The room was on fire, everywhere she looked all she could see was flames and smoke. The girl looked around frantically searching for a way out. There was none. She could hear a baby crying and a woman desperately calling out her name, but she could not identify were the cries nor the screams were coming from; she felt suffocated, she was scared, the screaming didn’t stop, the crying didn’t stop, there was more and more fire and smoke. As she looked around, the girl noticed something very strange, a flower. Analyzing it further she could see it was a white lotus flower, it was just there untouched, as if there was no fire around. The girl could feel herself growing more and more suffocated, she covered her ears to try and stop the cries, closed her eyes not to see the fire consuming everything. Suddenly, everything stops; there’s no more fire, no more baby crying, no woman calling out her name. There was a voice though, a man’s voice that sounded a lot like her father’s, telling her it was okay and that she was safe; as the girl opened her eyes she no longer stood on a room on fire, she now stood on a green field and right in front of her, stood the same flower from before; a white lotus flower, imposing and beautiful, as she was about to reach it she suddenly jolted awake, sweating and out of breath; it was just another dream, actually it was the same dream as always.

Getting up from her bed, she decided to get some fresh air. Looking out of her balcony she could see some of the soldiers on duty walking around the property, above them the moon shone brightly, but the quiet night wasn’t going to last long.

The horses cut the night like bullets, their riders bruised, battered and desperate. They’ve been scouting their leader on a diplomatic mission on neighboring lands; after three days away from home they were finally returning, but not the way they intended to. As they departed towards their homeland, they could never imagine being attacked in the middle of the night, much less that some of their attackers were amongst themselves. Soon their destination could be seen and relief washed over them.

“Open the gates! Hurry!” One of the captains shouted towards the guards at the entrance. “Hurry up! Master Minatozaki is injured!” He pleaded.

When the gates were finally open they entered carrying they bleeding Master.

“What’s happening here? I could hear you all the way from the gardens.” Came a voice from behind the men.

“Captain!” One of the soldiers greeted respectfully.

“Tzuyu!” The captain ahead of the men approached the girl. “We’ve been attacked in the middle of the night; our uncle…” He trailed of not knowing what else to say. The girl could see their uncle and head of the clan laying unconscious and bleeding a lot.

“Bring Master Minatozaki inside right now!” Was the urgent order from their captain; as she saw the men bring her uncle inside she turned towards the remaining soldiers. “Lieutenant Kang, send someone to inform Master Jinyoung and make sure these men are taken care of.”  As soon as the order was given her Lieutenant nodded with a firm ‘Yes Maam’ and headed out with the injured soldiers. “Kayee, what exactly happened?” She asked pulling the other captain aside. “You go out on a diplomatic mission and come back like this? What the hell happened out there? Who did this?” Her mind was running wild right now, she needed answers.

 “I don’t know! We have no idea. We were coming back from our mission and the next thing we knew we were under attack. They came from all directions and from the middle too…” Captain Kayee sighed running his hand through his hair in frustration.

“From the middle? You mean…?” She had an idea of what her cousin meant.

“Yes that’s’ the worst part of it, they were our own men… Not all of them of course, but most of the men on that squad were not on our side.” Disappointment was all that could be seen on his face.

“This is a serious matter Kayee! That’s treason!” The young captain exclaimed incredulous. “How many of your men came back?” She asked an important question. If they have been betrayed there could still be infiltrated men among them.

“Nine out of twenty, counting me and our uncle.” He sighed defeated.

“We need to get those men interrogated; there could still be traitors among us.” Just as the two were about to head towards the injured soldiers, Lieutenant Kang came running towards them.

“Captains! Master Jinyoung requests your presence; it’s your uncle…”

The morning in the Minatozaki house was mournful; their clan head was dead, fatally wounded in an ambush. The doctors tried everything to save his life, to no avail. Tzuyu spend the whole night trying to get some information about the attack, but it was always the same thing; they came out of nowhere and soon some of their own men turned against them, in the middle of the chaos the Clan Head had been stabbed. The same information from everyone.

“Tell me again how it happened.” She asked tiredly, it has been a long night for everyone.

“I’ve told you already.” Kayee sighed. “We were riding back home in the middle of the night when a bunch of men attacked us, I have no idea how many but I gave the order to attack back and protect the Clan Head when I saw some of our own men attacking the others.” The boy looked out of the window remembering everything that happened the previous night, his eyes tired from lack of sleep and the tears he shared for his beloved uncle. “Uncle Nichkhun joined us in battle, we managed to defeat them and when we thought it was over he got stabbed by one of the traitors.” The memories were still fresh on his mind. “The enemy had been neutralized, the last one of them came from behind Nichkun but one of the soldiers threw a knife at his throat, and as he turned to the soldier to thank him… he stabbed him with a dagger and ran way. There was nothing I could do.” He finished with a lone tear running down his handsome face; the 21 years old young man would never forget the image of his uncle being stabbed by a man who was supposed to protect him; He was supposed to protect Nichkhun, but he failed.

“Hey… I know what you’re thinking Kayee, and it’s not your fault; as you said it was out of nowhere, no one could have predicted it.” Her tone was softer now, she could only imagine what her cousin was going through.

“It was my squad, I was the Captain and uncle trusted me to lead the men to protect him.” He balled his fists.

“Don’t beat yourself up because of this Kay. It was not your fault okay?” She tried to convince him one more time. “You’re a great Captain, never doubt that all right?” Tzuyu wasn’t very used to physical contact so she just patted him on the back. Kayee just chuckled.

“Yah, you still don’t know how to properly hug your family members huh?” He teased. “Come here you awkward brat.” With that he engulfed the girl in a strong hold making her grunt. “Thank you Chewy.”

“Okay okay, you made your point already. Stop getting soft and let me go so I can breathe.” She complained pushing him away. They both smiled at that until knocks on the door disturbed them. “Come on in.” It was Kayee’s men, Lieutenant Tuan.

“Captain Tzuyu, Captain Jackson.” He greeted politely. “Your grandfather wishes to speak to you.” The boy delivered the message in a very polite manner as always.

“We’ll be there in a moment.” With that he left the two once again. “I still can’t believe you made your team call you by that foreign name you invented for yourself.” Tzuyu said rolling her eyes at her cousin’s antics.

“It’s a cool name okay. That’s what they’ll call me when I visit foreign countries like Sana.” At the mention of their other cousin’s name they both fell silent. “Do you think she knows already?” The boy asked worried as they left the room.

“I have no idea…” She trailed off; it’s been years since she last saw the girl. “Last time I’ve heard from her she was traveling around western countries with her cousin Joohyun. But I don’t know… I think she should be back at her mother’s old clan by now.” Tzuyu couldn’t help but think about how Sana has been doing all this time and how hard it would be for the girl once she hears the news.

“This is going to be so hard for her…”  They both knew it was true, after all while the two of them lost an uncle, Sana had lost her father. And now she had a whole Clan to lead.

Hey There ^^

I'm finally here with the first chapter hehe

It's not much, just to start the story...

Hope you guys like it ^^