Where the Wind Blows

Days of Unease

The Valley of the Wolves.

Zheqiang spread out his legs before him on the tall grass, as the last of another sunset disappeared and the stars began to take over.  Looking up at the Heavens, he began to wonder if the stories he had heard as a child were true or not.  His father had told him that one star in particular held his life story, and the more he filled his life with the brighter it would shine.  

Searching the night sky, he soon found the star his father had pointed out to him, one he would look out for his entire life as he grew.  And times like this, when his thoughts were troubled, he would seek out his own star to gauge its brightness.  Some nights it shone so brightly he had to squint and other times not so much, especially when he'd had a particularly bad day,  yet that particular night it was shining magnificently.

Absently mindedly, he plucked at the nearby wild flowers he was sitting among as his fathers words came back to him.  

"No matter what you do in life, do it well." they were his last words to him before he passed into the Realm of darkness forever.

And it was his fathers words he was focused on now as he looked up at his own star shining brightly above him.  The past few days had gone by in a whirlwind of information gathering and movement among his armies.  Huge beasts were being dragged up from the pits of hell where they had been created and his armies were ready to deploy at a moments notice.

So why am I holding back? he asked himself.  He knew the answer, but unable to move passed it, he continued to stall.  

And the reason was The Demon Overlord.  They were his largest ally, without them, he could still move but he needed them to be able to move comfortably.  And the reason why he was stalling was because of the Fox Queen.  

No one really knew the reason why the man held a soft spot for that woman, though there had been plenty of rumors.  And the latest rumors which had been verified that day by an undercover spy he had hidden among the Celestial Army was she was indeed the one who had paraded as a soldier among them. 

And not only had she paraded as a soldier, she had battled against the War God himself, only to then turn around and attend a Clan Leaders meeting the very next day, something she had never done before.  He understood why she had, they needed Qing Qiu, without her support, they would lose valuable allies, and now it seemed as if the Demon Overlord might actually be one of them.

Because no sooner had the battle with Mo Yuan reached them followed by her attendance at a meeting she had always shunned, then the Demon Overlord effectively took all of his cards off the table, so to speak.  He was no longer willing to stand against them, now that he knew she was involved.  It was as if, this woman was now the one running their entire campaign, whether she knew it or not.

But what was also of interest, was the fact she had offered a gift to each of the Celestials soldiers she had been a part of and this was something he could definitely use to his advantage.  No doubt most of the men would ask for riches but he was thinking of something much more practical  His spy was from a Tribe that was not yet allied to anyone, because they were far too small, hence why he was using him.  If he could get an alliance with her through him, then perhaps he could gain back The Demon Overlord and if that happened, then this war would definitely swing in his favor. 

Looking up at the star, it suddenly flared outward.  Taking that as a definite sign to move, he returned to his Palace to prepare for the final step needed in order to get this war underway.

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Qing Qiu

The final clean up of their encampment in Qiu Qiu was well underway and having just finished breakfast, Qing Qius boys quickly gathered the last of their belongings from their own tent before that too was pulled down and the land beneath it cleaned and all rubbish picked up.