"Will you have any issues going through the barriers, Mameki?" Mimi asks, staring in confusion at the empty path to Cloud Recesses.
"Mameki can wait in forest for cubs. Will wait with baggage."
With that, Mameki disappears with all their bags, Mimi looks around for a young cultivator or, better yet, the clan leader himself, but there is no one.
"He did say, nine in the morning?" Chen asks with a scowl.
"Well, it's nine-fifteen now," Mimi purses her lips; one thing she hates more than anything else is tardiness.
"Looks like we are going to do a lesson in tearing wards down," Mimi says, eyeing the white arch with resentment.
"Will the clan leader be mad?" Dumplin asks from Mimi's arms.
Mimi sets Dumplin down and crosses her arms, "He is late, so I am at liberty not to care."
Turning to Chen, Mimi questions, "What is the whole point of a barrier?"
"To keep things out," Chen shrugs, knowing this already.
"Exactly, cub," Mimi praises, walking toward the arch, her claws immediately spark against the invisible barrier.
"So, how does one break it?" Mimi looks to both Chen and Dumplin for an answer.
"Depends on how much time you have," Chen says eagerly, "You told me that a skilled cultivator like HanGuang Jun could have broken your barriers, but he needed a lot of time to do it. It also depends on whether you want the caster to know."
"Is this a simple barrier?" Dumplin asks casually.
"Let's see," Mimi smirks and scratches along the surface of the barrier.
The barrier glowed green with her magic and revealed a simple wall that, to the naked eye, looked like a pane of green glass.
"Since we are guests, it would be very rude to break in," Mimi states, "But the clan leader has kept us waiting, and I am impatient. So, we are going to break it down."
"Couldn't you burrow underneath?" Dumplin asks, eyeing the barrier.
"That's my girl," Mimi praises, "Good thinking outside the box! We could do that. Or we could probably get away with climbing over the arch. But where is the fun in that? I like to think of breaking down barriers as knocking on someone's door really hard."
"Alright, cub," Mimi wags her tails excitedly from under her robes, "hit it with your best shot."
Looking nervous, Chen steps up to the barrier and assumes a fighting stance.
"Loosen your shoulders, cub. Relax. Now imagine the barrier is a sheet of glass you want to break!"
Chen shakes out her arms, and to Mimi's delight, Chen hits the barrier with a giant column of foxfire, effectively shattering the barrier in one blast.
"Whoohoo!" Mimi and Dumplin cheer from the sidelines.
Mimi darts out to catch Chen as she stumbles a little from the large output of magic.
"That was amazing, cub," Mimi praises, hugging Chen.
"I feel a little sick," Chen groans.
"You're just not used to using large amounts of magic in one go," Mimi smiles, patting her on the back lightly.
"Alright," Mimi looks tiredly up the mountain, "Looks like we are going for a walk."
"Do we have to?" Chen whines, already dreading the long climb.
"Can't we use shadow travel?" Dumplin asks hopefully, already searching for a suitable shadow, but the day is bright and cheerful, no shadows.
Mimi sighs, "I'm a bit low on magic at the moment, kiddos, and I am not sure it would be a good idea to have Chen take all of us, especially after her pillar of fire routine."
The gifts Mimi had spent the last couple of weeks preparing had used up much of her magic, but she had a feeling it would be worth it. Unless there was an emergency, it would take a couple of days for her to recharge.
Dumplin, delighted by the walk, runs up ahead, her red hair ribbons merrily dancing in the slight wind.
"Don't go too far, cub," Mimi calls, "Stay where I can see you!"
Dumplin pauses in her skipping and races back to Mimi, knocking into her legs, "I will, Mimi! I will!"
Bemused by this, she watches Dumplin pick up perfectly rounded stones and shoving them into her pocket.
Chen wheezes, wiping away the sweat from her forehead, "Ugh, I'm melting!"
"It's not that hot out," Mimi wipes a bit of sweat off her brow, her hair sticking to the back of her neck.
"Can't you see my face slipping off my chin!" Chen sits down on a stone before changing her mind and standing up, "Here, take this boulder and smash my head in!"
"Chen," Mimi warns, staring her down.
Rolling her eyes, Chen glances over at Dumplin, staring in fascination at a grasshopper on the ground. As if summoned, Dumplin sprints toward her sisters with her hands cupping around something.
"Look! Look!" Dumplin cries, running up to Mimi and standing directly in front of her.
"What is it, Dumplin?" Mimi asks, scrunching down so that she is eye level with the child.
"I hunted!"
Dumplin opens her hands, and there is a twitching grasshopper within her sweaty palms.
"Wow. You are going to be ready for an actual fox hunt," Mimi teases, putting her hands around Dumplin's tinier ones.
"Really?"
Mimi nods and opens Dumplin's hands, revealing a grasshopper hair comb.
Squealing in excitement, Dumplin waves the comb at Chen, who rolls her eyes. Once Mimi gently wrestles the comb from her, she inserts it in Dumplin's deep red hair.
After two hours of walking, the trio pauses for a break near a small pond filled with lotus blossoms. The sun is beating down upon them. Chen is intermittently fanning herself with her hand and then fanning Dumplin, who is sitting between them.
"How many miles do you think we have still?" Mimi asks, scared to know the answer as she glances up at the mountains.
"Probably six," Chen grumbles, booping her little sister on the head with a blade of grass.
"I think we should try and keep to one side of the trail," Mimi stretches her arms overhead, "I don't like the fact that we haven't seen anyone. I wonder if something is wrong."
"Mameki was telling me that he heard that the clan leader likes to isolate himself," Chen offers; she held out the blade of grass she had been teasing Dumplin with just out of reach of her grabbing hands. Booping her every so often on the head when she isn't quick enough.
"Was Mameki listening to doors again?" Mimi stares curiously at Chen, surprised that Mameki had not told her.
"Mameki said that no one sees the Gusu clan leader except family after the events from the last two years."
Bored of her sister's teasing, Dumplin looks at Mimi pleadingly, "Can I stick my toes in the water? I won't get my dress dirty!"
Smiling, Mimi nods her head, "Just give me your shoes and socks, and I will keep them dry for you."
Peeling off her shoes and socks, Dumplin dutifully hands her little shoes to Mimi and gratefully sticks her feet in the water.
"What happened two years ago?" Mimi asks Chen, keeping Dumplin in her peripheral vision.
Chen's face turns troubled, "The Yiling Patriarch returned. Clan leader lan lost two of his fellow guardians and spent the last two years in deep mourning."
"Father didn't want to involve our clan in the war that followed," Chen turns and shrieks, yanking Dumplin from the bank of the pond, shoving the child behind her as a creature made entirely of seaweed lunges from the pond.
Snarling, Mimi forms a ball of green foxfire and throws it at the thing, singeing the creature immediately.
"Dumplin, are you hurt?" Chen gently pulls the little girl out from behind her as Mimi watches the water with a sense of foreboding.
"No. What was that?" Dumplin looks like she is about to cry as she hugs Chen, burying her face in her sister's skirts.
"A water spirit," Mimi says carefully, "they are usually not so bold. Let's go," Mimi shivers, "I don't want to be on the trail after dark."
"Agreed," Chen says unsteadily.
"I will die if you don't carry me!" Chen complains, dragging her feet across the path. They were more than three miles from the Cloud Recesses.
Dumplin is holding on to Mimi's hand; her energy certainly not as it once was at the beginning of their jaunt.
"That is the fiftieth time you have said that," Mimi says quietly, coldly irritated, "and you haven't died once."
It was fifteen minutes later when Chen hit the ground in a dead faint.
"Fu- . . ." Mimi looks down at Dumplin and swallows.
"Chen, Chen!" Dumplin cries, breaking away from Mimi and running to her sister's side.
Tempted to leave her there, Mimi trundles over to Chen. Concerned maternal instinct finally winning out.
"If you are faking, I am going to give you a reason to feel lightheaded," Mimi snorts and lifts her sister on to her back.
"Oww, alright, love. I got you, Mimi grunts, taking the path one slow step at a time.
Half an hour later, Dumplin curls up onto the trail and refuses to move. Mimi carefully puts Chen down on the ground before leaning over Dumplin, "Hey, cub, what's the matter?"
Dumplin's eyes were full of tears, "I'm so tired!"
"Okay, hold on for a second," Mimi says, staring up the path.
Mimi manages to get Chen on her back and then holds out an arm for Dumplin. Very carefully, Dumplin wraps her arms around Mimi's neck and wraps her legs around Mimi's waist. Slower than before, Mimi begins walking.
"I am so glad I never skipped leg day," Mimi mutters to herself, one arm wrapped around Dumplin and the other holding Chen.
"Leg day?" Dumplin asks, close to her ear.
Pushing her annoyance down at the whole situation, Mimi tries to smile, "It's when you do a bunch of exercises to strengthen your legs. I was scared my couch wouldn't teach me tricks if I missed classes."
"Tricks?"
"Yep!" Mimi sighs, reminiscing, trying to avoid Dumplin's slightly smelly breath, "I would fly with ribbons."
"Ribbons?"
"Big ribbons. You can hang from. I'll show you sometime," Mimi promises, only wanting to collapse on something soft.
Watching the progression of the sun strolling across the sky, Mimi begins to feel more uneasy. At her current pace, she would never make it up to Cloud Recesses before sunset. Her spiritual energy is slowly recharging, but it would not be enough to shadow travel. The water spirit in the pond had unnerved her. Dumplin had been so close to being hauled into the water. Chen had fallen asleep a couple of miles back, and at this point, Mimi would just instead carry her. Both her cubs are exhausted.
Continuing her slow trudge up the mountain, Mimi is grateful for Dumplin's continuous chatter. She wondered, not for the first time if the child ever got a chance to speak very much at home.
A couple of hours later, the sun is hanging low in the sky, and Mimi sees the white arches of the entrance to Cloud Recesses. There is no one there. Not that Mimi had expected there to be at this point. Dumplin had fallen asleep, nestled against her. Slowly trudging up the path, Mimi carefully puts a hand through the arch and is immediately stung by the protective barrier.
"Okay, I'm just going to set you down and figure out what to do next," Mimi says, gently putting Dumplin down next to the arch, making sure that she was not going to be stung by the protective barrier. She gently put Chen down beside her, who nodded awake.
"We are locked out of Cloud Recesses," Mimi puts a hand to her lips and points at Dumplin as Chen appeared to be on the threshold of a tantrum.
"That's not my fault," Chen hisses softly.
"I never said it was!" Mimi growls, finally putting a hand over her face and taking a deep calming breath.
Flicking her ears, Mimi hushes her sister, the hairs on the back of her neck stand up," Chen, get behind me with Dumplin."
"What?"
Mimi growls savagely and turns to meet the nag that burst from the woods, launching itself directly towards them. She is exhausted and low on spiritual energy, but she is also really pissed and has sharp claws.
"Cover Dumplin's ears," Mimi manages to shout as she rakes her nails down the creature's stomach.
The nag screams as entrails fall from its body. The creature's eyes were bloodshot, and saliva drips from its mouth. Realizing it was trying to herd her away from her sisters, Mimi dodges the nag's claws and growls, keeping herself between the snake and her sisters.
"Are they covered?" Mimi shouts back at Chen as the nag tries to dive around her.
Mimi sinks her claws deep into the nag's passing hood and throws it against the cliff face hard. Her claws, however, were stuck in the thick skin of the nag, so her side ends up hitting the cliff face as well.
"Yeah, why?" Chen sounds scared, and Mimi couldn't blame her; it is one thing to deal with a water spirit, quite another to see something that wanted very much to eat you.
Freeing one hand, Mimi reaches around scrapes her claws across the serpent's eyes.
"You fucking piece of shit!" Mimi cries, finally able to voice her discontent, "I climb all this way up this fucking mountain, and you want to kill my sisters! Who the fuck do you think you are?!"
The nag shrieks, completely blind. Mimi finally sneaks a foot against the back of the snake's head and kicks off, freeing her other hand.
She flips in the air and lands in front of her sisters, blood dripping messily from her talons.
"I can fucking do this all night!" Mimi cries as the snake attempts to slap her clumsily with its tail.
Chen is opening and closing her mouth behind her, all the while holding her hands over Dumplin's ears. Dumplin, who is now wide awake, has her face pressed into her chest. Her cries further antagonizing Mimi.
Another nag burst from the tree line and struck Mimi hard in the side. Not missing a beat, Mimi dug her nails into the nag's throat and pulls. The nag bit down into her arm. Mimi yelps, but the adrenaline running through her system seems to boost her spiritual energy and green foxfire bursts around her.
The snake, with its fangs buried into her arm, is burnt with the foxfire. It rips itself out of her arm, but it is too late. The serpent sizzles with the onslaught of the green flames and plummets to the ground. She grips the beast and tosses it at the other nag who is trying to weave around her. Balls of green foxfire erupt around her as she fires at the two nags. Noises erupt from the forest beside them, and Mimi bares her teeth at the approach of more nags.
Seeing the charred remains of their brethren, the nags who approach her were more cautious. But as their numbers grew to five, they became more audacious. Thinking quickly, Mimi drew a line of foxfire along the line of the forest. Baring her teeth and brandishing her bloody claws. Fucking come at me, Mimi thinks. A large nag breaks free from the others leaping over the flames. Mimi launches herself at the creature first and thrusts her hand into the nag's chest. Her fist ablaze with foxfire. Pulling her hand out, she is holding the charred remains of the beast's heart.
Enraged by her attack, the other nags burst from the forest as one. Outnumbered, Mimi hurtles off the nag, and before she can release another wave of fire, a white arrow strikes one of the creatures in the chest. Shocked, Mimi withdraws and darts back to stand closer to her sisters in a protective stance. Swords fly from all directions, severing heads cleanly from the bodies.
Trying to get closer to her sisters, Mimi yelps in pain; baffled, Mimi looks down and sees the blood.
"It's okay, cub, you're alright, you can let me in."
"Are you mad? I was really scared; I couldn't get my barrier to work. "Chen says plaintively, hugging her wrist to her side as she scrubs out the bloodline with her foot.
Mimi hugs her sisters, "No cub, I am very proud, this was an emergency, and you protected yourself and Dumplin. You handled it very well. Here let me see that."
Holding out her wrist, Mimi immediately heals it with her foxfire. Kissing it for good measure.
"And look, unless you are in an emergency, I don't want you repeating any of those words that I just used, alright?"
Chen nods solemnly before launching herself at her sister, quickly followed by Dumplin.
"But overall, are you guys okay?" Mimi looks over them both carefully.
"Are they angels?" Dumplin asks, clinging to Mimi's side with all her might.
Mimi turns to their 'rescuers,' three teenagers in white robes were both using swords and bows to finish off the creatures. Lan Xichen and Lan Zhan were presiding over the young cultivators. Their clothes were ripped and looked bloodied.
Once all the nag have been destroyed, the group turns curiously to the sisters. Adrenaline still pumping in her blood, Mimi tucks Dumplin and Chen behind her.
The clan leader leaps over a nag's body and kneels before them, his brother following at a more sedate pace.
"I apologize; our young cultivators were ambushed on the mountainside. We were detained for hours," his breathing is uneven, and Mimi, having gotten used to straightening children's clothing, reaches out and adjusts his forehead band.
His eyes grow large, and his brother stops in his tracks to stare openly.
"I think we probably fared better than you," Mimi tries to smile, but she is too exhausted.
Mimi's heart staggers in her chest, pounding at the walls of her ribcage as he continues to stare at her. It is only now that she notices that her arms and the full front of her dress are soaked in blood.
Before she can say anything else, Dumplin pops her head out from behind her, hands full of her sister's skirts, and says, "She carried us up the mountain!"
The child's words seem to startle the clan leader from his thoughts, and he awkwardly stands up.
"Come . . . you must be exhausted. Please allow us to escort you to Cloud Recesses."
"Thank you for your kindness, clan leader," Mimi says, hating how fake she sounded.
"The pleasure is all mine," the clan leader says with a smile, but the smile does not reach his eyes.
Nodding, Mimi raises her skirts and steps over the remnants of the blood circle. Banishing her sister's blood as she does so. She turns and picks up Dumplin, who buries her face in Mimi's shoulder. Chen makes a scared cub noise, and Mimi inwardly sighs and picks her up as well.
The young cultivators surround them from behind, and they finally pass through the arch.
"Why didn't you pass through the arch?" Lan Zhan asks quietly, nodding politely at Mimi.
"We couldn't get through," Mimi reports, "We were deciding what to do when the nag attacked."
"I must once again apologize. Our borders have been unpredictable of late. However, it seems we weren't needed," Lan Xichen laughs a little, "we had just returned when our students heard the . . . ruckus and decided to notify us."
Mimi flushes a beet red and stares ahead as the cultivators behind her nudge each other. Dumplin is shaking a little.
"You okay?" Mimi whispers to Dumplin, nuzzling their noses together.
"I thought we were going to die," Dumplin whispers back, putting her forehead on Mimi's, disregarding the blood entirely.
"Life is like that sometimes," Mimi says softly, "it reminds you that you are still alive. We are safe now. We are all safe."
Mimi nuzzles noses with Chen as well and kisses her forehead. Her body aches all over.
Lan Xichen can't stop himself from staring at the woman beside him, cradling both children protectively. Blood covers her from head to toe. He had seen her sink her hand into the nag's chest. The bright green flames had nearly blinded him. It was like watching a war goddess descend from the heavens or, he steals a look at the woman's sisters who clung tightly to her, a lioness protecting her cubs. Sensing him staring at her, Mimi turns her head, catching his gaze, before looking away quickly.
They reach Cloud Recesses quickly, far too soon for Lan Xichen's liking. He leads them to a beautiful, simply styled building for guests.
"This will be your residence while . . ." the clan leader suddenly cannot find the words as the elder sister raises her eyebrow at him in confusion, "you have need of it."