Dressed in a red gown, the stitching on the red fabric was simple. Over the sleeveless gown, Mother helped me put on the wedding robes and tied my waist with a dark red silk sash. On the day of my wedding, Mother couldn't smile and repressed her emotions with a stern face.
As she fixed the creases on my robes, I said to her, "Mother, I will come visit you once my wedding is over. I'll miss you and Father a lot."
Her face scrunched up into a ball as if just sucking on a slice of lemon. She rushed out of the room, leaving me to put the last few pins in my hair. Placing a red veil over my head, I stared at my feet through the laces sewed on the ends of the cloth.
Mother and Father watched as I went inside the palanquin. Two rows of men on either side of the palanquin, amounting to at least ten altogether. Chun Mei stood by our parents with Ying Jun close by. All those moments of us playing together as children, and having long conversations felt like ages ago. Everything was going to change.
Cymbals and trumpets played through my departure. The palanquin began to move, and the men lifted me into the air. Though it would be days before I reached the other village, nervousness already made its way into my heart, causing it to beat irregularly with the sounds of the cymbals.
All day, the men carried me inside the palanquin through a forest. It was Heifang forest. It stretched at least one hundred and sixty kilometers to the west. The sun was beginning to set. Its golden shine landed on my hands. The palanquin suddenly came to a stop, and the music ends. There was no way we reached the village already.
Two men pulled me from inside the palanquin, and my immediate reaction was to resist.
"Wait? Are we there already? Where are you taking me?" They pulled me as my feet dragged through the dirt. A darkening shadow blocked the sun's ray, and a whisk of raw meat brushed against my nose.
What is that smell?
I could tell the men dragged me inside a shallow cave. Forcing me to sit atop a cold stone, one of the man chained my right ankle onto a metal lock attached to the ground. Scared, I immediately tried to shake the chain off. As soon as they chained me, they made their way back out.
"What are you doing?! Why did you chain me? I'm supposed to be getting married! Come back!"
A growling creature from behind paced back and forth. Frozen with fear, I kept still but could not stop the natural occurrence of shivering when one was about to meet their doom.
I didn't know how long I stayed chained. Maybe a day or two. The red veil on my head remained as I was too scared to take it off and witness the horrors of what lived in that cave.
There was silence besides the echoes of dripping water. I scared myself thinking it was the sound of dripping blood. Whatever was in the cave with me, I hoped it killed me before I scared myself to death.
Without warning, a cold breeze blew right onto me. The scent of the gentle wind smelled like sweet sugar cane. It got the nasty smell of rust away from my nose.
I heard soft footsteps approach. I didn't know whether to keep quiet or yell for the being to help. Holding my hands together, my nails dug into the fingers. The person was getting closer.
I felt the force of wind across my face, forcing the bride veil to fly away. A young man had his palm out, almost touching my cheek. I was startled, but glad to see another human. The man withdrew his hand, staring down at me.
The growling I heard from time to time in the dark cave became increasingly loud. The evil snarls turned into a roaring breath of death. When the creature stepped into the light, I turned and saw that it was not human. An animal like man as huge as a house made of stone. It had a snout and sharp fangs of a bellowing wolf, huge and hairy arms of a man, long mane of a wild horse with legs of an ox.
As I screamed, the young man jumped into the air, falling with grace onto the monster. I saw glistening light reflected from his sword as he pierced it into the monster's shoulder.
Standing to run, I'd forgotten about my chained ankle and fell over. My weight heavily fell onto the ground and twisted the position of my ankle. I whimpered from the pain, but could not keep my eyes off the demon battle.
Why didn't he release me before he provoked that thing?!
YOU ARE READING
Every Lifetime I Fall {COMPLETED but undergoing revisions}
RomanceEvery lifetime, Li Rong Xin reincarnates and dies a virgin maid failing to enter a marriage. It is all the fault of Yang Zi Huo! The first lifetime: she was left at the altar by her childhood friend because he said she was too stupid! The second lif...
