Approval

Chp.5. The Dream

Ling Hua's worried look bothered me for a little while, it made it hard to fall asleep or maybe that was because I'm sharing a tent with him. In the tent there were two sleeping mats that were across from each other on the back wall. On the side wall there was a small desk scattered with scrolls, next to it leaning on the desk there was a small satchel and sword which I assumed were Ling Hua's. Other then that it was empty though the tent was much bigger then the other one's. After a little while of staring at the ceiling I fell asleep.

"C'mon, Qi Mu!" He called to his younger cousin as the raced through barren streets towards the woods.

The children ran through the woods, around trees and over rocks playing tag and hide and seek. The woods seemed to flicker for a second, then again before changing to a house with three frantic adults sobbing to patrolling soldier.

"Please! Please tell me you found him!" The older woman begged through tears.

"Yes, we found him," The solider answered," However" the rest of the sentence was lost as he whispered the adults.

The woman crumpled to the floor in tears shaking with every sob as she was soothed by the other and man was informed of what happened.

I snapped my eyes open awakening abruptly, I closed my eyes again. I missed him so much, I sighed softly rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I sat up.

"Oh, your awake" a voice sounded from next to me.

I yelped and jumped back only to see Ling Hua kneeling beside my mat. He seemed just as shocked as I did and we stared at each other for a few seconds before he spoke up.

"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you," He smiled apologetically. "I was about to wake you up but you looked so peaceful..."

"There's no need to apologize," I smiled back sitting up all the way and crossing my legs.

"Well we'd better hurry if want to get breakfast," He said nonchalantly as he stood up.

I stood up with him and realized how tall he was compared to me. He towered over me and my head fell at about his chest, it was kinda awkward. He began walking toward to flaps of the tent and I quickly slipped on my shoes and pulled on my outer robe and tied it with a belt. We walked out of the tent together,into a fucking mess! The other soldiers  were shouting at eachother and bragging about themselves only to get punched or other by another. Me and Ling Hua stood in shocked silence and Xuan Xiu came running up to us a little battered and out of breath.

"Please do something, Gege¹!" Xuan Xiu begged as he reached us looking defeated.

Ling Hua sighed."Ok, ok, relax,"

He stepped foward with a stern face and looked around,some people stopped what they were doing however most did not.

"Soliders!" He said loudly and everyone stopped."This behavior is unacceptable! You have joined the Imperal army, this is not a place to have fun! It is a place to learn how to protect your country, from now on you will no longer get breakfast first, you will line up swiftly and silently every morning and wait for either I or Captain Xiu to dismiss you, understood.

There was a unison yes, and though his back was facing me I could feel his piercing gaze as he instructed us to get in a line to begin our first day of training.

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1, Gege(Guh,guh); a friendly nickname for an older brother or older male friend,similar to Ge.