Both attacking and defending parties stop, splitting apart through splattered mud. 

The humans grind through the dirt, catching themselves with their hands, their feet dug deep into the soil and stones. Obviously that attack was vicious. Clothes torn, blood trickling down the face, arms, and legs. Even the massive mark, the trailing scar pushed into the earth stretching several meters away was a chilling sight to behold. Despite this the orderly synergy between them all is solemn, calm, within seconds ready to continue defending.

On the other hand the beasts were more miserable. Tripping over themselves and tumbling into a heap. They scatter, struggling to get back up, clawing into one another, nipping and roaring.

Tap-tap-tap, goes the clicking clock, the footsteps walking down the stairs, the silent anger collapsing atop the miserable pair. Heavy and intimidating, so jarringly harsh, both covered their ears, whining and moaning.

“Mo Yin, Mo Meifeng. “ Tap! Hong Luo stops. “Come here. Right. Now.”

Electrocuted down to their merrow, Mo Meifeng flings Mo Yin off her back. Mo Yin tumbles to the side, frozen in shock. At the sound of a cough, he jolts to his feet, following after Mo Meifeng.

Silence. Hong Luo glances around, up at the muddy individuals, to the yard with several more mounds and holes, the cracks in the gazebo, a rock smashed into the table with uprooted grass, and the poor pathway in shambles. Only then did her sight fall to the destructive pair, naughty and incorrigible, her face indifferent, but her mood blazing with fire.

“Mo Yin. Mo Meifeng.” She spoke with the tone of a displeased mother. “My disappointment in you both is immeasurable. To have become beyond saving is simply astonishing to me. Merely ten years. No, not even that much and the regression of training, mind building, and simple manners the lowest of low follow on instinct. Instinct mind you! The basic feelings nature has bequeathed for survival! Must we trail back to infancy to rework the jumbled up mess you’ve both stirred into oblivion? Must we?” 

Crack! The pair jolt. Harsh and unloving, her foot breaks apart a sizable piece of wood. “That was not asked out of rhetoric. Answer me.”

Terrified and feeling wronged, both pull their heads out from under their paws, shaking back and forth with extreme vigor. They did nothing wrong, their eyes cried out, nothing at all, they swear by it!

Tilting her head, Hong Luo’s brow rose in question. “No? No, you say. By all means do correct me on how the truth I’ve seen with my own eyes is wrong? Do try to explain the utter nonsense that had unfolded outside my home. The damage littering the yard. The cracks in the foundation. The pointless fights against none aggressors. Those who’ve been clearly told by mother and father not to hurt a hair of. The stench of blood and misused essence reeking the air.”

Both simultaneously glance back, their eyes full of fire and rage. If they weren’t currently being chewed out, they’d tear those nasty human’s to pieces. If they were gone, surely they would no longer be in trouble, right? If they were to deny that any of this happened, that would also save them as well! Their eyes glistened at such prospects.

“No.” Hong Luo snapped, smacking the side of her hip and jolting their eyes back to her. 

“Don’t look at them. They aren’t going to help you, and why should they? Merely coming over for a visit to be met with violence. It’s a miracle if I’m not given complaint after complaint of what you have done. ——–Oh don’t give me that look. Don’t take me as ignorant, your actions today have long given you away of the troubles the both of you have caused.” Seriously, with how little respect they put into her old home, how much respect could they possibly show for anything else? She was getting a headache just thinking about it.

Suddenly she felt pulling on her clothes, so she looked down. Eyes brimming with tears, Mo Meifeng bit into one side of her robe while Mo Yin tugged at the other.

“What, don’t believe me?” When they both nod, she chuckles. “Surely you remember how I found you both earlier today?” 

And that’s what did it. They let go, heads drooping in guilt. “Ah, is it all coming back to you now? So the shame is finally settling in. Good.” With a rub to both their furry heads, she walks between them. “Your punishment will be settled upon at a later date, once all the facts are gathered, that is. For now go clean up the mess you made. ‘All’ of it.”

At the clap of her hands the pair rush off, tumbling over one another, fighting over who can clean what first. When one went to one spot, the other pushed them aside and stole the debris. When the other did the same, the process repeated over again. Even the uneven ground they fought over who could straighten it out first, growling and roaring for the other to get lost, the answering roars, make me!

Calmed down and amused, Hong Luo sighs, the pair truly are like two competing siblings. So terribly and gosh darn adorable. Ah, she could watch their ruckus all day long if she could. But she did not have all day, for daytime is over and nighttime came with its own set of problems. Like the fever cooking her brain into mullet stew. Like the group of individuals walking over to her now.

Bitterly she rubs the knot out of her forehead and looks to the sky. Appearing exhausted and rundown, a drenched cat that looked more dead than alive, and obviously she didn’t feel alive. Surreal dots pepper the air, dancing in confusing circles. Here, there, everywhere.

Ugh, now she’s beginning to feel nauseous.

“Luo’er!”

Mmm? She looked up in time to see a blur tackling her, pulling her into a bear hug, and swinging her round and round like a child would to a wooden kendama. A face full of sweaty skin, two sizable loafs smashing against each one of her cheeks, was not a pleasant feeling nor was the smell a nice one. Ugh. Whether it be the nausea or fatigue, Hong Luo shows no sign of resistance, spun dizzily, squeezed into a pancake.

Who was this? The voice sounds familiar, but she can’t quite place the name. The list of names who had such a large chest shouldn’t be too big, but honestly, who was she kidding? Bosom size was something she never paid attention to as a child, the years so far gone, it's a miracle even names do not elude her let alone personal appearance quirks. Now those squirrels on the other hand… 

Annoying chuckles, suppressed and wheezing catches her ear. A smack and an oof disrupt her thoughts completely. Those heavy steps coming forward stir back her consciousness, the same one that was mere moments from falling into a dead faint. Then suddenly it all stopped.

A hand reaches out and grabs the hair of the one spinning Hong Luo into oblivion.  “Catori that is quite enough. Put Luo’er down.” 

Finally her feet were planted safely on the ground. Nausea was truly unloving and so was the fever. No matter how much she shook her head and pinched her arms, rubbing at the Neiguan pressure point excessively, it just seemed to get worse. That was until sharp gasps startled her, bringing her attention forward and onto the one who saved her.

One blink turned into two, three into four, until several blinks later she still couldn’t believe her eyes. Dazed gray met heart aching teal. A pair of warm and rough hands reach out to cup her face, the thumbs rubbing circles under her eyes.

“Halona?” Small emaciated hands grab to the cloth of the older woman, the one with barely noticeable creases in the corners of her eyes.

Halona smiles through her frown, “Oh Luo’er, what did those wretched animals do to you? ——–You're all skin and bone. Your face thinner than cloud silk. Your hair a nest for rats. Your height, not grown a single centimeter since the last seen. With both your mother and father as the standard, you should not be this small.”

“I’m not that bad, am I?” Hong Luo choked out.

Halona sighs sardonically. “Luo’er. Even my youngest, with you six years his senior, has half a head on you my dear. Darling you’re shorter than a ten year old who’s yet to hit his growth spurt. With that in mind, do you still dare to say you are not-that-bad?”

Hong Luo recoils, looking up, to left, to right, then down to her nose and onto the ground. Point taken, but honestly can you blame her for believing otherwise? She has yet to have a full view of herself after all. The closest she got was a muddy pond that only reflected from her shoulders up. So she truly didn’t think she was ‘that bad’. Perhaps that’s why Halona didn’t hold back when hearing her sincere and confused tone.

To be fair, at least she hasn’t been hit upside the head for making such a comment. If it were her mother, a shiver crawls up her spine. Her mother was ruthless! One wrong move and her nameless patient wouldn’t be the only one laying in bed for months.

Wait, her patient! 

Suddenly the one in her hands jolted out of Halona’s grasp and dashed into the house at lightning speed. This scared the life out of the poor woman and stunned her in place.

“Luo’er what’s wrong?! “Kid who lit a fire under your ass?!” Both Achak and Istaqa yelled out simultaneously. They leapt to the open door, Istaqa first, then Achak. The two grown men just barely missed each other, getting wedged in the doorway.

Catori and her brother, Hiamovi, were speechless, looking at one another then back to their mother.

Halona shook her head and ordered her kids to stay put, following her husband and brother in law inside.