Mimi held the wine glass in her hand like a lifeline. She had managed to enchant herself a cup of coffee. This is the sixth attempt, and it was still slightly burnt.
She knocks on the door of Chen's room before entering. Her sister is lying on her back with her arms sprawled out and mouth hanging open.
"Chen," Mimi begins gently, nudging her shoulder.
"I' mmaaadonnwanna…" Chen wraps the blanket over her head.
"You did say you wanted to learn how to protect yourself," Mimi tries her hand at negotiating, sipping her coffee for patience.
A low rumble of unintelligible noises coming from beneath the blankets.
"You will learn that I have a great deal of patience, cub, but that I need until 11 to charge," Mimi sets her wine glass on the small table, rips off the blankets, and gently throws Chen over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
The child struggles as Mimi picks up her coffee and takes another sip.
Mimi deposits Chen unceremoniously at the kitchen table in front of a bowl of porridge.
"What the fu-" Chen growls before Mimi interrupts.
"Only I can say that word so early in the morning," Mimi grunts, "You have until I get back to properly wake up and join the living."
Taking her caffeine with her, Mimi steps into Dumplin's room. The foxfire had dissipated in the morning light, but there were some small remnants. She sits down on the bed but immediately realizes something is wrong. The bed is empty. Fear seizes her heart, encasing it in ice. Could she have gone outside? Mimi had just gotten the girls comfortable sleeping by themselves. Mimi rips off the blanket and looks around the room. Shrieking and attempting to stay calm, Mimi looks under the bed and all around the room. The scream brings Chen to the doorway in a flash, eyes bugging out of her head. Very much awake.
"Where is Dumplin?!" Mimi cries, her hair fluffing up in her fear.
"What do you mean, where is Dumplin?!" Chen cries.
Before the two sisters can tear apart the rest of the residence, a pudgy hand appears from the closet door.
Ripping open the closet door, Chen reveals a very sleepy Dumplin who is tiredly rubbing her eyes.
"Fu-" Mimi stops herself looking at Chen and scoops Dumplin out.
"Why are you in the closet, cub?" Mimi felt like she is going to cry or destroy a village, maybe both.
"Used to it," Dumplin says, falling back asleep in her arms.
"Dumplin has been sleeping in closets?!" Mimi mouths to Chen in shock.
Chen shrugs, "Yeah, sometimes during the day, she would huddle in a closet. Makes her feel safe, I think."
Mimi shakes Dumplin a little waking her up, "Why are you used to sleeping in closets, love?"
"Ghosts," Dumplin snuggles up to Mimi's chest.
Fury rises in Mimi like a blizzard. Cold and deliberate. But she pushes it down.
"Okay," Mimi takes in a deep breath, "we are good, we are good."
She makes eye contact with Chen, "We are good."
"You said that," Chen says, also looking unsettled.
"Breakfast!" Mimi backpedals to what she can control at this time.
Carrying Dumplin, Mimi herds Chen towards the kitchen table where Mameki stares at the trio before firing up the stove.
"Cubs, okay?" Mameki asks, cutting up some fruit slices.
Mimi sets Dumplin down on a chair by the table in front of a bowl of porridge.
"We are good, we are okay," Mimi repeats, "Eat quickly, ladies, I need to get this adrenaline out of my system."
"Faster Chen, faster!" Dumplin giggles, riding piggyback on Mimi's back.
Mimi ran close behind Chen, keeping the pace. After this morning's events, Mimi just wants to get the absolute terror of thinking that Dumplin was missing out of her system. She now understood and respected the mother that lifts a truck off their kid in a mother bear adrenaline high. Mimi stretches her legs out, feet sometimes barely touching the ground. Reaching around, she nuzzles Dumplin's nose with her own.
"Only one more lap," Mimi cries to Chen, who is doing much better than she thought she would.
The plan was to run the length of Cloud Recesses twice. Chen's face is red from exertion. It is seven am. Mimi had planned this knowing the young cultivators were inside studying. She didn't want to mortify poor Chen more than she absolutely had to. Happily breathing in the cold mountain air, Mimi suddenly longs to shift into her fox form.
"Cub! Do you want to make a right turn towards the Wall of Discipline?"
"Can we take a break?" Chen yells back, sweat-drenched hair clung to her face.
"Yep!"
Mimi quickly catches up to her sister, running beside her, "You are doing so good, Chen!"
Grunting at her, Chen makes the turn, and they stomp across the bridge toward the Wall of Discipline. Chen gasps for breath and puts her hands on the Wall of Discipline, leaning on it for support. Mimi sets Dumplin down on the ground and gives Chen a bottle of water.
"You have to stay hydrated, cub!"
"Ugh, let me die, make sure you catch my heart when it jumps out of my chest," Chen wheezes.
"Come on, cub. We're gonna walk this off," Mimi gently pushes her sister away from the wall and to the trail, she had seen yesterday.
Leaning on her sister for support, Chen complains, "I want to crawl under a rock."
"As long as you're walking towards it, cub," Mimi wraps a sweaty arm around her sister affectionately before pushing her up the trail.
Dumplin runs past them and twirls around with her hands in the air.
"Did you want to run around for a while on paws?"
New energy fueled the almost teenager, and Mimi grins. The excitement of her sisters is far too contagious.
"Alright, let's just pass the boundary line, and then we'll shift. I just want to make sure we are not seen," Mimi sniffs the air, "I think there is some sort of spring nearby."
"Is that rotten eggs?" Dumplin says from further up the trail.
"I thought it was me," Chen wipes the sweat from her head and delicately smells her armpits.
Still a little on edge from this morning, Mimi shouts, "Stay close, cubs. Right where I can see you."
The trio soon comes to a series of empty pools with a delicate black shrine next to it. The steam from the pools entices Mimi enough to carefully maneuver off the trail to reach it.
Beckoning to her siblings, Mimi decides to check it out, "This looks really nice. Can you imagine what it might be like in winter?"
Curious, Mimi sticks her hand into the water before immediately yanking back with an eeping noise.
"It's cold!" Mimi steps away from the deceptive water.
"So, we're not going swimming?" Dumplin pouts at her eldest sister, and Mimi feels the full brunt of her sister's puppy dog eyes.
"Cub, you don't want to go swimming in that freezing water. We'll find another place to swim that won't take the skin off your bones."
"You think it's that cold?" Chen snickers before sticking her foot in and then immediately bouncing away from the water, shock written all over her face.
"See," Mimi picks up Dumplin and crawls back up to the trail, with Chen right on her tails.
When Mimi could no longer smell people, Mimi pulls her sisters off the trail and into the woods, conveniently hiding them from the prying eyes of outsiders.
"We are in different territory now, cubs. We need to be very careful," Mimi stretches her arms and legs out before shifting into a fox.
Trembling with excitement, Chen follows suit, her two fox tails twitching madly around her, ready to run. Chen bounces over to Mimi and nips at her paws. Shaking her large head at Chen, Mimi leans down, licks her snout affectionately.
Turning to Dumplin, Mimi allows the child to hug her around the neck. Burying her face in her sister's fur. Mimi licks her cheek before laying down so that Dumplin could climb on. Mimi winces as Dumplin pulls at the hair on her neck as she lifts a foot over. When her sister is secure, Mimi wraps two of her tails around Dumplin as an extra precaution. Chen whines impatiently. The little red fox bounces around her sister, defying her lack of energy earlier. Mimi nods to Chen before slowly trotting forward, keeping her eyes out for danger. Chen bounds around her in a large circle. The little red fox finally returns to her sister's side, and they leisurely run next to each other.
Suddenly Mimi stops her nose immediately in the air. Before Chen and Dumplin can mutter a word, Mimi grabs Chen by the scruff of the neck and speeds away toward the territory line. Mimi immediately dives into a small shadow springing up near the cold pools but still in the woods. Mimi drops Chen gently on the ground and pants tiredly. She lifts Dumplin from her back with her tails and sets her on the ground. Chen shifts into her human form, her eyes massive with fear.
Mimi shakes her head and paws at the ground, trying to push the creature from her mind. Shifting into her human form, Mimi looks back up the trail.
"What was that? What happened?" Chen cries, following her sister's gaze up the trail. Dumplin throws herself in Chen's arms, being closer to this sister.
"Something was patrolling the border," Mimi takes a deep breath. The sheer power radiating from that creature was nothing she had ever felt before.
"It was . . . very friendly," Mimi shakes herself, "it almost succeeded in getting me to run to it."
"What do you think it was?" Dumplin asks, and Mimi finally faces her siblings fully.
"I . . . don't know," Mimi looks down at her claws and sees them glowing of their own free will.
That had never happened before, Mimi thought.
"Whatever it was, it was incredibly old and definitely wanted my attention. I don't think it will pass the territory line, though," Mimi shook, half wanting to go back up the trail.
"Come on, let's take a shortcut," Mimi takes her sister's hands and once again pulling them into the shadows, reappearing in the residence.
"Mameki got food ready!"
Still rattled by the force pressing on her mind, Mimi guides her sisters to the table, "We should be wary about being in the woods. Just stick to Cloud Recesses, and we'll be fine. You guys should wash. I'll get a bath ready."
Mimi steps into their bathroom and closes the door. She sits down on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chest. Mameki hops through the closed door and hovers near her. Seeing Mimi's expression hops over to sit next to her, "Mameki know, cub troubled."
"How could you tell?" Mimi snorts and waves her hand over the tub to fill it with hot water.
The parasol narrows his eye at her.
"I just saw something in the woods that rattled me."
"What rattle?"
"I don't know, it was ancient and really wanted to talk," Mimi sits up, "I almost led my sisters to it. It was in my mind."
"Mameki think you know," Mameki crouches down to her.
Mimi looks down at her still glowing claws and raises them so that Mameki could see, "Yeah, I think it's the one who made these."