Meixing carried a bucket of water on her head, moving through the small town to her lonely shack where her grandmother waited. A few rowdy boys came toward her from the opposite direction.

They spoke a laughed loudly while approaching the girl with the heavy burden. One of the boy's the biggest in age and size bumped into her hard enough for her to lose her balance and drop the bucket of water. The water fell on her as she fell to the ground.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" The boy who had bumped into her said.

She looked to the brick ground that grew darker at the water spread beneath, dripping mainly from her hair and face. Her head snapped up, glaring at the boy.

"Check how the peasant is looking at you." One of the boys said, pointing.

"Do you know who I am? I am Chui Bao!" The boy said, crouching down and grabbing her hair so hard that water was wrenched from her soaked black hair and fell on her face. "My father is the protector of this town. And he's shown me a few things. Things I could use to destroy you!"

The anger in her eyes vanished, replaced by fear as she looked away and shut her eyes in fear.

"That's right." He said, satisfied at her show if submission. He freed her hair, leaving her on the ground and began walking away.

"She's pest." One of the boys laughed. "I see her around my father's barley fields, picking up any stray grains that we lose during harvest."

"She's a real pest." Chui Bao agreed, as they got further away.

She stayed low on the ground, averting her eyes as she heard the group of boys moving off.

"Stupid, trash boys." She cursed quietly when she was sure they were out of earshot.

Taking a deep breath, she got to her feet and took her now empty bucket, walking back to the well to fetch more water.

It was sunset by the time she arrived back to her home, her shack. She entered the small structure by removing the wooden board that acted as a door and replaced it behind her.

"Gran mama." She said softly, shaking the old woman on the bed. "Gran mama."

"Meixing." the old woman said. "You're back with the water."

"Yes," she said. She looked sadly at the woman who had been bedridden for years and was now her responsibility to take care of.

"Its sad that the old well was abandoned." The old woman said. "Now you have to walk all the way to town."

"It’s no hassle, Gran Mama." She said as she dabbed a wash cloth with some water and wiped her grandmother's brow. "Let me get dinner prepared."

"How much grains are left?"

"Should be plenty." She said.

Meixing looked toward their grain bag. There was barely enough for a handful. She would need to scavenge for more food tomorrow.

She went outside, leaving the board open a crack to let the humid air out of their small shack while she prepared the fireplace. By the time she had a proper fire running and some water boiling, the sun had fully set and the first stars were twinkling above.

A sound rang through the night. She looked out in confusion. The sound was like a horn, blown from a distance. It would stop, only to be blown again.

Her neighbour bumbled out of his shack in a panic. In his arms were his clothes.

"What's going on?" Meixing said in confusion.

"Are you dumb?" The man shouted. "That's the horn to warn that we're being attacked!"

He ran away, disappearing into the night.

She ran into the shack, knocking the board down. "Gran Mama! Gran Mama!" She shouted,

shaking the old woman awake.

"What's wrong?" she said.

"They're blowing the... the... the we're being attacked horn!"

"What?" Her grandmother shouted before leaping out of the bed and flying to her wardrobe.

"Gr-Gr-Gran Mama?" Meixing said in shock.

"Don't just stand there, we need to go!" She said.

"You-You can walk?"

The old woman rolled her eyes like a newly minted teenager. "Well duh, in times of danger, anyone can forget themselves. Now quick, we have to move!"

"O-Okay." She said. Rushing under the bed, she fished an old, red envelope out. "I need to take my treasure."

Moments later, they exited the shack. Meixing led her grandmother by the hand. They turned to go into the forest but then a round object arced through the sky and landed in front of them. It rolled and when it stopped at their feet. Meixing was looking at the severed head of her neighbour!

Meixing screamed. Her grandmother muffled her mouth with her bony hand

"Hush!" she said.

Silence fell over them. Then they heard movement. Their shack was pushed aside by a giant creature that stepped before them. The giant, black, lizard-like creature turned its head, fixing its eye on the two women.

"A demon. Run." The old woman said, turning around.

They both ran. Meixing pulled her grandmother along but the old woman slowed.

The giant lizard like creature opened its mouth and its long tongue shot out at them. The women stumbled and fell on the ground. Meixing looked up in time to see the long tongue speed past them overhead. The tongue was long, barbed with green pikes with the end of the tongue having a pile as big as a spearhead.

The tongue withdrew.

"Gran Mama, we need to move!" Meixing shouted, getting to her knees in an attempt to help her grandmother to her feet.

"I-I can't."

"Why?" Meixing cried.

"You know I said before that in a dangerous situation you forget how old you are?"

"Y-Yes?" Meixing said in confusion.

"Well, I think my body just remembered."

Meixing bit her lip in worry. She looked up at the giant lizard demon.

"Meixing, run!" her grandmother said.

Meixing gulped. She took the envelope from her person and pushed it under her grandmother.

Shooting to her feet, she ran away from her grandmother’s fallen body, waving her arms. This drew the attention of the demon.

"Hey! Over here!" she screamed to the top of her lungs. "Come for me!"

The demon opened its mouth and its tongue shot out. Meixing jumped as the tongue stabbed the ground beside her, its side shredded into her leg. She screamed on pain before getting up and running away.

She dove between two old houses. The space between was tight but for a young scrawny girl like herself, she could easily squeeze through.

The demon climbed up and ran between the ceilings of the two houses overhead. She exited the tight squeeze and the demon lizard landed in front of her. She ran to the side and it kept chasing.

She jumped through a window of an abandoned house. The demon stopped and tilted its head, its hazel eyes staring into the house, through the window, at her.

It opened its mouth and its barbed tongue exited its mouth and entered the window. Meixing crawled beneath a table and it was toppled over. The tongue withdrew only to return, this time flailing around wildly, its pikes stabbing at the things around it.

Meixing shrunk to a foetal position, screaming as the tongue destroyed the room. The tongue withdrew again.

Meixing got to her hands and knees. She saw the demon once again peering through the window at her. Then it vanished.

Meixing relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, she heard a boom at the wall. Cracks began forming on the wall around the window. She realised it was trying to get in.

She rose to her feet and ran for the door just as the demon burst through the door. She opened the door and shut it behind her just as the lizard shot its tongue at her.

Its tongue stabbed nearly through the door. Causing Meixing to collapse back. The door was pulled off its hinges and the demon glared at her through the empty doorway.

Meixing got up and ran again. She spotted the old well and slid behind it before peeking out at the demon that exited the house. It looked around. A man ran past it and it followed him.

Meixing breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well well, what do we have here?"

Meixing looked toward the source. Standing before her was a man... no, a man like creature. Parts of the man's body were covered in scales and his eyes were similar to the eyes of the giant lizard demon's. She knew the man before her was a demon also.

"Sir..." she said. "P-Please..."

"Sir?" The demon laughed, plucking her by the scruff of her clothes and bringing her up to his eye level. "I like how polite humans are before I kill them."

"Please," Meixing said, crying, "don't kill me."

He opened his mouth and a long green tongue slid against Meixing's teary cheek. "I love it when my meat self seasons."

Her crying got worse.

"Don’t worry. I'll make it nice and slow so you can season some more with your tears." The demon laughed.

Meixing looked at its jiggered teeth in fear as she continued to sob. She could not believe that this was how she would die.

Something suddenly crashed into the demon and Meixing was released. She fell onto the ground. She got up and her eyes widened at who had saved her.

"Chui Bao?"

The boy ignored her as he got to his feet, his eyes shining with rage.

The demon got up and looked to his side. A wooden spear was sticking out from his side where black blood seeped from the wound. The demon looked at the boy in fearful confusion. "You did this to me?"

"I'll kill you!" Chui Bao shouted, charging at the demon.

The demon opened its mouth and its tongue extended from its mouth. It wrapped around the chubby boy's ankle and pulled him off his feet.

Chui Bao was sent swinging around in the air. Meixing rose to her feet before Chui Bao's body was slammed into her, and she was sent flying down into the well.

She fell down the well and hit the bottom with a thud, blood spraying from her mouth.

Darkness began invading her vision. That was when she heard the voice, ancient and powerful.

"Dig the Earth. Free me and I shall give you great power."

Then everything went black...