The Scroll of Chaos


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Contents
 How Pangu Created the World
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Chapter Twenty-Three
 Chapter Twenty-Four
 Chapter Twenty-Five
 The Mortal Girl Who Saved a Realm
 Author’s Note
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Start of content
 Dedication
 Contents
 Chapter One
 Acknowledgments
 Copyright
 
 
 
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 iv
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For Jesse, Matthew, and Gillian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Title Page
 Dedication
 How Pangu Created the World
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Chapter Twenty-Three
 Chapter Twenty-Four
 Chapter Twenty-Five
 The Mortal Girl Who Saved a Realm
 Author’s Note
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 Copyright
 
 
 
 
 How Pangu Created the World
 Before the world was the world, the entire universe was stuck inside a single gigantic egg. For thousands of years, the insides of this egg got all mixed up together. Really, this egg was quite the mess, full of confusion and disorder, where very little made sense. Eventually, though, order came along. The universe began to sort itself out so that everything was in balance. And inside the egg, a divine being named Pangu started to form.
 He soon grew tired of being inside this one egg, huge as it was—he wanted out!—so he stretched and stretched, twisting and pushing, until even more thousands of years later, the egg finally burst open.
 Pangu fell out and his body slowly began to transform. His eyes formed the sun and the moon, his hair the stars. His blood became rivers, his bones mountains, and his skin the soil. His breath shaped into clouds and the echoes of his thoughts formed into thunder. The fur that kept him warm grew into forests; when he got hot, his sweat turned into rain. Tiny insects crawled onto his body and soon became the first humans to walk the earth.
 This is the myth of how Pangu created the world.
 And how, before there was Order, it was Chaos that ruled …
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The entire class goes wild on their instruments at the sound of the school bell. It’s become a regular thing at the end of Friday’s last class, and for about ten seconds, you’ve never heard a school band sound so off-key.
 Mrs. Battiste finally claps her hands for quiet.
 “All right,” she calls out over the still-noisy classroom. “Only one week until Spring Revival! Let’s try really hard to fit in some extra practice time this weekend. If you’ve already sold all your raffle tickets for the concert, make sure to turn in your stubs to the office. See everyone on Monday!”
 As Libby Pearson (my best friend) puts away her violin beside me, she clumsily bangs the instrument against the leg of her chair. Her parents would freak if they knew, since Libby’s violin isn’t a rental.
 I’m way more careful putting away my clarinet. One, because it is a rental, and my parents are always worried about the damage fees. Two, because it’s a wind instrument, making it easy for mold to start growing inside. If that happens, you’re inhaling that mold right into your lungs each time you play. And three, because not only is that bad for any player, it’s especially bad if you’ve got asthma. Like me.
 My asthma is also why I started playing clarinet. “To help build up your lung power,” Dr. Park said when she suggested the idea to my parents. “Let’s get you some super lungs, Astrid!”
 That’s me. Twelve-year-old seventh grader Astrid Xu. Star