Hello. Been a long time and I’m sorry. But you know places to go, people to see. Any way third chapter up thanks for all the reviews guys and I’ll try to keep updating asap.

By the way for those interested ‘Young Love’ is currently under reconstruction. X x x

Enjoy.

Dong Zhuo

Light brown eyes opened blearily. What received them was a sideways view of an expanse of marbled floors and pillars. The softness on her cheek tickled slightly in an irritating way. Xiao lifted her head from the cushion that was laid beneath it and blew some hair that had fallen astray into her eyes away from her face.

Having achieved cleared vision she pushed herself up into a sitting position shakily. She felt sick and her neck was paining her. Rubbing it she looked round the strange place. It seemed to be quite a grand room, other than the marble floor she noticed great drapes that seemed to be made of satin, gold and jade trinkets flooded mahogany furniture and woven designs hung from the walls depicting both beautiful and awful things. One of these showed a magnificent phoenix yet it seemed to be caged. Another simply depicted a barbaric looking man slewing people all around.

As Xiao stared at this a flood of recent memories flooded back and she remembered why her throat hurt so much. Then another thought hit her.

“Da? Da, where are you?”

She spun her body round obtaining a view of the rest of the room. She saw a comfortable chair upon which her sister had been laid. She looked deathly pale.

Xiao immediately pushed from her cushy place on the floor and stumbled over to her. “Da?” She touched her sister’s petite face that was surrounded by her dark locks. As the small hand touched Da’s cheek heavy eyelids fluttered open revealing the darkest blue eyes. She moved her head towards her sister’s touch and smiled at her.

“I’m okay Xiao, just a little stiff.”

Xiao forever the drama queen gasped. “You’re not okay, you’re so pale and…you’re bleeding.”

Da moved into a sitting position and looked at the cut on her leg. The wound had actually scabbed over and the blood Xiao was referring to had long since dried as noticeable by the cracks that had appeared in the red area showing the skin beneath. Da looked back to her sister and her heart cried as she saw shining streams of clear liquid running in identical tracks down each side of her face.

“Oh Xiao.” She held her arms wide and let her younger sister fall into them. It was times like these when she realised that Xiao was still a young child as was she. “Shush…it’s okay Xiao, everything’s going to be fine.”

“I want to go home. I want our father.” Xiao trembled as she remembered that fell beast strike down her father. As she remembered the crimson liquid that flowed over their once spotless floor.

Da made soft reassuring noises and gently rocked Xiao waiting and hoping for the thirteen year old to calm down. She did not express the fear in her heart upon her face, or she hoped she didn’t. In her minds eye they were helpless and under the mercy of whoever was they captor. Was it the fearsome man they had met earlier (or maybe that was days ago) or was it the man their father had mentioned. Dong Zhou? Or even worse, maybe it was both.

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“Lord Xuan…” The voice came from a great distance, it seemed to echo around him. “…can you hear me?”

Qiao Xuan grunted as his eyes opened; unwelcomed by a surge of light.

“Oh thank goodness. My lord, are you alright?”

Xuan felt light-headed, weak, sick to his stomach and was in extreme pain. He was about to tell the man that he felt as fit as a fiddle when a thought crossed his mind. Shooting upwards only to find not just a single pair of hands but many trying to push him back down. “My daughters…Da and Xiao… are they safe?”

An eyrie silence engulfed the room, it was all the answer he needed to hear. Letting his body be taken by the folds of the mattress and bedsheet he was between. Finally someone gained enough guts to speak.

“There was no sign of them my lord. Some of the villagers thought they spotted three men riding away with them. We also found some blood that was apart from the blood pool where we found you.”

Xuan closed his eyes as he felt his heart twist into a knot. He clutched at his chest as sharp pains ran through, his breathing harshened and his body stiffened. The people surrounding surged forward yet he noticed not their hands grabbing him nor their frantic voices, all he knew was darkness.

XXXXXXX

Xiao had long since calmed her tears and now she turned her efforts to escape. She first had run to the door trying in vain to open it, then she inspected the small windows that let in limited light yet the room was light due to well placed mirrors. Letting out a puff of annoyance she decided that they were far too small for her, never mind Da who was slender yet bigger in stature than Xiao. Now she was roaming the walls and floors for any signs of secret passageways.

Da sat with her faintly throbbing leg now cleaned and wrapped in strips of cloth they had ripped from hangings trying to focus her energy on remaining calm herself. She knew that there was no escape on her first glance around the room. Whomever had them kidnapped had not wished them to escape all too soon.

Da’s eyes then opened and followed her sister’s movements as the younger moved around the room knocking on the walls hoping for a hollow sound. Da smiled slightly then rose gingerly testing her leg. A flare of pain shot right up her leg stopping in the pit of her stomach. She collapsed back onto the chair, gasping for breath and skin paler.

Xiao upon hearing the thump of her sister’s body hitting the chair immediately whirled round, hurrying to her side. Wide eyes looked at the elder Qiao, tears once more beginning to form. Da took in the sight before giving the most reassuring smile she possibly could. The younger nodded giving her own watery smile before settling next to her sister and embracing her.

“What a most beautiful sight. Certainly by far the most touching I have ever seen.”

The sisters broke apart staring at the large door where a man now stood. He was quite a stumpy man from what they could see of him at the distance. Certainly more fat that muscle graced the figure and even at that distance they could see the black beard. He began to walk forward grinning as he did so. Da was reminded of one of her father’s teachings.

“Be aware of when the crocodile smiles for that is when he is the most dangerous.”

This man certainly had enough teeth to fit the description of a crocodile therefore Da thought it best to be wary. The man proceeded to approach before stopping before them. He had a very hungry look in his eyes and he licked his lips as if he was looking at the greatest feast he had ever seen.

“The rumours certainly did nothing to tell of your beauty, and to think…” he reached forward gripping Xiao’s cheek. He whispered almost seductively, “…your all mine.”

In a burst of anger and disgust Xiao threw his hand off her face hissing venomously “We are not yours nor ever will be.”

She gasped as she once again found herself hoisted into the air by her neck. Da cried out pleading for the man to stop, she tried to get up but failed miserably falling to her knees on the hard floor. The man paid her no heed, his attention solely on the girl he currently held by the neck.

“Dare you try to do such a thing again I will snap your neck, no matter how pretty you are.” He squeezed her slender neck earning a small squeak of pain. “You are now mine. Say it.”

Xiao let streams begin to flow down her cheeks again. She felt herself nearing the point of unconciousness before she was roughly shaken as the man practicularly screamed at her.

“Say it! I am property of Dong Zhuo!”

She repeated it in a whisper relieve spilling through as she was released. She hit the floor with a sickening clap as the bare skin of her legs met the marble floor. Hands flew up to her neck trying to ease the pain.

“Good. As long as you know your place no harm will come to you.” He began to walk away, each foot step reverberating through the silent room before the slam of the door was heard and the little boom of a bolt being slipped into place followed.

Da crawled over to her sister not paying any heed to the blood oozing out of her reopened wound an enveloped her sister within her arms. She made soothing motions with her hands as she felt the younger’s body begin to shake violently.

“It’ll be alright, I’ll protect you.”

That was it for Xiao. She began to wail her heart out to the heavens as salty tears strolled down her face and onto her sister’s shoulder. She didn’t notice Da’s lips moving in a silent prayer for someone to save them from the madness.