Chapter 17 - End of the Dream (1/2)

Bao Bei arrived in no time at all in their spider web den, inside the Multicolor Leaf Forest. For her, traveling this distance was child's play.

When she entered, she carefully put Hei, Xing, and Ye to the ground while they were still unconscious due to the exhaustion and the turmoil of emotions received this night. All three of them were also breathing heavily due to their injuries. While not life-threatening, the injuries received weren't at all light.

At this point, Bao Bei sank to the ground while inwardly sighed with relief. Her anger had subsided, but now she was in the grip of a mad fear never felt before.

Although she had managed to save them in the end, she had run the risk of losing her children forever, even though she had promised to protect them.

Despite all her preparations for every possible situation, due to a moment of fatigue and inattention, she had almost lost the only reasons of life left to her.

If she really lost them, what would she do? What would she have left? What reason would she have to stay alive?

Probably she would take revenge by scattering death and destruction everywhere until she would be killed by someone or would simply run out of power like a candle that eventually goes out after being wholly consumed.

However, the sight of her three cubs managed to calm her down after a while.

'It's okay. Nothing is lost yet. This time I took a big risk, but it won't happen again, I won't let my cubs fall into such danger while I'm still alive.' Bao Bei promised to herself as she began to think about how to act from now on.

The massacre that occurred was too big compared to the previous incident. It was probable that Leaf City would mobilize all its strength, no, perhaps the army of the Forest Kingdom would come personally. They would surely investigate the surroundings and push themselves into the heart of the forest. So staying there was no longer an option.

They had to leave the house that she had built personally and that for 12 years had hosted her family, guaranteeing them a sweet harmony and a safe place to rest.

With a broken heart, she began to collect the spider web that made the house. After a while, it came down, and Bao Bei started making the spider web into thin pieces, scattering the fragments in the night wind.

Thus, there remained no trace of their beautiful home in the heart of the forest. Only three small bodies huddled on the ground, and the various crudely made objects gave some clue that there was something there before, but soon after, those objects also disappeared entering the pocket dimension of Bao Bei.

At that point, only Hei, Xing, and Ye remained while they were still asleep. Lifting them gently, Bao Bei then prepared to leave the place that she had called home for 12 years.

***

Leaf Village, Nightmare of the Massacre's aftermaths

Nightmare of the Massacre, so it was called the incident that had involved the villagers of Leaf Village and a large group of bandits famous throughout the kingdom.

The forces of the nearby Leaf City had set out on the night of the massacre after noticing intense undulations of spirit power. Since it was their duty to protect the surrounding territory in the king's place, the family in charge of the city immediately sent various units that arrived in the morning at dawn.

Upon their arrival, what they discovered was a gruesome sight. Hundreds and hundreds of men had killed themselves by digging the flesh on their necks and faces with their own nails. There was no doubt that they had suffered long before they took their last breath. There were some corpses dead by swords' strikes or burnt by the flames, but they were a more ordinary sight than the spectacle offered by the body of the bandits.

With the stench that permeated those bodies, they made their way into the now almost wholly destroyed village, coming finally to the square. There, they discovered the survivors who were much more numerous than what the soldiers expected in the first place. Indeed, after seeing the condition of the bodies outside, they thought that there would be an even more obscene and disgusting spectacle inside. So they started questioning the inhabitants about what had happened.

What they discovered caused them to remain dumbfounded: they didn't know if the inhabitants were serious or were making fun of them. But since each of the respondents replied with the same version, unless it was a mass joke, they had to conclude that it was the truth. Furthermore, there were the bandits' corpses to verify that story. The various soldiers present, therefore, immediately reported alerting Leaf City.

As Bao Bei predicted, this incident would then make its way around the entire kingdom, alerting the capital that it would later invite their forces to sift the surroundings and the interior of the forest finding nothing but that could match the description of the beast.

Later, the spider would become a sacred animal revered by those who lived in the villages to protect them from the assaults of those who came to damage their homes.

***

Village Chief's house, Leaf Village

Immediately after Bao Bei had left, Lei Bai had gathered the village chief, and the most authoritative exponents still alive. While causing absolute bewilderment because of the request for an immediate meeting, they accepted because they had seen Bai talk to the spider who had come to save them and wanted to ask him about it.

Bao Bai, therefore, began to tell him that Hei was indeed the son of a great expert beast tamer and that spider was none other than the spirit beast of Hei's father. However, Hei's father didn't like being seen, so he only sent his spirit beast to clean the bandits up. Since they didn't personally know powerful people with whom to make a comparison, they concluded that it was nothing strange that behavior.

Although Bao Bei had told him not to reveal Hei's origins, she implicitly told him to find a plausible excuse to explain this story to the inhabitants. Lei Bai, who was a discerning person, understood immediately and formulated this story using the same theories already possessed by the inhabitants.

Then he added that Hei's father had given them a purse with spirit cores to sell to get funds for rebuilding the village. At that news, those present burst into tears of joy as they had thought they would have to face months and months of difficulty to recover.

However, Lei Bai revealed to them the condition for which they had been given a similar grace: they shouldn't mention anything about Hei and his elusive father; they should only say that it was the work of a spirit beast that had then vanished into thin air.

The inhabitants were a little struck by the condition but accepted without problems: running into the wrath of an expert who could tame such a beast was suicide; only an idiot would do it. Moreover, if now they could have hopes to repair the village immediately, it was only thanks to this expert.

Then Bao Bei also told them of the idea received to collect the weapons and various objects of the bandits. Although it was gruesome to rummage in corpses, it was also true that by doing so, they would have more money to compensate the families with victims in this tragedy. Therefore, the men with the strongest tempers took on this task while the others began to remove the rubble and extinguish the fire. The women and the elderly, on the other hand, started to help the injured ones and set up places to sleep near the square.

Lei Bai for his contribution was excused from the various tasks and was sent to the village chief's house to let Lei Lei rest inside. Her condition wasn't severe, but it was better to sleep in a comfortable bed to recover immediately.

Shortly before dawn and therefore the arrival of the forces of Leaf City, she woke up. At her side, she found her father sitting sleeping; he had remained close to her all night. With a pang of pain in her face, she touched it, thinking about what had happened as she looked around.

Noticing her movements, Lei Bai awoke with a start. As soon as he saw her, he burst into tears of happiness and embraced her forcefully. It took several minutes before he calmed down and freed his daughter from his embrace.

”Dad, stop, I'm fine. Instead, how are the others? What happened? And the bandits? Hei instead? Xing and Ye?”