~~The Secret Meadow~~Chapter one~~readrafted~~

Chapter 1
…the secret meadow…
There was once a young, messy haired, brown eyed girl called Poi Yong Zhou whom lived in a small hut in the city of Guangzhou. She lived with her mother li li Zhou and her father Kong Rui Yan. But one day all of that changed.
The thunder shattered outside, and icy cold droplets found themselves piercing through the straw roof and splashing onto poi’s pillow. Poi was lay, curled up in her bed; using her covers to try and block out the argument she could hear outside.
“I’ve got to go!” shouted Rui Yan “you know the situation here, there is no work!”
“But what about Poi?” she questioned “she loves you so much, you can’t put her through this, she is so young!”
“Don’t be stupid li li, I’ll be back in a few months, just wait”

Poi could hear her mother crying uncontrollably as she slumped to the ground outside whilst Rui Yan mounted a horse. Li Li was screaming for him to come back, but the distant sound of the horses hooves galloping away, carried on and didn’t stop…
Poi didn’t know what had happened, but if what she thought was true then she hoped it was all a dream. The hut door swung open and Li Li stumbled in, her face was gleaming with tears as the candle light dazzled in reflection.
Poi could feel the cold breeze drifting into the hut; it mildly reflected the atmosphere.
A few years had passed and Rui Yan hadn’t returned. Poi was now eleven years old, she was seven years old when her father had left. Poi would pray and hope everyday that her father would return. But her mother had seemed to have given up all hope, he’s name was no longer mentioned if it was; Li Li would collapse into a heap of tears.
Poi would get sick of watching her mother obsessively carrying out her daily rituals and routines, so when poi was not picking vegetables nor collecting fire would; she would sneak off to the secret meadow.
She had came across this meadow before with her father; on one beautiful summers day, the sun shone above like a thousand diamonds as Poi and her father were running around giggling and playing; they lost track of time; and were completely astonished when they had came across this picturesse landscape.
Apart from the sheer beauty of the meadow, it was so rare because Guangzhou as like one big piece of farmland; there was no place for pretty little flowers. The meadow was surrounding by towering trees, their pink blossoms’ showering the lush grass below; producing a decorative path of petals. Concealed behind the thick trees were a vast emerald green land; it was delicately painted with crimson, orange and scarlet coloured flowers. The flowers flickered in the breeze like butterflies proudly fluttering their wings. This paradise had once been poi’s and her father’s but for the last four years poi visited it alone; it wasn’t the same.
When poi went to the meadow, she would lie down on the soft grass and close her eyes; she could smell the essence of the flowers; hear the birds singing , she could feel the breeze gently brushing the flowers and grass against her arms, she could hear herself laughing as her father playfully swung her around.
Poi didn’t have any friends, as something would always go wrong, and Poi would always get the blame. She would dream of getting away from this nightmare, somewhere else; anywhere, the only escape she had was the secret meadow.
On one cold windy night a terrible storm had crept over the village, Poi was down the hillside by the lake fishing, a little way away from the village, she heard the thunder crashing above her head and the bolts of lightning shocking the clouds above like a haunted fireworks display, the dark, grey clouds swerved in and out of each other like sharks fighting over chunks, of bloody meat.Poi heard the horses and cows moaning in distress, and heard one of the villagers screaming, a long horrible cry “FIRE!”.
‘Mum’ thought Poi, Poi was really worried about her mother, Poi jumped to a halt, let go of her fishing rod and knowing that it wouldn’t help that much, she dipped the wooden bucket that was next to her into the lake and obtained some icy cold water, Poi raced back up the hill, toward the village, praying.When she got there she stood frozen to the spot, all of the villagers were out of their huts, screaming in panick, as they threw buckets of water over a hut that was on fire, it must have caught fire from a bolt of lightning, Poi ran through the crowd in her mind she was screaming but could not suspress a sound, was her mother trapped inside the fire, too weak to even try and get out, her lungs too clogged up with strong, dark billowing smoke. Poi still had the bucket of water in her now shaking hand, the temperature of the water was no longer cold because of the overpowering heat of the fire, Poi thrust the water over the burning hut, the water seemed to evaporate before it even came in contact with the fire, Poi had now fallen to her knees, she was now screaming, she felt helpless, the storm had now died away...