Caught In A Wind Storm.

At this unforeseen friendly conclusion, Tang Yu's heart rate began to settle; her mind followed suit. Mu Yunsheng didn't threaten her with divorce. It didn't accelerate into an altercation. The overwhelming outpouring of words ended on a rather good note. She was planning to adjust with them anyway. Her shoulders loosened and relaxed. She collected herself, and said, "I'm aware that I run the full risk of you distrusting me. Nonetheless, the abrupt situation that happened to me, the marriage, it kind of threw me off balance. But, now, I am trying to accept things and—"

Suddenly, a violent wind-storm brought forth its dark presence. The sky started drifting into the velvety blanket of darkness. Mad waves of wind picked up at the sinuous road, crashing hard into the carriage sides, trying to slap away the roof from it. A dense blowing swirl of dust and dry leaves forcefully flurried into the carriage through the open window. Some particles even settled into Tang Yu's eyes and nose. She broke into a bout of coughing, and rubbed her eyes red.

Mu Yunsheng slid across his box-bench briskly, and thrusted his hand outside, pulling the window panel against the powerful pushes of wind. The veins under his fair skin popped up. He slitted his eyes, unable to fully open them.

The storm, catching them out of blue, started to rage, unleashing its fury relentlessly. Wind blew fiercely, it kicked up a giant cloud of dust, and soldiered on moving a swirling mass of leaves and dirts from here to there. Smoke-like clouds hovered over the horizon. Caught in the turbulence, the horses became panicky. They neighed and proceeded to retreat.

Wind was so strong that it didn't stop with loosening an avalanche of rocks and dust from the chain of mountainsides. Instead, it dislodged a huge protrusion from a cliff, which plummeted hundred feet down the steep and rocky walls, landing merely two feet ahead of the carriage.

The humongous protuberance was mostly intact, breaking somewhat from the sides. The broken bits and pieces of it shot everywhere. The carriage skidded on those pieces, careening abruptly to the right. The bone-jarring force almost spilled Tang Yu outside the window.

"Ah!" A throat-ripping scream of shock escaped Tang Yu's lips, anxiety squeezing her heart. A storm of her own had been stirred inside her mind; and her heart. Was she going to die again?! The dreaded memories of that very morning commenced to burst out of the ground, from the grave she had buried them. It was as if not a single second had passed at all.

Mu Yunsheng's sinewy forearm hooked around her waist, and wrenched her to his left, on his bench. "Uncle Zhang, keep your eyes peeled!" He yelled from inside. Wrestling against the strikes of wind, he closed the window.

The coachman's response was drowned out by the howls of wind, and rustles of trees. A huge oak tree fell down just behind them, sprawling across the road. A sizzling arc of lightning sparked, splitting the sky in zigzags. Horses neighed desperately, standing up on their hind legs, and bending the forelegs off the ground. The deranged wind ran rampant, fighting to pull off the boulders jutting out from the rockface. It mercilessly beat the gentle waves of the river to crazy, and widened the well-proportioned waterbody by erosion.

Tang Yu's trembling hands went numb and cold being exposed to her trauma trigger. Her inner storm began brewing at full force. Mu Yunsheng lifted her off, and made her sit on his muscly thighs. He wound his hand around her back, pressing her cheek onto his chest. "Don't be afraid. Nothing will happen to you."

"W-will... will I... die?" Tang Yu asked, her eyes losing their focus, anxiety eating her senses clean.

"Don't spout nonsense! It's just a storm, we will ride through it in a minute." Mu Yunsheng's grip around her waist tightened. "It will pass soon." He delivered a frantic flutter of light slaps on her right cheek in order to bring back her fading senses. "Look at me, Tang Yu!" His eyes glinted in panic. "Are your eyes okay now? Do they sting anymore?" The inside was not pitch-black but graphite. He could vaguely make out the exquisite planes of her face, but checking her eyes was unfeasible in this dimmest light. "Just give me a second, let me light up a torch." He shot his longer than average hand, and raised the lid of the box-bench opposite him; where she had sat before. He wanted to rummage through the hessian bag kept inside it, and search for materials for a makeshift torch.

Mu Yunsheng tucked Tang Yu's head beneath his chin. With her on his lap and in his arms, he scrabbled around the sack, took out a jar of pine sap, a washed-out raggedly torn rag, a green branch, and two small stones. He wrapped the rag around the end of the branch, creating a bulge. Then, he soaked it in the pine sap, ready to rub the stones together.

Nonetheless, the mischief of misfortune poured water on his efforts. Just as the carriage was rounding a corner, it collided straight into a wagon which was on the wrong side of the road. The heckman of the wagon lost control, it almost overturned, and spilled most of its load over the road. The storm didn't take any breaks there.

The carriage waggled; one horse fell into his knees. The coachman pitched forward, and toppled down. The carriage grazed against the rockface. Mu Yunsheng was slung against the opposite wall. But, he made sure to cover Tang Yu with his whole body. All the items in his hands spilled away apart from his wife. "Yu'er!" He checked her for any injuries, and let out a sigh of relief, finding her alright.

Unbeknownst to him, Tang Yu's stomach was in knots, triggering a light pain. Bubbles of anxiety rose to her head, and she felt giddy.

"Uncle Zhang, what's wrong?" Mu Yunsheng kicked open the door. Rain drops began pelting outside. Trees oscillated back and forth in a way, as if they had been possessed to put up a vehement fight in order to free themselves from the ground. His lips twitched. He had half a mind to drive the carriage himself, then drove the thought away. He couldn't let his vulnerable wife be alone inside, worse yet, trust a middle-aged man with her! He also had an urge to unhitch a horse, and ride it home, protecting her in his chest. Then, he thought better of it. They had a long way to go, and rain was pouring down in torrents. She would get thoroughly drenched and most likely catch a cold.

The coachman scrambled to his feet, rounded, and came to the door. "It's a minor accident. The heckman is a little shaken, but he is uninjured. No worries. We escaped with a couple of scratches on the legs and hands."

"Are the horses alright? Can they run the carriage?"

"They are a little anxious, but physically okay."

"Then let's start the journey. Storm will only get intensified, and you can't see in darkness. Wind will extinguish the torches."

"Roger that." Coachman Zhang mounted on his seat.

"A-accident? I...w-will die! I-I will d-die!" Tang Yu's heart rate accelerated, breathing came out shallow. "W-why do I.. have to die again?" Fat beads of sweat dribbled down from her hairline; some even soaked her clothes in wet patches.

Mu Yunsheng couldn't make a head or tail out of her incoherent mumbles. "Yu'er!" He shook her shoulders, catching her attention. It seemed to snap her out of her panicked state. "We are safe." His voice had a thick note of gentleness, as he assuaged her fear.

Tang Yu was a little surprised to find herself in Mu Yunsheng's lap. However, she wasn't in the frame of mind to stand on ceremony. Fear was still flowing through her veins. She was almost whacked, as if the panic attack exhausted all her energy. Instinctively, she gripped his shirt, and snuggled closer to his body warmth.

"Have some water." Mu Yunsheng uncorked a waterskin, and held it before her lips, until she took her desired sips. As the carriage coasted down the hills, he continued running his warm hand up and down at the length of her back. Not long after, her eyelids leaden heavy with exhaustion closed.

….

Tang Yu stirred, her sleep was in its final stage. After being dazed for some more time, she woke up to the crackling of fire. A thatched roof, nicely coated mud walls, and orange glow of fire.

Foreign yet familiar. Wasn't it Mu Yunsheng and her matrimonial room?

"Woke up?"

Tang Yu jerked her head to the right. She pulled the thin quilt he placed on her up to her nose, staring at him silently, waiting for his words.

Mu Yunsheng looked up from the book he had been soaking up knowledge from like a sponge. He doubled back the pages as a bookmark to mark his place in the thick book, before closing it. "We've reached home safely." He said softly to disperse her fear, in case there was any. He took half a minute observing her, and found her oozing calmness. No wave of fear was rippling around her let alone overlapping like before. "I'm going to heat your food, and bring it here. If you feel afraid, just call me, okay?"