This chapter has been edited and re-post. Don't care? Skip it.

I do not own any of the DW characters; they belong to Koei or whoever. I do own the OC and some minor characters that might pop up.

Several days passed where the only company I had was the young girl. We would sit and talk most of the time. I learned a great deal from her. Her name was Li Mei, and I felt it suited her; however, she asked me to call her Mei. She was younger than I thought, fifteen, a child in my opinion. I asked her once why she was working in the house, she simply told me, for her mother. I decided it would be better not to pry further.

She asked me many questions as well. It took me a while to explain to her that my personal name was Koa, but once she understood, she called me that. She asked my age, if I were married, she was a bit surprised when I told her no. I am nineteen and she explained that most women are married off by then. She then asked me about my family, I explained to her about my mother and brother's death; leaving out key bits of information, and how it was only my father and I now. She hung her head and apologized to me for asking such a thing. I could not help but laugh at her. She did not understand why I did so, and neither could I. She then asked me about my hair, why I had a streak of white mixed with my midnight locks. I shook my head, telling her, "I do not even know why. It has always been like that." She smiled at me and nodded, understanding. She never asked me to answer the question that loomed over my being here, where I was from. For that, I was thankful.

It was nearly a week before Mei would let me go out into the garden. She feared I was not well enough yet; however, she did finally give in. She took me out to the garden of the house. We wandered around in it for a short time before I took to sneezing, allergies to some of the flowers, and Mei ushered me back inside. She also explained to me that the house belonged to Zhao Yun and his absents was explained away with one word; War. I cringed at that word; I had always been one to avoid conflict but apparently, this was not the time where said beliefs were shared by many.

A few weeks later, Zhao Yun returned. He waited an entire day before he spoke to me. Mei and I were in the garden. I was desperately trying to explain my allergy to her. However, she continued to scold me; swearing that she would never let me out here again if the flowers were my problem; I could not help laughing. He walked up behind me; I could not see him and Mei was too preoccupied with yelling at me to notice. He must have stood there for a few minutes listening to the two of us go back and forth with this argument, because he began to laugh. This caught both of our attentions and we turned to face him. There he stood, tall and proud, my heart skipped a beat but I shook it away; this was not the time. He was not in his armor this time, but in normal clothes. He turned to Mei and asked her to leave us; she bowed to both of us and scurried off to the house. Zhao Yun then looked to me. He was thinking I could tell by the look in his eyes. He gave me a smile and waved his hand to the pond that sat in the middle of the garden, a bridge went over it, and it was quite a serene place. I nodded and started over to it; he followed. We went to the middle of the bridge and he stopped. Turning he leaned over one of the rails and stared in to the water.

"Have you tried to remember where you are from?" He did not look at me when he spoke, just stared at the water. I turned away, looking to the sky. I let out a sigh and turned back to face him. He was staring at me, something in his eyes was different, but he looked back to the water before I had a chance to think about it. "I will take that as a 'no'," He spoke before I could. I turned away from him; my mind went to the question and trying to figure out how to answer. I heard him shift behind me. I turned enough so that I could see him from the corner of my eye; I could tell he did not notice. He was staring at me; the look in his eyes told me he was considering something. I turned to face him and he looked away again. I started to laugh and his eyes darted back to me. The confusion clear on his face; this only made me laugh harder. I stepped over to lean on the rail to hold myself up. His look became more and more confused, I could only respond by laughing harder and leaning more on the rail.

My fun, however, was soon cut short. The rail gave an angry creak and then a loud snap and I was sent plummeting into the pond with a splash. I surfaced quickly, not quickly enough for Zhao Yun. As my head came out of the water, he came in. Nearly landed on top of me, he missed my head by a few centimeters. A moment later he surface, face to face with me. I felt him grab hold of my waist and begin to pull me to the shore. Once on dry land he looked me over; searching for an injury I may have obtained in the fall. Satisfied I was not hurt; he looked back to my face. Surprise filled his eyes. Although I was now wet and growing cold, I was unharmed and my face showed only my amusement at his fussing.

He blinked a few times before he opened his mouth, closing it, and opening it again. I laughed as his loss of words. His brow furrowed and he shook his head, as he took a few steps away from me. Again, he looked at me and again he looked away, this went on for a few moments. I again could do no more than laugh and shake my head. Finally, he looked at me, confusion in his eyes, his brows furrowed, and his voice now working quiet well indeed.

"Are you able to swim? Do you have no fear of the water?" His voice was sharp, gone was its usual softness. My laughing stopped and I looked to the grass.

"I have been able to swim for most of my life, and I fear nothing." I was quiet afterwards; I had given that answer, 'I fear nothing' so many times in my life it was impossible to count now the odd stares or the unbelieving scoffs. Zhao Yun did neither; his face took on a soft look. He simply looked at me, almost as if he respected me more now that I had said that.

A smile began to show on his face, "I see, that is quite remarkable indeed," he paused to give a small laugh, "However, seeing as we are both soaking wet, I suggest we go inside and find dry clothes." He held out his hand for mine, I gave it to him and we started for the house.

Inside Mei cornered me and once again began to scold me. This time for falling in the water and went on to tell me how it could make me sick again. She then pulled me to my room, all the while threatening not to let me out of it anymore; I knew she was making empty threats so I only found it funny. She gave me something to dry off with and left my room for hers. I had been borrowing her clothes while I was here and she had gone to get me something else to wear. She took longer than usual but she returned. In her arms was a very lovely dress; it look quite expensive. She handed it to me, a smile on her face told me she knew something I did not.

I held the dress up to look at it. It was amazing; it was a soft green. It had gold thread that ran along the edges and came in on the skirt to shape and shade the symbol of an eastern dragon on the right side; the head lying right around the hip. On the left side, it had a slit that came up to about the knee. The top of it would button clear up to my jaw yet it was sleeveless.

I began to shake my head and hand it back to her, "Mei, no, I could not possibly wear this. It is far too grand, I do not want to destroy your best dress, and I would never be able to forgive myself,"

She laughed, stepped back, and shook her head, "It is not mine; Lord Zhao Yun gave it to me to give to you. He said he had gotten it for you for tonight. Lord Liu Bei is holding a celebration tonight. For the soldiers that returned from the last battle. Lord Zhao Yun wishes you to accompany him, wearing that."

I stared at her in disbelief, and then sighed. She beamed a smile and turned so that I could change. The dress fit me perfectly as if I had bought it myself. I giggled at the thought of big manly Zhao Yun picking it out; made me wonder how he did it. Once it was on I cleared my throat to let Mei know it was all right to turn around, when she did she gasped in surprise but quickly shook it away. She handed me a pair of slippers that went with the dress; they mimicked the green and gold colors and sat me on the stool to do my hair. She pulled my long locks into a very intricate up do, leaving my white lock down and braiding it. When she finished I stood and turned to face her. She painted my eyes and lips with something like make-up; it smelled terrible but looked nice. When she finished that, she looked me over, giving me a smile and a nod. Stopping for a moment she tapped her chin, suddenly she was up and running, telling me to wait there for just a moment and she would be right back. A minute or two later she returned with a soft green, long piece of silk that she draped around one of my elbows, behind my back, and around the other elbow. The ends of it hung nearly to my knees. Stepping back, she looked me over and nodded in approval. Waving her hand to the door, she led me out in to the hall, heading for the main room.

Zhao Yun stood in the middle of the room, his back to me at first. I could tell he was dressed in a very formal outfit, in the same green and gold as the dress I wore. Mei giggled, catching his attention and he turned around. When his eyes hit me I looked to the floor, I could hear him gasp in amazement. Slowly I looked up and he had a blush on his face. He bowed to me and held out his hand to me, I crossed the room and gave him my hand.

"You look wonderful," His voice was like an airy whisper and I blushed.

Looking to the floor and spoke softly, "Thank you. You did a great job picking the dress."

He nodded and we headed out, taking a carriage to Liu Bei's home.

I could feel something building up inside me. It reminded me of the felling I had had in my dream weeks earlier. I looked to Zhao Yun and he gave me a comforting smile, it did not help. I knew something was going to happen tonight. Something bad...

PS- Please R&R the reviews would help me greatly in writing, I would like to know what you think of the story so far.

Thanks

-Alwayshappytohelp