Thwack, thwack, thwack. The sounds of heavy fists and a staff quickly pounding against wood radiated throughout the silent afternoon air as a woman huffed and danced around in a flurry of strikes.
"Rragh!" She grunted as she spun around and broke the large wooden post in half with a swift kick, sending it flying into a window of the large wooden house to her side.
She quickly looked at the damage she had caused and winced, knowing she would be in big trouble. "Shit, mom's gonna be pissed."
She reached up toward her tied-up crimson-red and radiant gold hair, which shimmered in the sunlight. As her fingers brushed through the thick strands, a towel materialized in a soft red glow, which she used to dry her face off.
"Mei Li! What have I told you about training so rough in our backyard? If you're going to do that, do it at your own house!" A pale woman shouted at her from the freshly made hole.
Mei pouted and slowly walked toward her. She often put her parents through random annoyances with her lack of grace. But it wasn't her fault that she was so agitated, so she couldn't bring herself to feel that bad about it even though she knew she should. "Sorry, Mom, I was frustrated and wasn't thinking. I'll pay to fix it up… again…"
Her mom sighed with a look of pure defeat and tossed Mei a bottle of water. "You mean Kai is going to pay for it? Again?"
"Hey!" Mei couldn't stop herself from shouting back and driving her foot into the ground. She looked over at her mom's face that screamed, 'Try that again.'
"Sorry. I mean, I help out where I can. Besides, that idiot can't help pay for anything unless he actually shows up when he's asked to. He was supposed to meet me here with food an hour ago." Mei snapped, then chugged the water bottle, and tossed it back in the house through the hole into a trashcan on the other side of the room.
Upon hearing her daughter's complaints, her mom chuckled and traced her finger around one of the golden swirling markings that ran across Mei's collarbones. "Well, not to surprise you, my godly little firecracker, but he actually did show up with a lot of food, but when he saw you so focused, he said he was going to take the food home and then go to the forest."
Mei frowned. That was the third time this week he left for the forest alone. "Again? What for this time?"
Her mom shrugged and hopped through the hole and onto the patio. "He didn't say. But I'm sure he'll be back later."
"Ugh. Forget it. I'll give it to him good later. I'm going home." Mei threw the towel behind her, and it dissipated in a soft red glow of particles in the air. As she turned to walk down the rickety old steps to the training field behind them, she sensed her mom toss a piece of splintered wood at her.
Mei quickly spun around and batted it aside before it reached her with seemingly no difficulty. She sighed as her eyes landed on her mother, looking at her expectingly. "How about you use those powers of yours to fix it yourself this time? Maybe spawn a hammer and nails?" Before Mei could inevitably relent, the official door to the back of the house slid open, and a man in a wheelchair slowly came into view. A black scarf covered the bottom half of his head, but it was still clear that he was smiling beneath it. "Come now, Ying cut her some slack. You know she didn't mean to."
Ying looked at her husband and sighed. "Honestly Jun. Twenty years, and you're still babying her."
"Don't act like you're much better." He retorted.
"At least I don't act like back when you grabbed her from-"
Mei rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. The banter between her parents faded out into the background as she turned away and walked down the steps. Then, it happened. A low rumbling in the distance, accompanied soon after by the ground shaking, vibrating her chest and cutting through the light atmosphere like a hot knife.
She quickly spun around, heart racing, to look at her parents; this was the first time in fifteen years since this had happened. "You guys felt that too, right?"
The two of them were frozen in place, their faces pale and sweat dripping down their cheeks.
Ying quickly snapped out of it and turned to her husband. "Jun… you don't think…"
Jun quickly raised his hand to silence her politely and turned to Mei. "Mei, you need to find Kai immediately. Do you know where he would have gone in the forest?"
Mei quickly shook off the increasing feeling of unease to focus. "He probably went to the waterfall in the north section past the temple. Do you want me to bring him back here?"Jun nodded. "Yes, If this is what I think it is, I have a feeling our time is up.""Dad, what does that mean? Does this have to do with what happened back when you found him?" Mei frantically pulled at her hair, spawning various articles of clothing: a black crop top with sleeves, a cropped traditional vest, and a pair of baggy white and gold hakama over red scaled leggings.
"There's no time for you to worry about clothes, Mei. Go find Kai, but… be careful. If you see the edge of the forest… " He rested his head in the palm of his hand and rubbed it. "Never mind. You'll understand, I'm sure. Just hurry."
"Tch. Whatever, I'll change on the way. When we get back, fill us in." Mei clicked her tongue in frustration and started running off toward the front of the manor.
She quickly looked back at her parents, whose faces were still plastered with a look of panic, and began to wonder why they mentioned the edge of the forest when no one had ever been able to reach it as long as their town had been around.
"Forget it. No use in thinking about it now." She quickly discarded the thought and muttered, "Lion," as a red light began to swirl around and encapsulate her legs in the shape of a lion's.
Once the light solidified, she swiftly took off at a speed far greater than what a human could reach.