One dew scented morning, in the rocky domain of Bai Hu, a young woman draped in pinkish silk garbs pranced up to the divine tiger with the biggest smile any mortal had ever dared to stare his ferocious glare down with. That queer girl stopped and arched her neck way back to meet the tiger's face with hers. 

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Bai Hu, towering tall, thrust an endless inky shadow upon the mousey human, sputtering acid saliva as he snarled and glared with starved, swordy teeth. His silver cat eyes stung like spears piercing flesh, claws unfurling and prickly fur rising. Faced with his next meal, the great beast braced its sturdy back legs. In the same spot where the girl stood, thousands had fallen before, mercilessly struck down in an instant. They died before they could speak or even feel fear.

 

But that day was different, for it was the girl who sprung first. 

 

The little fletching carelessly flung herself back and crashed clumsily into a pile of pebbles behind her. The tiger, taken aback, tensed and cautiously began to prowl around, never taking his eyes off his prey. The girl’s tumble was a reckless act but it didn't seem to hurt her as she got up, smiling wider than before. From that smile, her tulip-glossed lips breathed a song of whispers that fell no further than the chopped wispy hair resting upon each pebble shoulder. Even the untamed gust that brushed the tidbits of grass in the mountain pass hushed at the sound of her inspiriting words. They listened.

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"Leigong, eastern god of thunder, pound your roaring drum and set alight the Earth before me," she said, clasping her hands together, ready to release her wild sorcery .

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Beckoned by her behest, the serene scape darkened. The world around them, encompassed in a tiny timeless bubble, was stripped of color and became devoid of vigor. Gray clouds gathered overhead and wrought cold rains unto the animals below, frightening them. Flutterbeak birds flew away. Mice scurried into holes. Rock beetles trembled and disappeared. A covering foggy mist appeared all around and in the midst of nature’s silent fear, all that could be heard was the heartbeat of Leigong's fabled drum. 

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Tum. Tum. Tum. 

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Crackling firework storms sprickled across the fields of stone and gravel. 

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Tum. Tum. Tum.

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This sound came close and closer and went over the towering mountains, ringing like bronze funeral bells at the end of life. Bluish white spricks surrounding scraggly streaks of Zeus's creation erupted from the sky's ducts and electrified the circumambient ground underneath the girl and tiger. The refracture of light glimmered off the beast's silvery eyes, illuminating them with scribbles of lightning and might. Those destructive bolts flashed brightly, electrocuting them both to the bone. Like lightning usually does, they faded as quickly as they came, dimming to dusk. The rumbling murmurs of thunder continued to echo through the valley all the way to the Westland heavens until they were naught. Clouds cleared and the sun returned as the stench of burnt dirt swirled from the crater between the girl and tiger where Leigong’s legendary thunder had struck. 

After glimpsing such galvanizing might, the auspicious beast began to speak.

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"WHO." It was not a question, but a command.

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Undeterred, the girl grinned her lip up on each side, molding her puffy cheeks into dumpling buns as she clasped her fist into her palm and bowed towards the deity. Though she herself was born mortal, her smile might have belonged to the sun goddess of her land, Xihe.

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"Hailing from a village with no name, I am the daughter of poor but happy merchants! The name that I carry with me is Xinyu Ma! Fortune to have found you!" she said.