In a sparse forest a village called Flowing Grass,

houses built of mud, straw and wood surrounded a taller two story house made of wood.

Sparse bamboo fences dotted the village's surroundings signifying it's lack of wealth.

While the villagers were clothed in tattered rags and wore dull eyes, an 8-year old child stood out with bright, black eyes and silk garbs. As he strolled around the village, a look of curiosity filled his eyes. However, one could also see a faint trace of disdain hidden beneath his actions.

His little legs brought him out of the village into the desolate mountain range in hopes of finding treasure,

as he had heard stories how young heroes would become immortals, monarchs and emperors with a stroke of luck.

Despite his age he was not as naïve as to believe wishes were sufficient by themselves without risk and effort to chance upon a way that would allow him to enter a 'sect'.

Under the scorching sun sweat dripped from his forehead upon the rocky path while his eyes roamed upon every rocky path in the valley.

Suddenly, a rustling noise came from a dry bush.

His alert eyes stare as a wild rat came out of it mouth clutching a small lizard.

With a relief in his pounding heart he scolded himself for being such a coward, frightened by a mere rodent hunting four its meal.

As his stiff legs relaxed as he considered returning to his second story home he misplaced his footing out of ignorance and slipped,

tumbling down from the stony path into a near by dense dry bush.

Instead of coming to a halt he fell into a hidden hole as he rolled down the slanted terrain further and further underground.

Pain filled his aching and bruised body as he bit his lower lips sternly to control the tears welling in his eyes.

Ignoring his dirtied clothes,bruises and pained joints he surveyed the surrounding with alert eyes.

He knew such large holes were the dwelling places of man-swallowing snakes and where encountering dangerous wild animals was a definite possibility .

However all that greeted him was a dusty natural cave with faint light rays coming from above illuminating his surroundings.

As he squinted his eyes he noticed the borders of the cave wall seemed unusual,

as the natural formation of the rest of the cave did not match the patterns with that particular cave wall.

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It was as if an earthen wall was raised to hid something.

Anticipation filled his heart as he gathered his courage and approached and gave it a knock.

The dusty earth crumbled a bit and with excitement he picked up a nearby rock to start destroying the wall.

Dut Dut Dut.

After approximately 20 rapid strikes a small hole was opened, as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeves

his eyes squinted as he attempted to peer into other side of the wall amid the gloom and dust.

He was shocked to discover a skeleton wearing a decaying green robes with several wooden stakes nailed into its body.

One in its forehead, one in its chest and two penetrating the shoulder joints. There were strange symbols inscribed on these wooden stakes.

The most unsettling thing he noticed was that the wooden stake on the forehead was merged in it, make his heart cold.

Gritting his teeth he ignored the cold sweat on his back as he searched for other items of interest on the skeleton.

Noticing that the skeleton's bony left hand was clutching a strange object he picked up a few tiny stones and threw at the skeleton to see if was 'alive'. He had heard rumors of supernatural beings and especially the existence of sect had made him weary of bad fortune falling on him. Noticing there was no response he squeezed with haste through the hole and pried open the skeleton's hand to inspect the object.

Kache Kache......

The bones crumble with a bit of effort,

anticipation filled his heart as he pick up the strange object

It was a round thumb-size object with what looked like many 'strings attached to a crude little brown stone forming a spherical shape.

As he was inspecting the object his eyes grew gloomy and he became dazed.

His bright black eyes became empty as he was holding the object and then a pulse of weak light came from the brown stone.

The seemly lifeless strings started wriggling !

Slowly they started to drill into the brown stone as it shivered as if in pain before slowly turning black and crumbling into dust.

Edited by Ronishamay | Kursys