Li still remembered the day she decided to be a warrior. She had been a child, the men folk had been away, investigating a report of drakons in the mountains, leaving only the women, children, and elderly in the village, with a small force of ten soldiers to protect them. Raiders had come. No one was ready for them, the soldiers were dead before anyone knew they were there. She remembered her mothers face as the first screams rang out, she had grabbed Li and her jewelry box and run, until they were cut off by two raiders, her mother had held her and begged, and when that didn’t work and they were coming at them with those grins and those eyes and those swords, she had screamed. She had screamed and screamed, her voice tearing inhumanly out of her in a long wail of desperation. And then the woman was there, her blade flashing through smoke and raiders alike, her face a mask of anger, her long black hair swirling around her. It was over in seconds, and she had stood over them her blade dripping, her white hanfu speckled with red. Li’s mother had been holding her tightly to her breast, her breath coming in ragged gasps, and the woman had bowed slightly given Li a small smile and turned, disappearing into the smoke. Li and her mother had stayed there in the alley frozen with fear as the world burned around them. they had heard women screaming, raiders yelling, and they had heard when the raiders no longer made any sound, they had heard the war cries of the men returning and their cries of surprise when they found their foes already dead. She and her mother had walked out into the village square and her mother had covered Li’s eyes, but not before she had seen the white and scarlet clad figure sprawled on the ground surrounded by the bodies of the raiders the woman had killed. They had called her a hero but after a few days Li heard the scornful whispers, how shameful it was that a woman had fought, how she would have still been alive if she hadn’t been so violent and unwomanly. Soon they didn’t even whisper, but they spoke loudly of her foolishness, none seeming to remember that she was the reason they were still alive, that she had been there when the men hadn’t, that she had lain down her life for them and they scorned her sacrifice. But Li remembered, she had seen how that woman had been the only one capable or willing to protect her village, seen how everyone else just sat there and screamed and cried or were reduced to slapping and kicking and clawing to protect their children. She saw and she resolved to never be defenceless if anyone threatened what she loved again. She learned to fight. She learned to protect.