What was it? What was going on? All around her was darkness, but she could feel a light trying to break through. It felt warm, but there was a definite coolness in the air around her. And there was something else, she was moving. Though everything in her world remained unchanged (as far as she could tell) she was moving. But how or where she was going remained a mystery. Was she dreaming? Then something began to break though the silent darkness – voices? They were muffled at first, but then grew more distinctive. 'Come on! We gotta get out of here!' said one of the voices. 'Hurry, this way!' said another. The rest were less distinctive, but they all seemed to be frightened. Was that where she was? Was she running with these bodiless voices? She wanted to know. But soon after this thought occurred she felt that she was no longer moving forward, but falling and fast. Fear overcame her instantly and she struggled to see where she was. But it was too late; she had already hit the cold hard ground. Then she heard one of the voices call out to her.
"Abby!" Suddenly her eyes opened wide to see who just called out to her. At first all she could see was light, but a tall dark figure knelt over her. He pulled her in close to him as she felt the vibrations of the frantic crowds run past them. As her vision became clear she looked up and saw who it was.
"Dashi", she said, "what's –" But her question was broken of by the other voice she had heard earlier.
"Dashi? Dashi!?! Where are you!?!?"
"I'm over here!" Abby looked over Dashi's shoulder and saw Guan climb up on a tall rock close to the stone wall nearby. She saw him scan the crowd for her and Dashi. Once he spotted them he leapt into the air, over the remainder of the crowd, landing softly on the ground behind her.
"What did you do, drop her?" Guan said as he helped Abby back to her feet. "I knew I should have taken her. Now come on, we need to get out of here and guide the villagers to a safe place. There's no telling when that beast will catch up to us."
"You should talk; at least I remembered to get her. If you were in charge she'd still be back at the temple." The temple, Abby had completely forgotten. Where were they all going in such a hurry? She turned around to see if she could see the temple from where she stood. She stared though the sunlight trying to find her home. There, no more than a mile downhill from where she stood, was the Xiaolin temple in ruin. What at first looked like orange light from the rising sun creeping over the temple's sky line was her home of the past five years in flames; black smoke stretching to the red morning sky. Questions once again attacked Abby's thoughts. That temple has been protected by the Xiaolin monks of centuries, fending of innumerous attack of the Heylin's forces. How, in one short night, could anything like this have happened?
" – and besides, Abby's always been Chase's responsibility." Then all the questions stopped, and Abby's mind almost went numb. Only one word remained and clung to her very soul: Chase. She turned back to see Guan giving Dashi the sternest and hardest glare she's ever seen him give in her whole life. She watched as it burned into Dashi. Then she uttered the only words that she knew to exist at that moment.
"Where's Chase?" It felt as if it took everything she had to say those two words only to have them choke in her throat. Though she couldn't see it, she could feel the complete terror spread across her face as she waited for an answer from the only two people in the world besides Chase she could even begin to call 'friend'. She watched as both Dashi and Guan look at her with out a word. She repeated her question. "Where's Chase?" Still no response. Abby began to retreat from their gaze, inching her way towards the destroyed temple. Then Guan reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Come on Abby, we need to go." Abby looked up at him with sad brown eyes and only shook her head 'no'. Guan gently tugged at her wrist. "Abby we need to go now."
"Not without Chase." She began to try to tare herself from his grip.
"No, we need to go now." His voice had risen and become stern. Abby felt his grip on her wrist tighten, but she still tried to wriggle herself loose.
"No!"
"Abby whatever we do we're not going back to the temple!"
"But we have to, Chase could be in trouble, and there'd be no one there to help him! You're his best friend, you have to go!" At this she felt his grip loosen ever so slightly, but when she tried to escape his hand clamp down on her wrist – it hurt. She tried to break loose, but finally she had had enough.
Abby lunged herself at Guan arm, opened her mouth and bit down as hard as she could on his hand. Guan gasped at the pain. She felt his hand release her as the warm blood from Guan's hand touch her lips. She leapt back from him and Dashi and sprinted in the direction of the temple. She didn't hear Guan or Dashi calling after her. All she wanted was to find her brother, so she ran as fast as she could towards the remains of her home.
"Abby!" Guan started to run after her, but Dashi appeared in front of him. "Get out of my way Dashi." Dashi didn't say anything at first; he just looked at Guan with his arms crossed.
"What are you doing, Guan?"
"Dashi, we have to go after her. If we don't she'll be – "
" – killed." Guan was silent. His heart sank at the words that almost came out of his mouth, but it couldn't be helped, he knew it was true.
"How could we have let this happen, Dashi?"
"We didn't. This was his choice. It has nothing to do with us."
"But we're his friends."
"Not anymore." Guan looked up at his friend. He knew Dashi was right, he had a bad habit of being right. "It's best we put it all behind us. Now come on, we need to get the villagers as far away from here as possible." Guan nodded. Dashi turned back to the direction of the stampeding crowd and sped off. Guan was just about to follow but then turned back towards the temple.
"Chase Young! If you hurt that girl in any way I swear by the spirit of the earth that you'll rue the day we met!" With that he turned to follow Dashi and never looked back.