The Chase

THE SUN HAD barely lit up the horizon and the border tribe was already beaming with busy chatters and traditional music.

A red cock crows, feathery chest puffed in pride before letting out a scared clack, jumping off the short wooden fence and leaving it's tiny imprint on the mud soaked ground.

A white furry fluff ball sped underneath the fence, it's mud stained limbs leaving it's print over that of the red bird, barely avoiding the stampede of bare, miniature feet, leaving seven pairs of footprint, two sets of larger shoe prints scattering through the trail.

Seven identical children led the chase after a mud stained, white rabbit around the small, secluded village.

They raced through the farm where a young woman lifted a basket of freshly harvested rice to her head, the rabbit running between her legs, startling her to let out a shriek and drop the basket, it's small muddy limbs leaping over the wreckage as she scrambled to save the food from dirt.

Her efforts deemed futile when seven pairs of feet stomped right over it, her eyes widening in horror as she watched the grains get buried in the mud.

"Sorry" two teenage males leapt over the mess, apologizing to the woman frantically digging through the mud, wincing when she screamed.

Deep in the forest, a female clad in brown leather trousers brown sleeveless, leather upper wear and matching fingerless gloves. Her head tipped to the side, picking up on the echo of the scream as her target, a deer leaped off.

She nocked an arrow in the quiver, aiming upward and releasing the bowstring before running off in direction of the scream.

Another, a male watched the colorful arrow land at the center of the hill from his position atop the only tree.

He plucked a pink fruit from a branch above him, swinging through the branches of the gigantic tree and landing in a roll on the grassy knoll.

The tall male hastily tightened his satchel around his neck draped with unevenly cut, long, black locks before sprinting down the rounded hill and into the forest ahead.

.

The light muddy ground took a darker and firmer hue as they progressed into the garden blossoming with flowers spreading open in sense of the sunlight.

Running through the walk path, the flowers in contract with luck for not getting trampled, pink panicked eyes of the white creature noticed it's chasers closing in on it causing it to take a desperate sharp turn through through the taller flowers, the seven youngsters still hot on it's tail with two teenagers fumbling behind.

It hopped faster, heading for a tree in the garden with a man standing on a wooden chair, carefully draining honey from a hive doing his best to not agitate the buzzing stingers.

He lost his balance when the rabbit leapt over the stool, knocking down his jar of honey before sighing in relief seeing the hive still in place right before seven ten year olds ran right through, knocking him off the stool as his stick slammed into the hive and sending it off the tree.

"Sorry" two teenagers maneuvered past just as a horde of angry bees whizzed towards the gardener.

Another scream, this time masculine and from another direction.

She clutched her bow tighter as she took a detour, the sunlight between trees bathing her long brown hair falling over the tan skin of her exposed shoulders.

The hunter's pace increased, her long, brown leather boots sprinting through the forest and leaping over a large log of wood.

Black boots landed over the log, a smirk dancing on the runner's face as he tucked a green fruit he plucked over his leap in the satchel.

The drumroll began when the chase neared the village entrance. The seven giggling through the marketplace and two panting teenagers lagging behind.

"Try to keep up Sher" a drummer mocks "They'll be lagging the sports festival at this pace"

A middle aged woman in a plain hanbok hummed a tune, stirring the sticky, black liquid in the large clay pot over the fire with a long paddle. A younger woman beside her stall crushing herbs and flowers with the marketplace seemingly crowded.

A young boy guided a herd of sheep through the crowds, past a foreign dressed man , playing a flute over a tall clay pot on his stall table.

"No matter how hard you blow on that flute, it won't work, you can drain all the air in your lungs, but you won't get those snakes to dance Pogo!"

A man with a collection of animal hides and skins displayed on the stick over his shoulders mocked

"You may dress like a foreigner but you're no foreigner brother" he gets too close to the pancake seller's table

"You're still an ugly old Tai who won't forget the stories father told about the Shangs"

"Use your skins for something better like I do, make them wearable and stop trying to be like the Shangs, they're way prettier than all of us"

Murmurs of offense brewed around the displeased women as the pancake seller threw a wooden spoon at him

"Get your smelly undried skins off my stall Pao, you're bringing flies!"

Before Pao could blurt a response, a small animal brushed past his leg, leaping over the bubbling pot right before seven children pushed him aside in pursuit.

Pao crashed into the pancake stall, tipping it over to crash unto the pot. Hot, black sticky mixture sizzled on the ground as the villagers around avoided it.

An old woman walked into the puddle, slipping as Cher steadied her, successfully jumping over the hot spill whereas Sher struggled to get past, accidentally hitting down Pogo's pot, multiple large snakes slithering into the hen cage and hissing after villagers.

Multiple screams.

Both of them, male and female emerged from opposite sides of the forest in neat sprints.

The drumroll intensifying at their presence, shirtless drummers hooting and cheering as both runners converged at the center.

The drummers fisted their chests twice raising a hand in salute as the runners sped through the the empty marketplace, racing for the hut area.

A rabbit and seven children led the chaos, Sher and Cher right behind with a mob of villagers, herd of sheep, snakes and angry bees in tow.

A boy, trying to protect his hens from the snakes ran into a line of young archers, causing a misfire right into the granary, a landslide of grains forcefully slipping through the tear as it carried along the few women trying to save their food stock.

The two runners jumped in, pulling off brown drapes from the clothes line and wrapping it around the spherical, thatch granary, intertwining the knot at the center.

The village women simultaneously tapped the left side of their chests with their right palms, lifting it in the air in a hand gesture as they acknowledged the two adult runners making their way to the community space.

The herd of sheep overturned tables and cooking stands, searching for an entrance to their pen as snakes slithered in and out of houses, the chaos closing on on the group of dancers atop each other performing smooth high twirls.

A rabbit ran through, the girls remaining unfazed even when a horde of children and villagers ran past, their older instructor beaming proudly at her achievement too soon as two snakes slithered through, the girls dispersing and the two left trying to keep their balance on a high stick.

They heard buzzes, screaming and flailing as the bees got close. The girls loosing their grip on the stick and falling off a dangerous height.

They never hit the ground, instead safely dropped on the floor, their saviors immediately running around the overturned tables.

The female dressed in brown leather clothes jumped, kicking open the gate of the small sheep pen, flipping over and landing behind the herd stampeding their way in .

She caught the spear tossed by her black haired companion, throwing into the distance as it dug through the biggest snake's tail and into the soil, holding it in place as her companion caught the bees in a thick net material while she shot down the snakes slithering about and making one final sprint, breezing past Sher, Cher and the seven children, she jumped over stalls and tables leaping over and tackling the rabbit to the ground.

"Fuelher!" a panicked cry drew her attention to the snake inches from her hand, just as it nicked at the leather gloves shielding her skin, her companion stepped on the snake as it struggled to bite her, picking it from the head and handing it to Pao.

"It's yours now Pao"

"I'll make some fine cloth out of this Fuelhr"