They say what molds a hero's journey to triumphantly is their origins...and there have been many legends and folklores about it...You may also knew the well-known woman who stood amongst with her comrades where death almost stepped through their breaths...But what if I tell you a different perspective of that story and see how well you knew her...a tale derived from the original prodigy...a tale where it started in this...
Out of the shining glory of the archaic heavenly beams of hope where it brought luck to folks, stood a certain vicinity where twilight ascended her reign. A barren thicket stood shamelessly with no life to bear and daunting shadows was it's common residents. Rampike trees were all crooked and worn down by the endless oblivion of time itself, an ideal haven where deceit and misfortune charade the brushes. Ghost-like mist drowned it by her preposterous hypnotic haze where no one can blew away her boisterous game as howling winds slither through the dead branches, whisking away unearthly dust to let it play along the painted canvas of grayish lavender. But then, the somberly clouds begun to hurdle and depressingly laid themself onto the thicket's head, teardrops scattered through the forsaken garden, roaring thunders and blinding flashes flared through the tempest with it's aggression rising up mercilessly. Yu Shi might had given them another chance to eradicate their witchery and insisted them to produce life. The rain continuously crashed their weights with no intent to cease until this poignant silence was disturbed...
AWRK!...AWRK!...AWRK!!!
Bellicostic echoes polarized as the rapid flaps of their ghastly wings cuts through the thicket. A tint of scarlet conflagration stained the skies, awakening the silent spirits. A burning scent can be traced at the far north of the thicket where the snow-capped mountains stood. The howling winds battled against the ghostly silence where it marked it's dominance.
THUCK! TWISH!
Multiple hits of those vibrations crashed the deafening misty timbre. Arrows with scorching flames stabbed the deteriorating oaks and pines. Rapidly flooding the blackness with scorching fumes and smokes that gave choking breaths into the torturing humidity.
Splash... Two figures splashed their foots rapidly through the dampness of the forest floor. Running through as they seemed to have a banshee chasing after them. They both have golden embroidered silk, damped from their blood, wrapped their furs to shield them from the rain's madness as their tails kept their scratched hind legs in balance while quickening the pace, aiming to reach the end of the ghostly forest. The rain oppressed the two figures as it showered them mercilessly, creating a hazing barrier that blocks their vision from reaching their destination while a fainting mew can be vaguely heard from one of the figures.
"Get those two! Don't let them escape!" A growling voice bombarded as swift figures with nightmarish canines and fangs chased the pair of runaways. Furciferous dying cries and blades impaling flesh echoed through the barren woods as flames consumed whatever was left.
They're still gaining on us...A fainting distress shrouded one of the figures as she hardly kept up from her counterpart. Storms of arrows and growls kept up with them as they both tried to block them all with the rain's dampness.
There's too much of them...A fatherly whisper echoed through one of the figures whereas one of the wolves almost slaughtered his wife with their merciless javelins whereas she slipped and fell through one of the roots of the oaks in the nearby rocks.
"Meiying!" Guo beastly swiped off the canids and clawed out the rest as he hurriedly held her up to stand as she protectively hold a bundling mew in her arms. He held a paw to his wife's bloodied striped maw as she weakly snapped from her blueing sanguineous state.
"Meiying..." His worried fiery eyes scanned through her state for a second until she exhaustedly nod for assurance.
"I...I'm...alright" she assured
"Quick! We don't have much time" His voice of heavily breaths alarmed her to push her back from all the sores in her body. A fragile cry in one her arms alerted her of the vulnerable situation they're in.
"Shhh..shhh don't cry...I'm here...I'm here" She hushed the tiny noise with her arms.
Guo hurriedly grab her right arm as they rushed through the thicket's shadows, in hope to loose some predatory eyes. The rain blistered heavily to alleviate the sore scent of blood but that didn't hid the tracks of their trace through the thicket. How unfortunate they are...
"They cut through the oaks! Finish them!"
The same growling voice tortured their ears for they've easily spotted their trace. The couple could no longer run but to squeeze themselves against the tightness of the thorned brushes. Guo tried to use his battered muscled arm to swiped off all the thorny branches as they heard roaring footsteps can almost cornered them in this grueling spot. Just to get them out of here! Just to get them to the other side!!
"Guo!! They're here!!" His unnerved wife panicked as her sapphire eyes widened in fear for molesting death is near their foots while they both tried to rush but the sparks of fire crawled through the brushes, making their hearts quiver.
"GET THEM ALL!!!"
Growls slithered rapidly through; following their trace, whereas deceit snickered at their misery.
We're too slow...His luminous amber eyes spotted a diminutive caliginous grotto where fumes aren't succeeding to inflict their madness. He paused for a mere moment but a thought clicked through his wounded skull when he felt his wife's restless grip upon his shoulder. He eyed her as he darted to the grotto, giving a nonverbal signal to what he's indicating and for which she easily understood her husband's decidement.
The two felines dreadfully hid into the grotto whilst panic, anxiety and fire kept crawling through their nerves as they both can feel the molesting pain of butchery; almost there. They laid their backs against the chilling boulder in order to sense when the incendiary is only a breath away from their spot. Rigged breaths were exhaled as the male tried to keep his crafty stance in order find a way out.
He wearily squinted to spot a blurring opening through the oaks...he knew what to do...he sensed that one must block...ready for whatever hell has to give him in exchange for his two precious blood.
"There's an exit point...at the end of the shadows...just go straight through that path...and Don't Look Back!!" Guo instructed his wife with frantic breaths as he placed both of his paws to her shoulders. His eyes can see the anxious panic-striken expression of his wife sapphire eyes.
"You hear me...whatever you hear...Don't look back!" He frantically alarmed her as she felt the floods of pains crumbling her soul.
"Wh...wha...wha...what are you ...gonna do...?" She can't barely asked as her mind plagued of what could be the worse possibilities he would do.
"I have no other choice..."
"No...no..no" She was interrupted by the sudden burst of his lips that were filled with long-lasting love. He wrapped his arms around her waist as their tears met with each other. A moment that both tore their hearts in which it momentarily numbed the ambiguous chaos roaring behind the boulder they've been hiding. It hurt him to see the forlorn look on his wife's bruised face but it tore him more if the oppressors would took the advantage to slaughter them dirty before his very eyes. He calmly broke it off with a pain-filled calmed smile.
"You have to go...I wouldn't bear to see you both die" His sternly serious voice drowned away the fear of being slaughtered but was replaced by bravery. I can't let you both suffer when our daughter will still have a future.
He lowered his gaze and place a kiss to the bundle, their newborn cub, who just innocently giggled at her father's affection.
"My little girl..." He sadly held her head with his rugged-warm paw as both amber eyes met with a gleeful gaze. I would've want to see you grow but I'm sorry...I wouldn't let them take any chances... forgive me my little blossom...
His ears twitch as the growls are only an inch closer to them but he carefully pushed them to a safe direction with his paws protecting them.
"They're in Here!!"
"Go! Go...now!!!" He ordered his unnerved wife as they both looked with their last gaze; amber met sapphire, bidding farewell as he could only place a small smile in his face knowing they would be safe. This will be worth the butchering pain. I have always love you both...
In immense heartbreak as tears were falling down to her face like rivers, she gritted her teeth in anguish as she forced to picked herself up. Her heart was already tearing apart as she saw him stood up to the oppressors wherein he used all the sheer force he had just to buy them some time yet it hurt her to accept that she had to let the worst happen to him as if she's betraying herself. But an innocent cry disturbed her mourning as she realize that she should kept her promise to keep themselves safe, especially their cub.
She then snapped out of her gaze and held their cub tightly into her chest as she sprinted towards the exit of the thorny thicket. She held the little one tightly and forced her ears to block off and numb her from anything audible that can make her visualize the merciless fate of her husband. She forced her sapphire eyes to pull the crashing waterworks in order to maintain her focus to reach the eastern mountainous regions wherein both of them will be safe.
ARGHHHHH!!!!!
Her ears twitched to the splash of blood scattered audibly through the mist. She can deliberately sense the demonic savagery of her spouse even when she's a mile away. His shrouding cry cut off her nerves as she unnoticeably place her paw at her mouth, unable to sob when all of her nerves were stricken by a mix of grief, fear and lose. Sapphire eyes widen and closed in sorrowful heartache.
Just like how the Great Wall shielded it's subjects with the last of his sheer resistance...so did he...
...No...Guo...no...he's...he's gone...
Muffled sobs can be indirectly audible to the minuscule droplet of rain as she felt her knees trembly dropped to mossy ground of the hill she had been running through. Her breaths quiver as her backed rise and fall to her shock; trying to consume it. She then heard a hearty voice within her chest. The cub softy cried as she struggled to make herself comfortable in her mother's wounded arm and was irritated by the bombarding clashes from behind.
"Shh...hush now...my love..." she calmly hushed her again as she lowered her head, trying to protect her from the piercing reality. She paused for a moment as her eyes observed that a much more severe thunderstorm was about to pour down at them.
She took a deep heavy breaths and temporarily buried her mourning. She couldn't let the same happen to their cub...she couldn't...
I already lost your father...I can't loose you too...
She gritted her fangs and forced her knees to stand up from her breaking point thus she picked herself once again and darted her vision to the mountains. Rain, winds and the upcoming torturous cold oblivion perished the suffering mother. She must trek the slopes while doing everything she have in her power to remain hidden but then she heard the blood-coated footsteps.
She's the last of them!
They've been spotted again...she battled all the physical and mental sores with her as she struggled to run towards the outskirts of the thicket. Wolves and bears tried to mauled them but she was able to dodge them thanks to the sharp boulders she was running through as she kept her stance to avoid slipping through the showered rocks.
The slips of rain didn't alleviate her pace but it did help her loose the virulent barbarians who couldn't pass through the steep narrow pathways. There's definitely no way she could reach the mountains if they're this close to them.
Anxiety and fear wrapped her mind as she took a detour. She wouldn't be able to reach the mountains but a crashing riverbank near the boulders knocked some sense into her unnerved mind.
Swisssh...!
Meiying accidentally slipped through the watering boulders and stumbled upon an abandoned hut but she was able to shield her cub within her arms. She snapped back to the sounds of the approaching siege then a faint whisper of her mind made her head shift into a small basket full of cobwebs...
I think I knew what to do...
Zhui Kong must be enjoying all of the piled misery weighing upon her as she sprinted towards the edge of banks as the crash of the rivers reduced to the nearby banks where a dense drowning mangrove stood in deathly dismay with its leaves drifting away as the showers felt mercy to the feline. She painfully shut her eyes as she enveloped the crying hungry cub within her embrace. Her tears dropped down as the crashing crescendo of both fire and rain kept bombarding them. She's torn between flesh and soul that this will be the last moment, last second that she can hold her fragile blossom in within her warmth. Evil indeed had a way to stab deeper from physical wounds without mercy; let alone a mother parting a goodbye to her innocent daughter.
I'm sorry It had to be like this...but to take the chance where you may live...I promise I'll be there...wherever you go my little blossom ..
She stroked her cub's chest to have her last message as she mentally pleaded the gods and her ancestors to watch over her cub while she hummed a calm maternal lullaby to ease her cub's cries and gently nuzzled her head to hers for comfort, trying to shield her from the gruesome reality.
Goodbye...my blossom
She bent over to the banks of the mangrove while she dragged an old-wooden basket made from cypress mangrove branches that she got from the hut and set it to the river's calm surface whereas drips to rain still startled the bruising waves. She somberly smiled upon the sleeping cub within her arms as she placed one last kiss to her orange-dyed forehead and closed the gap between them in a warm embrace whilst she shut her sapphire eyes in order to feel their very last touch, no matter how badly beaten and soaked their fur is. No mere amount of words are able to describe a mother's tears.
I promise...I'll be there wherever you go...Meiying then opened her reddened eyes as she place the peaceful cub into the safe shelter of the basketry. She then removed an amber pendant hidden in her torn wardrobe and stringed it upon her daughters neck, a heirloom that will somehow remind her and of them hopefully. Covering the top by a makeshift harden mangrove reeds and finally letting it go with her precious cargo, she entrusted the rivers to deliver her out of here. The water gently danced as it seemed to listen upon the mother's pitiful plea as she watched the winds and waves swiftly yet gently rocked the basket through the stream.
Please be safe...my blossom...please be safe...
Her internal inflicting pain of letting her go numbed her upon the presence of the allagrugous barbarians that surrounded her as she kept her gaze upon the waters. She was too stunned to notice the demons behind, unsheathe their swords with the accompany of preying red eyes aimed perfectly at her.
With a nod, the barbarians drank the mother's grief wherein her eyes are unable to sob anymore as she stood paralyzed like a rigid statue, unable to sense the stench of death.
And like a soothing peach tree with delicate blossoms gracefully releasing her petals through the wind's ballet...
THUD!
A devilish saw sliced through her limbs, dividing her waist from her legs, causing it to silently fell upon the frozen rocks. Her once empathetic sapphire eyes whitened as life was gradually slipping away from her reach. Fresh scent of blood was ejected away from her mouth, her mind pitifully paralyzed her nerves, letting the eternal slumber painlessly blanketed her with it's hell-like grip. She was...no more than a mere corpse...
Just like her husband, she accepted the bitter fate Zhui Kong had to offer her in exchange for a fragile life.
Too many souls were lost...too many blood was shed and too many lifeless flesh scattered and clustered within the entrance of the thicket until were the last one stood...all of the striped felines where no more...the formidable clan is now banished from existence...
Nüwa tearfully scanned of the obstreperous landscape and was petrified through the tragic atrocity of the perished mother with all of her kind as she witnessed how every breath, yell and anxiousness driven her to gave her life for her to live the life she never got to live and hoping that the one who was left behind will never suffer the way that fate decided to end them in such a grotesque manner.
Only the screams of the wind can be able to deliver a message to the scene: some lives were only born to die in the most perilous way yet their lives sealed the uttermost courage they marked in their hearts to be able to bear a future with the peace they never got to live in the mortal realm as her damp tears parted through the dirty works whilst waiting for her forsaken children to meet Yan Wang as their final judgement of life. As the winds felt the souls ascended to the realm of eternal peace, she commemorate them, kissing them with the soft touches of the mossy grounds underneath the thick bloodied scenery as they were finally in peace. At last, the bodies were no where to be seen and souls were no longer be felt...they are finally in the warm embrace of peace as Nüwa hugged them in her arms, gently rocking them to their eternal slumber like a delicate newborn while humming a mellifluous lullaby that can never be forgotten.
However the monstrous figure inhaled the wicked satisfaction of blood's scent as it seemed that he was possessed by Zhui Kong to perform a wretched display of his artwork where he enjoyed the feline's heads being impaled onto his carved spears and scavenging the red stains that flooded the thicket...
There's so much more to be done...yet a step closer to my awaited victory...
Meanwhile away from the nasty ambience of fresh kill, waters slowly danced as showers momentarily stopped their somber. Winds begun to hushed any billowing noise as streams simultaneously drifted the lonesome basketry to a place wherever the river wanted too. A pregnant silence smacked the scene as no whispers dared to wake the sleeping cub comforted by her wooden warmth, almost like her mother's soothing embrace...
The story may have started at a tragic macabre...but that doesn't end the tale...A sacrifice that will inadvertently bring forth peace to the souls that severely perished...will also rise at the time the universe will be at its knees...
A/N: I've been crafting a KFP fanfic ever since last month and I hope will be able to write it down during the almost last weeks of vacation before entering 12th grade.
Anyway I hope you'll enjoy as I try to make this kfp fanfic precisely a bit accurate to Ancient Chinese culture and social customs as we explore a different perspective for it will explore the story of one of the franchise's most character of absolute masterpiece...
I'm also open to criticisms and writing advices as I had experienced difficulty in crafting my first draft a few weeks ago...I'm trying to mold my crudel writing style but I insist to let me know how my progress was made...Truth is, I'm not good with dialogues but I'll try my best to make them stay in character and I admit I suck at pacing.
Yu Shi-Chinese God of Rain
Guo- warrior
Meiying- beautiful flower
Nüwa- Chinese Goddess of fertility and nature
Zhui Kong-Chinese Taoist God of evil
Yan Wang-Chinese God of Death and Afterlife