I had a hard time trying to decide if the man should be Pang Tong or someone from Wei or something very twisted. I decided to go with the very twisted idea. Like I usually say about weird things that I try, if no one likes this chapter, I'll remove it and rewrite it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dynasty Warriors. Or the novel if any of it is used in this chapter (though I think it isn't).
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CHAPTER 7 START
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The man was not completely visible, for he was still in the shadows of the nearby trees. He walked closer to Yue Ying and his identity could then be determined. Ying looked at the man with a look of surprise and relief on her face.
"Pang Tong? What are you doing here?" her voice still a little bit shaky from the scare she had. Pang Tong laughed and said,
"Sorry if I scared you there. It's been awhile since I played a prank on you. I happened to be taking a walk through this here forest and saw you reading. I just couldn't resist doing that." He tilted his head as he thought about something. "Hey, aren't you in Shu? Your not supposed to be out of the camp are you?"
"Uh... no, but I wanted to get away from all the noise and activity in the camp so I could concentrate on reading," answered Ying. 'Wait a minute…' she thought and asked, "Which way did you come from through the forest?"
"From the south," Pang Tong pointing in that direction. He had answered without thought of what he was saying. "Uh oh..."
"But the camp is to the north... How did you know that Shu was even here?" asked Ying, with thoughts of suspicion in her mind. He had been in Wei with Cao Cao after all. Here Tong hesitated.
"Okay, to tell you the truth, I've been sort of spying on the Shu army in a way. I'm trying to figure out what made Zhuge Liang join Liu Bei when he'd much rather live out in the country as a hermit. I'm the same way as he, you know, and I wouldn't want to leave my cottage in the woods for anything. I guess curiosity just got the best of me," he shrugged. To most people, this may seem like a plausible excuse, but not to Ying. She had a sort of sixth sense and could tell when almost anyone was lying. She could tell that Tong's answer was partially false and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Really?" Tong sighed. He had known about her ability to detect lies, but he had hoped that perhaps it didn't always work. There was no choice now.
"I'm sorry Yue Ying, but you know to much now. It really wasn't supposed to be like this." As he said this, Ying heard footsteps behind her. She twisted around to see who it was. The only thing she saw was a glimpse of another man dressed in blue armor before he hit her over the head with something heavy. She dropped to the ground, though she was still conscious at the moment. She just had a major headache and her vision was fading in and out. Another man in blue armor appeared.
"Take her back to our camp. Tie her up and put her in my tent. I don't want Cao Cao to find out about her just yet, she's an old friend and I don't want him to do anything to her until I tell him my plan," she heard Pang Tong say as her vision finally went black and she fell unconscious.
x-x-x
It was almost dusk and there was still activity in the camp, though things were beginning to die down as the soldiers lined up for supper. The generals were served first and they had already sat down to eat. Since Yue Ying had normally been eating with Zhao Yun, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei, they noted her absence.
"I wonder where she is at?" thought Guan Yu out loud.
"Maybe she is eating with Master Liang?" suggested Zhao Yun.
"Should we go check and see?" wondered Zhang Fei. Yu shook his head.
"He might get mad at us for interrupting his studies if he is doing so."
"Well I'm going to go take a peek. I bet he won't even notice if we're quiet and only look for a second," said Zhang Fei, rising from where he had been sitting. He took a few steps towards Zhuge Liang's tent before stopping and looking to see if anyone was following him. Yun and Yu just sat there, obviously not wanting to get in trouble and also seeing whether their friend had the guts to do as he said. Fei looked back towards the tent, then back at his plate of food that he had set down. He walked back over to it, sat down, and picked it up.
"Hrm... better eat while it's still warm," he gave as his excuse. The other two Shu generals laughed as Zhang Fei began to eat as slowly as possible.
"Fine, Fei. I will go with you to see if Ying is in her tent or not," said Guan Yu, patting his younger sworn brother on the back.
"And so will I," volunteered Zhao Yun. The three got up and went to Zhuge Liang's tent. Zhang Fei parted the tent's flaps just enough so he could see inside with one eye. His eye scanned the room carefully and saw Yue Ying's scythe beside her chest. He also saw Zhuge Liang, though it turned out that he had stopped studying. He was sitting at a table in the middle of the tent and seemed to be eating, though it was hard to tell as his back was to the front of the tent. Fei continued to look around the tent, but from he could see, Yue Ying was not there.
"Zhang Fei!" He jumped as Zhuge Liang called his name. "Come here. And you to Guan Yu and Zhao Yun." The three entered nervously. "Why were you spying?" asked Liang, standing up and turning to face the men. Zhang Fei began to talk, but he seemed to just be jumbling up words.
"Hmm..." said Liang, as he raised an eyebrow. Guan Yu punched Fei, who immediately stopped saying whatever he was saying.
"We are very sorry, Master Liang." said Zhao Yun, bowing. "We were spying because we were wondering where Lady Yue Ying was. She usually eats her meals with us, but she was not there tonight."
"So you came to see if she was here? Then why did you not just ask if you could enter?"
"Uh... I... We... did not want to interrupt your studies."
"I see. Well, as you can see, my wife is not here. I have not seen her since around noon today or so. She took some books with her, so she most likely left the camp so she could read somewhere quiet."
"She left the camp? She is not supposed to do that... And she has been gone for about six hours. Perhaps we should tell Brother..." said Guan Yu but Liang shook his head.
"She probably just lost track of time. I am sure she will be back soon."
"But what if something happened to her? What if there were some Wei spies about?" asked Zhang Fei, having just gained the ability to talk again.
"She can take care of herself. If she is not back soon, I will go look for her," said Zhuge Liang, hinting that he would take care of the matter and that the other three men should leave, and so they did. He sighed as they left and sat back down to eat. He would go see what had become of Ying if she had not come back by the time he had finished his supper. He hoped that she would come back before then, safe and unharmed.
x-x-x
Yue Ying woke up with a start, and an aching head.
'Where am I?' she thought, looking around her surroundings. Her hands and feet were tied up so she couldn't move, and she was further tied to one of the support poles in what seemed to be a tent. She began to remember what had happened and became angry. She thought Pang Tong was her friend. He had betrayed her. And further, he had joined Wei. Now he was most likely going to suggest that Cao Cao use her as a hostage for the next battle. She began to struggle, but the knots had been tied securely. Even though this made her head hurt even worse, she continued to try and get herself free. As she was doing do, Pang Tong entered the tent.
"Now now, you shouldn't be doing that. The only thing it's doing is making your head worse. I think that guy over did it a little when he hit you with that cooking pot." he clucked his tongue as he walked over to her and wiped her forehead off, for blood was beginning to run down it.
'I got knocked out by a cooking pot…?' she thought and then shook her head. That didn't matter now. "You traitor!" she spat at Pang Tong
"Easy tiger! I really didn't mean for this to happen. If you had just bought my lie then you wouldn't be here. You would be back in your bed having a good night's rest."
"And it would also mean that you had gotten into our camp and found out our plans to beat Cao Cao!"
"So it would, but will your plan still work? He really isn't going to chain the ships together. He knows that Zhuge Liang will try a fire attack. And the only place that will work for a good ceremony will be carefully guarded by the Wei army, I can assure you that." Ying growled at him.
"Why are you doing this? Cao Cao is an evil and ambitious man! He cares not for the people he rules, he only cares that he conquers China and becomes emperor!"
"I know... but Liu Bei is his rival. Zhuge Liang is Liu Bei's strategist and he is my rival. I want to prove that my strategies are as good as his. I knew I would be more likely to get to prove myself if I joined someone who would want to fight Liu Bei all the time.
"Why do you want to prove yourself?"
"You know what they say of me, right? They say I'm 'almost' an equal to the great Sleeping Dragon. I'm tired of everyone saying he's better than I. I must prove that I am at least equal to, if not greater than, him."
"You are not thinking this through! What about the future? Are you going to help Cao Cao conquer China?"
"No. Once one of my strategies defeats one of Zhuge Liang's, then I will resign from Wei and return to my cottage in Xiang Yang. Well, I've gotta go see Cao Cao now about a new plan of mine, which you can probably guess. If all goes according to plan, this will be my first and last battle as a Wei general. Ta!" said Tong as he walked out of the tent.
x-x-x
Zhuge Liang took a lamp and walked out of his tent. Yue Ying had not returned after he finished he supper, so he did as he said he would. He looked around the camp. It seemed that almost everyone else had turned in for the night, though there were still some people outside, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Guan Yu begin among them. They were obviously still worried about Ying and had stayed outside to see if she would return. They spotted Liang walking towards the least used area of the camp and followed. If something had happen to Ying, it was most likely someone from Wei. She was a valuable warrior and strategist for their army, so they couldn't afford to lose Zhuge Liang as well. He stopped as he saw the three following him and waited for them to catch up. The four men then entered the woods and began the search. They picked up what seemed to be a trail of where someone could have possibly walked and followed it. It led them to a tree with a log underneath it.
"It looks as though she was here..." said Zhuge Liang as he picked up one of the books that were sitting beside the log and looked at it. "These are her books."
"Where is she then? Did she get captured?" asked Zhao Yun. Zhuge Liang continued to look around the area. The lamp wasn't providing much light, so he began to mutter a spell. As he finished it, the lamp glowed brighter and the light it cast covered a much larger area. He set the lamp on the log and began to look around for signs of what had happened. There were traces of what appeared to be light footprints around. He noticed a set that looked deeper than the others near the tree.
"It appears that someone jumped out of this tree," he said, looking up at the said tree. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei came and looked at the footprints as well. Zhao Yun was looking around the ground and noticed something. He picked up what appeared to be a heavy cooking pot. It appeared to have a small trace of a red substance on the bottom of it.
"Look at this! I found it on the ground over here," he said, handing the pot to Zhuge Liang, who inspected it.
"What is the red stuff on it?" asked Yun.
"It is blood. Someone must have knocked Yue Ying out with this..." said Liang.
"Hey! Look here!" said Zhang Fei, pointing to another path made in the woods.
"It looks as though they dragged her somewhere," said Guan Yu. Zhuge Liang picked up the lamp and started down the path while the others followed behind him. They discovered that it led away from the Shu and Wu camp to avoid it and then back towards the river. Once at the river they discovered places where a few small boats seemed to have once been at. Zhuge Liang looked over to the other side of the river.
"So someone from Wei did do this..." said Zhao Yun, who looked at Zhuge Liang. He didn't seem to look any different than normal, but his eyes had a glint of anger and worry in them. He turned and began to walk back to the camp. The other three men noted that he was walking much faster than he normally did as they watched him. They exchanged glances and then hurried after Liang.
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CHAPTER 7 END
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Okay, so there you go. A twisted idea. I hoped you guys liked it. Just to note, I'm not trying to make Pang Tong look like a bad guy, which I tried to explain in the chapter. I like him and I wouldn't put him through the torture of being in Wei --shudders--
