Chapter Three
Hua
How could Zhouchang look untouched when Dasha had been forever changed? Hua searched the village for familiar faces as the traveling party broke off, going their different ways. The journey from Dasha had been a somber one full of memories of the people who’d never return home.
Hua followed her parents away from the others they’d joined on the road. The five-day journey wore on them. They had only one horse—her father’s war beast, Heima—and took turns riding her.
When the small home at the edge of the patchwork fields came into view, rolling hills stretching behind it, Hua’s entire body relaxed. This was where she belonged.
Where she never wanted to leave.
The dark walls grew larger as they neared. A wooden swing hung from the large privet tree sitting outside their
