Farewell to Starry Skies

The Red Hare's Daughter

Now I will tell you what I've done for you

50 thousand tears I've cried

Screaming deceiving and bleeding for you

And you still won't hear me

Don't want your hand this time I'll save myself

Maybe I'll wake up for once

Not tormented daily defeated by you

Just when I thought I'd reached the bottom

I'm dying again

The three officers found nothing. They returned to Wu, meeting in the stables after their search.

"Now what?" Gan Ning asked as they walked slowly into the light of morning.

"We could look at Shadow Hex's pedigree. Maybe there is something there." Ling Tong suggested.

"To tell us what?" Gan Ning shot back.

"Where that horse would go. How it would act. Maybe it would rescue a person." Ling Tong said darkly.

"Then go check it out. I need some rest." Lu Meng said, yawning.

Ling Tong shuffled to the archives. After hours and hours of looking at scrolls and nearly dropping tomes on his head, he found something of what he was looking for. His eyes traced over symbols that were ever clear and written with great detail. With this, he found what he was looking for. With an excited cry, he rushed off to find Lu Meng.

Lu Xun knew he was alive now. He bit his lower lip so hard that it was bleeding as he held his left arm tightly. He slowly looked up at the ledge he had fallen from. The black mare was looking around frantically for a way down. Finding one, she skidded down the rock and was next to him in and instant. Lu Xun cursed himself for doing something so stupid. How could he have not seen that? The black mare nudged him and seemed to get down on her knees, as if telling him to get on her back. Slowly, he did.

She took of almost instantly, at a brisk trot. Lu Xun's mind began to cloud with pain. He didn't recognize anything around him, and soon passed out on horseback. The black mare slowed to a walk, to keep her passenger. After almost a few hours, the two came upon a camp. The black mare looked around for her quarry. Finding it, she whinnied loudly, almost dragging soldiers from their tents. A similar, high-pitched sound answered her as two warriors, one mounted and the other running to keep up, come closer.

The two horses touched noses, red and black meeting. The mounted warrior reached for Lu Xun, but the black mare snapped at him. The other, younger and carrying a Blue Wyvern Blade, set down his weapon and caught Lu Xun as he finally fell.

"Father, he is ill." The young officer said.

"His arm appears in bad shape. His clothes say he is from Wu, but we shall treat him with the highest respect." The elder officer replied.

"Won't they send a search party?"

"If they did, they will find him here. But he is our guest. Get him medical attention and stay with him. I am curious as to why he is here and not in his own kingdom."

The younger officer nodded and carried the unconscious Lu Xun off, with the black mare following. The elder officer looked at his own mount, who was watching the black mare.

"Something the matter Red Hare?"

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"WHAT!" Gan Ning's voice cried.

"Run this by me again." Lu Meng said.

"Red Hare is Shadow Hex's dam." Ling Tong said, pointing to the scroll that says so.

"I though that Red Hare was male." Lu Meng remarked.

"Female. So this means..."

"I don't know...Maybe we should go look again..." Gan Ning suggested.

"I'll go...but where do we look?" Ling Tong asked.

"Run parallel to the river."

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Lu Xun slowly opened his eyes. He ached, and his head throbbed with the signs of fever. He sat up, only to have a strong arm push him back. The confused boy wearily glanced over at the figures next to him. One he instantly recognized as Guan Yu, but the other he did not recognize. Guan Yu nodded at this other person before leaving. Lu Xun slowly glanced around him, finding himself in a tent and lying on a cot. There was a splint on his broken arm, which was bandaged tightly.

"Are you feeling alright?" The strange person asked.

"Who are you?" Lu Xun asked, voice barely above a whisper. The stranger smiled proudly.

"I am Guan Ping, first son of Guan Yu. May I ask who you are? And why you were wandering around atop that pitch-black mount?"

"My name...is Lu Xun...where is she?" Lu Xun asked, referring to the horse.

Guan Ping reached over Lu Xun's head and unhooked a pin. Part of the tent wall fell to create a window, and the familiar black head of the mare poked into the tent. Her velvety nose nuzzled Lu Xun and seemed to check him over for injuries as if she was a babysitter. Guan Ping chuckled to himself.

"Lu Xun, what were you doing out this far? Alone?" Guan Ping asked.

Lu Xun looked away. This was a question he didn't want to answer. Guan Ping, sensing this, backed off.

"Save it for later. You need to rest."

But Lu Xun's dreams were of such nightmares that he could not rest. When he woke, he was no longer on the cot, he was next to it. Guan Ping arrived a moment later and with unforeseen ease, returned the frail boy to the bed.

"Guan Ping...promise to tell no one..."

(Flashback story mode time!)

Fan Castle! Was that where they would strike next? Lu Xun thought this over and over as he slipped away from the drinking party and towards his room. His body tingled with the excitement of a new battle on the horizon, a battle where he would play a leading role.

Before retiring to his room Lu Xun stopped into the strategists' room. He selected a map of the area around Fan Castle and spread it out on the table. His eyes and mind played out different scenarios over and over again, and he was so engrossed in it that he couldn't hear the commotion of his drunken comrades. In fact, he was so focused that he had tuned out everything, footsteps, crickets, a lyre, all of it.

And how he would damn himself for it later.

Lu Xun didn't hear the footsteps behind him, nor did his mind register the shadow on the wall before him.

A white, silk cloth was suddenly tied over his mouth and nose. Lu Xun tried to retaliate, but strong hands bound his arms. Those same hands slammed him against the table, and Lu Xun instantly recognized the shadow on the wall. He felt drunken hands try to fumble with his belt, and Lu Xun panicked. His hands wrenched themselves free of a poorly done knot and he forced his attacker back into a chair or two. He ripped the silken gag from his face and sprinted to the door, pausing to make sire that his attacker was not going to be chasing him soon.

It was then that he actually realized who his near-rapist was...

Guan Ping's mouth hung open in shock. Lu Xun curled up, not wanting to remember more. Tears squeezed from his closed eyes. Without another thought, Guan Ping opened the tent-window and the black mare was there again. She knew that something had happened. Guan Ping looked back at the boy before leaving the room. He couldn't keep quiet about this. He had to tell someone. But as he rushed off to find his father, one thought pulsed through his mind.

How could your own lord even think about doing such a thing?

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Chapter end! Yes...I know it's evil...but you haven't seen the later chapters.