A/N: Yes, we have endured one of many Vietnam's history stories! Let us experience another one!
D/C: Hetalia belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz, and Hyung Soo belongs to Lo-wah!
Minh An closed his eyes as the water enveloped him. The soothing petals and herbs in the water around him made him more at ease. The bathtub he was in was actually a part of the stone floor carved in a circle with steps inside of the depression. The mud began to dissipate into the water. That was when he heard the rattling of beads.
It was Tâm An, with a fresh set of clothes for her older brother.
"Are you okay, Minh An?" Tâm An looked concerned, her honey eyes wide with fear.
Minh An had suffered a beating from Yao after the lessons with the Im twins. Tâm An couldn't bear to watch it. Yong Soo had tried to stop Yao, only to have been pushed back by Kiku. Hyung Soo couldn't bear to see it either and looked to the floor, wondering how Minh An could handle such beatings with uttering a sound.
"Of course, I'm okay," Minh An opened a golden eye to peek at his sister. "Do you want to listen to more stories?"
"Yes, yes, of course, anh hai!" Tâm An instantly became happier.
"Well, where did I leave off?" Minh An sat up in the water, causing it to swirl around him.
"When the Han Dynasty took over Nam Việt!" Tâm An grew giddier by the second. She, too, had bathed, and was now wearing simply a yếm, a garment in a quadrilateral shape, diamond or square, that was tied at the neck by two strings, and ended in a V-shape, those ends tied at the back. Typically, the yếm was an undergarment, but since it was nearing nighttime, and not to mention, it was hot, Tâm An simply wore the bodice. It was a light green shade, like the leaves in spring.
"Right," Minh An began to ponder. "Well, I'll start the story of the Hai Bà Trưng."
"Who are they?" Tâm An asked.
"Well, you'll find out soon enough!" Minh An chuckled. "The Trưng sisters were part of a military family, which means they knew how to fight. They also saw how mean the Chinese were to the people of Nam Việt, and they studied war between the two countries and learned to better their fighting skills."
"What were their names, anh hai?" Tâm An asked.
"Their names? Uh..." Minh An pretended to try and remember. "Their names were Trưng Trắc, the older one, and Trưng Nhị, the younger one.
When a nearby chief came to visit their village, the chief also brought his son, Thi Sách. That son fell in love with Trắc, and then, they married. After a while, the Chinese grew bossy, and Thi Sách took a stand against them - he did not like it, and he wanted to make sure they knew it. But the Chinese killed him, letting the other people know that they wouldn't deal with people rebelling."
"What about Cô Trắc?" Tâm An asked, sadness welling up in her eyes.
"Well, of course, she was upset, and she wanted to follow her husband's cause. With her young sister, Trắc and Nhị kicked out some Chinese in their village and got an army. In such a matter of time, they had taken over 65 cities from the Chinese and freed their entire kingdom, and became queens.
But, they weren't queens for long. The Chinese had gotten a huge army to go against the rebellion. The two sister-queens had been defeated and jumped into the river."
Tâm An was heartbroken.
"Aww! No fair!" she whined.
"Sorry, em," Minh An closed his eyes. "I'm just really tired now."
"When will you finish your bath, anh hai?" Tâm An asked her brother.
"Go to sleep without me," Minh An sighed. "I'll finish up before you know it."
With that, Tâm set the new set of clothes for her brother beside his head and walked out of the bathhouse. Hyung Soo and Yong Soo were there at the entrance, startling the girl.
"Hey, Tâm, does Minh always get beat up like that?" Yong Soo asked, trying to lower his voice.
"Well, like you and Hyung Soo, the An part of our name is like your Soo," Tâm An cleared her throat. "And, yes, just about every day."
"Why? Hyung Soo asked.
"For little things, really," Tâm An shrugged. "Good night, then. Chúc hai anh ngủ ngon."
Tâm An bowed to the two Im brothers before hurrying off to her shared room.
"I don't like how Yao treats Minh An so cruelly," Yong Soo sighed, peeking through the beads at his friend.
"I don't like how he does it in front of Tâm An," Hyung Soo stated before turning away.
"Look at this, anh Minh An, anh Hyung Soo, and anh Yong Soo!" Tâm An twirled in the beautiful flowing silk dress.
Likewise, it had the undergarment, but it also had a skirt that started high up on the chest down to the floor. The bodice was a vibrant green, with the skirt a much more pastel green. The light silk overcoat, falling short of the length of the skirt, was the shade of green just before white. The trim of the flowing coat was a more vibrant green, but not as vibrant as the undergarment. The sleeves also had the brighter colored green silk. The skirt was tied high up on the chest with a red silk sash. Her usually tied up hair was left long and flowing.
"It looks beautiful," Minh An beamed.
"Looks great!" Yong Soo cheered.
"It looks nice," Hyung Soo nodded.
Kiku had been watching on, but said nothing. Yao had been teaching the countries for so long now, but they hadn't seemed to age. All seemed peaceful in the Chinese house. It seemed that nothing could go wrong.
The happy family would be shattered forever in the centuries ahead of them.
The young woman looked up to the skies, where only one wisp of cloud stretched across the vast blue of the heavens.
In her hand lay a hoa sen, a lotus flower. Who was this woman? Why, she was Miss Tâm An Wang, or rather, Liên Dương, her surname like that of the many rulers of the stories, rather, the history of the nation she was. She set the lotus flower, its petals pure and beautiful, down on a patch of bare earth.
Long Nguyễn, or known as Minh An Wang, had died no less than a year ago.
Liên began to hear a small voice at the back of her head, a voice that was once her older brother's, reciting the stories that Liên loved to hear.
"Lạc Long Quân was the second king, and he was a hero! During a time, there was big evil fish that could eat 10 fisherman at once! Whenever it swam, the waves touched the skies, drowned all ships and all the people in the area would be gobbled up by Ngư Tinh! It lived in a big cave under the sea! Lạc Long Quân decided to finally end Ngư Tinh to help the innocent people. He built a huge ship, with a burning hot piece of metal shaped like a person and he sailed straight for Ngư Tinh's nest! Lạc Long Quân held up the burning metal, and Ngư Tinh came up to the surface! Thinking it was a real person! Lạc Long Quân threw the metal into the beast's throat! That was when Lạc Long Quân shopped up the fish into three giant pieces...
...There was a nine-tailed fox that lived in a cave under the mountains. Nine-tailed foxes can shapeshift into a human form! And this one lured humans to its cave and eat them! People were so afraid, they left their homes to live somewhere far away from the fox! Lạc Long Quân tried to attack the fox at its cave, but it had already sniffed out the king's scent and attacked! But Lạc Long Quân used magic and called upon wind and thunder to trap the fox! After 3 days, the fox became weak, and tried to find a way out, but Lạc Long Quân caught it and chopped its head off! Lạc Long Quân ran into the cave and freed everybody that was still alive...
...One day, Tâm An, we will have our own country, and our own people. Why do you think I tell you these stories? They are the stories of our people! I'll tell you the story of how our people will be born! There was a beautiful fairy named Âu Cơ, and she was very kind and good at healing. One day, an ugly monster scared her, and she turned into a crane and flew away! Lạc Long Quân, our dragon king, saw her and threw a rock to kill the monster. Âu Cơ stopped to see who had saved her and turned back into a fairy. She instantly fell in love with the king! They married, and Âu Cơ made an egg sac that hatched 100 children, but, the husband and wife were so different! Lạc Long Quân told her, 'I am a descendant of the Dragon, you are descendant of the Fairy, fire and water cannot live together in harmony,'' and they separated, taking fifty children each. It was Âu Cơ who raised the next kings. Our people will be from there..."
Liên looked to the skies with tears pooling at the rims of her eyes. It somehow pieced together in a cruel, cruel fate. The husband and wife parted their children in equal halves, in two, who would become the ancestors of all her people. She and her brother were two of the same nation. It was Âu Cơ who led the rest of the nation, a woman. It was Liên who won the war, also a woman. She stood there, before her brother's grave, the tears spilling from her cheeks.
"Anh hai..." she could barely manage to keep her voice firm, "why could we not have been like Yong Soo and Hyung Soo? Maybe, just maybe, we would've lived in harmony...just maybe...Why did you do that to yourself...?"
Her country was starting to rebuild once more after a brutal war. She could remember the happy days of her youth, so long ago. She remembered all the awful things Yao did to her brother, yet still succumbed to Yao's ways. In a crashing moment, she felt as though it was she that killed her brother, that it was she who started the war.
How long had it been since the day Long had grabbed the blade of a sword for her? How long had it been since he had cruelly turned away the Buddhist ways and followed Catholicism? All so long ago, it seemed, but it truly felt like an eternity away now that he was gone, with only books to remember him by. It was a victory, yes, but it felt more of a loss. She could not have thanked him enough, and she hardly could for the past century.
"Well, anh hai," she sniffed, "this is our country now. As we said to each other, Con Rồng, cháu Tiên...our people are reviving...our people, the Children of Dragons, Grandchildren of the Gods."
A/N: Yay for Vietnamese legends! Also, for references to the clothing, please go on imgur and paste the following after its URL: /gallery/PqJoy
(Figure 2, from the previous part, and Figure 7 for this part. As you can tell, I have clearly dismissed all time frames.)
Thank you for reading! I'm aware, it's not much, but! It's something! Thank you for reading everybody!