On the next day, I woke up beside the river bank looking at the river and the sun was shining. I took a moment to breathe in and out as I took pleasure on the small clouds of air which came out of my mouth. Unlike when we were home, where the sun shone for less than an hour before it all went foggy. That particular moment I felt a bit warmed up by the sun and I couldn't imagine how good it would feel when we reached the warm lands where I hoped the sun would shine on a daily basis.
I carried this image inside my head that all the people that lived in warm lands must be the happiest of them all. Just imagine living out in a place which wasn't cold, I had always wanted to wear my dresses without covering myself with some heavy fur fabrics on top because if I didn't then I would have frozen to death.
"Good morning…" Lee greeted me with his still sleepy husky voice, and then he got up and sat on the mat. "What are you looking at?"
"Everything"
He smiled for a moment, "Everything?" He asked me.
"Yes, everything"
"Tell me in details on those everything that you are gazing at?"
"The river, the sun, the air that we breathe and just… It is indeed magic" I explained and took a deep breath then I added another wood to the small fire I made that looked like it was about to drift off anytime soon.
I even blew some air to it and in seconds, it flourished into a big fire. Lee looked at me and got up suddenly, then he walked to the cart which was just beside us. I looked at him as he patted the horse's back, said some words to it, and then he took out a sword, and a bunch of arrows.
When he returned to me, I asked, "Where are you going?" it was unexpected, and I had to inquire.
"Hunting! You wait for me here…"
I stood up quickly, there was no way he was going to leave me there all alone. Not that I didn't know how to defend myself, but just the idea of him drifting into the woods and get himself killed screwed up my head, and I wasn't ready to be left alone at that time.
"We'll go together"
"Mingzhu…"
"No, we are going together. What if you encounter danger there, and you need help?"
"I can protect myself Mingzhu, I have hunted all my life. We need food or else we will die" He said and then took two steps closer to me, he cupped my face in his strong arms and then he looked at me and said "I will be back princess"
"Promise?"
"Yes I promise"
He turned back and walked away into the forest engulfed in deep ice and I stayed back at the river bank. My eyes never left his gaze until he was beyond the horizon and not visible anymore. I sat down on the mat close to the fire with my head down and loneliness struck me and it struck harder than I anticipated. My brain kept playing all the possible horrible things that may happen to Lee out there in the wild, attacked by a jaguar who would tear him to pieces. Or worse, a huge bear that would kill him instantly so he could never make his way back to me.
With every touch of a leaf or simply when our horse whined, I looked at the direction that he took, hoping he will come back soon. Just when I was distracted, I heard footsteps approaching the river bank, I was sure they weren't Lee's because those were heavy and unlikely there were many. I quickly placed ice on the fire to put it off, then took the mat and some belongings, then I hid amongst the trees leaving the cart and the horse. The cart was empty because I had my sword and Lee took all the weapons, plus there was no food.
Five men dressed in heavy fur coats appeared talking and discussing a topic before they came into a halt after encountering a horse and the cart. I knew those men; they were my father's. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, they never gave up or went South like how Lee assured me, I wished he could've been there with me, so I could tell him that he was wrong.
"What is that?" asked one of the warriors walking towards our cart. "Looks like we have company" he added, looking around and inspecting the horse.
"It could be abandoned!" said the other.
"Check for any signs of the owner"
The warriors dispersed around the river bank, searching for only what they knew of. Thank goodness I had covered the firewood deep under the ice, for they would have found out that there was actually someone out there.
"There's nothing" shouted one of them, he looked exhausted, and his face was red, and I concluded it's because of the cold. They must have never taken a rest in search of me. "This is the end and farthest we could go, if and only if princess Mingzhu survived this far, which I can say she didn't and neither did the young boy. They are both dead!"
"Keep looking" ordered who I learned that he must have been the leader.
"For what? Corpses…"
It only took that answer for the lead warrior to draw his sword and pointing it at the one who replied to him. "I say we look" he ordered and the warrior stepped back and drew his sword too. Then he shouted "And I say we go back and tell his sire that his daughter is dead" and from there they started to exchange swords and fought.
The lead warrior was a huge man comparing to the one who was rebelling, and he didn't use much effort into fighting. The rebel one was the one who tried desperately to block every time he was attacked, he was barely attacking and mostly did the blocking until the lead warrior grew tired then he took advantage of that and when he had just a small opening. The rebel slit the lead warrior's throat, and blood sprayed all over the frozen land.
He fell back to catch his breath as the other remaining three warriors looked upon him. "We go back" He said, and they all nodded in unison. They were tired and from what I saw perhaps what they all needed was just one of them to be brave enough, to step up and save them from the lead determined warrior.
"We take the cart?" asked one of them.
The rebel warrior replied, "No! We are not going back to Xinjiang. I know a better place…" well, that took me out by surprise.
What my father warned me earlier it was all coming true, the possibility of ruling an empty Xinjiang since our people kept fleeing the empire in search of a better place as the warrior stated. I looked upon them as they slowly made their way South and disappeared from view, I came out of the hiding shaking and in shock.
I gasped at the view of a dead warrior in front of me with his throat open. Lee appeared with two small dead rabbits and he dropped them, then raced to me, worried of what happened when he was gone.
"Are you alright, Mingzhu? What happened?" He asked.
"My father's warriors, they killed one of their own and left. They were searching for me"
He embraced me in a deep hug that lasted for over five minutes and then he slowly made me sit down and made a fire. The sun was shining, but it was still cold, Lee prepared the rabbits by taking off their skin and their insides. Then he washed them using the water from the river, and we roasted the meat together over a fire. I told him everything from the start till the end of what had just happened.
"What were their names?" He asked.
"I don't know warrior's names Lee… Father forbade it"
"A Queen who doesn't know her own warriors?" joked Lee and bumped his shoulder to mine trying to calm me down, and he made it all seemed very normal.
Later we had such a tasty and delicious dine we hadn't had in a while since we were just surviving off fruits and roots. The next day we departed from the river bank with our cart and made our way deep west, hoping the journey would last less and perhaps reach the warm lands sooner than later, for I was overly exhausted and worn out. I was not used to adventures and sleeping out under the stars, I was just a princess whose mother made her make fabrics and taught her how to sew. But I knew if I was going to make it far I had to leave princess Mingzhu behind and adapt to a new identity.