Storybook

Starving, he followed the irresistible aroma to the dock—where Khitans were cooking fish and noodles. Terrified, he froze in a corner as the half piece of stolen bun slipped from his hand and was kicked around by the crowd. His eyes never left it. A middle-aged man and a younger one kicked it first. The noodle cook followed, calling desperately, her eyes as desperate as his own for that precious bun. The bun rolled to a girl shielding a frightened woman, and then blood spattered onto it. It came to stop beneath three dead bodies—a mother, father, and daughter—with a new box of lamp oil beneath the girl. He tried to retrieve the bun, hoping no one would see, but a Khitan's blade rose above him, and the soldier kicked the bloodied bun off the dock into the river. In that moment, he knew he might never eat buns again.