Continuing to follow the instruction that Queen Daz had given us, to follow the water’s edge. It took two days to reach the site that was the source of the pollution Queen Daz was worried about.

At one point I thought she may have been worrying about nothing, but when I first saw the plants wilting before my eyes I believed her. Whatever it was, it had spread quite far from the water’s edge. I was concerned if I was even capable of handling the task she had set for me to do.

Shortly after spotting the plants, we found that the water from this point was actually purple, a bright purple which reminded me of poison.

Brendan and I glanced at each other before staring at the water for the longest time wondering what could have caused this. It was obvious from Brendan’s silence that he didn’t know what this stuff was either.

“What do we do?” asked Brendan as we moved a little further up to see it spreading out across the water, obviously slow inflicting, but deadly.

I knelt down to have a closer look, fish were floating to the surface, gasping for air, then dying, hovering my hand over the surface, where I could pick up the toxicity with Mila’s power.

I found it strange using her power like this as the information from the water flashed through my mind, almost like I was sensing it through her directly. I quickly figured out what it all meant, but I did not really need her power to tell me what was going on.

“It seems someone has been infecting the waters with some sort of poison, pretty deadly too,” I said.

“What do we do?” asked Brendan again.

I sighed, “I wish I knew.” I shook my head. I didn’t know what to do, her majesty gave me no further information on what to do once I had found the source, perhaps leaving it to me to figuring out. “We need to somehow purify it.” I shrugged, guessing.

“My brother once told me powerful water spirits could purify poisoned water,” mentioned Brendan. “If only we had…” We both looked at each other before he could finish.

“Mila.” I smacked my forehead, how stupid was I.

“Yes, master,” she appeared. I couldn’t believe what a cute little spirit she was.

“Is it possible for you to purify the waters?” I asked.

“I can,” she nodded.

“Great,” cheered Brendan.

“But…” Mila hesitated.

“But?” I encouraged.

“Such a technique is quite advanced. I don’t doubt you can pull off the technique, but since it is such an advance use of my power, it’ll take a lot of your strength to use it,” informed Mila.

“I see,” I nodded at the facts she had told me.

“Do you still wish to use it?” questioned Mila a little nervous.

“Yes,” I replied.

“That’s dangerous,” spoke up Brendan. “It takes years to master the advanced techniques of a talisman, using them before you’re really ready can be dangerous not just to you but the talisman too.” He was clearly worried about me.

“We don’t really have time to go back to get someone else with a powerful water talisman, by then this could have spread further making it a much bigger job,” I began, looking down at the waters. “Don’t worry. As long as my will is strong and I have faith within my talisman, everything will be fine.”

“You really have that much faith in me master.” Mila’s face lit up with joy.

“Of course,” I nodded.

“I’d expect nothing less than that for Larana, but me too,” she couldn’t believe it.

“Now come on.” I stood closer to the edge of the river and held out my hands. “Mila. I summon the use of your power to purify the river of all the poison that flows within it.”

“Understood master.” Mila’s whole body glowed, she raised her hands as I felt the connection between our two powers grow bigger, as she drew on mine to use her power.

The water began lifting up in huge bubbles, slowly splitting into two. One bubble held clear water, while the other held purple poison that had been intentionally put into the water.

I had only just started, and I could already tell this was going to be a far bigger job than I thought, the water was heavily polluted.

Larana appeared on my shoulder to watch, she was curious to see how I would handle Mila’s power, and I wasn’t about to disappoint.

“It looks like scorpion poison to me,” commented Larana. “Imbued with dark energy too.”

“How can scorpion poison do this?” questioned Brendan. “Scorpion poison can’t do this.”

“I don’t know,” shrugged Larana.

“Whoever did this, there intended target was Cathopia, any closer and they would have been spotted by the knights on duty checking Cathopia’s borders.” I managed to speak quickly feeling the strain on my stamina. “Larana, I want you to evaporate it into harmless air.”

“Master that would be unwise while you are performing the purifying technique with Mila,” she responded. I glanced at her. “Of course, master.”

Brendan shook his head; he must have thought I was crazy for going this extreme to stop the pollution before it reached Cathopia, but thousands of Animalia would be at risk.

Larana held out her hand, causing the poison to change into a gas, once done I released the bubble allowing it to escape harmlessly into the air.

I only just managed to finish purifying the river and getting rid of the poison. I could feel my power so close to reaching empty, but the job was done.

I disrupted their power, stumbling forward out of breath. I rested my hands on my legs to stay standing.

“I have never met a feles like you before,” commented Brendan. “You’re crazy.”

“Yep, I think that sums me up,” I joked.

“You should rest before we head back,” mentioned Brendan.

“Of course.” I slowly backed away from the river edge and sat down. Brendan sat down too.

“Why do you try so hard, even though it was dangerous?” asked Brendan.

“I didn’t use to,” I admitted. “Until I saw Tigra’s tears.”

“Tigra’s tears?” repeated Brendan.

“I saw them when the king refused to protect Cathopia’s orchard, that moment I vowed I would do anything for her, even those things she’ll never know about,” I responded.

“You feel strongly for Tigra,” commented Brendan.

“I do, we’re best friends,” I smiled.

“Athena told me you love her,” mentioned Brendan.

“Shh,” I hushed him up quickly, suddenly freaked. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” I looked away all nervous.

“You don’t,” he cocked his head.

“It doesn’t matter how I feel, the king would never allow it, plus with dad gone no one is going to be able to stop Dumah from becoming betrothed to Tigra.”

“Dumah, you mean the Leo,” wondered Brendan.

“That’s the one,” I nodded.

“Remember the betrothal sword,” commented Brendan. “If Tigra does not give him the sword, then he can’t marry her, no matter what the king says about them being betrothed, only she can decide who that Animalia will be.”

“Where’d you pick up that bit of information?” I questioned.

“Your mum,” answered Brendan. “She is very kind to allow us to stay with you.”

“She’s the best,” I smiled. I got up and brushed myself off. I was still weak from using both Mila and Larana’s power, but I would soon recover that, plus I wanted to return home. I would never leave Tigra unprotected for too long.

“Who knows maybe one day Tigra will return your feelings and give you the betrothal sword,” smiled Brendan.

I laughed. “Yeah right, I’ll only believe that when she kisses me.” Brendan laughed too but I knew he meant what he said. “Come on, let’s go back home.”