Chapter 41: The Feral Mother Strikes Again!

Bai Yue stood there, her jaw practically unhinged.

This wasn’t a legendary beast of unspeakable horror. This was a minivan on a long road trip. This was three toddlers sharing one body and a single brain cell.

“If I eat it, it will be safe in my tummy!” Head One argued, lunging for the stone.

Head Two jerked its neck back, nearly dropping the gem. “IF YOU EAT IT, WE’LL ALL HAVE GLOWING POOP! DON’T TOUCH MY HAT!”

Head Three wailed louder, throwing a literal tantrum that made the entire Hydra’s body stomp its massive, clawed feet into the swamp. “I WANT THE HAAAAT!”

Something inside Bai Yue snapped.

Maybe it was the stress of the last few days. Maybe it was the lingering adrenaline from being kidnapped by monkeys. Or maybe it was just the universal, instinctual rage of a mother who has absolutely had it with the bickering.

Bai Yue didn’t draw a weapon. She didn’t cower. She picked up a very large, sturdy stick from the mud, planted her hands on her hips, and marched right out into the open.

“HEY!”

Her voice cut through the swamp like a whip.

The Hydra froze. All three heads snapped toward her, six massive yellow eyes narrowing as their predatory instincts suddenly overrode their argument.

Head One, forgetting all about the glowing rock, licked its terrifyingly sharp teeth. “Ooh! A snack!”

“I call the legs!” Head Two roared, dropping the Lumina-Stone into the mud with a wet splat.

“I want the head! It has crunchy hair!” Head Three sniffled, suddenly distracted from its tantrum.

In perfect, terrifying unison, all three massive heads reared back. The air grew thick with the stench of rotting swamp water as they lunged forward, jaws unhinged, ready to snap the tiny, muddy female into three separate appetizers.

From the edge of the mist, halfway up a hanging vine, Cāng Jì squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for the horrific crunch.

But the crunch never came.

Instead, there was a loud, sharp THWACK!

“NO BITING!” Bai Yue roared.

She hadn’t flinched. She hadn’t run. Instead, she had swung her sturdy mud-stick like a baseball bat, smacking Head One squarely on its sensitive, scaly snout.

“OW!” Head One yelped, pulling back and crossing its eyes to look at its own nose.

Head Two, mid-lunge, stopped so fast it bit its own tongue. “YOWCH! Thath hurth!”

Head Three, seeing its brothers thwarted, tried to sneakily nip at Bai Yue’s skirt from the side.

THWACK!

“What did I just say?!” Bai Yue demanded, brandishing the stick like a disappointed teacher with a ruler. She pointed it directly at Head Two’s nose, then swept it toward the others. “We do not bite people! That is exceptionally rude! We do not eat guests!”

The Hydra blinked, six eyes wide with absolute, baffled shock. They looked at the stick, then at the tiny, fearless woman wielding it.

“She has the angry-voice,” Head One whispered to Head Two, rubbing its smacked snout against a giant fern.

“I know,” Head Two whispered back, looking genuinely intimidated. “Should we still try to eat her?”

“WE DEFINITELY DO NOT EAT GUESTS!” Bai Yue scolded, her Feral Mother Aura flaring to maximum capacity. She marched right up to the massive beast, not an ounce of fear in her body. “And we certainly do not scream at our brothers! Look at him!” She pointed her stick at Head Three. “You made him cry!”

Head Three sniffled, looking at Bai Yue with big, watery eyes. “They… they won’t let me hold the shiny,” it whimpered.

“Because he drops everything!” Head Two defended itself, crossing its eyes to look at the stone resting in the mud. “He has no neck-control!”

“I do too have neck-control!”

“ENOUGH!” Bai Yue clapped her hands sharply. The sharp sound made all three massive heads flinch backward as if she had struck them again.

From the edge of the mist, Cāng Jì watched the scene unfold. He had managed to force himself to climb down, terrified the female was going to be digested, only to arrive and witness the most baffling display of dominance in the history of the Beast Realm.

The mighty Dragon Prince stared in horrified, paralyzed awe as the tiny woman proceeded to put a legendary monster in a cosmic time-out.

“You,” Bai Yue pointed at Head One. “We do not put strange glowing rocks in our mouths! Do you know where that has been? It has been in a monkey’s mouth, and then on a dragon’s sweaty body, and then in the dirt! Spit it out!”

“I didn’t eat it yet…” Head One mumbled, looking thoroughly chastised.

“And YOU,” Bai Yue turned her furious gaze on Head Two. “Drop the attitude. Right now.”

“But it’s my hat,” Head Two whined, its terrifying fangs on full display as it pouted.

“I said drop it, mister. Do not make me count to three.” Bai Yue raised a finger. “One…”

The Hydra shifted nervously on its massive feet, the ground quaking slightly.

“Two…”

Head Two let out a long, heavy sigh that smelled faintly of rotting fish. “Fine,” it grumbled.

“Good,” Bai Yue said briskly, bending down to pick up the slimy, drool-covered gem. She wiped it on a nearby fern. “Now. I am taking this, because it belongs to a very grumpy lizard upstairs. If you three want to play, go find a nice stick. And APOLOGIZE to your brother.”

Head One and Head Two looked at each other, then down at Head Three.

“Sorry,” they mumbled in unison.

“It’s okay,” Head Three sniffled, nuzzling against Head Two’s neck.

“Now go wash your faces in the swamp, you’re filthy,” Bai Yue commanded, waving her hand dismissively.

The massive Swamp Hydra, a creature that had terrified generations of beastmen, actually slunk away into the deeper fog like a scolded puppy, all three heads muttering under their breath about how the tiny lady was “super bossy.”

Bai Yue sighed, dusting her hands off. She turned around and practically ran into Cāng Jì, who was still clinging to the bottom of the vine, his mouth hanging open so wide it could catch flies.

“You…” Cāng Jì squeaked. He cleared his throat, trying to regain a shred of dignity. “You… you scolded it. It tried to eat you, and you scolded it.”

“They were fighting over your stone,” Bai Yue said casually, holding up the glowing blue rock. She tossed it to him.

Cāng Jì fumbled to catch it, staring at the gem, and then at Bai Yue, as if she were the terrifying mythical monster.

“You… treated a Swamp Hydra… like a disobedient kit.”

Bai Yue shrugged, wiping a smudge of mud off her cheek. “A toddler is a toddler, Cāng Jì. Regardless of how many heads it has. Now come on. Put your pulse-stabilizer away before the monkeys demand a Trial Four.”

Cāng Jì clutched the stone to his chest, looking at Bai Yue with a mix of absolute reverence and profound terror.

“Yes, ma’am,” the Dragon Prince whispered.

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