Nightfall descended like ink, the piercing and intense sounds of combat echoing from the woods, startling the perched birds into chaotic flight.
"Pingzi, take them and leave," a middle-aged attendant ordered, cutting through the throat of an assailant dressed in black, and shouting fiercely.
"Uncle." Pingzi, a young attendant fighting back-to-back with him, had reddened eyes and was about to turn back.
"Go." The middle-aged attendant gasped for breath: "Protect them well, hurry, this is an order."
Pingzi's throat choked up, his footsteps light, he made several leaps and reached the carriage that had been split in two, pulling out two children, ready to mount the horse.
"You take the little brother," the elder child handed over the gasping younger one in her arms to him.
"Young Miss, what about you?"
