It's been several days since I met Mama Bloodcat and her cubs, and she finally seems to be in good enough condition to travel. But the number of scars covering her body is insane; she even has one that stretches across her face, slicing her nose in two. Aside from the scars, her entire back right leg is also missing, and one of her ears is gone. Both are long healed over by now, but it makes me wonder what she has gone through until now.

"It's decided. I'm going to take Mama Bloodcat to the Eggshell and let her soak in tonic!"

As soon as I finish talking, the bloodcat cubs tackle me again.

I scan the area from the top of a tree, searching for the tree that marks home.

"Wow, I ran a bit farther than I thought!"

Climbing back down the tree, Mama Bloodcat looks on worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" I yell.

Reaching the ground, Mama Bloodcat starts licking me.

"Hehehe, haha! Stop, that tickles! Hahaha..."

After giving me a bath, Mama Bloodcat seems satisfied, and proceeds to give each of her cubs a bath. After she finishes, I walk up to her.

"Hey Mama Bloodcat, can we go that way?" I point the direction of the big tree.

Mama Bloodcat looks at where I'm pointing. Not sure if she understands or not, I start walking that direction, looking back at her once in a while. As I glance backwards again, I notice her walking towards one of her cubs. Stopping in place, I watch as she picks one of the cubs up and places it on her back! Shocked, I stare wordlessly as she does the same to the rest of the cubs, and then tries to do the same to me. Though I would love a piggyback ride, I temporarily reject the idea and start heading toward the giant tree.

"This way!" I shout as she trails behind me.

After a couple hours of travel, we finally run into trouble. Looking straight ahead of me, I see another bloodcat, comparable in size to the first one I saw after coming to this world. I start wondering if it and Mama Bloodcat are acquainted, until I see her start to snarl. The other bloodcat flinches, then steadies itself and snarls back, leering at the cubs on Mama Bloodcat's back!

Infuriated by its actions, I jump in front of Mama Bloodcat and the cubs and start growling. The bloodcat glances at me dismissively and then turns its attention back to Mama Bloodcat.

'Underestimating me? Bad Idea!'

As the bloodcat starts to advance, Mama Bloodcat shakes her cubs off of her back and walks in front of all of us, still snarling. The bloodcat halts its steps, still vigilant towards Mama Bloodcat. Since the bloodcat is focused on Mama Bloodcat, I decide to take this chance to strike. I sneak a few steps forward, and leap at the huge bloodcat.

"Roar!"

I was aiming for its neck, but the bloodcat dodges its head out of the way before I can reach it. Though I missed my target, I'm still able to bite its shoulder, prompting a pained howl from the bloodcat. But due to my failed attack, I'm forced to release my hold and drop towards the ground in fear of retaliation. Landing on the ground safely, I dart in the opposite direction of Mama Bloodcat and the cubs in an attempt to lead the bloodcat away.

Right after I start running, I hear an angry roar behind me and, turning my head back, I witness a shocking sight. The bloodcat that I just bit is howling in rage, preparing to chase me, but right beside it is Mama Bloodcat. Time seems to slow down as Mama Bloodcat, who is less than half the size of the other bloodcat, closes in and slaps the bloodcat's head with her paw. After receiving the slap, the bloodcat is lifted off the ground, flying head over heels dozens of feet straight into a tree!

Thwack!

The bloodcat slams into the tree hard enough to knock it down.

"..."

After making sure that the bloodcat is dead, Mama Bloodcat walks over to her crying cubs and starts licking them as if nothing just happened.

On the way to the Eggshell, the creatures that confront us the most are surprisingly other bloodcats. Some of them are relatively small, and decide to back off, but the majority are much bigger than Mama Bloodcat, and very aggressive.

Most of the bloodcats we have run into are easily handled by Mama Bloodcat, but in front of us right now is a bloodcat that's nearly as small as she is. As soon as she saw it, she started acting really worried. She is currently pacing back and forth in front of me and her cubs, growling and snarling, while the opposing bloodcat is merely standing there, seemingly looking down on her. I slowly walk towards Mama Bloodcat and try to comfort her

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Don't worry, we can take-"

Before I'm able to finish my sentence, I'm forcefully batted away by Mama Bloodcat and sent tumbling backwards! Shocked and confused, I stand up and glare at her, but she doesn't notice. Her full attention is still on her opponent.

Without warning, she suddenly dashes towards the bloodcat. Nearly unfazed by her missing leg, she clashes with the bloodcat, leading to an intense brawl. Seeing wounds quickly appear on Mama Bloodcat and her opponent, I start to understand how she might have gotten all of those scars.

Not long after the brawl started, it's already finished. Mama Bloodcat takes a few steps backwards, covered in wounds. But even though her body is covered in wounds, they're all shallow and she seems nearly unfazed, still pacing back and forth and growling. Her opponent, however, seems considerably worse off. It has blood dripping from numerous wounds, each much deeper that the wounds on Mama Bloodcat. The bloodcat looks shocked and terrified. It likely never expected to lose out in the first exchange, let alone so badly.

But the shock and terror lasts only a few short seconds, soon replaced with rage. The bloodcat releases a mighty roar, and with it comes a bright light. A split second later, I see a pillar of flames emerge from the bloodcat's mouth!

I look worriedly at Mama Bloodcat, but she actually seems calmer that she was moments ago. As the flame pillar nears her, she opens her own mouth, which releases a bright light of its own. Shortly after the light, flames erupt from her mouth.

As the flames near each other, I expect to see them clash in midair, but such a thing doesn't happen. When the flame pillars finally meet each other, Mama Bloodcat's much brighter fire continues forward, consuming the opponent's fire as it actually seems to grow stronger! With its mouth still open, the bloodcat receives Mama Bloodcat's attack and is immediately knocked backwards, engulfed in flames. It frantically rolls on the ground for a few seconds before going limp, still burning.

My mouth hangs wide open as I attempt to process what just happened. If Mama Bloodcat hadn't pushed me away, if I had joined the fight, I might have wound up just like that bloodcat.

My attention is suddenly attracted by a cloud of red fog being released by the bloodcat corpse. I'm used to this by now, fog is released by dead creatures, but I have never seen this much before, nor any this dense! This is much more than those elk creatures released, by several times! As the fog enters the bead on my chest, it feels like energy is coursing through my body, making me stronger!

Lick lick lick!

My thoughts are interrupted by a slobber attack.

"Ah, ahaha, stop! Stop! It's okay, I'm alright! Hahaha!"

But Mama Bloodcat is relentless. By the time she stops licking me, I'm covered in saliva. She then picks me up and puts me with her cubs. Now that things have calmed down, I notice that she's panting pretty heavily. That fight must have taken a lot out of her.

I'm rather excited as I climb down the tree. We're almost there! Looking at Mama Bloodcat though, she seems pretty nervous.

"What's wrong, Mama Bloodcat?" I ask.

She doesn't respond, merely looking in the direction of the Eggshell.

"Come on, let's go." I urge.

Still alert, she continues to follow me.

We finally reach the Eggshell after about half a day, but for some reason, Mama Bloodcat is acting extremely nervous right now. Why does everything seem so afraid of this place? As I walk towards the Eggshell, I suddenly find myself hovering several feet above the ground.

Struggling until Mama Bloodcat puts me down, I ask her, "What's wrong? What are you so worried about?"

"Stop."

"Huh?" did she just talk?

She turns around and walks off. Confused, I sit down and wait. After less than a minute, she walks back into the clearing with a sitchle in her mouth. She then proceeds to spit the sitchle at the Eggshell! Expecting the projectile to hit my precious home, I almost freak out when suddenly the sitchle disappears.

I try to walk forward in order to see what happened, but Mama Bloodcat stops me again.

"Stop." she says as she walks off again, coming back with another sitchle in her mouth.

"..."

Sorry sitchles.

As she spits out another sitchle, I watch it more carefully this time. I notice that as it passes over the symbols surrounding the stone platform, it actually turns to dust.

"..." I sit there speechless.

So many things suddenly make sense. Why are there so few creatures in this clearing? Why is it so safe in the Eggshell? Why did the first bloodcat I met panic when it saw me head towards the stone platform? It must all have something to do with this.

Stepping forward again, Mama Bloodcat tries to grab my scruff.

"It's okay Mama, I know what I'm doing." I comfort her.

I don't know if she is able to understand me or not, but she stops trying to pick me up. Walking towards the Eggshell, I quickly step over the symbols, to show Mama Bloodcat that I'll be safe. Seemingly appeased, she walks back over to her cubs, who are currently wrestling with each other.

Observing the symbols, I once again try touching them. Nothing. I look back at Mama Bloodcat. After looking at her for a few seconds, I turn my attention back to the symbols and immediately use my claws to scratch at them. Nothing!

"Stupid thing! Why won't you break!"

I continue to desperately claw at the symbols. After several seconds, I look at them again. Not a single scratch.

"RAH! She's so close! I bring her all the way here, and nothing!"

Suddenly, I have an idea. If I can't bring her in, I'll bring the tonic out! Stepping inside, I grab a piece of eggshell. Hollowing it out with my claws to make it into a bowl, I proceed to dip it into the tonic. Retrieving the bowl of tonic with my mouth, I carefully bring it to the edge of the symbols. Mentally crossing my fingers, I try stepping through.

Thud!

As I try to bring it past, the eggshell bowl will not go past the symbols.

"Haa, haa, haa, haa..."

Taking deep breaths, I try to calm down. I pick up a rock and attempt to bring it through the shield. Success! Quickly crafting a bowl out of the rock, I fill it with tonic and attempt to step outside.

"Pleasepleasepleaseplease..."

Slosh!

The rock bowl can go through the shield, but the tonic is stopped at the shield and splashes to the ground.

"No..."

I sit down.

"It can't be... I was so close..."

Fueled by desperation, I suddenly have a crazy Idea. Peering down at the symbols, I concentrate on them as hard as I can with my clairvoyance.

WHOOSH!

Massive amounts of information flood my head. And just as soon as it starts, the flow of information ceases. I hold my head in anguish. My head feels like it just got run over by a freight train, but there's not even a hint of a frown on my face. No, I'm smiling from ear to ear.

There's still hope!