LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

I Won"t be this civil with my enemy, would I?Unless... They want something from me..!

Xing was staring at the platter with the fruit that she and the Prince from the Earth Kingdom whom she called Brother Lee, sold to these people previously that made them sick. Bit it"s not going to affect her.

"It"s processed with certain spices so it is not poisonous anymore, Lord Táng! ", Chief Batukhan said playfully.

Xing gave an awkward smile, "I"m not Lord Táng", she said. Lord Táng is now in the Eastern province and he cannot be here too.

"Yeah.. Right!", the chief said sarcastically.

"Can I leave here?", Xing asked looking around and , as she was uncomfortable staying in an unknown place. Her uncle must be half way here now.

"For a girl, our tribe would be the safest place to stay for the night and isn"t your uncle coming here? There are perverted thugs out there who won"t care about G.o.ds or that little Mark on your forehead like us! ", the Chief said in an impatient manner. In one sentence he had told her that he knows that she is Lord Táng and Lord Táng is a woman and a Huang!

Wow! So this is the world out there! And how does he know everything about me?

Xing took a deep breath as she realised this is a situation she has to fight through and not flee from. She was with a guy, who knows everything about her, in his place, alone, with little knowledge about him but she wasn"t scared but was oddly calm. She was uneasy as she never liked new places but she didn"t feel threatened.

Xing looked at the man taller than anyone she had known till now, looking at her with mixed emotions. She knew he despiced her yet he was keeping civil and was willing to open dialogue.

Xing rubbed her palms together, sat with her back straight showing no fear or confusion, "Chief Batukhan, I swear that I got lost and ended up here today and I don"t have any other agenda or reason to be here. And as for the incident that happened seven years back.."

"What? You poisoning us and setting out our horses that made my tribe lose their men? I lost my father in that war! h.e.l.l! Most of us lost our fathers in that battle", Chief Batukhan interjected her and addressed the elephant in the room rather angrily.

Xing looked at him emotional with his lips trembling and she didn"t know how to reply him. The truth is she didn"t mean it that way that year and did it as a fun game with brother Lee and to escape herself, she set out the horses. But she cannot give such an insensitive answer to him. All those kids should be the ones who lost her father and women had to bear arms to protect themselves.

Xing could not even justify this as "It was war... s.h.i.+t happens! " because she was not part of the war. She did not regret what she did either as she was just defending herself and also they could have opted to not go to battle as they were sick and not having horses, right?

"I"m sorry for your loss", she said in a polite tone as that"s all she could do.

There was a deafening silence in the big tent filled with the smell of leather.

"Our people were betrayed... Not by you though! You gave us a chance and our foolish fathers didn"t take it. If they had...", his voice trembled and he fell silent.

Xing who had a composed face till now was surprised! What is he saying?

Chief Batukhan looked at her with his reddened eyes for a full minute before he continued, " We received scout news that the Zhong army was depleted of everything and was sure of winning when you came",he sighed,

"The Priestess said not to go to war the next day as she claimed you were a messenger sent by the G.o.ds and my father who was the chief then didn"t believe her. He ordered our people to charge forward trusting those other tribes people who promised to watch our back. But... They betrayed us and left our people to die and escaped by themselves when they knew our horses escaped. I was angry at you for a long time but realised after thinking rationally that we had every chance to pull ourselves out from the war but we didn"t. It was not you, but our allies who betrayed us making is the scapegoats While they escaped", he drank wine directly from the jar.

Xing took a deep breath, Well! With allies like them, who needs enemies!

After a while, he spoke again, "Now that we have cleared that, I"d like for you to hear our side", he looked unwaveringly at her with his brown eyes and Xing could see he is a good leader even though he looked young.

Xing knew there would be war again and as the other tribes betrayed them, is he trying to join hands with the Wind Kingdom to fight against them? Is he going to repay betrayal with betrayal? She knew the Sima Tribe would be the primary supplier of war horses and their support would mean a lot.

But, WHY AM I GETTING INVOLVED IN THIS? She screamed in her head. You guys do whatever you want to do! I just want to be with my Prince!

But what intrigued her was how he knew about her ident.i.ty to the T. Does he maybe work with Shengli?

"You said a lot of things about me. How do you know? Not that I"m agreeing to it", she asked. She was curious and not willing to listen to a man who is trying to be mysterious and so right about her.

" The G.o.d of Rain, our Patron G.o.d ", he answered and Xing was surprised. So G.o.ds know everything about me and why is the tribe who raise horses still have the G.o.d of rain as their patron G.o.d? Is the scarcity of rain in our kingdom got to do something with that?

"Will you listen to our story, then?", he asked raising his eyebrows.

Xing was intrigued to hear his story but she didn"t want to get involved in the politics at all. She knew from the history books she read that the tribes were the ones who lived in the Eastern Province who then migrated South and then for some reason after almost two centuries later stared a war demanding their native land back. So what is the reason behind it?

As per the Wind Kingdom, those tribes left by themselves even after the agreement and they cannot demand claim their native land and a separate kingdom for themselves suddenly and also it was a land conquered by the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor and it cannot be given up.

"I"m not promising anything but to listen to what you have to say", she laid her point. She will never get involved in politics and that was her baseline. But she can listen to the real reason as history always favoured the winners and the other side"s views are forgotten.

"It"s enough that you listen", he smiled, " "Etseg ekh" our "Fatherland" is the land you call the Eastern Province now. We were the forerunners of agriculture and that"s why we have the G.o.d of Rain as our patron G.o.d. We lived and thrived, had our own civilisation around the Qingze River and none of your people bothered us and we had various trade agreements with them, us providing food and them providing salt, silk and other products.

It was all fine until your revered Scarlet Sovereign went on that great war campaign and conquered all the lands west to the fire kingdom and we surrendered as we had no military skills and he was a warlord. Note this point, we surrendered! ", Chief Batukhan stressed the word surrendered.

Xing knew what he said until this point was what she had read and nodded when he continued,

" The Scarlet Tiger was ruthless with his enemies but kind to the people who surrendered so he left us where we were and only imposed agreeable taxes on us and asked us to follow the rules of his kingdom. Now these were fair and rather benevolent terms considering those times when surrendered people were only let to live only as slaves. So our ancestors of various tribes gladly accepted to those terms and all was fine for almost ten years until... That Chu family"s interference"

"Chu Family?", Xing asked unable to hold herself back. She always knew something was fishy with the way they got everything even the NanCheng pa.s.s.

"I don"t know how much of it is true it what was pa.s.sed on to us through generations was that the Scarlet Tiger who was devastated by the loss of his wife stayed by the Quingze river to recuperate. That time the festival for the G.o.d of Rain was held and every leader of tribe offered tributes to the Scarlet Tiger and there was a banquet and our festivals contain wine as a main part.

So one thing lead to another and the head of Chu family who was nothing back then proposed a gambling game with that GO board and the Scarlet Tiger complied to his wishes and lost. He asked for our lands that our people had protected for a millennium as the prize. The Scarlet Tiger had to save his face in the crowd and signed the doc.u.ments then and there".

"So he really was stupidly drunk then", Xing snorted and Chief Batukhan was flabbergasted. This was the first time he had heard someone speaking this casually about the Scarlet Tiger.

Xing smirked and continued, "Let me guess, the Chu family after acquiring the land should have used many underhanded means to make you leave there and the Scarlet Tiger wasn"t able to do anything since his word cannot be taken back about the Chu family and let you suffer"

"They charged unreasonable taxes, killed our children, violated out women and burned our yields. We had to leave to save our lives. We didn"t leave ourselves but we were forced out by the Chu family",he said.

"The Scarlet Tiger... He wouldn"t have.."

" Our people didn"t speak the language of your land and they stupidly held on to their Conservative values as they thought anything outside our tribe is dirty. So that lead to the miscommunication and our voices weren"t heard ", the Chief sighed,

" But, do you actually believe me? ", he asked surprised.

Xing nodded sipping the wine," I do! There are always two sides to history anyway! ", she smiled.

" What two sides? Truth and lies? " he asked.

" No! Winning side and the Losing side. Usually the winning side writes the history and the other side gets forgotten. But I"m glad that I get to learn your side of the story" ,she said. Her usual disdain towards the Chu family had tripled by now!

So this is why they demand their land back. They are not fighting against the wind kingdom but the Chu family. Thinking from this side, their requesting for their land back is not wrong. By the from the other side, for two centuries the people had spread far and they have been calling that place home. They cannot be displaced and they won"t be happy allowing the tribals to live with them too. This is really a tricky situation.

But the most important thing to consider is that the G.o.d of Rain had left with the tribes and not willing to be impartial as a G.o.d should be and standing by the side of the tribals. What was that about?

Chief Batukhan is wise to learn the wind language and learning their culture and this would help him in saving his people.

Anyhow none of these were her concern and as soon as her uncle gets here, she would leave here and won"t return to this place ever.

Noticing Xing"s silence and her uninterested in talking about this further, Chief Batukhan spoke,

" The next war, we won"t be on either side"

Xing looked at the man hinting that there is going to be a war for sure as his reasoning with the other tribes had failed and also his willingness to open dialogue with the Wind kingdom and shrugged.

Well, whatever! When the time comes, people from the government can deal with it, right? For now, all I want is to get back with Shengli and have a normal life!