Chapter one: arrival
Sometimes, I wonder if it all could have been avoided, but then again, we were in a foreign land. Heh, in more ways then one
I woke up with drips of water falling on my forehead, which was the first odd thing. The second being that when I opened my eyes I was in a cave, I sat up, shaking my head to make sure this wasn't a dream, I grabbed my head to a throbbing pain stemming from there.
I looked at my arm, seeing that a leather wrist thing had been put on it, coloured red with a dragon on it, the underside was just the loops to hold it on and protect the arteries on my arm, I looked at my other arm, seeing an identical one, and my arms had gotten way more muscle.
I looked further down, seeing my body had been though the same changes, my chest was ripped with muscle, as were my legs. My clothes had changed a lot, instead of the old monkey suit of a uniform, I'm wearing a chest plate of some kind with my right arm given more defence from a shoulder guard, even a bit of cloth underneath it, and my right 'breast' was coloured red. I looked at my legs, seeing and feeling simple leather trousers and boots which were black with straps, and even a belt with a dragon on it.
"Ok, this day just keeps getting weirder by the minute" I said to myself, I then remembered about Sarah, she was involved as well, I looked round the cave, seeing a girl lying next to me, she had short black hair with a flower in it. She was wearing a green top with the yellow over her breasts, she had two armguard on, these were like mine, except for covering the back of her hands, coloured green. She also wore green trousers with a golden sash, worn like a belt and the excess down her front, and a pair of boots, black, like mine, except shorter and with a red strip down the side. A blade of some kind and a pentagonal shield were next to her. The blade has two golden wings spreading from the hilt.
"It's got to be her" I said, I looked round, wondering whether I had a weapon at all, I found one to my right, annoyingly it was a broadsword with a golden bit going a small way along the blade, the hilt was green, big enough for both my hands to hold it, and a golden rounded end. Why couldn't I have a spear? Not that I have anything against swords, I just prefer spears, I then noticed a puddle of water near me, I crawled over to it, wondering what my face looked like.
What I saw shocked me, it wasn't me I was looking at, I didn't see my old ugly mug, what I saw was basically what you would call a warrior. It was masculine as hell. My eyes were still brown, thank god, something has kept the same and someone had put a red bandana on my head.
I then heard some groaning behind me, I looked at it to see the girl waking up, she basically did the same thing as me, looking at herself, checking out what had and hadn't changed. She saw her weapon, picking it up and examining it, she then saw me and was shocked.
"Craig?" she asked, the surprise evident in both her face and voice.
"Sarah?" I replied, the same surprise evident.
"What has happened to us?"
"I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised that the man in white is responsible"
"So you two are awake" the old man's voice echoed, we turned round and him. I grabbed the broadsword while Sarah grabbed her blade; I think it was a rapier and quickly put her shield on.
"What have you done to us?" I asked before falling over from the massive weight of the blade.
"I have only awakened your second lives"
"What second lives?" Sarah asked, I managed to get back up and put the broadsword along the ground so that it didn't drag me over.
"You two are warriors from the beginning of the war, born in 185 ad"
"Whoa, slow down, old man, what are you on about, we were born in 1992 ad, for us to be in the age your talking about we would have to have time travelled or have been here in the first place" I retorted.
"Like I said, your second lives, you two are Craig and Sarah, and yet not Craig and Sarah if you catch my drift"
"Well, who are you anyway?"
"My name is Zuo Chi. I have been charged to watch over this land and make sure that the descendants are found"
"Descendants?" Sarah asked
"Why do I get that ominous feeling that he is going to say…" I start
"You two are the legendary descendants" Zuo Chi and me both said at the same time, at which me and Sarah both laughed at.
"This is no laughing matter" Zuo Chi sternly said, me and Sarah both stopped laughing and paid attention. "This is war, you guys have no choice but to join, if you don't, then the world will fall into ruin"
"How do we know that it won't happen if we join in?" I asked
"I watch over the land, and you two are meant to be here."
"That doesn't really answer me, but I think I'll just leave it there" I looked at Sarah, she still had her weapon pointed at him, I walked over to her, dragging my broadsword along with me, I put my hand on her arm and lowered it.
"Listen you two, my time is short here, and you two need to enlist"
"Enlist for what?" Sarah asked, but he then vanished in a purple cloud of smoke without answering
I looked at Sarah; she was still as scared as hell at what had happened, I walked up to her, seeing the fear in her eyes, she had dropped the rapier, silently oddly enough, I hugged her, wondering whether she was going to break down in tears.
She did, she cried her eyes out and hugged me back, she wanted to go home, so did I, but I was more used to being away from home without my family but I don't think she has ever been this far away from home for so long. I looked further round the cave, seeing two magnificent sheathes, one was golden and big enough for my broadsword, and the other was silver, long and thin enough for her rapier.
"Look Sarah, I'm worried as well, but we have to stick together for now, neither of us know where we are, but maybe, just maybe, we can find a way home" I said, trying to comfort her, she managed to fight back the tears and nod, we both let each other go, getting the sheathes and putting the blades away. Sarah strapped her sheath along her waist, while I strapped mine to my neck and waist, with the blade along my back.
"So, while we're here, what should we call ourselves?" I asked in a relaxed way.
"Why not use our normal names?" She asked, I actually didn't see a problem with this.
"Well, we're in China; we could see what they think of us when we tell them our names"
"Ok, but first off, we may as well get out of this cave" she said, she had her shield strapped to her arm, smart idea.
We both walked out of the cave, heading towards the only light we could find. After a while, we felt a cool wind blow though the cave, bringing along with it some rain, we left the cold cave behind us and walked out into daylight.
I think both of us were still shocked by what had transpired, when we left it was a cold winters evening in England, now it was raining in China, we looked round, we were on a hill nearby a long river which a village had been built nearby to the west, to the east were vast plains, to the north were more hills and to the south was a bridge.
If what Zuo Chi had said was correct, then this must have been what the land was like before the industrial age that crippled it, I was in awe of the surroundings, wondering what we would need the weapons for. I looked at Sarah, hoping that she had recovered from the shock.
She was looking north, I didn't know what at, but I looked as well, about ten people were running up to us, eight were armed with spears, with plate armour coloured brown, while the other two were armed with long swords, each had thicker, more fancy armour, they looked stronger then the other two as well.
"Well, look what we have here, Zu Huang" one of the swordsmen spoke, I somewhat felt threatened by his presence. "A boy who wants to be a soldier and his sister"
"How dumb does Wu think we are, Cai Mao?" the other one continued
"Wu?" I asked, the soldiers all looked at me, as if I should have known about it.
"Please, we're lost and don't know where we are" Sarah pleaded. The soldiers didn't seem impressed by her excuse.
"Well, I guess we could help you find where you belong" The one called Cai Mao said, he walked up to Sarah in an arrogant manner, then held her head in one hand. "You should follow me; you deserve to be in my bed chambers"
"Sorry, mate, but leave her alone" I said, removing his hand and getting in between them.
"Craig, they scare me" Sarah said.
"How dare you speak to me like that!" he said, I could tell he was getting angry.
"Now, Cai Mao, calm down" the other one, who I assumed was named Zu Huang.
"Don't try that with me, boy, one I'm not your mate, and two, I'm an officer to your rank of commoner"
"Well, you don't try that with my friend, you shit head." I said, keeping calm, Sarah was still hiding behind me; I noticed out the corner of my eye that she had her hand on the rapier.
"That it is, first you interrupt a friendly conversation between me and your lady and then you insult me. You two are from Wu aren't you?"
"We don't even know what Wu is" Sarah replied.
"Honestly, we aren't from Wu" I echoed.
"Come on lads, let's get these spies!" Cai Mao yelled, Zu Huang stayed back, putting his sword in a sheath.
I drew my broad sword and held it along the mud; Sarah got out her rapier and stood with the shield in front of her. We both knew we had to fight our way out of this, but we had never taken a life before.
The soldiers were the first to make a move; they charged us, spears pointing straight at us, they had spit up into two groups of four and split themselves between us. We couldn't stick together, or else one of us would be the next item over the barbeque.
We both looked at each other and nodded, Sarah went one way, I went the other, hoping to draw them away from each other. They kept heading towards there intended targets, however, Cai Mao had joined the group heading towards Sarah. I didn't exactly have time to think about this for several reasons.
One, the enemy was upon me and I had to fight back; Two, I have no experience what so ever with weapons; Three, this weapon was very heavy; and four, I had never killed any one before in my life.
I swung my weapon wildly, hoping to at least hold them back; I hit a few of the spears, taking two spear heads off, lucky, they immediately stopped, standing back so that they weren't killed, I kept my blade swinging, moving in a circle. I think I hit them as I felt the blade jerk.
I managed to stop for a second and look at what I hit, one of the soldiers was down on the ground; I could see he was still breathing. That just left the fourth guy. He just kept on going; he swung his spear round, which I blocked with my blade; the satisfying ching of steel on steel afterwards gave me a slight adrenaline rush. He swung his spear in a high arc; I kneeled down and raised my blade to block, another ching of steel on steel as the spear hit the blade.
I looked at the soldier, thinking that he had left himself a bit exposed; I took one hand off the blade and punched the guy in the chest. He let his spear go as he winced in pain, winded; I got back up and kicked his head, knocking him out cold. I looked over to Sarah, she was using that rapier of hers to devastation effect, as if she had used it for years, but instead of killing them, she whacked them over the head with her shield.
"You ok?" I asked her, she ran over to me, wondering whether I was injured, checking all over me. "I'm ok, are you?"
"I'm fine" she answered, I was relieved at that, then I remembered that we still had a disgruntled man to deal with. I looked round, seeing him about to swing the blade at her back; I pushed her out of the way and blocked the sword with my own. He looked surprised and angry at this.
"Just…" he started, slamming his blade down again, I felt the force throughout my body. "Give…" he continued, slamming his blade down a third time; the force was so great that I had to go down on one knee in order to block it. "UP!" he finished, he slammed the blade down a forth time; this time I blocked it, but dropped my sword in the mud.
"Why should I?!" I shouted, I rolled out the way of a fifth slash, doing a sweep kick to knock him down. Somehow it connected and he landed face first onto the mud, I then kicked his head, just to make sure he stayed down.
I picked up my broadsword, using the rain to clear off what mud I could, restoring it to its pristine shine. I walked up to Sarah, who was still on the ground, helping her up, somehow the mud hadn't stuck to her like it did to the sword, we both looked at the last soldier, Zuang Hu, both of us getting back into our stances. We were then surprised when he started clapping us.
"Very good, very good, what are your names?" he asked us.
"I'm Sarah, he's Craig" Sarah answered, putting her rapier away.
"Those names don't sound very…Local"
"Well, you never now who could turn up, now do you?" I retorted, putting the broadsword away.
"Have you two ever fought before?
"Never" we both answered at the same time, we then looked at each other, wondering what he was leading up to.
"Hmmm well, how about joining the army? Huang Zu is looking for soldiers in the fight against Wu"
"What is this 'Wu'?" I asked.
"You really don't know do you? What are you two, hermits?"
"Yeah, Hemits united" I answered sarcastically.
"Well, either way, Wu is a rising power in the west, which is in the south western area of the land, their leader, Sun Ce, is heading this way to get revenge on Huang Zu after he killed the head of the Sun clan, Sun Jian"
"So basically, the battle is a defensive against the forces of Wu"
"Correct, and Sun Ce isn't called the little conqueror for nothing, I wouldn't be surprised if we lose here"
"Well, take us to the camp, may as well do what we can" Sarah replied, I looked at her, wondering if she had lost it.
"Wonderful, follow me then, leave them here, they can join us later" Zuang Hu said, he turned round and started walking north, I put my blade away and then we both followed him.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked her. "Neither of us are any good in battle, we can't fight that well and they is a chance we could die"
"You heard Zuo Chi earlier right, if we don't join in, then we effectively doom the world, we may as well join in this war where possible" she answered.
"Well… I can't say I like it, but I guess I can see your point, but just remember something would you"
"What would that be?"
"Just remember, what ever happens I will do my best to protect you"
"And I shall do the same" Sarah then gave me a quick hug, which I returned, all we had in this world were the things we carried and each other.
Sometimes, I think we should have just killed them and joined Wu straight away.
Later on in the story, you will know what the italics are about.