The Ballad of Luwei

Chapter Three

Surprisingly within the first days of Weiwei returning to the Luwei tribe she was called to Great Bei's tent. She sent He Yi Chen dressed as the Red General first before settling into her carriage with her attendants Zhao Mo Sheng and Zhao Erxi. Weiwei could not help but think something was off about the summons. The summons never came from her father's tent; he always had his mother do the summons. When her carriage arrived at the Great Bei's she knew something was up. It was too quiet and there was no sign of He Yi Chen or the warriors that accompanied him. Not even their horses. Weiwei's eyes narrowed and she traded cloaks with Erxi before disembarking. With her features hidden within the shadows of the hood of the cloak, Weiwei silently stuck to the shadows until she reached the back opening to her mother's tent. What she found there nearly caused her to cry out in horror. Her beautiful mother was lying in a pool of blood with her throat slit. Who would do this to her gentle mother? She couldn't fathom it.

Weiwei's reflexes were triggered when one of her mother's attendants came stumbling into the tent; her hands clenched a wound on her shoulder. The princess rushed to the older woman and frantically demanded to know who had done this. The elder woman weazed as she made her way to Weiwei, determined to hand her something. As the woman fell Weiwei braced the dying woman and gentilly lowered her to the floor.

"Pr-princess, the chief..." the woman started to choke on her blood. "Zhen, ambushed. You need to take..." With her dying breath her mother's attendant dropped a bloody pouch towards Weiwei.The princess took a moment to close the woman's dead eye for her eternal sleep before picking up the small bundle and tucking it into the folds of her robes. She gave both her mother and the other woman a small prayer before stealthily making her way out of the tent and towards her father's.

Sticking to the shadows, Weiwei made her way to the back entrance of her father's tent. She planned to look in and determine to make her own entrance and ambush or to flee. She needed to make sure her father was alive. Peeking in she saw He Yi Chen with a dagger implanted into his side and various gashes bleeding out and half heartedly left with a pile of bodies. The vibrant red armor easily seen from where she was.. She could see his ragged breaths. Taking a quick survey; noticing that this area was not being guarded she crept to her doppelganger. Weiwei squoze He Yi Chen's hand and his eyes turned to her.

"Princess..." He Yi Chen coughed "You need to flee. Chief Bei murdered. Older Zhen, he started a coup. I failed you princess."

"He Yi Chen, you didn't fail me, my friend. You need to stand, we need to get out of here like you said." Weiwei tried to pull him to stand up to no avail.

He Yi Chen just shook his head. "It's too late for me, Princess. Too much blood loss. It's been my... my honor serving you." with that He Yi Chen gasped and breathed his last words.

Weiwei bowed her head and swore an oath of vengeance on General Zhen, his family, and any other traitor she discovers. As she was attempting to leave she heard someone proclaim loudly that they had brought in the princess and her maid. Laughter about how the princess was hiding in her carriage. Weiwei immediately understood that they must have thought that either Erxi or Mo'er was her.Weiwei merged deeper into the shadows so she could scout what was going on. She watched as one of the Zhen clan's warriors shoved both girls to the floor of the tent's main room and at the feet of her father's seat of power and watched as cursed dog Zhen kicked her father's body to the floor and sat on her father's throne.

"Well, well, well at last we meet, Princess." the dog spoke with a condescending voice. "Sorry for the mess but the old chief was a bit uncooperative with my plans." General Zhen smirked at the two girls' fears not knowing that the person he was trying to intimidate was creeping up on him preparing to drive her dager across his throat. "I had hoped for a quieter transition of power but your father refused to wed you to my son. I had to go for a more direct route. And now that both your parents and that accursed Luwei are taken care of there is no one willing to go against me. They will be too afraid." The boastful man grinned. "I might just give you to my son, he has been trying to secure your hand for so long."

"Don't be so sure of yourself, you vile rodent." Weiwei hissed as she jabbed a knife into the man's side quickly before pushing him out of the chair and holding the knife against the tratious Zhen's neck. "You have by my estimate fifteen minutes before you bleed out. Now snake, these ladies, you, and me are going to go on a little trip and if you behave I will leave you with a chance of surviving if you do not the rest of the traitors will be finding bits of your corpse across the four corners of the grasslands.'' She dug the knife closer to the general's neck. "Now move, and I better not see any of your lackey's come too close."

Weiwei watched as Zhen's men stepped back and allowed her little party move out of the tent. Erxi was in the front and Mo'er covering Weiwei's back. When they nearly got to the carriage before a series of arrows shot at the party hitting Weiwei in the shoulder. In the confusion General Zhen was able to pull out of Weiwei's grasp and lunge at Erxi pinning her under his heavy form. When Weiwei went to save Erxi from the heavily injured man she heard Mo'er call out and scream. When she turned to see her dear friend and attendant she saw an arrow protruding out of Mo'er's neck. "Mo'er!!!" Weiwei screamed, her heart shattering further.

Erxi's screamed pierced the air. Weiwei turnt her head to her other friend and saw Erxi be hit with a chui by one of General Zhen's right hand Councilman Li Leng and Erxi crumpling to the floor, possibly dead. Stealing herself, Weiwei made a run for the horses quickly. mounted the closest one, and was racing out of the camp back to her tribe's camp as fast as she could.

The princess was able to shake the tail of warriors following her by going through various ravines and clumps of nature that anyone who did not know the area would easily fall into pitfalls or deep parts of water. It was nightfall by the time she was able to make it back to her camp causing a large commotion when she arrived covered in blood and having a broker arrow shaft in her shoulder. When Weiwei saw Kei Oh she used the last of her strength to say that her parents are dead and the camp needed to move now before blacking out.