A New Regiment

The royal bed chambers was adorned with gold lined pillars supporting the large ceiling overhead, fabulous drapes the caught in the light wind, the comfiest furniture made from the finest wood. If nowhere else, this was Snugglemane's safe space where he could find solace. Normally, he slept soundly in his bed, but for whatever reason he was finding it hard to fall back asleep. It felt as if his mattress was leaning to the side. Turning over, peering through his crusty lids, a figure sat on the edge of his bed, book in their hands.

Snugglemane jolted wide awake, throwing himself the opposite way, out of bed. "Sweet Ruby Pure Heart!" Snugglemane looked back, the figure's silhouette lit with the moonlight the leaked between the curtains. Snugglemane relaxed for a moment before jumping back into panic. Lunging for his nightstand, he scrambled to place his wig back onto his head. "W-what are you doing here?"

Ashaki held up a pair of books, marked with the roman numerals for twelve and fourteen. "Where is the journal for Snugglemane XIII?"

Snugglemane rolled his eyes, pulling himself back into bed. "Don't know, don't care. They're just old books nobody cares about."

"Well, I care," Ashaki flipped through the journals. "There's a whole section of history missing! At the beginning of fourteen, they talk about the Ruby Pure Heart, the twelve never talks about it. That means the Ruby Pure Heart wasn't discovered until the reign of the thirteenth."

"So?" Snugglemane curled up in his covers, trying to get back to sleep.

"So, what is the Ruby Pure Heart, really? A gem that size doesn't just form in the earth. And there's no facility in the world that can make, let alone house it." Ashaki rambled. "So where did it come from?"

"Look, I don't know, family legend says it's somewhere in the castle. If you want to check all the hidden rooms and passageways, be my guest." Snugglemane gestured to his bed chamber doors. "You have free reign of the castle."

Ashaki scoffed. Implying that she didn't have free reign before? Even if she didn't, nobody in the castle could stop her if they tried. "I've already searched the whole castle," Ashaki retorted. "All the passages, all the nooks, they're not here."

Snugglemane kneaded the mattress, making it nice and ready for their return to slumber. "How unfortunate. Now, if you'll excuse me." Snugglemane plopped down onto mattress, throwing the blanket over his head.

Ashaki cursed under her breath. Why did she think this bozo would be able to help her? Ashaki spent the next few hours wandering the halls of the castle, searching for anything they might've missed.

This was a waste of time. Ashaki thought to herself. I've already scanned the entire castle, there's nothing here I haven't already seen. Ashaki walked out onto the balcony, looking back and up to see the enormous Ruby Pure Heart. Just what are you?

A new day, another training session. Adorabat could barely sleep, she was too excited. When Ashaki had told her that she was capable of Mystic Arts, she asked, almost begged, Mao Mao to let Ashaki teach her. Mao Mao, in turn, said it would be okay, granted he sit in on a few lessons, just to be sure Ashaki wasn't teaching her anything she shouldn't.

Adorabat flapped straight out of bed, soaring straight to the dojo. It was there that Ashaki was already there, leaning against the railing, with a cup of coffee in hand. Ashaki glanced over at her before taking another sip of her brew.

"Morning Aunt Ashaki!" Adorabat screeched. Ashaki flinched, smiling back.

"Morning," Ashaki mumbled. She struggled to stifle a yawn, setting the cup down on the floor. "Let's get to work." Ashaki sat down on the floor, resting back on her palms. "I think the easiest to start with, is chi control."

"Yes! I'm ready!" Adorabat exclaimed. The tiny blue bat hopped up and down, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Okay, okay," Ashaki made a calm down motion with her hand. Adorabat, stopped hopping, but she moved to swinging motion with her hips. Ashaki rolled her eyes. "Close your eyes." Once Adorabat shut her eyes, Ashaki spoke softly. "Imagine, that everything around you, the air, the trees, the insects-"

"Bugs? Where?!" Adorabat's eyes flew open, whipping her head back and forth, searching for her favorite snack.

"There are no bugs," Ashaki said. Adorabat's shoulders fell, a look of disappointment fell across her face. "Let's try something else. How about we try to learn astral projection?"

"Oh, I can do that!"

Ashaki just smiled. "I'm sure your excited, but it takes weeks, sometimes years to-" Ashaki's jaw fell slack, seeing Adorabat's body fall over, her spiritual form left floating in the air. "H-how in the-"

"See? It's easy!" Adorabat floated about, doing backstrokes through the air. Ashaki was nothing but astonished. It took her months to learn how to perform astral projection. Could it be because she started learning Mystic Arts in her teens? Adorabat on the other hand is only five years old, with very few preconceived notions, leaving her mind flexible.

"Intriguing." Ashaki smirked, folding her legs, she began to meditate. After a few seconds, Ashaki joined Adorabat, their astral projections hovering in the sky. "Do you know how to get to the astral plane?"

"Yeah!" Adorabat excliamed. "Race you there!" Adorabat began soaring upwards, fast. Ashaki gave a light chuckle before following.

The two of them raced through the clouds, the expanse of blue sky stretched out to either side. Before they knew it, they were in the astral plane.

"I win! I win!" Adorabat flew about, sending out fireworks from her wingtips.

The astral plane doesn't follow the conventional rules of the corporeal realm, the limits of what you can do, is solely dependent on your imagination. So shooting fireworks from your fingertips can be easy as breathing.

"Who showed you how to get here?" Ashaki called out to Adorabat, who was floating about gleefully.

"Nobody," she responded. "I got here because of a tooth ache."

Ashaki did a double take, unsure that she heard the child's claim correctly. "A tooth ache?"

"Yeah! Isn't that how everyone get to the astral plane?" Adorabat's question was innocent enough, but Ashaki was flabbergasted at the thought.

"No! Who fed you that idiocy?"

"Meditatin' Melvin." Adorabat began looking around. Last time she was here, Melvin had told her that he had stayed in the astral plane for years. "Where is he?"

"Melvin?!" Ashaki roared. "That quack?! He knows absolutely nothing about Mystic Arts!"

"You know Melvin?" Adorabat asked.

"Yes. But sometimes I wish I didn't," Ashaki rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I try to keep tabs on all the Mystic Arts users. Mystic Arts is incredibly powerful, and insanely dangerous in the wrong hands."

"So what could happen if it was used wrong?" Adorabat's curiosity got the better of her.

Ashaki waved the question aside. "Not the point, we're getting sidetracked. It should be easier to teach you how to use Mystic Arts here."

"But don't we need chi to use mystic arts?"

"That's the beauty of it," Ashaki said with a knowing smirk. "Our astral forms are made of pure chi. So you could think about of performing Mystic Arts here like using training wheels." Ashaki waved her hands, bringing up a diagram of a body, seven circles of different colors lined down the middle. "These are the chakras we'll go over, starting with Anja, since that's the one you're most adept at." Adorabat nodded vigorously. Ashaki brought up a brick wall. "When you flow chi through your Anja, you'll be able to see individuals through matter."

Ashaki stepped behind the wall, calling from behind the bricks for Adorabat to start her attempt. Adorabat stared at the wall, trying to imagine Ashaki behind the wall. It was faint, but Adorabat could swear she was seeing Ashaki's silhouette. "I think I see you!" She called out.

"What am I doing with my arms?" Ashaki called back.

After a few seconds, Adorabat called back. "You have them crossed... behind your back."

Ashaki floated up, her head popping over the wall, smiling at Adorabat. "Well done!" Adorabat smiled in turn.

"Next, I think the next thing we should go over is Manipura," Ashaki pointed to her solar plexus. "Ready?"

"Always!"

"Just like you channeled chi through Anja, your going to channel it through Manipura, once you do that, your physical abilities will increase."

Adorabat scratched her head. "But... aren't we spirits?" She asked. "How will this affect my foosical abibidy?"

"It won't, not here at least. This is to get you familiar with engaging your Mystic Arts."

"So it's practice?"

"This is a training session." Ashaki raised her hand to manifest some obstacles for Adorabat. In moving her shoulder, Ashaki felt like there was pressure being applied. Is someone messing with her body. "I'll be right back."

Before waiting for Adorabat's reply, Ashaki plummeted from the astral plan, down to the corporeal plane, and into her body. Opening one eye, she saw that it had been Minori, lightly shaking her hovering body.

"Can I help you?" Ashaki asked.

"We think we found it," Minori replied.

Ashaki raised a brow. "Found what?"

"The nest."

The members of the Sheriff Dept. gathered around the table in the kitchen. The core members, Mao Mao, Badgerclops, and Adorabat, stood on one side, and the Mao sisters, Violet, Minori, and Ashaki stood on the other.

In the center of the table, was a device that Badgerclops had made. There was a panel that had a pile of mush laid on it, a dish to search beyond the village, as well as a few other bells and whistles that Badgerclops threw on it.

"What am I looking at?" Ashaki finally asked.

"This machine takes the DNA of the wasps we fought a few days ago," Badgerclops gestured to the mush. "And via bio-electrical signals, is able track entities of similar make." Badgerclops produced a tablet, on it was a radar, with several pinging signals on it. "And viola!"

Ashaki looked over the machine again, then back to Badgerclops. "Impressive."

"Well, if we know where the Jade Wasps are, why don't we set their nest on fire?" Minori asked.

"Not the best course of action," Violet retorted. "We don't have enough information about the nest."

"Violet is right," Ashaki said, holding her chin in thought. "They saying 'don't poke the hornet's nest', is a saying for a reason. I'll scout it tomorrow, and with the information I gather, we can have a proper plan with safeguards in place." Ashaki looked over at Mao Mao. "If that's okay with you?"

Mao Mao was silent for a moment. "Do what you like." Mao Mao left the room, heading back to his desk to wrap up the paperwork he had started the other day.

"I can't believe this," Minori took on a tone of annoyance with her sisters. "First you tell me we need to find the nest asap, before the wasps make a move. Now that we've found it, you want to just sit around and wait?!"

"We don't know that the nest is even there," Ashaki replied. "And we still need information, about the Queen, their numbers, are there any eggs we need to be wary of?"

"You know what I think?" Minori growled. "I think you're spineless, always wording it like you're in the right."

Ashaki got ticked off at the remark. Caution wasn't cowardice. "And you're an idiot, never thinking twice before making a move. You believe yourself to an unstoppable force, but you're not, the only thing unstoppable about you is your idiocy!"

The two glared at each other, the tension hung in the air. Badgerclops and Adorabat, too scared to take a breathe. After a few seconds, Minori scoffed, flipping around on her heels, leaving out the front door, slamming it behind her.

Violet took a few small steps toward the front door. "I should check on her, make sure she doesn't do something stupid." Violet followed out to the front lawn. After the door clacked against the door frame, Ashaki allowed her shoulders to relax.

Adorabat looked at Ashaki with her wide eyes, wondering what she was thinking. Ashaki caught Adorabat's stare. "I think our lessons are done for today." Ashaki trudged out of the kitchen and into the attic.