Lin Wei didn't stop running—not when his legs began to cramp, not when his lungs started to burn, not even when the older villagers working the rice paddies called out his name in confusion.
He flew past the eastern fields, the stalks brushing his shoulders as he veered sharply toward the village entrance. The packed-dirt road leading through the paddies turned to gravel beneath his sandals. Chickens scattered as he ran, pigs squealed from the pens near the western gardens, and someone cursed as a basket of squash tumbled from their hands in his wake.
The wooden archway that marked the village gate loomed ahead, curved beams painted with faded blessings for protection and harvest. But still, Lin Wei didn't slow down. He tore through it, down the main path that led in a straight line to the central square.
The village wasn't large—maybe fifty homes at most—each one made of packed earth and timber, the roofs thatched or tiled depending on how many generations had lived in them. The houses were arranged loosely around the square, their walls stained with smoke and old prayers.
It wasn't much to look at, but it was home.
In the center of the square stood the well, a hand-carved granite basin capped with wood. To one side was the medicine hut, to the other a tiny shrine to the mountain spirits, barely tended. Beyond that stood the granary, a creaky wooden storehouse that leaned slightly to the side.
However, Lin Wei didn't care about any of it.
"I saw her!!" he screamed, stumbling as his sandals caught a rock. "I saw her! There is a demon in the mountains, just like you said! And she's real!"
Villagers looked up from their bowls of porridge and chopped vegetables. Smoke drifted lazily from cooking fires. It was nearly evening, and most were preparing for supper. But Lin Wei's scream shattered the quiet.
Old man Yao dropped his pipe. Granny Yume clutched her chest.
"She's real," Lin Wei repeated, more to himself than to anyone else, before dropping to his knees. "You said that if kids wandered around in the woods, a demon would come and take them away. I saw her! The one you told us about— and she killed them all. All of them!"
A few villagers exchanged worried glances. Madam Ju put a protective hand on her daughter's shoulder. "What are you talking about, boy? What demon? That's just a story we tell the children so that they don't get lost in the woods. But I've been here for decades, and I can tell you, there is no demon… no monster lurking in the shadows."
When her daughter turned into her embrace as if she was scared, Madam Ju soothed her, even as she glared at Lin Wei.
"She has to be real," insisted Lin Wei as he spun around, trying to find someone who believed him. "It was exactly what you said would happen. Someone from a demon sect came to our mountain. She was surrounded by black smoke, and she killed them all."
"Why don't you start at the beginning?" grunted the village leader, Zhou Cunzhang, as he came to the center square, wiping his hands on a piece of cloth. "Half a story isn't really a story, now is it?"
Lin Wei frantically nodded his head, calming down as he looked at the ex-soldier. "I went into the woods to find some fruit," he started, sucking in a deep breath. "And that's when I saw them, the soldiers," he continued. "They were from the west, Yelan. They were climbing the mountain. I saw them. There were hundreds. And then—then—"
He couldn't speak, couldn't find the words to describe what he had witnessed. After all, it seemed too surreal: the black mist, the fire, the sound of bones snapping, and that girl, small, barefoot, with glowing blue eyes and smoke curling from her hands like something out of a nightmare.
"She burned them alive," he whispered. "And then they melted."
Silence.
Old man Yao let out a slow sigh. "Boy's fevered," he grunted as everyone turned to look at Chief Zhou, wanting to get his opinion.
Even Lin Wei spun to look at the man. "No!" Lin Wei cried, worried that they wouldn't believe him. "I saw it! She stood on the mountain, and the sky turned black. She—she looked like a child, but she wasn't. She's something else. Something from Hell!"
Someone chuckled. Someone else muttered a prayer.
"She destroyed them! All of them! There was blood—so much blood—and then nothing! No bodies. Just... just slime and fire!"
"I think he's been in the sun too long," murmured a man from the edge of the square.
Granny Yume frowned. "Soldiers wouldn't go up the mountain. It's cursed."
"It's not cursed!" Lin Wei shouted, his voice cracking. "She's real! She's not a ghost, she's not a rumor. She's there—and she protected us. No one else could have done that."
A few men exchanged glances, unease creeping across their faces.
After a few minutes of silence, Chief Zhou clamped his hand on Lin Wei's shoulder. "I don't know what you saw," he said even as the boy's shoulders dropped. "But no matter what, we need to check it out. If the soldiers from Yelan are trying to invade Daiyu, then the governor needs to know."
By the time Chief Zhou managed to organize a search party, the sun had already dipped behind the peaks.
Lin Wei led them to the place where he had seen it all, shaking as he walked. But when they arrived…there was nothing.
The earth was scorched in places. The trees still smelled faintly of smoke. But there were no bones. No blood. No weapons.
"Looks like a lightning strike," one man offered as he crouched down beside a blackened piece of grass. Running his fingers over it, he rubbed at the ashes. "But I don't remember a storm."
"She was the storm," whispered Lin Wei as he stared at the patch of blackened grass. He wanted to scream; he wanted to beg them to believe him. But instead, he said nothing. He simply turned and walked back down the mountain, his fists clenched.
-----
That evening, the village stirred with its usual calm. Women cooked over fires, children chased chickens, and the elders gossiped beneath the awnings. Lin Wei sat quietly by the well, staring out toward the edge of the square.
And that was when he saw her.
She moved through the crowd like smoke, feet bare, hair dark, a woven basket slung over one arm. Her face was dirty, her clothes plain, and not a single person noticed her.
No one except Lin Wei.
His eyes widened as he followed her path, weaving around people like they just weren't there. It was her. The girl from the mountain. The demon. The one the mist obeyed.
She looked at him. Slowly, calmly, she raised one finger to her lips.
Lin Wei's breath caught. He nodded so fast he nearly fell over.
The girl turned away, continuing on like she was just another stranger in town.
He watched her disappear down the narrow path that led toward the butcher's stall, his heart thudding in his chest.
And though no one else believed him, Lin Wei knew the truth.
The witch was real.
And she had spared him.
From that moment on, Lin Wei swore an oath to the heavens and his ancestors.
The demon girl had spared him; she had protected the village.
And he would protect her in return—even if she never needed it.