<div class="floatleft">(http://img.phombo.com/img1/photocombo/739/Korean_Actresses-179.jpg)</div>The girl gazed upon the scene with eyes the color of a clear blue Northern glacier.  Eyes that belonged to the great white tigers that stalk mainland China.  Eyes of the great black wolf that hunted the forests for prey.  Eyes of a predator.  These uncaring eyes gazed upon the scene before her, tracking the myriad of prey.  Life and laughter filled the air but she was shrouded from it by her duty.  Even had she come upon the debacle by chance, she would have given it nothing more than a shrug.  Humanity had become worthless to her.  They ignored nature and the true life that the wind breathed across the land.<br/><br/>A breeze rose and danced about her as if in agreement.  It picked up the long white strands of her hair, loosened from the severe thick white tail, tied off by a single purple ribbon.  It played at the tiny silver bells that hung from the ends.  Funny how they did not ring.  The almond shaped eyes narrowed as she scanned the windows and open areas of the place for the target.  Silent and unmoving, she was like a pale white moon against the starless night.  The trees creaked and whispered and she strained to hear the distant song of the summer cicadas.  Barely, came there music.  Her teeth clenched, as such beauty the night held was drowned out by the yowling called music.<br/><br/>She wore silks so pale a majestic purple it was white.  A wide black hardened leather corset cinched her waist pushing up her ample bosom, the back netting beneath holding her cleavage in place.  Wide pale sleeves stopped just below her wrists, the length the same as the flaring silks that kissed her thighs.  Pale legs shifted on black sandaled feet.  She looked like something out of a fairytale until you looked into her eyes and one might change that to nightmare.<br/><br/>As she continued to observe, her soft pink lips pursed.  They were actually enjoying themselves as they cavorted below her.  Some paired off and yet others sought secluded nooks where the number of partners oddly outnumbered the available orifices.  Blink.  They were as animals with no regard of self or worth.  Had they nothing better to do.  She never saw a reason for it and when she did have to engage proximity to a man, she did not understand how it could be enjoyable.<br/><br/>The time was drawing closer, the night waning into the small hours.  She felt the comforting presence of the shadows....her shadow and she turned her head.  Now the bells chimed as she tilted her head letting them sound for just the one whose presence was shrouded from all....all but herself.  She saw the faint nod and noted how delicate and graceful such a small movement was.  She let the corner of her mouth turn up in acknowledgement.  She could only smile for Yurei.  Reluctant she returned her attention back to mission.  A mission that could end in either of their deaths.<br/><br/>Her arm lifted and fingers sought the warmth within the shadows to wear her heart stayed.  Meeting halfway, as if the two may have had the same thought, fingertips touched, so slight, so brief but enough to sooth the pale girl and leave her content.  One touch filled with more warmth than any words could say.<br/><br/><em>They called it Happy Mountain, the place where the dead rests.  It was a solemn moment as her mother knelt before a mound in a white ham-buok, her hair in a tight not at the nape of her neck.  The only adornment a jade carved dragon piercing the dark coiled braid.  The little girl stood beside her mother and watched as the woman placed another smoking stick of incense in the urn, the heavy musk filling the cold winter air.  <br/><br/>Small and pale, a single plait of dark hair stark against the white of her own traditional Korean dress of mourning.  They had come to pay respects to her father.  He had grown sick and now....he was gone.  The child was stone faced, being strong for the woman who wept, who turned to her daughter and took the small hand to her cheek and wept.  Then came the shadows that lengthened over them.  The girl turned to see but her mother was in front of her, a long silver blade appearing in her hands.<br/><br/>The laughter caused her to hug tighter to her mothers back.  She shivered as a hand so cold touched her back.  She could not see their faces, garbed from head to toe in black, there own weapons gleaming in the waning sunlight.<br/><br/>"You cannot have her.  I will not allow her to become your puppet.  Run, Chunyang!  Run!"<br/><br/>The little girl did nothing, too scared to move but her mother's final command had her turning.  She looked back, the sounds of steel on steel clanging in the glade loud to her small ears.  "Eom-ma!"<br/><br/>"Chunyang!"<br/><br/>It was a death cry and the girl stood frozen, pale eyes like Winter's icicles wide in horror.  Splashes of crimson surrounded the pale crumpled body and Chunyang screamed.  The little girl's feet took her fast back to her mothers side to kneel in the freezing snow, the hem of her ham-bok wet with blood and snow.  <br/><br/>"You should have known Yong-ja.  Your daughter is chosen.  Your father was not happy and now you die in your daughters eyes."<br/><br/>Her mother spat blood at the man's feet and laughed.  "And now....now she will kill you.  The mudang has seen it.  You cut your own throats with the sword of the Yeolyung Geom."  She laughed again only to cough up blood.  She turned eyes that filled with love up on the girl and pulled her close.  "Chunyang, my daughter.  The time will come and you will know what you must do.  Do not lose your heart.  Sa-dang-hae-yeo."<br/><br/>She cried there.  Sobbing as her mother touched her cheek and fell back into the snow, dark eyes clouding with death.  She clung to her, her cries begging her mother to wake up.  She turned to the men, a child's fury against there infinite patience.  She rose, her dress drenched in blood, no longer feeling the chill.  Eyes that burned in hatred.  She put out her hand and a gleaming blade of sliver dancing with violet fire appearred.  She ran at them, the man's surprise allowing her to bury the dagger in his chest.  Still, she was small and it did not sink further than an inch and she was knocked to the ground, the world falling away into darkness.  She smiled just before the dark claimed her, hearing the man's curses and pain.<br/><br/>Chunyang awoke in the back of a wagon, a thin blanket for her shoulders.  She pulled it tighter against the chill.  Soon after the wagon stopped and another girl was placed next to her.  She looked at the girl and at the doll stained in blood.  So like her mother, the doll.  The image of the beautiful woman in white floating in a sea of blood.  She closed her eyes and her fingers sought the girl's.  The tips touched and Chunyang sighed.  After a moment, she wrapped half her blanket around the other girl.  "Don't worry, we will not be parted.  The mudang said I would have a shadow."</em><br/><br/>Yurei's voice brought her to the present and she smiled.  "Why is it not obvious.  We go where it is the most disgusting."  She stepped off the wall and landed lightly and kept walking.  As she moved, her form rippled and changed, her hair falling around her shoulders in loose white curls.  Eyes, became smokey with shadow and kohl, her lips dark and red.  He outfit changed to that of a sheer white dress that accentuated her curves.  She let herself be<em>seen</em>and ignored the avid stares of men and women alike.  As she said, she just followed the trail of filth to it's heart.