Well, here is the long awaited chapter four! Long awaited, as in, there are actually real characters in this chapter.
BlueSun91: No worries about the typos in your reviews! I understood what you were saying. Thanks for being sucha faithful reader and reviewer!
Chapter Four
Mei Li awoke the next morning and looked around, at first unaware of her surroundings. She was in a small room with a cot and a bundle of her belongings. Oh yes, she thought to herself. I ran away from home. She felt the first pangs of regret as she realized there would be no aunt to wake up to and hug good morning, no horse to feed, no daily chores to do. Even though she wasn't particularly fond of that last one, they were and had been part of her daily life for almost as long as she could remember.
Remember ... thinking that one word made her realize she had a dream last night. A dream about a man she'd never seen before in her life. He was a funny little fellow, and he had been riding on a horse. Of course, as her other worldly dreams often did include death, so did this one. The man ended up dying because he was riding the horse. But what the horse had to do with it, Mei Li had no idea. Even though Mei Li wasn't sure if this was another future predicting dream or not, she decided to commit it to memory, so she could warn the funny man when she met him, if she ever did.
Rummaging through her blanket, Mei Li took out a brush and started pulling it through her long, straight hair. After changing into a new pair of clothes, she bundled her things back up and opened the door to find the caravan empty.
She wandered outside and saw many gypsies busy at work. Whether they were setting up some sort of show, practicing their act, or just eating breakfast, everyone was doing something. Cai Lang walked past her and realization hit Mei Li.
"Wait!" she cried. Cai Lang turned around and gave her an impatient look. Li continued, "We can't stay here for two days."
"Oh, yes we can," Cai Lang responded.
"But I live not far from here. If we stay, my aunt might find me here. This is probably the first place she'll look..." Mei Li trailed off, seeing that she was getting no sympathy from the gypsy woman.
"Well, kid, you should have thought about that before you ran away." She turned around and kept walking, but not before calling over her shoulder, "These things do take some planning."
"I did plan," Mei Li muttered to herself. "Just not very well, I guess." She walked over to where a young woman was eating breakfast, an angry feeling wallowing in the pit of her stomach. Watching the woman made her find that she was very hungry.
"Um," Mei Li wasn't sure how to ask her, but she wanted some food and needed to know where to find it. The young woman seemed to read her mind.
"It's over there on that table, buffet style." She answered, picking up a fruit and delicately biting into it.
"Oh thanks," Mei Li said. She walked over to the table and picked up some of the food, then brought it back to the table where the young woman was. Once more glance, and Mei Li noticed that this woman wasn't dressed like the other gypsies. In fact, she wasn't dressed like a gypsy at all.
Trying to start a conversation, Mei Li asked, "Are you one of the other guests?"
"If by 'guest' you mean I paid the gypsies to take me somewhere, then yes, I am a guest."
"So, where are you headed?"
"A place called Wei." She answered. She raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Mei Li. "Why is someone as young as you with the gypsies?"
"Oh, it's a long story." Mei Li cleared her throat and continued talking after taking a bite of food. "How far away is Wei? I was wondering if maybe I could go with you, since I don't really know where I'm headed."
"You certainly do ask a lot of questions. And of all the things to inquire you didn't even ask my name."
"Sorry," Mei Li said. This woman was rather straightforward. "What's your name? I'm Mei Li."
"Zhen Ji," the woman answered. "And Wei is only two days from here."
"Hm," Mei Li frowned. "That wouldn't do at all. I need to go farther." She paused. Then again, it was the only other place she could think of to go. Maybe Wei wasn't so bad after all. "Why are you going there?"
"Me and another person are defecting from under the rule of a man named Yuan Shao. He was entirely too annoying. She raised another bite of food to her mouth. "Our services will be much more appreciated in Wei, under Cao Cao, I'm sure."
"Who's the other person you're with?" Mei Li wondered aloud.
"Zhang He,"
At the mention of his name, the man seemed to appear from nowhere.
"Yes, I am here," he announced, sitting down next to Zhen Ji.
"Yes, I can see that," Zhen Ji answered, not amused. "Go get me another pear, would you?"
"Get it yourself," he answered.
"Just get me the freakin' pear, Zhang He!" She demanded in her most threatening voice.
"Fine! Fine, I'll do it!" He said. "No need to be so cranky. You are obviously not a morning person." He took his time going back to the buffet table.
Mei Li held in a giggle. "So how are you two related? Marriage? Dating? ... Just friends?"
Zhen Ji made a face. "Do we look like we're dating?"
"Well, you sure yell at him a lot." Mei Li observed.
Zhen Ji smiled at that comment. "I suppose so." was all she said for a second or two. "But no, the only connection we have is that we both used to work for Yuan Shao and now we're both going to Wei."
"Ah," Mei Li said, ending the conversation for the time being.
Zhang He returned carrying a pear for Zhen Ji as well as his own breakfast. He gracefully placed the fruit in front of her and bowed, saying, "Your pear, oh most high ruler of the world." Zhen Ji just glared at him.
"And who might you be?" Zhang He asked, as if to no one, since he didn't even look at Mei Li as he asked the question. She paused for a second, trying to figure out if he was talking to her, but whether or not he was, she answered anyway.
"I'm Mei Li. I just got here early this morning. Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine."
"So," Mei Li said, clearing her throat. "Zhen Ji tells me you're going to Wei."
"Zhen Ji has told you correctly."
"That's ... nice." Li said, unsure of what else to say.
"Lovely, yes," was all he said in reply.
"But Wei is also two days away," she said, finally understanding how she could make this predicament work for her advantage. "And Cai Lang has told me that you only have two days left of traveling with them."
"Yes, so it works out perfectly," Zhen Ji said. "Why does it matter to you?"
"Cai Lang also told me that those two days count whether we're moving or not." Mei Li said, and she couldn't help but smile. If she played her cards correctly, they would be on the road today, instead of camped out in this town. "And the gypsies just so happen to be doing a show here for two days in this town."
Zhen Ji paused as she put two and two together. "So they'll tell us to get off their caravan before we reach Wei? They can't do that to me!" She turned to Zhang He in a fit of rage. "Tell them to take us to Wei! Make them do it!"
Zhang He remained calm despite the fact that Zhen Ji was going overboard. "Don't get so excited, Zhen Ji, you'll mess up your hair." Mei Li wasn't sure if he was joking with her or not. "I'll get those gypsies to take us to Wei, you'll see."
"How are you going to go about that, hm?" Zhen Ji questioned, obviously not convinced.
"I have my ways," he said, getting up from the table and sauntering away. Zhen Ji only sighed in exasperation after he was out of earshot.
"Well, nice talking to you," Mei Li said, getting up from the table before Zhen Ji could say anything else. She didn't want to get on this woman's bad side.
Catching up to Zhang He, she began. "I can't stay in this town for two more days, either. I live nearby, so the longer I stay here the more of a chance my aunt has of finding me here. And I only just ran away from home today!"
Zhang He laughed. "Don't worry your pretty little head. I'll get those gypsies moving."
"Isn't it money that they want, though?" Mei Li suggested, trying to help.
"Exactly what I was thinking. All I have to do is offer them an amount larger than what they would profit here from one of their shows. Shouldn't be too hard."
"I don't know," Mei Li said. "Sounds like you'll have to scrounge up a lot of money to do that."
"Let's just say that when we left Yuan Shao, we weren't exactly begging for money on the streets. Specifically speaking, Zhen Ji's loaded."
"Not too hard to believe." Mei Li said under her breath.
"How long are you on the caravan for?"
"Two weeks," Mei Li answered.
"How in the world did you get enough money to pull that off?" Zhang He asked in surprise.
"Oh, I only gave her a few coins. But I also had to hand over a locket of mine."
"A locket, hm. Gyspies are suckers for beautiful things." He paused. "But then again so am I."
Mei Li chose to ignore that last comment and pushed the conversation in a different direction. "And it was such a nice locket, too. Something my father had given me for my fifth birthday."
"Then why did you give it up to the gypsies?" He asked in disgust.
"I need to get away from here. You have no idea." She sighed. "But maybe I would have rethought my decision if I knew it was going to cost me my locket."
Zhang He considered the subject, then started speaking again, "Well, I think it's about time I go and pay those gypsies to get a move on." He started walking towards Cai Lang.
"Cai Lang, my beautiful blossom," Mei Li heard him say. "I have an interesting proposition."
Li couldn't help but laugh. He certainly was an interesting person. He fit right in at the gypsy caravan.
About an hour later, Cai Lang was heard yelling to all the gypsies, "Pack up! Start loading up the caravans! We're moving out!" The other gypsies didn't question why; they started obeying Lang without hesitation.
Mei Li walked over to Zhen Ji. "Gotta hand it to Zhang He." she said. "He sure got us moving fast."
"Yes," Zhen Ji said, obviously in a better mood. "He is strange, and sometimes he can annoy the heck out of me, but I can't help but love the little nutcase. He's like a brother to me."
Mei Li nodded. She had taken a liking to both of these runaways.
Just as Zhen Ji started walking away to her caravan, Zhang He turned up behind Mei Li, fingering something in his hands that he quickly hid in his pocket. Mei Li didn't have the chance to see what it was. She would have asked, but Zhang He started talking as soon as Zhen Ji exited her caravan, sat down, and started playing her flute, her back facing the two watching. She was just far enough away to be out of earshot.
"Such a beautiful scene," Zhang He sighed, taking into consideration the nature surrounding Zhen Ji. "I wish I had a painting of it, so I could take it out and look at it whenever I wanted to."
"That could be arranged," Mei Li said. Without saying anything else, she ran into her small room in Cai Lang's caravan, and came out with her sketchpad and a pencil. She sat down in a nearby chair and started sketching.
"You're an artist?" Zhang He said, obviously pleased. "Wonderful!" He sat down next to her to watch her work in progress. A second later he suggested, "You better draw Zhen Ji first, you don't know how long she'll be there."
"Good point," Mei Li said, and switched her focus to Zhen Ji. "Candid pictures are always so much better than ones where people pose."
"Mhm," Zhang He agreed, watching Zhen Ji play. Mei Li glanced up at Zhang He, watching him watch the flute player with a soft expression on his face. She quickly got back to her drawing before he could catch her looking at him. He likes her, doesn't he... was the first thought that came to mind. Whether or not this was true, Mei Li kept quiet and continued drawing.
Does he like her? Hm, you'll have to keep reading to find out. It might not even be relevant to the story! Mei Li is sure to have many more adventures though ... this story's just getting started! Let's see if I can keep up my record of one new chapter a day. Hopefully five will be up tomorrow!
There are sure to be a lot more twists and turns, just to let you know.