I awoke to a loud boom. Then, several more loud booms came from further away. I blinked blearily and tried to push myself up, but several large rocks were crushing me at the moment, and I couldn’t see anything but darkness with a few rays of red-orange light coming through a couple of cracks. What happened? The last thing I remember was a sword coming down on my neck, about to kill me, then … an explosion … and now I’m here. I should get these rocks off me. It’s getting hard to breathe.

I took as deep of a breath as possible and cycled my Healing chakra through me. I could feel bones I didn’t know had broken, fixing themselves and realine with loud cracks and pops. Then I pushed on the rock before me and felt the weight literally lifted from my chest. I was finally able to sit up and look around. Pushing myself up from the hole I made for myself and sliding my legs out from under another rock, with a couple of bones snapping back into place, I took in the aftermath of what happened.

Behind me, a hot breeze blew into the now partially lit cavern, and I turned toward that to see a massive hole in the wall. Far off in the distance, I could see Haze flying around with hundreds of pale blue rays of light shooting at her. Since when did Haze know how to fly? Quickly, it became the most important question in my head. Then I shook my head and remembered Lii was somewhere in this cavern, too, with the gorgon head … SHIT! Nezha! That’s his name now! Fuck! I have to try and remember that.

I climb out of the rubble and see Orrin’s hand sticking out from a pile of rocks. I very quickly remembered he was also here and rushed to the pile of rocks. I start pulling the rocks off him one at a time in a hurry and soon see his unconscious body under the rubble. Removing the rocks from his body, I pull him out by his arms. His legs and one of his hands were crushed and mangled by the rocks. I wasted no time kneeling by his side and sending my Healing chakra into his body to repair the damage. His legs snapped and cracked back into place slowly as minor cuts closed, and the bleeding stopped.

Within a few minutes, Orrin was fully healed, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I stood. The magma pool in the cavern’s center appeared to be slowly becoming more active and bubbling, bit by bit. How it got cooled down enough to seal itself, I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to question it. After all, it kept the gorgon head from going into the magma to be destroyed. I jogged over to the rucksack I could see on the bubbling rocks, and once I got close to it, I saw orange cloth out of the corner of my eye, and my attention snapped to it. Lii—Nezha’s clothes were laid on the ground, full of dust that wisped around in the hot breeze in the cavern.

“What the fuck?” I muttered to myself and stared at the rags as I continued over to the rucksack. I knelt and wrapped my hand around the sack, only to not be able to lift it. I cocked my head curiously at the rucksack and pulled on it a few more times, only to fail to lift it every time. Eventually, I got annoyed, cycled Crucible’s chakra through me, and pinched a piece of the sack. I cycled the chakra to my free hand and cut an even slice through the rucksack to see the gorgon head for myself.

I cursed under my breath as I pushed the rucksack down to reveal … a head-sized rock. A really heavy head-sized rock. “Shit,” I muttered and stood in frustration. I began pacing the ever-growing magma pool, cursing all the while, “Shit. Shit. Fuck. Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!!” I screamed and sent a blade of chakra at the crusted-over magma pool and struck the head-sized rock, obliterating it in a flash of silver light.

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I took a few deep breaths, heard another cascade of booms from outside, and calmed myself down as I began to pace again. All right, think Zeana. What do we need, and how do we get it? We need a gorgon head. But Li—Nezha had already destroyed all the nests and all their heads. So, we need to go somewhere else with gorgons and get one of their heads. No, that would take too long, and I’m pretty sure Granny Sheji said this was the only place with gorgons to behead. So, now what? I could— I lost my train of thought as I tripped on something that felt scaley and cold, scraping my knees against the hard, burnt ground of the cavern.

“Ouchy!” I squealed, then realized, “Oh, yeah, high pain tolerance. That didn’t hurt.” Then, I used a little Healing chakra to close the small wounds before looking at what I tripped on. The body was female, with tanned skin that reflected light slightly and a pair of bat-like wings on its back. I rubbed my hand on the corpse’s arm and confirmed it felt scaley. Feels sort of like snake skin. Interesting. I’m going to assume this is one of the gorgon corpses. It’s too bad it doesn’t have a head. Now, back to brainstorming with myself. What to do? Maybe Granny Shej— “OW!” I exclaimed as something muscular thrwapped the back of my head.

I turned around to see Riko behind me, looking at me with disappointment in its non-existent eyes. “What?!” I asked, a little annoyed, “Why’d you hit me?” The tail, of course, didn’t answer. It just looked between me and the corpse next to me. I followed its gaze and tried to put two and two together to make five. I ended up with three and gave up, “Okay, what?! What do you want?!”

The tail just shook its head, slapped mine again for good measure, and began eating the corpse. I curled my nose up at the act and was about to make disgusted noises when I finally figured out what they wanted. “Oh, yeah! If I eat something, I can become it! I can’t believe I forgot about that. Fuck, I’m stupid once I get older. I should really get back to the ship and change into my normal, smart, nine-year-old self … who talks to herself less. Fuck, I’m losing it. I should stop talking now.”

“No,” Crucible interjected in my head.

“Yes, please continue with how you’re so wise and powerful?” Fenbao said, tossing gasoline onto the burning trash bin that is my brain.

“Fuck off!” I said as my tails finished the first half of the body. Fengbao laughed but said nothing else. Once my tails finished eating, the corps I turned toward the hole in the cavern and immediately screamed as I came nose to tit with a manic-looking Haze.

Haze guffawed with laughter as I tried to catch my breath. “HAHAHAHA!! YOU—YOU SHOULD’VE SEEN YOUR FACE!! HAHAHA!” Haze wheezed through her laughter.

I scowled at her, “Fuck you, too, Haze!”

Haze just laughed as she clutched at her stomach and made weak, half-hearted attempts to mimic me, but could hardly do anything through her uncontrolled laughter. After a few more minutes of me scowling and her laughing, Haze got herself under control and wiped a few tears from her eyes as she said, “Now, I see why Master Shi’en always does that to you and everyone else. Haha, it’s hilarious!” then she sighed and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, “How’s Orrin over there?”

I sighed and answered, “He’s alive but still unconscious. I suspect he’ll be out for a while. What happened while we were out?”

“Long story, kid, but suffice it to say, I’m awesome. Let’s get everyone back to the ship to find a new gorgon nest,” Haze said, not really answering.

I quickly stopped her, “No need to find a new nest. We got what we needed. Let’s go and cure everyone.” Haze stopped and looked me up and down before noticing the green blood staining my fluffy tails. Then she nodded, threw Orrin over her shoulder, and took to the sky with me right behind her. I’m still wondering when the fuck she learned to fly?!