Catching Shadows

Chapter One: Saved By a Stranger

 A/N: Hi, readers and reviewers! This is the re-posted version of Catching Shadows, dedicated to my long-suffering writing friends and reviewers, DorisDayniac_123 and Rosielaurel. You guys are the best! Although some things have remained the same, I’ve changed the setting from 17th century Korea to 10th-century China, so some of the names will be different, as will some of the storyline. Please read and review! They mean a lot to me!

Enjoy!

****

Chapter One

Bianjing, 962

It happened while she was walking home from the market.

Choi hadn’t meant to take so long getting the supplies her grandmother had asked her for, but the sights and sounds of the market had captured her attention until she forgot the time. Now, as she dodged peddlars and buyers thronging the busy street, she only hoped she could reach home before it got dark. Then maybe she could avoid a scolding.

As the sky began to darken, Choi turned into an alleyway, hoping it would prove a sufficient enough shortcut to get home before night fell. However, as she continued walking, she began to regret the path she had taken. Evening shadows darkened the narrow passages, and Choi could feel eyes boring into her back as she walked past the dimly lit taverns and tiny shacks. Footsteps started to sound behind her, heavy and menacing.

Frightened now, Choi turned around, but it was too late. Two men stepped out of the darkness to block her path, and her arms were roughly siezed from behind, making her drop the basket of supplies. Fruit and vegetables tumbled onto the street, along with the purse of money she had been given. It was snatched up by the taller of the two men who blocked her path, and he leered at her, revealing rotten teeth.

“Please,” Choi said, desperation lacing her tone. “Give it back to me. My grandmother needs that money.”

The men in front of her merely laughed, while the one behind tightened his grip on her arms, making Choi wince.

“Please,” she repeated, hearing her voice break and hating herself for it. Tears pricked at her eyes. “Give it back.”

The man tossed the purse up casually into the air and caught it. He turned to Choi and winked. “Come and get it then, girl.”

Recognising the challenge in his voice, Choi moved quickly, raising her foot and slamming it into the knee of the man behind her. He let go of her arms with a yelp of pain, cursing. Choi lunged forward to grab at the purse held in the first man’s outstretched hand, but he raised his arm.

A heavy hand grabbed her hair, yanking her head back. Tiny arrows of pain shot up and down Choi’s scalp and she winced, unable to hold back a cry. Hot, stale breath scalded her cheek as the man whom she had kicked hissed in her ear, “You’re going to pay for that, you little witch.” He raised his hand to strike and Choi squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the blow to fall.

It never did.

There was a sudden whirr and a sickening thwack, followed by an anguished scream. Choi’s eyes shot open in time to see the man’s grip on her relax, his raised hand impaled by a knife. Wails poured from his mouth as he stumbled out of the alleyway, gripping his injured hand.

The other two men turned around, anger—as well as a little fear—etched on their faces as they prepared to confront whoever had dared to attack their partner in crime.

Someone stepped out of the shadows of the alley, and stood still, seemingly waiting for the men to attack. They, after exchanging glances with one another, both charged.

The first man received a blow to the head that would most likely have smashed a more fragile skull, and fell motionless in the street. The second, enraged, yanked a knife out of his belt and stabbed viciously at the stranger. A second knife was embedded in his shoulder, and he staggered out of the alleyway like his predecessor, his cries of pain growing fainter by the minute.

Choi, who had been hidden behind a nearby brick wall, stood up now. Heart pounding, she stared at the stranger who had rescued her, more curious than afraid.

He was tall, and as he walked towards her Choi could see the moonlight flash off a blade at his side. But that wasn’t what was strange about him.

He had silver hair. Pure silver, like that of an old man and yet he couldn’t have been more than twenty or so. He bent down to pick up the purse that lay, forgotten, by the unconscious thug and handed it to Choi without a word, before walking past her and vanishing into the darkness.

Hardly able to believe what had just happened, Choi stood frozen for a moment, but the thought of what awaited her at home prompted her to move. Gathering up as much of the fruit and vegetables that could be salvaged, she prepared to leave the alleyway, but something caught her eye, lying half hidden in the road. Curiously, the girl bent down to pick it up.

It was a pendant, in the shape of a dragon and jade-green in colour. A leather string ran through it, and Choi could see that the ends had snapped.

None of the thugs who had attacked her had been wearing anything of the kind. It must have belonged to the man who had rescued her. And he was long gone by now.

Choi hesitated for a minute, and then her fingers closed around the pendant. She slipped it into her pocket, making a silent resolution. She would keep it for now, but if she ever saw the stranger again, she would give it back to him.

Little did she know the events of that evening were to change her life forever...turning it upside down so that nothing would ever be the same.

A/N: Your reviews will be much appreciated!

To the right is the person whom I imagine Choi would look like, and the rest will follow. Hope you like it!