Ara was feeling downhearted after the idle chat with the family of three. The aunty's honest words wounded her heart like a sharp knife stabbing and twisting without mercy inside her already fragile feelings.
She knew she was just a mere amateur in medicine making, especially with no teacher and all. She had never heard any spiritual beasts who could cultivate medicines before. If not, she would've done all she could to shamelessly cling on the spiritual beast's leg in question. Her great grandfather had sputtered his saliva countless times, saying how useless her aspirations were. Only the grand elder had silently supported her endeavor by giving extra resources for her to play, ehemm, experiment with in secrecy.
However, her passion was real!
She had poured her time, energy and cultivation resources into this field for a long time. Of course, 'little problems' did occur at the beginning of her endeavor. Because of her, many clan members from the younger generation became very sick and some even had shown a decrease in cultivation progress after they were tempted enough to try out her so-called medicine once upon a time ago. However, she had since then rectified the problem and made a solution! Nonetheless, since that day, no one was willing to try her medicinal pellets and poultices anymore.
[A bunch of cowards!! Everybody only take a few days to recover and the most is just a few months. What is the fuss about it?] She wept in indignation after recalling the hurtful event.
The crux of the matter was, no one was willing to sincerely befriend her anymore from that moment onwards. She was avoided like the plague. The brave ones only gave a curt nod or a superficial smile to appease her. The opportunists kept on trying to gain some small benefits from being around her. She knew she had screwed up big time. She was deeply hurt by her peers' intentional avoidance.
The final straw that broke the camel's back came when she had been unanimously ostracized by every single one of her peers when she became close to their elders too out of necessity. It was done in order to avoid being punished from not cultivating properly. The cold stares were hard to endure, and her heart were filled with bitterness.
In truth, she was a very talented cultivator. With her half-hearted attempt at cultivating to satisfy her great grandpa's vanity, she had still performed well enough to be on par with her peers of the same generation. This had further incensed the jealous bunch!
She wanted to prove that she was more than a golden child (1) of the elders. She will prove it by successfully making the Water Barrier Advancement Pellet she envisioned in her mind.
Her mind returned to her workbench (which was a big piece of cleaned banana leaf) which was graciously provided by Hana as she continued working on the mixture of herbs and ground crystals.
...
"Is she not coming to eat?" Kuro signaled at the silent fish at the obscure corner of the cave.
"Let her be. I think, I've been too blunt and touched her sore spots when we're talking about each other's abilities." Hana sighed deeply.
"This child, didn't she know, I'm the most useless person in this group?" She shook her head and smiled.
"You young ones are so talented! Time is on your side! Do the best in whatever you do. You'll then realize the world will be in your grasp as long as you work together! If you want it, you need to will it! If you will it, it will be yours!" She casually gave an empowering speech she copycatted from a certain puffin con-artist. The animals' eyes around her shone in enlightenment.
Hana still hadn't realized the impact of her casual speech upon the campfire to the spiritual beasts around her. Only after many years later when the ripple effect had ended will she knew how big an effect it did to them. In line with their grandiose aspirations, they will drag the aunty along while sweeping a storm along the way. Of course, that will be further down in the story.
…
"Say, why don't we catch a few termites to be our workers?" Hana chuckled as the idea sprung in her mind while she was eating the lovely mushrooms. Isn't it great to have some animals who can make fire for them? Hana won't need to tirelessly make one every time she wanted to cook.
"It won't work that way, Mommy. Elemental Fiends lived in colonies with elemental pools within their underground cave network. You will fail to wrestle away the rights to enslave... err, to take them under your own wings due to the presence of the three Elemental Queen-mothers and Kings. These were the real masterminds of the hive. The others are only small-time grunts who didn't have their own will. They are just slightly better than standard ferocious animals. This bird here, she's slightly better than them due to the spiritual fruit." Kuro explained while gesturing to the furious little bird. He was speaking telepathically while hissing the words at the same time. If others were present, they could only see the tiny snake made random hissing sounds.
He did know about the famed Elemental Fiends. However, they rarely surfaced. The last few times he frequented the area before his hibernation, he had not detected their presence. Most likely they had just built the colony during the time he slept. Hence, the Queen-mothers shouldn't be too strong yet. However, their numbers were too numerous. To truly catch some of the fiends for their own, they needed to totally destroy the hive altogether to sever the link from the Queen-mothers to their workers and soldiers. He wasn't confident that he could protect their mistress while performing the deed, even with the help of his 'brother' and the gullible fish. The bird was useless altogether as she didn't have any battle prowess. She could only serve as a scout or a guide.
"Which one do you prefer?" He entertained her to know her preference.
"It'll be good if we can catch some who can make fire. I'm too tired of making fire multiple times a day. Uh-uh, no fun." Hana puffed her cheek cutely. "None of you are fire-attributed. If not, we don't need to catch any." She blinked her eyes with anticipation after she think about the fiery green black termite.
"The black Elemental Fiends' green fire is noxious. It's not suitable as fire. Enough of it will make us suffocate inside this cave." Kuro explained patiently.
"I think the red ones have yellowish fire!" Ara added while gobbling her soup without looking up. Kuro and Shiro stared hard at her but she hadn't realized her 'helpfulness' had worsened the situation.
Hana ruminated for a moment when suddenly she clapped cheerfully after she placed her bowl down. "Then, why not we catch all the Queen-mothers? Doesn't it meant that we own the whole colony? After that we can use any type that we like!"
The four animals were silent while they look at each other.
Shiro answered slowly with caution as he looked meaningfully at Kuro, "I think that could work, though it would require more detail planning."
Kuro sighed exasperatedly before he gave a nod. He was sure their mommy would've wanted to join the operation. He would need to think how to proceed with the capture without endangering their mistress.
"Great! Let me think of a plan! Give me a minute to discuss with your papa after our meal time later!" Hana chuckled enthusiastically. The aunty hadn't noticed her change from a typical weak mindset. She had gotten a kick from personally experiencing the adrenaline-inducing adventure this morning. Hence, she felt that it was possible as long as a proper plan was laid out with precision. That will need Arash's fine-tuning after she think through the main frame of the plan.
The other four were amazed with the jovial aunty's response. "Is Hana for real? She wants to plan the operation?" Ara asked them.
"You stupid fish, shut up. It's your fault first for giving her random ideas. And never ever question our mommy's ability again! And what's that rudeness by calling her by her name! Insolent fish. From now on call her Mistress! Understand?!" Kuro hissed angrily at the frightened fish.
Being verbally abused by the mean snake, Ara could only blink back unseen tears from her large eyes as she whimpered silently in grievance. She was just trying to be helpful to strengthen their relationship, but it backfired. [What did I do to deserve this…]
At the end of the day, the pitiful gullible fish still had not understand why she was treated badly by the two brothers..
...
Author's Notes:
(1) golden child = [Malaysian language: anak emas] a local proverb indicating a child or person who was particularly favored (heavily until it is so obvious) when compared to his/her peers.