14 Chen Ling
A normal day in Songjiang city, clear skies, green trees, sun out. A cute, young girl of around eight years of age was walking home from school. A remarkably normal sight that was seen everyday.
Her name was Chen Ling. She had shoulder length, glossy black hair and eyes that were a light auburn like the bark of a young tree. She was in her third year of primary and her face radiated with innocence.
Unfortunately, what should have been bright, face was marred with tears. She had recently been bullied in school.
This was nothing new. Amongst her peers, she was found to be cuter than others, and her grades were the top of her class. This made her rather popular amongst some of her classmates, but incited jealousy from just as many others.
Sometimes she had bugs in her shoes, or had her school supplies stolen, or had some malicious taints but that was usually the extent of it.
She would endure it and focus on her schoolwork.
But today was different.
It was 'bring your parent to school' day. Usually this is a nice, wholesome event where parents see their kids hard at work and such.
The problem was that she had no parents.
She lived alone with her elder sister, Chen Yan, who was twenty, and in her second year of college. She worked hard in her part-time jobs to provide for both of their needs.
Naturally the more unpleasant kids would take this chance to throw jeers and taunts at Chen Mengying.
Usually this wouldn't bother her, as she listened a lot of this during their normal days, but today all their parents were here. It was a glowing reminder circled in red ink of her lack of parents.
The way the adults looked at her in pity, she who was the only one with no one to visit her, was even more painful than the jeers though.
She could only bear it for so long before tears fell like waterfalls down her face without her realizing. She hadn't noticed until her teacher came up to ask her what was wrong.
It was only a formality though, as it was plain as day what had caused it. Even when she tried to smile it off, the tears continued to fall.
The teacher could instantly tell what happened, and scolded the students who bullied her, and sent her home. She knew that it would only get worse the longer she was here.
Chen Ling accepted the dismissal with a nod, and ended up on her path home.
There was still some time before her sister returned so she decided to go off to wander on her own.
She soon found herself in front of a forest. She was not supposed to go near, as there were dangerous beasts lurking within, but she hoped to use fear to overwrite her sadness.
But her judgement overruled her emotions as she turned back to go elsewhere, and decided on a creek visible a short distance away.
As she approached she saw a strange black lump on the side of the creek.
When she approached, she found what appeared to be a cat at first glance.
The cat was the dark color of dusk with stripes that resembled streaks of ash. She noticed that it was a little plump, like a kitten, but was the size of a normal cat. It was a little odd to her.
She concluded that it was just fat.
On closer inspection she noticed that it had a weird tail. It was covered in scales like a snake. And had a hole at the tip that looked a little like a coin slot.
She touched it all over and figured the scales were real, and in the process, noticed short, leathery wings on its back, along with numerous cuts scattered over its body. She hadn't noticed before due to the darkness of its fur.
A weird kind of cat she's never seen before. Even though she's smart, and red many books about the kinds of fierce beasts that lurk the wild, she's never seen head nor tail of mention of any sort of cat that had scales. Usually an animal would just have fur or scales, never both. With wings and scales, and fur like the night sky, she eventually concluded that it must be a special cat, and her eyes sparkled.
Could it be a legendary divine beast?! A fearsome myth that can walk the skies and reverse rivers?! A powerful beast, when grown up, can shatter mountains and flip seas?!
Chen Ling drooled at all the possibilities, and started to think maybe it was fate.
That maybe someone saw her sorrow and decided to grant her the opportunity to meet this mysterious animal.
She then remembered it's wounds and struggled to pick it up and take it home. Maybe her sister can give it treatment.
