Mei grunted as she hurdled over the fence behind the old temple, sending her flying into the dense brush of the great forest.
Branches, plants, and various insects brushed against her legs, and a faint scent of wet moss filled the air. Despite the ground beneath her being damp from the rain the night before, she was able to keep her pace, her glowing red lion's legs easily handling the odd terrain around her.
It had only been a few minutes since she started running, but she could feel her breaths getting heavier and heavier quicker than usual. Going straight from training for hours to using her powers so actively was straining her body, and obviously, it was not a good idea.
"I guess my stamina isn't as great as I thought it was." She lamented through huffs and gasps. "Not good, Mei, not good." She grumbled to herself.
The glowing red legs surrounding her own slowly dissipated as Mei decided to recover some stamina and slowed down to her normal running speed. Since she knew exactly where she was going, she was going to take this opportunity to change since she didn't want to stay a sweaty mess.
As she ran, Mei threw on her fresh clothes in a flurry of fabric, rubber, sweat, and glowing red dust. The feeling of her regular outfit hugging her skin granted a sense of comfort amid this suddenly chaotic turn of events.
Her dad's words echoed in her mind as she looked around at the looming trees in front of her. Why would he mention the edge of the forest all of a sudden when, according to all the records in the temple and testimonials, there has never been a person living in her village who has seen what lies beyond the forest in any direction? She could attest that she and Kai had tried probably hundreds of times over the years, but it was always as if the land shifted to turn them away… or prevent them from leaving, they both thought at least.
The thought was quickly rattled out of her head as the sound of a woman screaming in the far distance reached her ears. It took her a moment to process as no one in the forest was usually beside her or Kai at any given time since they handled anything food or forage-related. "That was… near the waterfall. What the hell is going on today?"
Finally, the clearing was in sight. Mei hurdled over the last scattered shrubs and fallen trees and jumped into the clearing. The first thing she saw was a thin but muscular man with dark purple hair standing in front of her without clothes on.
The man's light green and gold eyes lit up as he threw his arms up in the air in excitement. "Mei! You made it! It took you longer to get here than I thought since you were running so slow."
Mei picked her face up off the ground and patted the dust off her outfit. She looked up at Kai with an exasperated sense of defeat. "Why are you naked, Kai?"
He looked down at himself and pointed at the brown burlap cloth that was draped over his shoulders and arms and then at a bracelet made from a laurel wrapped around his wrist. "I'm not, see I'm wearing these."
The frustration at his aloof and unnatural attitude immediately took over any sense of urgency or anxiety that had been steadily growing for the past while, and she couldn't stop herself from gritting her teeth and yelling at him. "For the hundredth and last time Kai… that doesn't count! Those. Are. Accessories. Not clothing items. Do you see what I'm wearing? Clothes." She pointed to a golden bangle wrapped around her left bicep. "Accessory. We're way past the point where I'm going to just let you do this because you feel like it."
He held his hand up to his chin and nodded with a look of understanding. "I see, I see. Thank you for that. I'll be sure to take it into consideration for next time. But this time, I removed my clothes since they were wet, then went out to find some food. So it's not like I intended for anyone to see me."
"Who cares? Please just put on some clothes, or I'll shoot!" A voice sounded from the other side of the clearing.
Mei looked up at the foreign voice, confused. The person the voice came from appeared to be a woman with tan skin, long, dark red braided hair, and dressed in some kind of elaborate animal fur outfit, which might have even been somewhat fresh, although it was too hard to tell from where she was standing. In her hands was a very makeshift bow and arrow, which she could tell was trained directly at Kai's forehead.
Beside the woman was a group of men varying in size, all dressed the same way, each with a different weapon. Mei's eyes scanned all of them in an instant. Their faces were scarred, expressions confused yet stoic. Their stances and placement were also way too organized and guarded for them to be regular people. These people were dangerous, and yet the situation was quite the opposite. "Wait, Kai, hold on, put a pin in that. Who are these people, and what's happening?"
It seemed as though her question would go unanswered for the time being because Kai had already turned around and started yelling back at the strange woman. "Make up your damn mind, lady! First, you pointed that thing at me and told me not to move, then started yelling at me to put on clothes! What's it gonna be?"
"Well, I don't know what to do now! This is weird!" The woman yelled back, flustered.
Kai sighed and then held his hand up in front of him. With it, he dramatically drew a line in the air. "Okay, how about this? I'm going to walk over there and get dressed. Don't any of you move an inch past the tree next to your foot. We'll continue talking after this."
The woman hesitated, gave a small nod, lowered her bow, and shrunk backward as men looked at her and scoffed. The woman Kai had been yelling back and forth with shouted at them, "Hey, that guy said not to move! We're in enough trouble as it is. Try to be peaceful. We don't need any more problems."
They laughed at her and began to advance forward, ignoring the orders, to her dismay and bewilderment. She rubbed her hands on her head in a panic and took a step backward. To try and demonstrate that she disagreed with what was happening.
As soon as one of the men stepped foot over the line, a knife came flying at him, impaling him directly in the left eyeball. He screamed out in pain and crumpled to the cold ground. The group quickly looked up, following the direction the knife came from to see Mei standing there with a surprised look on her face.
"Oh shit…. I was aiming for his arm. I totally missed." Mei muttered to herself while wincing from the embarrassment.
She quickly cleared her throat and regained her constitution, then began to yell at the group. "He told you not to cross that tree line." She then turned to directly address the woman who was now in the back. "Are you not the leader of these men? Control them, or I'll kill all of you if you disregard that direction again."
The woman's hands shook furiously, "No! You've got it all wrong. I'm not- we're not…" Her increasingly soft voice tapered off to only a whisper.
Kai, now fully clothed, leisurely walked over to Mei. "Very dramatic, Mei. You could do it with a bit better aim next time, though." "How would you know what I meant to hit?" She quipped back.
He scratched his chin. "It just feels more like you to take a warning shot first. After all, this is the first time we've seen foreigners on our land. It's interesting, isn't it?"Mei rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'll admit this is really cool but we need to go, my dad said something is happening and needs you back."
The woman looked intensely at Kai. His arms were no longer covered up by the cloth that was now wrapped around him from shoulder to waist, but he was exposed to the purple vest he was now wearing. Marking of what appeared to be green vines swirled down from the back of his neck and to his hands.
Her gaze then frantically shifted to Mei. As her eyes caught the markings on her collarbone peeking out from her vest, a bead of cold sweat fell down her cheek as she put her hand on her chest. "They're marked also…" she whispered to herself in disbelief.
Just as she was about to begin to call out to them, one of the men stood from the ground next to his fallen comrade and prepared to charge forward. The woman who was behind them grabbed his shoulder and began to plead with him. "Please stop! They aren't unreasonable! We just escaped, and you want to throw your life away? What if they can help us?"
The hair on the man's head slowly began to stand up, and his nails and teeth began to sharpen as he growled something at the woman in a language Mei and Kai didn't understand. "Hjsm, tif ljmmfe nz cspuifs. Ju xpvme cf b ejtipops up ijt mjgf gps nf opu up bwfohf ju."
The woman grit her teeth as a torrent of anger washed over her. Her hair, teeth, and nails began to respond in kind to the man as well unconsciously. "I understand he was family, but you don't need to throw your life away over it!"
The oddity of the two transforming drew Mei and Kai's attention away from bickering with each other and at them. They both raised an eyebrow in confusion and interest as they had never seen or heard of something like that before.
The man quickly roared and rushed forward. As soon as his foot crossed the tree line, Kai sighed with a serious look. "Absolutely horrendous move, man." He quickly flicked two of his fingers on his left hand upwards and whispered with a sigh. "Spike."
Instantly, a sharp green vine exploded from the ground beneath the man and impaled him straight through the head. Ending his life instantly.