Chapter 69
Inside, they saw Hana lying unconscious in a pool of her own blood. Tiny cracked lines had appeared on the pores of her scorching red skin, widening slowly while more precious blood was seeping out from the wound. Her yellow s.h.i.+rt and dirty pair of jeans were already soaking red.
"Her body is going to explode! How is this happening?!" Kuro panicked as he asked the fumbling yellow bird.
"I don't know! Just now she looked just fine. But then she ate a tiny bite of Ara's skewer. A very tiny one. After that she fell and went unconscious. I went to find you brothers when I couldn't wake her up!" Markisah answered worriedly.
"Brother, do something! Can you extract out the food she ate?" s.h.i.+ro was in his rare moments of agitation! He was helpless to save their mommy.
"There's not enough time! The tyrannical energy had already entered her bloodstream. The energy from that meat is too thick and potent for her! I should've explained to her thoroughly!" Kuro was flying in a circle in trepidation. He was at his wit's end. Seeing Hana dying without being able to do anything really hurts. Ideally, he was the one who was the closest to their mommy, where they had shared a deeper level of connection. Through their connection, he could find a way to help digest all the excess energy. However, at the moment, their mommy's situation was in a precarious state! She would die any second now! He needed to find a way to stabilize Hana's condition long enough so he could help her find a way to digest or expel the abundant of invasive energy out!
The Crystal-veined stream Lord watched dumbfoundedly at what was happening in front of him.
[Is this the creature who enslaved my little Aranyella?! She is weaker than a chicken! She will die in a matter of seconds from implosion due to over abundant of energy! Oh no!]
Lord t.i.ttua looked at the worried Ara. She didn't realize her life was tied with this extremely weak existence. Once she dies, his beloved great granddaughter will die too.
Suddenly, he saw Ara floated forward. She pried open the aunty's b.l.o.o.d.y mouth and inserted one of her self-made pellets. Lord t.i.ttua sweated in fear as he remembered the 'prowess' of the pellets which nearly crippled nearly a third of their younger generation. It smelled and looked the same!
"What are you doing, Aranyella?! You're only going to make it worse.." His words trailed off when he saw the fissures on the aunty's skin stopped propagating before it flared again a minute later.
"Stupid fish, hurry feed her more with that thing of yours!" Kuro urged her as he prepared to link up with Hana to help her from within. He made a weird dance and zoned out immediately. It seemed that he had suddenly entered hibernation. The white fox walked in front of Hana and Kuro. He stared at the stream lord with hostility. Even without a spoken word, Lord t.i.ttua knew that the fox was very vigilant with
"At ease. I will help as well. The life of the creature is irrevocably tied to my little Aranyella. I will do my utmost to not let her die." At least for now. He added in his heart.
...
Hana stared at the surrounding blankly.
[Where am I? Why am I here?]
Just moments ago, her whole body had been in an extreme pain. It was so painful that it felt as if she was going through the pain of giving birth to her first daughter again. The worst thing was, the pain kept on going without ebbing even for a second until she felt she couldn't hold on anymore. At least, during labor, the pain came in waves where she could take a breather in between the incoming painful contractions.
This level of pain was overkill. The pain was akin to a searing molten magma travelling through her whole body starting from her abdomen, then her upper and lower body, and finally saturated on her limbs. She felt that she had fainted from the excruciating pain, but she wasn't sure.
However, she had been yanked into this familiar darker than black empty s.p.a.ce all of a sudden. All the torturous pain disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if it was a figment of her imagination. This darkness felt as familiar as her dream last night. It was the dark s.p.a.ce with two large stars she ended up in. Except that, there was an additional inconspicuous aquamarine colored tiny star a little far from both the red and ice blue ones.
Hana was stumped. The previous time it was in her dream. However, this time, she clearly remembered she was doing house ch.o.r.es before she was a.s.saulted by an unbearable pain! However, she was very sure she saw a glimpse of a long black scaly tail physically 'pulling' her into this familiar dream just now.
[Kuro, is that you?!] Hana shouted loudly as her voice echoed into the dark 'night'.
She had an inkling this was not a dream at all. She walked a few paces and peered left and right within the dark s.p.a.ce, couldn't make heads or tails of what was happening. She was sure the one who saved her from the excruciating pain was her beloved little black snake and no one else.
No answer.
This time, she saw the red star blazing and pulsating slightly. It was larger and clearer than usual.
After some hesitation, she decided that she would walk towards it. She felt that she had been walking and walking and walking without end for a really long time.
[This is really far. Even my window shopping at IOI Mall (1) was never this long!!] Hana sighed as she nearly gave up!
A very faint yet familiar male voice reached her ears. [Mommy, please. Respond. Link up with me...I need you to connect to me now...] The red star pulsated with every faint word delivered to her ears.
Hana's eyes got wider as realization dawned on her!
[The red star is Ku-chan!]
She showed a determined look before she dashed forward and ran as hard as she could towards the little red star in her 'dream'.
....
s.h.i.+ro was walking to and fro in worry as he observed the now dormant black snake. His whole body had suddenly glowed a shade of reddish light. Additionally, the red light in his black eyes and external red core were pulsating following a strange rhythm. It had been two days!
[Did he succeed? Did Mom connect to Brother in time?]
He turned to look at their mistress. At the beginning, the little fish kept on feeding her with her homemade medicinal pellets one after another. After a while, the Crystal-veined stream Lord sighed and pushed the little fish aside and singlehandedly took over.
Their mistress was currently suspended in a big water bubble conjured up by the Crystal-veined stream Lord in the middle of the cave. The water bubble was filled with hundreds of Ara's medicinal pellets floating freely everywhere. She was still quite b.l.o.o.d.y but her condition had stabilized thanks to the effect of the pellets. Her blood had made the crystal clear water murky. However, this time, the Crystal-veined stream Lord himself had taken the extra mile to help save her; obviously he has the ability to prevent Hana's progressive injuries from exacerbating. He had externally suppressed her injuries using his psyche by forcefully holding the tissues together in all locations simultaneously. It was an emergency measure to curb her incoming implosion but was not a permanent solution. It needed an extreme finesse and precision. If the Spirit-Lord overused his psyche, he could squash Hana to death immediately.
Nonetheless, the crux of saving their mistress still falls on Kuro's effort from within. Now, they were just waiting for Hana to reach out to Kuro to initiate the profound art spoken by Kuro.
Suddenly, Hana's body within the water bubble emitted a faint red light! Her messy bun hair unraveled itself and billowed inside the water like living snakes writhing around, slowly encasing the water bubble from view as it grew longer and longer by the minute.
[The link had finally initiated!] s.h.i.+ro released a relieved sigh.
...
Author's Note:
(1) IOI Mall = a big mall in Puchong, a location quite near to KL in Malaysia.