My eyes went wide, half in surprise and half in fear—surprised that our luck held up so well today that we ran into the bixies mere minutes after arriving, and fearful that the overexcited beasts would mistake the call of their mother's blood for something else and snap their jaws over my neck.
Then one of them flicked out its tongue and licked my face. The other lowered its head, sniffing all over me with a happy purr in its throat.
My worries subsided at their reaction. From the corner of my eye, I saw Bai Ye smile as well, though he didn't seem too worried in the first place. He must've sensed that the eagerness from the beasts wasn't coming from hostility. "Aren't these the cubs you lost?" he said and crouched down next to me. "How long has it been since we last saw them?"