Trembling from fear and hunger, the girl clutched her stomach as she rocked to and fro. Small whimpers escaped her parched lips, the pain gradually becoming unbearable. Still, she dared not move from her hiding place underneath the wooden stairs, for her mother had warned her to keep quiet and remain still until she came to fetch her.

     That was several days ago when the soldiers finally reached their little village on the border between Tang and Tufan territory. She had barely crawled into the little space when the door to their hut had been kicked open. Curling into a ball, she keenly felt each vibration caused by the loud thumping of the soldier’s boots around her home. The sounds of objects clattering and smashing followed, which made her wince.

     When they finally finished ransacking the place, she let out a small sigh, thinking that they would leave now. But a sudden shriek from her mother turned the blood in her veins ice cold. Hearing her mother cry out for her dead father, her own tears flowed of their own accord as she pressed a hand to her mouth to prevent her voice from leaving her.

     Her mother’s cries then ended sharply, followed by a loud thump. Footsteps receded into the distance as the soldiers left her house and she was plunged into deathly silence. Desperately, she waited for her mother or father to come and get her. To tell her that everything was alright and they would go back to being a family again.

     But as time passed by, she was forced to resign herself to the facts of the matter. Alone in the darkness, she wept and wept until no more tears would fall. With nobody to tell her that it was safe, she refused to leave her hiding place, afraid that the soldiers were still near.

     However, with each growing day, the hunger pangs intensified to the point that she had to stifle the urge to groan out loud. She didn’t know how long she could last in there anymore. Maybe now, it would be safe to leave.

     A soft creak startled her and she froze. Were the soldiers back? She strained her ears, listening to the soft and steady footfalls. The footsteps grew nearer, ascending the stairs until it reached the step she was under. Abruptly, it stopped.

     She held her breath, waiting for it to pass. Her heart pounded furiously in her ribcage no matter how hard she wished it to keep still. Terrified that the person above could hear it, she clutched her chest, hoping that it would muffle the sound.

     The wooden board above her head groaned and screeched before it was completely torn off. Squeezing her eyes shut, a tear ran down her cheek as she waited for death to come to her in the way it came to her parents. When nothing happened, she hesitantly opened one eye.

     A young boy, not much older than her, looked down into her hiding place with an expressionless face. His hair was cut short and his grey hemp tunic hung loose, the sash barely holding it together. In his hand was a small dagger – probably the same one he had used to pry open the wooden step – but it was clean with no traces of blood on it. He regarded her a second longer with his sharp eyes before moving back down the stairs.

     She remained still, unsure of what she should do next with her hiding place exposed. Downstairs, she could hear him rummaging around but other than that, there was no other sound. The soldiers must have left.

     Building up her courage, she got up slowly, her body aching as she stretched her joints. She held on to the wall as she made her way down, her eyes searching for the boy. At the bottom of the stairs, she could see two bodies lying face down in a pool of dried blood. Knowing that those were her parents, she tore her gaze away, unable to bring herself to see their corpses.

     She stepped into the kitchen, her feet hitting one of the pots lying on the ground as she did. The sound alerted the boy to her presence and he turned to look at her. She gulped nervously, worried that he would consider her a threat, but he only gave a short glance before returning to his raid of the food supplies.

     Letting out a shaky breath, she turned her attention to the mess around her. The soldiers had left nothing untouched and everything had been turned upside down. Her gaze fell on a steamed bun on the floor near her, provoking a low growl from her stomach. She reached for it greedily and was ready to bite into its white surface when a voice rang out.

     “I wouldn’t eat that.”

     Her mouth hung open as she stared at the boy. He shook his head before tossing her a piece of dried meat. “Here, you little pig.”

     She eyed it ravenously before devouring it in a second. The feeling of having even a morsel of food in her stomach was so satisfying. With the meat all gone, she licked her lips, hungry for more.

     “Thank you..” she murmured. “…y-your name?”

     He paused, turning around to look at her with that cold gaze of his.

     “Li Wai.”