Yay! Thanks to reviewers!

Forgotten Love – Konnichiwa! I'm so happy that you liked the chapter! I really hope you like this one too. Hmm, maybe your English is getting bad for reading my fics too much? I know I make mistakes, I'm even going to correct them by editing and reposting the old chapters of all my fics. Yes, tiresome but necessary.

VampireNaomi – Nah, nothing special. Don't get disappointed. Now that you are stricter about the fics, I feel very nervous when posting a new chapter. Yeah, you traumatized me! Now I'm not very sure about what type of humor you like either... o.o"

Just a useless observation: "Ronc" is onomatopoeia for "snore", but I was not sure which one I should use...

Chapter 7: A Strange Creature

It was very dark. The only light was the moonlight, and tonight the moon looked quite bigger. Once in a while a cloud covered it, making the room completely dark. However, soon the cloud was taken by the wind.

The only audible sounds were from crickets, the wind, some window creaking as it opened and closed due to the wind... Each moment, those few sounds were getting more intense, louder, closer, more-

"RONC!"

Bai Tsa startled and sighed heavily. Yeah, there was also the eventual snore of her brothers.

The water demon avoided looking at the window and covered herself with the blanket even more. Apart from those noises, the castle was deadly silent. In fact, that whole region still made cold shivers go down her spine, especially after what had happened one hundred years ago. It seemed the she would not sleep tonight.

"I have to get out of here... I have to go home... I have to..." she murmured trembling and then relaxed, looking at her dry scales. "...drink some water," she said getting up. She slithered to the door and swallowed before opening it.

She opened the door all at once, her eyes closed. Since nothing happened, she dared to open her right eye to take a look at the corridor. She did not see anything strange and opened her left eye. She glanced around herself for some minutes and finally headed to the kitchen.

She even wanted to ask one of her siblings or Jin to go with her. Nevertheless, that would be pretty humiliating. She was not a little baby, but a demon sorceress. Nothing could harm her, she was above that. There was nothing to fear. There was no need to worry. She was fine, she was safe, she was calm!

"Ah!" she yelped when she gave a false "step" – she had not noticed the stairs in the end of the corridor – and rolled painfully down the stairs. Only when she was almost in the end she turned into water so that she would not suffer with the fall anymore. "Damn!" she muttered taking her true form. "I hate stairs! Why couldn't it be a ramp?! It had to be a stupid human to invent the lousy stairs!" she continued muttering on her way to the kitchen.

When she got there, she took a cup and searched for water. Perhaps because this castle had been abandoned for a long time there was not even a drop of water in the kitchen. And she was the water demon, she could not stand to be far away from her element for too long. Not she would die because of it, but her magic grew stronger when she was close to water, and her scales were more beautiful when they were hydrated.

But to get water right now, she would have to go to the river. Which was bad, very bad...

"No!" she said to herself, shaking her head and then stared at the door in determination. She would do it! She approached the door, opened it and...

"BOOO!!!!!!" a white thing with red glowing eyes screamed before her, with a terrifying and spooky voice. Bai immediately turned as pale as the "thing" and screamed louder than she ever did in her life. Her scream was so loud that it knocked the "thing" over, echoed about ten times within fifty kilometers and drove away some night creatures of the forest.

Tchang Zu got up, feeling like a huge gong had rung inside his head. Hsi Wu began to cry. Dai Gui had serious suspects of having lost his hearing. Po Kong ran to Hsi Wu's room while Tchang Zu rushed along with oldest brother to the kitchen.

Jin continued sleeping like a log.

As soon as Po Kong took Hsi Wu in her arms, she tried to calm him and also went to the kitchen.

"What's going on he-" Tchang Zu tripped over something, falling to the ground. Tso Lan, who came right after him, stared at him for a while and shook his head.

"Bai Tsa, what happened?" he wanted o know. Then Dai Gui arrived, followed by Po Kong carrying Hsi Wu.

The water demon was so trembling and pale that she barely could say anything. She pointed at where her oldest brother was.

"A ghost...!"

Everybody looked at Tchang, who was getting up now.

"Funny, it looks like Tchang Zu," her sister commented.

"Perhaps because it is Tchang Zu!" Dai Gui said.

"No, I'm talking about that white thing beside him! It's a ghost!" Bai Tsa said hiding behind the moon demon, pulling his robe with so hard that she almost tore it.

"Huh?" Everyone looked at something moving close to Tchang Zu. Hsi Wu held his big sister even more tightly and the others moved away from the ghost to surround it. Tchang Zu finally took the initiative and grabbed it.

The moonlight shone in the sky again, showing that Tchang had just a sheet in his hands. They blinked twice in confusion and looked down at Xiao Fung seated on Shendu's shoulders.

"You!" the thunder demon yelled.

"What are you doing here?" Dai Gui asked. The two little demons smiled nervously, sweat dropping.

"Uh... Nothing, we were just... looking for some blankets," Shendu answered.

"Yeah, it's such a cold night..." Xiao added. Everybody stared at them in disbelief. Tchang Zu narrowed his eyes and grabbed them by the back of their necks.

"You two woke me up, woke up your siblings, scared Bai Tsa, made Hsi Wu cry, and I still tripped over you... and it was just a stupid prank?!" he hissed slowly, tightening them and making them flinch.

"Hey, we suffered too! I thought I was going to get deaf, Bai Tsa's scream is still echoing inside my head," Xiao defended. The thunder demon's eyes glowed so dangerously that Xiao gulped and struggled to break free from his brother's grip. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry! Let me go now!"

"Well, I'm not sorry at all," Shendu said crossing his arms and ended up on the other side of the hall when Bai Tsa hit his head with a broom.

"You idiot! Don't do that ever again!" she yelled furiously.

"Well, since nothing happened, let's go sleep again," Tchang Zu proposed and they all muttered monosyllables while going upstairs and Shendu tried to get up, with a bump on his head. Tchang Zu took him again and looked angry at his two little brothers. "And you two are grounded."

"Wait!" Bai Tsa suddenly said and they turned to look at her. "I still need water."

"All right," Po said shrugging.

"But... I don't want to go alone..." Bai admitted and they groaned in frustration.

"Oh man..." Tchang Zu muttered. "Po Kong! Go with her!" he ordered and went upstairs.

The two females left the castle. Bai Tsa was practically hanging on her sister's arm, glancing around herself all the time and shivering because of any noise.

"Relax, Bai Tsa. There's nothing dangerous here. We came here one hundred years ago and there was no real ghost, remember? The scariest thing was the crazy bloodthirsty guide," Po said to try calming her.

"Oh, Po Kong... Have you already forgotten the warning?"

"What warning?"

"Of the ritual!"

"What ritual?"

"I don't know, but she said it was dangerous!"

"Honestly, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do! It's that ritual we did in that trip we promised one another not to mention, remember?"

"No, I don't. But if you're not supposed to mention it, why are you mentioning it now?"

Bai Tsa groaned and slapped her forehead.

"Never mind, Po! Forget it!"

I knew she was not intelligent...

They got to the river. All that water made Bai Tsa forget all her concerns and dive cheerfully. In her element, she felt much safer, more self-confident. The mountain demon just watched her. She did not feel like joining her and swim and was not sleepy either, just starving. If Tchang Zu had not ordered her to come with the mermaid-demon, she would probably eat for the whole night.

She looked around herself. The trees, so green... looked like vegetables! The bigger stones were chicken and the smaller ones were banana with caramel. The spider webs turned into soba. And the river, then? Soup...

"Po Kong..." an apprehensive voice called, very distant.

"Mmm, sushi..." the mountain demon murmured taking the sushi in the soup and biting it.

"Po Kong!" the voice shouted really scared now.

"Uh? What?" she asked in confusion. When she came around, she noticed she was in the river, biting Bai Tsa's right arm.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"Oops," She let go of her arm. "Sorry, I'm hungry..."

Bai moved away from her and snorted. "Yeah, yeah. You should be protecting me, but you are even scarier."

-=-=-=-=-=-

He chose the darkest, smallest and dustiest room in the castle and threw the two little demons inside it.

"You shall sleep there until tomorrow morning!" the oldest brother said quite angry and left, slamming the door so violently that a book dropped on Xiao Fung's head, making him whining. He rubbed his head and glanced around himself, trying to see something. The only thing he saw was his brother's red glowing eyes.

They stared at each other for a while, until Shendu got enough of it.

"What? Why don't you stop staring at me?!"

"I was just going to ask 'So, what do we do now?'..."

Shendu slapped his forehead and sighed.

"Well, there is nothing to do here. Let's try to sleep so that the time will pass faster," the dragon suggested.

"Oh, ok," Xiao replied, then lied on the ground, using the book that had hit his head as a pillow.

...

"Shendu..."

"What?"

"I'm hungry."

"Shut up! Leave me alone!"

Xiao decided to be quiet and try to sleep.

Five minutes later...

"Shendu..."

"What now?!"

"I'm hearing a noise..."

Shendu was quite for some seconds to try to hear it.

"It's probably just one of our siblings."

"But if you pay attention, the noise is not coming from outside... it's here..." Xiao murmured approaching the fire demon as if he could protect him.

"Don't be ridiculous. Tchang Zu locked the door, and it was not opened since then. It's impossible that there's someone here beside us."

The sound of something dropping in the floor was heard and this time Shendu also got alarmed. He and Xiao retreated until the wall impeded them to continue.

"I think there is indeed someone here..." the wind demon whispered terrified.

"There is not..." Shendu said trying to sound calm, although he was trembling. "What just dropped should have been about to drop since Tchang Zu slammed the door."

This time, a quiet groan was heard, and the duo shivered.

"What was that?" Xiao asked.

"Nothing... It's just our imagination..."

One more moment of silence. They even began to think there was not anything strange there, but then they heard strange noises again. Now it was closer and it sounded like an animal was sniffing to follow their scent.

"Shendu, there is something here!"

"Surprisingly, I think you are right!"

"I cannot see anything, it would be a lot easier if we had some light in here," the wind demon complained and looked at his brother, smiling. "I know it! Use your fire!"

"Xiao Fung, we don't even have a candle! Besides, I cannot contr-" Shendu could not finish his sentence when his brother punched him in the stomach, which made him breathe fire for a short moment. Time enough to light up what was few centimeters in front of them and reveal the presence of someone.

It looked like an old man, but its skin was grey, its nails were sharp, its ears were a bit pointed and its eyes were yellowish. Soon the fire was gone and for a while they could just stare at the darkness with widened eyes. Xiao Fung and Shendu screamed in horror and tried to run away, but without seeing anything they ended up hitting something and falling to the ground.

They heard the creature making a rather spooky noise again and approach. It grabbed the wind demon, who shouted for help. Shendu heard the sound of something heavy and made of metal dropping and fumbled with his hand until he found the object, which he used to hit the creature.

It let go of Xiao. The two demons screamed and ran for the room until finding the door. They tried to force it, but the unknown being approached again. Shendu moved himself and his brother from the door, concentrated took a deep breath and breathed fire on he door.

Once again the flames revealed the figure next to them. Shendu kicked the door – since it was a bit burned, it was easier to force it and pulled his brother, who was afraid of passing through the fire. The finally left the room, running as fast as they could and screaming in panic.

In his room, Tchang Zu got up angry and slit his eyes in annoyance.

"But what are those children doing now?" he wondered, leaving the room. He stared at the dark corridor, his arms crossed, and saw fire in its end. "I can not believe they dared to do that."

He also saw his two little brothers running towards him and was surprised that they were not afraid of him. They went past Tchang Zu, exclaiming things like "Help!" and "Run!". The thunder demon watched them running away and raised a brow. As he looked forward again, he saw a strange creature right before him. it grabbed his shoulders and, before he could do anything, it looked deep in his eyes.

Tchang barely could scream, because his energy was slowly leaving his body. A strong greenish light was the last thing he saw before his sight went black and he passed out.

To be continued...