It all started when I was three. I was in China, of course, near Manchuria, where my family and I. . the rest of my species, that I knew of, lived. We were smarter than those damn humans. But they would occasionally get into our village, town, city, colony, whatever you want to call it, and go on killing sprees with their guns. . .those big metal things. . they shot the bullets, the metal that would go out of the guns with a bang, and would fly into us. . they would kill us instantly. Why did they do this? Some of us thought that they wanted us as boots, but still others believed that they were afraid of the competition. They did steal a lot of our ideas, like the Chinese Mandarin language, and democracy, and other things.

This place our home was in was a very, very thick forest, but we actually lived a a gigantic clearing in the middle of it. A very thick ring of pine trees was very misplaced in the middle of this forest. The trees were so close together that it would be very, very hard to go through. But in all, the air was always clear and fresh. . a soft breeze would always flow through silently, through your soul, cleansing it. This didn’t really concern me yet, until one day.

This day, I was with my family, which consisted of my mother, father, sister, and brother. My sister’s name was Sian, and my brother’s was Lei. But our “last name” was Lei-Han, and since all of the other kids would laugh at him, we gave him a nickname. . what the hell was it, though? That is another thing I can not remember. Of course, we always had our last names first. So his name would have been “Lei-han Lei”. All I remember was that the nickname was given to him because he was an extremely fast mover. We were all fast, ten times faster then those damn humans, but he was the fastest of us.

My father was telling us a story, a legend about how the royal family had their sacred birthmark. Yes, there was a royal family, however they weren’t in any power. We had a democracy. Yes, before those humans, too, like I said before. We did almost everything before those humans. . I, for one, think that when they would invade us, they would steal our ideas and call them theirs. As far as I know about what was going on in China, and especially in Manchuria, I really wonder how they had time to invade us, but they did.

As my father was getting to the part about the young prince asking the wizard for help, because no one would recognize him, the sound of a tree falling down was heard loud and clear. On top of that, the ground started to shake. And it wouldn’t stop.

We were overwhelmed. A massive army of ninjas just ran straight to our clearing from the forest. The smell of ember and a thick coat of smoke overwhelmed us. The houses in which we lived fell to their feet, crashing. They threw down the blades and darkness of death on my sister and my father in front of my eyes. I don’t know what happened to my mother. My brother and I were standing in awe, me being three, him being four, as we witnessed our world being destroyed.

“The ring of trees!”, a respected elder of our species, to us known as the Sheng Long, which would translate to English as Sacred Dragons, but to the rest of the world as Raptors, screamed, “We have to go to the ring of trees!”

A lot of us followed the elder, although the ring of trees was destroyed, but I didn’t. I was frozen in terror. My brother was tugging at my arm, nevertheless, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak.

“Come on! Come on! We have to get out of here!” He was nearly tearing in his eyes.

I still couldn’t move. So, crying, he ran to the rest of our village, following them in the portal. The next thing I knew, one of the ninjas, clad in black, ran to me. My world then went black.


“Here it is, my lord,” was the first thing I heard. I finally opened my eyes, but the whole world was blurry. My eyes did finally readjust, though. When I could see where I was, I couldn’t. I didn’t know where I was.

I sat up, and found myself in a stone chamber of sorts, the walls even and smooth, with a big chair on a raised surface, and an old man sitting on it. There was gold and silver and all of these pretty things around. Sculptures of strange beasts, crystal dragons. There was also a large black ninja, like the ones that attacked my home, in the area. I wouldn’t quite call it a room. He was standing over me, pointing a thin, sharp, silver blade on a long, black, wooden pole at me, poking me in the chest. I’d have been very angry if he had ripped my favorite black silk shirt. Ah, silk pants that matched, too. Well, I shouldn’t be so aesthetic. Just getting my point across that we wore clothes. Hell, we probably did that before humans, too, but that’s not a topic I want to get into.

How do I remember this? Well, we were more intelligent than the humans, like a stated before, therefore having a better memory. But I still don’t remember my real name. And I’ve forgotten a lot of things. I don’t know what happened, but it’s lost from me.

The old man stated, “Excellent. You are dismissed.”

And he fired a skull. . a flaming skull. . .it flew across the room, right into the ninja, and he set ablaze. I had no idea that fire could do this, but it literally burned him into a singed skeleton.

I sat up immedately and blinked.

“Ah!” I said, “The man is dead!” I was truly suprised and shocked that he killed this man. So you now understand why I didn’t move when we were being slaughtered.

“Yes, the man is dead,” The old man said cooly, “come here, little one.”

“No,” I shouted in my little voice; I thought he was going to kill me, like he did the man. The next thing I knew, I was levetating through the air towards him. What kind of strange place was this? What kind of strange man was this?

“That’s better,” The old man said impishly. He had on a long silk robe, and he had an almost bald head except for a grey tuft at the top, and a tremendously long, thin beard.

I whimpered a little. I mean, give me a break, I was three years old.

“As you know,” the old man started, “you have just been saved from destruction that was upon your home by me.”

I nodded, and being naive, I believed him. Only a while ago did I actually learn that it was him who had lead the attack.

“I hope you will recognize and repay me for my kindness by protecting me from the bad people who destroyed your home.”

I nodded, eager to help him in any way I could from those evil people.

“You do know that in your species, you also have another form. It is one of a human.”

“Ew, I can become an ugly hairless monkey?”

“Yes, and it will be very useful. Just clear your mind.”

I tried to clear my mind, as I was taught to do by my mother, because I was also a student of the Leopard style of Siu Lum Pai kung fu, our family’s style, to be particular, obviously called ‘Lei-Han’.

“Now, find your inner Chi. . .and concentrate. . “

I found that energy inside of my soul. The life essence made me feel powerful if I could really feel it.

“Concentrate as hard as you can on it. . “

And I did. I concentrated so hard that it turned visible. It was a green energy that was flowing through my body. I concentrated on becoming human. The green chi engulfed me completely, and I saw green. Only for a second, however. Then I felt shorter.

I raised my head, and looked into the mirror. The sight I saw both disgusted me an amazed me. I was a human. Just a regular little boy, I looked about three, black hair, but the strangest eyes I’d ever seen- hazel, a dark brown base color, with a ring of color that dispersed like rays of light around my pupil. The color was green, but I knew it was capable of changing.

I was absolutely speechless.

“Excellent,” The man said, “What is your name?”

I’m sure I told him my name, but like I said, I don’t remember my real name anymore. But I do know that he replied with, “It doesn’t matter. From now on, you shall be known as Reptile, and I am Shang Tsung.”