Save Yourself Before Me (Tai Lung)

Chapter One

 Most stories you hear, I expect, have happy endings. Boy-gets-girl type endings with little or no problems what-so-ever. Of course, we've all heard the clichés where the girl has a bad life; childhood, you name it; meets someone new, and falls in love. Of course, there are obstacles along the way: family won't allow the girl to see the boy but they end up together anyway and then 'oh no!' the boy must fight the villain! Yada yada yada, they reunite and have a life together. Sounds perfect, doesn't it? The type of story you want to read? Well, then I suggest you leave now, because this story refuses to follow the clichés of yesterday, today and tomorrow. This story will be totally and utterly opposite what you call 'the typical cliché.' So be prepared for your hearts to be ripped out, and for your minds to ache; we all know they won't explode.

Alas, despite my foreshadowing, there will be irony. Irony of the highest kind. So ironic in fact, that you will be rolling your eyes after the end of every ironic chapter. And now that you have forgotten what irony means because I keep on saying it, we will begin our story... with irony. For by chance, and a cry of cliché, our story starts with a girl. A girl, in fact, who had a terrible beginning to her life. For since the day the poor young girl turned fourteen, she was thrown out of her household; tossed into the streets of danger. No one knows why except she until, and as I prepare myself for foreshadowing, one day she meets an unlikely friend.

Before we get ahead of ourselves in the story, the girl I'm about to tell you about, was dangerous herself. Before she was turned out into the streets she lived happily however, she learnt a few things. Her parents feared what she was teaching herself, for no one would teach her; they did not know how. It was an art in which only the particularly skilled could accomplish (although nowadays it is quite popular), an art called Kung Fu. She was excellent at it. She perfected every move she found and dabbled in its secrets with ease. As you can tell, she was quite accomplished. She was a driven and determined young woman, and quite rebellious, for whenever her parents pleaded her to stop the thing she loved she would turn a deaf ear, and carry on. Such behaviour was not accepted in such a prim and proper village, and as the young girl grew more wild and adventurous, the further the villagers would walk away from her. By one point she had, had enough. She demanded to her parents of their indifference and, with a much-heated argument, the young girl was driven out of her house; to live in the streets.

The streets made her tough, and more stubborn than anyone, or anything. She was fierce, and with a temper and hardened heart, she turned to crime as her ally.

By this time, no one went near her, no one dared mentioned her name nor face, for she had the most beautiful face. A snow leopard, with silky smooth fur and light emerald eyes were hard to come by, and a treasure to see. However, once you look upon these eyes, you will see the laugh of death and destruction in your wake, for that is what she has lived to see. It was no mistake in denying that this girl was not dangerous, on the contrary, she lived it. She was 'by the book' in danger, as they say.

In her heart however, the life of crime was her only choice. She had no one to run to, no one to trust or give her advice for they all turned their backs on her the moment she turned eight- the year she started Kung Fu. She was too young, and too stubborn to admit that she was scared of what lay outside her village. You could say she was arrogant. In this small village she answered to no one; the police could not catch her- she was as 'fast as lightning,' they would say. However, outside her solitary village, she would have to watch her ground, look behind her back, and be wary of the law for she was not stupid. She knew there were more skilled people out there who knew what she knew, and could do it with the utmost perfection.

Despite her freedom, she knew that one-day karma would 'bite her in the arse,' as she once said. Well, like I said, she was not stupid- and like she predicted- her luck ran out. It was on a warm spring day, and our little protagonist was hungry. As usual, the quick-witted girl planned her move (stealing a bunch of apples). It was the regular catch: simple, easy, and no fuss. The police wouldn't catch her, for they were too slow, and the seller wouldn't bother caring, for the wild girl has done it many times for the seller to bat an eye anymore. What she didn't anticipate however, was the new comer who was to arrive on that exact same street at the exact same time.