The book of Bāohù

Chapter 1

“Lea?”

I jump “Yea?”

Mark sighs “You really have to work on your listening skills.”

“I know.” I sigh. Mark is my best friend, that might also be because he is the only person in the village that is the same age as I am, but all he talks about is life stock. I can only concentrate on cows for so long. “Can we talk about something more interesting?”

“Like?” he askes.

“I don’t know…” I sit up. The fields look calm, well they always look calm. “Do you think there was a time when everything wasn’t so… calm…” I try.

Mark looks at me “What do you mean?”

“Remember the stories my gran use to tell us when we were children?”

He chuckles “What about the demons?”

I nod.

“Lea you don’t have to worry…” He starts “demons haven’t been seen here in decades and even if they would, for some reason, come here a guardian would kill them.”

“Yeah…” I say. Ever since I was a little girl loved hearing about demons and guardians. I was lucky to be born, in one of the few villages that know about them. Everyone is so scared of them, but I’m scared of spending the rest of my life talking about cows.

“Come on!” Mark interrupts my train of thought. ”I’m hungry.” He stands up and starts walking. I tie my dark brown hair back and start following him. It’s a tradition that Mark eats lunch at my house every day. We walk past the Chicken coop and not long until we can hear my 17 year old sister talking in the kitchen.

“…But which one will Mark like more?” Lily’s voice echo’s.

I look up at Mark, his eyes are shiny and a smirk is plastered on his face. I roll my eyes and walk inside. Lily is holding two dresses and turns bright red when she spots Mark.

“Did you…” she starts

“The green one.” Mark interrupts.

Lily’s cheeks darken and she runs out the room.

“Hey, wipe that smirk off your face.” I say to Mark, Mark just laughs and runs his hands through his auburn hair.

“Come on,” my mother says. She holds out two bowls of stew towards us and gestures for us to sit down. “What are we doing tomorrow?”

I look up, "I said nothing.”

“Honey, you only become 18 once. Let’s…”

“No I don’t want to make a big deal out of it.” Parties in this place suck and there is only so many times I can fake enjoy my mother’s carrot cake.

“Fine no party.” She sighs.

“Can I at least come over?” Mark asks. He has finished his stew and he is eyeing mine.

“yeah.” I say while I push the rest of my stew to him. He quickly finishes it and my mother clears the plates.

“I gotta go.” He says, he hugs me and greets my mother.

“Bye Lily” he yells up the stairs with a grin... I help my mother with the dishes and lurk upstairs to get ready for bed.