Pleasant Rain's old girlfriend

His face reddened as the laughter grew louder. Rain's eyes started to water as he looked up into Yōuměi de gēzi's face. Anyone could laugh at him, as long as she smiled his way. Yet she laughed with the others. Torchlight lit the barn where she had asked him to meet her; flames danced around Yōuměi and her brothers, now out of hiding.

"Why?" he asked. The awkward robe she had said was a proper suitor's dress for the city folk made him feel even sillier.

At his side, little Wǔdǎo mǔ lù pulled at his sleeve. "Come, uncle Rain. They are making fun of you! I tried to tell you." The small girl pulled at his sleeve as best she could, but Pleasant Rain seemed rooted to the spot.

Yōuměi's contempt oozed from the same lips she had shared with him in spring, the same lips that had promised to love him forever. "Because you are a bumpkin, and a fool! You thought I would want to marry someone who smells like a cow? Who probably sleeps with a cow?"

Wǔdǎo stopped pulling on Rain's sleeve and put her own little hands on her seven year old hips. "No, he would not sleep with you, you smelly cow!"

Yōuměi backhanded Wǔdǎo so hard the crack of the small jaw brought Rain out of his stupor. "No!" He cried as he tried in vain to disentangle himself from the city clothing while the child rolled into the barn muck, near Tiěshù's massive leg.

Tiěshù, the most massive of brothers, stood a head taller than Rain and was as wide as the oxen he wrastled for sport. He picked up Wǔdǎo and shook her. "Look, a rag doll! We can play with her."

Wǔdǎo spit in his face.

"Arrgghhh!" as his massive muscles contracted and then flung the girl into the wall. "You little..." he swore as he reached for her.

Rain reached her first,crawling out of the multiple layers of cloth and through the muck to reach Wǔdǎo. He held her close as he rolled between slats of the wall and into the next stall. The darkness covered her hurts but she quietly simpered in pain when he landed.

"Beautiful one." He said to her quietly. "You did try to warn me. I was a fool, and now you are hurt."

She clasped his finger and tried to speak, but her eyes clouded over in pain when her jaw moved.

Tiěshù kicked the stall door open and filled the opening with his bulk. "You disgraced our sister! You must pay for her dishonor."

"Yeah!" Xùnsù xiǎo mǎ gaped at him through the heavy slats of the stall. He leered at Wǔdǎo and laughed at Rain. "You are in the muck where you belong!" Xùnsù's eyes were wild with maniacal glee as he slobbered out one side of his gaping mouth.

Yōuměi swirled her sleeves and rested her arms on a wall board. Rain met her gaze. "Yōuměi. We did nothing wrong. Tell them, please. In the spring you but kissed me once, and I promised to learn to write so that I could become a scribe and impress your father. Tell them!"

"You kissed her?" Tiěshù bellowed as his large fist swung towards Rain's head.

Rain arched his back and leaned as Tiěshù's fist missed him by a few millimeters. "Yōuměi! Tell them, please!"

"What should I tell them, Little Drizzle?" Yōuměi's other brothers laughed behind her. "That a peasant boy thought he could get daddy's approval? We have servants for our oxen, Drizzle. We have servants for our scribes, too."

Wǔdǎo simpered and tried to stand up. Her leg gave way and she fell back into the muck, crying.

"I must get her to a healer." Rain said. "You have had your fun. You are right, I was a fool. I will leave you to your humor."

"You will both need a healer." Tiěshù growled. "Assuming I let you live." He took a step forward as Xùnsù prodded with the sharp end of a pitch fork.

Rain grabbed the pitch fork handle and pushed it back as Tiěshù grabbed the front of his under shirt and sent an oxen sized first into Rain's face.

Stars exploded as Rain felt the connections; first his head and the massive fist, and then the back of his head and the wall. He stumbled and fell beside Wǔdǎo.

"Unh...unh..." the girl urged through a broken and bleeding jaw, as she pulled on Rain's collar. "unhhhh!!!"

Rain's head cleared enough to see the pitch fork lunging at Wǔdǎo again and he put hit hand up to protect her. One of the thick wooden tines pierced his hand and he cried out. When Xùnsù pulled back the pitch fork it took more of Rain's flesh and he cried out again.

"You dogs!" Tiěshù yelled as he stomped with all his weight at Rain and Wǔdǎo. Rain managed to roll over Wǔdǎo and shield her but the blow broke ribs and pushed them deep into the muck.

Rain tried to gasp for air but his nose was filled with muck and his lungs felt the snap and crack of his ribs. With his untorn hand Rain pushed himself up to his knees and tried to breathe.

"Look! One pig defends another!" Yōuměi laughed and pointed at Rain and Wǔdǎo.

Rain's arm trembled as he pulled himself slowly up the slat wall.

"Sister, your cur dog still lives!" Tiěshù guffawed as the others pointed at Rain.

"Perhaps I can make the little one squeal!" Xùnsù snorted and thrust the pitch fork at Wǔdǎo.

"No." Rain said as he locked the pitch fork in a steel grip. "She called me her uncle, did you hear? In our village, the uncles protect the innocent and helpless." He brought his other palm down in a swift strike, breaking the pitch fork shaft.

"Get him!" Yōuměi yelled to her brothers.

Rain felt the strength of the earth fill him. With a quick flip of his arm the pitch fork tines went flying towards Yōuměi and impaled her sleeves against the stall walls.

"Help me!" she squealed.

Tiěshù roared as he charged Rain. "Lead the ox." Rain said as he locked Tiěshù's arm and drove the huge man's head through one of the heavy wall planks.

As Rain pushed Tiěshù's arm around the man's back another brother came in swinging a shovel downwards, trying to smash Rain's head. Rain let go of the huge arm and let the shovel break Tiěshù's forearm. The huge man bellowed in pain and started to push his head out of the wall as Rain punched the smaller brother in the face once, twice, and a third time in half a second.

As Tiěshù swung around half blinded Rain ducked and let the huge fist hit the shovel wielder a forth time in the face, taking him down. Rain pushed Tiěshù into the wall where Xùnsù was trying to thrust forward with half a stick. Their heads connected and Xùnsù dropped like a sack of damp millet.

"Strike the flint." Rain smiled mirthlessly.

Tiěshù flung his arm wide as he turned back around and tried to sweep Rain's head off his shoulders. The big man gasped as blood clotted in his hair and ran down his face. "You kissed her! You defiled her!"

Rain ducked and then looked at the bloody face. "I was in love, Tiěshù. I am a fool." He stepped back. "Go. Take care of your family."

"You defiled her!" Tiěshù gave a bestial roar and charged forward.

Rain had but the flash of a moment to prepare, yet his energy was connected more strongly to the earth then even Tiěshù's thews could control. With a slight twist in his dan tien and the coordinated movement of his muscles Rain released a breathe of chi into his punch.

Tiěshù's head snapped back as his face collapsed under Rain's fist. The bottom half of the huge man's body kept moving forward as his top half move equally backward. With a loud splat his unconscious form landed in the muck.

"Drop the ox." Rain said quietly.

Several of the other brothers started to crowd the stall door as Rain gently picked up Wǔdǎo. They cowed back as he came out and stepped towards Yōuměi.

"Don't come near me!" Yōuměi screeched.

"You're right." Rain said, wiping one of his bloody and muck covered hands down her face. "You smell bad and look like poo."

Wǔdǎo snickered through her nose as her uncle carried her to safety.

Wǔdǎo mǔ lù = Dancing Doe

Yōuměi de gēzi = Graceful Dove

Tiěshù = Iron Tree

Xùnsù xiǎo mǎ = Swift Colt