Chapter 4 - Cornered Rats Bite Back [Part 1]

Night and Day could never be known within the mine, all was perpetual darkness except for the small lamps posted on the sides of the tunnels.

Unknowingly 6 years had passed in this darkened wicked world.

Xiao LingYue was now 10 years old, his hair hung onto his lower back and dirt and grime clung to his sharpened fingernails. His red eyes seemed to glow within the dark tunnels while his temperament had completely changed.

The grotesque scar that stretched across his face was easily seen between his strands of hair as he dragged his frail body while holding the basket in one hand and dragging the pick axe behind him with the next.

No longer was he the naive 4-year-old child who didn't know the world, now he was a cold and calculative young man.

He had seen the betrayal of lovers, brothers and sworn friends; the greed and lustfulness of the humans. No one was exempt and it just made him all the more sure that the human race, was all conniving pieces of trash.

The other fae descendants who came with and after him were all killed one way or the next. . .

Pan Zedong was the first attacked; due to his sheer size the humans were quite fearful of him so they waited until he was alone before ambushing him with their pickaxes; he fought back valiantly until he hesitated to harm a human child which caused him to be staked in the back of his skull.

His blood splattered over the walls and the child, his brain matter falling out onto the rocky cavernous floor while his blood pooled beneath him as all the humans retreated in disgust.

"That damned thing near got me dirty!" One said to another.

As they took pleasure in their achievement, they left the bloody corpse of Zedon as they all went their ways, sneering and snickering as they did.

***********

After noticing Pan Zedong's disappearance, Yao Xiaofan hid in the shadows as he made his way through the mines to eavesdrop on the human's conversations.

" Heh; He was big but useless, as with all faes. Fucking animals parading around trying to be human. Makes me fucking sick to my stomach." One man said.

Upon hearing this, Yao Xiaofan was immobilized in shock and fear, he turned and raced through the darkened, damp tunnels looking for Pan Zedong in a panic. . .

Yao Xiaofan darted to and fro until he saw a shadowed figure laying face down just outside the area the wall lamp kept lit.

As he reached the shadowed figure of Pan Zedong's corpse, he saw the blood dried beneath him as cavernous critters picked at the flesh leaving it desiccated.

Xiaofan chased them, swinging his sleeves left and right desperately trying to rid Zedong's body of these insects.

Kneeling beside the body, he bent over in grief, his arms grasping the shirt on Zedong's back as his tears poured and his heart pained. . .

"Why?!!". . ." WHY?!" Yao Xiaofan screamed within the semi-lit passageway.

Overcome by anger and grief, Xiaofan lost control of his emotions as he remembered how Zedong had taken care of them.

Pan Zedong was like a warm, kind-hearted father to both LingYue and himself, he protected them from the humans as the years passed and he couldn't let what they did go unpunished, he just couldn't force himself to look the other way.

He moved the body and used his pick axe to carve out a pit, his eyes red and swollen with tear stains on his face.

* Kathunk*

The pickaxe fell from his hands as he struggled amongst the dirt and blood to get the corpse into the pit.

As Zedong's huge corpse rolled into the pit, Xiaofan slowly filled the hole by dragging the dirt with his cupped arms and with the hole filled he slowly rose to his feet, using his sleeves to wipe his tear-stained face, which only smeared dirt over his face.

As he left, he looked back at the pit once more before slowly walking into the darkness of the mine.

Xiaofan once again came across the two humans from earlier, they were on their way to another mining point as they spoke and laughed.

Xiaofan recognized the two as they were Wu Meng and Tan Yongrui, these two were some of the lackeys of the underground mining boss Kong Xiaobo, a miner who through some way or the next found a way to latch onto the golden thigh of an outer sect disciple of the Blood Gate Cult.

Wu Meng was a violent burly man with a clean-shaven face and had a rugged look to him, his hatred and prejudice for the fae race ran deeply, while Tan Yongrui was a small rat-faced man with a sly, conniving personality. He was a well-known snitch disliked by humans and fae alike, he was an all-around nasty character.

Xiaofan kept to the shadows as he followed, slowly he reached out of the shadows from behind and grasped Wu Meng by the neck.

Wu Meng was startled as he tried to get out of the hand which gripped him but another clawed hand quickly reached out from beyond the shadows as the claws dug out his windpipe.

Wu Meng gripped his torn windpipe as blood splattered all around, driving the fear of death into Tan Yongrui, who pointed at the shadows.

" Come out ya fucking bastard, I know you're a fae! How dare a fae ambush a human! You're courting death!!" He shrieked as he stumbled backwards.

Xiaofan slowly walked out of the shadows and he stared menacingly at Tan Yongrui in front of him.

"You're going to pay for what you all did to uncle Zedong" Xiaofan hissed as he then lunged at him, his claws and fangs at the ready.

As his claws sunk into the guy, his scream echoed through the mine tunnels, and suddenly a cacophony of footsteps was heard approaching rapidly.

Xiaofan lurched forward to bite out the man's throat as he squirmed beneath him, blood spraying on his face and the walls as he did.

Hearing the sounds and shouts getting closer, he retreated into the shadows leaving the man grasping his throat as he scrambled backwards, gurgling while pointing to the shadows.

Xiaofan watched from a safe distance while hidden in the shadows, while his brows were furrowed and his face in a scowl. . .

" These fucking human bastards are all the same" blood was smeared all over his mouth with blood spatter all over his face and hands.

He then left the area to go warn Deng Li and LingYue to lay low for now.

Unknown at the time to him, the man whose throat was bitten out was able to get one last word out to the humans crowding around him. . .

"Grrggllee... Fa...Fae...Ghhrj"

The man struggled with his speech as he fought as he spat out that word as his vitality slipped away.

The crowd felt righteous indignation and fury that their comrade, a human, was killed by a fae.

No one cared about the hypocrisy of this, no one truly cared about this villain Tan Yongrui who used the boss's name to walk sideways in the mine, but the gall of a fae to even dare think of harming a human...

Only one thing can solve this. . .

DEATH