Jing came home later that day and told us that her preparations were finished. We could leave for the forest anytime, and Jing’s organization would stay afloat.

I didn’t tell her what happened with Brian. I didn’t want to. She would hear about it anyway. Hui Ming would tell her soon enough.

We left for the White Dragon Forest in the middle of the night. Being so far from my plants made me jumpy. We would be safe once we got there, but until then, we were only protected by ourselves.

Brian had three Dao Journey soldiers, and Jing was at the Dao Journey Stage as well. We weren’t defenseless. We could plow through all the nearby villages with any of Brian’s weaker soldiers, but I wasn’t worried about villages. I was worried about a surprise attack from Wisteria. The horde she brought to the meeting could kill us, and I doubted that was her full army.

In reality, even if she managed to find us, she probably wouldn’t want to attack. We were classmates, after all. But even so…

The carriage carrying us hit a rock in the road and bounced. I tensed up.

“Are you ok?” Jing, who sat next to me, whispered. We were in the very front of the carriage, where the driver should’ve sat with a whip. We didn’t need a driver or a whip because the lizard pulling the cart was one of Brian’s creations. It knew what to do.

“Yeah, of course,” I whispered back. It was still the middle of the night, and Jing’s zoo was sleeping in the back of the carriage. We whispered because we didn’t want to wake them up. A curtain covered the front end of the carriage, letting only a few slivers of light into the inside of the cart.

“That was a big bump,” I whispered again, “Do you think any of the children woke up?” I turned back. I moved the curtain aside and looked into the carriage. A small tiger snored on top of a turtle. A chicken rested its head on top of the tiger’s belly. A blue spider curled up next to the chick, all of them drenched in a green glowing slime. Ten or so of them slept in an uncomfortable pile. I couldn’t imagine sleeping like that, but they didn’t seem to mind. “They’re still asleep,” I announced. “Why are they here, anyway?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“They’re orphans I found last time I visited the forest. I took them in to protect them until they get strong enough to live on their own. I thought they’d be happy to visit home.”

“That reminds me…The snake you gave me, the one that called me grandpa, followed Wisteria away. He betrayed us.” I didn’t want to tell her, but I had to. I knew how much she liked that snake.

“Oooh, goodie. I can’t believe that worked,” she said.

I stared at her, “What?”

“I gave the snake to you when you went to the meeting because I was hoping to get a spy in Wisteria’s ranks. You know those dragons flying over the city? They’re your classmate’s dragons that she got from the forest we’re going to right now. Esha used to live in the forest, and she lived close with the dragons. She was there when Wisteria convinced the dragons to follow her. I started to plan against her after Esha told me about her.”

Jing gave me her ‘prideful lioness’ smile, “I still can’t believe it worked though. I didn’t actually tell the snake to be a spy, because then it’ll look like we’re plotting against Wisteria if he gets caught. But I knew he was smart, and he’d figure out that joining them as a spy would help us. He figured out what I wanted him to do all on his own! What a little genius, don’t you think?”

I jabbed her belly playfully, “You’re way smarter. You’re setting up these schemes under my nose, and you still call Brian ‘schemey and evil’? You hypocrite.”

Jing jabbed me back, “How dare you call me evil!”

I added ticklishness when I made her, right? Hm, I don’t remember. Only one way to find out. I reached over and tickled her sides through her shirt. She tried to hold back her giggles, but couldn’t. “Sto- heh heh- stoppit!”

I grinned and withdrew my hands. “But you are kinda schemey, aren’t you? Your sister says the same thing.”

“Yeah, but I’m not like Brian. My scheming is for the good. If one of my plans harms somebody, that only means I’ll help a lot more people down the line. Your friend’s different. He’s more like a terrorist. He just blows up a bunch of stuff and then tries to take it over afterwards, ignoring all the collateral damage. It’s like nuking a city and parachuting a flag over the ruins. It’s pointless! And evil!” she exclaimed. She raised a fist to the air, as if trying to call a lightning bolt to smite Brian’s bad practices.

“Good girl,” I pinched her leg. A small rustle. I turned back. A chicken had moved the curtain aside. A dozen pairs of eyes looked back at us from within the carriage. “Oops. Were we too loud?” Jing and I spent the next thirty minutes putting them back to sleep.