108 Goldenflame Spirit Beast

As Yun finally felt she had fled far enough from the site of the incident she finally began to relax, driving herself near to sleep. She quickly found a large tree she could rest in and set herself up a safe and warm place to sleep.

After she managed to relax fully she almost instantly fell asleep. She tried to stay awake, but she lacked the energy to continue wakefulness and fell into a deep slumber. As her mind drifted through her spiritual sea she felt like she was suddenly in a boat flowing through a fast current. The wind whipped by her and the boat rocked frequently, and a rushing sound could be heard. She felt she was still immobilized while laying down in the small boat, and she worried about her future.

Within this dream-state the boat eventually made a mild grinding noise as it stopped moving, and shortly after she was able to move her body again. She sat up to find that she was in a small wooden boat just big enough for her body, and the milky cloud that constituted her spiritual strength was flowing by her rapidly, undulating like water.

The land she was standing on was peculiar and hard, but gritty like sand. As she looked around she felt a strange sense of belonging, but she didn't see any terrain features at all other than this hard packed earth. She began walking forwards aimlessly, with no goal in sight, just to occupy the time. As she walked she saw that there was a slight curve in this space, but otherwise seemingly nothing at all.

For what felt like hours on end Yun walked this space with nothing to see, nothing to even think about. As she kept walking she began to see something in the distance, something that seemed like it might exist, but might not. She kept walking closer, contemplating whether it was real, until she blinked and was suddenly directly in front of it, as though she had crossed a great distance in one step.

Before her lay the body of the Goldenflame Lynmurku she had fought with before. It was back to it's original size now, and laying on the ground it's rib cage was already nearly three quarters of her height. She kept staring at it for a long while, trying to decide why it was here in this strange place, when she heard a grumble come from it's throat.

"Stupid upright beasts. . . Always attacking us, taking our young. Why can't we just live in peace? This was always our hunting grounds, but now there's a big fortress and lots of warriors. So stupid. . ."

Yun was now staring with her jaw nearly on the floor. Did this beast just talk? Didn't that mean it was a full fledged spirit beast with true intelligence? How did it get here, and how did it suddenly advance so far? She stepped around to get closer to it's head and decided to speak to it.

"Excuse me, but how long have you been able to speak like this? If you could talk already then why were we fighting just then?"

As Yun spoke the Lynmurku bristled and stood up to stare her down.

"You! You upright beasts are the cause of all calamity! We just want to live in peace in our hunting grounds, but you come and kill us, steal our children, steal our families! How dare you come here even. You've already slain me but now you even follow me to the afterlife!? Begone!"

Yun stared for a moment yet again, she really didn't know what to think of what was going on. Had they both died after that strange array? Were they merely lost souls stuck in the same place now? Or was this something else entirely?

"I'm sorry, but this Yun is not sure she understands you. Afterlife? Did we die just now? There was some strange array and then you shrank and the array pushed us together."

This time it was the spirit beast's turn to pause thoughtfully, but after a moment it was raging again.

"Why should this father believe what you have to say, puny beast? With my might I could destroy you easily! I didn't expect your shamelessness to go as far as laying some sort of trap for me to defeat me and destroy my family completely. Hmph!"

The beast turned it's head away, not wanting to keep looking at her anymore after it had decided that the array had been a trap to kill it.

Yun, however, was having none of it.

"This Yun laid a trap for a puny beast like you? Dream on. You couldn't have beaten me in a one on one fight even if that array hadn't activated! What a stupid beast, this Yun can't believe a creature as stupid as you can speak. What an insult to intelligent beasts."

Yun jabbed a verbal spike into the beast's side before she dug it in even deeper and twisted it a bit. Her words were truly vicious this time, holding nothing back. Even still the beast didn't do anything for a moment, but as it turned it's head slowly back the hair on its hackles was continuously rippling in protest of it's calm demeanor.

"Good, good, very good! A tiny creature like you thinks it can fight this father and win? Let's see who it is that's the master of this place then! Either you fall or I do!"

The Lynmurku leapt at Yun from less than two meters away, leaving her almost no reaction time.