Of the line Shan
A girl stood against a brick wall outside Coward's Market. Above her head curled furious green fire and the words The Dragon Shall Rise Again in deep violet. A katana was sheathed against her back, and her lip was split. Her clothing was pristine, but there were light bruised splayed across her skin. Shrieks drifted from the market, but she remained in her position, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and lighting one, pressing it against her lips. Her name was Shan Lei, and she was the thunder of the hummed a tuneless song as she blew out a cloud of smoke.
Eventually, the screams seemed to subside, and a boy fell through the fence of barbed wire. He looked to be roughly the girl's age, and he had a bruise blossoming against his pale cheekbone. His eyes were bloodshot and his nails bitten ragged with shredded cuticles. Shan Lei scoffed and left her cigarette between her lips while reaching down to pull the boy up. He rolled his eyes but took her hand anyway.
"No comments from you." Lei raised her eyebrows and mimed sealing her lips. She smirked at him and headed towards the outside of town, motioning for him to follow her. She turned a corner, and when he followed her, she wasn't there anymore.
"He'd already left the brawl by the time you'd arrived, you know that, right?" Her voice echoed down from her perch atop a tin roof. The boy sat down where he was, dropping his head into his palm and rolling his eyes.
"Of course I know. King Carlos isn't one to hang around and watch the chaos he causes. He leaves that to his queen," the biting sarcasm in his voice had Lei narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips. "Be careful with what you say, GJ. They say the kings and queens have ears everywhere." GJ stuck out his tongue at his companion, "Who even cares? Not like they can do anything to me. They already beat me bloody. They killed Gizelle. There is nothing they can do to me anymore. So I'll say what I want. Fuck them."
Lei hopped down from her vantage point, winking at him and starting to run, leaving her partner behind. GJ didn't follow. He wasn't completely stupid. He knew some things and the fact that the Huns' grounds were completely and utterly no man's land if you weren't born a Hun.
Two six-year-olds sat next to each other, playing a game of pat-a-cake. They giggled together and fell backwards, lying on the grass, staring at each other through the blades. A shadow loomed over them, and the first girl stood up. The second one, the skinnier one, continued to lie on the grass {God, would she regret that}. The large man who was casting the shadow locked his hand around the standing girl's neck.
"Stand up, Lei. You were late for training." Lei looked stricken and hastened to follow his instructions. But when she did, he remained frowning and did not remove his hand. The little girl bit her lip and her eyes started to tear up when they linked with her sister's. They'd both known that something would happen if Lei missed her training, but normally he would just refuse to give them dinner. His younger daughter (by three minutes) was unused to the pain he was inflicting on her and tried to gasp for mercy, but he just tightened his fist. Lei, realising what was happening, flew at him, trying to put a stop to her sister's pain, but her ire seemed to not affect Shan Yu in the slightest. He just held her away with one arm, turning her head to watch her sister lose her colour, and then her pulse. Lei sobbed, louder and louder, pleading with her father to just let go {please. Please! Kill me instead. She's better than me. Let me die!}.
Hopeless. Shan Yu stared his daughter down while he left the other one's corpse on the floor of the field, "Come. Now, Lei! We're behind as it is." With one last, pained glance toward her sister's still body, Lei followed her commander. Vowing to return.
A rotting corpse lay in a meadow. It was laden with flowers and held a teddy bear in its hand. One of the bear's eyes were missing, and there was a slit along its stomach where the stuffing was spilling out. A young woman stood next to the corpse, anger filling her eyes with tears that silently dropped off her cheeks. Show no weakness. She held the sword that had previously been strapped across her back in both hands above the corpse, the tip just touching the chest of the body. The woman's head was held high, the hair cut short, and her eyes were black. She glanced back at the man behind her, whose eyes were cold and arms were crossed. He nodded at her once, eyes narrowed, and went back to watching silently, leaning against a nearby tree.
In one smooth motion, the woman lifted her sword and plunged it down into her sister's corpse, the sword going all the way through the body and lodging itself in the ground beneath her.
Shan Lei turned and left.