The Pillaged Village

Bang.

Onigumo was hurled against a crumbling wall, his katana falling beside him. Pain coursed through his body. Clutching his chest, he turned toward the spot where Xu Zhiqiu had been standing, only to find her gone.

Tch. She actually left.

"Despicable human," the demon growled as he emerged from the trees, clenching his mangled fist to deal this human one final blow.

Seeing the demon about to strike, Onigumo gritted his teeth, picked up his bloodstained blade, and rose to deliver the final blow to this soon-to-be-dead demon.

With a scream, the demon dissolved into smoke.

Onigumo lowered his blade and slumped back to the ground. The wild fighting had extinguished the campfire, and cold moonlight streamed through the roof.

He stared at the unripe wild fruit on the ground, a few bites missing from it, his eyes unreadable. Whatever crossed his mind, it drew a low chuckle from him.

Trying to run?

Elsewhere.

The dense woods loomed dark and eerie as a slender figure raced through them.

Xu Zhiqiu ran straight ahead with all her might, paying no attention to the path. All that mattered was getting farther away from that bandit.

"Awooo." A wolf's howl came from ahead, suddenly breaking the silence of the forest.

Xu Zhiqiu stopped. Bracing herself against a nearby tree, she gasped for breath and wiped her face with the back of her hand. Once she had steadied herself, she lifted her head to look around.

There were wolves ahead. Though she had no idea how close they were, she could not keep going that way. After a moment's hesitation, she ran toward the sparsest stretch of woods around her.

Why run? She worried that if she slowed down, she might step on a snake or something like it. The thought alone made her scalp prickle.

She ran with her heart in her throat until she spotted firelight and wooden buildings ahead. Her eyes lit up. She had found somewhere to stay!

She sped up and ran out of the trees, her field of vision gradually widening.

A pungent stench of blood filled the air.

Xu Zhiqiu stopped, staring blankly at the buildings burning all over the settlement a short distance ahead. In a daze, she walked closer. Bright red blood spattered the dirt, and bodies lay everywhere. Some had been beheaded, others had had their throats slit. Their faces were covered in blood as they lay motionless on the ground.

The breath of death hung over everything.

The flames engulfing the wooden houses grew fiercer.

Something against her chest grew hot, scorching Xu Zhiqiu's skin.

Xu Zhiqiu snapped out of her daze. Seeing the burning house right in front of her, she hurried backward. Just after she retreated, the blazing structure finally gave way, collapsing in a shower of sparks.

Xu Zhiqiu reached a safe spot. Pain throbbed in her knees, and she sank to the ground, staring at the burning village and the dead.

She looked away and lowered her head, lifting the hotan jade hanging around her neck. The heat radiating from it told her that what she had felt earlier was no illusion.

This piece of jade had saved her life.

Xu Zhiqiu clenched the jade and closed her eyes, thinking. The clothes worn by the bandit who had abducted her had already struck her as strange. Now, after seeing the clothing on those corpses and the buildings, she could tell at a glance that, although they bore some resemblance to those of ancient Hua Country, they were not from her country's past.

They looked more like something from the neighboring island nation.

The red-eyed "person" she had encountered in the ruined temple had not seemed human either, but more like a demon. Had she somehow traveled into the ancient demon world of that little island nation?

But here's the real question: why could I understand him, and why could he understand me? Did crossing into this world come with language skills too?

Xu Zhiqiu propped up her chin. The cuff of her long dress slipped down with the angle of her arm, revealing skin as pale as lotus roots.

Unable to make any sense of it, she simply stopped thinking about it. She would take things one step at a time. Tucking the jade back inside her clothes, she stood, supported her aching lower back, and limped toward the village where the flames had burned out.

The fire had left the dry earth hot. Heat seared her soles as she stepped onto it. Biting her lip, she lifted her foot and moved to the side.

The corpses lay before her, and a scorched smell rushed into her nose. A dead face stared her way. Xu Zhiqiu's expression changed, and she pinched her nose as she continued past the bodies toward the road ahead.

Once she was past the corpses, she broke into a sprint, charging forward without a thought for the scorching ground.

After running out of the village, she collapsed again, her knees hitting the ground. She could not stop herself from retching. So disgusting.

After retching for quite a while, she felt considerably weaker. Turning to look at the corpses not far away, she knew she would not be eating meat anytime soon.

The mere thought of meat made her gag again.

She retched several more times, bringing up the bits of wild fruit she had eaten. After taking a long while to recover, she stared hopelessly at the night sky, where only a crescent moon hung. The burns on her soles and the wound on her neck reminded her that this was no dream. She really had come to this unfamiliar place. Her eyes were filled with bewilderment. How was she supposed to survive here?

The night was a little chilly.

Dark clouds veiled the moon, and its light gradually faded.

Xu Zhiqiu stood and looked toward the dense forest ahead, hesitating. If she went back into it now, the woods at night were bound to hold dangers. She should have shaken off that lecherous bandit by now.

So she turned and entered one of the village's wooden houses that had not burned down. Several bodies with slit throats lay on the floor of the village's main house.

Xu Zhiqiu forced down her fear and stepped over them. Inside, wooden cabinets, tables, and other furnishings had been overturned. Judging from everything she had seen, the village must have been robbed.

Xu Zhiqiu picked up the plain, coarse-cloth kimono scattered on the floor. With their narrow sleeves and diagonal lapels, they looked a little like hanfu. There were also gray riding hakama and several pairs of straw sandals that were a little too wide, but having anything to wear was good enough.

She placed the clothes that looked usable on a piece of cloth, wrapped them up, and tied them into a bundle. Slinging it over her shoulder, she steadied herself against the wooden door, stepped over the bodies, and went into a side room.

The room held assorted odds and ends.

After closing the door, Xu Zhiqiu moved a cabinet against it, found a clean spot, and leaned against the wall. She hugged the bundle to her chest and curled up.

In the quiet, she closed her eyes. Her breathing gradually steadied, and she drifted into sleep.