After eating dinner, Ekard and the cub start running around playing with each other. After riding on Lizzy all day they have a bunch of extra energy to burn off before they will be able to sleep. Windy and I sit by the fire with Lizzy close by and the three of us watch them play.

Lizzy says "Have you thought of a name for the cub yet? Please tell me you are not going to name him Noil!"

"Haha, no! I am thinking of naming him Haku."

Lizzy says "Haku? That doesn't sound too bad, not like your normal names. Where did you come up with it from?"

"It's from a saying. Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase!"

Windy says "What does it mean?"

"It means, no worries for the rest of your days!"

Lizzy says "Why are you suddenly singing? Please stop!"

"Sorry, force of habit!"

Lizzy says "You definitely don't have a voice for singing! Although, you could probably use that as a sonic attack!"

"Alright, alright. I get the point, no more singing."

Windy says "That's a relief!"

Lizzy says "I thought my ears were going to start bleeding!"

"Enough already! Little one, come here!"

It takes a few more calls before the cub pays attention and comes over. Ekard of course follows with a curious look on his little face, probably because I only called the cub. Normally if we want their attention we call Ekard, since he can talk he tends to respond better.

The cub is far more likely to ignore us in favor of whatever has his attention. Since I called the cub directly he comes over to me and I pick him up. As I do I am happy to see that I can no longer see his ribs and his fur looks much better.

"Little one, from now on your name is going to be Haku!"

As usual I feel the power rushing out of me as I name him, but for some reason it is my divine power. It is only as it happens that I realize all my sacred power is currently invested in my cultivation. I have never used divine power in a naming, so I have no idea what might be different.

At least since it is only divine power and not a mix I shouldn't get in trouble for it. When the glow fades from around Haku I notice that in his tawny fur there is now a black pattern. It is fairly faint, but it is a definite change but I can't be sure if it is from the naming or the divine power.

As usual there is no way for me to tell and I will just have to wait and see what effects it has. Since I have yet to see any negative effect from a naming I am not too worried. As for Haku he looks like he feels great, he is wiggling around and obviously wants to go back to playing.

When I put him down he immediately charges off and Ekard takes off after him. The two of them return to their playing as if nothing at all happened. It takes another two hours of play for them to wear themselves out enough to go to sleep.

In the morning, after breakfast, I let them play for an hour before we resume our journey. That way they will be a bit less hyper during the ride, at least that is the hope. Luckily, they are pretty well behaved when they are on Lizzy, mainly because she scares them.

After all, she is a predator who can eat either of them in a single bite, not that she would. Yet all it takes is a single growl from her and they both become little angels. It makes the trip much easier with her keeping them in line, especially for Windy.

She helps keep the two of them entertained by telling stories from her tribe. Some of them even have me distracted and listening in when I should be meditating. Some of the legends of her tribe mention races that sound like the elves and dwarves.

It would seem that I need to go back to the north at some point and do some searching. Even if it doesn't affect my quest, I still want to know what happened to the elves and dwarves. If nothing else I want to be able to tell Core what happened to her people.

Besides, if I don't find out my curiosity will never leave me alone, it is fairly high on my list. That is a worry for later, probably much later, like after I am the Beast King. For now I need to focus on what I am actually doing and stop daydreaming.

When I turn my attention to our surroundings I find we have entered an area of hills. According to the map we are looking for a lake somewhere near the center of these hills. Still no idea what kind of creature I am looking for, but the mark on the map is right on the lake.

As I am looking around I spot several mana beasts, it seems Captain Lorsen wasn't kidding. This area would be very dangerous for humans, but the mana beasts don't bother us. Chances are the beasts want nothing to do with Lizzy, she is bigger than they are.

Not to mention she is a sacred beast, which puts her above them in the food chain. Anything that did come to attack her would basically be asking to be eaten. So, even though it is a dangerous area, we practically have nothing to worry about.

It is unlikely that there is anything in these hills that could be a danger to Lizzy. Although, we will have to make sure Ekard and Haku don't wander off. Explaining to them that they need to stay close to Lizzy will only work for a while.

To make it easier on them, when we stop to camp for the night I let out a roar. It chases everything well away from our camp, after all I am a rank eight sacred beast. Even Lizzy looks a little intimidated when I roar. she is used to me sitting back and letting her take care of things.

Once my roar has cleared the area I let Ekard and Haku run around for a bit before dinner. Even though I am sure my roar cleared the area I still keep a close eye on both of them. Lizzy and Windy also keep an eye on them, nothing is going to get to them without being spotted.

After they have burned off some energy I call them back and we all have dinner. Once they have eaten it is a lot easier to get them to curl up and go to sleep. Once they are asleep the three of us can finally relax for a bit and let our guard down.

Windy stays close to either me or Lizzy, she is the least able to defend herself. Lizzy and I are pretty much able to ignore the amount of damage a normal mana beast can deal. So we only really have to worry about protecting Windy and the little ones.

Once everyone is tucked in, instead of sleeping I enter my meditation for the night. Since I didn't do much during the day I spend the night cleaning out the residue from my body. By the time everyone else wakes up I have managed to remove all the residue from my body.

As soon as the last of the residue is gone my regen kicks in and completely heals what damage was left. Which means the residue was impeding my healing and I could have been healed days ago. When I exit my meditation I feel really good, finally back to my old self.