| Latest revision |
Your text |
| Line 331: |
Line 331: |
| | | | |
| | ===Homecoming=== | | ===Homecoming=== |
| − | The small village of Buluo is nestled in the mountains, amidst large fields walled off from the rest of the world by the ridges around them. Said fields have just been harvested, but the festival the villagers are hosting is not simply to celebrate bringing in the crops, but also to hail the return of sons once thought lost, but come back to rejoin their families. Indeed, the entire detail (with the exception of Lieutenant Qima and Gong Shan) he brought with him to his home is composed of the surviving veterans who were conscripted from the village to aid in the war effort; it is a testament to Niu's care and concern for his men that he managed to return with all but five of the two dozen men he left Buluo with. | + | The wiry young lookout squints at the column of approaching figures from behind his grazing cow. It's a small entourage, not more than twenty riders... but they looked like they were armed, and there was a pair of finely-decorated carriages behind them. He tsks in disgust. Carriages were always bad news. They meant someone who couldn't ride a horse or walk or trail, which meant officials, which meant tax collectors. And the tax collectors ''always'' tried to take more than their share. Sometimes, they tried to lay their hands on the animals. Other times, on the girls. |
| | | | |
| − | Gong Shan has followed his father to the countryside on occasion and is somewhat used to their rustic ways, but Qima's still somewhat stiff among the smiling, happy villagers. He's not used to the owner of the house personally coming out to welcome him and offer him local snacks, though a keen sense for politeness compels him to swiftly consume it and keep it down, regardless of how exotic it seems to him. But Qima and Gong Shan are left behind in the center of the village, while the Ox General returns home at last.
| + | But the one which stood out clearest the boy's mind wasn't the most recent one, but rather the one where they'd taken his big brother, and many of the able young men of the village. He'd been too young to be called up at the time, but he still remembered his brother, waving farewell to them and promising he'd return. |
| | | | |
| − | "Big Brother!" Niu Jia breathes, touching her suddenly pink cheeks. "You came back..."
| + | That had been years ago. If he was returning, he'd have come back by now. |
| | | | |
| − | "Almost didn't recognize him," Niu Min grins, trying to reach up to his shoulder and not quite succeeding; he must have put on a growth spurt during the war because now he's much taller than she remembers, and when he walks face first into a doorframe that used to be a good foot over his head, the house trembles and threatens to collapse. | + | "Bastards," he spits. |
| | | | |
| − | "Took him long enough," Niu Xin mutters. "Must have been fun killing and fighting and-"
| + | The sentry looks closer at the formation. He didn't recognize the man riding at its head; if it was even a man. For a moment, he'd taken him to be some sort of cow that had learned to ride, from the points of his helm to the coat of blackened plates that made him look like a statue of black iron. Equally dark was the mighty steed he rode, save for a white spot on its forehead that... was moving? |
| | | | |
| − | "Now, A-Xin, is that any way to talk to your brother?" Niu Nu chides as she smiles up to her big son. Instinctively, Niu drops to one knee, so his mother can reach her arms around his neck. His little sisters take the chance to climb up Niu's coat of plates and fasten themselves to his pauldrons.
| + | He rubs his eyes. The sun was playing tricks on them. |
| − | | |
| − | "Big bro, big bro, which of us is A-Fan?" the twins giggle. Of course Niu has no clue, given that he hasn't seen them in years, when they were still hanging on to Big Sister Xin's hands. Carefully, he reaches his hands up to lightly pat their heads with hands that are easily the size of their torsoes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "It doesn't matter, I'll dote on you both just the same," he smiles.
| |
| − | | |
| − | "Awwww, that's not fair, you didn't answer us!" they reply in unison. Still, it seems to satisfy them, and they drop off his shoulder and run out the door. No doubt they'll be telling the stories of their gigantic brother to all the other kids in no time. Before that, however, they find the man Niu most wants to see; his father, Niu Lang,
| |
| − | | |
| − | "A-Pa, my boy! Heavens, you've grown! Guess it makes sense though, you go out into the big open world, and you expand to fill it. And I saw one of your boys by the big fire just now; he was telling us that he was your assistant. Imagine that, a farmboy with a nobby young man as a squire! Come, tell us all about it... no, better yet - the headman's going to have a big feast. We can have storytime there!"
| |
| − | | |
| − | --
| |
| − | | |
| − | Much like everything in Niu's life, when he feasts, he feasts - it's as though he's determined to make up for three years of missed dinners here - and when he's invited to tell his tales, he gives it his all. His fellow soldiers, all village natives at well, chip in to corroborate his accounts too; from his impressing and intimidation of the nasty sergeants at boot camp, to his staunch, unyielding strength and stamina that promoted him to an officer, Niu's glory is spread not by the man himself, but by the ones he carried along with him. Of course, it falls to him to narrate the great battles that established him as one of the San Jie; the taking of Huan Ford, the siege of Ping Yuan, the treacherous attack before and the great victory of Ping Yuan. The tale seems almost too unreal to believe, but the Ox General stands before them, and every man who came back with him swears upon their family altars that Niu Rouyuan speaks the truth.
| |
| − | | |
| − | Loud cheering echoes up from the villagers, and soon the festivities begin in earnest, with dancing, singing, and the like. It's also the time for young lovers to separate from the pack and confess their affection to each other - and Ni finds a familiar face pulling him away...
| |
