Tigress, I need you

Chapter 4

Huo's pov:

Tigress and I then broke away from the kiss for air and we looked into each other's eyes. I could look into her eyes forever... But we were suddenly disturbed by the sound of gruff voices and the stomping of feet. My head snapped to the direction the voices were coming from and my eyed widened with fear. 'Guards! They're here!', I thought in fright. I can't go to prison, not now when I've only found my mate! I start backing up, ready to run whilst Tigress looks at me in confusion. I was about to run, only that the guards were already here and Tigress stood firm in her place.

"He's over there!", I hear one said.

"Master Tigress!", the lead rhino said in relief as he and his troops approached us. "Thank you for catching the criminal, Prince Feng Huo."

"What?"

"RUN!", I screamed, grabbing Tigress' hand and dragging her with me to the direction opposite from the Valley of Peace. We ended up at a cliff and I could hear the rhino guards getting closer.

"Huo, what is going on?", Tigress asked.

"Umm.... I'll explain everything later, but do you trust me?", I asked her. I had the crazy idea that we jump off the cliff and dive into the river to lose the rhino guards.

"What?!"

Tigress' pov:

I wanted to know why the guards were after him and why would he impose as himself - and a prince nonetheless. It was all so confusing I didn't know what to think and just let Huo drag me as we ran away from the rhino guards. Why were they after him? Why did they call him a prince? What happened? Why did they refer to him as a criminal?

"Huo, what is going on?", I asked him.

"Umm.... I'll explain everything later, but do you trust me?", trust him?!

"What?!", I then realized that we were going to jump of the cliff and land in the river. I wanted to protest, it was a crazy idea that could get us killed, but was there any other choice? The guards were closing in on us and there was no other exit that could make us lose them.

"I trust you."

"Then hold on to me.", I grabbed his hand and held onto tightly as we jumped and fell. I closed my eyes and buried my face in Huo's chest, waiting for our bodies to pierce through the water and dive in. I couldn't remember what happened next because before I knew it I had passed out.

I woke up after who knows how long, coughing and gasping for air as I spit out some water from my mouth. My head was fuzzy and I felt soaked to the bone. I opened my eyes and saw that I had woken up next to a river. I examined my surroundings and couldn't identify in which part of the Valley of Peace I was at. The place was completely foreign to me. I then remember that I had dived in the river with Huo.

"Huo? Huo!", I called out his name, the black tiger not responding to my call. I didn't know where he was or if he was okay, but I needed to assume that he was to calm my beating heart.

I stood up on slightly wobbly legs and walked farther from the river. The forest was more of trees - cherry blossoms or apples trees - than bamboo so I think this place must not be anywhere in the Valley of Peace. I walked further until in front of me was a village that was in ruins. I gasped softly, looking around. The houses weren't made of bricks like in the Valley of Peace, they were made of wood and a bit of bamboo, but all the buildings here seemed to be destroyed - and they looked like they had been destroyed for a long time as well.

I walked further into the ruined village, seeing all the broken down buildings - and sometimes weapons ticking out from the ground. I stopped when I noticed a big building in front of me. It was bigger than all the buildings in this village, but the roof was gone and so were the doors that were laying on the ground. I entered the building and then I found Huo. He was kneeling in front of three thrones that were made of a beautiful kind of stone, but it was chipped and dusty. He was just looking at them. I looked at the thrones and made out some carvings that were still visible on them.

The first a bigger throne was made of obsidian gold and had a star shaped flower engraved onto it, the second throne was slightly smaller than the first and was made with crystal and had a snowflake engraved to it, and the last throne was the same size as the second one but was made of pezzottaite and had a fire symbol engraved to it.

What was this place?