"My apologies, I am afraid I'll have to refrain from your request" He told her, as he followed her into towards a tiny lake that had a cement bench next to it, where Xuan invited herself to sit.
"Whatever" Xuan scoffed, she was not normally this rude, she just didn't appreciate the first thing she would hear was 'your father is dead'. "Do as you please"
"Very well" The young man said leaning against a peach tree, whose branch's hung over the lake. "I would like to discuss you father's death with you"
"That is none of your concern" Xuan told him, eyeing his angelic face with disdain. 'Great, another good looking smart person…. How can such people exist?' Xuan thought.
"Lady Wu, asked me to persuade you to come back inside" The man said, letting a falling peach blossom, fall into his palm.
"You try in vain. I can't possibly face all of them again, even if I wanted to, especially my mother or Lady Wu" Xuan sighed, looking at her reflection in the water.
"I don't know about Lady Da, but Lady Wu understands your grief as do I" He told her, glancing at her. He was impressed by her beauty, a smile would only increase that beauty.
"You? Why?" Xuan asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"At least you have a mother, unlike myself. I have neither. And my father wasn't as comforting as Lord Sun Ce. In fact, I almost never saw my father, he was either at war, sparring, or getting drunk somewhere until he was killed in battle"
"And you mother?" Xuan asked, suddenly very interested in what this young man had to say. "What of her?"
"She was my father's opposite and better half" He said, sighing "But one day, when I was a child, my village was attacked by a Wei infantry and she along with many of others were killed, but fortunately for me, A Wu general, Lu Meng, whom I had met one time, recognized me and rescued me in time. I've been here ever since"
"Really? That's so sad, I'm sorry" Xuan said, feeling guilty after hearing his story. "I apologize for my disdain, towards you"
"Don't worry about it. So… " He told her, pushing himself off the tree and facing her. "Will you come back in now? There is no party if you're not there."
"Oh, you heard about the party too?" Xuan smiled, following him.
"Who hasn't? With Xiao being announcer, who proceeds to run through the halls screaming 'Party! Party!' at five in the morning, who doesn't know?" Xuan had to laugh. She was beginning think she could actually enjoy it here.
"By the way" He said as they entered the corridor. "I'm Lu Xun"
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There's ch. 1! Hope U like!By the way, Sun Xuan is not a big a bitch as she seemed in this chapter, you'll see. I didn't know the actual names of Lu Xun's parents and his dad probably wasn't so mean, srry! I makes it more interesting! R&R! Hope U enjoyed! See Ya!