A Web of Truths and Lies (III)
Amongst the terrible destruction, in front of a home surrounded by trees, a small child was left alone collapsed in the rain. Her tiny legs were bent to the sides, her small form was slumped over. In her grasp was a tiny bow. Glistening in the fire's light, dripping from her chin was water mixed with blood.
This was the sight that Hong Moxue and company stumbled upon. A heart wrenching tale of sorrow amidst the pouring rain. The dead were already cold, the blood long washed away, the tiny and lonely figure slumped over as the tragic audience.
"Nothing good ever comes from the rain." Hong Moxue indifferently stated a fact. This world's history with rain rarely ever ended far from tragedy.
The group was silent as they stood there. It was obviously a fact all agreed upon. With a silent command from their lord, the men scattered to survey the area. Some walked to the pair of bodies, whilst others inspected the degrees of damage.
Today shouldn't have ended this way.
The Hong Manor lord had come to bring the second branch back into the manor at request of the old madam. He hadn't a clue what came over his old mother to suddenly threaten her son into bringing them back, even taking a knife to her own throat. The cold man did not feel inclined to adhere to this threat but in his irritation to end all noise, he acquiesced. As loathed as he felt at dealing with his foolish brother, Hong Moxue abided by her wishes and came to collect.
He set out right as the decision was made. A plan outside of some silver talk* was unnecessary. It was no secret where the second branch had gone too. The information on the tribes were regulated on a weekly basis, so coming to know of a family of three taking up residence near one of the major tribes was common knowledge. Or at least it was knowledge easily accessible through a few tedious channels.
Hong Moxue expected resistance. His brother was never one to follow orders let alone his orders. He even knew which words to counter such frivolous nonsense. If words had no effect, then material goods would do the trick.
But coming across such a sight was far from any presumed circumstance. This unplanned anomaly furrowed his brows and placed a storm cloud above his head. His mother would not be happy and now he had to plan for a noisy confrontation to deal with. It was then that he noticed movement.
Hong Luo looked up. She blearily witnessed a group of people walking around her yard. Her eyes moved then trembled, horror set in as she saw them carry her parents away. In panic she tried to stand up to stop them, she even yelled at them to leave her parents alone!
But then- bam! Against her will her body toppled over to the ground. To her horror, not a word left her mouth.
When she wants to talk nothing comes out! Why, why, why! Why was her mouth broken? Why was her body not listening to her?
Her young self was struggling on the ground like a fish out of water. Her tiny hands dug into the mud, her feet lost traction and kept slipping. Right at the moment young Hong Luo had begun to hyperventilate, one of the strangers had reached her and lifted her into his arms.
She instinctively tried pushing him away, then she began kicking and struggling! When all that failed her head snapped up, ready to bite the nose off the rude stranger who stepped into her territory!
Yet, a familiar but unfamiliar face jumped into her vision. The man who looked similar to her father startled her, just enough to calm her ensuing panic attack.
"D-ad-dy?" Her naive younger self stuttered out the question, her confusion clearly washed across her face.
'How can there be two daddies?' Hong Luo was genuinely confused. Wasn't that her daddy being carried away with her mommy? Didn't her daddy have short hair? No, this daddy was even missing her daddy's muscles!
A web of confusion wrapped around Hong Luo's mind. The spiraling conjectures tangled into a mess of spidering thoughts. One crazy conclusion turned into another, whilst another was wrapped into a ball to be tangled elsewhere. The more she thought the more bizarre and outlandish her ideas became. That was until a cold tugging sensation fished her out of her own head.
"Your father is gone. I'm your uncle." The father lookalike stated matter of factly.
"G-one?" Hong Luo squeezed the question out through her aching throat. She seemed to have not heard anything past his statement on her father, focused entirely on his first few words.
'Luo's daddy's not gone, he's over there with mommy.' She felt dizzy at the baffling nonsense this look alike had just said.
A wave of nausea wrapped in swirling colors tilted her head back and forth. Her younger self was having trouble keeping herself awake. She grasped at the stranger's shoulders. Her confused gray eyes met his icy gray eyes. Instead of feeling their chill, her actions of leaning into his neck and crying seemed to have startled the stranger.
"Daddy can't be gone. No no no!" She whined.
Broken sobs begging for her mother and father fell into the stranger's ears. Her older self knew that normally this fuse should have irritated the man into violence, but instead twisted his expression, and painfully squeezed his insides. He hesitatingly rubbed the crawl of her tiny back and walked off with her tiny self in his arms.
"Clean it up." Was the last thing she remembered him saying before they left.
• • • •
After this the memories were quite vague but Hong Luo tried her best to fill in the holes and systematically explain one event after the other in the most natural way. Some parts were admittedly confusing while others were quite detailed.
For example she went on and on about the beginnings of her time in the Hong Manor. How at first it wasn't so bad, in fact, she could even say she was spoiled by her uncle with how patient he was with her. So patient and forgiving that one would think he was her father and not uncle.
Taking a step back to rethink, that could also be over turned into pure responsibility due to him being the elder, and she the naive child. As a child currently, she did not elaborate this to her uncles and aunts, so as not to give birth to a reason for hatred. On the other hand, with how smart they are, they may eventually come to the same conclusion nonetheless.
Instead she led into the conversation about her twin cousins who were obviously a joy for her to be around. The times of squirrel hunting and strategizing fights to go against her male cousins, which to her relief, resulted in a few chuckles from her listeners, Uncle Istaqa and Uncle Tiv especially.
Hearing how loving the twins were with her, she could see that at least they would be exempt from their fury. If only she had better memories with the male cousin to include, but if she did, there was not a trace there to recall, which admittedly was quite frustrating. In fact their faces were just as much a blur as their interactions.
Sadly she couldn't always remain on the positive side of her memories. She'd rather only elaborate on them of course, but with how she turned out, with all her past injuries dug up, and the terrible condition she arrived in, even her two dolts up in the trees would smell the garbage no matter how many flowery words cover it up. In the eyes of the territorial tribes that went to war with the capital several years ago for a similar issue, the kidnapping of one of their finest healers, and the death of the warriors who fought to stop it, there was no way out for those servants no matter the reasons they had.
So the mood expectedly became sour each time she described her accommodations. The Forbearing Bygone courtyard detached from the manor and practically falling apart at the seams. How the servants of the manor treated her like air and were less than kind with her. Firstly treating her as an unwanted mut that was brought in without prior approval. How her food was subpar, the courtyard a broken down home, and when she explained her wishes to return home but were denied, denied to the point of injury, even Halona exhaled a curse.
Hong Luo was shocked into brief silence.
She'd only ever known Halona as the gentle god mother that never once showed a sour face. That smile was eternal, those hands calloused but warm, and that tall frame, broad and strong, looked to be the pure embodiment of a steady lake spilling down the mountain. In times of peace, she'd be gentle, but when the storms rage, so will she become a mighty river to sweep you away. Yet even in her rage her smile would never fall– but today it did.
A brief tickle of suspension passed under her nose. The strangeness she quickly whipped away, took in a deep breath, and continued.
When she reached the point of the story when the servants began their physical assaults upon her, two of the wooden chairs lost their arms due to Istaqa and Achak's rage. Even her god cousins stepped out, exclaiming their disbelief.
Another brief silence ensued. Her aunts stepped up to simmer down the rage in the air. So only after they calmed down did she continue once more.
Though to be honest, she didn't have much left to say. All that needed to be said was said, all that needed to be clarified had been clarified. She tried her best to elaborate how the whole ordeal was not as simple as it seems. How Hong Manor was not as simple as it seems.
Placing the blame on just one person or the whole lot may be easy, but even if you were to overturn the bucket and destroy all the evidence, how would you be so sure that the true culprit– or culprits hadn't jumped from the water into someone else's lake? It's easy to light a fire and walk away, but not so much so to confirm if every last inch of land had been burnt.
There was always the chance that there was no in depth reason for her suffering. Perhaps it was just that, an angry hand relieving some stress to an easy victim that had forgotten how to dodge. Or maybe it was a ruse, a means to an end for a separate endeavor that she, the innocent victim, had merely been caught in the crossfires.
Regardless of the reason, Hong Luo simply did not care. Learning of it wouldn't change what had happened nor would it mend the scars, the festering wounds that had long scabbed over and been forgotten in the sands of time. Even now, after swimming in her bittersweet memories she felt not a single inch of curiosity.
Hong Luo was numb. There weren't many things in this world that could cause her to willingly move her hands and feet besides her patients and children. Hong Luo was, in her eyes at least, was all in all, a very boring person. An insignificant existence that could be replaced.
Against Hong Luo's best efforts she still sounded like a little adult attempting the job of a peacemaker. Elaborating on one issue after the other, unknowingly fueling the gaseous rage she attempted to put out. When she stepped into a self-deprecatory expression, looking towards her fiddling hands due to habit, the adults inaudibly agreed that this was enough. They already had their answer, so there was no need cause anymore stress.
"That's enough." Halona reached out to ruffle Hong Luo's hair. Her tone was stern and unyielding. "We understand your wishes loud and clear, but that's the issue. We understand, but will they understand? Perhaps once your absence is known they may attempt to bring you back. Or worse, hurt you again. In the case that happens, we won't stay quiet and allow them to do as they please. Knowing this sweetie, there's no need for you to worry about how we will deal with this. Understood?"
In Halona and everyone's heart, Hong Luo was still a child that still needed the adults protection and guidance. With her parents gone, it now fell to the tribe to keep a watchful eye on her, at least until she could stand on her own two feet, to be strong enough to protect herself.
On Ash it was not uncommon for children to still be under the wing of their elders well into their 20s. Of course results would vary depending on each child's situation, including their place of growth. Different tribes had different customs. Some stopped at 14, while others even went as far as 30. Seeing as how the lifespan of Ash locals were well past the 100s, even reaching 500 in the least. The capital's current emperor was already 100 years shy of a thousand and still looked to be in his mid 30s.
Knowing this, Hong Luo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This could be a blessing and curse for a lazy individual like herself.
"I understand." Accepting her fate was the easiest solution, and so that's what she did. She just hoped her uncles understood as well. She truly did not want to deal with anything unnecessary this dream would conjure up.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MyKataren
MyKataren Finally its time to start picking up the pace. One more chapter of foundation building and we can hit the ground running!
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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