Dancing With The Blossoms
Its taken a long time, its been a long road, but finally, here it is: The final chapter! My first multi chapter completed work! At the bottom are some summaries for you to choose as to what I should do next. I was going to make a sequel but decided to just have an epilogue at the end of this chapter instead. Thank-you all for your support over all this time! I am truly grateful!
Chapter 13
Everyone's heart stalled and for a moment, only the faint ringing of the gong was heard before Lu Xun leapt into action, shoving the entire contents of the bottle down Zhou Yu's throat. The warriors stared at Zhou Yu, waiting, hoping that it would work. Then, right before the final ring of the gong, Zhou Yu lapsed into unconsciousness and changed.
Sun Ce and Zhao Yun shattered the locks binding the strategist to the table, and Zhou Yu crumpled into Xiao Qiao's arms, knocking the small girl to the ground. Xiao Qiao wrapped her arms around him and smiled, resting her head against her husband's neck.
Sun Ce watched them a moment smiling his ever famous smile, then he took a hold of his tiger skin and unwrapped it from his own waist, and tied it around his sworn brother's instead. Then he hugged Da. The elder Qiao looked up at her husband and smiled, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Looks like everything is going to be fine Da," Sun Ce sighed.
The elder Qiao nodded, "Yes lord Sun Ce, it does."
Lu Xun sighed with relief, content to be back in his normal body again. "Now all me must do is return to Jiang Dong safely." Sun Ce smiled at him, and then everyone else in the room.
"Alright then, what're we waiting for? Lets go home!"
"Not as long as breath still enters my body!" A sinister voice snarled from the doorway above them. "You've saved your precious strategists, but, can you save yourselves?" Sima Yi turned his head and shouted over his shoulder, "Guards! We have intruders!" Sun Ce leapt forward, kneeing Sima Yi in the gut, knocking the unprepared man backwards, a kick to the face knocked the purple robed man out of the dungeon and into the hallway. Sun Ce grabbed the man's robe and lifted him off the ground, throwing open an empty cell door, he tossed him down into the inky darkness.
"You ass! Don't ever approach my fammily or my friends again!" He shouted, "And news flash buddy, your clothes look like you took them from a brothel girl!" He slammed the door shut in an enraged Sima Yi's face, and Xing Cai let the iron bar drop. Sun Ce looked at her in mild astonishment.
Xing Cai locked her brown eyes on his hazel ones, "We don't want him escaping anytime soon," she explained, and Sun Ce smirked.
Zhao Yun hefted his spear up just before two dozen guards appeared on both sides of the hallway, boxing the group in. Zhao Yun protectively stepped in front of Xing Cai as a spear head shot up near his throat. Lu Xun, who had been holding the still unconscious Zhou Yu looked around wildly, breath hitched in his throat from the strain of dragging his superior up the stairs.
"Drop your weapons!" A sergeant shouted painfully close to Lu Xun's ear. The seven warriors looked at each other and regretfully let the weapons clatter to the ground. However, just as Xing Cai had unstrapped her shield and dropped it to the ground, a new voice was heard.
"Thats enough!" Zhang He walked forward, tiredly, his long black hair moving almost sluggishly behind him. One could see the weariness in the purple clad general's eyes, and he brushed his bangs out of his eyes in a slightly irritated way. "How dare you try to abduct my guests! Go about your duty men, and leave them in peace."
"B-but Lord Sima Yi called and said they were intruders!" The sergeant stammered. "My Lord."
Zhang He scoffed, "Sima Yi is a fool and I have no time for his foolish claims." The sergeant looked doubtfully at the ragtag group in front of him. One of them was unconscious and clad only in a tiger skin. The man was handsome, but he had a gash on his face that looked like it was made from a tiger, and his right shoulder area was all bruised.
"Y-yes my lord..." The man bowed and the guards left back upstairs.
Zhang He waited until he was sure no one was left, then he sighed wearily. "Come, I'll have baths drawn for all of you and get some fresh clothes and supplies." He stopped, hearing a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sima Yi's. "The prisoners are fussing, I shall have to tell the prison guard to deal with them."
Sun Ce smirked, took his sworn brother from Lu Xun, and followed Zhang He accompanied by the others. Lu Xun couldn't help but ask. "Why do you help us?" Zhang He stopped walking and turned to face the young man. He put a hand to the bows chin, raising his head, Zhang He swooped down and grazed his lips against the young strategist before he could pull away.
"That is the only answer I can give young man." Zhang He turned, leaving a shocked group behind him. Xing Cai stopped beside him and put a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder.
"It's okay, right?" She searched his golden eyes for any sign of hurt, "You are not injured by that are you?" Lu Xun shook his head and put his hand on her's.
"Of course not. That man is always surprising." Xing Cai smiled, and dropped her hand, and the two walked side by side, following the group.
Early morning, outside He Fei front gates
Zhang He held the reins of Lu Xun's horse as the young man mounted. Zhou Yu, who had awoken, though control of his limbs was still quite shaky, nudged the black steed, coming next to the Wei general. "We cannot thank-you enough Zhang He, how can we ever repay you?"
Zhang He smiled, "you never killed me when you had the chance Zhou Yu, and for that I owe you my life." Zhou Yu arched a delicate eyebrow, but nodded none the less.
"I am almost certain that you would have done the same for any of us." The strategist said, turning his steed toward the road.
Zhang He looked up at the man, "I would take the side roads most of the journey, until about your fourth day. That should give you time to pass the army. I have given you more than enough supplies to arrive at Jiang Dong, and I hope that you have a safe journey." The group took off, and Zhang He watched them until they passed out of sight. "Passion does indeed burn in the fiery eyes of Wu..."
Over the trip home, Lu Xun and Xing Cai grew to know something that Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu classified as young love. Zhao Yun had become somewhat like an older brother to Xiao Qiao, and Zhou Yu and Sun Ce finally started acting like real brothers, to the point where Zhou Yu finally stopped calling Sun Ce 'My Lord' and referred to him as 'Ce.'
Three Weeks later, Jian Ye garden
A group of seven generals sat beneath the blooming peach trees, enjoying the evening breeze. A melodious tune flowed from a reed flute in the hands of a handsome strategist, who was watching the perfect dancing of three young women. Zhao Yun, Sun Ce, and Lu Xun sat beneath the trees, watching the picturesque scene. Sun Ce watched his wife, and Zhao Yun watched Xing Cai, Lu Xun, who had been reading a book, had laid it aside, and was watching the young Shu officer as well.
Xing Cai noticed the young man's looks and smiled, grabbing his arm and pulling him up. "Dance with me Lu Xun, please?" He couldn't refuse, and soon, the whole group was up, dancing with each other to the rhythm of the flute.
The breeze picked up, and the flute stalled for a split second before continuing the melody. For Zhou Yu had just witnessed a scene which undoubtedly would be remembered for the rest of his life. Something history never would know, something he called...
Dancing With The Blossoms
Epilogue
Bai Di Castle
A cloaked man on a black stallion galloped up the hill, stopping in front of the south gates. The wind howled and blew the cloak in all different directions, but the man kept the hood over his head to stay dry from the rain.
"Who goes there?" A voice shouted down, almost downed out by a crash of thunder. The man peered up, golden eyes shining.
"I seek audience with Lady Xing Cai," The man shouted up to the gate captain. "It is of the utmost importance."
The man at the tower disappeared, and a small peek hole on the side of the gate opened a few moments later. "Who are you?" All the man could see was a smile, everything else was hidden.
"An old friend." The gate captain shook his head. "We cannot let you through, we are in the middle of battle, we cannot let you through. I don't know who you are or how you got by the Wu forces, but letting you enter is completely out of the question."
"I have valuable information for her, and unless you want to explain why you refused to let me in, I suggest you open this gate." The gate captain faltered, and gate opened a few moment later enough to let him enter unmounted.
"I need to take your weapons." The cloaked man withdrew two daggers from his belt and a quiver of arrows and a bow with the other, then he dropped two sheathed sabers to the ground and followed a servant to Lady Cai's quarters. He knocked twice, and a minute later, Xing Cai, still beautiful, but there was a stronger beauty now, and her eyes told that she had felt pain and loss and suffering and still stood strong and tall with the pride of Shu.
"Yes? May I help you?" She asked suspiciously, gripping the dagger in her sash. The man bowed to her, and flipped back his hood, revealing that he was indeed Lu Xun, the strategist who had so long ago caught her young heart with innocent love. Xing Cai's eyes narrowed. "What do you want here?"
Lu Xun bowed again, his handsome face unreadable as he faced her again. "I have a wish for Lady Xing Cai, and I bring word. The rest of our group has died, and now there are only two left, I have a wish before the final battle tomorrow, that you do not die."
Xing Cai frowned, "I will be happy to die for my people if that is to be my fate. I shall protect Shu like my father and Lord Zhao Yun did before me. I have a wish for Lu Xun, "Wu and Shu are now enemies, the alliance ended, and yet our friendship did not break. I hope that we can still be friends, even if one of us dies."
Lu Xun bowed his head. "Neither of us will die tomorrow." Xing Cai shook her head.
"No one of us will." On that note, she stepped aside, allowing him to enter. She poured him a cup of tea, and then one for herself. "Lord Zhao Yun died in Yi Ling, that was the last time our group saw each other, at that time four of us were dead."
Lu Xun looked up at her, "Sun Ce died under a mystics curse, and Da Qiao threw herself into the Jiang Dong. Zhou Yu met his death with a poison arrow, or perhaps it was sorrow...no one has yet figured that out. All we know is Xiao Qiao died of illness later that same year."
Xing Cai took a drink of tea, "it was fun, that adventure." Lu Xun nodded.
"But it will not be remembered in history. Something like that would curse future generations."
"And Sima Yi's family." Xing Cai smiled.
"Yes." Lu Xun nodded, "Xing Cai, I hope you have no regrets in life or in death. May you live long, despite what you say."
Xing Cai nodded, "Same to you, Lord Lu Xun."
Lu xun stood, "Come, let us dance in the garden one last time." Xing Cai took his outstretched hand.
"Yes, lets." They danced in the garden of Bai Di castle, forgetting everything but that night in the garden dancing to a single flute and the wind.
There you have it. That's the end. I hope you like it and it isn't to horrible an ending...now that I look back, I think I'm going to miss this story a little, It was a load of fun. Someday I might go and re-do the first few chapters...unless I'm going to be lazy. Anyway, I have a few summaries for you. Please pick your favorite as a story for me to do next. Thank-you.
The Wu officers are training in camp, what havoc will these officers in training reek before they become as good as we know them to be? Based loosely off of Mulan. Pairings are: Sun Ce/Zhou Yu, Gan Ning/ Shang Xiang, Da Qiao/Lu Xun, and Xiao Qiao/Ling Tong (or maybe Lu Meng, I havent decided yet...)
Zhou Yu and Sun Ce have been together for most of their lives. But when Sun Ce dies, Zhou Yu is distraught. Then, China is taken over by Dong Zhou and only a few officers can save it, and their leader must be Sun Ce. Zuo Ci sends Zhou Yu into the future to find Sun Ce's reincarnation. Pairings: Zhou Yu/Sun Ce, Da Qiao/Lu Xun, Xiao Qiao/Lu Meng etc... AU
A young Zhou Yu is tortured by a psychotic uncle, who cuts off his tongue and then shoves him into a river, unconscious. He is rescued and brought to a town of lepers, where he learns the meaning of life and being human. No oc pairings if I can help it. AU
During a trip along the shore, a storm hits. Sun Ce, Gan Ning and Lu Meng are safe, but Zhou Yu is lost at sea and assumed dead. Seven years later, who is this foreign man from Japan who looks just like them but knows none of them? Pairings: (whatever you prefer)
And thats all I can think of...but whatever is most popular will be done, and if I'm in the mood I can try two at once...but updates might take a little longer when school starts...Anyway, I hope you enjoyed DOB, and I really appreciate you taking the time to read this. Oh, and I need a beta, so if anyone who has enough free time would like too, Then please let me no, otherwise I shall continue to beat the stories out regardless of horrible grammar or not (I'm only 16 you know...)
END (I almost put TBC...)