As soon as I settle to the bottom of the tonic, I feel a tingling sensation all over my body. As the tonic mends my wounds, I simply lie down, taking this time to wind down and relax after that battle.

After a few minutes, I start getting bored, so I focus my attention on the ability that I just awakened. I try to replicate what happened when I was fighting, and to my surprise, I'm able to control it immediately. It's almost as if I have always been able to do it, it feels perfectly natural.

The feeling is reminiscent of the one I get when I absorb the colored fog that comes out when monsters die. It feels like a current of energy is flowing through my body, but it can't go everywhere. It seems to flow through a specific pattern, all the way to my mouth where it somehow turns into an attack. As for where the current originates, it's actually the marble on my chest. To my knowledge, Mama Bloodcat doesn't even have a marble. I've never seen anything similar on any black eyed creature I've encountered, either. I'll have to ask Mama Bloodcat about it when I recover.

My tooth and leg have finally healed after a couple days. Though I guess normally a broken bone should take a lot longer than that to heal, and I'm not sure a tooth should be healing at all. I guess I've started to take tonic for granted, it really is amazing!

As I reach the surface of the Eggshell, I climb onto the side. After a quick survey of the area, I see Mama lying on the grass beside the stone platform, sleeping. I quietly make my way over to where she is and lie down next to her.

"Good morning Lyna, I have breakfast."

Opening my eyes, I see Mama with a dead boar beside her. I squeeze out a 'thank you' while yawning and standing up. After we finish eating, I once again ask Mama how she can shoot fire out of her hands.

"I could do that only after I was able to transform into this form. Why do you ask, are you having trouble using your ability?"

"No, I can use it, I was just wondering if there are any tricks to controlling it."

Mama looks surprised, "You are able to use it already? Can you show me?"

Nodding my head, I channel the energy through my body, releasing a white beam out of my mouth. But as the white beam exits my mouth, I notice something. The beam that I had previously thought to be solid white actually has a sliver of purple on it! Shocked, I stop my attack and hurriedly claw the fur away from the marble on my chest. Noticing my odd behavior, Mama looks as well. I stare silently at the white marble with a purple streak through it, which looks suspiciously like the beam I just shot out of my mouth.

"What is that?" asks Mama, pointing to the marble.

"I think I was born with it, I don't know what it is exactly." I reply.

Curious whether Mama might know anything, I narrate the events that led up to me getting the purple streak. Then, using my ability again, I show her the nearly identical purple streak and ask her if she knows what might be going on.

"I do not know what it could be." Mama shakes her head.

Since there's no use thinking too much about it, I decide to move on. After talking with Mama Bloodcat about abilities for a while, I learn that it took her quite some time to learn how to use hers after its awakening, thus her initial shock. I also learn that Mama channels her energy from her stomach area.

"You store it in your stomach?" I ask, a little surprised.

"Do you not?"

"Mine comes from this marble in my chest." I say as I look at it.

Mama makes a small frown and thinks for a while.

"It may be a trait of your species, I am sure everything will be fine. Instead of thinking about such things, we should keep moving." smiles Mama.

Retrieving the Eggshell, I second her opinion. Mama chooses a direction, and we start moving.

On our journey, Mama has me fight everything that attacks us, as long as she doesn't deem it too strong, in order to gain more experience. Not that I need much convincing to fight!

"Ha!"

Swinging my paw in midair at a red bear with horns, it meets my paw with its own. Compared to the bear, I'm actually stronger, but my small size is rather disadvantageous in a head-on fight. I'm sent flying by the attack but am left otherwise unscathed. The bear, on the other hand, has blood dripping from its paw. Jumping at it again as soon as I hit the ground, the bear fends off my second attack with its other paw. I land on the ground again and start circling the bear.

"You're the one that tried to ambush me, aren't you embarrassed getting beaten to this point?"

The bear starts getting more agitated as it hears me. I learned from Mama that even before she could understand what I was saying, she could often grasp the general meaning behind my words. It seems the same is probably true for other black eyed beasts.

Proceeding my taunt, the bear starts to build up energy, causing its claws to glow red. I prepare to dodge an attack, but the bear suddenly stands up on two legs and starts running towards me! The sight is rather humorous, and I nearly burst out laughing as the bear frantically pursues me. After a while, the bear's claws stop glowing, and it sits down panting. I almost don't have the heart to kill it, but if I was weaker than it, it would have surely killed me.

"Sorry, I'll make it quick." Opening up my mouth, I shoot a beam of energy through its head, killing it instantly.

Mama walks over from the side.

"Killing it was the right thing to do. Often when creatures suffer defeat in a battle, they will hunt down the creature that defeated them, sometimes for years, looking for an opportunity to kill them."

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

"Yeah, it's just it was so weak, I feel a little bad killing it."

"Just because it is weak does not mean it cannot harm you. It may ambush you when you are weak, or convince others to attack you with it. There is even a chance that it may get lucky, and later become stronger than you. You must never spare something that wishes to kill you.

"Are you speaking from experience?"

Following my question, Mama just smiles and changes the subject.

"I have never seen an ability such as yours. How much of your energy did that attack use?" Mama asks.

"I'm not sure, but I could probably use it several times."

Mama looks amazed.

"Truly worthy of being called my daughter!" she laughs.

"But Mama, don't you have two other daughters as well?"

"Of course! Two sons as well, and they will all grow up to be strong, just like their mother!"

Praising Mama's confidence in my mind, I search the area with my clairvoyance. I sometimes search the area when I get bored, but I have yet to find anything interesting. But this time, I actually find something!

"Mama, Mama! I found something over there!" I shout as I point in a direction and start running.

"Whoa!"

We quickly approach the structure. It looks almost exactly like an Inca pyramid. It's surrounded by vegetation, with green vines growing all over its surface. At the end of a huge flight of steps, standing on top of the pyramid, is a structure with a doorway leading inside!

"Mama, let's go!"

Mama nods her head and takes the lead. As we head up the stairs and near the doorway, Mama holds her hand out and stops.

"There is something there." she points at the doorway.

"I think it's some sort of barrier, like the one around the Eggshell, though I don't think it's as strong. Let me see if I can remove it."

I look around for symbols, finally locating some on the ground just outside the doorway. Sending my consciousness towards them, I am immediately met with resistance. Grunting in discomfort, I force my way past their defenses.

"Are you okay Lyna?" asks Mama.

"I'm alright."

This sensation is completely different from the symbols around the Eggshell. The symbols surrounding the Eggshell are much more complex, so much so that it gives me a headache, but I've never met any resistance when trying to interact with them.

After I break through their defenses, I try to directly sever the symbols' connections. They try to resist, but the connections between the symbols are much weaker than the ones around the Eggshell. With a minimal amount of effort, I sever a few important looking symbols from the rest, isolating them. Soon after, the barrier deactivates.

I retract my consciousness and exhale a breath of air.

"Have you ever seen something like this?" I ask Mama Bloodcat, gesturing to the pyramid.

She nods her head, "I have seen places similar to this, nothing exactly like this though. But I have never thought to go inside one."

I secretly wonder if humans might have built these.

As we walk through the doorway, I see what I assume is rotted furniture lying around. There are four walls, each with a doorway leading outside. In the middle of the room is a stairway leading down.

"Eck, it smells really musty in here."

"What is 'musty'?" asks Mama.

"Oh right, musty is like it smells old and damp, or maybe moldy. It's a bad smell."

Mama nods her head, "It smells very bad. What is 'moldy'?"

After doing my best to explain what mold is, we walk towards the stairs in the middle of the room and prepare to descend them.

Mama walks in front of me, "I will go first."

We are both able to see in the dark, but as we head deeper down it becomes almost impossible to see even for us. Of course, I could always use my clairvoyance, but that wouldn't help Mama Bloodcat see. Eventually Mama just creates a ball of fire which hovers above her hand. After walking down many flights of stairs, we reach a room.

"I sense something." I say as I point towards the floor in front of us.

Examining the floor, I don't see any symbols. Confused, I observe the area closer. I eventually locate two groups of symbols on the walls, directly opposite to each other.

"It seems almost like a tripwire..."

"What is a 'tripwire'?"

"It's like a string that's attached to a trap, which sets off the trap if you step on it."

Mama nods her head.

I use my clairvoyance and attempt to deactivate the 'tripwire'. I'm able to access the symbols easily, as they have almost no defense. I sever the connection between two symbols, and just as I'm about to continue, I get jerked backwards violently. I'm given little time to react before everything goes pitch black and I find myself on the ground, covered by something heavy.

Fwish fwish fwish!

I start hearing sounds above me. Suddenly, I start getting flashbacks from when I got crushed by debris in the park.

"AHH!! NO!"

In a moment of confusion and panic, I scream and frantically kick at the thing on top of me.

"Lyna?! Lyna, are you ok? Are you hurt?!"

I feel a pair of arms wrap around me, and finally realize what it is that's on top of me.

"Ah, ha, ha, ha..."

For some reason, even though I shouldn't even need to breathe, I start hyperventilating as Mama Bloodcat continues to lie on top of me. Soon the noises stop, and Mama stands up, lifting me up with her. She once again makes a ball of fire and hovers it above her hand, illuminating the dark room. After examining me all over, she sighs in relief.

"Thank goodness, I thought you had been injured." she says as she sighs again and embraces me.

I continue to breathe rapidly as Mama hugs me tightly, whispering "it is ok now" over and over.

It takes several minutes before I calm down enough that Mama is willing to put me down, but I still find myself trembling uncontrollably. Now I finally see what the noises were. There are hundreds of arrows littering the floor and walls, covering almost the entirety of the large room.

Suddenly I hear a small gasp behind me, and turn around just in time to see Mama Bloodcat pull an arrow out of her side.

"Mama? Are you ok?! What..."

My words are cut short as I see the rest of her body. No less than a dozen arrows cover her back. There are also two arrows in each of her legs, and one in her right arm. She notices my gaze and smiles.

"I am alright Lyna, look."

She points at an arrow on her arm. Not even half of the arrow head had pierced her arm. I realize I'm too worked up right now, so I close my eyes and breathe in and out a few times, in an attempt to calm down. By the time I open my eyes again, Mama has already pulled the arrows out of her arm and legs, and she's now sitting down reaching for an arrow on her back.

"I'll get them."

I walk over and start clumsily removing arrows. By the time I finish removing the arrows, though it's a bit difficult to see with her red clothing, the bloodstains covering my paws tell me that her back is definitely covered in blood. The sight makes me sad. It makes me want to cry and apologize, but I know she wouldn't want that.

"Thanks Mama, I love you."

She smiles, "I love you too Lyna."

As all of the arrows are removed now, I summon the Eggshell and Mama Bloodcat climbs in. While she soaks, I lie down and try to calm down. I didn't even realize that event traumatized me so much until I re-experienced it. By the time I stop trembling, I find that Mama is already sitting beside me.

"Do you want to leave?" she asks.

I shake my head, "No way!"

"Good answer!" laughs Mama.

After we joke back and forth for a while in an attempt to lighten the mood, we decide to move forward. We continue traveling through rooms, each with a stronger barrier covering the doorway. There are traps in almost every room that we travel through, but we both agree we should just avoid them instead of attempting to diffuse them.

The farther we go, the less decayed the furniture seems to be. In the room we're in now, there are actually still remnants of some scrolls and books, though they're no longer readable.

As I reach the barrier in this room, I realize it's considerably stronger than any the ones before it. Even so, I'm able to deactivate it with a bit of effort. As the barrier disappears and I look up, I notice a light at the other side of the room.

"Mama, that must be something important!" I shout as I start heading in the direction of the light.

"Lyna, I walk in front, remember?"

"Ah, right."

We cautiously make our way towards the glow, careful to avoid any traps we come across.