**Flashback **
"Mama hold on we are almost there!"
Nana and Jia drove quickly through the woods. Her long hair fluttered in the wind while she held a woman firmly with one hand. The woman had her eyes half open, showing her light green eyes. She had brown-blonde long curls that hung down Jia's fur.
The woman's clothes were bloodied and a few drops of blood ran down her mouth. Her face was pale and her lips lost their red color. The woman squeezed her hand and felt the piece of fox fur. tears fell down her eyes and she began to sob, she tried to talk but no sound came out.
"Mom saves you strength I know your heart has been broken by the loss of your fox. Even my heart can hardly bear it. I am sorry that I came too late "
The woman felt Nana's tears on her face. She brought her hand to Nana's cheek and stroked it. she said with difficulty
"Nana let go of me, throw me off Jia, I'm just slowing you down.. I can feel the life sliping away from me"
Before Nana could answer, she felt an arrow fly past her, which she could hardly avoid. The arrows flew past her within seconds. One of them scraped her arm, and she almost lost her balance. As a result, she lost control of her mother and her mother fell of the back of Jia.
With a quick movement, she took her mother's hand. her mother was now hanging on Jia's side, which only exposed her to danger.
Because she had to dodge the arrows, she did not have the strength to pull her mother up again and she became more desperate by the minute.Nana was so busy trying to pull her mother up that she was less alert. Her mother saw an arrow coming straight at Nana.
Nana however, did not realize this and was only concerned with bringing her mother to safety.
When the arrow almost hit her, a strong cold wind flew passed Nana. The wind was so cold that it turned everything into ice, and the strength of the wind made the ice fly through the air like swords. All arrows were banned by the wind.
Nana used the distraction to pull her mother up. She saw that she was followed by warriors on a snake, a wolf and A fox. She cursed the traitors of the tribes. How great is your greed that you yourself deny the pride of your tribe.
"Nana mama is tired, let me go. You are injured and you cannot go on like this. Why did you come back? We are approaching a canyon and since you never left the north I don't think you will be able to cross it "
Nana looked up and looked behind her. Her pursuers were getting closer and closer, and since she went against her orders, she was all alone and no one could come to her rescue. She saw her mother close her eyes. She gently shook her mother
"Mother is there a way to cross the canyon?"
Her mother struggled to open her eyes
"there is not a single north wind that can not carry us people of the fox tribe. Only people who are not worthy the wind will not carry. However, it is the task of the warrior to find his or her north wind. It is different from the cold you give off, it is different than just a ride on the back of your fox. It is about mutual trust an unbreakable bond between you and your fox. Ensure a good start and ...… "
Nana heard her mothers voice soften and then suddenly it was quiet, she saw that her mother had lost consciousness.
Nana looked around but was unable to figure out where she was due to panic. She was upset and did not know what to do. She didn't know what her mother meant
"Calm down my mistress and try to think carefully about your mother's words. It would do us no good to be distracted "
When Nana heard Jia's thoughts, she calmed down somewhat. Nana was only 14 years old and had never been in such a situation.
She was lucky that her father had given her combat training from an early age. He thought that even though she was a girl, she had to be able to save herself, especially because she was her parents' heir.
Nobody, however expected that she would be a natural talent and that she would be chosen for the elites of the younger generation. Together with the sons of the Lords who had high ranks in the army.
Her father didn't have a low rank either, so it didn't come as a surprise to many. the fact that she was a girl though did.
Nana was finally calm and then noticed where she was. They would indeed approach a canyon, but that was certainly another fifty miles. Jia ran a mile within two minutes, which meant that she would arrive at the canyon within an hour and a half.
At that time she had to try to find out what her north wind was and to avoid her pursuers
She thought about it and knew for sure that her trainer had said something about it during training. Why did she decide precisely during that training to only have eyes for Huli!
He who didn't even think she was worthy of a glance and just thought she was a burden.
She thought of all her setbacks and obstacles that had caused Huli to mark her as worthless.
She remembered all the evenings she had secretly trained in the evening so that she did not lose control of her cold again.
How she had practiced sword fighting for hours. But it had made absolutely no impression on Huli.
Nana was so upset that she didn't realize that wind was starting to gather around her and Jia was starting to run faster and faster.
Her thoughts kept her busy and now she thought of her parents. She always fought with her mother because she was being scolded.
She felt she couldn't do anything right in her mother's eyes. She did not hold her sword well, her strokes and kicks were not powerful enough and she and Jia were not fast enough. But now she looked down at her mother's pale face and saw only the times she comfort her.
If she did not hold her sword properly, her mother showed her how to hold her sword. When her strokes or kicks were not powerful enough, she advised how nana could make hers more powerful. To make her and Jia faster, her mother and her fox would ran with her every morning.
Nana noticed that every time she had a setback or sadness she pulled back to Jia. Yes, even if everyone were against her, Jia would always be there for her. She and Jia could handle everything, she was sure of it.
The moment Nana knew what her shortcomings were and she was sure of her relationship with Jia, a strong whirlwind flew past her, causing her pursuers to be blown away. Nana and Jia shot ahead and she seemed to be at the edge of the canyon within minutes.
"Jia let's go for it"
Jia and Nana jumped over the canyon without fear as if they had done it more often. She just passed to get to the other side and Nana's heart jumped down her throat. She looked behind her and saw that her pursuers were still down. she quickly drove into the dark.
When she was sure they were not being followed, she looked for a hiding place. Soon she found a large cave in which she could hide. Jia was laying and guarded the entrance. Nana had made a fire in the cave and looked at her mother.
Her mother was still not awake and became paler by the minute and her lips discolored. Nana knew she had to assume the worst, but she still had hope. When she saw her mother's eyelids move, she hurried to her mother.
"Nana"
"Nana"
Her mother moaned her name and looked with her hand if she could feel her. Nana grabbed her mother's arm with her two hands and grabbed her hand
"here I am mommy, I managed to cross the canyon"
Her mother laughed and slowly opened her eyes
"then it is time for me to accompany Xin, even though I do it with pain in my heart. But I was determined to keep breathing until you were safe "
Nana cried and begged her mother
"Mommy please stay with me"
Her mother squeezed her hand
"my child the only sure thing we have in this life is that we will die. Stop crying and let your mother go peacefully and without worries. As the heir to the title ruler of our tribe you should be strong. Talk to me until I go "
Nana swallowed her tears and wiped her cheeks
"I will not disappoint you mother, what would you like to talk about?"
Her mother started to smile and her eyes started to shine
"have I ever told you how proud I am of you?
Her mother kept talking about why she was proud of Nana and the past, she told about her childhood and how she had fallen in love with Nari.
Nana heard her mother's voice soften and the grip around her hand became loose until it slid out of Nana's hand.
Nana looked at her mother and saw that she had blown out her last breath. She walked out of the cave and saw that the sun was about to rise. She just wanted to go back into the cave until she saw something in the distance. She narrowed her eyes and focused.
In the distance, she saw a person with a red-gold armor jump smoothly from tree to tree. Every time the person jumped his or her hair fluttered through the air and it was as red as fire. She saw that the person had a sword in each hand.
Before she knew it, a snake with its mouth wide open approached the person from out of the forest. The person avoided the snake effortlessly and cut the snake a few times with the swords until the snake fell down.
The person had just finished with the snake when he or she was surrounded on both side by a fox and a wolf. Just before they were in reach of the person, the environment became so hot that the forest caught fire. The fox and the wolf were on fire and howled with pain.
The person hurried to the fox and quickly chopped his head off, the person turned around and threw the other sword towards the wolf at a fast speed. The person's sword pierces the wolf in his heart and it died instantly.
Nana looked at the person in surprise. I think it's a girl and is she younger than me? Which tribe would she be from? Would it be the dragon tribe? I think she used heat.
Suddenly she put her hands to her mouth. Were those not the animals of my pursuers? Where were their masters then?
Nana hid herself and observed the person. The person explored the area and came closer and closer to the cave. Nana didn't know if she should flee or stay. She preferred to flee to what she had just seen. She knew she was certainly unable to beat the person.
Just as the person wanted to continue walking 2 other people came down.
"Princess why did you leave us behind, did you forget that we were not allowed to leave the south! We are now in the west what if Uncle finds out "
The person in the red-gold armor gestured that the person who spoke should be silent
"we will discuss this later"
in a louder tone, the person said
"I don't know who is hiding here, but your pursuers and their animals are defeated. There is a scent of death in the air, without difficulties you can take the body of your warrior to your tribe. He could be buried in an honorable way. My condolences with the loss "
when the person was finished, she left with the other two people. Nana wiped the tears from her face and walked into the cave.
Now that the coast was safe, she wanted to leave as soon as possible and go back north. Since she had never left the north, she wasn't sure she would find her way back.
But she knew for sure that she and Jia would work it out. Since she now knew she was in the west, she knew which way to go. Using the sun, she made a compass to make sure she was heading in the right direction.
She wrapped her mother in her cloak and tenderly placed her over Jia. Then she climbed her back on Jia and rode into the distance.
she did not know what would happen to her if she would be back since she had gone against her received orders. But she didn't think about it, she needed to reach the north as quickly as possible.
** end Flashback **