Book 18 Chapter 8

White meteor (流星)

-Out

She was a king, and none of her subjects would commit the blasphemous and suicidal act of denying her authority in her kingdom. Her authority and majesty were absolute, their radiance reaching into the tiniest corners of her jade-green kingdom. Her gait was always stately and regal, and her mane, whiter than snow, caught the sun and shone with even greater grace and brilliance. She was swifter and stronger than any male, and she was huge.

She stood on the edge of her kingdom and looked out over it, stretching out in all directions. The clouds spread out like a carpet beneath her feet. They were as soft as cotton, and their snowy whiteness was her own color.

It wasn't just this mountain; all the mountain ranges that ran from side to side, and from there to side again, were under her rule, as was the peak next to it that held a rather large and spooky cluster of female humans. The highest peak in the neighborhood was also under her control.

Loudly, loudly, loudly!

At the top of her kingdom, she spewed her royal majesty. Her roar crackled through the air and across the mountains. Her roar always carried the majesty of a king, and her anger made the mountain vegetation tremble. No one dared to challenge her authority, for her subjects instinctively sensed the recklessness of the act. Her world was a world of survival of the fittest, and only those with the strength to match were given the title of King of Kings.

For the past hundred and fifty years, her reign has been unbroken.

But there was another reason why this powerful, compassionate, and majestic mother could be king: she knew of the existence of a ruler who did not rule, who was the true master of these peaks. There had never been a time since the mountain had risen above the earth when anyone who ignored this fact had been safe. It was said that the ruler had been here since before she was born, and had been ruling since her mother's mother's mother's generation. The dark lord had never invaded their territory, but it was a taboo to challenge his dominance.

Years ago, one of her sons had a run-in with the Dominator. The son was still young, and as young men always are, he was fiercely protective of his steel-hard claws and razor-sharp fangs, which seemed to be able to bite through plates of iron with ease.

He was the largest and most powerful of her sons. He would have been the next king if he hadn't violated the mountain's taboo, but he ignored her warnings and paid dearly for it.

The son's claws sliced nonchalantly through the air, and the lightning from the Dominator's powers pierced the pure white body faster than a flash. Hides were peeled away, claws and teeth ripped out. The dominatrix knew no waste, and all that remained of her was a few auras of white fur that had fallen from her son's cannon as he was unloading it. Her son had died, leaving behind his hide, which was sold for a price commensurate with its rarity.

She grieved three days and three nights as a mother, but she did not dream of revenge. Still, the authority of the true ruler was as immutable as the course of the moon in the sky, and survival of the fittest was the law of the forest. She could not violate this law by living within the rules of the weak, where the strong lord it over the weak to the exclusion of the strong.

Today was the day the true ruler would leave the mountain after twenty years, and it was her duty as king of the mountain to give him a farewell. Her silver fur began to flutter as her sturdy legs pounded the earth and cut through the wind.

With another thunderous roar, the white tiger turned into a white meteor and plummeted to the ground in a long trajectory below the clouds.