1. The Pacification of Chengdu

Zhang Xing Cai was standing amongst the severed corpses of her enemies. She was breathing hard. Her chest was heaving up and down. Her entire body was shacking beyond what she could control in response to what she had done. She killed them. She had destroyed not only the lives of the men at her feet. Not only them, but also their family's lives. How many parents, wives and children would have to be told that their sons, fathers and husbands were dead because of her!

War was wretched, all it did was take, but Shu rose victorious, that should ease her conscious. It didn't. War was nothing like she thought it would be. She didn't expect it to affect her so. Her father never showed any signs of what she was feeling. Did he feel at all? Or did he drink those feelings away to cope with the guilt of the deeds done in battle.

She was alone because he abandoned her! He left her for dead in this godforsaken forest. He was supposed to protect her. Her father, Master Zhang Fei, himself had ordered him to keep her safe and he ran like a coward.

Xing Cai drove her battle fork into the ground with all the might in her body. Why did he leave? He left her in the shadows of their enemies to be killed. Why? He was a man, he was supposed to be strong, the son of Zhang Fei, Shu's fearsome tiger general. How could he leave her for dead?

She heard a horse trotting up behind her. If it were an enemy, the horse would have been galloping. Regardless, she spun around with her tall shield at the ready. Her blood was running so high that she reacted before she had a chance to think or realize who it was. A tall white horse stood before her. Riding the stallion was her father's sword brother, and her Lord Liu Bei.

So she lowered her shield and took in a long breath in an attempt to try and recover from the fright, but it was in vain because she started shaking.

She saw that he looked sad, but it was not her place to ask why. She didn't need to anyway. It was no secret that he was remorseful about attacking his own kin.

"My Lord." She bowed her head.

"Please, raise your head." He told her.

She did as she was ordered, and as she did, her body stopped shacking. She could slowly feel herself regaining control of herself.

"Come with me. Your father is waiting for you at the camp." He explained.

She nodded, but didn't return his proud smile because she couldn't force such emotion on her face after what she had just seen and done.

It took more force to pull her fork from the earth than it had to plunge it in, and since she was without her blood strength, it only made it that much harder. Liu Bei turned his horse so he wouldn't see her struggle. She appreciated it. When she had the fork out from the ground, he led her off to the main camp.

As Liu Bei had said, Zhang Fei was waiting at the entrance of the camp. He smiled and raised a jug of wine bigger than his head when he saw her.

"Today I think you have proven yourself my daughter."

His voice was hoarse, as if were dry. Was he drunk already? He couldn't be, the victory horn was sounded only a few minutes ago, but if he was, it would be a new personal best.

She smiled, or at least she tried to. Only now was Zhang Fei beginning to take notice of her talents. All his attention had always been directed at her older brother, Zhang Bao, the coward who abandoned her on the battle field.

"Yes, all of you performed well. It's thanks to you that we captured Yi Providence." Liu Bei praised.

Liu Bei rode away to find Zhuge Liang or someone else of great importance. More important then they were anyway.

"Where's Bao? I promised to have a drink with him." Zhang Fei asked her.

She wasn't about to tell him that Bao had left her to flee south, where he could safely wait out the battle in one of the supply bases. Bao was supposed to stay by her side and make sure that nothing happened to her, but he proved himself to be even less than worthless today.

If she did tell Zhang Fei, he would probably make some excuse for him or refuse to believe her, and she wasn't completely sure if he was drunk or not. If he was, he might get violent, again.

"I'm sure that he'll be here soon," She lied. "but it's a little early to begin celebrating Master Zhang Fei. Wait until we're secured our positions in the bases."

"There's no such thing as celebrating too early, and quit calling me 'Master Zhang Fei'! You're my daughter. It sounds weird to hear that from you."

The last thing she wanted was trouble from him. So she left Zhang Fei waiting on Bao to return. She went into her tent and freed her body of her armor and then put on a simple green dress.

Her tent was a mess, it was littered with everything from weapons to armor to her clothes. Since she had nothing better to do, she cleaned it, but it was more like shoving everything into a trunk in the corner. Then she cleaned the enemies' blood from her battle fork. Keeping her weapons clean had always been important to her. This may have been her first battle, but she had killed people before and their blood on her blade haunted her. Same as if was the blood of a friend.

The sun had completely set by now. The crescent moon hung in the sky with the gleaming stars all around it. There was no rain to clean the smell of blood from the land and there was no breeze to carry it away either. So the smell lingered like a thick cloud above the camp that only she seemed to notice and despise.

Xing Cai stepped out of her tent to find that the celebrations and drinking had already begun. She should have guessed as much, but she was still surprised as to for none of them wasted any time with their drinks.

Zhao Yun was standing a little ways off. She had never seen him drunk, not even once. They were quite alike in that way, along with many others. They both were quiet and only spoke when they thought of something that needed to be said. They also were always the first ones to volunteer to fight on the front lines. However, Zhao Yun's request was usually accepted, while hers, until toady that is, had always been rejected.

Since she preferred Zhao Yun's company to that of the drunken Zhang Fei's, she walked over to him. He smiled warmly when he saw her coming.

"You did well today." He complimented. "More so than your brother did."

"You saw him?" She asked.

He nodded slightly.

"Yes, but like you, I think it's best to not mess with Zhang Fei when he's drunk. He won't take kindly to the news that his son is bit of a coward."

She smiled and was glad to know that she wasn't alone in thinking that, even if he was phrasing it too gently for her taste.

"Next time, I'll go with you." He told her.

The grin on her face faded. She didn't want a guardian, everyone that ever watched over her eventually left. Zhang Fei left her when she was a child to fight. Her brother abandoned her today. Something inside her doubted that Zhao Yun would be different, but she knew him better than that. On top of being her mentor and teacher, he was also her friend.

"You're company would be better than my brother's." She admitted.

"He just needs time to find his courage."

"How is our lord? He seemed rather upset today." She asked, changing to topic.

Zhao Yun sensed that she didn't want to talk about her brother anymore and went along with the new conversation.

"He's feels guilty for attacking another Liu, and losing Master Pang Tong only made it worse for him." He explained.

"But we have Ye now. Its crops will help support the campaign."

There was an awkward silence when Zhao Yun didn't respond.

"If we had completely captured Chengdu, then we would be celebrating in Luo castle." He reasoned. "Now if you'll excuse me."

With that, Zhao Yun bowed to her out of respect and left, leaving her alone. What did he mean? Luo castle wasn't taken? It was Master Pang Tong's job to take it, and he was dead now. So it must still be under Liu Zhang's control. They would have to take it before they could go home. Then that meant that they would have to launch another attack, and soon. Maybe not tomorrow because most of the generals would be drunk, Zhang Fei would probably be the worst of them.

She wasn't alone for long, all too soon Zhang Fei came over to her. With the sour smell of wine on his breath, he threw his arm over her shoulder and pulled her over to the fire. He plopped them both down next to Liu Bei and Bao. Bao didn't look at her, much less say a word to her. At least he was ashamed for leaving her.

"When is brother Yu gettin' here?" Her father asked Liu Bei in a much more casual, and uneven tone than she would have ever used when addressing Lord Liu Bei, but Liu Bei didn't appear to think anything of it.

He simply took another drink from his cub and then answered;

"Any time now."

"Is that Ping boy comin' too?"

Zhang Fei nudged her ribs with his ruff elbow. She pushed his arm away.

Ping boy? Why couldn't he ever call Guan Ping by his name? Then again, he didn't call Master Guan Yu by his real name either. The three of them may be sword brothers, but did they really ignore the importance of rank?

"No doubt Cai can't wait to see hi again." Bao added.

Her checks burned red. She glared at Bao with a venomous look on her face to silence him. It did the job. Why did Bao always have to be so nosy about everything? How dare he mock her like this after abandoning her?

Then she saw Liu Bei smile. That made her face burn hotter than the flames that consumed Cao Cao's fleet at Chi Bi a few years ago. However, Xing Cai was too shy to defend herself, and she couldn't think of the right words to do so anyway. Everyone here probably won't even remember what was said by the time morning arrived. So there was no point in picking any fights, even though she probably would win it.

The mockery went on. She focused on the flames of the fire in front of her with all the energy she could muster. The flames were hot on her face, but her face was already hotter than the fire itself. So the heat didn't affect her.

Eventually the topic of conversation changed to Bao and the 'fierceness' he displayed on the battlefield. Bao went along with it and told story after story of how he had saved her life time and time again. She literally had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from screaming. Eventually, she could taste blood. So she took a chunk of her bottom lip in her teeth to replace her bleeding tongue.

"Then a unit of archers came. I grabbed Cai and pulled her behind a tree for cover. She was so worked up that I had to kill all the archers myself in between their volleys." Bao rattled.

The other generals nodded their heads in approval, even Zhuge Laing did.

That was it! Zhuge Laing's approval of Bao's lies was more than she could stand. She couldn't take it anymore. Although he had never managed to get on her better side, she couldn't that the thought of him thinking she was nothing more than some damsel in distress. So she spoke out.

"And then we were ambushed and Wei Yan was too far back to help us. So I told Bao to attack the right flank while I go left, but lucky for him his horse was fast enough to get back to the base before the ambush party reached us."

Everyone fell silent, everyone but Wei Yan, who laughed louder and faster than she had ever heard him talk.

"His… Horse… Was… Faaast!"

Bao was at a loss for words. Either he couldn't believe that she defended herself or that he was too drunk to think fast enough to find something to say in return. Either way, she won this brawl.

Then everyone burst out laughing, except for her and Bao. She gave him a victorious grim while he simply stared at her.

She had won. She and Bao quarreled often, especially when they were children, but he had never humiliated her like this before. She wasn't going to stand for it. She didn't mind them fighting, but she wouldn't let him promote himself in front of the Shu generals at her expense.

Then a messenger came running from outside the camp. The laughing ceased.

"Riders have been spotted approaching from the east."

"Brother Yu is here!" Liu Bei happily concluded.

"It's about time." Zhang Fei added

Even Lord Liu Bei didn't call Master Guan Yu by his formal name. Maybe they actually did think of themselves as brothers, even if they weren't actually related in anyway, but she would continue calling her lord, his generals and his brothers by their formal names. It was because of that, among other reasons, that she hadn't called her father 'father' in several years.

She looked off into the distance and saw several figures of riders coming their way. Fear was not one of Xing Cai's normal emotions, but the thought of seeing Guan Ping again made her stomach turn so tightly that she could barely breathe. Oh God, she was going to throw up.

She stood up and ran to her tent. The last thing she wanted was for all the highest ranking generals of Shu to see her in this kind of state. When she got to her tent, her stomach turned over and she could breathe again.

What would she do in the morning? She would have to face Guan Ping eventually. Stalling it wouldn't do her any good. If anything, it would only make their reunion worse because she would have more time to dread it. She should just go out and meet him, but when she moved to the flap of the tent, she found that her legs wouldn't take her any further that way. So she went to the bed and sat down.

Hey guys, I'm baaaaack!

Alright, here we go again, except this one is about Xing Cai (obviously). Anyway, now that school's out I should be able to update every week, but I hope to more often than that. So enjoy my new story. It's starts out kinda slow, but it gets better. Let me what you think or if you have any suggestions. Reviews are very much appreciated here!