Mother held me up in her arms while we looked out the window. The two people like how Mother and uncle run. Mother's hold on me tightened a little. I looked up at her. Her expression wasn't fright. It looked like she recognized the two. I leaned my head on her chest, and I heard her heartbeat was unsteady. Mother leaped out the window and ran after the two. Uncle and the other men chased after her; the two girls did as well. Mother held me close to her chest. She slid her mask back over her face. She covered my face with her sleeve to keep sand from my face. I could see just past her sleeve and hair. Uncle Xie and the others were trailing behind us. The longer Mother ran, the less of the building we could see. Mother slid to a stop. I looked up at her; her eyes were darting around, looking for the people we saw.
"We lost them." I heard her whisper. "The weather's getting worse, and there's more sand being tossed around. Flower sword! We need to get to shelter!"
Mother looked back where we ran from, but the others were gone. The ghost man isn't anywhere near either. Through mothers hair, I saw someone running towards us. Uncle Xie. He was trying to cover his face with the bamboo hat while running through the sandstorm.
"Uncle Xie!" I pointed back. Mother looked where I pointed. I could feel the cold air against my head amongst the warm breeze and sand. She must have let out a sigh of relief.
"Snow lotus!" Uncle called as he made his way to us. He was having difficulty with sand being blown in his face, making it difficult to talk without a mouthful of sand. "Where did-"
"Lost them, " Mother said sadly, turning to him completely.
"Where's the man in red?" I asked as both my mother and uncle looked back to see if he was still missing.
"Honger?" her mother called out, worry filling her voice.
"San Lang?!" They were both frantically searching the land to find the man in red.