Nova Peak what’s yours is mine.

in short order, things went to hell.

qiao’s eyes darted to each arriving cast: shit, how many rats did a sinking ship hold?

but it was the children that ultimately held her attention. they were the reason she was here. they were the missing link she needed.

two - no, three spilled from the den. one for each mouth, she thought wryly - but the arrival of the two dark strangers complicated things.

suddenly, things turned ballistic. the lurking stranger lunged for her familiar. the woman who helped her bury the body balked. and the darkened woman and her comrade swept in, seizing the madman.

bad move, qiao thought with a quirk of her lips. but it worked perfectly fine for her that someone else put their lives in danger. better their hide than hers.

she had mere seconds to make her move.

as things exploded around her, qiao aimed down the barrel-sights of her inner focus. the child was her directive.

the chaos around her was unimportant. only the child mattered.

she lunged for the nearest cub, the stupid little oaf that had bolted blindly out of the cave. qiao was careless in how hard she seized his scruff. she did not slow; using the force of her momentum against him, qiao grabbed the screaming boy in the practiced manner of a murkwater crocodilian — lunging now to the open plains below where she could lose any pursuers in the thicket.