Irina was hesitant over whether she should come out to play host to Bluepool, but she couldn’t bear to get out from under the blankets when it had just started to warm up.

But, thinking that after the leopard cubs returned, they’d definitely stick to her crazily for quite a while, to prevent the bedding from being dirtied by them, Irina finally crawled out from the nest.

Muir was standing at the back door of the main hall cleaning his feathers. When he saw the merman coming in, a hint of killing intent and wariness quickly flashed past in his eyes. Bluepool himself had just noticed it when he suppressed...