Chapter 18: Traveling to Luoyang
It has been over two months since Zhao Xian took over the city and informed Lu Zhi about the development of the situation when a messenger arrives to inform him of something critical that happened.
Zhao Yun was spending time with Tang Shi and his nine other men since he didn't need the other forty since they forsake him when he needed them the most.
"Why are we doing this?" asks Tang Shi as he was feeling exhausted after running around the town with the others.
"It's to increase our stamina. I don't want any of you to die because he felt too exhausted to lift his sword to block the enemy," says Zhao Yun as he wasn't out of breath.
"You are just a monster. You aren't even sweating," says one of his men as Zhao Yun looked at him.
"Zhang Jing, you should maybe walk another one for talking back to your superior," says Zhao Yun as a joke.
"Go to hell, I just want to lay here and not move. We don't even know if we will be attacked any time soon since you killed the Leader and one of the generals leading the Rebellion," says Zhang Jing as he was a man quite tall with his 1,8m he had long unkempt black hair while stubble beard was growing on his face.
The eleven men began to laugh as Shadow landed on Zhao Yun's shoulder carrying a message from Zhao Xian.
Zhao Yun reads it and says, "It seems, I need to go. The Commander is calling."
Zhao Yun leaves his men as he pets Shadow who was quite happy about being helpful for her master. He arrives at a house beside the burned-out building that he burned down.
"You wanted me here, father," says Zhao Yun as Zhao Xian nods.
"Yes, I need a person to go to Luoyang and bring the heads of Zhang Jiao and Zhang Liang to show that Lu Zhi isn't a traitor as he is accused of it right now," says Zhao Xian as he got a message from the messenger he sent to Lu Zhi's camp saying that Lu Zhi was arrested after reconquering Wei Commandery from the rebels.
"He was accused of treason, why?" asks Zhao Yun confused why they would accuse someone fighting for the Emperor a traitor.
"It must be the Eunuchs. You know that they and the Marshall are in a conflict since the Emperor died and his son took over the throne. Lu Zhi is a talented man and it would be a shame to lose him to the corrupted people," says Zhao Xian as he handed to Zhao Yun the two heads again.
"You have the fastest horse from all of use. So you will take the least amount of time to reach Luoyang. I will await good news when you return," says Zhao Xian as Zhao Yun nods and takes both heads and straps them on his belt when Zhao Xian gives him a letter.
"With the letter, you should be able to enter the city. Once inside find He Jin. He should know what to do after you hand him the letter," says Zhao Xian as he hoped that He Jin would at least read his letter to save Lu Zhi from the Eunuchs.
"I will depart right away. But what will happen to my men?" asks Zhao Yun as he looked at his father nervous.
"Don't you have a vice-leader for when you aren't around? Just let him take control until you return," says Zhao Xian as he looked confused at his son as he remembered again that it was his first war and even more so as a Platoon Leader.
"Just haste to the destination as fast as possible. We don't know what Lu Zhi might be up to since he could commit suicide so his family can be exempted from his punishment," says Zhao Xian as Zhao Yun nods and leaves the room while Zhao Xian says to himself, "Godspeed, my son."
Zhao Yun walked towards the stables as he gets Thunder out of it and says, "Time to make yourself useful."
Thunder looked at him angrily as if saying that it wasn't his fault as he kicked his right hoof against the ground several times making a little hole in the ground.
Zhao Yun only smiled at Thunder before mounting him and Thunder walked towards the gate since galloping inside the town was prohibited if it wasn't a battle.
Zhao Yun saw that the streets were still quite bloody from the battle as he really found it regretful to kill an entire town because they supported what they thought was right.
He arrives at the gate where his men were stationed as they see him arrive on Thunder when Tang Shi asks, "Did something happen?"
"Yes, the General Commander of the Force that should free Wei and Julu Commandery was brought to Luoyang for treason. My father sends me to Luoyang to proclaim that he couldn't have been a traitor since we killed the Leader of the rebels," says Zhao Yun as his men became nervous hearing that.
"Tang Shi, I want you to lead the men until I return it shouldn't take me long. Like two or three weeks to return. I want that everyone does the training we were doing since we conquered the town," says Zhao Yun giving his first order to Tang Shi.
"Yes, sir," says Tang Shi as Zhao Yun was quite proud of his ten men.
"Zhang Jing, you should train harder since you are the weakest of them all, and being younger isn't an excuse," says Zhao Yun before he left them all standing there as Thunder galloped towards the west once out of town.
"I really hope we arrive before the Lu Zhi does something stupid," says Zhao Yun to himself as Thunder rushed through the landscape.
It was getting dark as Thunder stopped and Zhao Yun went hunting some hares to eat dinner as he came back with two. He skinned them and cleaned them before making a fire to roast them.
He shared the food with Thunder and Shadow when he hears some rustling coming from the bushes when he says, "Come out if you want something to eat."
Suddenly a tiger kitten came out of the bushes. It walked towards Zhao Yun while staring as Zhao Yun just picked the tiger up and looked at it.
It was snow-white something rare since he was easy prey for his natural enemies because of his fur. Zhao Yun was thinking since he saw this race before but couldn't point it to any as it was still too young.
"How about I take you with me little one," says Zhao Yun as he used his Beast Tamer ability making the tiger nod as he sat down beside Zhao Yun.
Zhao Yun picked it up and saw a second tail making it obvious that it was a male as Zhao Yun says, "We will need to clean you before we arrive at Luoyang. My little sister will definitely love you."
Zhao Yun gives the kitten some meat as it ate it Zhao Yun was looking at Thunder and Shadow while thinking about how to name the tiger he just found when he says, "Snowflake, that is your name beginning today."
The kitten seemed to like that name as it jumped around happily when Zhao Yun says, "This is Thunder, your big brother, and Shadow, your big sister. They both are my companions like you."
Zhao Yun then bit into his finger as he lets some drops of blood land on Snowflakes forehead as he did before with Shadow and Thunder as the blood entered his body making Snowflake Zhao Yun's partner.
"Well then we should go to sleep," says Zhao Yun as he laid himself against a tree while holding a sword ready to attack if something were to happen.
The next day, Zhao Yun placed Snowflake between his chest and clothes making Snowflake's head look out of the top with its forepaws while the rest was inside Zhao Yun's clothes while riding on Thunder.
The feline companion found it exciting as it never ran this fast when it was getting dark again they searched a river as Zhao Yun wanted to clean himself and Snowflake since it would take a while to reach Luoyang but he was pretty sure that half of the way should be completed by today.
He was cleaning himself as he saw Thunder in the water as well wanting Zhao Yun to clean him while Snowflake was swimming in the water surprising him quite a bit as he thought all cats hated water.
After cleaning Thunder it was Snowflake's turn as Zhao Yun was cleaning Snowflake properly as he looked that he didn't have any fleas or parasites on the outside since it would be hard to check the inside.
Shadow landed beside the river with one hare in each claw of hers as Zhao Yun praised her while petting her as she mostly rested today on Thunder's head.
Zhao Yun prepared the food when he sees Snowflake playing with Shadow who seemed to have accepted the feline as a family member already as she played with the little tiger while Thunder was resting his muscles.
"Tomorrow we will rest in Huai. It's the last big city before arriving in Luoyang," says Zhao Yun petting Thunder who was doing quite a good job until now.
They ate together before going to sleep as Zhao Yun was thinking about the future when suddenly a girl appeared in his camp. He woke up and pointed his sword at her.
He takes a closer look at her and saw a beautiful face under the mud that was covering it and says, "Girl you almost killed yourself. What are you doing here?"
"Surviving," says the girl as she looked at Zhao Yun hoping that he had something to eat since she could smell food.
"Don't you have any parents?" asks Zhao Yun as the girl suddenly had a sad face when she shook her head.
"No, my mother helped me escape Luoyang before she died. She told me to rub my face in the dirt every day because she was afraid that someone would try and take me away for their own pleasure. She never called me by name always calling me pig to hide me from men," says the girl as she seemed to be in her fourteenth maybe fifteenth.
"*sighs* I know that feeling. My sister is a beauty too. But she can call herself lucky to have two strong brothers beside her making men think twice about asking our parents to marry her off to their sons," says Zhao Yun as he takes the dried meat out that he keeps for his travel and hands it over to her.
"You should clean yourself as well since I won't do anything to you," says Zhao Yun as he sat back down.
He ignited the fire again so she could at least see in the dark while she cleans herself.
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