FicWad

(I did not come up with the idea for the character of Ge Xia-- I fleshed her out, but her original idea comes from someone else)

Chapter Three: Surprises

Jiao Village, a village lying on the outskirts of Neko People lands and home to domestic cat-like uskas, was calmest at the crack of dawn. Not many people were awake but for the fifteen-year-old Ge Xia. Blinking awake, Xia yawned, rolling over onto her side. Early morning was the best time to catch prey, when the forest creatures were just waking up. Xia smiled. She hadn't hunted in a while, since it had been raining for the past few days; it would be nice to get out again. She stood up and dressed, her striped brown-and-black cat tail swishing lazily behind her.

Many of the clan called greetings out to her as she made her way through the village. Xia decided to relax for a while as not all the prey was out quite yet, so she climbed up her favorite tree. A stream ran swiftly beneath her. Xia threw it a dirty look-- as a Neko, and especially as a Jiao Clanner, she hated water.

Suddenly, something caught her keen almond-shaped eyes. Catlike slits narrowing, Xia turned her head: a bird perched on the branch just below her. Xia smiled, a predator's grin creeping across her face. Her tail went up, and she grabbed onto the trunk, climbing swiftly down. Xia crawled onto the branch, creeping slowly for the bird.

The bird looked at her, hopping further towards the edge of the branch. Xia kept going, ignoring how dangerously thin the branch was becoming. Suddenly, there was a loud crack; the bird flew away, Xia growled in frustration, and uska and branch plummeted towards the stream below.

Xia gasped as she hit icy-cold wetness, inhaling water as she tried desperately to breathe. She couldn't swim. She thrashed around frantically, unable to find the surface or anything to grab hold of. She began to feel dizzy, blackness clouding her senses. She was going to drown!

Suddenly, something gripped her arm, hard. She was pulled to the surface. Xia sucked in life-giving air only to begin coughing, spewing water from her lungs. She was dragged onto shore an deposited, dripping, in the dirt.

"Are you all right?"

Xia's emerald eyes lifted to meet blood-red ones. She tried not to stare at the odd color, but it was just so... strange. She coughed again, hacking up more water, and finally managed to nod and respond.

"Yes, I thank you," she choked out. She shivered, not used to being wet, and shook herself vigorously. Xia stopped and took a good look at her savior: an Inu uska, and a Hong Clanner by the looks of her. She grimaced. Not the ideal rescuer, but then, she owed her life to the red-eyed Inu. Xia pushed herself up so she was kneeling on one knee. "Jiao Village will hear of the kindness of the Hong Clan," she said. "What may I do to repay you?"

A deep blush darkened the Inu's cheeks. "Please, get up," she pleaded, clearly uncomfortable. "Don't kneel, I beg you. Just... please."

Xia's brown ears twitched. Well, this was unexpected. Most uskas would have been proud to have anyone kneel before them. Confused, she obliged, sitting back on her knees in the proper sitting position. "Um," the Neko began, "may I ask your name?"

"Yes, of course," the Inu said, also sitting, unbuckling a jian from her side and placing it in front of her. "My name is Zhang Jia Lan, and I'm from the Hong Clan... or, at least, I was until a few days ago."

Xia looked at her, confused.

Jia Lan sighed. "I was..." She paused briefly, then continued. "Thrown out. My clan didn't like me much, so they got rid of me."

Xia's slit-pupiled eyes widened. Thrown out? That was a serious matter! Her savior could be a criminal, for all she knew! She must have done something horrible, or-- she didn't even know. Xia's mind filled with suspicion, but she said nothing except "I see. My name is Ge Xia." She bowed from a sitting position; not the most comfortable thing to do, but something she was accustomed to. "I'm from the Jiao Clan of the Neko People, as you may have guessed."

"Yes, I did," Jia Lan said, not meeting Xia's eyes.

There was a pause. Xia thrust aside her suspicions and accusations of her savior. A life for a life: she had to repay Jia Lan somehow. She got to her feet and bowed her head. "Zhang-xiaojie, I must repay you somehow. Allow me to--" She stopped and licked her lips: was this really what she wanted to do? "Allow me to accompany you on your journeys. I don't know where you're going, but you saved my life. I must repay you."

Jia Lan stared at Xia in dismay. Upon crossing into Neko People lands, she'd had no idea that rescuing someone would get her into such a mess. She was surprised that the Neko hadn't yet discovered her true bloodline, and to top it all off, Xia's submissive behavior shocked her. There was a part of her that enjoyed the Neko's attitude, having never been treated that way before; but a larger part of her was horrified. She was a hybrid-- the neko was pure uska. Nobody of any race submitted to a half-breed like her.

"Please," Jia Lan said, "stop. I would love company, of course, but I don't know where I'm going, and pure uskas never serve hybrids!" She gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. She hadn't meant to reveal her true parentage...

Xia went cold. Her eyes flashed as her head snapped up, and her breath hissed between her teeth. Hybrid? HYBRID?! She was a half-human. A half-human she owed her life to. A half-human that showed care and compassion. Impossible.

Xia was finding it hard to speak. She forced words out of her mouth, unwilling to speak. "I-I... I owe my life to you." She clenched her teeth, attempting to rein in her anger and shock. "You saved me! I must serve you until my debt is repaid. Were I to walk away... I... would not be able to face my village without considering myself a traitor. It is custom. Tradition. Law." She averted her eyes, hands trembling. "...A life... for..."

Xia couldn't finish her sentence. She felt sick. A hybrid. She owed her life to a dirty half-breed.

She was repulsed.

Jia Lan licked her lips, nervous. She hadn't meant to reveal she was a hybrid, hadn't meant to upset anyone-- and it turned out that was exactly what she had done. Her fists clenched, nails digging into the palms of her hands. Though Xia might be feeling anger and shock, Jia Lan was feeling the same: anger at the disgusted look on the Neko's face, but shock that Xia continued to uphold her honor even though Jia Lan had revealed her parentage.

Jia Lan turned away, drawing her jian and striking it against flint to start a fire. The fire blazed up from the sparks that fell on a small pile of brush. She turned back to Xia, who hadn't moved. "Would you like something to eat?" she asked, tentative.

"I'm not hungry," Xia snapped. She wiped her face with the back of her hand, sniffing. She was rocking unconsciously and trying to undo the tangle of her emotions.

"Why," whispered the hybrid, almost inaudible, "are hybrids despised so?"

The uska's ears pricked up; the question had surprised her. She turned to glare at Jia Lan as she answered. "The uskas have suffered terribly at the hands of the humans. Because of its blood... how can it be trusted not to betray its own clan? Do not blame me for hating the rén xìng... they have destroyed all that is dear to the uskas."

"Do you think uskas are the only ones being persecuted?" Jia Lan challenged. "My mother's sister killed my father because she hated my mother's loving him, despite that if it hadn't been for him, the Hong Clan would not still exist today. Non-Kou followers have been killed in their beds for merely being human. Yet at the same time, the slaughter of my mother's species continues because one idiotic human decided he didn't like us." Jia Lan ground her teeth. "Ge Xia, if you will blame someone, blame Kou Jun Wei."

Xia leaped to her feet again. "What would you know?!" she yelled. "You're half-human yourself! Don't tell me what to do! Kou Jun Wei's not the only one killing uskas. There are many rén xìng doing it. They're weak! Easily manipulated! They kill uskas, and I can't let that go. I will. I'll kill them all!"

Jia Lan winced. She'd heard Xia's words many times throughout her life: 'You're half-human, what would you know?'. But her human blood didn't dominate her; neither did her uskan blood. Jia Lan chose to do what she chose to do and neither side could seem to grasp that. The humans judged her by sight, and the uskas judged her by scent. She gave a low growl deep in her throat. That wasn't right-- at least she knew that much.

Jia Lan watched Xia as the Neko whirled and began demolishing a tree punch by punch. Her eyes were slit as she watched Xia. I can't help my parentage any more than she can, Jia Lan thought. Finally, she also got to her feet and spoke.

"Hate the humans if you will," she snapped, "but why hate me? I have never harmed you nor any of your people-- in fact, just the opposite, as you yourself were the first to admit."

Xia stopped punching and winced. The hybrid was right. Jia Lan had never made any move to harm her. She turned, unable to meet the half-breed's eyes, and said, "I... I'm sorry. Please, forgive me. My head wasn't on right."

Suddenly, without meaning to, Jia Lan laughed. She stopped immediately. "I'm sorry," she apologized quickly. "That wasn't funny at all... it's just when you said you didn't have your head on right, I had a mental image--" She broke off and coughed. "And don't worry... I completely understand where you're coming from. At least if you let your anger out instead of bottling it up, you probably don't have to worry about Uska's Rage." She gave a small smile. "With me, letting it out was never an option."

Xia stared at Jia Lan. Uska's Rage... the infamous release of an uska's pent-up emotion that could destroy the uska who called upon the god Raag to release his or her feelings. She had never thought about it much; it scared her. To bottle up so much rage that it could destroy you in the form of a bright red explosion, ripping and tearing one's body apart unless it was brought under control-- she'd heard the stories but never witnessed it or heard of its happening in her lifetime.

It's...." Xia slowly began, "It's hard for me to understand things from another's perspective. Or so many people have told me. I do try. I don't know your story... but I'd be willing to listen. Maybe then, I could... understand you better?" She gave Jia Lan a hopeful look.

Jia Lan gave a crooked smile. "My story... well, let's see..."

A sudden stab of guilt throbbed in the uska's heart and wrenched deeper as the hybrid spun her tale. So many people, blinded by rage... blinded... like she...

The hybrid finished her story with a shrug of her shoulders and a look of inevitability on her face. "At least you know you hadn't deserved the hatred you received," Xia said. "For me... I... was born into the Jiao Clan and have an older brother. My childhood was quite normal and very uneventful. But six years before my initiation, my baba told us that he was leaving to go fight the humans so that we would be safe. He would be back as soon as he could, he told us. The volunteer group of defenders had left, leaving Mama, my older brother, and me. For a year, we waited for him, worried and hopeful, only to hear the dreadful news: the humans had soundly defeated us. The bodies of the slaughtered warriors were brought back and burned. My mother died two months later of... depression." Xia's voice cracked, but she continued. "I lived with my older brother for five years until my initiation." She ended her sob story there, the events flashing through her mind... painful memories she would never forget: her father's funeral pyre; the look on her dead mother's blood-covered face, the vegetable knife lying but a few paces away; warriors leaving Jiao Village, never to return alive...

"I will be strong," Xia whispered. "I must be..."

Jia Lan watched Xia closely, then got to her feet, buckling her jian to her hip once more. "Ge Xia," she said, "I believe it's time we were on our way. And no 'Zhang-xiaojie,' if you please-- honorifics make me twitch. Just Zhang Jia Lan."

Xia smiled. "Right," she said, nodding. "Where are we going?"

Jia Lan laughed again. "Nowhere, Ge Xia," she said. "Where would an outcast have to go?"

Xia stared at her for a while, then a grin spread slowly across her face. "Zhang-xia-- I mean, Zhang Jia Lan, would you mind if I returned to my village to let my brother know where I'm going? I'll be able to track you... I just... would like to say goodbye." Just in case... something happens...

Jia Lan nodded. "Of course. We'll catch up," she said and turned and walked away.

-----

She immediately knew her mistake when she came across the fast-flowing, dark-watered Black River.

She knew the Black River ran through the territory of a People not her own, though she'd never heard which. An Inu, armed and wandering through the lands of an enemy People surely would look threatening. The hybrid sniffed the air. Inu Peoples were known for their noses, but the former Hong Clanner could smell no one. Satisfied, Jia Lan twitched her ruddy fox tail and headed towards the river to catch something to eat.

She paused, nose twitching. She thought she smelled the presence of at least one other, but blew it off; it was probably Xia, and besides, she was hungry.

Jia Lan turned as she heard a noise behind her, but saw nothing. She knelt down by the river, dipping her cupped hands into the water to take a drink. Suddenly, she jumped back to her feet as wing beats sounded in the air. So this must be Keishou People land...

Jia Lan took a step back as a shadow fell over the ground. Keishou People-- bird uskas-- were known for their sharp eyesight; she would be seen if she wasn't careful. She kept edging backwards until something shot out and grabbed her left hand.

Jia Lan bit her tongue to stifle a shout, free hand going straight for her jian.

"Hush!" someone whispered. "They mightn't have good hearing, but they'll see you! Stay still!"

Jia Lan glanced over her shoulder. A boy was pressed against a tree, his blonde hair falling freely into cat-shaped sapphire eyes. Jia Lan's eyes strayed to his twitching white cat ears and tail. A Neko.

Jia Lan covered her mouth to stifle her laughter. So, I'm not the only trespasser, am I? she thought, looking at the Neko with amusement. He seemed to be about twenty years old.

Jia Lan sheathed her weapon and bowed low to the Neko. "Nihao. I am Zhang Jia Lan, formerly of the Hong Clan of the Inu People."

"'Formerly'?" the Neko sounding surprised. To Jia Lan's own surprise, the Neko bowed back. "Luo Zhen, once of the Luan Clan of the Neko People."

The 'once' caught Jia Lan by surprise. He was a mountain cat uska, but he was not shunning her as he should have (Neko People believed outcasts brought bad luck; mountain cats were especially superstitious). "You, too, are outcast, then?

"Not... quite," Zhen said, suddenly lowering his eyes in shame. "I left my Clan of my own accord. It... I assumed that it wouldn't be long until they threw me out, and I didn't want that humiliation. So I spared them the task. I left on my own accord."

"Why would they throw you out?" Jia Lan asked, then realized it was too personal a question. She quickly bowed her head. "Ah-- I'm sorry-- we have just met. I should not ask such a question. Forgive me."

Zhen shook his head. "No, it's quite all right. You are a reject, too, and not of your own cowardice."

Jia Lan sat down, folding her legs politely underneath her so she knelt, partially sitting on the backs of her feet. "I see there's a Keishou People patrol up there."

Zhen glanced at the sky. "Yes-- I've been watching for a while. It's just one uska who circles every once and a while. I think he's young, on first solo patrol. Nothing to worry about."

"Yes, but they can summon others in no time at all," Jia Lan reminded him. "Your lands are on their borders; you should know."

Zhen nodded. "Yes, but we're nomads. We don't live on their borders all year long."

"Oh." Jia Lan looked away. Though she had reached the age of eighteen and was thus an adult, it was still improper for her to be alone with a male, especially one older than she.

"Zhang-xiaojie--"

Jia Lan winced. "Please, no! Never call me that. I don't deserve the title."

Zhen shifted, uncomfortable, moving so that he sat in the same position as Jia Lan. "Ah. Zhang Jia Lan, then. How did--"

"What are you doing here?"

Zhen and Jia Lan turned, staring into a pair of cold emerald eyes.