Xui hides in plain sight, her scent masked with mud and dirt. She narrows down to Alpha's teepee and waits for Giken to leave. It wasn't until midnight that Giken finally left the teepee to get the reports for the night. Xui crouches steadily, making her way towards the teepee, but is met with a hatchet pressing hard into her back.
"Gotcha." Jerell whispered.
Xui whips around freeing herself from Jerell's hatchet and unsheaths her sword.
~ching
Her sword sang into the night, striking the first attack.
But Jerell is keeping pace, blocking all her quick attacks.
~ching, ching, klahh
Each attack she hailed at Jerell, were all countered. The clinging of metal was getting profoundly loud, Xui had only one choice, to flee.
She waits for the opportunity to arise before darting into the forest, Jerell hot on her tail.
One strike after another, Jerell flung his hatchet, then retracted it back by chain.
Xui strays Jerell away from the Ma'iingan camp and towards an open plain then she suddenly halts.
Jerell pauses, studying her in confusion. "Who are you and what do you want with Sereen."
"I remember you. I'm surprised you don't remember me." Xui says, her back turned to him.
"You are crazy strong, lady. I would know you if I ever met you, that I promise."
"You speak as though we are strangers, yet you block my every strike as though we have trained together all our lives."
"Lady, the only person I had ever trained with is my brother…"
"Jensen." Xui uttered the names as though it wounded her to say it.
They both stood soundless in the night, while Jerell contemplated their circumstances.
"You know Jensen?"
"You're not Jensen?"
They both asked in unison.
*
"Jension had found me in the middle of the ocean, dying in the heat. I was a soldier and Empress Bi had just eradicated the throne by having us slay the dragon star. I was critically wounded, nowhere near my people and half-dead. But Jensen, his gentle soul scooped me up and nursed me back to life, in exchange I told him all about the Zaa Clan and where I came from."
Jerell and Xui are now sitting and conversating, trying to understand each other.
"I had asked him to accompany me back to the ocean, but he refused me. Said he had something very important to take care of. It took me years to finally visit him again, by then he was nearly an adult. He may not have been the brightest…"
"...but he always knew what to do." Jerell finished Xui's sentence.
"Yes." Xui smiled. "My name is Xui. Seeing you now, I know, I was your trainor." Jerell gave Xui a confused look.
"Jensen was ill. He wanted to train with me, but requested that we both dressed in full armor to train. No talking. Just fight. Loser will…"
"... yield, bending the knee…" Jerell said completed her sentence again.
"He was making us train together without us ever knowing. Jensen was the only person I have held dear to my heart."
"Did you love him?"
"Love? Zaa soldiers are forbidden to love because it makes us weak. Our chastity is our strongest virtue. We've learned to turn our hearts into stone."
"What happens if you lose your virtue?"
"It was said that soldiers turn into their weakest dragon form… like a helpless snake. Some say they lose their sense of control and become paralyzed. Some say they explode into dust…but I've never known one to break their virtue, so I wouldn't know."
"Those are some serious rules. So you have never even loved?"
"Never!" Xui hollered, then quickly cower in case someone heard her. Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and tried to switch the subject. "Hey, Whatever happened to Jensen anyway?"
"Murdered. At Least that is what Sereen said."
"Sereen can see souls that have passed?" Jerell doesn't answer her question.
"What are you trying to do here? I don't even know your name nor your intentions, yet you ask me all these questions."
"I am General Xui and Empress Bik's right hand. My objective is to receive the Dragon Star and bring her back to the Zaa Clan. Years of killing our Dragon star are equivalent to years of killing off your alpha. Eventually, your kind will go extinct too, if it were the case."
"One alpha can not lead two pact. You can't take her when she is already alpha to the Ma'iingan."
"Vio was the first skin changer of the world. She led ALL skin changers. With Pangea breaking up the lands of this Earth, our kind eventually adapted to other shapes and forms, no longer capable of shifting skins to species. If Sereen is as strong as the gods say she is, she will be able to lead."
"We don't live in that time anymore. Sereen is the Alpha of the Ma'iingan now.
"You don't get it. My kind is dying! That is the reason why I need to bring her back. Her powers had already been activated. She is a dragon NOT a wolf. She needs to go with me."
Jerell grips his hatchet and stands up, "You will have to kill me first if you want to get close to Sereen."
Xui stands up to retaliate, "I will take her back with me. I must." she grips her sheath.
"What makes you think the Ma'iingan will allow that to happen?" Jerell ties his hatchet onto his waist belt.
"I don't need their permission! I need to do my duty and that is all that matters to me. The wolf-men can always find another alpha and~"
In one swift move, Jerell seizes Xui's shoulder and pulls her into him. His hold on her was strong and his lips even softer. Xui's body began to glow and slowly her stiff body softened.
Jerell's lip remained tightly sealed to Xui's as he observed her.
"Is she going to explode? Is she paralyzed?" he thought to himself.
Without warning, Xui's lips parted and she began to kiss him back. Confused, Jerell went along with it to see where it was going to go.
Xui seems to be levitating into Jerell's arm, and now Jerell finds himself embracing her.
After a little while, Xui breaks away from Jerell's lips and releases an exasperating exhale. Her skin began to scale and turn a greenish hue. In Jerell's arm, she began to shrink until all the remaining were her clothes and armor, empty and on the floor.
Jerell picks up the shrunken dragon that is Xui's weakest form and then places her into one of his potion jars.
"General Xui," Jerell brings the potion jar up to his face and whispers, "...and that is how I win this fight."
*
"Where is the General? We have been waiting all day, but you guys keep telling us that everything is under control. From what I can see, your general is not here to lead. Is she even here anymore? We have seen her in two days! What are you guys planning?" Leifae barked at the Zaa Soldiers.
"We follow our orders and our orders are to keep an eye on you people until the General comes back."
"Bullocks! Your General isn't here to lead. If she plans to use us as some kind of bait, then we will do anything and everything in our power to counter."
"Never would have thought I'd ever see you so distraught, Leifae." a voice said from a close distance alway.
Lei quickly turned his face to search for the owner of the familiar voice. Trotting down towards them from the hilltop was Ansel and about hundreds of soldiers behind him.
"Ansel…" were the only thing Lei could mutter up to say.
"It's nice to finally see you again, old pal."
Lei stares at Ansel in horror and confusion as Ansel tilts his head to examine Lei's demeanor.
"I thought you were dead…" Lei finally said.
"No, everyone assumed I was dead. I merely sacrificed myself for the woman that I love. I watched afar as everyone mourned me and ruined her, my dear Emily. Ansel, you were my bestest friend. Despite all the wrongs you've ever done in your life, how could you rake your way into my daughter's life? If I wasn't under these blasphemous spells to hold my composure as a Zaa Clan Soldier, I would have killed you a long time ago!"
Lei dropped to his knees, "FORGIVE ME, ANSEL!" his body trembled with fear.
Ansel unsheaths his sword and places it on Lei's shoulder, tapping it ever so lightly to mock Lei.
"I will bestow you what has been bestowed upon me." Lei looks up at Ansel, "I will make you one of my soldiers, but first you must swear your whole self to me and the Zaa Clan. If you deny this formidable offer, it can only mean you detest the Zaa Clan and, therefore, I will be forced to kill you…right here…right now." Ansel gives Lei a spiteful malevolent grin.
"Please," Lei begged, " What about my people? What about my new found land? What about everything I have worked so hard in my life to accomplish?"
"You leave it behind. You take the offer and everyone on your 'new found land' or should I say 'new stolen land', will live. You deny it, everyone at your 'new land' along with everyone here will die. You make the choice." Ansel's grin drops into a dark glare as his eyes narrowed in anticipation for Lei's answer.
"Your grace, my mother was left by the shore along with my son. Please…" one of Lei's men pleaded. "They can't die. We've lost so much to the black death already. Please, your grace, I beg you." The man dropped down onto his knees next to Lei and bows his head to touch the ground.
Like wildfire, the rest of Lei's men join in begging Lei to not forsaken their families at Newland Mansion.
Lei watched his men one by one until his eyes peered back up to Ansel, gaping into Ansel's soul.
"So, Leifaie, what would it be?"