A/N: Don't worry, Miss Acid Pops. All the DW characters will have their moment in the spotlight eventually; Zhang He no exception.
...Yeahs, as a reply to Suuki, I realise that there isn't really much to keep this story from collapsing totally, so there are probably going to be a lot more random and useless chapters. I have a vague idea of what I want to incorporate into this story, but that's it, and any character development or anything will probably be written on accident. I hate OCs, so I'm actually really annoyed with these girls. XD I wonder how long before I can ditch them.
To donutgirl and storyreader, thanks for the reviews. It gave me a lot of initiative to write this chapter (not that I actually put any of it to use. You can blame +3r!N and Cindy for this chapter) and I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Sorry Cindy, for deleting your review, but it was just taking up too much space. Did you have to press enter so many times? And seriously, if you want to comment on my story, just call me. We're family man, it's not like we DON'T see each other every other week. Next time, try and keep it short (meaning no giantic spaces!). And dude, you could have just told me what you thought of it - you were sitting right next to me when you wrote that weirdo review of yours.
Thanks again for the reviews guys! Here's another useless chapter, which isn't really funny at all. If you want the basic summary, it's just really boring conversation. I haven't properly looked over this yet, so if you notice some mistakes, please bear with. I'll get someone to beta it eventually (stares accusing at Erin ((I'm sick of remembering her nickname)) who's too busy drawing to even notice).
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Chapter 3
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The inside of the tent was completely bare, other than a low table that stood in the centre, covered almost entirely with a large map. Huddled around the table were three men, right in the middle of a heated discussion. One was seated on the left side of the table, one on the right and one at the head.
The person at the head of the table looked to be the most imposing of the three, dressed meticulously in long-sleeved robes of white, embroidered with green and decorated with the symbol of yin and yang. The person had long sweeping hair, topped at the head with a golden rectangular hat of some sort. His facial hair consisted of a thin, pointed beard and a trimmed moustache, and along with his cunning eyes; he didn't look like someone to be messed with. In his hand, he held a white, feathered fan, which he continuously lifted up and down in a slow, calm motion.
The two men on either side of him, funnily enough, appeared to be twins, looking exactly the same as the other. Their features were rather boring, despite the comedy of both being the mirror image of the other, clothing, weapon and all. A heavy metal helmet framed a rough face with featured a thick moustache. It was the only thing that the girls bothered to pay attention to.
The voices inside the tent were scrambled, echoing mainly with the voices of the twins, while the white-dressed man looked on with a comical expression. As Melanie, Lina and Seraine shuffled inside and Jiang Wei closed the flap of the tent behind them, the white-and-green man straightened his back and assumed a more professional stance.
"Jiang Wei," he began, but stopped when he noticed the three girls. "Who are they?"
Jiang Wei opened his mouth to answer but was quickly cut off by the pair of voices coming from the twins.
"General Jiang Wei! How has the battle progressed? Has the battle turned into our favour?"
"The supply line has been secured, but the Wei Army has surprise our troops with an ambush. We're unsure of what our next move should be and-"
"Liao Hua! Guan Xing!"
Liao Hua and Guan Xing immediately quieted as their names were called.
"Please leave," the white man continued, voice and face completely devoid of any emotion. "I have business that I need to discuss with Jiang Wei," his eyes lingered on the girls, "and our unexpected guests."
The twins looked dejected at being brushed off so quickly, visually dealing with internal frustrations about the battle. The white man cleared his throat audibly, and Liao Hua and Guan Xing had no more reason to remain within the tent. They stomped out with loud, crashing steps – no doubt a small revenge intended at the white man. The white man just continued fanning himself like nothing had ever happened.
Melanie nudged Lina softly, as she couldn't reach Seraine who was on the other side of Lina.
"So, who's this?" she whispered, obviously referring to the white man.
"That's Zhuge Liang," Lina answered back hurriedly, her voice hushed.
Melanie stared. So this was Zhuge Liang – Jiang Wei's mentor or tutor or something, if she could remember the information correctly, and supposedly a 'Prime Minister' of something.
"Prime Minister," Jiang Wei said, as he bent forward in a formal bow.
Well, Jiang Wei referred to him as 'Prime Minister'. Maybe she should too?
"These three girls were out on the battlefield," Jiang Wei gestured a hand at them. "They have yet to explain to me exactly what they were doing out there, but they mentioned that they have no home. I was unsure of what to do, and so I brought them here."
Jiang Wei's recount of what had occurred was short and simple, with a slight air of impatience.
A few minutes passed where everyone took turns examining one other, with Zhuge Liang eyeing the girls one by one. It resembled the atmosphere of a student being called by a teacher, just before the student was sure that they were about to receive detention. The same kind of atmosphere where the teacher looked at the student heavily, just waiting for the student to reveal that, yes, he or she was the one who had dunked the principal's expensive Prada shoes into the men's toilets. That was the kind of ambience that Lina, Seraine and Melanie felt that they were in.
All three girls wanted to say something and put their opinions forth, but they remembered Jiang Wei's warning and heeded it, as much as they disliked it. It was only a few more seconds of stifling silence before Zhuge Liang spoke out.
"So, you have not told Jiang Wei the reason that you were out on the battlefield?"
'What?' That was the question that Melanie asked herself. He had spent all that time looking at them, only to decide on a question like that?
"He didn't ask, so we did not provide an answer to such a question," Lina quickly stated, sounding confident as though she was practising a script for drama class.
"I see." Zhuge Liang flashed what looked to be a dangerous glare over at Jiang Wei, who averted his eyes. "Then I shall ask you now – what are three young girls such as yourself doing out on a battlefield?"
Melanie looked over at Lina, who was busy looking at Seraine for the answer.
"We, ourselves, are unsure up how we ended up here," Lina answered slowly, leaving sufficient space for the other two to interject at any time. "Our home is quite far away from here – not a place that anyone but my cousins and I would be familiar with. It is hard to explain, but you'll just have to take our words for truth…"
Lina left the sentence unfinished, daring to look Zhuge Liang straight in the eye. The seated man gave a small nod as an inclination for her to continue. Lina struggled for words. She really couldn't think a way to explain it – she didn't even know what it was.
A magic light that transported Seraine, Melanie and herself into the game of Dynasty Warriors? A magic portal that turned fantasies into reality? A flash of magic that sent her and her cousins into a world of make believe based on real events?
Lina pondered silently on the repetitive word: 'magic'. There was something about it, something about it that appeared on so many different levels that she was sure that she was lost in its meaning.
The words that came from Melanie's mouth snapped her out of her daze.
"It is hard to explain," Melanie said, taking into the context the words that Lina had said. "It is most probably, something that we cannot explain. Believe us, however, when we say we want nothing more than we return home a.s.a.p."
Both Lina and Seraine gaped at her with faces resembling incredulousness. They most certainly did not want to go home; at least, not before meeting all their favourite Dynasty Warriors hotties. Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei just looked confused.
A.S.AP?
What on earth did that mean?
Catching the looks of the men, Seraine decided to add her part in.
"You own us that much," she said, perhaps a bit too happily. "We did save Jiang Wei's life, twice, I might add."
Zhuge Liang turned to his student.
"Is that true?"
Jiang Wei looked honestly bewildered.
"I…I'm not sure," he admitted.
"We were the one who accidentally threw your spear into that dude," Lina said, trying to be helpful. "Well, Melanie was, anyway. It was because we saw that blue dude push you down and get on top of you that Melanie chucked your spear. It was meant to hit the blue dude, but instead, it got caught in the green dude's leg and then a bunch of things happened and an arrow got shot into the dude who was holding you down."
Melanie mentally punched Lina for using terms like 'get on top' and 'holding down', while Seraine snickered softly, but the men were totally indifferent anyway.
"That was your doing?" Jiang Wei asked, as realisation dawned.
"Ya-huh," Seraine chirped in. "And we were the ones who threw that log at all the guys surrounding you and your horse. Umm…"
Seraine could still remember the look of the dying horse, but she didn't say anything. Even Melanie and Seraine didn't understand what was bothering her.
"Well, then, Jiang Wei, it seems that you own something to these girls," Zhuge Liang said, in a rather serious voice.
"Yes, Prime Minister."
Zhuge Liang turned back to two ecstatic girls and one dumbfounded girl.
"There are still many things that we need to discuss," Zhuge Liang said, speaking like a manager of a hosting show. "I must ask for own Lord's direction before any further agreement can come to hand. Please stay here until the battle ends and we are able to return back to Cheng Du. I feel that, for your arrival, the Heavens are going to grant me more time in order to witness what things will come to pass."
Another strangely intense aura filled the room within the tent as more silence followed before Zhuge Liang rose from his seat.
"Please excuse me. I am not certain of how much longer this war will continue for. I ask that you be patient for the time being."
He exited the tent with Jiang Wei tailing him from behind, completely missing the military salutes that both Lina and Seraine gave him.
The sounds of the war could be heard again as Jiang Wei followed after his mentor. There was one question that he had been burning to ask since talking to the girls.
"Umm… Prime Minister?"
"Yes, Jiang Wei?"
"What's a 'dude'?"
x-x-x-x-x
"Oh my God, this is so cool! We're going to the Shu Kingdom!"
Seraine jumped up and down happily as she spoke those words, oblivious to the sight of Melanie reaching over and slapping Lina on the head.
"Ouch!" Lina cried out and rubbed the hurt area. "What the hell was that for?"
Melanie stared imposingly.
"First of all – because you're the one who got us into this situation in the first place by jumping into the TV. How did you even think that you'd get here? And secondly – for using those words in front of that Zhuge Liang guy. He might be able to help us get home, and all you can think of are dirty, perverted thoughts?"
"What?" Lina pulled her best imitation of an innocent face. "I was thinking nothing of the like. And where exactly did I say anything perverted? I swear, you're the one that's turning dirty; twisting my words into something like that. You should be ashamed of yourself."
Melanie narrowed her eyes even further into an evil glare, while Lina smirked. Eventually, Seraine noticed the fake tension between the two and stepped in.
"Hello! We're going to the Shu Kingdom! Aren't you guys excited?" She waved one arm in the space between Lina and Melanie, right in front of their eyes.
Instantly, Lina started laughing at the stupidness of it all, not stopping until Seraine and Melanie began laughing alongside her, until all three girls fell in a messy heap onto the table. As the laughter subsided, the girls up-righted themselves and sat back-to-back.
"I can't believe how cute Jiang Wei looks," Seraine sighed dreamily. "He looks even cuter now than he did in the TV screen."
"Totally," Lina agreed. "Don't you reckon so, Melanie?"
"Meh, I'm not into animated characters," came the reply.
"So mean," Lina commented, smiling though the others couldn't see.
"Just wait til you see Lu Xun," Seraine added. "You'll fall head-over-heels 'cause he's so beautiful, but remember that he's mine! And Guan Ping's, and Jiang Wei's, and Gan Ning's…and maybe Lu Meng's?"
Melanie just rolled her eyes.
"Lu Xun? He's in Wu though, and we're going to Shu. And isn't Zhou Yu supposed to be the beautiful one?" Lina remarked.
"What's 'Wu'?" Melanie asked, before Seraine had a chance to comeback Lina's statement.
"Wu's another kingdom," Lina explained. "In this period, there are three main ones – Shu, Wu and Wei. Shu is green, Wu is red and Wei is blue. They're all fighting each other in order take control of the land."
"Oh." Melanie flicked her eyes over at Lina and Seraine, who were on her left and right, respectively. "Y'know, I think that you guys are gonna have to teach me about all this stuff. Just the basic information," Melanie added in hurriedly, as she turned around to see a sparkle of fire in Seraine's and Lina's eyes.
"No probs'," Seraine said, with a smile.
Melanie immediately felt suspicion rise within her.
"Seriously, it's not that hard to remember," Lina assured.
Melanie mentally prepared herself as an onslaught of 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms'/'Dynasty Warriors' information verbally attacked her.
x-x-x-x-x
He spun around in circles, his grip tight on his spear. The small horde of incoming Wei soldiers were quickly flung back and he created a path back to the borrowed steed. Jiang Wei leapt onto the horse's back and galloped swiftly into a group of blue man, scattering their V-shaped formation. His 'Blink' collided with a soldier's skull and he felt a few drops of blood warm his skin.
He used the back of his hand to wipe the red liquid away, only to have more splatter on him when he rode his horse past the sight of Wei Yan splitting the body of a gate captain in two.
"Kill…enemy…" Wei Yan murmured, just loud enough for Jiang Wei to hear as he rushed past.
Jiang Wei smiled at the prospect of eliminating the traitors of the Han, and urged his horse to run even faster. He still couldn't get his mind of the strangely dressed girls, their unusual language and, if it was true (and he couldn't really doubt that it was), the fact that they had saved his life twice in battle. Zhuge Liang had said that he now needed to make something up for them, but what?
He supposed that the first step would be making sure that they received proper care, in the hands of Shu no doubt. And if he needed to repay them back, did that mean that the girls would have to return with him back to the Shu capital and live with him and the other Generals?
Jiang Wei shook his head. He would worry about that afterwards. Right now, he had a certain Wei strategist to defeat.
x-x-x-x-x
Since Lina and Seraine were used to winning a battle within a twenty or thirty period time slot, when they ended up waiting for over forty minutes in the crowded-with-a-single-table tent, they became very restless.
"Would you sit still already?" Melanie cried in exasperation as Seraine poked her head out of the tent for about the millionth time.
"But this is taking too long!" Seraine complained, huffing outward as she did. "If I were controlling Jiang Wei, or anyone else for that matter, this battle would have been over already."
"Well, you're not controlling Jiang Wei, so sit down and shut up please!" Melanie emphasised on the 'not', making sure that Seraine caught the word.
Seraine pouted and plonked herself down next to Lina.
Luckily for Melanie's sanity, another fifteen minutes passed without any of them moving from their chosen spots, each with their own thoughts in mind.
Melanie was trying to concoct some sort of plan to get her cousins and herself back home into the 'real' world, but since she didn't understand how they even came to the Dynasty Warrior world in the first place, nothing came to mind.
Seraine was busy formatting an idea to reach the capital of Wu and meet her favourite character, Lu Xun. Or, 'Lun Xu', as she liked to call him, and herself when there was sufficient sugar in her blood levels.
Lina was staring blankly at the wall of the tent, trying to make out the images behind it. It looked like a supply base, with a mass of people constantly running in and out. At the same time, she repeated random song lyrics in her mind, the majority of them not understandable, since they weren't English songs. She had been too lazy to look up the translation for them.
Finally, the tent opened once more and a scrawny man in dusty green military clothing entered with a bow.
"Lord Zhuge Liang has requested your presence," he said quickly in a slightly high-pitched annoying voice. He backed away from the entrance and held the flap outwards from them.
The three cousins looked up at him blankly, still coming out of their reveries. One by one, the information sunk in and they looked at each other quizzically. As they caught the other's eye, they stood up mechanically and followed the messenger who directed them towards the middle of the front lines.
There, Zhuge Liang stood waiting; the feathered fan still in his hands, though he was no longer waving it. Many soldiers could be seen returning from the battlefield, some seriously wounded and others simply tired and exhausted. Ahead of them, leading them, was Jiang Wei, sitting atop a white-and-chestnut coloured horse.
"Is the battle over?" Melanie asked, once she was in Zhuge Liang's hearing distance.
"Yes," he said simply.
"Did Shu win?" Seraine questioned, taking the last few steps next to Melanie's side.
"Neither side was truly victorious," Zhuge Liang answered neutrally. He didn't bother to explain, which was just as well when Jiang Wei approached them.
The Shu prodigy clambered off the horse, handing the reins to some random soldier to lead away. He bowed low in front of his teacher and began a swift oral report on what had taken place in the last stages of the battle. He explained that, once he had forced open the garrisons of the Wei bases, the Wei Generals began to flee, though it was an elaborate setup that had cost the charging Shu infantry over a quarter of their men. There had been a rockslide planned, a decisive action that not only allowed time for the Wei Army to escape, but also to ensure to the Shu Army that their enemies would be back and ready to bite.
The three girls listened in on all the information, and it wasn't until Jiang Wei had finished with his report that he had even noticed their presence. Not that the girls cared, anyhow.
Melanie was preoccupied with being horrified. What if, through some stupid action taken by Lina or Seraine, they had been caught up the rockslide?
Lina and Seraine were too busy being amazed by the Wei tactics to even give a thought about what could have happened if Jiang Wei hadn't taken them straight to the Shu camp.
"It seems now," Zhuge Liang said in a low whisper, directed entirely at Jiang Wei. "That the main problem we need to solve is what to do with these girls."
Jiang Wei didn't need names to know whom Zhuge Liang was referring to.
"If it can be done, Prime Minister, I think that the best course of action would be to take them back home with us. I, personally, will keep them under my wing and out of trouble, until we can take them back home to…wherever it is they come from." Jiang Wei spoke these words with conclusiveness, hoping that the small swell of disquiet in his chest couldn't be heard through his voice.
Zhuge Liang nodded understandingly, turning back to the girls who were looking slightly confused.
"Do you know how to ride on a horse?" he queried.
"We've all been to a country camp as part of our school component," Seraine nodded.
Jiang Wei wasn't too sure on what a 'country camp' was, but from the words, he did have a vague idea.
"Good, then…" Zhuge Liang let loose a small chuckle, shying away his face behind his white fan. "How rude of me; we've yet to give formal introductions. I am Zhuge Liang, style name, Kongming. I believe that you are already familiar with my student, Jiang Wei, style name, Boyue."
Melanie made a mental note to ask Seraine and Lina about style names. She supposed though, that it wasn't much different to when an artist chose a stage name, instead of using their real name.
"And you are?"
"I'm Seraine, and these are my cousins." Seraine pointed her hand to indicate Lina and Melanie.
"I'm Lina." Lina smiled, considering whether or not to offer her hand, but deciding not to in the end.
"I'm Melanie. Thanks for taking care of us."
Jiang Wei barely realised that he was staring. First, it had been strange clothing, then their spoken language had shown strange speech patterns and words he didn't understand, and now, such strange names to be born to.
He tried pronouncing the names in his head.
Li-na; well, that was easy.
Se-Yi-Re-Yin; was that what she had said?
Mei-lan-ni; it seemed correct enough.
"Its all I can offer back in return for saving my life," Jiang Wei said formally, doing his best not to just stand there, gawking at them and remember his manners. Perhaps he was being too formal?
"Well, Li Na, Se Yi Re Yin, Mei Lan Ni," he did his best for proper pronunciation of the foreign names, completely misunderstanding that 'Lina', 'Seraine' and 'Melanie' were all actually one name, not a set of names, "we have a long march before we reach our destination at Cheng Du. It will be easier for you to ride instead of walking with the men. You should rest now; I'll send a messenger for you at daybreak."
'Did he just call me 'may-lan-ni'?' Melanie wondered.
'Wait, what did he call me?' Seraine asked in her mind.
Well, at least Lina didn't have a problem.
"Come, I'll take you back to the tent."
The girls followed their senior, who wasn't that much older than them, if they were considering the default ages set by Koei. They failed to realise that Zhuge Liang had disappeared somewhere in the midst of their conversation.
"Um… Jiang Wei?"
"Yes," it only took a few seconds before he remembered the introduction that had taken place only a few seconds ago. "Li Na?"
"Do you have any shoes for us to borrow? We don't have any, and I think I speak for Melanie, Seraine and myself when I say that our feet hurt."
Jiang Wei mentally sighed. Perhaps this was going to be harder than he originally thought.
"Umm… I don't think that anyone has brought spare shoes with them, but I'll go and see what I can find," he answered, as he took the girls around to his personal tent, which wasn't really personal at all. "There's only one bed, but we'll be leaving tomorrow anyway so you'll only have to endure it for one night."
There was only one bed; a thin palliasse along with a flat pillow and plain sheets. Aside from the bed, a hand woven duffel bag sat in the corner of the tent, half-secured. Clothing could be seen spilling out from its contents.
"Where will you be sleeping then?" Melanie asked, always one to put her wellbeing before others.
"I'll be helping oversee the men and pack away the camp so that we can start moving," he explained. "We'll need most of the night to unfold most of the tents and saddle the horses, since there are many that need to be put away. Don't concern yourself with it. Sleep now."
He gave them a half smile before walking out of the tent.
x-x-x-x-x
"Well, it's a good thing we were wearing our pyjamas then, huh?" Seraine commented, looking down at her mismatched Winnie the Pooh nightshirt and black sweatpants, which she used for sleeping.
"Eh," Lina replied vaguely, sitting on one end of the make-shift bed. She was wearing blue-and-white vertically stripped pyjama pants and a white cotton T-shirt that hung just passed her butt over a dark blue skivvy shirt.
Melanie was the only one wearing matching top and bottom clothing; a soft violet nightdress with a jacket of the same colour. The outfit had been brought as a set.
"Well, you heard the man," Melanie said, staring down her younger cousins. "Go to sleep."
It was far easier said than done. By the time Melanie's body forced her into dreamland, Lina and Seraine were still chatting away, completely unaware of the moon's slow disappearance until the sun became the pinnacle of the sky.
x-x-x-x-x
The night had passed too quickly for Melanie's liking, as she needed a daily average of eight hours sleep. True to his word, Jiang Wei walked into the tent with the intention of waking what he thought would be sleeping girls. Instead, he found the two younger girls awake, sitting on the end of the bed while the eldest girl was fast asleep.
"Is it time to leave?" Lina asked, turning to face him.
She and Seraine hadn't been talking about anything significant; just normal things like why Sun Ce and Zhou Yu made the best couple from Dynasty Warriors, or why Lu Xun was the most beautiful out of everyone and they had both come to agreement that Zhuge Liang had been looking rather suspiciously at his student. Obviously it meant that the Zhuge Liang had a 'thing', as the girls called it, for Jiang Wei in their over-active minds. It was too bad that they had already condemned the Sleeping Dragon to a fate which included being locked in a closet with Sima Yi.
Jiang Wei nodded, completely unsuspecting of the yaoi plans formulating in the two girls' minds.
It wasn't long before they had Melanie up and grumbling about lack of sleep. There had only been one more horse available for the girls to ride on; an average size black mare which was known for its faithfulness to its master.
Lina and Seraine had decided to ride on its back, glad that it was such a gentle creature, though it didn't stop Seraine from fearing it. Seraine was known to have a bad past concerning animals, having been bitten by a dog, kicked off by a horse, stung by a bee, scratched by a cat, stared down at by a snake, finding two live rats in her bunk bed in grade six school camp, crawled on by bull ants and accidentally peeing on a large, furry spider while on a hike during her country camp. Yes, Seraine did not like animals.
Melanie ended up with the pleasure of riding on the back of Jiang Wei's horse, who really was doing his best to look after the girls, making sure that they didn't stray too far from that group. Eventually, Melanie ended up sleeping against Jiang Wei's back, despite the songs that chorused from the vocal chords of the rowdy army, happy to be returning home. Lina and Seraine did their best to learn the lyrics, joining in with the singing crowd.
x-x-x-x-x
The journey back to Cheng Du flew by in mere specks of time, the length of the journey forgotten by the time the Shu capital came into view. There was a celebratory cheer from the citizens of Cheng Du, most of which quickly rushing forward to help carry equipment from the soldiers. Weapons and horses were quickly stashed away, with soldiers being given the choice to either return home or stay from a party which was to be held in within the oncoming weeks.
By the time Jiang Wei lead the girls over the castle, the dust that had risen from the stampede of steps had calmed down, though excited voices and screams of delight from family and friends filled the air.
Zhuge Liang was waiting for them at the top of the steps of the main entrance of the castle, the fan (which was becoming rather annoying) still in his hand.
"I have already informed our Lord about our visitors," Zhuge Liang directed at Jiang Wei, once he had climbed the final step. "A meeting with all of the Generals to discuss what to do with them will be held later on in the evening. I believe that you should prepare yourself with an argument, though I don't think you need me to tell you that."
There was a smile in his eyes as he spoke the words, and Jiang Wei promised to himself to live up to his mentor's expectations, even if it did mean becoming a full-time babysitter.
"Of course."
Jiang Wei beckoned the girls to come forward, since they had been held back by Melanie who had deemed it impolite to listen to other peoples' conversations. The girls followed after him, soon becoming lost in the maze of corridors of the Shu castle. Servants and maids filtered out of every corner, eyeing the girls though pleasantries and congratulations spilled from their mouths as they saw Jiang Wei.
Eventually, they entered Jiang Wei's room, since the Shu Prodigy did not yet know where to house them. He closed the door once they were inside, wary of peeking eyes.
"Umm… you may cleanse yourselves," he said, indicating to a door in the far right corner of the room. "I'm sure the water has already been prepared. I just need to go over a few things for an up-coming meeting with Lord Liu Bei. Take as long as you want."
"He sure needs to do a lot of things," Lina whispered to Seraine.
"I wonder when he finds time to sleep," Seraine whispered back.
'You should be the one to talk,' Melanie thought, closing the bathroom door behind her as she was the last one in.
The bathroom was a luxury that Melanie didn't know existed at the time. A large, circular bath stood square in the centre, raised to about one and a half metres of the floor. There was a small staircase that reached from the floor to the brim of the bathtub, allowing for easy access. A single shelf ran along the left, right and opposite wall, lined with candles. High above the shelf was a vertically barred window, near the ceiling.
Even Melanie had to admit that she was impressed. She began stripping off her clothes, turning away to face a wall. Lina and Seraine had done the same; Lina was standing in her underwear and was pulling off her skivvy shirt, her pants and outer T-shirt already on the floor, while Seraine was bare-chested and untying the ties on her pants. They walked into the bath and its warm waters one by one, all averting their eyes as each person stepped in. For a long while, it felt like heaven on earth.
x-x-x-x-x
Jiang Wei wasn't sure exactly when the meeting would start, which was why he was so anxious to get his arguments sounding convincing and whole. However, there was only one real argument that he could really think of – that these girls had saved his life twice and that he needed to give something back for that. But in his mind, his didn't doubt that his Lord would readily turn away someone who had lengthened the life span of his fellow Generals. Lord Liu Bei was much too kind hearted for something like that. He paced around his room, now wishing that he had gone to his office instead, which had an overview of the city. He wanted to, but didn't think it wise to leave the three girls in his room alone and unattended.
He still couldn't work them out. Everything about them just seemed so…abnormal. He grabbed his spear and sat on his bed, which was much more comfortable than the thin, old mattress he slept on during war campaigns. 'Blink' looked almost harmless from his view, and he thought about, possibly the thousands of lives he had ended, wounded and changed with his weapon. A knock from behind the bathroom door snapped he out of his memories.
The three girls walked back into the room, each with their hair occasionally dropping water onto the polished, wooden floor. They had all made some modifications to their previous outfits. Lina wasn't wearing her pants, but instead, her just-past-the-butt-long cotton white shirt with her skivvy tied around her hips. Seraine had rolled up the sleeves of her Winnie the Pooh shirt, and also the legs of her pants. Melanie was no longer wearing her jacket. Their clothes looked exceptionally crumpled next to their refreshed faces, Jiang Wei noticed.
Just then, another knock resounded, and an elderly maid opened the door of Jiang Wei's room. She took one look at the girls' clothing, and immediately misunderstood the concept.
"Lord Liu Bei requests your presence," she said in a monotone voice.
Jiang Wei nodded once and waved a hand to dismiss her.
"Do we come too?" Seraine asked, the legs of her rolled pants falling down as she took a step forward.
Jiang Wei thought about the idea for a moment.
"It might be a good idea," he decided at length. "But wait outside for me and don't come in unless I call you."
Lina, Melanie and Seraine gave their show of understanding and followed Jiang Wei through another maze of passageways, their bare feet silent next to Jiang Wei's thudding footwear.
Finally, they rounded a corner which was entirely deserted; save for two bodyguards holding pointed spears with swords in their belts. The guards nodded at Jiang Wei and stood by to let him pass, consequently allowing the girls to pass through on Jiang Wei's permission. One more turn of the corridor and they stood before a massive double door.
"Wait out here until I finish, okay?"
Jiang Wei received three more affirmative nods from the girls. Glad for their obedience, Jiang Wei pushed opened the door and walked confidently inside, leaving the three girls alone in the single torch-lit corridor.
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Chapter 3: End
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A/N: Well, there you go - another chapter of very useless stuff. I think this chapter was a little bit long - I'm trying to keep the chapters at roughly the same length, but it appears that I can't after all.
I'd point you to the review button and make a very obvious gesture to tell you to press it, except I want to add in a random note.
My friend, who does not have access to the Internet, had decided that she (I go to an all-girls school...grrr) wanted to read my fanfics. So, I printed out everything I had written so far (chappies 1-3) for her using the school library printers. And DAMMIT, the (scary) school librarian just HAD to be standing there waiting for something to print, didn't she!?
"What are you printing out twenty pages for?" she had asked me. And I don't think she believed me when I said that I had written a story for English class. But seriously, the story that I had written for English class was 18 pages - two more won't make much of a difference, will it?
Well, just felt like telling a story. You'd had better be grateful Taryn!
I'll stop wasting your time now. I'll try and update as fast as I can (this chapter got updated in the same month - YAYY!), but I don't think that it would be a good idea to be expecting anything. Sorry guys, but we've already started receiving mini-assignments and tests. And school interviews are almost here! NOO! I haven't prepared anything except the front cover for my portfolio! (We have to make portfolios of our work and gave presentations at P/T).
...I'm off now. Please wait patiently for the next chappie! I'll do my best!
P.S. If anyone knows which countries have been influenced by anarchy or anything about anarchism in general, please give some help before 29/07/08.
