Yifan grew up in a modest size village in a one of the far corners of the country, bordering the neighborhood country, giving them an amicable trade with them. It was a charming village, vibrant with colors and gods.

Every 100 years, the village held the harvest festival, where they gathered around a great bonfire, offering a tribute to the guardian deity of the village, a fire god, in exchanged of a bountiful harvest for a hundred years.

Nobody knows exactly when the ritual started, but they do know that the year their ancestors didn’t do it, famine befell the village until they managed to conduct the ritual again.

At the start of the week, a chosen tribute is selected, using the ashes of the previous bonfire.

This year, Yifan stared as the ashes flew into the sky, swirled once and twice before falling on him, as if they were a magical dust. His amazement quickly turn to fear, shaking his head as the Head Priest called out his name; turning around and running towards his home and mom.

For the first time since his father abandoned them, and at age 27, he cried.

“Yifan…”

“Yifan, wake up!”

He jumped up from the bed when he felt his mother smack him right in the middle of his back, turning around and glaring at her briefly before rising to hug her tightly.

“I don’t want to leave you alone, but I know I must go…” He mumbled quietly into her long jet black hair, inhaling her scent and trying to engrave it into his mind.

He felt her giggling, before she pushed him back, smoothing his hair, “I’ll be fine, I had you for 27 happy years. Stop being so dramatic!” She shook him a little, standing up, “Now get up, you need to be at the temple for the last blessings and getting your robes on.”

Groaning loudly at the reminder, he threw himself back on the bed dramatically, making his mother laugh and swat at his legs as she shook her head and left the room. He sighed as he looked at the ceiling, breathing slowly, the sounds of his mother around the house providing a calming atmosphere.

“I have to do this, for the good of the village and for mom… Even if I get eaten by a horrendous monster or something.” He scoffed, partly annoyed at his own thoughts and the fact that he ha