I Abandoned My Beast Cubs for the Protagonist... Oops?-Chapter 18: The High-Altitude Hitchhiker

The wind outside died down, replaced by a silence.

Then, a voice, haughty, melodic, and sounding like a harp being played by someone who was very, very bored, vibrated through the thick wooden walls.

"Bai Yue.....I know you are in there. Return the Lumina-Stone this instant, or I shall sneeze, and your little mountain will become a very large, very flat crater."

Zhāo Yàn’s jaw dropped. He looked at Bai Yue in shock. "The Lumina-Stone? From the Dragon Peaks? Bai Yue, tell me you didn’t."

"I don’t know what a Lumina-Stone is!" Bai Yue yelled back, though her brain suddenly felt like a broken television set flickering to life.

Frit-zzt. A memory surfaced.

The ’original’ Bai Yue, eyes glittering with greed, scaling a jagged, frost-covered cliff. She had spent days tracking a faint blue glow, nearly plummeting to her death twice just to snatch a pulsing, thumb-sized gem from a nest of golden silk. She had wanted to wear it as a pendant to prove she was more ’divine’ than the other females, to show the Bear King she was worthy of a throne.

"Oh.....oh no," Bai Yue whispered, her face going pale. "That happened like, a week ago. I remember now."

"You stole from the First Generation?" Zhāo Yàn breathed, his voice a mix of horror and disbelief.

In this world, dragons weren’t just big lizards, they were the oldest beastmen in existence. They were the ancestors of all scaled and winged things, creatures of immense power who lived in the clouds because the ’lowlands’ were too dirty for their liking. They were known to be incredibly spoiled, impossibly powerful, and notoriously petty.

The door didn’t burst open. Instead, it was pushed aside by a gust of golden wind.

Standing in the doorway was a man who looked like he had stepped off a high-fashion runway in a celestial palace. He was tall, draped in bronze silks. His long hair was the color of a sunset, and his golden eyes swept over the hut with a look of intense, physical disgust.

"My name is Cāng Jì," the man announced, fastidiously dusting a speck of soot off his sleeve. He pouted, his lower lip jutting out in a way that managed to look both regal and childish. "And I have spent far too much time tracking my property through this......mud-caked hovel."

"You!" Gū Gū shrieked, pointing her stick at Bai Yue. "I knew it! You haven’t changed! You’ve just brought a disaster to our doorstep to get us killed!"

"I didn’t! I mean—the old me did!" Bai Yue stammered. She looked at Cāng Jì, who was currently stepping over a puddle of spilled star-fruit juice with the grace of a cat on a hot tin roof. "Look, Mr. Dragon.....Cāng Jì. I’m sorry about the stone. I’ll give it back!"

Cāng Jì’s golden eyes snapped to hers. He leaned down, his face inches from hers. Up close, he was almost distractingly beautiful, but his expression was one of pure arrogance.

"You are the female?" he drawled, his voice like velvet. "Ugh. I expected someone with more.....luster. You smell like wet fur."

He turned his gaze to the cubs. Ruì Xuě was trembling behind Bai Yue’s leg, staring at the golden scales peeking from the man’s collar. Miao Miao, ever the brave one, reached out a hand to touch the shimmering fabric of Cāng Jì’s robe.

"Don’t touch me!" Cāng Jì shrieked, recoiling as if the toddler’s hand was a poisonous viper. "Your.....your dirt! It’s everywhere! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get forest-grime out of celestial silk? You could have infections! You could have.....germs!"

Gū Gū’s face turned a dangerous shade of purple. "Go away, lizard-man! Stop yelling at the kits!"

"Not without my stone!" Cāng Jì snapped back, crossing his arms and huffing. "It is my pulse-stabilizer. Without it, the vibrations of the lowlands give me a migraine. A week! I have had a headache for a week because of this thief!"

Zhāo Yàn stepped forward, his red eyes burning with a sudden jealousy. He didn’t like the way this ’Golden Prince’ was looming over his wife, even if she was a ’cursed’ thief. "Where is it, Bai Yue? Give it to him so he can leave."

Bai Yue racked her brain, her eyes squinting in concentration. Sock drawer? No. Under the mattress? No.

"Oh! I left it in the Tribe! It’s in my hut, hidden inside a hollowed-out gourd under the bed!"

Zhāo Yàn let out a long sigh. "You crazy female. Do you have any idea what kind of war you almost started for a shiny rock?"

"Time to go," Cāng Jì declared, waving a hand impatiently. "I cannot stay in this altitude for another minute. The air is far too thick with the scent of unwashed predators."

Yòu Lín, seeing the tension, tugged on Gū Gū’s hand. "Can I go with Mama and Papa? I want to see the giant bird-man!"

Gū Gū looked at the dragon, then at her grandson’s hopeful face. She let out a jagged sigh. "Fine. Take him. If he stays here, he’ll just cry for her anyway. But Zhāo Yàn, if anything happens to him, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. And Bai Yue..." She pointed the stick at her nose. "If you lose that boy again, I’ll turn your hide into a rug myself."

"I understand!" Bai Yue swallowed hard.

"We shall fly," Cāng Jì said, stepping outside onto the plateau. "It is the only way to ensure I am back in my palace by moonrise. My skin requires a mineral bath."

He shimmered, his body elongating and expanding. In a burst of blinding golden light, the handsome man disappeared, replaced by a massive, serpentine dragon with scales that glittered like polished coins. He was magnificent, terrifying, and, judging by the way he sniffed the dirt, still very annoyed.

"Hop on," the dragon’s voice echoed in their minds.

Zhāo Yàn stood stiffly, his arms crossed over his chest. His male ego was clearly bruised. "I can run back. I don’t need a lift from a glorified snake."

Bai Yue looked at the massive dragon, then at her grumpy husband. She walked over and, in a move that was becoming her signature, patted the top of Zhāo Yàn’s head. "Isn’t it better that he gets his stone and leaves quickly? Think of the kits, Zhāo Yàn. They would love to fly."

Zhāo Yàn pouted, but his ears did that little happy twitch again. "Fine. But I’m only doing it for Yòu Lín."

"Of course you are," she giggled.

The cubs didn’t need any convincing. They scrambled up the dragon’s back, their tiny claws clicking against the hard scales. "Weeeeeee!" Miao Miao cheered as she perched behind the dragon’s ears.

Bai Yue climbed up, settled the surprisingly dozing Ruì Xuě in her lap, and felt the dragon’s muscles bunch beneath her.

"Hold on, star-thief," Cāng Jì grumbled.

With a single, powerful leap that sent a gale of wind through the plateau, they were airborne.

The Eastern Hills shrank beneath them, and the cubs’ screams of delight were lost in the whistling wind. As they soared through the clouds, Bai Yue looked down at the world she was finally starting to call home, wondering just how many more husbands and legendary beasts she would have to charm to survive the week.