Mao Mao's Sisters

Bow Before the Queen

The next wave to separate from the warm numbered to be about 13. First a lucky number, now an unlucky one. Mao Mao wasn't going let luck decide how this turned out, he'd assure victory himself if came down to it. Mao Mao somersaulted over the the wave, spinning in tandem, Geraldine swiping down slashing a few with every turn. By the time his paw pads touched the other side of the rooftop as he landed, only five wasps remained. With two more swipes, five become zero.

Mao Mao looked back into the sky, there must've been hundreds, if not thousands of more wasps swirling around Minori and the Queen.

"Mao Mao!" Cried the high pitched voice of Adorabat, swooping in, landing on Mao Mao's shoulder.

"Adorabat!" Mao Mao was surprised that Adorabat had already made it back. "I thought you were with Badgerclops and Violet!"

"I flew ahead," Adorabat looked up to the swarm hovering hundreds of feet above them. "Is Minori up there?"

"Yeah," Mao Mao confirmed. "Probably during it out with the Queen right now." Mao Mao turned to Adorabat once again. "Adorabat, I need you to fly to the castle, and get Ashaki, you're the only one who can get there quickly."

Adorabat's eyes went from her usual wide with wonder, to steely focused. "You got it!" Adorabat took off as fast as her little wings could carry her, her small form becoming smaller as she flew off towards the spire.

Mao Mao allowed himself to break out into his devilish grin. It was starting to feel like they could pull through this monster attack.

•••

Ashaki stood on one of the many rafters in the throne room. From what she could tell there were no mechanisms hidden in the wood. Snugglemane insisted that the lost records of the kingdom were in a hidden room somewhere in the castle, but she had already found them all. X-ray sight came in real handy when it came to sniffing out hidden passages, and the mechanisms to reveal them.

But maybe, just maybe, there was a method that rendered her contacts useless to seeing through the veil of mystery. There was something hidden behind that veil, and every ounce of her being wanted to pull the curtain aside. This had always been a trait of hers, whenever she saw a magic trick as a child, she'd lay awake at night, thinking about how that trick was performed, picking it apart until she knew the ins and outs as well as the original performer did. So the thought of her contacts being obscured by another party has a chill up her spine.

The comically large doors of the castle were pushed open, a small blue bat flapping about went around the room, screaming to know where Ashaki was.

"Relax Adorabat, I'm up here," Ashaki called down to her. "What's the situation?"

"Shaki!" The name immediately irked her, that was the nickname Minori had given her, a nickname Ashaki never cared for. "Wasps! Swarm! Minori! Fight! Mao Mao! Evacuate!" Ashaki tried to motion for Adorabat to calm down in her excited state. But using context clues, Ashaki could figure this out.

Wasps, swarm, Minori, fight, Mao Mao, and evacuate. The wasps probably swarmed and are attacking the kingdom, hence the urgency, so Mao Mao must be evacuating the citizens in response. Which leaves the words Minori, and fight. Anyone who didn't know Minori wouldn't get it, but Ashaki would place money on Minori going to fight the Queen, which must've angered the swarm to attack in the first place.

"I understand," Ashaki affirmed her. "Take me to Mao Mao!" Adorabat quickly turned and headed back out the door, Ashaki using her levitation to follow. The high altitude of the castle was partnered with whipping winds that threatened to nearly rip the cape off her shoulders, tugging at her fur as she descended, the chaos unfolded in front of her eyes.