The young Fire G.o.d turned around and saw his mother walk towards him holding a tray with food.

"Mum!" He immediately rushed to his mother's side and wanted to steal a few bites.

"Don't rus.h.!.+ Sit down before you act like a glutton."

With an unhappy face, he followed Ember to a table in their yard. He couldn't wait to taste his mother's personally cooked food. As she presented the dishes, he started to salivate.

There were roasted duck, picked vegetables with hot sauce, soya panned salmon and tofu soup, which were all his favorites. Ember also poured his favorite lemonade for him to drink.

Exactly when he was going to pig in the meal, the entire scene started to dim. He tried to hold on to everything, but they pa.s.sed right through his hands.

"Yang. Wake up now."

Wake up? No, he didn't want to. He wanted to eat and taste the delicious food.

"Yang."

--<>--

With a start, Yang opened his eyes and saw the cold face of Ying. He still felt the lingering smell from the different dishes and couldn't help but be annoyed when he realized that none of them were real.

"You sleep like a log." Ying's cold voice reached his ears.

"You sleep like a log." Yang imitated her in irritation while he sat up.

The sun had yet to fully rise, but it still managed to lighten up the desert. A large shadow of a tree, provided with a contrast to the otherwise relative constant setting.

Wait a second... A tree?

Yang's eyes widened as he recognized where he was.

"Why are we back at where we started?"

The Ice G.o.d stared impa.s.sively at him, while inwardly pitying herself for having such an incompetent partner.

"Our food and water have been restocked. My bet is that we died last night and thus have to start over again." She explained slowly as if she spoke to a three years old child.

"We died?" The Fire G.o.d found it somehow hard to believe.

"No way. I always thought that dying would be painful." He continued in amazement.

"Don't worry. You will have many chances to experience that." Ying commented in boredom as she sat down beside him to the left and stared up at the sky.

"Hey, you wish that I fail?" Yang poked her right shoulder with his left hand.

Abruptly, her body reacted by grabbing his left wrist with one hand and his left upper arm with the other. With a twist, he was slung over her shoulder and hit the ground with a thud. The thin layers of fabric over his skin were unable to protect him from the sharp small stones pus.h.i.+ng themselves into his back, which caused him to groan loudly in pain.

Before he had the time to react, his arm was twisted in an agonizing angle and was pinned to the ground by her sitting on his crotch. His legs were locked by her hips and a powerful grip over his trachea caused him to momentarily freeze his head movements. Her eyes were deadly and watched him as if he was her greatest nemesis.

What a crazy woman!

Yang wanted to plead for mercy, but with the increasing pressure over his air ways, he already struggled to breath. With every ounce of energy he had left, he wriggled and tried to free himself from her death grip. He hit her, pushed her and even attempted to kick her, but she was firm as a mountain.

His sight of field slowly diminished as his body was drained of its power. Soon everything blacked out and he lost consciousness.