The Emperor Chases His Wife

Chapter I

CHAPTER I: The Chase

A few miles away from the Merchant's Manor...

The sound of horse hooves were like thunder, they could clearly be heard above the sound of the pouring rain.

Five horses were galloping quickly across the open field, four of them chasing after one ahead of them, all of their riders clothed in black.

The single horse being chased after, was being pushed to the limit by a rider with a determined look.

SWOOSH!

A sharp arrow whizzed past the rider, the tip slicing through the band holding the rider's face mask together. The black material snapped and the face of the rider could be seen.

A girl no more than sixteen was riding the horse in an attempt to get away with her life. Her green eyes were filled with determination as she looked around her for ways to escape.

She'd been chases relentlessly by the four masked riders behind her ever since she fled from her home and from the looks of it; they weren't going to give up until she was captured or dead.

Through the blinding rain, she could make out a bamboo forest ahead of her.

Finally, a place she could hide and wait things out.

She would continue her journey after she lost them.

Riding into the forest, she grabbed the short sword she had been able to grab at the last minute in her attempt to escape, and quickly got off the horse. Running into the tall tangles of bamboo and looking quickly for a place to hide.

The riders behind were determined to capture the girl. It was their mission. There was no way they could fail or the consequence would cost them their necks.

They arrived at the spot where the girl had left her horse. She wasn't there. That meant she was running on foot.

"Spread out and find her." The leader of the quartet boomed out a command. "The Great Merchant wants her brought back alive."

"Yes Commander." The other three men chorused before heading off in separate directions.

The girl had already created some distance between herself and the riders but she couldn't get very far. Her body was weak and sickly and in the merciless rain, she was shivering intensely form the cold. Still she carried on, she had to.

If she wanted to live, she couldn't stop.

Pushing her sick body, she continued through the large bamboo trees, ducking in the shadows and stepping into the biggest puddles to hide her tracks.

She wondered around aimlessly for nearly an hour. The sky was still dark, as the sun had already set when she began her journey, and the moon was still covered by the angry grey clouds.

In the darkness, she stumbled and trudged on, stopping only a few breaths at a time when her sickly being protest against her will to live.

How she got here, she couldn't really remember.

Everything was hazy to her but she knew one thing for sure.

She had to live.

A few li behind her (A li is a Chinese mile. 0.5 kilometers), the Commander was swiftly closing the distance between them.

He had found one of the branches she had broken during her travel and saw her faint footprints in the mud.

Upon this discovery, he infused a little of his spiritual power into a Bead Flare and launched it into the air to alert his comrades of his location before giving chase.