Co on, Lamant. LIVE! You’re head of this house. You’re strong. Kaline loves you. Kaline always talks about you and how she wants to be like you and Minette. You have to live.
I don’t even know what is wrong with you. System isn’t much help. Maybe this is sothing I’m ant to discover on my own. It’s one of those twists designed to keep the ga interesting. But right now, I ain’t playing.
I’ll find out the truth. I should contact Peridot, see what she and Niall have uncovered.
No.
Stay focused, Blaze. Concentrate on healing. Kaline needs you. Lamant needs you.
Aha! Purple and gold vapor flowing from my paws. Ordinarily, I’d worry, thinking sothing was wrong. I an, paws are not supposed to shoot vapor. But this is healing mist. It makes sense that it’s mist and not so kind of energy blast. Right, System?
[Right. Too much force and you run the risk of making Lamant’s condition worse.]
That makes sense. You don’t want to be timid, but you don’t want to just go kamikaze.
[Again, right. And you do not want to interfere with what Master Taba is doing, even though he is quite insufferable.]
Kaline and I work together, focusing the healing mist and trying to direct it at Lamant.
[Blaze!] Kaline is direct, stronger than I ever expected her to be, but that’s my Young Miss. [Aim the mist toward his mouth. That’s where the blood is coming from. He can inhale it.]
[Good idea, Mistress.]
I don’t think I’m supposed to know that the rest of the mist can be absorbed through the skin. That might not be sothing that a tiger cub would know. But the human in understands perfectly well. So, my human knowledge is at work without Kaline being aware of it.
System just has to comnt. [Were you expecting credit for your human knowledge?]
Of course not! Although it would be nice...
[You are so vain.]
The System is teasing , and as aggravating as I find the attitude, I’m also cognizant of the deeper purpose behind the ribbing. My fear for Lamant’s life could cripple so that I make mistakes--fatal ones. Therefore, System is doing a kindness by distracting , so I can focus on my task.
The cloud of mist drifts toward Lamant’s mouth. Fortunately, he’s still breathing, even while unconscious, and the vapor goes where it’s supposed to. Right where it’s most needed.
Cough. Cough.
Minette and Vedette gasp. "That’s the most welco sound I’ve heard in my life," Minette cries out. "It’s working. More mist! More!"
Sohow, soone gets the idea to combine all our mist flows, aiming at the sa point over Lamant’s mouth. I concentrate harder than in my life. My muscles strain hard, my paws shake violently with the effort, and I pour everything I have into this healing. My vision clouds over and i’m soaked in sweat. How can trying to heal soone sap my strength as much as running the agility training course or fighting goblins?
I’m just a tiger cub. I’m not even human. What made think I could--
NO, Blaze.
This family is counting on you. Just like your family in the human world.
Those mories get shoved in a drawer for now. I have to focus on the present. On this cloud of mist that might help save Lamant.
[I can’t hold it!]
That’s Gussie. She’s usually the last to throw up her hands, er, wings. But she’s flapping as hard as she can. Little spurts of vapor join the gold-and-velvet carpet that hovers above Lamant’s barely conscious body. And still, Gussie is straining to make the tiniest puffs of vapor.
Demos isn’t having any of that. [Gussie. He is your Master! You like him.]
I piggyback onto his pep talk. [That’s right. You chatter from morning till night about him. How much he teaches you. How you make him smile. How it is to ride on his shoulder.]
Feathers rustling, Gussie lifts her head, her black eyes two burning coals in her colorful plumage. [Yes. Yes. That’s true. All of it. Maybe I should concentrate on that and not on the spell?]
[It’s the intent behind the spell.] Lobo woofs, his voice betraying the strain. [I’ve learned that already in my short ti as Mistress’s beast. Without the intent, the spell is nothing.]
They’re right.
When I was straining to create the vapor, it didn’t work. When I killed myself with the pressure in the human world, it was because I didn’t have a purpose. My intent was just to pass the exam. Nothing wrong with that--except that I died.
And I died without learning anything.
In contrast, when Damon and I played Tanglewood, I learned everything about the ga. I know. I know. Video gas are not law. Video gas are not serious. At best they’re fun and can help the brain relax, but they have their downsides.
But Tanglewood was more than that. It was bonding with my brother. It was imagination. It would challenge you with the unexpected.
I didn’t isekai into a law book. I’ve never even heard of such a thing. Maybe there are souls that eat, sleep, and breathe the law, and isekai into a book where they live the life of a court lawyer or official in a xianxia novel and have a journey to immortality.
But that isn’t my story in Tanglewood. I isekaied into the ga because of the connection I had with Damon when I played the ga. And what Lobo just said sounded so much like sothing Damon might have said, in different words.
I can’t think of Damon now. I am not going to lose Lamant for this family! Maybe that glimpse of my death was a warning, a premonition of Lamant’s illness?
[Yes, Gussie! Lobo is right.] I redouble my efforts, thinking happy thoughts about Lamant. [Let’s all concentrate on how much we care about Lamant.]
Lobo woofs. [And Mistress Minette.]
[And the Young Misses!] Demos, for once, doesn’t try to compete with about whose Young Miss is better or who loves their Mistress more. [They mustn’t be without their sire.]
I concentrate. [You know...when I first t Lamant, he seed very...human to . Dominant.]
Demos growls. [Bite your tongue!]
[I know. I know. But I was new. And he was taking Mistress Vedette’s side.]
At that, Demos utters an "ufff." [Well, that is in the past. He is a fair Master.]
I think of everything I’ve seen Lamant do. Embracing Niall, the Hiccuping Hermit, as part of our household. Being a community leader in the village. Getting his family and all of us away from Lamrmoor Mansion when the ex-Lady Rosabel wouldn’t admit the truth about my kidnapping to the beast taming community. Taking a chance on Gussie, who would probably peck soone to death for him. Rescuing Lobo.
Then there are the little things. The way that he doesn’t ever talk Maartenwitz’s stuffiness and bluster personally. The way that he sotis makes Vedette and Kaline groan with Tanglewood style dad jokes. Sohow, dad jokes are universal. In W City, London, New York, or Tanglewood. Dad jokes are so bad they’re almost endearing.
COUGH. COUGH.
I re-focus on the vapor project, and I see...
A miracle.
Lamant swallows more vapor, and then has a coughing fit that brings him back from that place between life and death. "No..."
"Dearest!" Minette knocks Master Taba out of the way, running to Lamant’s side. "We’re here."
"FATHER!" Kaline wipes away tears of joy. "I knew you would co back to us."
Vedette takes her sister’s hand and leads her to their father’s side, right next to their mother. All of us crowd around.
"No..."
Lamant’s voice seems to co from the end of a long tunnel.
"What is it, Father?" Kaline asks, picking up in her arms, though she has to struggle to hold . "Tell us."
Lamant raises his face, his pallor only slightly warr than death, and chokes out three words.
"No. More. Vapor."
Minette is incredulous. "Then no more scaring us!"
Lamant doubles over in a coughing fit. However, he almost smiles when the vapor breaks apart into little fragnts and then slowly dissipates.
Master Taba and the healers go to town on Lamant. "Master Riddlehoeven," Master Taba says, his elegant fingers working overti. "Welco back. As your lady stated, you made us see Death itself in this room."
That’s his bedside manner?
Maartenwitz growls. "Show so respect!"
"Mind your beasts," Master Taba shoots back.
"The beasts helped save him," Maartenwitz shouts.
"My beasts..."
Lamant’s hand, sohow strong despite his ordeal, strokes my fur. Aw Nothing in this world feels better. Do that again, would you? I lean into his touch.
"Your beasts are here!" Gussie flutters around him before perching right next to him, and turning her feathered back on Master Taba.
He pats her head next. "Our beasts and our bird. Our family."
[That’s right. Our family.] I communicate to an overjoyed Kaline. [And whoever did this to our family is going to get what they deserve. We will get revenge. But for now, Master is safe.]
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