Fate of a White Flower

Chapter Five

Dreams were not unusual to her. In fact she was very familiar with them, considering the fact that she tended to have one nearly every night of the week. Sometimes they were strange and meaningless, other times just plain confusing. A few of them had actually helped her foresee some future events in the past but more often than not, she found it hard to decipher some meaning from her dreams. The last one had been a sort of premonition about her eventual capture by the people who had been hunting her for months now. Unfortunately she had chosen to ignore it, a terrible choice that had not failed to land her in captivity a few weeks ago. Since then she had decided to start paying a bit more attention to her dreams, just to be on the safe side.

That was easier said than done with how much little sense her current dream was making. She had found herself lying on her back on the ground in the middle of a forest clearing. Looking around she found no sign of fauna despite the nature of the forest. A thick fog permeated the atmosphere on one side of the clearing. It moved slowly but she could see that it was making its way towards her. When she made to evade the mist, she found out that her ankles had iron manacles around them which were connected by chains into the ground.

If she had to take a guess, that probably symbolized her captivity, with the fog signifying her impending death. All in all, not the best of signs.

Then came the confusing part. Sounds from behind alerted her to the fact that she was no more alone in the clearing. She looked up, only to find herself being watched by the strangest band of animals she had ever seen. Hanging by a long prehensile tail from the branch of an evergreen tree, brown monkey watched her closely, a few feet away from the creature, a long slender green snake did the same while coiled up on a leafy branch. Below the two animals, a bushy tailed fox sat on its hind legs beside a large tiger that had snow white fur, both of them staring at her through bright yellow eyes. She was taken aback by their sudden appearance and did not know whether to stand still or seek cover in the admittedly ominous looking fog.

Suddenly the monkey leapt from its high position on the tree, landed beside her and began to work on her restraints. With surprisingly great strength, it tore the chains apart and freed her feet. The orange furred fox trotted over to her and circled her once. The animal then took a few steps forward and looked at her, as if it wanted her to follow.

She complied, opting to ignore the increasing absurdity of the whole thing, and made her way towards the tiger and the snake with her impromptu escorts at her sides. Her eyes met the tiger's and she felt felt the intimidating aura the majestic beast radiated naturally. Frozen in place, she could only watch as it approached her slowly, circling and sniffing at her in distrust. Finally, it gave her one last glare, at least that was what she thought, before it growled loudly and bounded into the forest away from her.

The other animals almost looked relieved at that conclusion, as if they had been expecting the worst. Whatever that might have been, she did not want to know, despite having a good idea what it might have been. They had begun to lead her out of the clearing and into the forest when suddenly a sharp pain lanced through her head, destroying her dream and throwing her back to reality.

Hazel eyes fluttered open as the girl lying on a bed gradually regained consciousness. Taking in the scene she found herself in, she quickly deduced that she was definitely not on her cell anymore. As far as she knew, cells did not have ceilings and walls made of lacquered redwood, and the clothes lying haphazardly only served to solidify that deduction. On the left side of the bed she lay on, there was an empty chair with a long black cloak slung over its back. The chair looked like someone had used it recently.

The girl tried to sit up and a severe pain shot up the back of her head, forcing her to wince in pain. A soft firm hand touched her shoulder and gently pushed her back onto the bed. The soothing action nearly made her lean back to escape the throbbing in her skull but she regained herself in time to look at her helper. To her right, a kind and handsome masculine face stared down at her with a small smile. He had chestnut brown hair that had been cut low, just to touch his shoulders. His features made it a bit difficult to ascertain his age but if she were to make a guess, he did not seem more than five years older than her.

"Sorry about the pain," the man apologized, crossing the foot of the bed to sit down in the chair on her left. He held a small wooden cup in his hand. "I guess I must have hit you harder than I meant to."

The girl shared at him blankly, trying to put meaning into his words. Then the memories of how she had been visited by two dark figures in her cell after they had massacred her guards and quickly realized that this man must have been one of them, most likely the one who had knocked her out.

"Did you people kidnap me?" She asked warily.

He smiled strangely. "More like broke you out of prison thereby saving your life but eh, kidnapping works too."

His unusual choice of words made her unsuccessfully try to stifle a laugh and she realized that he was right. They had saved her from people who she was certain had less than pleasant intentions towards her. She might not have known her current hosts' plans for her but at least they had not thrown her into a cage yet. That was good enough for her to at least hold a civil conversation with them. The sooner she got some information as to where she was, the closer she came to getting back to her place in the world.

"So what's your name?" She asked the young man beside her.

"Jiang Shui," he replied, the name striking a cord in her head.

"Jiang... that sounds a bit familiar," she repeated slowly, her brows furrowing slightly as she attempted to to recall where she remembered the name from.

"It should be if you lived any where near the village of Xiaohé. My family used to be in charge of the Snake Temple there back in the past."

The girl's eyes glinted with recognition. "That's it! I've been there once in my childhood for the Festival of Fire-serpents."

Jiang smiled and looked away from her to stare at the wall. He remembered the Festival she had mentioned all too well since his family were the usual coordinators of the event. Like its name suggested, the Festival of Fire-serpents celebrated the mythical creatures, dragons and their monumental importance in Chinese culture. Dragon-themed decorations were primarily used for the Festival as well as colorful fireworks, the most common factor in Chinese celebrations. He recalled that as a child, he would spend the whole time having fun with his friends up until the end of the festivities. Then his grandfather who had been the head monk then would gather the little ones around for stories on their family's past.

A small sigh left his lips as he pushed the memories back into the deep recesses of his mind. There was next to nothing left of his family's temple and even less of the family itself. He was the last surviving member, and even that had been by chance. All because of her...

"Anyway I know your name so I suppose you should know mine–"

"Liu Liling. Nineteen years, renown in seven provinces for her beauty, musical talent and allegedly exceptional thievery skills. Also wanted in all seven provinces for numerous counts of fraud and a lot of theft."

Jiang could barely stop the smirk that crossed his lips as he watched her slowly widening eyes as he laid out some of the information they had about her. "You leave a lot of traces behind for a master thief, you know?"

The girl, Liu Liling wanted to refute his words but stopped herself from doing so. Partly because he was right; what better way to gain a reputation than letting your victims know exactly who had made a fool of them. But a greater cause of her restraint had been out of fear. The people who had captured her initially had done so to use her for some weird ritual that she knew nothing about, having only when heard of the act in passing from the woman in charge of her capture. Having had to evade them for over a month before her capture, she had surmised that she must have held some sort of personal importance to them, meaning that they would probably not risk handing her over to the authorities.

These guys were different. She had no idea what they had planned for her nor who they were in fact, but they knew a lot more about herself than she was comfortable with random people knowing. Her records were quite incriminating, if they turned out to be bounty hunters, then she was done for.

"Hey why are you looking so skittish all of a sudden? We're not handing you over to the Royal Guard," Jiang reassured with a casual wave of his hand. "We went through a lot of trouble getting you out of that place. Don't you think it would be a bit redundant if we were to lose you to the Guard now?"