#tbgoc

"Come on, Ji! We need to go!" My mom yelled at me while my eyes stayed glued to the explosions of red, the flames burning the trees that slid down from the hill into our secluded forest, the thick, sinister smoke cloud billowing in the air.

With a yank of my arm, we were off. I drowned out the yells from my mom and others that were directed at our neighbors who were oblivious to the blazing scene behind us. I was entranced by the lively conflagration. Though it slithered closer with every passing second, I felt nothing.

My mom snapped a word in Mandarin to someone which made my head turn to what was in front of me. While we ran past all the familiar bamboo huts and businesses, some scrambled for their belongings. Others stay put, moving their hands to direct as many as they could to the safe place.

Before it registered in my brain, we were at the ravine where Mom and I would always go to think, relax, and simply spend one-on-one time together. I clutched my stuffed doll.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" My mom kneeled down to my level and brushed a strand of my orange hair out of my face. I shook my head. "Whew, alright..."

"Everything's gonna be okay, Jia. I promise." She reassured after a pause, hugging me while our bushy tails of red and white wagged slowly. At the sound of a scream, my mom looked up at the hill, her pointy white ears standing up. "I'll be right back, baby, okay? Don't go anywhere!"

"Mama?" I asked, stopping her dead in her tracks. "Are you gonna put out the fire?"

Her panicked face softened to a smile and a loving but exhausted stare. "No, dear. I'm just gonna help some of our friends, okay?"

"Okie." I hugged her again, my paws tugging at her silky kimono. "I love you."

"I love you too, my sweet girl." She kissed my forehead, waved goodbye, and dashed off.

"Bye Mama!" I waved happily.

I sat on squishy, dewdrop grass for hours. I played with my doll, waved to those who had arrived, stared at my reflection in the tranquil water, yet she hadn't come back. The red glow brightened, the sound of burning wood got louder, yet there was still no sight of her. I was about to go check on her when FWOOSH! Embers glided over the hill I called home and fizzed out on strands of grass.

"EVERYONE! TREAD ACROSS!" Some villager yelled before I got mixed up in the wave of red pandas that made up our small, quaint community.

"JIA?" I heard a voice faintly scream my name.

"Mama?!" I called out. My voice was too tiny over the screams of the pushy, fear-paralyzed mob. I was too short to make out who that short, fuzzy red figure was when those of the same color attacked my vision during their frantic dash to the water.

I stood as still as a statue in front of the now rushing river. I was terrified. Mama hadn't taught me how to swim yet. I felt someone lift me up over their shoulders.

"I got you, Ji." A familiar voice boomed.

"Bao!" I wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Heeeey, little sister! Long time no see!!" I wasn't related to him by blood, but he was like part of the family. Whenever Mom took me to her origami shop, he would always play with me whenever he wasn't preoccupied with work. "Where's your mom?"

"I don't know..." I lowered my head.

"Oh. Well, she's gotta be somewhere in this crowd. I'm sure we'll find her when we get across." Sweet, optimistic Bao. Little did he know what we were about to be in for.

"YAY!" I squealed, equally naive as he was despite him being 17.

It was crowded on the other side of the peaceful river. I didn't know how much time had passed, but it was certainly past my bedtime.

"You good, Ji?" Bao asked me after I squeak-yawned.

"Yeah... where's Mama...?" I could barely keep my eyelids open.

"i'm not sure. Once we get the call to go back, we'll search for her, okay?"

"Okie." I squeak-yawned again and rested my head on Bao's big, pillow soft arm.

I was about to fall asleep when a yell from the other side of the ravine had replenished excitement into me. "THE FIRE'S OUT! It's safe to come back now!!"

"YIPPIEEEE! Come on, Bao, come ooooon!" I pulled his arm with all my might.

"We're going, we're going!" Bao threw me up onto his back once more.

"WEEE!" I squealed, then giggled. I loved his piggybacks.

What was once a thriving bamboo village had been reduced to ash. Embers floated in the air like phoenix feathers. The smell of smoke still wafted in the air with the cold breeze of wind. While I heard others gasp and break down at the devastation, to me, it was just stuff. All I wanted was my mother.

"Mama! Mamaaaa!" I called out jubilantly. No response. I continued calling for her. My voice shrinked with every desperate cry. I shouted until I couldn't shout, I walked until I couldn't walk.

I tried to stay positive, attempted to look for the small ray of light in the darkness like she had always taught me to do, but I had used up all my happy-go-lucky juice.

My doll dropped to the scorched, rocky ground. Tears streamed down my cheeks like the waterfalls we used to admire from the hilltop. My throat got a lump in it, one that she couldn't heal with her food. My heart sharpened with and pumped out pain, pain that couldn't melt away in her hug.

"Mama..." I squeaked out while my smoke-filled lungs choked under the grief. "MAMA!" I screamed with all my might before I bawled. I couldn't stop yelling for her. She was out there, she had to be out there. She couldn't have left me already. We were supposed to be together forever.