Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 151: Chapter 151: Four Sisters

Thalara’s central eye slowly opened.

Swanly stood several steps behind her.

The spring whispered softly between the stones.

Beyond them, Ironwood was still awake.

Fires burned brighter than usual.

Warriors guarded the walls.

Nobody trusted the forest anymore.

Not after the Veskari.

Not after what they had done to Thalara.

Swanly folded her arms.

"Let’s have a conversation."

Thalara looked away.

"No."

Swanly blinked.

"That was quick."

"You should sleep."

"I’ve been told that approximately twenty times today."

"You are carrying young."

"And somehow being pregnant has not cured my ability to ask questions."

Thalara’s roots shifted.

"Swanly."

"No."

Swanly walked closer.

"You hid the moment those creatures arrived."

Silence.

"They knew your name."

Nothing.

"They knew exactly how to force you out of the ground."

Thalara’s jaw tightened.

"They called you an old friend."

One pale root curled violently around a stone.

"And you told them they should have remained dead."

Still nothing.

Swanly stared at her.

Then sighed.

"Thalara, I defended you today without knowing what the hell I was defending you from."

That finally made her look up.

Swanly’s voice softened.

"You have saved my children."

Thalara went still.

"You’ve saved people here more than once. You nearly destroyed yourself helping Soren. You could have left us behind a hundred times."

Swanly crouched beside her.

"So I am not asking because I think you are secretly waiting to stab us in our sleep."

A pause.

"I am asking because something is happening."

Thalara’s forehead eye lowered.

"Ancient creatures are waking."

Swanly continued.

"The Veskari somehow survived."

A root curled tighter.

"There is a sealed door beneath Ironwood that scares Druun."

Thalara’s face changed slightly.

"And those creatures came here searching for something."

Swanly stared directly at her.

"I need to know enough to keep my family alive."

Silence stretched between them.

Then Thalara whispered:

"I do not know enough."

Swanly frowned.

"What?"

Thalara looked toward the water.

"That is the truth you keep refusing to believe."

"I believe you hide things."

"I do."

"At least you’re honest about that."

"But there are things I cannot tell you..."

Her voice dropped.

"...because I do not know them myself."

That took some of Swanly’s anger away.

Thalara touched the earth beside her.

Roots emerged beneath her fingers.

Tiny.

White.

Almost delicate.

"For a very long time, there were four of us."

Swanly sat down properly.

She did not interrupt.

Thalara stared at the roots.

"My sisters and me."

Four tiny stems pushed through the earth.

The first grew green.

The second trembled beneath an invisible wind.

The third hardened until it resembled stone.

The fourth pulsed faintly red beneath its skin.

Swanly’s eyes widened.

"Four."

Thalara nodded.

"I was called the Root-Eyed Mother."

She touched the first stem.

"I shaped roots. Forests. Medicines. Living things that grew from earth."

The second stem bent.

"My sister Vaelith ruled the skies."

A faint spark crawled over its leaves.

"Storms. Wind. vibration. Lightning."

Swanly thought immediately of six glowing wings.

"The Veskari."

Thalara looked at her.

"Yes."

"You created them?"

"No."

A strange sadness entered Thalara’s face.

"Vaelith did."

The stem trembled.

"The first Veskari were hers."

Swanly went quiet.

Thalara touched the third.

"Morvara belonged to what rested beneath our feet."

The soil around the stem hardened.

"Stone. Pressure. Deep metal. Creatures too large for ordinary lands."

Swanly’s head slowly turned toward the distant silhouette of Druun.

Thalara noticed.

"I do not know whether she created him."

"But she could have."

"Yes."

That was somehow worse.

Thalara’s fingers moved to the last stem.

For several seconds she did not touch it.

Then:

"Elyssara."

The red glow beneath the stem brightened.

"Blood."

Swanly’s stomach tightened.

"Change. Healing. Adaptation. The ability of living bodies to survive what should kill them."

"Regeneration?"

"Yes."

Thalara smiled.

Small.

Broken.

"She always hated when creatures suffered."

Her fingertips brushed the red stem.

"She would change them so they could survive cold. Hunger. Poison. Broken bodies."

Swanly stared.

"She sounds kind."

"She was."

Was.

Swanly caught it.

She said nothing.

Thalara looked at all four little plants.

"We did not rule one another."

Her voice softened.

"We argued."

Swanly almost smiled.

"Of course."

"Vaelith thought everything should have wings."

"That sounds inconvenient."

Thalara’s lips twitched.

"Morvara once threatened to bury an entire flock because they nested in one of her mountains."

Swanly laughed quietly.

"And Elyssara?"

"She fed everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

For the first time, Thalara actually smiled.

"She created a predator that could swallow her whole and spent three days following it because she feared it had not eaten enough."

Swanly stared at her.

Then laughed.

"That sounds familiar."

Thalara’s forehead eye shifted toward the cub shelter.

Swanly immediately understood.

"Miko would absolutely try to feed something trying to eat him."

"He already attempts to lick danger."

"That too."

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

The world almost felt normal.

Then Thalara’s smile disappeared.

Swanly saw it happen.

"What changed?"

The roots beneath Thalara went still.

"Others came."

"Who?"

"I do not know what they called themselves in the end."

Swanly frowned.

"You knew them?"

"We knew many beings."

Thalara’s voice became distant.

"Some worshipped us. Some feared us. Some wanted what we could create."

Her claws slowly sank into the soil.

"And some decided creation belonged to whoever could control the creator."

Swanly’s stomach turned.

"They imprisoned you."

"Yes."

"All four?"

"Eventually."

Thalara’s voice barely moved.

"They learned separately we could resist them."

The four stems began twisting toward one another.

"So they brought us together."

Swanly watched.

"They thought if one sister could create something extraordinary..."

The roots intertwined.

"...then four could create miracles."

The green stem touched the red one.

The stone stem wrapped around both.

Lightning jumped between them.

Thalara flinched.

"They forced our powers together."

Swanly’s face changed.

Thalara’s voice became quieter.

"They took Elyssara’s blood."

The red stem darkened.

"Vaelith’s storm."

Blue light crawled over it.

"Morvara’s deep power."

The soil beneath it cracked.

"And my life."

The green leaves began turning black.

Swanly stopped breathing.

"They put all of it inside living creatures."

The stems started rotting.

Not dying.

Changing.

Black veins crawled through them.

"They wanted bodies that healed forever."

Thalara stared at the corrupted plants.

"Creatures that adapted to every wound."

One leaf twitched.

"Soldiers that could survive poison."

Another split open.

"Flesh that continued moving after death should have taken it."

Swanly felt cold.

"The infection."

Thalara nodded.

"We did not understand what they had made."

Her voice cracked.

"Not until it bit something."

The corrupted plant jerked.

Swanly instinctively moved back.

Thalara closed her fist.

Every stem collapsed into dust.

"The first creature changed."

Her forehead eye shimmered.

"Then another."

"Then another."

Swanly whispered:

"The Rot."

"Yes."

The word came out like a confession.

Swanly stared at her.

"So you caused it."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!