Falcon's Flight

Sixteen

As they walked towards where the noise came from, they could see a small gathering. Not many people had come to see the source of the noise. Shan Yu pushed his way to the front to see a woman hugging a man, both of them with tears on their faces. Fen watched them, there were two other men who Shan Yu walked over to.

“You’re back,” he whispered. He seemed to me in some kind of shock, presumably because some of his men had survived. “How did you three survive?”
“Gan pulled me out, I helped pull Erden out,” the man said quietly. His dark hair was tied up but half of the hair had fallen out. They had been through a lot.
“I’m glad you survived,” he said, a genuine smile on his face.

“We managed to get some of the others out too but we had to split up when soldiers found us,” the man carried on explaining. He then fell silent.
“Oktai,” Shan You said firmly but not harshly. “What happened?”
He was silent for a few moments and then he blurted out the explanation. “They’re dead. The soldiers killed all of them.”

A distraught caw came from the sky and Shan Yu’s fists curled at his sides. Glancing to her left, Fen could see either Gan or Erden holding his wife. He looked bruised and there were several cuts on his face. There were a few grazes and cuts on the two men who were still standing.

“You should find your families,” said Shan Yu. “They have missed you, as have I.”
Fen smiled a little, glad that not as many lives had been lost. If only three more had survived, it was better than no one surviving.
“You managed to get the girl to survive?” asked the other man who was standing up. His hair was dark and just past his shoulders.
“Yes, Edren, I did,” said Shan Yu. He stared at the man but he said nodding and just bowed his head before leaving to find his family. Oktai also bowed his head and left to find whatever family he had.

Shan Yu turned to face Fen. Despite his anger, he was smiling. He looked to Gan and his wife who was now hugging and talking to his three children, two boys and a girl. Fen smiled as well, that meant less families had been destroyed by the fighting. She tried to ignore how her family had been destroyed by the people around her, by their families.

The Hun leader began leaving the small gathering behind and Fen followed.
“They survived,” she said. She felt a little stupid, like she was stating the obvious but she hoped it would remind him of the positives rather than how the Chinese soldiers had killed some of the other survivors of the avalanche.
“Yes,” he said. “But we need to move soon, we cannot afford to waste time here.”
“Because we’re too close to China?” said Fen, guessing that was the reason behind wanting to move.

“We move anyway, but yes. It is not safe here.” Shan Yu thought for a moment. “We'll be ready to move in a few days, most likely. It might take a while to convince some women to try to move on but I’m sure Odsar will be helpful there.”

“Is she your cousin through blood or marriage?” asked Fen. She hoped he would give her an honest answer.
“Blood, my father had two sisters, she is the daughter of the youngest,” he explained. “And before you ask, she is very human.”
Fen’s cheeks heated up as she sheepishly smiled, that was her next question. “I wasn’t… well..”

Shan Yu chuckled and stopped, turning to her. “You were going to ask that, there is no point in denying it. You were nervous around the horse earlier, you don’t know how to ride a horse, do you?”
Hesitantly, Fen shook her head. “No… I don’t.”
“We’re going to fix that.”