Nightmares

Ruan Shanqiao smiled with satisfaction as she raced along the edge of the meadows. The grass hung on dearly to the earth for life as she raced by. She had succeeded to the Seventh Stage of the Ninth Cloud Transcending Steps. Should she call it the Seventh Cloud Transcending Steps?

Even though it took all day, there was an addicted sense of accomplishment spreading through her.

Tonight, she decided to have some roasted deer. It would be a treat for herself.

However, after she bit into the meat, she decided she liked rabbit more than venison. Rabbit was much more soft and tender while venison was a bit more tough. Perhaps she had taken a leaner portion of the meat, but one thing was for sure. She wasn't very good at cooking venison…

Maybe her ancestor, Ruan Xiaomen, would have some advice for the next time she had deer…

She yawned as she patted her belly. As she released the tension in her body, she subconsciously turned her attention to her surroundings.

There had been several pairs of eyes watching her since she woke up. She had decided they meant no harm, so she hadn't bothered to expose them. But the thought of someone watching her as she slept ticked something on in her mind. It was very creepy and bothersome to her.

The surroundings were at a standstill as the watched and watcher weighed their decisions. After several hours, it ended in a loss for Ruan Shanqiao. She wasn't as tenacious as the person in the trees. She was much too full and warm after the roasted venison to stay awake.

Despite the eyes watching her, Ruan Shanqiao soon fell asleep in her protective array.

She woke to the gentle movements waking her up.

However, instead of the bright sun over her head, all she could see was ash, smoke, and flames.

Cough cough. She started coughing uncontrollably as she inhaled an entire lungful of smoke. Cough cough. If only her coughing would stop…

Tears formed at the corner of her eyes as she continued to cough. Was it just her hallucination that made the smoke around her grow more and more abundant?

No. A voice whispered in her ear.

She turned her red eyes towards the silhouette behind her. Before she could confirm the identity of the person behind her, flames burst through the smokescreen, searing her eyes with its glow. Cough cough. She bent over forwards to recuperate. Her senses had barely returned to her when a skeletal hand took hold of her by the throat.

Her bloodshot eyes peered down at the perpetrator. A skeleton-like form looked up at her. His sunken eyes were filled with hatred, and his skin pale against the scarlet flames. Fear struck once at her, but she stayed standing. She glared down at the murderous figure holding her up, not once bending her will. The skeleton man did not let up at her glares. Their gazes grew fiercer and fiercer, drowning out even the flames.

"Shanqiao," a harmony of voices interrupted their battle of wills.

She raised her eyes and nearly lost all the air in her lungs.

Three figures stood in front of her, illuminated by the fire.

"Father. Mother. Brother…" her voice trailed off weakly as she laboriously took in a breath. "Save me." In that moment, a small flicker of hope was kindled in her heart.

"No one can save you now," a cold voice put out all traces of hope inside of her. To be accurate, the voice was a harmony of four beings. Her three family members and the horrifying figure holding her.

The moment hope was extinguished in her heart, her sight grew inky. Something big and dark clawed out from the deepest abyss of her heart. The skeletal hand holding her let go, and she fell into a mess of limbs on the floor.

"Gah!" she groaned in pain as she clawed at her throat. Despite no physical forms holding her down, she felt bogged down. Something had wrapped its cruel fingers around her neck. Another clawed from the inside towards the outside world.

"GAH!" she dropped onto the floor, momentarily losing control of her limbs, before she quiets down.

After several moments, she opens her eyes once more. In front of her eyes, a dagger was poised above her chest.

Her desire to live kicked in and her hands wrapped around the dagger as it stabbed down. Blood poured down her arms. However, the wielder of the dagger must have been a cultivator. The strength that she held in her arms was not enough to keep the dagger from plunging towards her heart.

"Hah!" Shanqiao sat up suddenly.

Everything was quiet in the meadows around her. It was just a nightmare, she consoled herself.

As she wrapped her arms around herself, she felt herself shivering ever so slightly. Her parents and her brother had never resented her for surviving. They had been the ones to force her to survive despite their imminent deaths.

She took a deep breath and moved to stamp out the embers of the fire near her. Tomorrow she had to leave. She had dawdled too long.