Bai Ming

...

A year passed...

Ten years...Hundred years...ten thousand years...

Billions of years...

An indefinite amount of time passed. 

...

In a dark forest, something was slowly slithering on the surface of the ground, then it suddenly sped towards a nearby hole and hid silently. In the next moment, from a bush just next to where it once appeared, a young boy who looked to be in his early teens.

The boy had a terrified look on his face. The moment he appeared, he quickly moved to grab a nearby stick and hurriedly turned back.

Breathing heavily, the young boy kept his guard staring into the depths of the forest. It seemed as if something was chasing after the boy.

At this moment, the sounds of branches and bushes movement couldn't be heard. A short but momentary dead silence ensued. It seemed as if everything had stopped. Of course, it wasn't as if there was no sound but relatively speaking the young man was so terrified that all senses seemed to have been numbed and all he could hear clearly was the beating of his heart. Cold sweat trickled down his back.

In the next moment, the boy's head jerked to look far up ahead of him. Trees and bushes were being pushed aside by some unknown thing. Some were ripped in half others pulled by their roots. Whatever that thing was, it shouldn't be allowed to exist in the world of man, at least that's what the young boy thought to himself. He looked up to try and see what it looked like. The creature seemed to be stretched into the crimson sky. He could not see just how tall it was or if it even had a head, but there was no time to dwell on that as he saw that it was rapidly approaching his position.

Each step the monster took shook the earth, and as far as the boy could see, there were now some cracks in the ground.

At that time, he realized he had made a grave error. Whatever thing it was was not something he could deal with. In that instance, he turned back and ran in the opposite direction, screaming at the top of his lungs. The sight behind him could only be described as a horror.

I shouldn't have stopped in the first place, he thought to himself. However, there was no remedy for regret. All he could do was keep running as fast as he could.

His torn-out clothes were now already drenched in sweat, and an addition tear also appeared as he got hooked by a tree branch filled with thorns. The branch scratched his left leg, and the thorns ripped off a chunk of flesh. Fresh blood tricked down his leg, but the young man didn't seem to even be aware of all this as he kept on speeding towards a cave he could see ahead.

Feeling a bit hopeful, it seemed as if he was going to be safe, but that feeling didn't last long when a sharp wind whistled by his ear. He didn't even get the time to carefully look at what was causing that before being flung to a small tree on his right side.

The tree was naturally filled with thorns. At the moment after he made contact with the tree, his senses seemed to have slowly returned. His whole body was aching, and blood could be seen everywhere on his clothes. The pain nearly made him faint. He couldn't even lift a finger. The boy grits his teeth and focuses on understanding his situation.

He looked at himself and saw the blood dying his clothes and how badly injured he was, but he didn't think about it and tried to look at his surroundings.

It took quite some time for him to realize that although he himself wasn't doing anything or moved a muscle, he was moving very fast. Some trees were appearing and disappearing in his vision, but strangely enough, the things appearing were the things he passed before whilst running. When he looked closer, he could see that a green vine was dragging him by the leg back to where he had run from. It seemed it was pulling him in the direction of that strange tall dark figure he was running from.

As he drew closer to it, he could now see a pitch-black hand reaching towards him and a pair of red light behind that hand directed at him. Looking at those lights, his body stiffened. He had lost all strength. He wanted to wiggle his way out and stop this vine, but he couldn't. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Upon realizing that there was nothing he could do, he calmly closed his eyes as he resigned himself to his fate.

Despair could be seen painted all over his face, and just as the hand was about to touch him, everything seemed to fade away, vanishing completely. After a brief period of time, the boy felt his senses returning and opened his eyes again. He could not see the sight he was expecting. The crimson sky was no longer there but had been replaced with a plain old ceiling. He blinked a few times, thinking something was wrong, but the ceiling remained there. All the pain he felt had disappeared. He put his hands behind him to support his body as he slowly got up.

It took him a moment to realize that he was in his own room safe from the horror in his dreams. Tilting his head to look at the wooden door of his room, he sees faint light pouring in from the outside. He took a deep breath and whispered to himself.

"It seems it's already morning,"

He quietly turned back to his bed and dropped down to Kowtow. After a brief moment he silence he started whispering in his heart.

"Oo Great Heavenly Immortal…"

"…we thank you for the gift of life…"

"…we thank you for the blessings and fortune you've bestowed upon us…"

"…keep guiding us with your grace…"

"…may your greatness shine light to our path…"

"…"

Not long after, he was done with reciting in his heart.

After a considerable amount of time after he was done, he got up and arranged his bed in order before taking a cloth going into the next room. There was only a wooden bucket filled with water. He took a handful that could fit in his palms and splashed it on his face, then dried with the cloth. After readying himself, he left the room and out the entrance of the house.

When he got out of the house, he was greeted by a ray of sunlight and a clear blue sky. Looking around, he could see a lot of figures. A lot of people had already woken up. He took in this sight and walked around. The kids playing around noticed him and ran towards him. The young boy who looked to be the oldest of them at about the age of ten spoke first along the way.

"Big brother Ming, are you going hunting again today?"

Bai Ming heard this and felt a headache coming on.

"No, you have to take us with you. We want to go hunting with you. " A little girl who looked to be the same age as the boy said.

Seemingly feeling that the opportunity might pass the rest of the kids clamoured on.

The adults in the village noticed this and shook their heads, and some laughed it off. It seemed this wasn't a rare occurrence.

Bai Ming smiled, then stretched out his one hand on the boy's head and the other on the girl's head.

"Sorry guys, you know I can't bring you to the mountain it will be too dangerous."

The boy didn't give in to this answer, then lifted his little arm to show his muscles and said, "But I already am strong enough to hunt. What can little wolf do to me, i can handle it. "

The little girl beside the boy added too saying "last week, big bro left us to hunt after promising to take us with you."

The other kids seemed to agree to this and continued their clamour.

Hearing this, Bai Ming gave a wry smile. He was about to say something when a woman's voice came from behind the kids. When they heard it, everyone turned their heads in the direction.

Two people appeared in their sight. One was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties, and the other was a young girl who seemed to be in her late-teens.

As they got close to the kids, some tried to run, but the older woman shot out a piercing glance towards them, stopping them in their tracks. Bai Ming's expression seemed to have turned for the worst when he noticed one of them was staring at him in particular.

Bai Ming felt a bigger headache coming on now.

He thought to himself, "I would rather deal with the kids than her."

She was the younger one wearing blue clothing and had a crimson diamond mark on her forehead. Seeing that Bai Ming had noticed her, she gave a charming smile, but to Bai Ming, that smile wasn't anything good.

The older woman came to the boy and girl and grabbed them by the ear, pulling them away from Bai Ming and the bunch.

"You two are at it again. It's too soon for you to be hunting. Can you not understand that?"

"Ahh, auntie, that hurts," the two screamed

"And you Shao'er ought to know better," the woman said as she tightened her finger on the girl's ear.

"Ahh, Shao'er has learned we won't do it again, right brother Leng," the girl being held said, looking at his brother on the opposite side.

"Y-yes sister Shao is right, auntie we won't…". However, he didn't finish what he was going to say as the grip on his ear was tightened further.

"It seems you two don't intend to change your ways, is that it?"

"Ahh, my ear is going to fall off,"

"…" The others looking at this scene were struck speechless, taking this all in.

Although it was not the first time, they seemed to want to watch further, but their thoughts were shot down by the next statement the woman directed at them.

"As for the rest of you, you had better leave your big brother Ming alone and forget about hunting if you don't want to be like your older brother and sister here."

The kids felt shivers running down their spines. As the three got farther away, the scolding from the woman could still be heard. Some of the kids left looked at each other for a moment, then dispersed, going back to where they were playing.

Not long after what remained was an empty space, and two people were staring at each other.