Nine Paths of Asura-Original Wuxia

Chapter 16-Burning_____

Title withheld until the end to avoid spoilers.

Also, this chapter is retribution for the most unfortunate grievance against nature I may or may not have accidentally committed last night.

Lineir quickly joined his spot in the fire-line, passing buckets to squelch out the fire. The stable had lit up like a giant candle with all the hay inside and was burning steadily. Even so with so many strong mercenaries and determined managers it was quickly put out. While many of the members of the line were hungover not a single bucket was dropped and a minimum of sloshing ensued. It was unspoken rule that everyone helped put out fires, as fires were a quick spreading affair in such a small town where the most common building material was timber. It helped that a lot of the horses had shied away to one side of the stable and if the fire wasn't put out it would have begun to threaten these expensive animals. Even before the first tinges of dawn seeped into the sky, the fire was little more than a steaming heap of hay.

"Thank you so much for your help customers, please go inside and refresh yourselves, breakfast will be free for all who participated in saving our livelihoods!" 

With that, the line dispersed and everyone tottered back to their rooms to clean up. Lineir however, unnoticed crept away in a different direction. That dark figure he had seen last night had almost seemed to smolder in the night. He was sure that whatever it was it had been responsible for the fire. Using his increased speed, he quickly separated from the crowd, and located the path of the culprit.

On the ground, were little black flecks of burnt grass. They came in patches and were separated by a distance of two to three meters. Obviously, they were tracks, and whatever had made them must have been leaping incredibly far with each bounding step to have left such a gap between each step. The odd thing was however, the flecks were tiny, either the culprit was ridiculously small, or it was so fast its feet barely sunk into the ground when it landed. Lineir shuddered at the thought of something that fast. However, he was intensely curious, and Mei hadn't said anything against it so he continued to follow the tracks. He had entered the nearby woods, and the tree trunks were still widely spaced out at the fringes of the forest. With a start, he realized the burning tracks had disappeared. Had the culprit climbed up a tree? 

"If the tracks ended here and the culprit climbed up a tree... that would mean it's right above me!" Instantly Lineir's head shot upwards as Mei screeched in alarm.

Nothing was above him, just empty branches. 

"Kiddo, I sense a great concentration of Qi flickering below you!" Looking down, Lineir saw that behind the tree, was a large hole, a meter across, completely blackened as if scoured by fire. As he approached he grew tense. He allowed his bony blades to slide out to their fullest. There was no one to see them here and it would be best to be prepared for anything. Staring deep into the blackness of the hole, he noticed a glowing orb. 

"What the heck is that?" It started to grow in size, and Lineir realized with a start that it was coming closer. Backing up, he fell over as the orb grew and grew and became an orange ball of fire which blasted out of the hole and passed over his head, the heat singing his eyebrows as it went. 

"Da **** is that a rabbit?"

Indeed, the thing which had passed over Lineir could be described as such. It was in fact, a burning bunny with flaming fur. It was only about two palm sizes in length, but the flames on its body stretched out another good three palms and it had sprung from the hole past Lineir and then some in one glorious bound. As it stared into his eyes, Lineir realized it only had one orange eye which seemed to swirl with molten heat. The other eye was tightly squeezed shut and the flaming aura around it failed to extend over this eye. Quivering one last time, it sprinted off into the forest at a furious pace which Lineir couldn't hope to match.