Rescue Me, My Love

It Was Hard, But We Prevailed

     The woman had been running for days.  Her parents had married her to a man who was cruel and heartless.  His family was nobility, but it meant nothing.  What they didn't know is that she was pregnant by her lover, a general in the king's army who had tried to win her.  Her new husband's reputation preceded him.  Everywhere he went the people knew of him and his ways.  .  It didn't stop his sexual abuse of his wives.  Out of his four wives, two had lost their babies and one died because of it.  She decided she would run away.  Her family had property on the mountain near the town where they lived.  She knew of it, but he didn't.  For days she packed supplies in a secret place outside the gates.  She knew he was going on a trip to get another wife.  When he left, she would too.  She came close to being caught by one of his servants, but after that, she became more cautious.  He visited her the night he went to leave.  He brutalized her terribly, but she survived.  Her children within her survived.  It was now or never.  She feigned a headache for an excuse to retire for the night the next day.  She waited until deep in the night to leave.  She had retrieved a dagger and a small sword and placed them in her pack.  Slowly, surely, she eased her way out to her stash of supplies.  She quickly packed everything and headed down the road.  Several times she heard horses coming or men talking.  She would hide until they passed.  As she proceeded up the mountain, she was glad she had packed her warm cloak and warm fur lined clothes.  After traveling for a month, her ready food nearly gone, she reached a cave near the mountain's tree line.  Wood was neatly stacked inside.  It looked as though someone had been there, but it had been a while.  She nodded and set about stowing her gear.  She knew her husband would never find her here.  She had stayed off the main road.  When she could, she had walked for miles up a stream bed.  No dogs could find her, that she knew.  For months she prepared to give birth by herself.  She knew it would be dangerous, but it couldn't be helped.  She hunted and dried meat, she scavenged for any edible vegetables she could find.  She packed away enough food for four people just to be sure.  Her Fuqin had taught her how to survive.  On the very day she had finished her work and had decided to rest, the pain hit her.  It was time.
     At first she walked around the cave.  This helped with her pain.  When her water broke, she had to lay down and her labor began in earnest.  For hours the pain racked her body.  She bit down on a thick leather strip to keep from crying out loud.  Finally after ten hours, her beautiful daughter was born.  She had tied off her cord and cleaned her when the pain hit her again.  What was wrong?  She was in labor again.  In less than fifteen minutes after the first girl was born, another girl was born.  Twins!  How rare and blessed!  She cut off her cord and cleaned her too.  She named them Chen Bo and Chin Chu.  She held them to her breast to let them feed.  She propped herself up and went to sleep.  It was hard that first month being alone with two babies.  They were born at the end of winter.  She would be able to hunt and leave them secured in the cave.  Her food supply was handy so all she had to do was keep her fire going and keep herself fed to provide for them.  She had been on the mountain for nearly a year.  The girls were nine months old and she was hunting when she came across the first man from her husband's retinue.  He was looking for her.  Their marriage contract stated that if he produced no heir with her in three years, he had to forfeit the lands given as a bride price.  The three years was almost up.  She killed the man cleanly with a bow.  She strapped him to his horse and took him back to the road.  She pointed the horse back towards the base of the mountain and slapped his rear. 
     In the next six months, she killed ten more men.  One escaped with an arrow in his back and a near cut across his throat.  She had disguised herself as a demon.  The man had heard the local tales of a demon who lived on the mountain and that no one came back alive.  The first man killed had been proof.  His body had still been on his horse, rotting away, when the horse walked into a village at the foot of the mountain.  He had been slashed and hacked with claws.  Or so it seemed.  She had taken the idea and run with it.  She fashioned gloves with bear paws.  She would use the claws to mark up the bodies before sending them back.  Fear ran through the village and no one came up the mountain.  Anger filled her husband as man after man disappeared.  Good men and hunters who he thought could find her.  He was sure she had returned to her family.  They were shocked to hear of her disappearance, too.  They demanded the land be returned.  Angry beyond words, he had no choice but to comply.  He returned the land, went back to his compound and finally forgot about her.  Never dropping her guard, she raised her girls from the time they were born to survive.  They knew how to hide, how to hunt, how to make clothes from hides, how to forage for food, how to protect themselves and how to make spears and arrows.  For twenty years they lived on the mountain in peace.  For twenty years peace was around them, but that was soon to come to an end.
     The land was at war.  The emperor's army was marching through the area.  They were foraging as they went and their mountain was not immune.  Bo and Chu were patrolling when they came upon four men looking for food.  They killed all four, stripped them of their armor and weapons, marked them with the claws and took them to the road and dumped them.  They followed no set path.  Most of the time, they took to the trees.  They returned to the cave with their haul.  Their mother, who was in her forties now, saw the armor and paled.  "Who were these men you killed?  Where are they from?"  "There is an army at the base of the mountain, Mother.  These four were foraging up the mountain.  We killed them and marked them with the claws.  Did we do wrong?"  "I fear our time here is about to come to an end if they suspect anything.  Let's keep watch from the trees.  Don't go down the mountain for now.  We can climb up the mountain and observe from there.  Come, we will do that now.  First, put out that fire!  We want no smoke to be seen."  They climbed to a spot above their cave that allowed them to see nearly the whole west side of the mountain and the valley below.  They could see patrols in the distance.  The army was just starting to come around the road from the east.   They went toward the east to survey from that vantage point.  What they saw struck fear into their hearts.  The army was vast and messengers were coming back and forth.  Bo and Chu looked at their mother.  She was staring intently at the man in the lead.  Before her Fuqin made the deal with her husband, this man had shown an interest in her.  He wanted her and did everything he could to win her, but her Fuqin wouldn't relent.  Now here he was, a general, a famed leader, and he had never married.  She turned to her daughters and smiled.  "I believe that man right there will save us if we are caught here.  I had planned to return to my family after you were born and seek him out, but I decided it was safer to stay here.  You see girls, he is your true Fuqin."
     Slowly but surely the army was rounding the mountain.  When the four men were found in a ditch by the road, scouts were sent out.  The general scoffed at the stories the men were telling him.  For twenty years the village was terrified by tales of demons who lived on the mountain.  That morning he listened to villagers tell their near escapes and terrified stories of death.  He decided to send a troop up that mountain.  He knew who that land belonged to.  He also knew she had disappeared twenty years ago.  He wondered.  He didn't have to wonder long.  His troop went up the mountain and came back with a prisoner.  She was thrown down at his feet with her head hung down.  He motioned for his men to leave.  When the last man left, she raised her head and looked him right in the eye.  The surprise written on his face was worth pure gold.  He fell down on his knees and cradled her face.  "Shi Mei!  I have looked for you for years.  I didn't think to look here on this mountain, your family's land.  I heard he mistreated you.  I heard you left and were never seen again.  I wanted to kill the bastard, but one of his wives did it for me.  You're free now.  You're free!  Come with me!  I'll marry you and care for you!  Will you come with me?"  She smiled and let out a long sigh.  "Qing Kai He, I have something to tell you.  Please don't be angry, but you see, we have twin daughters.  They are why I left.  Do you forgive me?"  He held her close.  "After all these years, I still love you.  Where are they?  Are they close?"  "Yes.  I'm sorry but I raised them myself.  They are warriors, not ladies by any sense of the word.  There is not a man in this camp that could catch them if they choose not to be.  I was afraid for my life and theirs.  I knew I couldn't come to you.  I'm so sorry.  Will you come up the mountain with me to get them?  They are afraid, but they are fearless and brave."  "Do they know about me?"  "I told them about you this morning.  They want to meet their Fuqin.  They respect you as a great warrior.  Are you willing to take them on as yours?"  "Yes, they are mine.  Come, let's go meet them."
     Kai He was surprised.  Not only were they his, they were the spitting image of him.  He could not deny them.  When he met them, he bared his sole to them.  He told them he would provide for them and make their lives much easier.  He looked into their eyes and told them he had waited his whole life for them.  That night, they came down the mountain with their true Fuqin, dressed as warriors.  The men in the camp were in awe.  Even though they had lived on the mountain away from any civilization, their mother had trained them to be proper and upright.  She had also trained them in weaponry.  Though they never had nice clothes or jewelry, their Fuqin promised them he would take care of them.  He had tents set up for them right beside his.  He made arrangements to marry their mother the next morning.  The wedding took place twenty years after they had first met.  He wanted to send them to his home, but they wouldn't leave his side.  When he went into battle, his daughters were right beside him.  No one could get near him.  His men grew to respect them and their fame spread.  After the battle was over and the war won, the army returned home to the capitol city.  The girls stuck to their Fuqin like glue.  When he appeared before the emperor, they were behind him.  Many eyes were on them when their story was told.  In the months that followed, time was set aside to teach the girls how to be ladies.  They learned their lessons well, but still preferred to be on the training grounds.  The emperor's son, the crown prince, had taken a liking to Chin Chu.  He begged his Fuqin daily to let her be his bride.  She turned a blind eye to him.  The day came when her Fuqin called her to his tent.  "Chu, the Huangtaizi has made an offer for you to be his bride.  You would be the crown princess, not a concubine.  What do you think?"  "Fuqin, must I marry?  What if he is unkind?  What then?"  "I know him to be a righteous and upright man.  I believe he would treat you well.  It is well known that he wanted a warrior princess by his side."  "I have a proposal.  If he can best me in combat, I'll marry him.  Fair?"  "Fair enough!  I'll set it up right away!"
      Chen Bo was very nervous for her jiemei.  "Chu, you must be careful.  You can't kill him!  If you hurt him you will go to prison!  Please be careful!"  "Bo, I will.  At best I expect a draw!  Now what about yourself?  Have there been no offers for you?"  "Well since you asked, Fuqin said his second has asked him about me.  I think he's rather handsome!  I'm just waiting for him to ask me to go walking or something.  I might even dress like a real lady.  Who knows?"  Chu rolled her eyes.  "Chen Bo dressed as a lady!  That's funny!"  The day had come for the battle between Chu and the Huangtaizi.  It had been decided they would only use practice wooden weapons.  They faced each other and nodded.  Their battle was intense.  Back and forth they went.  They switched to staffs.  Kai He was standing by the emperor and beaming with pride.  Chu was a formidable opponent.  She had just knocked the Huangtaizi down and was about to claim victory when a dagger hit her square in the back.  She fell forward into his arms.  She smiled and a trail of blood ran out of the corner of her mouth.  "You didn't have to kill me.  I won.  I wo......."  Qing Kai He ran onto the field and was screaming for the perpetrators to be caught.  The prince held her in his arms and sobbed.  "Stop that man!  Stop him!"  Soldiers caught the small warrior and brought him forward.  He was unmasked and the emperor could not have been more surprised.  It was his son's number one concubine.  When the prince saw her, he passed Chu to her Fuqin, drew his own dagger and sliced her throat.  "Burn her.  I want no trace of her left.  Take her away!"  Chu was looking into her Fuqin's eyes with love and affection.  "Fuqin, I love you.  Please re..mem.....ber me......Mother?"  Kai He held her close to his chest and his tears dropped onto her head as she breathed her last.   Chen Bo was furious.  "Fuqin!  Please get us out of here!  I want to go home!"  "Come, Bo.  We will take her home."  Silence fell over the field as Qing Kai He walked off the field holding his daughter close to his chest and his other daughter walking stiff and upright behind him.
   Bai Chin Chu woke up in her room on Kunlun.  Her Fuqin was sitting on her bed holding her hand.  She smiled.  "I knew you would be here, Fuqin.  I knew you would.  I love you!"  Her ascension energy fell on her and three days later she arose from her bed a high goddess just like her mother.  Chen Bo was barely able to keep her sanity.  She had disappeared from the household.  Nothing her mother or Fuqin said meant anything to her.  She would talk to no one.  Two weeks after the death of her jiemei, Chen Bo packed up supplies and left to go back to their mountain.  She started hunting immediately.  Winter was near and she needed food to last the winter.  No one came to find her.  The people of the village still feared the mountain so no one bothered her.  Slowly but surely Bo began to lose her sanity.  She first started talking to Chu as if she was still there.  She had set traps all over the mountain.  She was constantly hunting and checking her traps.  She talked to Chu as she went.  Two years had passed and no one came for her.  At the end of the second year, Bo was checking a trap when an arrow flew by her.  She disappeared into the tree tops.  She watched as a very large man carrying a bow came into view.  She sneered and told Chu she would get him.  Three more steps and the man would be in place.  He was walking with an arrow ready to shoot.  Bo watched and waited.  When he stepped close to the trap, she let her arrow loose.  It hit him square in the chest.  She loosed another and hit him in the neck.  She sat in the tree for hours watching.  The man was dead.  Vultures came.  She left him laying where he fell.  Slowly Bo had gone insane.  Neither her mother or Fuqin came for her.  Talking to herself, not watching for her safety anymore, she walked into one of her own traps.  Still not comprehending what was happening, she hung on the trap until she breathed her last.  Her Fuqin found her a month later and buried her by her jiemei, Chin Chu.  She woke up in her room.  Her Fuqin was sitting on her bed waiting for her.  He was holding her hand.  "I knew you would be here.  I love you, Fuqin."  Her ascension energy came over her and three days later she walked out a high goddess.
     Mo Junjie Jin was finally able to resign his problems.  Three days after Bo came back, Junjie walked out of the den a high god.  He walked straight to his Fuqin's study.  When he knocked, he heard the familiar voice.  He smiled.  "Fuqin, I ascended!"  "I knew you would!  Go find your jiemei and meet me in the arena."  Mo Yuan was sitting in the pavilion waiting on them when Bai Qian came and sat down beside him.  "Our children are very special, aren't they?"  "Qian Qian, they are.  They really are!  I couldn't be more proud!"  Junjie came walking out the corridor with his jiemei behind him.  Mo Yuan appeared in the arena with four chests.  "I have asked you to come here for these gifts.  Bai Chen Bo, come forward!"  Bo stepped up and looked down.  It was a golden chest with white jade and mother of pearl trim.  "Go ahead, open it!"  She opened it and gasped.  Inside was a beautifully crafted set of golden armor.  The Kunlun emblem was on the left breast.  She fingered it and held it close to her chest.  "It's beautiful!  Simply beautiful!  I will wear it with pride, Fuqin!"  "I know you prefer a staff, Bo, so I made this for you!  It is called Xiangmu.  It also has a surprise.  I've seen you using two blades to do the fox dance.  Bring the staff up close to your chest and growl, then pull.  She did as he said and the staff divided into two swords.  The ends were trimmed in silver with a fox motif down each blade.  The creed of Kunlun was carved into the staff.  The oak was stained black with peach blossoms carved into it.  Bo had tears in her eyes as she looked at her Fuqin.  "It's just what I wanted!  You always know!  I love you so, Fuqin!"  She hugged him and wiped the tears from her eyes.  "Bai Chin Chu, come forward!"  She ran over to her chest.  It too, was gold with white trim.  She opened it and pulled out a set of golden armor identical to Bo's.  "Fuqin it's beautiful!"  "I know you prefer a sword, so I made you one."  He brought forth a golden scabbard with her name on it.  "This is your blade, Chu.  You are a strong warrior, so you need a strong sword.  This blade will call lightning to it but it will also howl as you swing it.  Your howl will be amplified by it. It is called Jin Huli!  Use it, my Xiao Jin Huli!"  She hugged her Fuqin tightly and wiped the tears from her eyes.  "Xia Liang Lei!  Come forward!"  She walked to her chest.  It was white with gold trim.  Inside was a set of white armor much like her Da ge, Bai Xue's.  The Kunlun emblem was on the right breast.  The emblem of the snow leopard kingdom, Mao Qiang de Hei's emblem, was on the left breast.  She held the armor to her chest and her chin trembled.  She was about to speak when Mo Yuan held up his hand.  "You are soon going to be the queen.  You needed armor fit for a queen.  Now here is your weapon."  He held out his hand and a new bow appeared.  It was made of black oak.  It had intricate carvings of peach blossom flowers on it.  Her name was right in the middle.  The string was the kicker.  It was one of Mo Yuan's golden dragon hairs.  It was indestructible and unbreakable.  The quiver was also black oak wood.  It was carved the same as the bow.  The arrows were special.  There were twelve and each one had Phoenix feathers on the ends.  She fingered the feathers and looked at her Fuqin.  "Yes, Zhe Yan provided the feathers.  These arrows will never be lost.  They will hit their target and return to their quiver.  The magic in them is dragon magic.  As they travel through the air, your roar goes with them along with a bolt of lightning.  They hit to kill.  They seek the death strike so have a care who you shoot at!  It is called Bailong Gong."  She hugged her Fuqin and wiped tears from her eyes.  "I love you, Fuqin!"  "Mo Junjie Jin!  Come forward!"  Junjie walked up to a gold chest with white trim with his name on it.  He opened it and picked up a beautiful set of golden armor.  It looked just like his Fuqin's armor.  He looked at it and then his Fuqin.  "Yes, it's just like mine!  You are no longer Xiao Jinlong, today you become Shandian Jinlong, for you are lightning."  He brought forth a black scabbard with gold trim.  "This weapon is a gift and was forged by myself and your Shushu Ye Hua.  It calls lightning to it and will project it toward your enemies.  It also uses cold and ice.  Ye Hua carved the dragon down the blade with the lightning motif for you.  Use this blade with pride and never feel small again.  Your blade is called Huo Yu Bing."  Junjie looked at the beautiful blade and the love in his Fuqin's eyes.  "Thank you, Fuqin!  I love you!"  Mo Yuan's eyes turned gold and he spoke.  "So Shandian Jinlong, you are not small anymore!  You are fire and ice!  I love you!"  They walked to the pavilion and had tea and showed off their weapons.