Useless

Chapter 1

Finally. Finally, Wei Ying thought happily as he walked into an abandoned alleyway so he could eat in peace. This was his first real meal in weeks (months, maybe years....). A pretty lady, who had seen him all by himself on the streets, took upon herself to buy him a couple of steamed buns from a nearby vendor. They were freshly made and filled with plenty of meat, Wei Ying thought he could cry from relief.

"Thank you!" he said to the lady. She smiled down at him sadly as she had to leave. Wei Ying didn't really care about that factor so much, he had been alone for so long that it didn't bother him anymore when adults left. He was just happy to have food.

As he began to tuck into one of the buns in his hands, Wei Ying heard a sound that had him frozen to the spot. It was a bark.

Ever since Wei Ying started living on the streets, dogs were always a bother. Whenever he would look for scraps of food, they seemed to always be there, waiting to scratch at or bite him. The boy knew that the animals were also just trying to survive but why did they have to pick on him?

Soon, Wei Ying could hear more barks approaching him as he tried to shrink into himself. After being attacked so many times, he couldn't help but fear dogs. And just his luck, many stray dogs seemed to have smelled his food and had entered the alleyway. Wei Ying shivered in fear when, what he assumed was the leader of the pack, a big black mangy thing came close to him and growled menacingly. It obviously wanted the food in Wei Ying's arms but he didn't want to give it up. He was hungry too!

But it turned out that holding onto the buns was a bad idea because soon, the black dog wrapped its jaws around Wei Ying's skinny right arm and pulled him forward. Hard. Wei Ying cried out in pain as he felt sharp teeth dig into his arm making him drop his steamed buns on the ground. Many of the dogs ran forward to pick them up but the black one stayed attached to Wei Ying. It thrashed it's head around and Wei Ying cried out again.

"Stop! Let go!" he screamed. "Please, I'm not food!"

But that didn't stop the dog as it's teeth remained clamped down on the boy's arm in a death grip. And those dogs that didn't even get a crumb of the steamed buns seemed to follow the scent of blood and they too began biting at his arm. Tears poured out of Wei Ying's silver eyes as more and more jaws locked onto his arms, ripping through it like it was a piece of steak.

In a flash of horror, when Wei Ying felt like his muscles were ripping, he bravely tried to push the dogs away with his other hand only to be violently clawed in the face by one of them. The little boy screamed when he felt the skin near his right eye break with blood starting to spill out of it.

When the pain became too much, Wei Ying screamed for anyone to save him.

"Help! Please someone!"

"Save me!"

Help, help, HELP!!"

Wei Ying's prayers seemed to have been heard for the first time since he began living on the streets because a bright purple light flooded his vision. It made the dogs attacking him stop as it seemed to have hurt them.

"Get away from him!" A loud voice yelled. With another flash of purple, the black dog and his pack scurried off, having been successfully sacred away.

Wei Ying weakly lifted his head to catch a glimpse of his saviour as he was still in a lot of pain. His gaze was met with a worried brown one. An older man had come to his rescue. He was wearing expensive dark purple robes that had lotus designs stitched into them. The man knelt down beside Wei Ying and gently took him into his arms.

"Are you ok, boy?" The man asked with worry in his warm voice.

"I'm...I'm...i'm..." Wei Ying had tried to answer him but the severe pain and blood loss made him black out.