Updated: 9/14/2021
Hey guys! I'm back! I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I've rewritten and updated. The last several months were very difficult. I had gone through a really bad break up and was living in shelters over the summer but things are better now and I plan to get back on a more regular update/rewrite schedule and hopefully we'll be seeing new chapters in a few months. Path of Fire will be getting written in the meantime - based on the flashbacks from this story. Both stories will see small changes - mostly some memories added in, some more sensory details, and added commentary from our Saiyajins inner Oozarus. I think other than steamy add-ins, the Oozarus are my favorite =) Nothing will be taken from the stories so don't worry about that. If I make larger changes, like adding in entire scenes, I'll make note of it.
So without further ado,
Enjoy lovelies!
Chapter 4: I Pray That I'm Wrong
The air was suffocating. Smoke and ash; screaming, crying, and the feel of panic thicker than the grey plumes that filled the Ox Kingdom. The castle was now only half standing. Chai could see from where she floated that the armory and garrison were gone, along with the dry storage, parts of the dining hall, throne room, and her own chambers. What wasn't gone was being consumed by fire.
Someone seemed to think that I'd be home. They're lucky I wasn't. Things would not have gotten this far.
There was still chaos on the ground. Buildings and homes burned as well, and people scrambled to and fro, trying to gather their loved ones and belongings, running around in a frantic state. The queen landed, tail tight to her waist, and tried to find what members of court she could to have them direct the people towards the river about 25 miles south. It was the farthest point of the Ox Kingdom's borders and where she couldn't detect any fighting. It was probably the invading army's intent to drive them there, and trap the citizens of the Ox Kingdom, but what most of the other twelve kingdom's didn't know was that the Ox Queen was half alien.
"To the river! Take your families to the river!" Chai shouted as she moved from one square to the next, trying to save as many as possible. All of the erratic ki, however, was making it impossible for her to focus. Worse, there was less ki flickering throughout the kingdom than there should have been. Much less.
Not far away, Chai could feel and hear battle commence. Metal clanged, cries of pain sounded, and explosions boomed in the air. It wasn't that long ago that the racket of war would make her tail stand on end but now it was no stranger than the crash of waves on the ocean. She could sense that her remaining soldiers were now fully engaged with what had to be two more armies, from the amount of ki that came from several miles away. What didn't feel right was the lack of ki. That ever-present desire to join the fight welled up in her.
Later.
Destroy what took from us, her inner beast urged. Chai agreed whole-heartedly, yet she needed to prioritize.
I need to get over there, but I need to make sure the civilians are being looked after first.
Tsuchi flashed through Chai's mind but no, the girl was healing. Still, perhaps she should have had the girl come. Chai quickly tracked the ki of her court and felt the air leave her lungs. Counselor Cassia, Chancellor Rue, General Cayenne. None of their ki's could be detected. For a moment, she was tempted to seek out General Clove but she stopped herself. He was her best general.
He's fine, and he promised to reach out.
Chai flexed out her ki for the rest. Basil was near the river with several other ki, as instructed. She noted to herself to reward the Steward somehow. The queen had also caught that the concentration of ki was incredibly high at the medical bay. Her heart caught into her throat and she pushed it back into place. It didn't surprise her, but it was something else to actually feel hundreds of your own people suffering and dying.
Chai then felt out for her archivist, Cinna, and felt her heart drop. The castle… The demi took off with her saiyajin speed to where the ki emanated.
Cinna can't be that foolish.
The archives, artifacts, and trophies were stored in the same triple locked room. It was tricky to access the first two sections, however, the third was impossible for those who were not members of the Gyamao family, or the honored archivist.
The queen found herself in the dining room as it continued to burn. The walls her grandfather built, the long table her father slapped countless fish onto, the tapestries her mother weaved of their family tree, all consumed by fire. The curse of Fire Mountain. She couldn't think of a way to put out the flames without risking blowing away the entire castle, Cinna with it. She'd simply have to work quickly.
She made her way to the back left corner where a painting of the original queen sat overlooking her descendants. It was one of the few things that survived previous fires. The first Queen Chai. The current queen pulled one sai from its sheath and felt through the smoke to wedge it between the painting and the wall for the mechanism. A click echoed, eerie against the roar of the flames, and the painting pulled open. Behind it lay only black.
Chai levitated into the opening. It was small, even for a short woman to navigate around. Worse, this was the easiest room to deal with and there were only ten minutes to get to the other side. Chai had done this several times in the past, but not with a fire raging around her and not with someone's life hanging in the balance. If she didn't get to Cinna and get him out before the doors closed themselves, the fire would trap them. The demi-saiyan could survive that fine but Cinna would die.
She could already feel the sweat dripping from her face as it continued to consume more of the castle. There was clattering behind her as engulfed beams and walls fell inwards, catching more of it on fire.
Focus.
Chai raised one hand directly in front of her, praying this would not make the situation worse. But it was the only way to open the door. She focused on the ki, creating just as large of a blast as she thought she'd need and shot at the wall before her. There was a flash of white, then an image of Fire Mountain burned into the wall, emitting the only light and showing off the mere twelve square feet of the room. It flickered, then the embers spread to engulf the entire wall. As it fell away, Chai felt the fire behind her draw itself to the new heat source she'd just manifested.
Shit.
Glass shattered and echoed through the castle. Chai knew some of the pressure from the fire would release into the open air, making it less likely that it would follow her in. Then again, it also gave the fire another path to follow. More material to burn and eat until this set of passages was all there was to eat.
She forced herself forward to the next room, her footfalls clacking against stone being the only sound. The floor, ceiling, and walls were entirely stone, with the exception of one glass wall. Beyond the crystalline, Chai could see the scrolls, the hanging armors and weapons that had won wars, and various treasures sacred to the Gyamao bloodline. Among them was Cinna, scorched and laying only a foot from the threshold.
Sweat was now dripping from the fur of her tail. That was a particularly disgusting sensation, yet the momentary distraction helped her to calm slightly. Even her inner Oozaru didn't like the feel of a dirty tail. Chai worked quickly, pricking her finger with her sai and painting the kanji for "Ox" in the middle of the glass. It wasn't the image itself but the blood that dissolved it. This was enchanted by Uranai Baba herself. It could not be broken, blown up, or otherwise destroyed. Only the blood of the royal family, or of the archivist could open it. Chai stepped through.
She knelt and picked up Cinna easily as a leatherbound book fell from the archivist's limp hands.
Is this what Cinna was after?
Chai didn't recognize it but grabbed it with her tail anyways and tucked it into her chest as well. As she began their escape, a blast of flames blew through the tunnel she'd created, throwing both against the opposite wall.
A barrier burst from Chai's chest and encircled them, protecting both from the flames and the rusted blades they would have been blown into. Fire roared around them; eating up all of Chai's family history while she and Cinna sat in the middle. Worse, she could still feel the disappearing ki of her army.
I don't have time for this.
The Saiyajin set down Cinna and the mysterious book and stood towards the edge of the barrier, near the flames. She closed her eyes and raised her ki for help, careful not to disperse the protective shield. Chai could only hope the right person felt it as murky red and orange filled her vision.
Her mind wandered around the kingdom. Are there more survivors that need help? What of the battle? Did Clove reach Yerba? Who attacked us? Chai needed to get out of here so she could get answers.
Blood. Will have blood, her beast urged.
Chai couldn't help but laugh at the insistence of her alter ego. The moon was waxing - that tended to make her instincts hike up. The only stronger influence would have been a full moon, in all of its blinding glory. In truth, their enemies could not have picked a worse time to attack them.
A stern, familiar ki touched down within the castle walls. That much she could tell. Chai sighed in disappointment but she wasn't all that surprised. He couldn't do instant transmission but it was better than nothing. Chai reached out with her mind.
'Piccolo!'
'Chai, where are you?"
'In the castle. If you go to the dining hall, you'll see a secret room.'
'Let me deal with this fire. Hold tight, kid.'
Chai chuckled to herself and stopped putting out her aura. Good, I can focus on this barrier. For the demi, a fire would have been no problem. She could go Super Saiyajin and practically walk through it, burning hotter than those flames. Cinna, however, wouldn't survive. There was clattering and whooshing as more and more of the Ox Kingdom's history was swallowed up by the fire, just as the fire before her parent's wedding had done nearly thirty years ago. It was also swallowing oxygen.
'Chai'
'I'm here.'
'I venture you're beyond this open painting?'
'Yes. I think I can see you, just walk -'
The sudden clinking of glass and clattering of stone broke Chai's thoughts, and line of sight. The fire in the archives roared and consumed what was left quicker, licking at the edges of her barrier. Now, both human, and nature raced to stay alive.
'What the hell happened?'
Chai's tail twitched as she closed her eyes. The urge to kamehameha the wall before her surged through the young queen, and she had to remind herself it would do no more than bounce around the room and destroy more. Perhaps even injure one of them.
'The doors rebuilt themselves. Where are you?'
Chai was drenched in sweat. It soaked her clothes. Matted her tail. Her breathing was also getting ragged. She slowly dropped to her knees.
'The dining hall. How do you open this blasted painting?'
'It doesn't matter. Only someone of Grandpa's blood can open the last door.'
'Fine then. Don't die, kid.'
The queen smiled at his brusqueness.
Good ole Piccolo.
Chai found that she was gasping and crawled over to Cinna. She pressed her fingers to his neck and nodded at the steady pulse.
Gods, it's warm.
The fire crackled around her. The queen looked around to find that her courtier and herself was all that was left of the room.
And this.
She picked up the book. It was bound around the middle and unmarked.
What could be so important?
"Chai-chan! My baby!"
Oh Kami…
Chai looked up to see her mother running full speed from the first room to the stone one, stopping just short of the glass. And what she was wearing. Cape billowed behind her, pink gloves on her hands, and a bladed helmet on her head.
Why, Mama?
Chi-chi removed one glove and pulled the boomerang-shaped blade from her headpiece, slicing open her fingers as Chai did before, yet she painted the symbol with more expertise. The glass dissolved before her and Piccolo blew his Destructive Wind at the flames before they could descend on himself and Chi-Chi. The fire disappeared around them, and Chai immediately lowered the barrier, nearly dragging Cinna and the book behind her to escape the confines of those rooms.
Once in the dining hall, Chai shoved the book over her mother's exposed stomach.
"Mama, please take this home, and put some clothes on while you're there."
The older woman frowned and crossed her arms over her boosted chest. "This is traditional Ox Princess armor, Chai-chan."
"And it should have burned with the other artifacts. Now Mama, please, I need this book safe." Chai replied, then turned to the Namekian, who was looking away from them. She could see the contrasting red shade from here. "Piccolo, please take my mother home. And thank you."
"Hmph," Chi-Chi pouted but took the book anyway. Piccolo refused to look at the Son matriarch as he flew off with her. Chai then flew south towards the medical bay, taking in the scene of smoke and ruin that now made her kingdom. Bodies that she did not yet care to identify, red splattering structures, staining the grass, and little bits that looked like limbs if she stared long enough. Chai felt her body tense and the sparking of her Super Saiyan form trickle over her skin. It was often an emotional reaction as well as a conscious one, and she had to keep track of that. There was no point in wasting that form on Earthlings, but she was furious. No one had ever dared come into her territory before. No one had ever killed her civilians.
It was a stone, longhouse-type building with six medics that each specialized in a different area of folk medicine and battle injuries. Tarragon headed the six, and was the most skilled physician in the kingdom. If she could not heal someone, then they were sent to one of the cities, but those instances were uncommon.
Chai carried Cinna inside, sidestepping here and there to make room for the people being shuffled in for their own injuries. Wounds, burns, severed limbs, and those who were seemingly unresponsive. The smell of blood, urine, saline, and herbs mixed in a sickly stench. Chai retched at the smell but held herself together. She was the damned queen, after all.
There were numerous bodies. Not only the beds, but all chairs, tables, even counter space occupied with people who were too weak to stand. Those who could stand barely did so, leaning against walls, furniture, even each other. Some were deadly silent, some cried out in pain, and some could only moan their grief.
Halfway down the length of the medical bay, her chief medical officer, Tarragon, knelt before a woman's open legs, commanding her to push as the woman screamed from beyond her protruding belly.
Shitty timing to have a kid, or is it?
Chai nearly smiled.
"Your Majesty?"
A nurse that Chai didn't know approached her as she was shaking the moisture from her tail. The queen nodded towards her, and offered the bundle that was Cinna.
"I found him in the castle, passed out," she informed, as the nurse struggled under the archivist's weight.
Chai helped her to find him a seat, half-slumped in a chair in the corner.
"And yourself, ma'am?" the nurse asked, already checking Cinna's vitals. There was a shakiness in the woman's voice but her hands were steady. That's what mattered.
Chai had begun to shed her father's plaid shirt and unsheath her sai.
"I'm fine, nurse. And if you'll excuse me, I have a war to win."