Chapter 12
Xena was trapped. She couldn't leave the Zhu family, not since they had lost Junjie. She owed his children their father and his parents their son. She yearned to loose herself on the open road but she forced herself to channel this energy into helping around the farm. She would help as long as she could stand staying in one spot.
From dawn till dusk she worked, every day for a little over one moon cycle. Every day she would get up with Chen and Liang, leaving the younger two under the care of the 12-year-old Bao. They would pause for an hour at mid day to eat lunch, then pick up where they left off until the sun was low in the sky. Liang would call to the two women and they would follow him inside to eat a warm meal that Chen would put together. While she was cooking Xena would take herself to a secluded place and practice her forms, punching, kicking, and slicing apart her hapless foes. Xena usually sensed Bao hiding in the bushes nearby watching. She didn't mind, until one day Bao revealed herself with a flourish and asked her to teach her some tchniques.
"No." Xena said firmly.
"But you could teach me so much!" Bao whimpered quietly. "I need to know how to protect the family now that…" Bao faltered, and Xena pleaded with her silently. She didn't want to corrupt yet another blameless soul. But Bao had played the trump card and they both knew it. Finally, Xena gave in.
"I will teach you the meditative art of Tai Chi. But first we must ask your grandparents."
Bao opened her mouth as if to protest, but Xena had already started walking toward the house. Bao skipped happily to catch up. She wanted to be as strong, as stoic, as cool as Xena. This was her chance.
Her grandparents were hesitant at first, but they eventually assented. After all, it was Tai Chi and although the art form could be very dangerous, it was quite harmless to someone if they were never taught what the moves were for and how to apply them in a fight.
So, Xena taught Bao some Tai Chi, and by the end of the month she became proficient with the basics.
Xena found ways to enjoy her time with the little family. She had aquired comfortable fall cloths from Chen, and though she did not ask, she assumed they had been the property of Junjie's wife Mulan. Right before bed every night Xena would sit at the table in the main room and listen to Chen or Liang tell a story to their grand children as they tucked them into bed in the next room. She quickly learned the folk tales by heart, and she couldn't help but think how much Gabrielle would have liked them. She would have added bits here and there, perhaps even switched them all around until they became something that was not only timeless, but beautiful as well. Whenever this thought occurred to her the tears would begin to escape and she would quietly tip-toe back to her own room. She couldn't help immersing herself in her memories on nights like those. The night would stretch out before her endlessly as tears fell from her sleeping eyes.
She grew fond of her new beneficiaries. Shing, the toddler, had the heart of a lion but was very clumsy. He liked to hide in unlikely places and jump out at people. Xena would feign surprise when he would pop out at her screaming, until one day she was so completely engaged with her memories of Gabrielle that she didn't hear the sound of his excited breathing as he hid in a pantry. When he jumped out at her Xena nearly threw him across the room, but mastered her reflexes in the nick of time. After that she no longer played his game, but lectured him each time about the dangers of surprising a seasoned warrior. But he wouldn't listen to her warning, instead he would shout, "No! Shing the great kill you! You dead now!" and waddle away.
Jun was so shy and small Xena would have almost forgotten she existed without her heightened sense of her surroundings, the focus that Ares had given to her. Xena tried to engage her a couple times, but each time her eyes would pop open wide and she would flee the room terrified. Xena thought she blamed her for her father's death, and she felt terrible for days until Chen explained that Jun responded like that to every stranger.
Some of the family had to travel to the market once a week to sell and buy produce. Xena would usually go with Bao. Jun, although 7, was too shy to manage transactions, and Shing was far too young.
Everywhere she went in the little town people greeted her as Mulan. Every time she was mistaken for the dead mother her skin would crawl. She didn't correct them however. She didn't know why the Zhu's hadn't revealed the recent death of one of their family members, but she respected their decision. An added bonus was that this meant she could keep a low profile, and there was nothing better to hide her than looking like an already accepted member of the little marketplace. This way she wasn't a stranger.
One week Chen and Bao left early in the morning for the marketplace, and Xena and Liang went into the fields to work. They hadn't even made it to lunch yet when Chen came running at them through the fields, shouting and waving her arms wildly. Both immediately dropped their tools and ran to her.
"They… have… Bao!" She gasped in between breaths. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she didn't seem physically hurt.
"Who has Bao?" Liang said sharply.
"Some men on horseback!" She rasped. "Three? Four? It all happened so – fast!" She wailed and seized hold of her hair, ripping it out.
"We have to get her back." Liang said immediately, and started for the house. Xena grabbed his shoulder. He looked over at her.
"I'll go." She said. Liang studied her for a fraction of a second, then nodded. There was no time to argue. His limp and age made him undeniably slower than Xena, and without a horse they would need all the speed they could manage to catch up with them.
Xena kept her Chakram on the belt she wore over her borrowed cloths, and she ran into the house to get her katanna. Strapping it to her back, she began running down the path Chen and Bao had taken that morning.
There where some men out there that were soon going to be very sorry.