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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1384206" data-attributes="member: 812">The Angels Race The Snake!"Aren't these mountain towns lovely?""I'm bored.""The air is so clear, the streets are well-kept -- and just smell the flowers.""Isn't anything EVER going to happen?""And look, shrines to the Goddess everywhere. Good, pious people. Full of reverence and happiness.""When are we leaving?""I bet they have hymns every night.""Fa, can I hit her?"Shan stopped in her tracks and implored her friend for permission. The target of her ire, Ming-Wa, stopped as well and without a trace of fear confronted the much larger woman.Around them the high mountain town of Hsiao-pei-ho rose in cheerful cleanliness. Spring still hovered in the crisp air, and the buildings had been cleaned since winter's grip faded, with bright new paint around the windows, fresh thatch on the roofs and smartly swept doorsills.Li Fa studied her eternally-arguing companions. Tong Shan, a massive, broadshouldered woman with muscular arms crossed over her armour, stood glaring, feet planted solidly, jaw thrust out belligerently. A few steps down the cobblestone street stood Zheng Ming-Wa, slender and, next to Shan, tiny, but every bit as belligerent and determined. Li Fa turned to study the fourth member of their group, Muen Wei-Yong, a tall, lanky woman still wearing the travel-weary furs she'd worn all winter, one hand caressing the fluffy head of Dau Li, a ferocious wolf who'd joined her in the weeks they'd spent travelling north from Wei Ming. Dangling from her ears Wei-Yong wore shiny new gold hoops, brilliantly incongrous against her stained furs. She watched the spat between her friends with eyes sparkling in amusement. Fa sighed."No, Shan, of course you can't hit her. I'm sorry you're bored, but please, try to keep from taking it out on the rest of us. We won't be here long, I'm sure.""I wish Lin Lin were here.""The Goddess calls those she needs," answered Fa. The other three women all made an automatic gesture of obesiance, and muttered a short prayer under their breath.Ming-Wa took a deep breath and tried to offer a little branch of friendship."Look, Shan, it's nice that we're in such a peaceful place. We don't have to fight ALL the time, you know. I'm sure we could have all sorts of fun that doesn't involve violence."Shan narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out if there was a subtle insult contained in Ming-Wa's words.Wei-Yong leaned against a storefront and called out, "There can't be fights all the time, Shan."A woman screamed nearby.Shan's expression cleared immediately and she charged off down the street. Fa followed, leaving Ming-Wa and Wei-Yong looking at each other.Wei-Yong shrugged."I've been wrong before."*****The four women passed down a steep hill and into a small marketplace that stood just within a town gate. Townsfolk were backing away from a struggle near the middle of the market, where six swordsmen threatened a single, unarmed woman. The swordsmen saw the Angels approach and four split off to confront them while the other two began dragging the woman away."Help me! Please! They'll kill me!"Shan never did the talking. She just folded her arms and looked tough. Fa looked over the swordsmen."Let her go and explain yourselves."One of the men spat."Buzz off. This doesn't concern you."Ming-Wa had caught up and pointed at the sneering bravo. Her voice rose in a shrill cry."We are servants of the Goddess herself! All that passes is her concern, and therefore ours. Explain yourself at once, ruffian!"Shan smiled at the sound of swords clearing their sheaths."I like this place better already."Fa turned to her burly friend."Shan, stop them taking that woman away. We'll deal with these ones."The ruffians frowned as Shan nodded at Fa, put her head down and charged. A swordblade bounced off her armour as she barrelled past the four men, knocking aside a market stall in her plow forward. Wood splintered and paper cartons of spring cherries tumbled to the ground. The two men holding the screaming woman only just realised what was heading their way before two hundred pounds of Tong Shan, armour, sword and assorted gear cannoned into one of them, sending him flying through stalls to crash onto hard cobblestones.Shan laughed. The second man faced her, sword out, prepared to swing, and went down.Under a mass of fur and snarling teeth as Dau Li leapt onto him and pinned him to the street. His screams rose high and desperate. Shan turned to the one she'd knocked flying, only to find the former captive sitting astride him, pinning him with a knife at his throat. Shan nodded her approval.The four bravos who'd just been completely bypassed turned to the other women with angry expressions. Fa regarded them coolly."Walk away, boys. While you can."The one who first raised his sword dropped it just as he hit the apex of his swing. A feathered shaft appeared to have sprouted from his wrist, and he cried out in shock and pain. Wei-Yong nocked another arrow and sent it through his shoulder. It passed straight through his body and came out the other side, and he sat down rather heavily.Fa's expression wavered not one bit. She did nothing but stare at the fellow she'd previously addressed."Walk away."One look at Wei-Yong's cool display of archery, another at Shan's joyous violence, another at the great wolf mauling his companion, a final look at Li Fa's steady gaze and he took her advice, adding only speed. He ran away.Ming-Wa had two men facing her, and for a second she had to stumble backwards, away from powerful swings of sharp, if ill-kept, blades. She struggled for a chance to get clear, fending off their attacks with her wooden staff. Each blow rang in the crisp mountain air and her hands shook at every impact.Wei-Yong spun and her longbow snapped, sending a shaft blasting into the skull of one of Ming-Wa's attackers. She was about to fire again when the fellow whose shoulder she'd pierced suddenly lunged up at her, tackling the tall woman and roaring in fury.Shan looked back the way she'd come and saw Wei-Yong struggling with her injured attacked, and Ming-Wa still desperately blocking her remaining attacker. Li Fa couldn't use Shadow with innocent townsfolk so near, so her spells were useless to them. Shan shrugged."Don't worry, Ming-Wa, I'll save you!""I don't need your help!"Shan paid no attention as she reversed her previous charge, now thundering across the market towards her friends. Her target saw her coming, unfortunately, and while Shan could build up a hefty amount of momentum, quick changes of direction were pretty much beyond her once she got going. The bravo stepped aside and Shan plowed right past him and into the surrounding townsfolk. Things got confused. People fell over. Shan swore.Wei-Yong, struggling to free herself from the half-dead swordsman who'd grappled her, yelled in pain as he grabbed one of her new earrings.Ming-Wa took a second from holding her opponent at bay to scold her."The Goddess disapproves of vanity, you know!""I'm trying to save your skinny butt, here!""I don't need your --ouch!"At last Wei-Yong got to her feet again, bow in hand, to see Ming-Wa reeling back from a cut high on her left arm. Blood spattered her robes and the swordsman pressed in, seeking the final thrust to grant him victory.Wei-Yong heard thunder and grinned, and in flash put an arrow to her bowstring and fired straight past Tong Shan's head, puncturing the unfortunate man's throat just as Tong Shan's sword flashed out and cut him in a upward arc from his right hip to his left shoulder. The big woman looked around for more opponents and her face displayed great disappointment at the realisation that the battle was over.The foursome trooped over to where the former victim still held her former captor at knife's point.Fa addressed her."What's going on here? Who are you?"With a last kick at the man who'd been dragging her away only seconds before, the woman stood up. She wore merchant's robes in the colour of some house Fa didn't recognize, and seemed in her early twenties. She bowed."Thank you, strangers, for your timely aid. I should surely have been taken by these ruffians had you not intervened."Shan snorted."Yeah, yeah. Who are you and why do they want you?""My name is Guang Ling and I work for Teng Bai Rui, one of the leading merchants here in Hsaio-pei-ho. I -- "She broke off, staring at Wei-Yong, then recovered, shaking her head.Ming-Wa nodded."They're pretty garish, aren't they?""They are not. They set off my eyes.""They set off my stomach.""That's enough.""Sorry, Fa.""Sorry, Fa."The woman stared at the ground for a few seconds, obviously thinking up a storm. She lifted her head and addressed Li Fa."My master is threatened by a rival merchant, Fan Tian Jing. Fan hired these ruffians to kidnap me, Teng's master clerk. My master is in terrible danger, and I think..."Her eyes slid to Wei-Yong again, who lifted a hand to her earrings uncertainly."... you might be able to help him. There's a warehouse on Paper Street he owns, across from the sign of the Cloudy Peak. If you will come there tonight, after sundown, I can tell you more. Please say you'll come."The women looked at each other. Shan started to speak but Wei-Yong cut her off."Will there be more fighting?"Confused the woman at first shook her head, then reconsidered."Fan is dangerous and my master is much afraid. If you will help us, there will almost certainly be danger."Li Fa, Wei-Yong and Ming-Wa shrugged as Shan's face broke out in a grin."We'll come."</blockquote>

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