When they returned to the cavern, they found Kamealoha who just finished extracting his ore. “You’re done?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes, Your Royal Highness. We can go, now,” he replied.

“Have you sufficiently recovered, since we’re gonna go even deeper within the forest?”

“I have, no—wait, what happened to the tigers? They’re so much bigger than before!”

The young monarch chuckled and summarized what happened when they were out.

Kame then nodded in understanding. “I see, so their mother’s corpse was the last gift she left her children,” he said, as he stared at the suspended remains meaningfully. “And I assume they want to lay her bones inside?”

She nodded. “Yeah, so wait a minute, then we’ll bounce outta here, all right?”

“Understood, Your Royal Highness,” he obediently replied.

She wandered within the cavern’s depths and found the place where her babies awaited.

When she arrived, they looked at her, then the rug, making their intentions clear.

She gently laid the remains on the rug, awaiting what Mamadou and Binetta would do.

They whimpered one again; but this time, no tears were shed.

Instead, their voices sounded like a dirge given to the most deserving servants of the Empire.

But in their eyes, who could not be more deserving than the one who suffered months on them to bring them to this world: their mother?

After three minutes of harrowing sounds, they each gave one lick and kiss upon their mother’s skull, then they buried her bones under a passel of rugs they once slept in.

With one last look at their deceased sire, they then sought their new master’s care who caressed their fur, purring upon their touch as she whispered sweet nothings in their ears before she ended up saying, “Mamadou, Binetta, I’ll make sure that nothing will happen to you, OK? Now let’s go back. I’ve got some ingredients to catch!”

The two tigers nodding in acknowledgment, they followed her back to the cave’s entrance where the merman awaited.

She jumped on her Impundulu and beckoned her fellow sect mate to hop on behind her.

He obeyed and they soon left the glade, flanked by her two cubs who easily kept her pace.

As they ventured deeper, the warming rays of the noon sun grew sparser. The clouds grew fainter beyond the horizon.

Soon after, Lyshisha’s nose wrinkled.

She detected a faint scent of sulfur underneath the tang of wet leaves and dry sweat.

Yep, they’ll soon reach the Buixui nest.

“Uurrgh … the smell! What the hell?” Kame exclaimed behind her.

Even her cute tigers muzzle wilted under the stench. The young queen chuckled. “It’s the grass sulfur the buixui naturally emit. It attracts a copious amount of unsuspecting insects who end up in their belly when they fly nearby. I forgot to mention it earlier when I detected the scent a couple of minutes ago,” she said.

That answer surprised the merman. “Wait. How could you smell that foul stench a while back? We would’ve been too far to detect it…” she heard him said.

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“I’ve been blessed with a better nose than most…” she replied with a toothy grin.

The usual howling wails gave way to crunching and slurping noises over the tepid noon breeze.

“Now, be careful, guys. Their lair is soon upon us, so you’ll stay put, as I’ll deal with them alone, got it?” she said.

“Understood, Your Royal Highness,” Kame said with a curt nod.

They stopped a few feet away from another clearing where her target lay.

Sliding out of her summon, she reached the glade.

There, middling the clearing, crouched a bouquet of eight buixui around the same amount of lime-hued star-shaped flowers.

Their four verdant oval petals quivered under the motion of their brown maw, their pink tongue slithering among its teeth while licking the patchy remains of their once-living foes. Prey easily befuddled and ensnared by two gilded vines rooted by a willowy-shaped stem.

Time to catch what rested behind them…

Tuning away the various insects buzzing sounds, she closed her eyes and connected with her Moon Core, focusing her will into abstruse and translucent letter matters, morphing it into eight hole-pocked spheres pulsing with power.

You lost some breath! You lost 21% Stamina.

Remaining Stamina: 100%—> 79%

Her flawless forehead shimmered with sweat as her silhouette lightly swayed.

Your Stamina dwindles!

Due to the strenuous effort on your body, you started to lose Stamina at a debilitating rate!

Stamina Debilitating Rate: 0.6% every second

Remaining Stamina: 79%—> 78.4%

The clueless buixuis were so focused on catching their daily meal that they failed to see the matter cages appearing above them, realizing that something was amiss when they were trapped inside what became a matter cage.

Frantic anger led to frustration as everything they attempted failed to free them. Their ire only flared again once they felt someone else tottering inside their lair.

Lyshisha took deep breaths as she neared the plants. Focusing on the path before her…

You are injured! You lost 2% Vitality.

Remaining Vitality: 100%—> 98%

… she ignored the insect’s efforts to taste her taut ebony flesh as her uniform teared and frayed.

You are injured! You lost 1% Vitality.

Remaining Vitality: 98%—> 97%

You are injured! You lost… % Vitality.

Remaining Vitality: …%—> …%

Her shivering hand, cut and bitten, grasped the buixui as a powerful trace of mana covered her palm.

The flower, unwilling to be taken, retaliated by flaying her digits in a bid to be released, but to no avail, as Dibano’s Queen plucked it despite a few rivulets of blood flowing out of her wounded limb.

A screech roiled around the clearing as the buixui who lost its flower painfully banged the corners of its fetters, further straining their jailer who quickly retreated from the glade under the insect’s annoying threats.

Just as she reached the clearing’s edge, she dispersed her fractured cages before they broke them, allowing their wrath to resound across their stretch of the Hanfeng Forest.

Your body isn’t under a strenuous effort anymore!

Your breath recovers!

Remaining Stamina: 55.6—> 55.7/100% ¤Recovering 0.1% Stamina every second¤

Free of her burdens, but bound by a growing headache with its usual dizziness, the buixui still leaked pink blood from its gilded torn roots as it evanesced within the red glare of her priceless bracelet. She retrieved a golden pill and crushed it between her ivory teeth.

You’re healing! Your breath recovers!

Remaining Vitality: 86—> 86.5/100% ¤Recovering 0.5% Vitality every second¤

Remaining Stamina: 56.8 —> 57.3/100% ¤Recovering 0.5% Stamina every second¤

A warm wave of heat thrummed across her body as her flesh healed and her flying pests disappeared back to their old “friends” with a “wonderful” scent.

Sitting atop her Impundulu, Kame didn’t know what to say besides, “Are you okay?” with a numb but amazed face.

She shook her head with a light chuckle on her face. “Where’s the next ore located?” she asked.

“At the Fang Valley, westward in the Hanxi region,” he replied after a slight daze.

This woman’s abilities … how mighty would she be if she was whole like the Tyee sea?