Book 18 Chapter 8

White Meteor (Meteor)

— An Outing

She was a queen. There were no subjects in her kingdom who would commit sacrilegious and suicidal acts that denied her authority. Her authority and majesty were absolute, and their brilliance reached every last corner of her emerald kingdom. Her gait was always dignified and confident, and her mane, whiter than the first snow, shone more elegantly and brilliantly under the sun. She was more agile, powerful, and also larger than any male.

She ascended to the edge of her kingdom and looked out at her realm, which stretched out in winding paths in all directions. Clouds lay spread out like a carpet beneath her feet. The pure white gentleness that seemed as soft as cotton was also her own color.

It wasn't just this mountain. All the mountain ranges stretching from side to side, and from there, side to side again, were under her rule. The peaks where a group of somewhat boastful female humans were gathered, located off to the side, were no exception. That place, the highest peak in the vicinity, was also within her dominion.

Grrrrrr!

At the summit of her kingdom, she roared with the majesty of a queen. Her roar echoed through the air and across the entire mountain range. Her roars always contained the majesty of a queen, and her anger made the mountains and rivers tremble. No one dared to challenge her throne. Her vassals instinctively sensed the recklessness of such an act. Her world was a world of survival of the fittest, and only those with the appropriate strength were given the title of "King of Kings."

For the past 150 years, her reign had been unshakeable.

However, there was another reason why this mighty, benevolent, and majestic mother could be queen. It was the fact that she knew of the existence of the true master of this peak, the un-ruling ruler. Since the mountains rose from the earth, there had never been a history of anyone who ignored this fact and survived unharmed. It was said that this ruler had been the master of this place since before he was born, and had continuously ruled it from her mother's mother's time. That dark ruler had never encroached upon their territory. However, challenging that dominion was the ultimate taboo.

A few years ago, one of her sons encountered a vassal of the ruler. The son was still young, and like all young beings, he placed his faith in his steel-hard, razor-sharp claws and his sharp fangs that could chew through steel plates.

That cub possessed the greatest strength among her sons. Had he not broken the mountain's taboo, he would have become the next king. But the son ignored her warning, and the price was excruciating.

The son's claws slashed through the empty air carelessly, and the lightning from the ruler's vassal pierced his pure white body faster than a flash. His skin was peeled off, and his claws and teeth were all torn out. The ruler's vassal wasted nothing, and all that remained for her was a few strands of white fur that fell off during the skinning of her son. Her son died, leaving behind his hide, which was sold for a high price proportional to its rarity.

As a mother, she grieved for three days and three nights, but she did not dream of revenge. The authority of the true ruler remained as immutable as the movement of the sun and moon in the sky, and survival of the fittest was the law of the forest. Within the rule of the strong dominating the weak and preying on them, she could not break this law.

Today was the day that the true ruler was leaving the mountain after more than twenty years. As the queen of the mountain, she had an obligation to see him off. As her proud legs kicked off the earth and cleaved through the wind, her silver fur began to tremble.

With another mighty roar, the white tiger, transformed into a white meteor, drew a long trajectory beneath the clouds and descended to the ground.