Legend of Fei

16. A'Fei, Xie Yun and Bu Tong Qi

"Bu tong qi" A'Fei spoke steadily as she fell back onto the bed. Despite the plain tone, he knew she was annoyed.

"Aish. The surprise." Xie Yun who was setting the seeds he had brought up, on the table, rushed over, pulling A'Fei straight up to stand from where she lay. He didn't even catch her as she staggered but craned his long neck past her to look at something on the bed.

When he finally sighed, A'Fei glared back at him, "You..."

"Sorry. Sorry. I had a surprise for you. I was going to tell you about it but that boy had been stuck to your..." he amended quickly when A'Fei raised her fist, "our side every moment."

A'Fei still looked at him disapprovingly but turned around quickly when she couldn't control her smile anymore. She looked at the purse, the tiny yellow thing was beautiful, the embroidery was simple and had flowers on it. She liked it. Somewhere she had the idea that the old blue purse had instigated this gift.

"When did you buy this?" She could not remember any moment they parted, when could it have been?

"It wouldn't be such a great surprise if I told you."

"Mink." she teased him for his slyness, moved over to their luggage and kept the purse into the bag. She wasn't yet ready to part with the old one. It was quite efficient and she had gotten used to it.

"You still haven't told me who gave that hand-embroidered purse to you." A'Fei thought for a moment and still couldn't being herself to say the words.

"No one gave it to me." A'Fei was cut short as a sudden commotion pulled both their attention.

People exclaiming, jars breaking, other things breaking, A'Fei rushed out picking her sabre from the table. She came to a stop at the rails and looked down to see the hall filled with White Tiger lackeys, turning tables, stabbing through mats and cushions. While the two bits of help saved themselves, the owner was stuck between wanting to save things and saving himself.

Xie Yun was beside her, his own sword, on his back as they jumped down the rail together, landing in the middle of the chaos.

"Ayeee... Leave me be. I am not coming back with you." The boy struggling between three burly men managed to wriggle out of their grasp as they were distracted by A'Fei and Xie Yun's armed presence. He ran in the opposite direction. A'Fei looked back at the men surrounding them. She waited a moment to see if Xie Yun will stop her.

Xie Yun spoke but not to her, "that is no way to treat the place that is going to patch you up."

A'Fei smiled, not at her husband's long tongue but at the majority of confused faces. Two men stepped up and attacked, in rage, the only ones that understood.

A'Fei raised her sabre, pretending to fend them off as they attacked side by side. She retreated her sabre at the last moment and swung it onto their backs. As they straightened in pain, she slapped the flat of it onto the wound causing them to stagger and fall face first. The next wave came at them loud and disorganized. She had only one chance to look at Xie Yun who stood on the side, smiling at her.

Out numbered, he called out, "One step back, two to the left..."

"I know." she cut him off, annoyed.

Their agreement came to her mind. She will have to refrain from Poxue moves. She used both YangJin and her brother's methods to take down useless, loud and staggering scum after scum. Every now and then, she would try and turn to chance a look at Xie Yun but was unable to, so, she resorted to listening to him.

"What does White Tiger do with his sect? Why aren't any of these men trained?" he mocked a few as she cut her arm, overwhelmed by the attackers. For a moment, all she could do was defend.

"I figured out their ranking," he spoke while she stabbed a particularly stubborn man through the stomach who kept coming back again and again. She just wanted to fend them off but they were getting fiercer and fiercer. Generally, stooges backed off when they knew they couldn't be defeated. Something was not right here.

She wanted to look back but couldn't. "What?"

"Greater the strength, higher the ranking. The ones in white and green are ranked higher and the ones with the loincloth on top of those robes are the highest."

A'Fei focused on the topmost stooges. She was beginning to get tired and wanted to get this over with.

"You could have just asked me." A'Fei heard Feng Feng from somewhere but she guessed he was hiding, unseen.

"You are still here." Xie Yun sounded surprised and something else, only if she could turn and see. She couldn't. As Xie Yun mentioned, she focused on the three men that were at the very back, two of them injured heavily and one of them hiding behind their bodies. The one hiding was perhaps most normal looking amongst them all, no missing teeth, no sneers, no anger, just a calculating look.

A'Fei charged and he dodged behind one of his injured comrades who took the blow. A'Fei paused. She knew his plan was to tire her out. So she resorted to defending her back. Finally, she turned sideways and saw the men coming at her. She dodged, expertly letting their blows land on their leader.

Only in his fifth dodge, his shoulder got cut, straight through the many layers and the man screamed in a heinously colourful language at his men who came to a stop. A'Fei took a moment to look at Xie Yun whose eyes wandered about the room, looking for someone.

The leader left his human wall and charged at her without warning, she moved away and brought down her sabre straight at his neck. What she hadn't anticipated was the trick, the animal hide wrapped around her sabre and her arm. She pulled but it put her at the disposal of his men. So, she left her sabre in the folds and retreated her arm.

"Here." she heard Xie Yun and saw his sword flying through the air. She caught it, unsheathed and flipped the animal hide away from the man's shoulders. She dodged the man's sword with her own and did something she had only seen once. She let the wind flow through her qi and caught the sword tip between her forefingers and thumb, halting the attack and absorbing the momentum. She wasn't an expert, so the momentum flowed through her and she had to swing her sword arm to let the momentum dispel, severing the man's sword arm.

The room was silent, A'fei felt her back prickle and saw one by one, people leave. Out of 20 something men, about one fourth remained because they were too injured to move.

A'Fei jumped through the mass, straight at Xie Yun who was looking at the mass of injured. The two of them ran out, straight to the stable but Xie Yun stopped her from getting on the horse after she had freed their horses. He motioned for her to jump and she did. They landed on the roof, "Let me gather our belongings. Meet me behind the inn."

"There are too many." she caught him, "it's dangerous."

He kissed her head, "Just be careful."

A'Fei got the horse to follow her to the back path, her body was more aware than usual of the air around her. She heard the footsteps, never saw anyone and hurried away instead of staying back to fight. It made her realize that she could never hear Feng Feng's footsteps but she had no time to ponder, the horse became skittish and she heard a loud, "In the stables."

She let the skittish horse go and pulled the other around the inn, all the way to the back.  The thin outer wall did little to muffle the sound of search but it helped disguise her haste. As she approached the back, Xie Yun was already waiting at the meeting point. As she came to a stop, the horse did too. In a moment of stillness, she felt her back prick. She looked back to see the other horse come to a stop as well.

Even if she couldn't see or sense him, the way in which the horse halted said everything. It did bug her that she did not sense him immediately but she had no time to process that.

She pulled Xie Yun up behind her without a word and they rode away.

"He might be doing it on purpose." Xie Yun's whispered assessment got her thinking. A'Fei smiled as her husband's statement were not far from her thoughts.

"Bu Tong Qi."