Dancing With The Blossoms
Family reunions are F.U.N. This one was the best reunion I've ever had on my grandpa's side...okay, anyway...Thank you for all your reviews! They made me so happy!
Chapter 11
Three Days Later
Heading back to Jiang Dong
Gan Ning watched the Wu princess in silence from where he sat on his horse. The army was finally moving out, probably in the most confused air ever. After the battle they had the normal banquet, this time with Shu, whose force had rushed in at the last moment in a brilliant counter offensive. No one was really sure who won, but the morning after the battle the Wei side was completely deserted save for a broken tent. The pirate shifted in the saddle looking at the allies leader who was currently walking alongside Sun Shang Xiang and holding hands. The pirate scowled deeper. Sure, the alliance needed to be made to get rid of Wei; but why did Shang Xiang have to marry an old stick in the mud like Liu Bei?
He jerked his horse to walk along behind the couple, the movement making the bells around his neck jingle. Sun Shang Xiang looked up at the pirate and winked out of the corner of her eye. Then he did the unthinkable, he blushed. Upon realizing this, his heart quickened a little and he moved away to ride by someone else, much to Shang Xiang's amusement.
Liu Bei looked up at his wife's behavior, "Shang Xiang? What is it?" She turned her almond eyes to him and laughed, squeezing his hand a little harder. "Nothing, just a pirate," In confusion he looked behind them to Zhou Tai, who just stared back at him, and then back to Shang Xiang.
"Zhou Tai?" He asked confusedly. She laughed and shook her head smiling.
"Don't worry about it, it doesn't really concern you very much." Liu Bei smiled.
"If you say so." They walked on in silence for a moment, "Do you know when Zhao Yun and Xing Cai will return?"
"Not exactly, but we do need to move back to Jiang Dong, for Father." Sadness clouded her eyes and she leaned her head against Liu Bei. "I hope he'll be okay. He wants to see mother, and that's all he keeps saying."
"Lord Sun Jian is strong. But not even he can block the attacks of four general's at once." Liu Bei sighed. "Xiahou Dun's weapon was poisoned, but Zhuge Liang is helping him now, I don't think he will die."
Sun Shang Xiang sighed, "I know he wont die, if he did, What would Ce do?" Liu Bei frowned at his wife as her thoughts became clouded with worry, "I hope they make it back all right."
Liu Bei squeezed her and gave a smile, "I'm sure they will be." He motioned for his horse. "Want to take a ride?"
Shang Xiang smiled, "you bet!" They got on, Liu Bei, being the gentleman that he was helped her up and offered her the reins.
"Careful, he has a tendency to run," Liu Bei was forced to hold on to the Wu princess tightly as she raced the horse to a gallop. She laughed at his scream of fright and made the horse run faster. Zhuge Liang shook his head at them as they passed, a small smile forming on his lips.
"My husband, what amuses you so?" Yue Ying asked, noticing the smile.
"Young love is quite a treat to watch is it not, my wife?" She bowed her head at the comment.
"Yes my lord, it is a rare treat in these times, to find a husband and a wife that love each other."
"Yes it is, you love me do you not, Yue Ying?" He locked his eyes onto her face. She turned her eyes to him.
"I love you, because you are my husband," She replied. He smiled at her.
"And I love you because you are my wife." The strategist sighed again, looking at the covered wagon that held Sun Jian. "How can someone love someone so much?" Zhuge Liang asked himself, "That they would say their love's name over and over, until death claims them?"
"My lord, Sun Jian is a very good man, and he loves his family more than anything. Yet we have flushed all the poison out of his system, and we have the bast doctor here to save him. The Wu Lord shall not die today, or tomorrow." Yue Ying said, looking at the wagon with a heartsick longing to have what that man had, to be loved like that man was.
"The Sun's are strong, like the rays of the sun." Zhuge Liang murmured.
A little ways from He Fei castle
"When we get back, the fist thing I'm going to do is go down to the kitchens and eat everything I can see. Then I'm going to go straight to my bed and-" Sun Ce stopped whining as Zhou Yu shoved a delicate hand over his mouth.
"Quiet Ce! Do you hear that?" The moon was covered in clouds, and a light drizzle had found them. Their horses were back beyond the river they had just crossed, as they were to easily recognized by other regions.
Sun Ce pulled the hand away, "What?" He whispered, and Da Qiao came to cling on his arm. Lu Xun and Da Qiao came up next to them, followed by the Shu generals.
"There's something out there, and I am not imagining." Zhou Yu withdrew his sword and winced at the sound it made. The bamboo forest made it hard to see anything in the distance, and the rain only made things worse.
A sudden explosion in the bamboo behind him made them all jump, and looking up, they saw a large tiger with eyes glowing in the dark. Zhou Yu heard a mewing sound behind him and when he turned, all the color in is face vanished. There, right on the other side, were two baby tiger cubs. "Damn it!" Even a fool knew not to cross a tiger and her cubs. The tiger gave a roar and pounced toward Xiao Qiao. Zhou Yu gasped, slamming the girl to the ground. He winced as he felt the tiger claw his back, and he turned around slashing upwards toward's it's belly. Only to have his shoulder crushed by a fifty-plus pound paw. His wounded shoulder felt like a thousand needles of pain had slammed into it, as the tiger put all it's weight onto it. Zhou Yu couldn't help it, as the shoulder popped out of its socket he gave a blood curdling scream.
"Yu!" Sun Ce cried, slamming the tiger's head with his tonfa. The Tiger roared and charged, It's back paw catching Zhou Yu in the face with a claw, the sheer force of it slamming Zhou Yu's head into the ground and causing him to lose consciousness. The tiger ran toward Sun Ce with its mouth wide. Sun Ce dropped the Tonfa as the Tiger leaped at him, kicking the soft gut and with sheer brute strength, forced the tiger onto his back.
"Someone knock this thing out!" He shouted as he struggled to keep the jaws away. Zhao Yun raced forward and struck the tiger in the head just enough to make it fall unconscious.
"Yuie bear!" Xiao Qiao cried, dropping next to her husbands side and wiping the blood off his pale face with a sob. "Sun Ce, come here!" Sun Ce was there in an instant, feeling down the chest for any broken ribs. Zhao Yun came beside him and tore open the strategist's clothing, taking out a knife and cutting them off in one fluid motion.
"Dislocated shoulder, and that's it as far as I can see, other than his face," Sun Ce's face became pale as he lifted the arm gently. Zhao Yun firmly held the man's torso as Sun Ce lifted the arm up and slammed it back into the socket. Da Qiao grabbed onto Xiao Qiao and put her hands over her ears, so she wouldn't hear the scream that echoed through the forest.
Working fast as possible, Zhao Yun wrapped the tunic that Zhou Yu had been wearing around his bare chest and arm, securely so that it wouldn't move as the ran. "Quick, I'm sure you will want to carry him?" Sun Ce nodded, lifting the Wu strategist as if he were nothing. Lu Xun moved beside the man as they ran, watching the blood from the gash that formed at his ear and stopped at his chin run down his beautiful face and mix with the rain.
In front of He Fei castle
The group stared up at the fortress in anxious anticipation. It was the fourth day, and the next day, the poison would become permanent. Zhou Yu had awakened and he and Lu Xun were forming a strategy to get inside. More that once, Lu Xun had caught Zhou Yu staring at Sun Ce, and the youth couldn't help but point it out. "My Lord, you have to fight the poison, if you keep on feeling that way about him, then even if we can lift the curse in time you'll still feel the same way about him."
Zhou Yu sighed, closing his eyes against the vision of the Little Conqueror. "I know."Then Sun Ce did the worst thing he could possibly have done in a moment like that. He came up and sat next to Zhou Yu with a big smile on his face. Lu Xun could see the thoughts and pain in Zhou Yu's eye's as he watched the smile, Lu Xun witnessed the possessed motion that Zhou Yu seemed to move in as he grabbed Sun Ce's goatee and pulled the young lord into a kiss.
Lu Xun watched as both of their shoulder's stiffened, and they pulled apart, both blushing like mad. Zhou Yu stammered, "I'm sorry Ce..." only to find warm lips on him again, and Sun Ce's burning eyes meeting his own.
"Yu, quit apologizing, okay? I love you like a brother, and family is allowed to kiss each other, all right?" Zhou Yu's mouth still hung open in a dazed sort of way. "Now, you two have a plan yet?"
"Yes..." Lu Xun spoke up, "We have a plan, and we trust that we will all be able to work the ploy to perfection..."
xxxxxxxxxxx
Yep, it's getting really close to the end, isn't it? Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Oh, that remind's me, when the last chapter comes, I'll have a choice of some stories, to see which one I should do next. Any way, thank-you for reading, and please review if you have time. Thank-you all! And suggestion's and helpful hints are very much appreciated.