Tariki walked down the once paved street, but now they returned to the old dirt roads it once was.
Kicking the rocks and debris, she silently cried, mind going a million miles an hour.

'My brother... My home... My life." She thought dwelling on the subjects for only seconds before she would think about something else, most likely to break down if she lingered too long on one thought.

She sighed, now thinking about the promise she made her father.
"I will protect our statue with my life." Tariki said aloud, her small nose turning up to the sky.

It was now dusk, and the sun was shining a beautiful array of colors across the darkening sky, clouds of dust still floating in the air.

She tries to take a deep breath, but instead, getting a noseful of dirt and ash, as she starts sneezing. Wiping her nose with her sleeve after she sneezed three times, she watched the sun fade off into the distance.

"See you tomorrow..." Tariki sighed with a small wave to the sun, and with that she turned to walk back to the family's bunker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mr. President, may I ask what we are doing this for!?"

"Nothing of your concern right now, let me figure this out."

"But sir-?"

"Not right now!"

The light skinned woman turned away in anger, storming out of the Oval Office. She went down the hall, looking for the files room.
Ryah huffed, walking at a fast pace, especially for someone wearing heels.

She flung open the wooden door, almost hitting the person behind it.

"Ma'am, you aren't supposed to-" The woman turned around startled.

"I know." She said sternly, flashing her ID to her, storming away quickly. Ryah didn't even give her time to respond.
She went down the most recent section of the files, that weren't shelved just yet, and started flipping through them, trying to collect information.

Quite a bit later she walked out of the main files room, her mood much more calm, but her face pained and shocked. She carried a stack of documents, about two inches thick.

Going into a private room almost no one used, she began to read more in depth as to what exactly was going on, tears rolling down her cheeks a few times.

"How could someone be so selfish and afraid of something that wasn't even meant to be used against us...?" Ryah asked aloud through gritted teeth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tariki made it safely back to her family's bunker, and she lays down on one of the small sleeping bags that they had stored in the bunker. Sashi layed on the bed above and next to her, the sisters mom at her side. The father was laying next to Tariki, in his own sleeping bag.

The bunker was silent, only the soft noises of their breathing audible as each one of them drifted off into sleep.
Except Sashi.
She tossed and turned, tears going down her cheeks as she couldn't get comfortable.

Finally, after about twenty minutes of lying there fatigued, she too, drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of hours later, shaking and rattling jolted Tariki awake.
Sitting bolt upright, she looked around the small bunker to the the statue shaking.

Rocking back and forth the statue almost fell, but before reaching the ground, Tariki had shot over to it, supporting it.

Still shaking uncontrollably, the statue slips from her grip, landing on the ground with a large thud.
The sound woke the others, resulting in shocked faces from them all.

The small girl backed away from it as the shaking slowed and eventually stopped after a few minutes.

"What was that all about?" Cried Sashi. "I don't know, but it's stopped now." Tariki said.

The bronze Eastern dragon statue lied on its side, it's golden eye gems shining in the candle light that they had lit.
Tariki stared into it's eyes, and she swore she could see it staring right back at her.
"It's... Looking at me..." She whispered, causing her father to go "Huh?"

"N-nothing..." Tariki replied, looking at him with a shake of her head, and a couple strands of her jet black hair getting into her face.
She brushed it to the side before turning back to the statue, but the eyes no longer gleamed.

Tariki shook it off and lied back down, staring at the concrete ceiling...

*****************

Thank you all for reading!
You finally find out what the statue is, but why did it do that?
>:3

[Total words
750]