THE GAME

Chapter 33

*Distant Barking of dogs*

The boy is too terrified to let go of his mother; clinging on like a leach, pulling her hand and clutching onto her jeans with his growing weight when she tries to leave.

"A'Ying, look at me...I have to help your father. I will come back for you, I promise.", the woman tried to calm him, planting rushed kisses all over his sweaty face with a pretentious smile.

But the boy knows it's an act. His mother and father would never let him go out on his own if everything was all right. They were happy a moment ago; having a family movie night with popcorn and a big bottle of soda.

*Dogs' barking gets louder.*

Cangse shifts her head in the direction of the noise. It was dark in the woods and the next house was miles away. Her son knew nothing about his gifts, neither did he have a flying sword, to begin with. She could also not leave her husband to his peril. Wei Changze was a skilled cultivator but there was no guarantee he could survive that many people at a time.

With a brave front, she turned to her trembling boy and gave an order in all seriousness.

"Go to the river down the hill. If I'm not there by the time you reach...You have to keep moving. Do you understand what I'm telling you, Wei Ying!!" She shakes the boy.

"But..."

"But what!! I need you to stay alive no matter what. Promise your mother you will stay alive at all cost!!... Now go, and dont look back!", She pitched.

Dusting off his clothes, Cangse pushes her son to run as fast as his little legs could carry him.

The little boy did as told in the long run but when he heard the ferocious barks so close accompanied by his mother's voice, he twirled around again.

"Mother!...", the lad was in tears seeing the only woman he loves being dragged by a dog twice his size.

Her eyes grew wide when the vision of her boy running back to her caught her sight. Quickly, Cangse channeled her strength and punched the canine in the face; cracking its jaw.
As the animal yelps to its demise, she stands to her feet and yells at her boy in anger.

"I TOLD YOU TO NEVER LOOK BACK!!!"

"Mother...", the little boy halts abruptly, conflicted and afraid.

  Ignoring the chaos surrounding her...Cangse lighted her worn-out face with a smile more sincere than the first. She stands tall, pretending to have a bow and arrow in hand
(NB: It is a game they play. She teaches him about archery and always lets him fetch the arrow after a shot...)

Pulling the imaginary arrow further in its bow, she aims for the highlands and releases her shot.

Wei Ying understands right away. If he could find that spot, then his mother would surely be right behind him like she always was.

So he ran without stopping, sprinting faster as three dogs were on his tail.
When overtaken by one of the canines at the path going downhill to the river, basic instincts lead him on a different way and he goes up.

"Hah!", there was no time to stop when he scrapes his knee against a rock.  Little Wei Ying keeps going until he suddenly meets a dead end.

Three black beasts staring down at him with red eyes, jaws that could snap his bones in seconds like a twig... the boy was deterred from moving. He was stuck at the edge of a cliff.

'Mother...Father...Save me.', Wei Ying sobs in the face of death.

'Go to the river down the hill.', his mother's words rang in his mind over and over again. With fear and trembling, he looked down at the said river that sat below the height.