Wanders: Ascension
By Eve
Part One: The Warrior's Resurrection
A.C 202
18 January
Peking, China
I was never ashamed of where I came from. The beautiful rolling
hills and the tall mountains outside the village brought me great
pride in describing them to outsiders. I could not forget the outer
forest with its luscious evergreens and sweet aromas of life or the
sparkling river following quickly past my village. I was taught to
relish nature, to appreciate the gifts it gave us. This would be a
lesson I would and still to this day hold dear to me.
I was taught that family came first. Through all the trials and
downfalls, family, the ones you love would be there with open
arms.
This was the largest of lies I had been taught.
I was born into a large family, eight brothers and a sister. I was
the youngest. We lived in a large farm outside Beijing. My mother's
parents also lived at the farm, as well as a few uncles and aunts.
From an outsider's view, we looked like the traditional family who
was striving to carry on the family name.
It was the typical, tradition poster family.
The twisted part, the part I will have forever embedded in my
mind, was that tradition no matter how horrible and sick it was
viewed, it needed to be followed.
It was tradition.
I was never ashamed of where I came from. I am proud of the
fact that I am Chinese and that as a woman I have made it this
far in life.
I am ashamed of my family.
I am ashamed of my father, who would lie to get
anything he desired.
I am ashamed of my father's parents, my grandparents, who
brought me to the point of self-hatred and self-mutilation.
I am ashamed of my siblings, my kin, who have brought
nothing but dishonor to my mother and her family.
Honor.
The nirvana of my life and my well being.
My goal that I have spent years obsessively trying to achieve it. Years
after years, pushing myself over the line. It got to the point where I
almost took my life.
I am at a point in my life where I know the place I should be at. My
destiny has been laid out on a silver platter since the day I was born.
It is something I have accepted, but never liked.
I, Chang Merian, daughter of the House of Li and Wong, am a
soldier. I fight for those who cannot or will not protect themselves
against any form of persecution.
I, Chang Merian, keeping the name of my husband out of full
respect, accept the path that has been given to me.
A faint memory of an old saying from the village elder comes to
my mind, lurking in the darkness.
The rivers of life will stain with blood, when the Warrior is resurrected from the past.
I am the Warrior.
**