They were drenched from head to toe as they ran trying to catch the little culprit.
It was not raining at the moment but he had called the ocean waters and made it shower on .
" Mia, get hold of your son. He is becoming too powerful ! "
Ruby was the one baby sitting him. He was too fond of her. But he got mad when Xie sneaked from behind and pulled her under him.
He was about to plant a kiss on her lips when the little minion unleashed the shower , soaking wet.
Jade had taken the helm of the mer- world. She happily married Anjana and pronounced him .
Ruby agreed to Xie's marriage proposal. And she came to the land to live as his queen.
But she needed to keep going back to the mer- world to revitalize herself. Xie had given up his of claiming the throne for this reason and decided to settle near the shore.
This way, Ruby never had to miss the waters.
Boshu went to live with Roe in the Wolf kingdom. His phobia of wolves had long disappeared. It came back when Roe threatened to turn into her true form or rip his head, whenever they an argument.
The Fox King did not waste a moment in naming his special grandchild.
They called him Akata, meaning fox. Though that was not exactly what he was. It was half of . The rest quarters being wolf and mer-male.
The Fox king even went overboard announcing him as his True Heir.
This announcement did meet with a lot of silent resentment if not loud.
Some said it was belittling the princes present.
And some said it showed the king's favorite.
Mia and Lin were mostly unbothered by mundane state affairs.
They liked spending most of their time hanging out at Xie's place.
The men drank as the girls roamed the ocean.
Akata was the one often bored.
He preferred Roe's presence .
It was one such leisurely afternoon.
" Aku... What is this behavior? Say sorry at once! "
Mia sat with her boy's hand in her hand when suddenly he pulled himself free and ran.
Roe had arrived.
He went and leaped over her head.
She tackled him fondly, making him loudly giggle.
Boshu dropped behind at which the little boy raised an eyebrow at him.
" What? Now I can't even accompany my wife? "
Boshu acted like he was punching him in his tummy.
" Careful! " When the drenched Xie warned. " You don't want to end up like me, do you?
This casanova wants all the pretty girls to himself. "
They all laughed loudly at Xie's teasing.
" Come on Sky. Go play with your friends. I have something important to discuss with the elders.
I will come play with you after that! "
He never even looked back after Roe's instruction. He marched straight outside till he reached play site.
" What is it? You look worried! "
Mia did not miss the sign of distress as Roe straightened up and heaved.
" There have been some disturbances at the Sacred Lands. We are not sure about the . Nor do we know any details. But all the standalone testimonies match and they are vivid .
I thought you guys ought to have a look at it! "
She rolled out a leather paper where there was innumerable scribbling .
" Now this feels like old time! "
Boshu barged in as they formed a circle around the manuscript.
"Let's get going. Let's go brainstorming! "
He was about to thump Lin and Xie on their backs but their eyes rolled . " Maybe not! "
He mumbled withdrawing his attempts, when both the Fox and the Wolf pulled him in a bear .
" Come on, you shy bird. We are all a big family now. Aren't we? When are you going to stop scared of us! "
" Neeevveerr! "
Boshu yelled in a joke.
That was the perfect picture drawn on the beautiful land. Disturbance comes and goes and so time and tide. The land was freed from its long curse. Not only the immortals bit the too, they lived in peace. They had feared that they might have been trampled upon in absence of a just king but the immortals left their governance in their hands.
They developed a system where they let their opinion known as to who should be the next King king's men. This they called democracy.
They decided to migrate to a lower ground in order to stay away from future immortal hustle.
Though things looked great at the moment, it didn't take more than a moment to turn into a battlefield. The mortals were willing to give up their fertile plain to dwell peacefully in the below that of the immortals.
Also joining them were left alone birds and other beasts, like Boshu. They too had been living the mortals in hiding. Now they had to choose between merging back with the immortal or exiling themselves with the mortals to the underlying strata. This process saw a great of migrants in numbers. Both the Foxes and the Wolves took them in with open arms. But still chose demotion. Centuries of fear had hard wired their emotions.
Mia had in her own time, tried going to the land of the Tree of Knowledge, along with the mer- .
But strangely enough, they both got stuck at the Land of the Lakes.
She didn't want others to know so she had swore his silence, " This is a secret between us.
Nobody needs to know. Alright! "
The little boy was just too happy to play around Mia carefree and act his true self. Be his age.
Grow like a child without the sword of sacrifice hanging from the upside.
All was basically good in the immortal world till the news of the disturbance arrived. So was really alright ?
******
Mia's POV- New voyage
It didn't feel right.
It was great. We were back to our old ways.
Lin, me, Boshu, Roe and Xie. We had left Ruby behind because it was my first time leaving Aku and he was throwing a lot of tantrums.
Had it not been due to the request sent to us from both our parents, the fox and the wolf kings, I 't practically willing to leave my baby boy behind. He wasn't a baby anymore, I knew that but he would always be a baby to me, no matter how old he was. At the moment, he was more than a toddler. But his way of growing wasn't really according to norms.
He had his own unique pace of growing. His mixed traits were manifesting at such a tender age.
It was something to take into account but it wasn't strange.
" Mia, you seem so lost. Tell me what's bugging you sweetheart. "
Lin shoved me with his shoulder as he handed me the glass of fresh juice that he brought. I was right over the mast, dangling my legs, feeling the cool breeze tingle me as I brooded. He right next to me and his kiss on my shoulder, sent a shudder down my chest.
I knew it wasn't meant to arouse me. It was a reassuring kiss.But my cheeks got flushed and I away before my face gave away my day dream.
" Nothing Lin. Was just missing Aku. I haven't been without him in a long while. "
" You don't need to worry about him. You left my wife behind to babysit him, remember. "
Xie threw the skin of the fruit they used to make the juice, right at my face.
" It didn't seem like you were complaining ,lover boy. Now leave my elder sister, will ya! "
Roe hit him lightly on the head at which Boshu chuckled.
Xie totally ignored Roe and went right for Boshu and they both leapt into the ocean.
" You seem to be getting quite bold birdie. Time to clip some wings... "
" Bother-in-law, come on... I didn't mean it that way... "
Their muffled argument could be heard. It didn't take Roe long to join them in the water as well.
Lin looked at me from the corner of his eye, the spark was undoubtedly talking naughty to me.
In no time he had pushed me and jumped as well.
Our little boat kept moving as we laughed and played along.
It wasn't bad. Was it?
Then why did I keep feeling like something was wrong.
We were headed towards the Western Wastelands. The disturbances could be traced back to but after that, no more clues could be found.
Our leaders didn't want the people to panic after the hardship they went through, hence , we, heros from the last mission, we going at it.
Suddenly, I could feel the change in the water pressure and morphology.
My body was still wrapped in Lin's arm and my brothers and sister were having a full on water .
But I broke free.
Without any warning I swam forward. There was no way they could keep up with me so started panicking and they started calling my name.
But I needed to make sure if I was feeling the right thing.
There was a wall in front.
Invisible to naked eye.
It was almost the border of the Western Wastelands.
And our boat was headed straight for an inevitable clash.
" Turn the vessel around.... "
I tried swimming back as fast as I could.
" What? "
" Mia... what's wrong? Is everything alright? "
" Mia are you okay. "
I knew I had to do it myself before these dumb heads got over their concern for me.
I leapt onto the starboard side and went straight for the wheel. I turned it as fast as I could. It a lot of time to change it's course but luckily I was able to save it from the collision with just few small scratches.
" Phew! "
I sat down with my legs stretched, soaking wet as my sweat got mixed with the water , from all adrenaline that rushed into my system.
My family finally joined me with very worried faces as I explained to them, what had happened.
" An invisible wall? " Boshu wondered around.
" A barrier you mean... " Xie tried to rectify me. I shook my head.
" No. Not a spiritual barrier. I physical one but invisible to naked the naked eye. It's a full fedged, wall and any vessel would crumble to pieces when they come at it in full speed. And there no way anybody would be able to swim across this sea, apart from someone form the mer- . " I expalined.
" We should go have a look at it. "
Lin said, ready to jump into the water again.
I grabbed his hand and stopped him.
" No you can't. There is also a very strong under current. We would not be able to stand there examine the wall without getting pulled wherever the current went.
We need to find another way." I looked at him with my eyes full of concern.
" Hhhhmmm, a wall. Who erected a wall in the middle of the ocean? What are they hidding it? This is definitely something very sus. Should we not go back for reporting? "
Boshu asked.
" Report what? " I countered back, " just that we found a wall? And then what do we expect our to do? Attack it head on? It would just be like adding more fuel to their worries without information. We need to find more about it. At least something solid enough for our kings build on. Let's anchor near by, somewhere. We need to dig more into this one. "
They nodded and went about looking for a suitable spot, away from the place of incidence.
When they were gone, I moved my sleeve to check the scar that was burnt into my skin where I accidentally brushed against the wall. It wasn't healing, though I had my wolf instincts fully .