Xia Pi - Recollection

[Shidobu Cloud]

Guan Yu awoke the next morning far before the sun rose into the sky. He stretched a bit and quickly grabbed his impressive weapon to head for the courtyard of the palace. He looked around to see the merchants that were busy setting things up, as well as the farmers and other workers trying to get a head start on the day. The bearded legend simply took several steps forward and made his way down the stairs toward the stable. There he inspected the horses, many of which were still asleep. From what he could tell, these horses could make the trip back to Xia Pi if needed. It wasn't a long ride, no more than a few hours, so he wasn't too concerned with their health. Afterall, they would be able to rest there for far longer than a day.  

[MythicalYoko]

Out of sheer habit, Xing Cai's eyes opened slowly to a dark room. She blinked, frowning as she found that she couldn't recognize the room that she was in. Then, as the memories of yesterday flooded into her mind, she gasped and shot up. Pain ripped through her spine and she gasped in pain, clamping a hand over her mouth and clutching her side. Her body screamed in pain for a few seconds before it slowly settled down into throbbing. It was far too early in the morning for her to be able to deal with such intense pain. She wasn't used to having injuries as deep as these. She waited for a while to ride out the pain before getting up from the bed. Now more than awake she looked outside, taking note that although the sky was dark it was most likely almost time for the sun to rise.

Some time later she was bathed, wounds redressed, hair done and her weapon and shield latched onto her back. She walked down the streets, making her own personal inspection of how things were. Despite the horrible battle that they had had to endure the city had done well. She smiled to herself, making a glance over towards the sun before turning around and walking over to where the stables were.

As Cai entered she noted that someone was already inside. She didn't even have to fully see their form to know who it was. She was already so accustomed to their presence that the corners of her mouth instantly curled up as she spotted him. She stepped in, careful not to knock her weapon against the door and approaching him with gentle steps.

"Good morning Uncle," she greeted in a soft, warm voice; not wanting to wake up any of the horses. She gave him a bow before walking over to join his side, looking over at one of the horses which had woken up and seemed to be hungry. She held her hand out for it smell, giggling and pulling her hand away when it instead tried to eat the flower she had sewn onto her armlet. "I hope you slept well. Did you eat breakfast?"  

[Shidobu Cloud]

Guan Yu turned around with heavier footsteps than Cai was gracious enough to display. He eyed the form of his niece with a smile and replied, "Good morning Cai. I indeed slept well, but no breakfast for me today. I ate a hearty meal last night, more than enough to hold me over until lunch today once we return to Xiao Pei. I'm sure that Brother and your father will be happy to join us in a feast." As he spoke his deep voice, even though he tried to keep it down, woke many of the horses from their slumber. The various snorts and grunts that horses make rang out through the air as they stood up and began to munch on the hay left for them the night before.

"What about you? I hope that your wounds didn't make it too difficult to sleep. I find that the morning is the worst time of day to feel the pain of an injury. Luckily you get used to the pain after a while." Yu's hand drifted up to his beard as he spoke. He gently ran his fingers through it, freeing it from any stray tangles that he might have missed when he woke up. The horse that tried to eat Cai's flower began to nudge his shoulder, hungry for attention and for any treats that the two officers before him might be carrying.  

[lronik]

The pirate smirked after the flip, giving her a big smile because of the clap she was giving her, she was so sweet. But yet such a fighter... "You do not have to be blood relatives to be family..." he uttered rather wisely, nodding his head slowly, he already considered some of these people in Shu family members, and she was one of them. "You not only get strength from your father, but everyone that loves you around you, as well as yourself." he gave her a little grin. She could give anyone a fight if she was focused for the battle, he knew that already.

Gan Ning sat back down, thinking as he peered into the woman's eyes, not even meaning too, but getting lost in them completely. "They are, not like my old kingdom..." referring to Liu Biao's piece of s**t kind of kingdom. He saw her blush and chuckled a little bit. "Ok then, we'll just see about that, shall we?" he said with a louder laugh, knowing that no matter what, he thought Cai was beautiful. He felt like he sped up her wanting to go to bed though...perhaps she was uncomfortable, if she was, he didn't mean to make her feel that way... "Ok, Cai, you have a good rest, and no problem." he got up as well, nodding her good night before going to his own room, which was across from hers, coincedentally.

Inside, he quickly feel asleep, and had a restful night for the most part before he woke up a little later than Xing Cai and sat there, thinking of what he could do before they left. He'd have to be told though, he really didn't know. So before stressing himself out more he went back into their dining room and took a bowl of rice to snack on for breakfast, he was sure he'd need to fill his stomach first for the long day ahead.  

[MythicalYoko]

Cai smiled at her uncle as he looked over at her and listened to what he was saying. She hadn't eaten very much of a dinner last night... and now that she was listening more carefully to the emptied pit that was her stomach, she was beginning to regret it. Just eating one bowl of rice wasn't very much for a growing teenager or a wounded warrior who was still exhausted from their battle from the previous day. How had she not noticed before? Suddenly she was craving more rice. But, just as her uncle had said, her uncle and her father would certainly throw some kind of a small party. Her father always made sure that whenever one of his brothers returned from a trip, regardless of how small it was, that there was some kind of a party. Now there was even more to be excited about for when they came back home: a meal.

"Oh, I was too tired to even notice." She replied, chuckling at the horse who was nudging them. She lifted up the hand that didn't have the flower sewed onto it she gently rubbed its forehead. "I have to admit that it was a little hard to wake up in the morning, but I am fine now." She patted his cheeks and stated an apology for not having any food to give them. Then, just a second later, one of the stable boys walked in. He blinked in surprise at the two officers who were already inside. He gave them a small bow before hurrying off and grabbing some hay to give to the horses. "So, when do you think we will depart? I do wonder if Gan Ning has woken up... he seems like the type to sleep in, just like Ping and my father."  

[Shidobu Cloud]

Yu glanced around the stables as those who were assigned to attend to the horses began their work. His ears, however, were still trained on Cai's voice, listening to her words carefully. He knew that when it comes to someone you care about it was a good idea to remember their voice, especially in these chaotic times, for you never knew when you would ever hear it again and to replay the sound in your mind would bring you hope in times of need. His eyes shifted back to the young lady before him and he took in a shallow breath before replying. "I suppose that we can leave within the next hour or so. These horses know to eat fast and if we leave soon then we will arrive in Xia Pi just after mid-day." As he spoke, Yu walked past Cai, headed for the exit of the stables. Once outside he took a deeper breath of fresh air and slowly let it out.

"I wonder what they're doing right now..." He said as he looked north toward Yuan Shao's former territory. The invaders were surely plotting something, and considering that their force was defeated twice by the same city they would surely want to try again. Guan Yu could only hope that it would be a while before their return to Xia Pi's gates. "If we had a bigger force I'd say that we should make a move on them, but that would be foolish of us to do so without any knowledge of how big their total force truly is."  

[MythicalYoko]

"Really?" Cai answered, smiling and letting out a happy burst of chuckles. That was wonderful! Now she definitely had to go wake Ning up so that he could be ready to go. She turned a looked over at a horse, smiling gently at it and giving it an affectionate pat on the head. "Thank you."

She nodded to the horse before following after her uncle, slowing down as she heard what he saying. Oh, it was true. Even though she was so ready to see her father again, Cai was well-aware of the fact that this was only the beginning of a war. How long it would last was something that she did not know, but she hoped that it would not take too much time. These poor lands had already suffered enough without having to face the invasion of an invader. They needed peace and for the Han to return to its rightful place.

"I think that one of the most important things is to learn about how their weapons work." She stated thoughtfully, the previous joy from before being replaced with a much more serious attitude. Her voice was calm but thoughtful, and she paused to put her words together before speaking. "As opposed to knowing their numbers, we should work on understanding how they fight and what they use. The type of weapons that they have are close to ours and yet so different. Along with those strange sticks that make the loud noises and smell like smoke. Maybe we could recover some of them off of the battlefield?" Cai nodded to herself before taking a step past her uncle, bowing respectfully. "I am going to go see if Gan Ning has woken up yet. It would never due for our new officer to be late." She smiled warmly at her long-bearded uncle before walking back into the main buildings. Her wounds throbbed painfully but she ignored it, keeping her focus on walking. After some looking she found the pirate inside of the dining room. She entered, letting out a small sigh of relief. "There you are! I have been looking everywhere. Are you ready to go?"