Chapter 23: Tiger Paw Forest
"Alright, I forgive you. It"s just that if you want to do something like that again please wait for me to prepare myself first..." Seeing the sincere face of her apologetic master, Vanessa could not take heart to continue sulking.
"Sure." Elysia nodded slightly and no longer stroked the fuzz on Vanessa"s head.
The two of them were now at the border between the Human Continent and the Beast Continent separated by a very large river which became an absolute border marker.
Parrane Rill, a river with a width of two kilometers that runs along the border between two continents, is also used as a continental border that has a different climate and civilization.
Beast Continent is inhabited by many intelligent and non-intelligent fauna, while Vanessa is one of the intelligent fauna of the winged tiger race which now lives secluded from the Emperor Beast"s reign.
"Vanessa, where are we going now?" Elysia asked after they continued their journey in the sky once more.
"We are already in the Beast Continent, and the large river that is there is the Parrane Rill. The location of our destination is northwest of here called "Tiger Paw Forest." Vanessa flew with her master on her back while flapping her beautiful wings in the intended direction in invisible magic.
"What does a place called "Tiger Paw Forest" look like?"
"Err... If you look from the sky, the forest will look like a tiger paw."
"Nee... Vanessa. Do you want to fly at the speed of light like before?" Elysia invites sweetly after getting the definition of their location and direction.
Elysia"s pleasing voice sounded like a demonic whisper to Vanessa, her face turning slightly pale once more.
"Then, let me prepare myself for a moment." Vanessa did not want to look weak and pathetic just because she flew at a high speed which was called by her master as the speed of light.
Maybe in the future, with her master who has extraordinary abilities, she will encounter many unusual and surprising things. Therefore, she must try hard to get used to it from now on.
"Please. Let me know when you are ready." Elysia smiled slightly at the sight of the white tiger currently being her mount, taking a deep breath and releasing it for several times.
Vanessa tried to calm down for a few moments until she felt calm and was a little more confident. "Master, I"m ready now."
"Prepare yourself, the flight will soon take off in three counts. Three, two, one...*fwoosh*" Elysia counts down before using her magic which makes Vanessa even more nervous. Now they fly at the speed of light once more.
"!!!"
Vanessa tried not to scream, while Elysia as a magic caster felt nothing but the breeze until she found the destination. A tropical forest area with huge trees soaring high that looks like a cat"s paw from the sky.
"We have arrived." Elysia exclaimed after a short trip that lasted in seconds.
"Huft... Huft..." Vanessa panted for breath because she had held her breath while her master"s speed of magic was still active, she managed not to embarra.s.s herself by throwing up.
"Huh? Vanessa, doesn"t that look like a paw cat or a lion paw? Maybe other cat breeds are similar too?"
"Um, it"s similar. It"s just that the one living in that forest is a tiger race like me. That"s why it"s called that."
After returning to her normal self, she explained the reason for the name of the forest to her master before she lowered their alt.i.tude to the ground.
Then Elysia descended from Vanessa"s back and they walked towards a place. She only follows Vanessa from behind to take a safe distance for fear of something.
Unfortunately, her negative thoughts turned out to be futile. In the tiger"s den, there were only two-winged tigers lazing around a cave rather than the one or several colonies she imagined.
"Aunt Leila! Uncle Theo! I"m back!" Vanessa exclaimed loudly which immediately got the attention of two tigers who seemed to be sunbathing.
"Vanessa? You"re back... I"m glad you"re fine." A light brown tiger approached Vanessa as if to welcome her.
"Um, I"m fine aunty."
"Little Vanessa, where is your brother?" A dark brown tiger came over too.
Elysia, who was at a safe distance, felt tense at the moment and her mind was a little inconsequential.
"Will Vanessa report to them to fight me?" She began to think negatively at this time. Even though she is trying to have a good relationship with Vanessa, she still cannot trust Vanessa because there are still many things that she does not know yet.
"Sigh... Ely, don"t think too much. For now, just prepare yourself if a battle really takes place. " She shook her head slightly to put aside her negative thoughts about Vanessa.
"My brother is dead. He died because of his stupidity. He went that far, even to the Human Continent only for adventure..." Vanessa said with a little sob and her eyes began to glaze.
"What!? He"s dead? Didn"t I already forbid him to enter that d.a.m.ned continent!?" The dark brown tiger which has the largest body of the three gave off an impressive aura as if he was angry.
"Huss... Dear, control your aura. Alright, little sweetie, can you tell us what happened to us?" The light brown tiger despite feeling sad over the loss of one more family member tried to calm the atmosphere.
"En, I"m fine, Aunt Leila. So like this, when Jimmy entered the Human Continent, he met a group of hundreds of people in the forest..." Vanessa retold the events that she knew from her master"s story with a sob. She knew it was an actual event because she could detect based on their spirit connections that Elysia did not lie at all.
However, she could only detect up to that point and did not know the internal reasons that drove Elysia to do that. She only knew that her master freed the suffering that tortured his brother at the door of his death by killing him without pain.
Vanessa was playing in the forest unable to find her brother even when she returned to their uncle and aunt"s lair. They say her brother went out on an adventure and allowed it after giving a few warnings and hard advice that was approved by Jimmy.
They are not too worried because young tigers usually wander far away to hunt. But it was different from Vanessa, she was worried that her brother would behave foolishly who would kill him just because he did not use his brain.
Her brother just left without telling her it was very worrying. Therefore, she asked permission to pick up her brother from their uncle and aunt.
Uncle Theo and Aunt Leila did not forbid them to go too much because they thought the two young tigers would not go so far that they forgot their way home and did not think that Jimmy would go that far and violated Uncle Theo"s warning and prohibition.
Jimmy is a black tiger who sometimes acts with his muscles and not his brain, he often fights enemies who aren"t his opponents and ends up battered, not to mention the many problems that come after him and also makes Vanessa involved in it.
Even so, Jimmy is the only family that has a blood relationship with her who still remains in this world.
She is a good sister and often helps her brothers out of trouble. However, Jimmy did not appreciate the actions of his sister who often helped him out of trouble and thought his sister was noisy and disturbing because she often scolded him, and he ran away from the nest to travel far without telling his sister.
Unfortunately, the naivete and ignorance that actually picked up his death, according to what Vanessa was worried about.
"Uuu... Little sweetie. You"ve suffered so much since that incident..." Aunt Leila with her tiger body as if she was hugging Vanessa"s body that told the incident with a sob.
"Un..." Vanessa seemed to be no longer strong because the feeling of sadness returned only because she told the story and started crying again.
"Sigh... That stupid brat..." Uncle Theo also felt sad and no longer continued his words. The two of them already consider Vanessa and Jimmy as their family because of events in the past.
The winged tiger race was completely exiled after the previous incident, perhaps some of them are still slaves to the power of the current Beast Emperor and betrayed their own scattered race.
After a few moments pa.s.sed, Uncle Theo seemed to realize something.
"Wait a minute, little Vanessa. How do you know what really happened? And where is your brother"s body?"
Hearing that, Vanessa"s body was a bit tense, as was the case with her master who was starting to worry from afar.