119 Left, left, left again

We did little that first night. We ate, cleared up, set up our sleeping area and set a fire, then collapsing under our respective skins, we fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning was a different matter! I went to move and found my shoulders and arms had seized up over night, I tried to roll over and the pain shooting down my arms was immense. I groaned.

"Xin, you awake?"

I heard a groan and a yelp, "I wish I wasn't. I hurt so much, even my teeth hurt from gritting them so hard." She suddenly laughed, then winced, the laughed again. "We're mighty warriors and yet we are rendered useless by the power of the water, how completely ironic!" She turned to face me, "how are you doing? Any better?"

I'd managed to face her, but my body was screaming just to lie back, "I can honestly say I've not felt like this in so many years. We must be getting soft."

"Or old"

"Or both!" I laughed, "any salve in the boxes? Pain relief would be good too if you have any in that chest of yours."

Wincing, she got up, and opening her herbal box, she pulled out two small pots of cream and some tablets she'd made before she left. She handed me a tablet, "Here, take this, it'll help ease the aches, and this on the bruising. Here," she handed the two items over and then proceeded to administer it on herself.

"Let it soak in before you do anything, it should help."

We sat there as the herbs did their work and with a tea inside us, we started to feel human again.

"I don't think we should move for a few days, do you? We're not much use on that river at the moment and even less use to the women and children when we get back." I looked at Xin, "let's give ourselves as long as it takes and then take that river on again but with perhaps a better understanding of what we'll be up against?"

Xin nodded, "I also think it might be a good idea to walk up to the gardens and have a talk with the locals. they might be able to shed light on the river's course. It would be better to know, especially if the Mu Province is so close. We'd be dead meat if they found us, let's face it."

So that's what we did, we rested for a couple of days and when we had regained our strength, we walked up the hillside to find the people there. We came across Master Liang and his son and they were really helpful, pointing us toward a family who did use the waterways to get their produce to market in Tanguin, which was much further downstream than we needed to travel.

He was very helpful and drew a rough outline of the waterway. He did, before the invasion, take produce to Chenxi and knew of a way which took us through Shàng Yóu Lake, a stretch of water I knew well. 

So it's left all the way and that keeps us away from the Mu Province. I felt for Tanguin. They bordered Mu and Liú Provinces; the unrest there must be intense. I remembered there had been a lot of trade up and down the river between Chenxi and Tanguin and I would often see them going back and forth. Now I would imagine little flowed Chenxi's way, unless it was Mu, coming to cause mischief. 

One day. 

One day peace would return.

One day, the troops will come home and rebuild.

One day, but today it was up to us to try and rebuild the women and find the orphaned children.

One day we will build something as a testimony to the courage of the women, the filial piety of the children we find and the resistance we create.

I had made up my mind. I always said I would know 'home' when I found it and Chenxi, along with Chen Province was it. I was ready to protect it and with Xin at my side, we could take on the world....as long as the river journey didn't take us first. I threw back my head and laughed.

"What you laughing at?" Xin smiled, "we ready to face it!"

"It's now or never! Come on, I'm ready, untie the rear and lets cast off the fore."

"Do you think they've made it through?" Hao was with his brother, sipping tea and waiting for news from the envoys who had gone through the Zhang Pass. 

"Which ones?" Yongle looked at his him, "are you talking about the envoys or the two ladies?"

"The envoys," Hao stammered in his reply, "well, the ladies, um, both?" His thoughts had given him away and he didn't want to appear distracted from the task at hand. " I was just wondering. The river is in flood. If they have gone that way, will they have the skills to navigate such a fast flowing river?"

Yongle smiled at his brother. Although he had grown into a strong and very capable man, he still had that boyishness about him. He deserved his rank. He deserved higher, in truth, both he and Bǎo deserved higher, but they would have to wait until there was government approval. 

He smiled, "it's alright, I think about them too. If there are two people who can adapt, then those two can." He laughed, "I suspect it will make them ache, its a different type of exercise after all, but they will cope." He patted Hao on the shoulder. "Wait and see. When we get home, I bet they will have transformed much of what they find and galvinised the remaining people into action." Again, Yongle laughed, "I feel for the Mu soldiers, they will pay a heavy price for their play and those two, let's face it, are vicious."

"I suppose you're right. I just wish we could have travelled with them, I feel dreadful I was not able to stay by her side."

" Bǎo does too. You're not alone. You're not alone."

 

 As the boat left the bank, I felt the rear attempt to pull itself toward the strong current. Working hard, we held it hard left and kept up the stroking of the poles to hold our line and our direction.

"The fork should be just round the bend, are you ready Xin?"

She nodded, concentrating on what she had to do. I was the power, she was the direction and we had to work together to make the turn and not end up being pulled to the right at the next fork.

"Here it comes!" She shouted and both of us stroked as hard as we could. The boat was like a live fish, trying to evade us at every turn but we had worked out the best way to tackle this and the advice we had received from the tradesman had been invaluable. We had practiced between us before we went to sleep understanding what each of us had to do and in what order. Now it was coming into fruition.

"Push left, left, left!"

I dug in once more applying more pressure to my right stroke forcing the front to turn to the left. Xin also did the same, making the boat crab its way along and getting ready to push straight once we got to the confluence of the two waters.

We'd been told the second river would be strong but narrower, so the distance we had to stroke would be less, and with the speed we had, it would be over in a matter of moments.

"Here we go," Xin yelled from the front of the boat, we ready to push straight?"  I didn't reply, forcing all my energy into the strokes, counting them, working them and preparing for the push.

"Now! Increase stroke rate!"

On her command I doubled the stroke and forced the boat to lurch forward at speed. It pushed through the waters of the main river and into the lesser one joining it.

"Stroke change, turn into stream!"

I did as told and we slowly turned the boat so it hugged the left bank and moved swiftly toward the major fork at Shuān Hé. This time the flow would be the opposite, the major flow would be in our direction, but we had to stay left to keep away from Shuān Hé itself, and we had to be travelling fast enough to be left untouched and perhaps unnoticed. The sun was in our favour and we had been told we would be in shadow with the sun low in the sky above us, blocking a clear view. 

Fingers crossed this worked.

It all seemed surreal, I felt out of body, now my whole personage was an extension of the pole. All I could sense was the water, all I could hear was Xin, I was floating in a state unknown to me. My body felt all powerful, in tune with the river, as if I knew how to tame it, mold it, work it to our advantage. I knew what she was going to say a split second before she did and in this state of consciousness, we flew past Shuān Hé and into calmer waters.

"Niao, that was amazing! Where did all that skill come from? It was as if you'd done it all your life and all I did was steer the boat. Niao? You alright?"

I sagged. I was spent. The world spun around me and I wanted to lie down. 

"Keep left, Xin, we have one more fork to negotiate but that isn't for a bit. I'm just going to stroke gently, you hold our course, let me get my head back on my shoulders will you?"

Xin watched me as I struggled to stay upright. My job wasn't over and I knew it, we had one more fork and then the waters would slow to a crawl, we would reach the lake behind Chenxi; Shàng Yóu.

Feeling started to come back and I was able to stroke evenly. I found a reserve of energy and concentrated on my task. There was a sweep to the right in the river, where it would attempt to pull us away from the left bank, this was what I was getting ready for.

"Xin, can you see this bend in the river yet?"

" Its coming up and we should be on it within a few minutes at this speed. Can you keep this up?" She was worried, I know, she had seen the amount I had worked already and wondered when it would run dry.

"Its okay, this is what I expected and I have had to do this sort of thing before, only in a very different situation."

I thought back to those hunters and how I had been chased for hours. I remembered the dogs they had, the baying sounds as they chased my scent, holding the men on track. I remember the fear, the exhaustion, the desire to collapse and give in to my fate, but I remember the smell of the water and the speed of the river as it grabbed me and pulled me down stream out of their reach. I remember the panic as I was being tossed about in the fierce waters, terrified of drowning, not able to get breath. I remember the surge of power in my arms and legs as I swam with all my might into the current until I had reached a speed where I could break free, then driving towards the bank, being beaten and scrapped by the trees and rocks which jutted out into the water. I remember grabbing at things only to be swept further downstream again, like a piece of flotsum on the water. I remember grabbing at a branch and forcing myself into the shallows and digging my hands and forearms deep into the mud. My feet found purchase and I forced myself up the bank only to collapse on dry ground.

I cried that day. I was but thirteen summers old.

"Niao, here it comes, are you ready?"

Working hard once more, I fought the desire to go right. Xin worked the front of the boat and between us we stayed neatly to the left. The worst of the fight was over. Not much further and we would enter the final turn and then left into the mouth of the lake.

Only then could we relax and make for land. Almost home, free, ready to begin the next challenge.