[i]RUN AND DON'T LOOK BACK![/i] A sweetly familiar voice screamed amidst the fierce battlefield. Black swords clanged against silver ones, and armored bodies after armored bodies dropped onto the ground every now and then, looking very much like lifeless ragdolls on a playground. 

Except where Ying was standing was no little children's playground. It was the Desert of Despair, the wide sandy expanse chosen as the stage for both the Black Clan and the Silver Clan to battle it all out once and for all. Nobody knew what fueled the war to such a large scale, but to the clansmen, there was never a win-win situation at the end of it. The clansmen were the ones to die a pointless death, leaving behind precious loved ones and beloved homes. The Clan Chiefs and their Clan Warriors and their families combined were the only ones who would benefit most, not them, the dispensable clansmen.

One would have thought there would be no more bodies left to be sacrificed, yet the war raged on, seemingly endless. Meaningless.

[i]RUN AND DON'T LOOK BACK, YING![/i] The voice screamed again with greater urgency. Ying bit her lip as she ran like her soul depended on it. Anywhere, as long as she was far, far away from the battlefield. Away from a place that reeked so much of death, the place where her Papa, Mama and Sissy died in vain trying to made way for her escape.

"Ugh!" Ying fell to the ground, causing a small scroll in her hand to fly a distance in front of her. She quickly picked herself up and grabbed the scroll, determined to see her family's will to the end. She could not afford to lose the scroll - the scroll was key to her survival and escape to a new beginning. Her family died to protect it. She will not fail them.

It had been days since she ran from the Desert of Despair, living off scraps and whatever fruits or plants or small creatures she could find and hunt with her small dagger. She was close to the magical portal her dearest sister had been telling her about, the one linked to the scroll that belonged to her now-dead sister. Ying wasn't too sure what to make of the words in the scroll, much less understood what sort of offer her sister had accepted. Now that she had no one but only herself to rely on, Ying was left with no choice but to take up the offer in her stead.

"Found you..." Ying breathed a sigh of relief. Her sister mentioned something about a cave entrance being the portal to another world or something, and here she was, standing in front of it. The entrance bore the same owl symbol as the one on the scroll, confirming its link. It looked like any other normal cave entrance, if not because she had seen the mark of the owl, she would have pass it off as a made-up tale to invoke curiosity in those who hear of it.

[i]LIVE WELL, YING. LIVE WELL AND DON'T LOOK BACK.[/i] The familiar voice spoke again, this time with a gentleness that indicated peace. Tears rolled down Ying's cheek as she closed her eyes briefly, trying to remember the familiar voice that grew up together with her and accompanied her all her childhood years. It was no use...her beloved sister, Qian Yun, was gone. 

[i]Goodbye, Papa, Mama, Sissy. Ying will live well for your sake.[/i] Clutching the scroll, Ying crossed the cave entrance without hesitation, determined to face the unknown ahead.