The Empire in the Eastern Sky

Chapter 1

My spear sunk deeply into the pirate's chest. I pull it out with such savagery I never knew I had in me and watch his body fell on top of the blood pool next to the ground where my father lay headless. I could hear the terrified screams from the inside of the burning house. I let go of the spear and rushed into the burning building without thinking about the flames burning the sole of my feet or the heated air burning the inside of my lungs.

A large piece of charred wood fell on my back but I kept my tearing eyes open and saw through the irritating smoke for my sister. She was in the middle of the kitchen with her arms around my grandmother who had her own body wrapped around my sister on the ground. Needless of the burning pain I felt around my body, I leapt over a fallen timber and fell in front of them. I grab hold of my grandmother but to my horror, her skull was bashed from the falling roof and I had to pull my crying sister out from her death grip.

Maya noticed me and hugged me tightly around my neck and her legs around my torso. I barely hold my scream when something tear against my skin but I lifted her up without difficulty. The sooty air began to grow thicker and I saw that the path I came into was blocked by more falling timber. I began to feel the house began to shake as the fire probably eating through its foundation and I consider it for a heartbeat and ran through the open window and jump into the sea.

I push through the surface and heaved a grateful breath and swim as hard as I could with my little sister wrapped around me. She was coughing against me and I had a hard time holding her around me but I cannot wait and I could see the shore beckoning. I heard a loud crackle and boom of the sounds from my home being broken apart by the fire and fell into the sea.

Maya was barely five years old but her body weighed more than a stone while I weave us through the shallow water and I struggled to hold her as the damp sands underneath my feet seem to drag me down. I look to the direction where they came from. A large dark airship filled the night with its background against the reddened sky. I heard more shoutings and screamings from the other end of the fishing village and I knew I have no choice but to go deep into the swamp forest. I send a prayer to the heavens before I slip into the dangerous forest with my sister. I could only hope we could survive the night.