Guardian: The Awakening

The Spiders Forest

-Yunlan-

They walked for countless miles for three days straight in those empty barren lands. They rested, have something to eat and keep moving while having a better understanding of each other. The first day of walk, Yunlan make sure to talk with all the members of their group and keep them in good spirit. It was very important that they develop a friendship during their journey and know about the good and bad points of all members.

If they were to trust their lives to others, they needed to know their strengths and weakness alike. There was no time to think about consequences once back, because staying alive was their priority and they already had a goddess blessing to start anew. He listen carefully to all the complains about some things bothering their Clans internally and added his own. He specially listen to Shen Wei's every word, enjoying knowing more about him as they walked closer to the spiders territory.

By the second day, they were more in tune and relaxed among themselves. At night, just like before, he waited for Shen Wei to fall asleep first, to cuddle him in his arms and have a taste of his welcoming warmth during the cold night and in the morning, he teased the Prince long enough to make him blush, then concentrate in leading the group. In the third day, they were close to their first obstacle and the scenery changed considerably. 

Once they leaved the valley and crossed a narrow path between two mountains, they could see trees, grass and Zhao could even sense the river, still miles away, but the sudden forest was not a common one. It was darker and there were spider cobwebs everywhere from above in the top of very long trees all the way down to the ground. As they walked through the unknown territory, they became more alert. 

Chu even used the spiders cobwebs to sense their location, which help them change directions when he sensed a lot of movement in a specific way and round the nest, then go back on track. However, a few hours after midday, they were quite deep in the spiders territory and it was becoming harder to avoid them, so the tension raised. Zhao called to move slower, even if it meant to spend more time in their territory, because the fight was unavoidable at some point and they needed to proceed as carefully as possible.

"Stop, they are up ahead... a good number of them." Chu whisper, as one of the spider threads he took control over, give him access to the rest of the webs ahead of them.

"Can we avoid it?" Zhao asked in a low tone.

"Not this time. How far is the river from here?" Chu asked in return.

"Far... probably some four or five more hours away, if we hurry." Zhao answer.

"Then we fight." Shen Wei added as he grabbed the hilt of his sword.

"Wang, can you defend yourself?" Zhao asked. He had force Sang to train with him, but he didn't know if the fire healer had the proper training for that kind of dangers.

"I may be a woman, but I assure you I can pull my weight in any fight. The Prince had seen to that." She whisper and Zhao glanced at Wei, winking at him, who blushed despite himself.

"Good thinking, my Prince, you value women lives, better than my father." Yunlan said in approval. His father was not a kind of man who trained women for combat. They were more suited for healing in his mind and only very few of them knew had to fight if the opportunity raised.

"You can change things when you become the head of your Clan. War affect us all, after all. We had several training grounds for all those who wish to learn, no matter the gender." Shen whisper.

"Yeah, yeah, that's quite reassuring for the Water Clan women when he inherit the Clan, but we had a critical situation in front of us right now, do we really fight?" Da Qing asked.